News dal Mondo

Reunion!

2012-12-03T22:24:00.004+01:00

It's been a long time since my last post here!

I decided to restart writing for many reasons:

1 - I don't want to lose the skills in written English - which still needs to be improved, I know :D

2 - I don't know how could I call it... a "need to write"? Well something like that!

3 - Sometime I have some free time!

I say "Sometime" because I'm studying at the University so I don't have a lot of time to write indeed.

This is a kind of ~~American~~ Global Reunion for me =D

What happened today and in the past days...

.... Lots of things!

As many of you may know, in a few days - in my town in about ten days - "The Hobbit" will be available at the cinema!
Italian politicians are going from bad to worse - if they continue acting like that, we'll never exit from this "economic crisis".
Pope will be available on Twitter... well that's strange! I hope he will post some pics in Instagram, LOL
Kate Middleton is pregnant. Her ~~nudes~~ pics will be spread someday!
... nothing else comes to my mind at the moment!

Well, keep following, some new news will be shared!

- Verba volant, scripta manent.

An ITC VIP passed away: Dennis Ritchie

2011-10-15T21:42:00.000+02:00

I told you about Steve Jobs, so now it's his turn.
I'm talking about Dennis Ritchie, a VIP who created C and the bases of the present Information Technology.
He was a king, a guru.
We will remember him, because he created the greatest programming language, which programmers still use to develop their application.
If he had not invented it, we would not use any OS like Windows 7, Linux distros and any other OS (because a lot of OS use a kernel written in C).

Goodbye Dennis, we'll always miss you.

Do you live in London? Read this.

2011-10-15T18:43:00.000+02:00

Do you live in London?

You may ask me why I am asking you this strange thing.

It's simple: in London, 1 on 6 mobile phones are full of bacteria.
Escherichia Coli, commonly known as "E.Coli".
It's a bacteria who can "easily" kill a person, so please pay attention.
Media said those bacteria can be found inside the keys of your mobile phone.
They can move from your mobile phone to your hands, so please wash them before you put them on your face!!!!

iPhone 4S reached its first million

2011-10-10T19:33:00.001+02:00

iPhone 4S has just reached its first million.
That's ...obvious.
For me.
Because Apple advertises this product all over the world, so a lot of people will see their advertising.
This is why a lot of pieces of 4S will be sold.
Anyway I am still waiting some feedbacks about SiRi, because I am really curious about this new software technology.
It seems to be really interesting.

So, if you have bought this new iPhone 4S, please consider reporting us a feedback about Siri.

LOL: deejay "stage-dives" but falls on the ground

2011-10-09T18:52:00.000+02:00

Hi guys!
I've just found this funny (but true) video.
These 2 guys were doing a concert, when one of them decided to "stage-dive".
But, when he jumps, the people who were there moves to avoid the singer who falls on the ground.
Watch it, it's really funny!!! :D

I hope it didn't hurt too much :P

Sky..

2011-10-08T21:48:00.002+02:00

Hi all!

From my place (Italy) at the moment (about 10pm) I can clearly see Jupiter.

Have you ever seen it?

I'm a follower of the sky since I was 8.

I really like stars and planets, because they show to the world how much little we are.

We are nothing compared to the whole sky.

Also, tonight there will be a "meteor shower" in the Drake constellation.

So, I will be out because I'd like to see how much of them I can count =)

Keep following.

And have a nice weekend!

iPhone 4S

2011-10-08T16:28:00.000+02:00

After Jobs' missing, Apple had a boom with the new iPhone 4S.
More than 200.000 pre-sells at AT&T.
Apple's foundation said they are really happy with the marketing boom.

Steve Jobs has passed away

2011-10-06T18:32:00.002+02:00

Yeah, I know you've already heard this sad news.
I'm not a Apple fan (Android rulez!) but that's a really sad news.
He passed away aged 56.
By the way, I won't spend a lot of words.
You've probably read a lot of things today about his life or his wishes for the future.
So I'd like to save a part of him (we could say a memory of him) here, on my blog.
That's all.
Bye bye Steve.

Non-Toxic Beauty: Do You Know What’s In Your Lipstick?

2011-10-06T09:08:00.000+02:00

Adding a touch of lipstick to your outfit will add some color to your face and can even accentuate your smile. However, that glamor comes with a price. The average woman will ingest about 6 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime. That’s a whole lot of unnatural ingredients to process in your body! To help you understand a bit more in what lipstick is made out of, here are some of the harmful ingredients you will come across in the product.

