Air quality is a major challenge globally and is the single greatest environmental risk to human health. More than 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas that exceed the World Health Organization guideline for healthy air. In North America, Canada and the United States of America have …
Increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as video-conferencing and smart building management could cut global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16.5% by 2020, a study by Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) has said. The study, SMARTer2020, which management consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) did for GeSI, …
Having received only limited success in their global quest for natural resources, public sector metal and mining companies might turn their focus now on just a handful of mineral-rich countries where the chances of striking deals are much higher. The government has identified four countries — Brazil, South Africa, Canada …
The US and other developed nations took on the developing world here on the second day of the Doha round of climate talks. They demanded that all the unresolved issues be junked for good in Qatar and the world must carry on with finalizing a new global treaty — a …
Despite mounting alarm about climate change, almost 200 nations meeting in Doha from Monday are likely to pay little more than lip service to the need to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions. A likely failure to agree a meaningful extension of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding plan …
The United States resisted pledging steeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 on Monday despite calls by poor nations at the start of a U.N conference for tougher action to avert storms, droughts and rising seas. About 200 nations met for annual U.N. talks on global warming with little …
Talks on a new climate change treaty in Qatar next week will not advance unless rich countries promise more ambitious cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, four major developing nations said. The four nations, Brazil, China, India and South Africa -known in climate talks as the BASIC bloc - released a …
THE shale-gas revolution in America has been as sudden and startling as a supertanker performing a handbrake turn. A country that once fretted about its dependence on Middle Eastern fossil fuels is now on the verge of self-sufficiency in natural gas. And the news keeps getting better. This week the …
China hit back Thursday at claims it was holding up global climate talks in Germany, saying the United States, Europe and other rich states were the ones applying the brakes. Developed nations are trying to wriggle out of legal targets to curb global warming, Chinese chief negotiator Su Wei told …
India and Canada on Tuesday concluded negotiations for effective operationalisation of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Canadian PM Stephen Harper held bilateral talks. After the talks, Singh said, “We welcomed the recent progress made towards concluding the modalities for the effective operationalisation …
Sea levels are rising faster than expected from global warming and new research is said to reveal the reasons why. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters by the year 2100. But current sea-level rise measurements meet or exceed …
The SC must reject the biased interim report of the committee on GE crops While hearing two writ petitions opposing genetic engineering technology in agriculture, the Supreme Court constituted a technical expert committee with six members and seven terms of reference. It asked the committee to hear interested parties and …
Deaths in the United States and Canada blamed on Sandy, the mega-storm that tore across the U.S. East Coast this week, rose to at least 102 on Friday. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them on Staten Island, the borough that lies across New …
Honolulu: A tsunami warning prompted by a powerful earthquake off the Canadian coast sent at least 100,000 people fleeing from shore to higher ground in Hawaii on Saturday, but an evacuation order was cancelled after a series of weaker-than-expected waves rolled through the islands. The warning was downgraded to an …
Hawaii state officials on Sunday canceled a tsunami advisory prompted by a powerful earthquake off the Canadian coast that sent thousands of people fleeing to higher ground, but did not cause major damage. The advisory was canceled shortly before 4 a.m. local time (1400 GMT) after the anticipated waves rolled …
A major 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of Canada today, prompting some people fearing a tsunami to move to higher ground. The epicenter of the tremor was located 139 kilometres south of the town of Masset, the US Geological Survey said. Numerous aftershocks, …
When a chartered fishing boat strewed 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the ocean off western Canada last July, the goal was to supercharge the marine ecosystem. The iron was meant to fertilize plankton, boost salmon populations and sequester carbon. Whether the ocean responded as hoped is not clear, but …
Shorter growing season and water stress near wheat maturity are the main factors that presumably limit the yield potential of spring wheat due to late seeding in Saskatchewan, Canada. Advancing seeding dates can be a strategy to help producers mitigate the impact of climate change on spring wheat. It is …
Prenatal exposure to methylmercury (MeHg) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has been associated with impaired performance on attention tasks in previous studies, but the extent to which these cognitive deficits translate into behavioral problems in the classroom and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remains unknown. By contrast, lead (Pb) exposure in childhood …
Delay in the hibernation emergence date of female Columbian ground squirrels in Canada over 20 years is related to climatic conditions other than increasing temperature, and as years of later emergence are associated with decreased individual fitness, plastic responses to climate change may be associated with declines in population viability.
