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Archive for September 13th, 2012
United Kingdom: George Osborne slammed by his own climate change advisors over ‘dash for gas’
Posted by Independent: Oliver Wright on September 13th, 2012
Independent: George Osborne is today under attack from the Government's own official climate change advisors who have warned unequivocally that his 'dash for gas' is putting Britain's legally binding carbon reduction commitments in jeopardy.
In a highly significant intervention the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has sent an open letter to ministers criticising their “apparently ambivalent position” on whether the Government is trying to build a low-carbon or a gas-based electricity generating system.
Mr...
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Recalling a Foe of Mountaintop Mining
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2012
New York Times: Larry Gibson, the retired autoworker who gained national attention for his fight against mountaintop-removal coal mining in his native Appalachia, died of a heart attack on Sunday at his home in West Virginia. He was 66. For more than two decades, Mr. Gibson campaigned against mountaintop strip mining, which has demolished some 500 mountains in the region over the past 30 years. Several recent studies also link the practice to an increasing incidence of serious health problems among local residents....
Changing rainfall boosts number of Ethiopians in need of food aid
Posted by AlertNet: Pawlos Belete on September 13th, 2012
AlertNet: Millions of Ethiopians face severe food shortages as a result of the failure of crucial seasonal rains, a problem increasingly linked to climate change.
The Ethiopian government announced last month that 3.7 million of its citizens will require humanitarian assistance between August and December of this year, up from 3.2 million in January. The 16 percent increase follows the failure of the Belg rains, which normally fall between February and May and are essential to the country's secondary harvest....
Trillion-dollar nature needs boardroom seat, says U.N. economist
Posted by Reuters: David Fogarty and Alister Doyle on September 13th, 2012
Reuters: Nature lacks a seat in the boardrooms of most big companies even though it provides valuable resources that should have a price tag, one of world's most influential green economists said.
Ignoring nature's value risks "mayhem" for corporations and mankind in the rush for profits and finite resources, Pavan Sukhdev, formerly of Deutsche Bank and a United Nations goodwill ambassador told Reuters.
Sukhdev said water, clean air, coral reefs, forests and rivers provide natural services worth trillions...
UK dash for gas would be illegal, says climate committee
Posted by BusinessGreen: James Murray on September 13th, 2012
BusinessGreen: The independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) has today warned unequivocally that the government would breach the Climate Change Act if it pursues Chancellor George Osborne's plans for a surge in new gas investment.
In what will be seen as an explosive intervention in the simmering row between the Lib Dems and the Chancellor over whether to include a target to decarbonise the electricity sector by 2030 in the upcoming Energy Bill, the CCC today stated categorically that "extensive use of unabated...
U.N. FAO chief says no need for panic over global food prices
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2012
Reuters: The head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday there was no need for panic over global food prices and said a U.S. report on Wednesday on the outlook for its corn crop had sent a "very good message". "There is no reason for panic," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva told a conference in Istanbul. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday cut its forecast for the country's corn crop by less than 1 percent, indicating the worst drought in U.S. Midwest...
Agricultural biotechnology ‘should be open source’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2012
SciDev.Net: Open source biotechnology, through which biotechnology inventions are made freely available for others to use and improve upon, could help developing countries overcome hurdles created by stringent intellectual property rights (IPRs), a study says. The concept is based on open source in software development. To date, open source software's free accessibility, low cost, openness to modification and customisation, and availability of community support have helped it solve practical problems in agriculture,...
Development must be less about growth, more about wellbeing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2012
Guardian: People and their wellbeing need to be at the centre of development, with less emphasis on economic growth, according to a new report, but this requires philanthropic and development organisations to challenge current thinking.
"Development is political," said the final report of the Bellagio Initiative, a six-month exploration into the future of philanthropy and international development. "Not everyone can be a winner at the same time, but if no one among the winners is prepared to give up just...
‘Cambodia Can’t Afford New Dengue Vaccine’
Posted by Inter Press Service: Vincent MacIsaac on September 13th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Public health experts in Cambodia are unenthused by reports of trials for a dengue vaccine conducted in neighbouring Thailand, saying it will be too costly for those who need it most - children in the least developed and developing countries.
"Of course, they cannot come out with a vaccine that costs 20 cents," Dr. Philip Buchy, head of the virology unit at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia, told IPS.
Buchy was referring to the Paris-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi SA's dengue vaccine...
Portland Approves Adding Fluoride to Water by ’14
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 13th, 2012
New York Times: Portland, Ore., which never fluoridated its water supply and over time earned the distinction as the biggest city in the country to just say no, reversed course on Wednesday with a unanimous vote by the City Council to add fluoride beginning in early 2014. The decision, which will cost the city about $5 million to carry out, was seen by both supporters and opponents as fraught with significance. Many Portlanders treasure their city’s quirky distinctiveness. Others said its leadership role as the...