Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
The report conducts a comparative study of potential national governance structures for REDD+. The role of such structures will be to channel resources from the international level to measures on the ground that have the capacity to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. As REDD+ is still mainly on the drawing table, the analysis is based
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
The 8.9-magnitude earthquake which triggered a massive tsunami and devastated coastal region of Japan was so powerful that it shifted the ocean floor sideways by 79 feet, scientists have claimed. The immense amount of seismic stress that remain there following the March 11 earthquake has also put the region at risk of further powerful earthquakes, the
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Swedish-based Lundin Petroleum is confident of success in the Skalle project, the company’s first exploration drilling in the Barents Sea. The company this week announced that exploration drilling has started at the Skalle prospect in the Barents Sea. The planned total depth is 2,650 meters below mean seal level and the well will be drilled
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Brazil is currently preparing to host three major events that will focus the world’s attention on the country’s cities: the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in May 2012, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. While these events represent numerous opportunities for Brazil’s cities, they are also economic gambles. These short
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
China has finally conceded that there are massive problems with the colossal Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric project. The ruling state council has issued a statement acknowledging serious flaws in the dam across the Yangtze River, as the rate of water release was increased to ease a severe drought devastating downstream rice-growing areas. Environmentalists
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
The world’s first floating natural gas platform is to be built by Royal Dutch Shell, opening up vast new areas of the deep seabed for gas exploration. The massive platform, nearly half a kilometre long, will be the biggest floating offshore drilling structure in the world, weighing in at about 600,000 tonnes – equivalent to six aircraft
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
The abundant natural resources including minerals of the North Western Province have been known about for a longtime since George Gray founded Kansanshi Mine in 1891. The discovery of copper at Lumwana by Rio Tinto and RST in 1961 failed to materialise into viable mining projects because of the absence of regional infrastructure. It has always been
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
This paper illustrates and discusses the key issues of the geographical information system (GIS) developed by the Unit of Veterinary Epidemiology of the Veneto region (CREV), defined according to user needs, spatial data (availability, accessibility and applicability), development, technical aspects, inter-institutional relationships, constraints and policies. GeoCREV, the support system for decision-making, was designed to integrate geographic
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
Forty-two departments, nine more than Wednesday, are now affected by measures limiting certain uses of water, according to the updated review Saturday, May 21 by the Department of Ecology. The strongest measures, which were focused on twenty departments earlier this week, are for more than 15 departments, including those of the Poitou-Charentes, Dordogne, Lot and
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
According to a team of NASA and Russian space and physical scientists, in the days before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, the atmosphere directly above the epicenter rapidly heated up. In a presentation at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the researchers presented data indicating that starting on March 3, the