Toxic Ingredients
Lipstick is usually made up of wax, oil, pigments, dyes, alcohol, preservatives and antioxidants. And those are the more benign ingredients! The harmful ingredients you should look out for includes:

For further information: http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/43355

ENN

Europe Electronic Waste

2011-10-05T21:06:00.002+02:00

Electronic waste is a number of different types of waste streams. It can include old computers, TV's etc. The European Parliament and the 27 EU member states are set for difficult negotiations over the recast of the bloc’s electronic waste directive as some European Parliament members insist on ambitious targets for collecting and recycling discarded fridges, phones and other e-waste than the member states can accept. The European Parliament's Environment Committee voted yesterday on its second reading recommendation on the recast of the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, aiming at toughening existing rules on electrical and electronic equipment.

The new targets for collecting electronic waste backed by the European Parliament are set to cause some trouble with reluctant EU member states.
Currently, a flat-rate annual target of 4kg per person is applied even though the EU executive estimates that each European currently generates 17-20 kg of e-waste per year.
The Commission has suggested a collection target of 65% of the average weight of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market over the two previous years but others say targets should be based on the actual e-waste generated, with 85% to be collected by 2016.
Depending on the waste category, Parliament members also say that 70-85% of e-waste should be recovered and 50-75% recycled. They propose a separate 5% reuse target so that more functional goods get a new lease of life instead of being scrapped.
Many smaller e-waste items, such as light bulbs, mobile phones and electronic toothbrushes are thrown away with other rubbish even though they contain harmful or valuable substances.
To tackle the problem, Parliament members say consumers should be allowed to hand back very small appliances to all electronics retailers — except the smallest — for free, regardless of whether the customer buys a new product or not.
The lawmakers also want to broaden the reach of the EU's e-waste law by bringing all types of electrical and electronic equipment under the scope of the rules unless explicitly excluded, instead of applying the current restricted list of equipment concerned.
EU member states also believe that the scope should be widened but not until six years after the entry into force of the recast — or around 2018.
The Parliament report adopted yesterday also suggests forbidding any e-waste exports to countries outside the OECD and only allow export of non-functioning products within OECD countries if there is a guarantee that this product will be fixed and able to be re-used.
Some estimate as much as 50 million tons of E-waste are produced each year. The USA discards 30 million computers each year and 100 million phones are disposed of in Europe each year. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only 15-20% of e-waste is recycled, the rest of these electronics go directly into landfills and incinerators.
According to a report by the UN titled, Recycling - from E-Waste to Resources, the amount of e-waste being produced - including mobile phones and computers - could rise by as much as 500 percent over the next decade in some countries, such as India. The United States is the world leader in producing electronic waste, tossing away about 3 million tons each year. China already produces about 2.3 million tons (2010 estimate) domestically, second only to the United States. And, despite having banned e-waste imports, China remains a major e-waste dumping ground for developed countries.

For further information: here

ENN

Time to Kill the Dollar Bill?

2011-10-05T05:50:00.000+02:00

Will the United States join other developed nations and...get rid of those beloved yet pesky dollar bills? Past attempts at US$1 coins did not do very well. The Eisenhower dollar coin made for a great saucer or frisbee but usually sat in a bowl on someone's dresser. The 1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was a polite nod to the women's liberation movement of that decade but ended up less popular than Jimmy Carter. Sacagawea's mug shot made for a pretty gold tinted coin that was popular in casinos, transit systems, and Ecuador, but was still a flop. Finally, the presidential dollar coin has done a solid job in remember past presidential greats like Rutherford B. Hayes, but has proven less popular than the U.S. state quarter dollar series.

