Global Issues News Headlines for “Environmental Issues”

Climate Change: Health at Risk

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

The impacts of climate change on human health will require new approaches to development, based on mitigation and adaptation programmes in line with policies that ensure equal access to health care.

Climate Change: The Danish Example

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

Whether a new internationally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and forestall climate change will be signed next month remains to be seen. What is clear though, is that if there is a place in the world that deserves to be the stage where this treaty ought to be signed, it is the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Climate Change-Mexico: A Policy of Pretence

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

Although it is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Brazil, and will be hosting next year's United Nations climate meeting, Mexico is heading to the Cophenhagen summit practically empty-handed.

Biodiversity: Plants Finally Get DNA Barcodes

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

Advances made in genetic profiling could be used to fight illegal timber trading, provide authentication of herbal medicines and map entire food chains, according to experts at a conference of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

Cambodia: Once ‘Extinct’ Crocodile Claws Its Way Back to Survival

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

Siamese crocodiles once ranged far and wide across South-east Asia, from Indonesia to Vietnam, Laos to Thailand. But habitat loss and poaching virtually wiped out the three-metre long animals. Twenty years ago they were classified as effectively extinct in the wild.

Climate Change-Thailand: Bangkok: A Future Filled with Floods

2009-11-20T00:00:00-08:00

Thailand’s capital, dubbed the ‘City of Angels’ and the ‘Venice of the East’, is threatened by long-term flood inundation as rising sea waters triggered by global weather change and monsoonal rains combine.

Energy-Tanzania: Charcoal A Dirty Trade-Off

2009-11-19T00:00:00-08:00

The sun is setting slowly over Dar es Salaam's Tabata Changombe neighbourhood. Ameenah and Skukulu Juma lean against the corrugated iron walls of their makeshift charcoal shop.

Environment: Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise

2009-11-19T00:00:00-08:00

Future firefighters have their work cut out for them. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures set the stage for the worst wildfire in the country's history.

Energy: Clean, Green Goo to Power Engines

2009-11-19T00:00:00-08:00

Stephen Mayfield, the recently appointed director of the University of California at San Diego's Algae Biotechnology lab, is taking on a Texas-sized challenge - giving birth to a nascent alternative energy industry.

Environment: Listen to the Earth, Say Indigenous Peoples

2009-11-19T00:00:00-08:00

The idea of wilderness is 'an interesting concept; it is a Western concept. Our people have always lived and interacted in the environment,' said Illion Merculieff, an environmental activist from the Aleut community in the north-western U.S. state of Alaska.