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Major international event focuses on responses to global sustainability challenges

The forthcoming Planet under Pressure conference is a major international event focusing on responses to global sustainability challenges.

8 Feb 2012

State roundup: Legislatures, govs juggling costs and health programs

Medicaid spending is a matter of urgency almost everywhere in the country right now, but in few places is the urgency as palpable as it is here, where the governor refers to the federal-state health insurance program for the poor as "welfare," says it's necessary to eliminate coverage for 65,000 adults, and wants to stop paying room and board for some 2,000 elders who live in group homes. All these ideas are part of Republican Governor Paul LePage's plan to close a $220 million hole in the state's biennial Medicaid budget.

7 Feb 2012

Financial Times examines global food security issues

This Financial Times analysis examines food security, writing, "Climate change, ill-judged policies, protectionism, urbanization and plain greed have all conspired to reignite Malthusian prophesies of a growing world population unable to feed itself."

27 Jan 2012

Keeping global health relevant as part of sustainable development agenda

"In 2012 there will be a major strategic shift in global health, away from development and towards sustainability," a Lancet editorial states.

21 Jan 2012

First study to examine years of life lost in Brisbane climate change

Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in collaboration with CSIRO, has conducted a world-first study into the potential impact climate change will have on 'years of life lost' in Brisbane.

19 Jan 2012

U.S. to provide nearly $1B over five years to Bangladesh for poverty, health, agriculture programs

A U.S. Embassy statement on Saturday said the U.S. would provide nearly $1 billion to Bangladesh over the next five years "towards alleviating poverty and malnutrition, as well as family planning and the fight against infectious diseases," Reuters reports.

18 Jan 2012

Solar power can make hemodialysis treatments more environmentally friendly

Solar power can help offset high utility costs and make hemodialysis treatments more environmentally friendly, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

6 Jan 2012

LANL's top 10 science stories of 2011

Los Alamos National Laboratory's top 10 science stories of 2011 illustrate the broad variety of scientific excellence that's the hallmark of the Laboratory. This year's stories include alternative energy research, world record magnetic fields, disease tracking, the study of Mars, climate change, fuel cells, solar wind, and magnetic reconnection.

26 Dec 2011

Scientific American examines relationship between climate change, health

Scientific American examines the interface between climate change and human health, writing, "WHO research suggests that current warming of global average temperatures of just under one degree Celsius is responsible for an additional 150,000 deaths per year, largely due to agricultural failures and diarrheal disease in developing countries.

23 Dec 2011

Report provides expanded review of six new EPA air quality regulations

A report by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides an expanded review of six new air quality regulations proposed or recently adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's.

22 Dec 2011

Safe drinking water, sanitation MDG will be met but inequalities in access remain

Reaching the Millennium Development Goal of "reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015" likely will be reached, "but large numbers of people in the world's least developed regions will still not benefit," according to a report released Tuesday by UNICEF and the WHO, the U.N. News Centre reports.

22 Dec 2011

UC Davis professor monitors world's hot spots for signs of emerging diseases

It's not a matter of if a worldwide pandemic will strike but when, say experts like veterinarian and epidemiologist Jonna Mazet, a professor in the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology in the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. That's why Mazet, who leads an early warning pandemic system called PREDICT, monitors the world's hot spots, or "hot interfaces" for signs of emerging diseases.

21 Dec 2011

New gel could nip Lyme borreliosis infection in the bud

They come out in the spring, and each year they spread further - the ticks. Thirty percent of them transmit borrelia pathogens, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis that can damage joints and organs.

19 Dec 2011

Investing in women to reduce effects of climate change

Women "bea[r] the brunt" of weather-related disasters, but they also are "the key to stopping global warming, and to helping communities around the world adapt to the damage that has already been done," Mary Pittman, president and CEO of the Public Health Institute (PHI), and Kavita Ramdas, executive director of Stanford University's Program on Social Entrepreneurship, write in this post on "RH Reality Check."

9 Dec 2011

Agreement on climate deal unlikely at Durban U.N. conference, Ban says

"Only a binding global accord on cutting greenhouse gases will spare Africa, the world's poorest continent, more devastating floods, droughts and famine, a senior African climate change official said on Tuesday" at a U.N. climate conference in Durban, South Africa, Reuters reports.

8 Dec 2011

Women face disproportionately high risks from climate change, UNEP report says

"Women, particularly those living in mountain regions in developing countries, are facing disproportionately high risks to their livelihoods and health from climate change, as well as associated risks such as human trafficking, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)," released at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, the UNEP News Centre reports.

8 Dec 2011

Reuters examines role of family planning at Durban climate change talks

"[W]ith studies suggesting that 215 million women around the world want -- but cannot get -- effective contraception, making sure birth control methods are available to those who want them could be one of the cheapest, fastest and most effective ways of addressing climate change, experts said at the U.N. climate conference in Durban" this week, AlertNet reports.

7 Dec 2011

Global carbon dioxide emissions increase by 5.9% in 2010 after GFC

Global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a record 5.9 per cent in 2010 following the dampening effect of the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), according to scientists working with the Global Carbon Project.

7 Dec 2011

As Gingrich gains support in polls, his policies draw attention, too

News outlets analyze GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's policy positions, including those regarding Medicare and other health issues.

3 Dec 2011

Comprehensive assessment on climate change to be presented at Mountain Day

Scientists from the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and eight Asian countries that make up the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region will present the most comprehensive assessment to date on climate change and the first authoritative accounting of snow cover and glacier extent in Asia's mountainous HKH region on Sunday, 4 December at Mountain Day on the sidelines of COP17 in Durban.

3 Dec 2011