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Archive for December 18th, 2010
Government leads region in climate change challenge
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2010
IRIN: Serious efforts are under way to respond to the impact of climate change in Vietnam but a lack of capacity and resources remains a challenge, experts say.
Vietnam has been identified as one of 12 countries at highest risk from climate change and is the most threatened by rising sea levels, according to World Bank studies.
UN-cited data on global climate change and model studies show that Vietnam is at increased risk of floods and droughts, saline intrusion and increased health risks from heat...
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Swiss Wood firm to invest 900 million euros in Tunisia
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2010
Reuters: Switzerland-based Global Wood Holding will invest 900 million euros to grow Eucalyptus trees in Tunisia and export the wood to Europe, creating 45,000 jobs.
The project will be sited on 160,000 hectares in the Tunisian desert some 500 km (310 miles) south of Tunis.
The company's deputy chairman Aldo Bonaldi, speaking at news conference with Tunisian State Lands Minister Fouad Dagfous, said he expected to export two million tonnes of wood each year.
The project would be completed over 15...
Efficient phosphorus use by phytoplankton
Posted by Science Centric: None Given on December 18th, 2010
Science Centric: Rapid turnover and remodelling of lipid membranes could help phytoplankton cope with nutrient scarcity in the open ocean.
A team led by Patrick Martin of the National Oceanography Centre has shown that a species of planktonic marine alga can rapidly change the chemical composition of its cell membranes in response to changes in nutrient supply. The findings indicate that the process may be important for nutrient cycling and the population dynamics of phytoplankton in the open ocean.
Tiny free-floating...
Keys to tomorrow’s highway
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2010
Washington Post: IN SUSQUES, ARGENTINA It's the lightest of all metals, skitters wildly on water and can unexpectedly explode. To mine it commercially requires an elaborate process involving drilling, evaporation tanks and chemical processing.
But if President Obama is to fulfill his goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, a once-obscure metal crucial for the batteries in those cars, lithium, will probably be mined by the tens of thousands of tons here in the high Andes. Its boosters say lithium...
Global warming causes flash floods in Pakistan
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2010
Xinhua: The latest research showed that global warming caused by emission of greenhouse gases in industrial countries was to blame for flash floods which killed over 2,000 people in Pakistan in July and August 2010, environment analysts told Xinhua on Friday.
Th worst flood in Pakistan's 63-year history made 20 million people homeless and devastated one-fifth area of the country.
According to sources, the government of Pakistan has planned to turn the tables on cash-rich industrial countries, mainly...
More extreme weather on the way
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2010
GlobalPost: Extreme weather is a part of everyday life in Vietnam.
The Mekong Delta floods each year and small children travel to school by boat. Typhoons and tropical storms blow across the South China Sea to the central coast, often on course from the Philippines. Rains flood the cities and thousands of motorbike exhaust pipes choke on the murky water.
But the floods that hit the north-central coast of Vietnam this past October were outside the normal pattern. What initially looked like an unremarkable...