CLIMATE CHANGE: Signs and Portents of a Hostile New World

Lawrence Amos travelled from the Arctic at the top of the world to the tropical middle to recite in a soft voice the ongoing destruction of his home by climate change.

CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: Towards Carbon-Free Chimneys

Scientists in Brazil are developing a technique for absorbing industry-produced carbon dioxide before it ever reaches the atmosphere. The secret lies in half-centimetre ceramic spheres.

ENVIRONMENT: ‘Temperature Rise Guaranteed, Thanks to Brown Clouds’

Regardless of success at the upcoming climate talks at Copenhagen this December, there will still be a 2.5 degree rise in temperatures.

AFRICA: Malaria Vaccine Draws Closer

After 20 years of trials, scientists have announced they are on the threshold of discovering a malaria vaccine. Researchers warn that Africa may not be ready to make use of the vaccine should it be approved as expected within five years.

HEALTH: Southern Researchers Fill Gap on Neglected Diseases

With HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis occupying the global health spotlight, few resources are devoted to the "neglected tropical diseases" like dengue fever, hookworm infection and schistosomiasis that afflict some one billion people.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Toxic Contaminants: The Other Scourge

As the world focuses on the impact of climate change, little attention is being paid to yet another environmental bane: increasing contamination of air, water and soil.

SOUTH AFRICA: GMOs – Strategic Priority in Whose Interest?

The South African government is in the process of drafting regulations to police genetically modified organisms (GMO) as part of the national Consumer Protection Act, but environmental experts are worried the GMO section of the new Act, which was signed into law last April, will not be put into practice.

CLIMATE CHANGE: 350 PPM Too Ambitious, Say Lawmakers

A future global climate change treaty must limit the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm), and not 450 ppm, the currently proposed level, Samuel Fankhauser told a meeting of pro-environment legislators from the eight most industrialised countries and emerging economies here. But they felt the goal was not feasible.

SPAIN: A Princely Prize for Creators of Email, Cell-Phones

U.S. engineers Martin Cooper and Raymond Tomlinson, considered the fathers of the mobile phone and email, respectively, received Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research from Crown Prince Felipe on Friday.

U.S.: Public More Complacent About Climate Change

Less than two months before a key international conference on curbing climate change, a major U.S. poll has found a sharp drop in public concern about global warming.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Greatest of Lakes Hit by Climate Change

The weather was right for swimming this summer along the shores of Lake Michigan, but on many days, the only living things seen on the beach were gulls, picking away at zebra mussels ensnared in a thick, green slime that covered every rock, pebble and grain of sand for miles.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics

The capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, is a dubious method of effectively reducing the pollution that causes global warming, experts warn.

BIODIVERSITY: Earth’s Life Support Systems Failing

The world has failed to slow the accelerating extinction crisis despite 17 years of national and international efforts since the great hopes raised at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Four Degrees of Devastation

The prospect of a four-degree Celsius rise in global average temperatures in 50 years is alarming - but not alarmist, climate scientists now believe.

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Opportunities Spring From e-Waste

There was an audible gasp when Kirsten McIntyre told the audience that e-waste is the third fastest growing waste stream in the world, with between 40 and 50 million tons of computers, TVs and washing machines being "thrown away" each year.

SCIENCE: Icelandic Banks Finally Get Some Good News

Economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman helped unveil a new, lifesaving invention at the 2009 Ig Nobel awards ceremony last week - a pink brassiere that doubles as a pair of filtering gas masks.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Food Supply Hangs in the Balance

Rocketing food prices and hundreds of millions more starving people will be part of humanity's grim future without concerted action on climate change and new investments in agriculture, experts reported this week.

Q&A: Harmonise the Efforts of African Scientists

As many as 100 million people in Africa suffer from schistosomiasis, a chronic illness caused by a parasite associated with freshwater snails. The schistosoma flatworm causes a debilitating illness that can damage internal organs, and stunt growth and cognitive development of children.

ENVIRONMENT: Climate Change Faster Than Expected, UN Says

Less than three months before a key global negotiation on curbing greenhouse gases, a new study released here Thursday by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that climate change is taking place faster than anticipated.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Time Running Out on Vows to Act, Scientists Warn

Promises are easy to make. But promises by world leaders will not halt the heat-trapping carbon emissions that are dialing-up global temperatures and altering the climate, say critics and climate researchers meeting in this U.S. Midwestern city.

BRAZIL: Electric Car Revolution in the Making

The electric vehicle - pure or hybrid - will trigger an energy and industrial revolution worldwide in the coming decades, dealing a blow to liquid fuels. But plant-based ethanol will survive and grow, say Brazilian experts consulted for this report.