Wednesday, April 09, 2008

ENN: World Food Shortage, Solar Cell Technology, Global Poverty and Much More


ENN: Environmental News Network [[ ENN Daily Newsletter - Wednesday, April 9, 2008 ]]
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
News of Note
World food shortages to stay, riots a risk: FAO

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Food riots which have struck several impoverished countries could spread with shortages and high prices set to continue for some time, the head of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

Top Stories

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has seriously underestimated the technological advances needed to stem carbon dioxide emissions, say Roger Pielke Jr, Tom Wigley and Christopher Green in Nature. They describe the IPCC's assumption that the majority of future emission reductions will occur spontaneously, in the absence of climate policies, as "optimistic at best and unachievable at worst".

Ever feel like everything you learned in college amounted to a pile of trash? Now, how about if that were a positive? In a piece that ran in the New York Times last week, Edward Rothstein turns a cultural critic's eye on garbage in the modern age, referencing an NYU course offered last fall on creating a museum for the Department of Sanitation (from the syllabus: "What is the cognitive, practical, and cultural role of garbage in contemporary life?") while making some wry observations about how and why we've come full-circle to embrace our refuse.

Well eco fashionistas of the world, it's true-eco-friendly high heels are still few and far between. Greenloop has pulled together the most gorgeous high heels for Spring…we wish there could be more, but I guess we'll have to wait for Spring '09 for the green wave to take over the women's shoe industry.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a voluntary recall of 144,000 StyleMark children's sunglasses because they contained excessive levels of lead. The affected glasses have Main Street Drag characters on one lens, and style number DI25K7116 printed on the left temple. They have been sold at drug stores including Payless, Walgreen's, Academy Sports, and CVS since October 2007.

ENN Spotlight

Yes, they are at it again. The car companies and car dealers are once again trying to kneecap California and other states by taking away their rights to set better global warming emission standards for motor vehicles.

More Top Stories

Lloyd's List, April 9, 2008 Wednesday - THE NORWEGIAN government's industrial strategy published last October has taken a fundamentally 'green' stanceon all five of the main challenges itsays face the maritime sector, writes Jerry Frank. Although the task of creating an environmentally sustainable maritime industry is just one of the hurdles that the ministry has set, the other four 'challenges' set by the coalition are all underpinned by a deep green agenda.

1366 Technologies, a new MIT start-up aiming to make silicon solar cells competitive with coal, today announced it has secured $12,4 million in a first round of financing co-led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. MIT Professor, 1366 founder and CTO, Ely Sachs, noted that 1366 Technologies will be combining innovations in silicon cell architecture with manufacturing process improvements to bring multi-crystalline silicon solar cells to cost parity with coal-based electricity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The world is on course to halve extreme poverty by 2015, but Africa will fall far short of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. A new report by the global institutions also warned that urgent action was needed to tackle climate change, which threatens to exact a hefty toll on particularly poor countries and reverse progress in fighting poverty.

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Member Press Releases
By: Center for Biological Diversity
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Bush administration Tuesday took the first step toward opening up 5.6 million acres in the Bering Sea to oil and gas leasing. The proposal, published in Tuesday's Federal Register by the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service, would allow oil development in an area north of the Aleutian Islands near Bristol Bay that has been designated critical habitat for the North Pacific right whale. By: Environmental Law Institute
(Washington) A report released this week, Improving Economic Health and Competitiveness through Tax Sharing, assesses the experience of local governments with schemes that share portions of tax revenues in order to get better development results and avoid sprawl. By: The Environmental Law Institute
(Washington) The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) announces the publication of State Wetland Protection: Status, Trends & Model Approaches. This report examines state-level efforts to protect wetland resources. By: National Wildlife Federation
Take the time to connect with nature and enjoy wildlife in your community this spring by participating in the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Wildlife Watch, part of the National Wildlife Week celebration from April 19-27. By: Redefining Progress
Oakland, Calif. April 8, 2008 – Today, Oakland-based Redefining Progress will launch a much anticipated new version of what Time magazine dubbed as one of the 50 best websites of 2007—the Ecological Footprint Quiz found at myfootprint.org. By: Center for Biological Diversity
A federal judge Friday issued a restraining order against VANE Minerals and the Kaibab National Forest pending further proceedings, halting uranium exploration on public lands within a few miles of Grand Canyon National Park. By: Institute for Energy & the Environment / WERC
The highly competitive event features 33 teams from 23 universities including 190 participants from around the United States, Bogazici University in Turkey, the Universities of Manitoba, and Waterloo in Canada, and a team from Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico. Also featured will be a final showcase of National Science Foundation projects undertaken in partnership with three universities in Mexico and two in New Mexico. By: The Trust for Public Land
Banana Republic is pleased to announce its participation in Earth Week. From April 22nd thru April 27th, one percent of all in-store and online sales, up to $100,000, will be donated to The Trust for Public Land nonprofit organization to support their efforts in preserving urban spaces.

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