ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Quake Devastates Nuclear Power Plans

Reports of radiation leakages at a nuclear power plant, following the Niigata earthquake on Monday, have raised widespread public alarm and dealt a devastating blow to the government’s plans to boost the nuclear power industry, both domestically and abroad.

ENVIRONMENT: Act Now on Global Warming – Top US Companies

The chief executives of 160 largest United States companies released a new policy statement on climate change here, Tuesday, warning that ‘’the consequences of global warming for society and ecosystems are potentially serious and far-reaching’’ and asserting that ‘’the time for action is now.’’

ENERGY: Nuclear Power No Panacea, Critics Say

The nuclear mishap caused by Monday's earthquake in Japan has unleashed another wave of environmental concerns about the use of nuclear technology to meet the world's energy needs.

ECUADOR: Doubts Surround Carbon Absorption Project Near Galapagos

Later this month a U.S. company, Planktos Inc., plans to dump 100 tonnes of iron dust into the ocean near Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, despite opposition from environmental groups and marine scientists.

Q&A: "Climate Change Will Be Important for Years to Come"

This week, Florida's Republican governor announced that he would set a target of cutting the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, boost energy efficiency standards in new construction and require utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.

HEALTH-AUSTRALIA: &#39Earmark More HIV/AIDS Funds for Research&#39

Organisers of the fourth International AIDS Society (IAS) conference have called for donors to set aside 10 percent of funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care to research.

ENVIRONMENT-US: The Lessons of the Levees

Despite mounting data that storms coming out of the Gulf of Mexico could bring catastrophic flooding to the U.S. Gulf Coast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) failed to implement a proposed barrier plan in New Orleans that would have used floodgates to keep storm surge out of Lake Pontchartrain and the canals leading into the city.

HEALTH: South-east Asia Grapples With Dengue

End June saw health officials in Singapore confronted with a worrying trend in the affluent, squeaky-clean city-state. During two separate weeks that month, dengue fever cases had reached epidemic levels.

ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Plastic Bottles Plus Sun Rays = Potable Water

Used plastic bottles and sun rays are all that the impoverished residents of Bintaro, South Jakarta, need for their families to have clean potable water.

CLIMATE CHANGE-CARIBBEAN: Uniting Against Future Adversity

Adapting to climate change in the island nations of the Caribbean, a region particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, requires strengthening collective responses based on exchange and cooperation.

SCIENCE: 350 Degrees Is Bathwater to These Animals

Marine scientists returned to the Galapagos Islands this week to celebrate a discovery that Charles Darwin never dreamt of: bizarre animals that live in total darkness around active deep-sea volcanoes.

ENVIRONMENT-US: Growing Oases in the Sky

An industrial park seems an unlikely location to find a native plant garden.

ENERGY-SOUTH AFRICA: Putting Sunshine in Your Taps

Solar water heaters offer people the chance to save money, increase the security of the local and national energy supply - and cut down on greenhouse emissions said to cause climate change. Yet, roofs throughout South Africa are noticeably bare.

TRADE: Rwanda Leading Africa in ICT Revolution

Less than fifteen years after the genocide that destroyed much of Rwanda's human capital, infrastructure, and socio-economic fabric, the country is set to become sub-Saharan Africa's hub for information and communications technology (ICT).

ENVIRONMENT: Cellulosic Ethanol – Clean but Worth Unproven

With biofuels being blamed for rising food prices and offering limited environmental benefits, diverse luminaries like former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are throwing their considerable support behind cellulosic ethanol, a second generation biofuel.

TRADE: EU Pesticide Rules May Force Out Small African Farmers

African farmers could soon find themselves forced out of the lucrative European market for agricultural products as retailers and government move towards a zero tolerance policy on chemical residues in food.

ENERGY-SRI LANKA: Solar Power Gets A Boost

There may be nothing new in a recent World Bank credit facility to provide electricity through renewable power to thousands of rural homes. But for the growing solar power sector here, it is a giant step in taking the industry forward.

GERMANY: Warming Climate Helps Some Species, Kills Others

The weather conditions in the heart of Europe were abnormal last year - the summer too hot, too dry, and too long, and the winter too warm. But they were excellent for some foreign species, which, benefiting from the changed weather, settled in Germany, and have become a headache - or worse - for farmers and just about everybody else.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Wealth From Waste With Bio-Digesters

Saji Das foresees a time when people in this state, at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula, will compete to get at food waste and other rotting organic rubbish rather than holding their noses and walking away quickly.

COLOMBIA-ECUADOR: Studies Find DNA Damage from Anti-Coca Herbicide

U.S.-funded aerial spraying of coca plantations in Colombia near the Ecuador border has severely damaged the DNA of local residents, a new study has found.

ENERGY-US: Senate Plan Scales Down Fossil Fuel Use

The U.S. Senate began debate on a complex package of energy legislation this week that is running head-on into the politics of global warming.