Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses are the largest occupational group and represent an indispensable force with which to combat inequities in access to health services and progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while …
Mars Express, the European Space Agency's planned mission to the fourth stone from the Sun, Mars, received the green signal from all the 14 national delegations recently. Due to be launched sometime in the year 2003, Mars Express will be the first orbiter to use radar to penetrate the Martian …
THE bonhomous speeches of welcome were hardly over when sparks began to fly at the fourth conference of parties (cop-4) to the climate change convention, which met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the first half of November. Delegates from developing countries bristled when the president of the conference, the Argentine …
What do you think of the US insistence on voluntary com- mitments from developing countries? It is not for us (industrialised countries) to question non-annex I (developing countries) commitments. We have to make sure that our commitments are respected, and translated into domestic policies and action. we must not forget …
SATELLITE communication has become reality, crossing over from science fiction to emerge as the lifeblood of our times. The information superhighway - known better as the Internet - live television discussions, those essential cricket matches from countries halfway across the globe and a lot more could not have been possible …
THE manner in which the media reports intergovernmental environmental conferences is unbelievably biased and distorted, which means that independent and informed public opinion can never be built on contentious environmental issues. This is indeed a very serious matter. As I had to leave Buenos Aires a few days before the …
TREES have always been our best friends. Now, researchers have found how these silent friends can help tackle one of this century's biggest problems: increasing levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) that subsequently lead to global warming. According to latest reports, Europe's forests are absorbing up to a third of the …
EUROPE's biotechnology patent laws are to be challenged by the Netherlands in the European Court. The case will restart a longstanding debate over the legitimacy of patenting biotech inventions based on living organisms. This could prove to be a major setback for the European pharmaceutical industry. In May 1998, the …
Two independent experiments in the US and Europe will study the properties of neutrinos, the most elusive particles of the Universe. One experiment, called NUMI, proposes to send a beam of neutrinos from the accelerator at Fermilab in Chicago to a detector placed in a disused iron mine in Minnesota. …
NO ONE understands the value and significance of natural resources better than traditional societies. A realisation of the importance of these resources coupled with animistic beliefs may be the reasons why many traditional societies have been preserving a portion of natural ecosystems as "sacred groves" for centuries. Sacred groves are …
A reduction in pollution from vehicular emissions in Europe from 2005 seems more plausible now. The deadlock between the European Union (EU), oil producers and European car manufacturers over reduction in vehicular pollution has been resolved. Down to Earth (Vol 7, No 9, Sept 30,1998) had reported in the story …
INTERNATIONAL trade in unwanted hazardous chemicals and pesticides is now a serious global concern, especially in developing countries that lack resources to monitor their safe application, storage facilities, and adequate training for their applications. To deal with this, 61 countries have signed a new convention to prevent trade in hazardous …
EUROPEAN railways may have found an answer to one of the most common complain they face - the noise pollution. By using small knee-high noise barriers along the railway track and an acoustic hood that shrouds the train's wheel, train noise can be reduced to half, say researchers at TNO, …
THE MASSIVE cost of European Union's (EU) plan to reduce vehicular pollution from 2005 has infuriated car manufacturers and oilpersons, both traditionally rival industries. The car manufacturers say that the directive, forged in June, will force them to churn out a whopping us $60 billion. And the oilperson echo similar …
TWO young students have developed a computerised glove which can convert the deafmute alphabet into speech and another has invented a blind person's stick which can "hear" obstacles. As part of a special competition held by the Christoffel Mission for the Blind at Bensheim, Germany, young inventors exhibited their gadgets …
An accident at a steel mill in Spain has contaminated large parts of southern Europe with radioactivity, say environmentalists. The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council says scrap containing the readioctive metal caesium-137 was mistakenly fed into the smelter of a steel mill in Algeciras, near Gibraltar, at the end of May …
NEVER before have birth rates fallen so low and for so long in Europe as at present, except in times of plague, war and deep economic depression. There is not a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Recently, Italy became …
the Clinton administration, supporting the American toy-manufacturing giant Mattel Inc and several other toy companies, is lobbying against European efforts to ban controversial chemical compounds from teething rings and other toys for children. With the European Union (eu) nearing a decision on whether to prohibit the sale of toys made …
after months of debate, the European Parliament (ep) has finally allowed the patenting of genetically engineered organisms. While EuropaBio, the European Association of BioIndustries, Brussels, has welcomed the legislation, several environmental organisations, like Greenpeace, Gaia Foundation and European Campaign for Biotechnology Patents (ecobp), are up in arms. According to a …
women who smoke, have a 50 per cent higher risk of dying from heart attack than men who smoke, say researchers. The likely reason given is that tobacco smoke has an adverse effect on the female hormone, oestrogen. Researchers monitored nearly 11,500 women and 13,200 men for the study for …