Now Congress again is mulling another attempt at rolling out dollar coins. The Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings Program, or COINS Act, was introduced last week by Arizona Republican David Schweikert. At at time when the federal government is looking to cut costs just about everywhere, Schweikert suggests that the legislation to phase out $1 bills will reduce waste, figuratively and literally.
But could it work?
Plenty of countries have phased out currency notes of smaller denominations and have managed to function. In Japan, for example, the smallest note is a ¥1000 note, about US$7 to $12 depending on the Yen-Dollar Exchange rate. The beauty of Japanese currency is that vending machines happily eat those excess coins, and it is perfectly acceptable to buy a pack of gum with a ¥10,000 note. On the other side of the globe, the Euro zone's smallest note is a five Euro bill— €1 or €2 comes in the shape of the shiny (yet boring) coin. And north of the border, Canadians have long ditched small notes for the single "loonie" and two dollar "toonie." Considering the state of American politics, the Canadian term for its single dollar coin is nothing short of perfect.
But here's the catch: the only way a dollar coin would work is if the US$1 note is completely eliminated.

Article continues: http://www.enn.com/business/article/43347

Israeli Movie Against Pesticides 1st At Int’l Festival

2011-10-04T22:49:00.000+02:00

An Israeli film depicting the advantages of using barn owls and kestrels in place of pesticides won first prize in an international film competition that concluded on Friday. The 2010 film, called The Use of Barn Owls and Kestrels as Biological Control Agents and produced by Yuval Dax, topped the charts in the expert and instructive films category at the Agrofilm Festival held throughout last week in Nitra, Slovakia, the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI), announced on Monday.

SPNI, along with Tel Aviv University, were the chief backers of the film, which in under 11 minutes explores the different ways that the barn owl — and its daytime counterpart, the kestrel raptor — have become "a natural hunting machine that eliminates rodents. With stereoscopic vision, sharper hearing than that of humans and silent flight, the barn owl is 'the answer' to what was formerly a field ridden with potentially cancerous pesticides," the film argues. The barn owl, which can catch 2,000 to 5,000 rodents per year, improves agricultural yield among certain crops by 24 percent — brings an "instant solution" against pests that does not involve dangerous chemicals, the film narrator explains. Meanwhile, to help encourage the barn owls to make their homes within agricultural areas, birdwatcher and Israeli naval officer Amir Ezer has been reusing ammunition cases to create nesting boxes for the owls all over Israel, according to the narrator. While the 2010 movie boasts 1,640 such nesting boxes throughout the country, a Monday statement from SPNI indicated that the number is now up to 2,100.

Article continues: http://www.enn.com/agriculture/article/43348

"Legge Bavaglio"

2011-10-04T21:24:00.000+02:00

In these days, in Italy, there will be a discussion about a new law ("Legge Bavaglio, comma 29 in DDL Intercettazioni") which may destroy a lot of blogs because with this new law someone may ask the editing of a post in which s/he thinks this post ruins his/her own personality.
This is why it's called "Legge Bavaglio", because "Bavaglio" means something which removes you the freedom of speech.
A lot of blogs, as I said, may be closed.
Also Wikipedia (in Italy) might be closed.
They've just written it on their board.
Here you can find what they wrote.
Of course I can't stand this, because freedom of speech MUST be a citizen right.

Marshall Islands creates world's biggest shark park

2011-10-04T17:47:00.004+02:00

The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world's biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. With new legislation, commercial shark fishing is now completely banned in Marshall Islands' 768,547 square miles (1,990,530 square kilometers) of ocean.

The new shark sanctuary not only bans commercial fishing, but deems that sharks caught as by-catch must be released. In addition any sale of sharks or shark parts on the islands is now prohibited.
After several species of shark have been decimated by over-fishing, this year has seen unprecedented movement towards protecting sharks by establishing massive no-kill zones for sharks.
"The Marshall Islands have joined Palau, the Maldives, Honduras, the Bahamas and Tokelau in delivering the gold standard of protection for ensuring shark survival," said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation for the Pew Environment Group, in a press release. Rand adds that "as leaders recognize the importance of healthy shark populations to our oceans, the momentum for protecting these animals continues to spread across the globe."

Over the past few decades some shark populations have fallen by over 90 percent. Rising demand for shark-fin soup is partially to blame. An increasingly popular Asian delicacy, shark-fin soup is exactly what its name suggests. Sharks are caught, their fins sawed off, and often the animals' bodies—sometimes still alive—are thrown back into the water. Shark-finning, as the practice is known, is estimated to have killed an average of 38 million sharks per year between 1996 and 2000.

Article continues: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/43349

ENN

Coffee: is the black stuff as green as it should be?

