The report highlights the collaborative action already happening between cities, states, regions, business, and national government, using data reported by over 1000 cities, states and regions through the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System. Immediate action is needed to stop global greenhouse gas emissions, avoid new emissions, design resilient infrastructure and switch …
Cancun: a paper tiger jurgen maier The strategy of the European Union (eu) did seem to be transformed in the conference centres of Cancun. A coherent eu policy is non-existent. Europe is deeply divided between the American satellites (the uk, Spain and Italy) and the Gaullist camp (France, Germany and …
just one step outside any building of Venice is enough to drown Dario Camuffo in a sea of worries. Unlike those in power, he is unable to shut out a harsh reality
It seems that bacteria, one strain at least, can work wonders for art. Scientists at Milan University in Italy claim to have used the bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri to restore a 14th century Italian fresco. The painting, Conversion of St Efisio by Spinello Aretino, which was once part of a 14th …
Italian scientists have stumbled across three fossilised footprints of early humans dating to about 350,000 years ago. The discovery was made on the sides of an active volcano. The footprints are believed to be the oldest ever found of Palaeolithic humans. One of the footprint trails zigzags down to follow …
the entire gamut of activities that threaten ecosystems in the mountain regions dominated discussions at the meeting of the scientific advisory body to the Convention on Biological Diversity (cbd): from habitat fragmentation, poaching and wildlife trade in the Himalayan belt to grazing pressure, encroachment and fuelwood demand in the Western …
it is widely believed that two-wheelers are too small to carry bulky compressed natural gas (cng) cylinders and, therefore, cannot run on the gas. But this myth has been exploded by Roberto Rossi, a professor in an Italian educational institute. He has designed the first ever natural gas fuelled two-wheeler …
a trend towards smaller households is threatening biodiversity around the world, a new study finds. Both in developed and developing countries, multi-generational living arrangements are disintegrating, with couples moving out. Rising divorce rates mean families that used to live in one dwelling now occupy two. Even where the human population …
for the first time, cancer has been successfully treated by removing an organ from the body, giving it radiotherapy and then re-implanting it. The out-of-body operation allows doctors to administer high doses of radiation to widespread tumours without affecting other organs. Doctors in Italy recently announced that they have used …
A new initiative for the welfare of indigenous people was launched by an international group of experts at a meeting in Bellagio, Italy, from November 25-30. Known as
Italy may soon be involved in a bizarre tussle with other countries over the ownership of a submerged island off the coast of Sicily. The island could reappear after being underwater for 170 years following seismic activity around the volcano of Mount Etna. Ferdinandea Island last surfaced for six months …
Vehicles moving along the main routes between Germany and Italy came to a grinding halt as environmentalists blockaded the Austrian border for many hours together. The greens were protesting against the increasing Trans-Alpine traffic. They targeted five locations on the main motorways that connect Germany in the north with Italy …
Ten European Union (eu) states have shown little urgency in adopting a law on recycling cars. Taking serious note of this, the European Commission has issued formal warnings to them. The countries are France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Finland. The eu's end-of-life vehicles law should …
The post-war boom had brought gas-guzzling vehicles, expanding highways and mushrooming suburbs in the industrialised countries, especially the US. This boom was fuelled by oil - the industrialised economies depended almost entirely on intensive use of fossil fuels. The world learned about its dependence on oil in 1973. The Yom …
The Caspian region has possibly the third largest oil and natural gas reserves in the world (after the Persian Gulf and western Siberia), estimated to be up to 15 per cent of the total reserves of the world. Hardly any of this potential has been tapped as yet, and it …
India's prominence in the energy market is that it is the world's sixth largest energy consumer - and yet woefully short of energy sources. It has large coal reserves but the worrisome part is petroleum, which accounts for about 30 per cent of the total energy. India produces only 30 …
"One of the ironies at the turn of the century is that, in an age when the pace of technological change is almost overwhelming, the world will remain dependent, out to the year 2020 at least, essentially on the same sources of energy - oil, natural gas, coal - that …
The US President George W Bush is raring to launch an attack on Iraq. Whether it has weapons of mass destruction or not, Iraq certainly has the world's second largest reserves of petroleum after Saudi Arabia. Thanks to UN sanctions, it produces a mere fraction of its potential. The US, …
"Not since the rise of the railroads more than a century ago has a single industry [energy] placed so many foot soldiers at the top of a new administration." - Newsweek, May 14, 2001 George W Bush took over as president of the US on January 20, 2001. Within two …
