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• Brazil Minister Accuses Groups of Exploiting Amazon

  International concerns expressed after Brazil's environment minister quit this week show that some groups are fronts for exploiting the Amazon's resources, the country's justice minister said on Thursday. "There are parts of the international community that defend the Amazon as if it was not Brazilian but a territory of humanity," Tarso Genro told reporters in Rio de Janeiro. "This is a front for economic interests in the Amazon as a global reserve for big multinationals and for other countries to have control over Brazil's territory," he said.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Planet Ark (Australia)
  • • Amazon
    • Farmers
    • Brazil

• Solar companies feel heat

  The solar power industry is predicting a dramatic decline in people installing solar panels, causing millions of dollars in lost business and job losses, after the Federal Government made it harder for households to receive an $8000 rebate. Environment Minister Peter Garrett announced in the budget that only households earning less than $100,000 would qualify for the rebate, effective immediately. It follows a surge in applications - up to seven times more a week, businesses say - since the Howard government doubled the rebate from $4000 to $8000 a year ago.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Age (Australia)
  • • Solar Energy

• Unabated deforestation at Mahamaya-Rangamati forest area

  The Mahamaya forest area, once a resourceful and dense forest area in the district of Dhubri is on the way to silent anhilation due to the activities of some unscruplous forest officials and workers. The area is witnessing large scale deforestation due to the felling of trees, which is also resulting in depletion of the flora and fauna, all of which is attributable to the activities of the timber smugglers. Unfortunately these smugglers operate under the very eyes of the officials of the Forest Department.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Sentinel (Guwahati)
  • • Deforestation
    • Timber Smuggling
    • Assam
    • Dhubri (D)

• Man withdraws plaint, NGO fumes

  ONE month is all a government department gets to furnish information under the right to information (RTI) Act. Instead, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has allegedly used that period to persuade an applicant to withdraw his petition. On March 19 this year, S Samayan of T Kallupatti natural resource protection committee filed an RTI application seeking information on stone crushers in Kilankulam, Vannivelanpatti and Ammapatti panchayats at T Kallupatti in Madurai.

  • 16/05/2008

  • New Indian Express (Chennai)
  • • Air Pollution
    • Stone Industry
    • State Pollution Control Board (SPCB)
    • Right To Information (RTI)
    • Tamil Nadu

• Vaccine gets clean bill of health

  Report attributes death of infants to human error at Tiruvallur PHC THE measles vaccine administered to children in Tamil Nadu has been given a clean chit by the Central Drugs Laboratory at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. In its report submitted to the Union Health Ministry, the lab suggested that human error at the local level could have resulted in the death of four infants last month at Tiruvallur district. Samples of the vaccine had been sent to the lab following the death of children who had developed complications after receiving the vaccine shot.

  • 16/05/2008

  • New Indian Express (Chennai)
  • • Vaccination
    • Child Health
    • Measles
    • Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI)
    • Tamil Nadu

• PMC eyes model' use of garbage

  If everything goes well, the Model Colony ward of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) could become a 'model' before the other municipal wards for making use of the discarded garbage for a 'powerful' cause. The municipal body is planning to generate electricity by setting up a biogas plant that will use the garbage within the Model Colony ward as its fuel input and run the streetlights in the ward with the electricity generated.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Indian Express (Mumbai)
  • • Garbage
    • Waste Conversion
    • Waste To Energy
    • Maharashtra
    • Pune (T)

• In Navi Mumbai, patch of lush mangroves hacked

  Just north of Mumbai, along the creek at Kopar Khairne in Navi Mumbai is the story of how a fragile ecosystem is being systematically destroyed. Despite a High Court ruling against cutting of mangroves, amid a continuing real estate boom in Navi Mumbai, there is clear evidence of debris being dumped on what was once a lush mangrove forest here.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Indian Express (Mumbai)
  • • Wetlands
    • Mangroves
    • Housing Construction
    • High Court
    • Maharashtra

• To spot the Bengal tigers, visit Borivali National Park

  You don't have to visit the Kanha National Park or the Sunderbans to catch a glimpse of the royal tiger any more. The Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivali, as part of its Rs 5-crore five-year scheme to promote eco-tourism in Mumbai, is displaying two of its newly acquired yellow Bengal tigers on its tiger safari trails.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Indian Express (Mumbai)
  • • Tiger
    • Sanjay NP
    • Wildlife Tourism
    • Maharashtra

• Workshop on Goa's water woes

  Scientists, environmentalists and experts will deliberate on Goa's water woes at a one-day workshop organised by the Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan at Old Goa on May 17 in the premises of Kunkolienkar Higher Secondary School. Titled Goa's water security: Present scenario and future challenges, the workshop will go into the present status of Mhadei and Virdi dam projects and rivers namely Terekhol, Chapora, Baga, Zuari, Sal, Talpona and others.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Herald (Panjim)
  • • Water Resources
    • Rivers
    • Chapora
    • Zuari
    • Water Conservation
    • Dams