2011-10-04T17:46:00.003+02:00

From deforestation to fertilizer; our taste for coffee has left some of the world’s most precious eco-systems in a precarious state. George Blacksell looks at how the coffee industry is cleaning up its act. The world’s second most tradable commodity after oil; coffee growing and processing has proven itself to be a lucrative industry. The burgeoning coffee culture that sprang up over the last few decades has led to overwhelming success for handful of coffee franchises and a massive spike in supermarket sales. Of the high street coffee chains, Costa, Starbucks, Cafe Nero and Pret A Manger have cornered the lion’s share of the profits. While no one is denying their right to make a buck, the big question is whether the profits these franchises are making are trickling down to the people actually growing the beans? And how green are they really? Is the high street coffee industry one we should buy into or should we be avoiding it altogether?

Traditionally, complexities within the supply chain have meant that the 100 million people growing coffee around the world have been excluded from the huge profit making potential of coffee. On average, third world coffee farmers receive a paltry 10 per cent of the eventual retail price. As competition among growers - 70 per cent of whom are smallholders - has stiffened; a combination of price reductions and undercutting has left them exposed to the fluctuations of the volatile coffee market.
Along with the negative effect this has had on living conditions, the drive for increased output has had a knock-on effect on the environment as well, with monocropping and sun grown coffee now the norm. And given that most coffee growing regions are also home to some of the most delicate eco-systems on earth;
the potential for serious damage is high.

For further information: http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/43350

ENN

TheContestPage

2011-10-02T21:44:00.002+02:00

TheContestPage is a new website (still in beta version) in which you can create your own contest with your own rules.

The website is totally FREE.

At the moment, there are a lot of contest: among of them there is a contest in which you can win an iPad 2.

They also own a FaceBook fan page.

Visit it!

TheContestPage è un nuovo sito web (ancora in versione beta) in cui puoi creare il tuo contest con le tue regole.

Il sito è completamente GRATUITO.

Al momento ci sono moltissimi contest attivi, fra i quali troviamo anche un contest in cui possiamo vincere un iPad 2.

Hanno anche una pagina FaceBook.

Visitalo!

Global CO2 Emissions Reach All-Time High, Rising More Than 5% in 2010 to Close Out Past 20 Years

2011-10-02T04:31:00.000+02:00

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time high in 2010, rising 45% in the past 20 years. Rising rapidly between 1990 and 2010, global atmospheric CO2 levels totaled 33 billion metric tons last year, according to a report published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. Global CO2 emissions fell 1% in 2009, during the Great Recession, but rose at an unprecedented 5% rate in 2010. That was similar to the drop and greater emissions growth in 1975 and 1976, when the global economy suffered through the first oil crisis, a subsequent stock market crash and began a recovery in 1976, the report authors note.

Total CO2 emissions in industrialized nations that ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the US, which didn’t, were some 7.5% less in 2010 than they were in 1990, leaving them on-track to meet the 5.2% reduction targets required by the climate treaty.
Industrialized nations’ share of global CO2 emissions has been dropping. Rapid industrialization in large emerging market economies, such as China, India and Brazil, led to industrialized countries overall contribution to global CO2 emissions dropping to less than half the total amount from two-thirds over the two decade period.
Since 1990, CO2 emissions per capita have increased in China from 2.2 to 6.8 metric tons per capita and decreased in the EU-27 from 9.2 to 8.1 metric tons per capita (in EU-15 from 9.1 to 7.9) and from 19.7 to 16.9 metric tons per capita in the USA, according to the report.

For further information: here

ENN

Major fire shuts most of Shell Singapore refinery

2011-10-01T12:30:00.000+02:00

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has shut most of its half-a-million barrels-per-day Singapore refinery, sources said, as firefighters struggle to contain a blaze that has been burning for more than a day.

The plant is the largest Shell owns and makes up more than a third of Singapore's refining capacity. The city-state is Asia's crude and refined product trading hub and hosts the world's largest fuel oil market.
Benchmark fuel prices across Asia are based on trade in Singapore, so interruptions in supply can trigger price moves out of proportion with the size of the refinery disruption.
Industry sources said Shell has shut two of its three crude distillation units, including the largest No 5 unit, with the third running at reduced rates.
A Shell spokesman declined comment on the shutdown of the crude units or the status of the blaze. The fire has proved difficult to douse, and Shell said it regained in intensity at midday on Thursday, nearly 24 hours after the blaze started.
"At around noon, we experienced a surge in the fire which continues to be contained," Shell said in a statement on Thursday. "The source of the fire are remnant light fuel components within the specific area where the fire originated."
Shell is investigating the cause of the blaze, being tackled by at least 100 firefighters on Bukom island off Singapore.
Shipping sources have said vessels are not berthing at the refinery. One ship-owner said his ship had to pull off from the loading berth at around 1000 GMT on Wednesday, more than 5 hours after the fire started, as a safety precaution.
"We had to cast off (from the berth) halfway through the loading," the shipping source said. "Our vessel is sitting at anchorage now, waiting for further instructions from Shell's terminal, but no indication has been given on when we can go back in."

