News Snippets

Nailing melamine

Sponge it clean

All at sea

Nitrogen? Warming?

Enough of carbon talks. Heres a new element with potential

Billions of dollars, 50 years later

Small pox vaccine might have countered HIV  

Thar she blows: An ice-free Northwest Passage has enabled the Gray Whale’s return to New England

Last seen in the age of commercial whaling, an ice-free Passage enabled the species to travel from Pacific to Atlantic

US-China fight over fishing is really about world domination

In sending its fishermen far and wide, Beijing has, wittingly or not, followed America’s lead

Environmental stewards: Sacred Hopi site in Arizona awarded ICOMOS Water and Heritage Shield

The Hopi consider the Sípàapu on the Little Colorado river to be the place from where their ancestors emerged from another world …

EU follows US by boosting its domestic green industry support, outcome for Global South uncertain

Emerging economies will be nervous about the competitiveness of their manufacturing sectors if this reshoring of clean technologies expands

Devil in the details: Focus on US energy department’s ‘low confidence’ in COVID lab-leak theory is must

A low confidence level generally indicates that the information used in the analysis is scant, questionable, fragmented, or that solid analytical …

Yoga: Modern research shows a variety of benefits to both body and mind from the ancient practice

With its focus on controlling breath, holding postures and meditation, yoga increases how much a person pays attention to the sensations of their …

How Putin’s war and small islands are accelerating the global shift to clean energy, and what to watch for in 2023

International Energy Agency revised its projection of renewable energy growth upward by 30%

Fingers crossed: Experts cautious about variant evolution in the wake of China’s COVID-19 tsunami

Any new variant that emerges from the current surge in China may not have the same lethal ability as past ones. But one cannot rule out …

Special Relationship: New Anglo-American energy partnership is Western fossil fuel hypocrisy at its best  

Instead of filling the gap left by Russian fossil fuels with renewables, the UK has signed a deal with its traditional transatlantic ally which …

Joe Biden has a long list of qualified female VP candidates. So, who will he pick?

Choosing a vice president is the first presidential decision Biden will make in his campaign. It will say a lot about him and his presidency if …

Fourth industrial revolution: World Economic Forum advocates it; others fear corporate takeover; who is right

Technology can never exist in isolation; it has to exist within social realities, say critics of 4IR

Native Hawaiian sacred sites have been damaged in the Lahaina wildfires – but their stories will live on

Lahaina is considered the earthly home of Kihawahine, a Native Hawaiian goddess; it was also the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom under Kamehameha …

Droughts in Western US fuel emissions, here’s how

Between 2012 and 2016, a drought-induced spike in fossil fuel generation cost California more than $5 billion in damages

Many provinces experiencing highest emissions since 2003: Scientist monitoring Canadian wildfires

Experts say climate change escalated the fires with the fumes spilling over into to the United States

Wildfires: New York City’s orange skies raise environmental questions

The dystopian orange skies are due to the flames that have been raging north of the US-Canada border

Lethal hypocrisy of US Special 301 Report

Patent protection in the US is a convoluted and expensive business and yet it pulls up other countries that have robust systems

Iowa caucuses did one thing right: Require paper ballots

 Any problems with a paperless election would be impossible to fix, calling into public question the integrity of the whole process, and the …

Doha outcome adopted. US reserves its right to walk out later

US does a Kyoto again. It rejects the idea of equity by refusing to associate itself to any new agreement that is under the Convention.

Pact Politics

High political drama marks climate negotiations as the European Union strives to enforce the Kyoto protocol without the US. The South could play …