The Chemical Industries Association (CIA) today gave a cautious welcome to the Government’s allocation plan for Phase 2 of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but highlighted concerns over increasing indirect cost impacts and long term prospects for direct costs.
The Association is relieved to note that the plan proposes to allocate emissions allowances to manufacturing industry according to projected need after accounting for existing reduction requirements under other poli
“Plant diversity seems to increase when tropical forests cover large areas. Shrinking ecosystems may experience biodiversity loss lasting for millions of years.” Carlos Jaramillo, at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and colleagues seek explanations for the longest Central and South America pollen record, published in the March 31, 2006 issue of the journal Science.
“Jaramillo’s intriguing findings provide an evolutionary perspective on a modern crisis,” William
30 year weather balloon record
A new analysis of weather balloon observations from the last 30 years reveals that the Antarctic has the same ’global warming’ signature as that seen across the whole Earth, but is three times larger than that observed globally. The results by scientists from British Antarctic Survey are reported this week in Science.
Although the rapid surface warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region has been known for some time, this study has pr
As ministers meet at the Eighth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-8), the United Nations University (UNU) urges governments to incorporate the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) findings in national planning processes and poverty reduction strategies to promote ecosystem services that may help reduce the extreme effects of natural disasters.
In a special address delivered at the high level ministerial meeting this week,
Oxygen depletion in the world’s oceans, primarily caused by agricultural run-off and pollution, could spark the development of far more male fish than female, thereby threatening some species with extinction, according to a study published today on the Web site of the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology. The study is scheduled to appear in the May 1 print issue of the journal.
The finding, by Rudolf Wu, Ph.D., and colleagues at the City University of Ho
Proposals by environmentalists to declare small areas of the North Sea as ’no-fishing’ zones would not save our flagging fish stocks, suggests a new report by Newcastle University for the British Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (DEFRA).
Marine protected areas (MPAs) would need to be tens of thousands of square miles in size – at least as big as the size of Wales – and would need to be established for decades to restore levels of c
The sun will still cross the equator on March 20th marking the vernal equinox and the official start of spring, but Mother Nature is increasingly getting a jumpstart on the celestial movements. Over the last 150 years, scientific measurements show that events signifying the beginning of spring have all shifted.
These events now happen about a week earlier on average in the northeast United States, according to a new report, Evidence of Early Spring, from the group Clean Air-C
Around the world, seagrass beds – shallow-water ecosystems that are important habitats, food sources, and sediment stabilizers – are in decline, says Frederick Short, research professor of natural resources and marine science at the University of New Hampshire. And as these underwater meadows disappear, so do commercially valuable shellfish and fish, waterfowl and other wildlife, water quality, and erosion prevention.
Short, who founded the global monitoring program SeagrassNet in 2001
Proposals by environmentalists to declare small areas of the North Sea as no-fishing zones would not save our flagging fish stocks, suggests a new report by Newcastle University for the British Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (DEFRA).
Marine protected areas (MPAs) would need to be tens of thousands of square miles in size – at least as big as the size of Wales – and would need to be established for decades to restore levels of cod and haddock, says the re
For more than a decade space-based radar instruments have been routinely observing ocean surface phenomena including wind, waves, oil slicks, even the eyes of hurricanes. Now – employing the same principle as police speed guns – satellite radar has also begun to enable direct measurements of the speed of the moving ocean surface itself.
The oceans that cover 71% of the Earth’s surface are constantly in motion. Ocean surface currents can lead to strong interaction with wind and wa
Solid oil waste should be processed into compost. Specialists of Kazan State University and the Open Joint-Stock Company “Nizhnekamskneft” stick to this opinion. The obtained compost is practically nontoxic, and bio-utilization of waste may be an excellent alternative to harmful waste storage and combustion.
Solid waste of petrochemical production (oil-slimes) belongs to the most persistent environment pollutants. Oil-slimes consist of oil carbohydrates and products of their pro
A “Red Tide” event that occurred off the coast of El Salvador late last year directly caused the deaths of some 200 sea turtles, according to test results released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations.
Responding to requests from the Salvadoran government and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)for assistance, WCS veterinary pathologist Dr. Julie White journeyed to the southern coast of El Salvador in January to help determine
A team from the Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Keele University has developed a technique to identify corroded steel within concrete by non-destructive means.
Reinforced concrete can suffer dangerous and potentially catastrophic deterioration when the reinforcing steel becomes corroded, making regular assessment critical. Commercial techniques currently available involve invasive procedures including damaging the concrete or provide ind
A cargo ship is set to provide oceanographers with vital data on the oceans’ ability to slow the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton will be working with the Swire group using one of its cargo vessels, the MV Indotrans Celebes, to gain access to remote areas of the globe where the oceans’ interaction with the atmosphere is largely unknown. Instruments installed on the MV Indotrans Celebes will record chang
According to the UN, safe drinking water remains inaccessible for about 1.1 billion people in the world. To address this global dilemma, the UN Millennium Development pledged at the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015.
Meeting this goal will demand reliable, current data and information about how much water is stored in large lakes, rivers and reservoirs around the world – which radar altimetry can
New evidence from open sea experiments shows there’s a constant shuffling of genetic endowments going on among tiny plankton, and the “coinage” they use seems to be a flood of viruses, MIT scientists report. The research, led by MIT Professor Sally W. Chisholm, is uncovering a challenging new facet of evolution, helping scientists see how photosynthesizing microbes manage to exploit changing conditions such as altered light, temperature and nutrients. The work will b
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