For further information: here

ENN

MAJOR RIVERS HAVE ENOUGH WATER TO SUSTAIN GROWING POPULATIONS

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000+02:00

A new study says the world’s major river systems contain more than enough water to meet globalfood production needs in the 21st century. Following a five-year study of 10 river basins, including the Nile.

With global population expected to surpass 7 billion people this year, the staggering impact on an overtaxed planet is becoming more and more evident.
The world's major rivers include the Ganges, Andes, Yellow, and Niger. Scientists with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) found that the greatest water challenge facing the planet is not scarcity but the inefficient and inequitable distribution of water.
"Huge volumes of rainwater are lost or never used," said Alain Vidal, director of CGIAR's Challenge Program on Water and Food. In regions of sub-Saharan Africa, he said, even "modest" improvements in rainwater harvesting could yield two to three times more food production. Elsewhere, regions in Asia and Latin America exist where food production could be increased by at least 10 percent, according to the report, which is published in the journal Water International. According to a recent UN report, global food output will have to increase 70 percent by 2050 to feed a growing world population.
Demographers aren't known for their sense of humor, but the ones who work for the United Nations recently announced that the world’s human population will hit 7 billion on Halloween this year. Since censuses and other surveys can scarcely justify such a precise calculation, it's tempting to imagine that the UN Population Division, the data shop that pinpointed the Day of 7 Billion, is hinting that we should all be afraid, be very afraid.
We have reason to be. The 21st century is not yet a dozen years old, and there are already 1 billion more people than in October 1999 — with the outlook for future energy and food supplies looking bleaker than it has for decades. It took humanity until the early 19th century to gain its first billion people; then another 1.5 billion followed over the next century and a half. In just the last 60 years the world’s population has gained yet another 4.5 billion. Never before have so many animals of one species anything like our size inhabited the planet.
And this species interacts with its surroundings far more intensely than any other ever has. Planet Earth has become Planet Humanity, as we co-opt its carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles so completely that no other force can compare. For the first time in life's 3-billion-plus-year history, one form of life - ours - condemns to extinction significant proportions of the plants and animals that are our only known companions in the universe.

For further information: here

ENN

Finding Planets

2011-10-01T04:27:00.000+02:00

There are many worlds out there and NASA has a lot of data that it has not reviewed in the depth that is needed to search every star for its worlds and the evidence there of. A project in which volunteers hunt online for new planets NASA may have missed is publishing its first results which show some remarkable finds. Planethunters.org, which was set up by Oxford University physicists, working with colleagues at Yale University and the Adler Planetarium, has enabled over 45,000 armchair astronomers to find candidates for new alien worlds by searching data from the Kepler mission.

