WASHINGTON -- A year after a 30-foot tsunami ravaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, some scientists say regulators underestimate the threat that climate change poses to nuclear power plants in the U.S.
Twenty years after the first United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 it is clear that governments have failed to implement development models that are socially just and environmentally sustainable. It is in the context of revision of the of sustainable development framework that Rio+20 will take place.
The world can no longer afford to ignore the environmental cost of economic growth and must redefine the very concept of national wealth, a UN panel of heads of state and environment ministers said earlier this week.
This year's winner of the Gothenburg Prize, an environmental award that draws attention to efforts to promote sustainable development, are the United Nations former Secretary General Kofi Annan and researcher Sue Edwards.
Climate change may be wielding its heavy hand of influence over the Great Lakes. According to a report from the American Meteorological Society, Great Lakes ice coverage has decreased by an average of 71 percent over the past 40 years. The study, entitled “Temporal and Spatial Variability of Great Lakes Ice Cover, 1973–2010,” used historical satellite measurement from 1973 to 2010 to measure the temporal and spatial variability of ice cover in the Great Lakes.
The prevalence of games in our culture provides an opportunity to increase the understanding of our global challenges. There are a growing number of games that aim to make a difference. These games range from those that show players the complexity of creating adequate aid packages and delivering them to places in need to games that require people to get out and work to improve their communities to do well in the game. Looking at the climate change challenge there are a number of games and interactive tools to broaden our understanding of the dynamics involved.
The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows. The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
Brazil today will auction rights to operate three of its busiest airports in a deal worth 16 billion reais ($9 billion) in investments that tests the government’s ability to attract private capital ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
The Department of State, in close collaboration with the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, will hold a three day conference, Rio+2.0: Bridging Connection Technologies and Sustainable Development, at Stanford, February 2-4, 2012. This unique gathering of more than 400 global policymakers, development practitioners and technology innovators will be the principal U.S. Government event to prepare for the June United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20.