Stakeholders of the Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) today unveiled their Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and three future scenarios demonstrating the value of innovations in chemistry. Based on a common vision, the SRA aims at responding to the challenges faced by the chemical sector in the next 20 years, while shaping solutions to critical societal demands.
The SRA outlines chemistry and industrial biotechnology’s contribution to sustainable European growth
Delegations from 190 nations will attend next week’s United Nations summit in Montreal, Canada, to begin negotiating a post-Kyoto Protocol strategy to restrict emissions of heat-trapping gases that drive climate change. Joining them will be ESA, to share results from satellite-based services developed to support the Protocol.
More than 10 000 representatives of national governments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations are expected at the first
Regions’ GDP equivalent to globe’s second largest economy
Even though the United States does not participate in the Kyoto protocol, about one-quarter of the population lives in states, counties or cities that have adopted climate change policies similar to those of the global initiative, according to a Brief Communication published in the November 17 issue of Nature.
Including regions classified as ’probable’ and ’possible’ adopters, which hav
People will soon be able to find out how vulnerable their own local area is to global warming, thanks to new techniques developed by scientists.
The STARDEX project’s seven European research teams, led by the University of East Anglia, narrowed down evidence of changing weather patterns to predict the occurrence of floods, heat waves and drought on even smaller regions across the UK and Europe.
And the new method of analysis could help governments prepare for or
People will soon be able to find out how vulnerable their own local area is to global warming, thanks to new techniques developed by scientists.
The STARDEX project’s seven European research teams, led by the University of East Anglia, narrowed down evidence of changing weather patterns to predict the occurrence of floods, heat waves and drought on even smaller regions across the UK and Europe.
And the new method of analysis could help governments prepare for or even pr
The successful launch of Ariane 5 Flight 167 leaves the launch campaign of Europe’s newest meteorological satellite on track to meet its new target date of 21 December.
After 117 days of storage in French Guiana, work began on de-storing and preparing the second Meteosat Second Generation (MSG-2) spacecraft for flight on 31 October. MSG-2 launch campaign activities were officially re-started on 10 November.
MSG-2 had been shipped to Europe’s spaceport on 21 Jun
Removing an egg from the endangered whooping crane’s nest increases the species chances of survival despite governmental concerns about tampering with nature, says a University of Alberta scientist.
Dr. Mark Boyce, from the Faculty of Science, studied the policy of removing from Wood Buffalo National Park one of two whooping crane eggs laid and raising it in a “foster-parenting” program. Cranes usually rear a single chick and the other dies to siblicide or is killed by a
A nanoparticle commonly used in industry could have a damaging effect on plant life, according to a report by an environmental scientist at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
The report, published in a recent issue of “Toxicology Letters,” shows that nanoparticles of alumina (aluminum oxide) slowed the growth of roots in five species of plants — corn, cucumber, cabbage, carrot and soybean. Alumina nanoparticles are commonly used in scratch-resistant transparent coating
A recently opened pulp mill in Chile has devastated one of South America’s most biologically outstanding wetlands, decimating its famed population of black-necked swans, along with most other bird life, a WWF-led team of investigators said Monday.
“What was probably the largest population of black necked swans in South America has been wiped out in less than a year. It is an environmental catastrophe,” said Clifton Curtis, director of World Wildlife Fund’s Global Toxic Program. “
The plans for construction of the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil-pipe line not only threaten the existence of the last population of the Far Eastern leopard but also Lake Baikal. According to the latest project, the oil-pipe line will go along the route of the Baikal-Amur trank line, less than a kilometer from the northern extremity of the Lake –the town of Severobaikalsk.
“According to the designers’ estimates, in case of an emergency in the pipe line, up to four thousand
A satellite surveillance zone within the southern Indian Ocean is helping protect the endangered Patagonian toothfish from pirate fishing vessels.
Perched between Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica, the windswept French territory of the Kerguelen Islands is one of the remotest places on Earth. Even so, fishing vessels are lured there by the prospect of catching one valuable species found in its surrounding waters – the Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass, or
A research centre at the University of York dedicated to realising the potential of plant-based renewable resources to make products needed by society, has been awarded one of The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.
The Royal accolade for CNAP (Centre for Novel Agricultural Products) announced at St James’s Palace on Thursday 17 November is the second to be conferred on the University in less than 10 years. It was previously awarded to the Universi
The air in Fallon, Nev. has significantly higher levels of tungsten and cobalt than does the air in neighboring towns, according to a new research report. The research suggests that the metals in the air come from a point source within Fallon, a community of about 8,000 located in Churchill County about 60 miles east of Reno, Nev.
The finding that Fallon’s air differs from nearby towns might have medical implications. Since 1997, 16 cases of childhood leukemia have been dia
The EU is currently adopting measures to recover hake and Norway lobster stocks to sustainable levels within a period of ten years. Many national and international initiatives are targeting a sustainable management of fish stocks all over the world. What is the state of fish production worldwide?
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has produced recently a scientific consensus report on the state of the world’s fishery resources. The report was drafted by hi
In London on Tuesday, the British National Space Centre (BNSC) formally became a Partner Agency of the International Charter ’Space and Major Disasters’ on behalf of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) Consortium.
This means BNSC will participate in the Consortium’s adherence to the Charter by performing certain functions during an initial period of two years. BNSC has already provided Project Manager support to previous Charter activations in liaison with ESA, inc
The Tyrrhenian Sea is getting warmer and saltier and the patterns of sea bottom fauna are changing. These are just some preliminary findings our marine scientists have discovered from the CIESM SUB-1 cruise. CIESM is launching its second “multi-disciplinary” research cruise on December 5-22, from Messina, Italy. You could join scientists from nine different marine Institutes and Universities, to monitor these changes that are taking place. Scientists will be mapping deep-sea mounts, which are
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