There are officially 53 known planetary systems (i.e. stars with at least two confirmed planets), including the Solar System.
There are 34 stars with two planets, 10 with three, 5 with four, 1 with five, 2 with six, 0 with seven, and 1 with eight. The star with the most confirmed planets is Sol, which contains 8 confirmed planets. The star with most confirmed exoplanets are HD 10180 and Kepler-11, both containing 6 confirmed planets.
Reporting on just the first month of the armchair astronomer project, which was launched in December 2010, researchers believe there is a 95% chance or greater that volunteers have already spotted two new exoplanets NASA originally discarded: other finds include a previously unknown eclipsing binary star system.
The Kepler telescopes detect new planets by recording tiny changes in the brightness of stars. This dimming is caused by planets crossing in front of them.
Volunteers visiting planethunters.org sort through thousands of images of stars searching for examples of these dimming events (known as 'transits') which NASA’s small team of experts may have missed.
The project builds on a series of highly successful Oxford-led citizen science projects, such as Galaxy Zoo, Old Weather, and most recently Ancient Lives, which have shown that ordinary web users can beat computer algorithms at spotting patterns and interesting phenomena.
Carolyn Bol, from Helensburgh in Scotland, is one of the planethunters.org volunteers who has made a discovery that will soon see her name appear on a scientific paper.
It was while sorting through images of stars that Carolyn made her discovery:
"The moment I saw the pattern I screamed A PLANET ! just because all the light curves I was classifying were very similar, some pulsating etc but there were no distinctive transits until that pattern appeared and I was sure I was watching a planet."
In fact Carolyn’s planetary candidate would later be found to be not an alien world passing in front of a star but something almost as exotic: an eclipsing binary system containing two stars in which one star’s orbit sees it pass in front of its companion.
It just goes to show that when you unleash an army of citizen scientists part of the fun is not knowing what they will turn up.
Planethunters.org was originally set up by Oxford’s Department of Physics to test NASA's Kepler project which is searching for planets in the Goldilocks zone, the region around a star in which planets can have liquid water and are neither too hot nor too cold for life to exist.
In February 2011 NASA confirmed the discovery of the 15th planet since the project began nearly two years ago.

For further information: here

ENN

Plants and CO2

2011-09-30T22:25:00.000+02:00

Plants absorb carbon dioxide and exhale Oxygen. They are a major part of the global cycle. The global uptake of carbon by land plants may be up to 45 per cent more than previously thought. This is the conclusion of an international team of scientists, based on the variability of heavy oxygen atoms in the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere driven by the El Niño effect. As the oxygen atoms in carbon dioxide were converted faster than expected during the El Niño years, current estimates for the uptake of carbon by plants are probably too low. These should be corrected upwards, say the researchers in the current issue of the scientific journal NATURE. Instead of 120 petagrams of carbon, the annual global vegetation uptake probably lies between 150 and 175 petagrams of carbon. This value is a kind of gross national product for land plants and indicates how productive the biosphere of the Earth is. The reworking of this so-called global primary productivity would have significant consequences for the coupled carbon cycle-climate model used in climate research to predict future climate change.

The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. It is one of the most important cycles of the earth and allows for carbon to be recycled and reused throughout the biosphere and all of its organisms.
It is now usually thought of as including the following major reservoirs of carbon interconnected by these major pathways of exchange:
Atmosphere
Terrestrial biosphere (plants, animals etc.),
Oceans
Geological sources
The new analysis indicated regular fluctuations between years and a connection with the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific. Overall, El Niño years are warmer. They are also characterized by greater precipitation in South America and less intensive monsoons in Southeast Asia. The researchers found a more rapid recovery of the isotopic ratios following the El Niño events than assumed, indicating a shorter conversion time for CO2 in the terrestrial biosphere.
On the basis of these data, the authors calculate the so-called global primary productivity (GPP). They now propose correcting this in the global models from 120 to 150-175 petagrams) of carbon annually.
"Our atmosphere is a perfect blender. Changes in its levels of trace gases — such as carbon dioxide — reflect the overall release and uptake of trace gases from all sources. So if you measure the carbon exchange of a forest ecosystem, for example, you "only" get the net exchange of all the carbon taken up by the trees for photosynthesis and all the carbon released by the trees and soil ", writes Dr. Matthias Cuntz of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) in his commentary in the same issue of NATURE. The gross-exchange fluxes, such as photosynthesis, are however accessible only with difficulty. "The researchers of Lisa Welp's team assume that around 43 per cent of all CO2 molecules entering a plant are taken up by the plant. If this were only 34%, the estimate would fall to about 120 billion tons of carbon — that is, to the currently accepted value".

For further information: here

ENN

Afghanistan Mineral Potential

2011-09-30T20:24:00.000+02:00

Mineral deposits can create jobs, industry, wealth and potentially pollution. It could help stabilize a war torn country such as Afghanistan. Working with the Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), members of the USGS Minerals Project assessed fuel- and non-fuel mineral resources of Afghanistan from October 2009 to September 2011 with the goal of identifying particular deposits that could be relatively easily developed.The team identified key Areas of Interest (AOI)—and subareas within them—that fit these criteria. The AOIs contain mineral reserves or resources that have been well-documented through sampling in trenches, drill holes, and/or underground workings. Most are accessible by existing roads. So to develop or not to develop.

