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AIR POLLUTION LEVEL ON DISPLAY
Parisians can view the city's air quality via a giant tethered helium balloon that changes its colour--from green (very clean) to red (hazardous)-- depending on the ambient air quality and pollution caused by emissions from traffic. The colour is calculated measuring three contaminants nitrogen dioxide, ozone and airborne particulates.
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Global carbon market valued at
us $60 billion in the first half of 2008--double the total for 2007, says Point Carbon, a market analysis group.
As Maoists intensify attack, the Centre plans to set up six jungle warfare and counter-insurgency schools to train security personnel and pump in Rs 200 crore towards sophisticated security gadgets.
Mexico City plans to spend
us $5.8 million to cut 12 per cent of the
ghg emissions by 2012.
Bulgaria, whose
ghg output is about 35 million tonnes, well below the annual grant under Kyoto protocol, plans to sell its surplus quota through 2012.
Alternative fuel search for aviation industry has brought British Airways and automaker Rolls-Royce to do a joint study.
China has cleared the green algae,
Enteromorpha prolifera, that was blocking the Olympic sailing course in Oingdao city since May last week.
Tanzania has started spraying
ddt in districts facing malaria threat. Health ministry says precautions will be taken to check environmental damage.
Over 250,000 fishers in Japan staged a strike on July 15 demanding government aid.
Police across the
us are on foot patrol in the face of high fuel prices. While some have switched to lower-octane petrol, the New York police have acquired 20 hybrid cars.
Argentina's Senate on July 18 rejected the farm export tax hike bill that had triggered protests for over three months disrupting the economy.
Monsanto's gm sugar is ready to hit the
us market. Organic Consumers' Association has called on to boycott food companies that don't commit to source
gm-free sugar.
China to develop
gm crops to feed 1.3 billion people in the face of shrinking farmland and climate change.
US Senate has passed a bill to overturn the 21-year-old Immigration Act that banned foreign visitors with
hiv/aids from immigrating.
Plans for a large human trial of a
hiv vaccine developed by
us medical research agency,
niaid, for over 20 years were scrapped after scientists said they aren't sure of its efficacy.
As Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe agreed for talks with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to end the political crisis, the
eu has mounted pressure on Mugabe by widening sanctions against senior officials.
ITM Power, a
uk -based firm, has unveiled a hydrogen-refuelling station that can be installed at home. It uses an electrolyser to produce hydrogen from water and electricity.
30,000 industrial workers in Peru protested on July 9 against soaring food and fuel prices blaming it on the government's free market policies.
European Commission has backed a plan to donate 1 billion euros of unspent fund from the bloc's agriculture budget in aid to African farmers.
Rising food prices may finally dissuade Bolivian farmers from cultivating coca--cocaine's raw ingredient. President Evo Morales has asked farmers to shift to rice and corn farming.
A Senate committee probe into the food crisis in Nigeria found that 20 states have sold off the subsidized grains allocated to them in May to commodity traders.
Peru declared a 60-day state of emergency in San Mateo, after signs showed that toxic materials from a mine waste pit might spill into the capital's main water source, Rimac river.
It's a radioactive leak, admits France's state-owned nuclear giant Areva after a second uranium spill from its nuclear power plant in southeastern region polluted the local water supply.
Nicaragua plans to sue Costa Rica for approving an open-pit gold mine on the banks of the bordering San Juan river. The mine will cause irreversible damage to the river, it says.
Indian defence scientists have developed a data-based system for forecasting avalanches with maximum accuracy. This will help in troop deployment by providing details of inclement weather in advance.
SeaGen, the world's first commercial tidal power company in the
uk, has started supplying 150 kw of electricity to the national grid.
90 per cent of strawberries in the
uk contain pesticides including
ddt, reports the Pesticides Safety Directorate.
Restaurants in New York can now be fined up to
us $2,000 for omitting calorie counts on their menus as part of the city's anti-obesity campaign.
Australia released the green paper on emissions trading scheme that aims to cover 70 per cent of its
ghg emissions. Trading will start from 2010.
Fast melting Artic ice has shrunk a base station of Russian researchers, an ice floe, from 1,500 ha 10 months ago to 18 ha, forcing them to evacuate.
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