• State told to probe into Collem mine

  The Central Empowerment Committee of the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the State Government to probe into the Prafulla Hede mines at Collem, which is allegedly operating on forest land. The CEC today ordered a probe and in a letter to the Chief Secretary asked the State Government to respond in the matter. It has asked the Government to find whether the mine was operating in violation of forest conservation rules. A second letter has been made to the Chief Conservator of Forests to know how Prafulla Hede mine had encroached upon 1,000 sq m of forestland.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Herald (Panjim)
  • • Forests
    • Land Use
    • Mining
    • Forest Conservation
    • Supreme Court
    • Goa

• A mosquito goes global

  The Asian tiger mosquito is on a rampage. Entomologists are impressed, public health officials are nervous, and many of the rest of us are swatting furiously. How did Aedes albopictus become such a scourge?

  • 16/05/2008

  • Science
  • • Health
    • Vector Borne Diseases
    • Chikungunya
    • Vector Control
    • Indian Ocean
    • Italy
    • Bamboo
    • Netherlands
    • Global

• Impacts of atmospheric anthropogenic nitrogen on the open ocean

  Increasing quantities of atmospheric anthropogenic fixed nitrogen entering the open ocean could account for up to about a third of the ocean's external (nonrecycled) nitrogen supply and up to ~3% of the annual new marine biological production, ~0.3 petagram of carbon per year. This input could account for the production of up to ~1.6 teragrams of nitrous oxide (N2O) per year.

  • 16/05/2008

  • Science
  • • Atmosphere And Ozone Layer
    • Oceans and Seas
    • Oxides Of Nitrogen (NOx)
    • Chemical Fertilisers
    • Eutrophication
    • Water Pollution
    • Marine Pollution

• Rapid EIA M/s Shree Rupanadham Steel, vill.- Saraipali, Teh.- Tamnar, Dist.- Raigarh, Chhattisgarh

  This is a rapid EIA report of M/s Shree Rupanadham Steel (P) limited, village

  • 15/05/2008

  • M/s Shree Rupanadham Steel Pvt Ltd
  • • Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
    • Environment
    • Chhattisgarh
    • Industry
    • Industrial Pollution
    • Raigarh (D)

• Entire generations wiped out in China

  • 15/05/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Natural Disasters
    • Earthquakes
    • China

• Smoking-lung cancer culprit found

  A protein responsible for repairing damaged DNA may be a vital link to explaining how smoking causes lung cancer, US researchers reported on Tuesday. Lung cells exposed to cigarette smoke produce less of the protein, called FANCD2, the team at Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute reported. Without FANCD2, damaged DNA can cause cells to proliferate out of control instead of destroying themselves as normal cells do.

  • 15/05/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Medical Research
    • Smoking
    • Lung Cancer

• Drought forces out Spain's underwater church

  Barcelona: Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam. For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma has been the belltower of its stone church, peeping above the water beside forested hills from a valley flooded in the 1960s to provide water for the Catalonia region.

  • 15/05/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Water Resources
    • Dams
    • Drought
    • Spain

• Paris too opposed BRT initially: French minister

  TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: The Capital may be suffering from the effects of the BRT corridor, but the Delhi government has found a keen supporter in French transport minister Dominique Bussecreau, who on Wednesday told chief minister Sheila Dikshit that France too faced much opposition when the first BRT corridor came up in Paris. Pointing out that now "all was well' with the project, the French minister revealed that the corridor in Paris stretched over 44 kilometres.

  • 15/05/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Public Transport
    • High Capacity Bus
    • France
    • Delhi

• White House floats new climate proposal

  White House floats new climate proposal WASHINGTON (AP)

  • 15/05/2008

  • USA Today (US)
  • • Climate Change
    • Emission Targets
    • Climate Mitigation

• Nasa probe closing in on Red Planet, but can it land?

  Capa Canaveral (Florida): Nine months ago, Nasa's Phoenix probe blasted off for Mars with an unprecedented mission to sample water on another world. Before that can happen, however, the space agency faces a formidable challenge: landing. The odds are not great. Historically, 55% of all attempts to land on Mars have failed and the method being used for the touchdown of the Phoenix spacecraft on May 25 hasn't been attempted in 32 years.

  • 15/05/2008

  • Times Of India (New Delhi)
  • • Physical Science
    • Astronomy
    • Research

• NASA study links Earth impacts to human-caused climate change

  A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth's natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.

  • 15/05/2008

  • Environment News Network (US)
  • • Climate Change
    • Africa