There are vast amounts of minerals present in the country. There are hazards ranging from earthquakes, general aridity (scare water supplies), and of course, war. Copper, Chromium, Coal, and gold are just some of the potential deposits.
One of the products of the study efforts was the 2007 Preliminary Assessment of Non-Fuel Mineral Resources of Afghanistan. The assessment revealed that Afghanistan has abundant non-fuel mineral resources, including both known and potential deposits of a wide variety of minerals ranging from copper, iron, and sulfur to bauxite, lithium, and rare-earth elements.
The problem lies in the development. As had been seen in neighboring China, India and Iran, it is easy to quickly exploit and easily pollute. Excavating and processing the mineral wealth out of the ground is risky and dangerous though the benefits to the Afghan people and the world can be immense.

For further information: here

ENN

New Zealand adjusts its CO2 trading program to address market distortions

2011-09-30T16:23:00.000+02:00

New Zealand is looking to exclude the use of U.N. offsets from industrial gas projects in its emissions trading scheme from as soon as 2012, as these offsets threaten to distort the market, the government said on Friday.

Climate change minister Nick Smith said he wanted to maintain the integrity of the emissions trading scheme, which is why the government is considering banning offsets from the potent greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) and nitrous oxide credits.
"The high value for destroying these gases creates perverse incentives in developing countries to manufacture more of them bringing into question the environmental gains," Smith said in a statement.
The New Zealand scheme allows polluters and traders to import U.N. offsets called Certified Emission Reductions from clean energy projects in poorer nations. The CERs can help polluters meet their emissions reduction obligations.
But about two-thirds of the nearly 745 million CERs issued to date have come from projects that destroy HFC-23 and nitrous oxide, leading to criticism that the owners of these projects, mainly in China and India, are enjoying massive windfall profits.
The European Union has already decided to exclude the units from 2013 and a similar ban is being looked at by Australia.
"The government is also very conscious of New Zealand being a small market and, if we are alone in accepting these units, our market may be flooded or it may limit our capacity to link with other schemes," Smith said.
He said consultation would be undertaken with interested parties before a decision is made. A decision would be made after the consultation period ends in a month's time.
New Zealand fears a price collapse of domestic carbon permits if cheaper CERs from industrial gas projects are allowed in and also questions if such offsets are rewarding genuine efforts to fight global warming.

For further information: here

ENN

L.A. Air Force Base Will Deploy 100% Electric Vehicle Fleet

2011-09-29T03:18:00.000+02:00

The U.S. Air Force recently announced that its Los Angeles base would be the first federal facility to replace 100 percent of its general purpose fleet with electric vehicles. This switch will mean all 40 vehicles owned or leased by the base, including passenger sedans, two-ton trucks and shuttle buses, will be replaced by fully-electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and extended-range electric alternatives. Force protection, tactical and emergency response vehicles will remain exempt for now.

Right now, the base, like the rest of the world, is working on getting a charging infrastructure in place to support these all-electric vehicles. Officials claim that the fleet could be deployed as early as January 2012.
"With gas prices rising and the cost of batteries falling, now is the time to move toward electric vehicles," said Undersecretary of the Air Force Erin Conaton. "The 100-percent Electric Vehicle Base initiative is a critical first step in this direction and will help guide the way for broader fleet electrification."

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World has 'enough water' for future food needs

2011-09-29T00:17:00.000+02:00

There is enough water in the world's rivers to meet the demands of the expanding global population, but the rivers have to be better managed, according to a series of studies released today at the 14th World Water Congress in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil.

The key problem for water use is not scarcity but inefficient use of supplies because of poor governance and regulation, concludes a special issue of the Water International coordinated by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF).
The global population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, and will need 70 per cent more food and about 50 per cent more electricity — of which hydropower is expected to supply about one third.
Some areas are experiencing water shortages already and there is concern over conflicts related to sharing of food and water resources.
"The failures are institutional and political," Simon Cook, leader of the CPWF Basin Focal Research Project, told SciDev.Net.
The studies analysed economic and demographic conditions; hydrology; agricultural systems and the influence of institutional factors on water availability and use in nine major river basins in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
They found that, in many areas, water production can be substantially increased without harming the environment. In Africa, for example, most cropland is rain-fed and only four per cent of available water is captured for crops and livestock.

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