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U.S. Department of State - The Shape of a New International Climate Agreement

Wed, 2013-10-23 23:36 — Kathy Gilbeaux

state.gov

Remarks - Todd D. Stern
Special Envoy for Climate Change 
Chatham House
London, United Kingdom
October 22, 2013

Thanks so much. I’m very glad to be here at this distinguished venue. I appreciate the invitation.

Today, I want to talk about the promise and challenge of developing an ambitious, durable, new international climate agreement.

We are, of course, well past the time of doubting that our climate is changing, that it is changing rapidly, and that the pace of change is accelerating. We can see that climate impacts are already large, are very likely to increase significantly, and have the potential to be fundamentally disruptive to our world and the world of our children and grandchildren.

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Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Spreads to Europe

Mon, 2013-10-21 23:50 — Gina Angiola

Jamie Henn, Huff Post - Green, October 17,2013

The fast growing fossil fuel divestment campaign is headed to Europe.

This Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and allies like Greenpeace International's executive director Kumi Naidoo will lead a speaking tour to five cities in Europe to help spark a continent-wide divestment effort.

The tour is modeled on 2012's successful "Do The Math" tour which sold out venues in 21 cities across the United States and jumpstarted the fossil fuel divestment movement that has now spread to over 300 colleges and universities, 100 cities and states, and dozens of religious institutions across America.

Last June, 350.org replicated the tour in Australia and New Zealand (where they called it "Do the Maths"), helping launch a divestment campaign down-under. The tour there was equally successful, garnering national media attention and quickly scoring a few early victories, with a number of large churches committing to divestment and the New Zealand Greens adopting the goal.

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Superheroes of the Solar Fields

Sun, 2013-10-20 20:33 — Maeryn Obley


bloomberg.com - October 14th, 2013

Solar is a $140 billion dollar industry. Qbotix, a Silicon Valley robotics firm, wants a piece of the pie. Their "SolBots," each sporting a superhero name, move through the solar fields adjusting panels once every 45 minutes maximizing the efficiency of the sun and increasing the value for the owner. Bloomberg Television's Rachel Crane reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

(VIEW ARTICLE)

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New Introductory Guide on Big Data for Development

Sun, 2013-10-20 20:24 — Maeryn Obley

Three opportunities for global development presented by Big Data

Image: Three opportunities for global development presented by Big Data

unglobalpulse.org - July 16th, 2013 - Anoush Rima Tatevossian

Thanks to attention in the mainstream media, the phrase “big data” is becoming more well known, and is beginning to be discussed more frequently among development practitioners and decision-makers. A steady stream of papers are being published, panel discussions and conferences being hosted. Even the recent High Level Panel report on the Post-2015 development agenda notes the need for better integrating and using “new sources of data” to be a priority.

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Three Mile Island Veteran Optimistic on Fukushima Fuel Removal

Sun, 2013-10-20 15:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato, in the orange helmet, inspects the contaminated water tanks at Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture on Oct. 15, 2013. Photograph: JIJI Press-Pool/AFP via Getty Images

bloomberg.com - by Jacob Adelman - October 17, 2013

The first removal of nuclear fuel rods next month from the stricken Fukushima atomic station should be successful based on findings that the rods -- each about twice the average weight of a sumo wrestler -- appear undamaged from an explosion at the site almost three years ago.

That’s the view of Lake Barrett, a former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission official appointed last month as an adviser to Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), the operator of the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

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Cyclone Phailin (India) - Crisis Maps and Resources

Mon, 2013-10-14 21:47 — Kathy Gilbeaux
http://google.org/crisismap/2013-phailin http://google.org/crisismap/a/gmail.com/2013-phailin-cyclone

The Crisis Respone Google website has created crowd-sourced maps of volunteers offering shelter in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Clicking on the shelter or red cross gives more details about the shelter and hospital in the area. The maps are also highlighting the intensity of the cyclone at different spots. All the data shown on the map is crowdsourced from publicly visible webpages of news websites, forums, social media, blogs, Wikipedia and government sites.

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Situation Report

France Cements Fracking Ban

Mon, 2013-10-14 18:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Anti-fracking protesters in La Petite Brosse, outside Paris. Photograph: Pierre Andrieu/AFP/Getty Images

A law prohibiting fracking for shale gas has been upheld by France's constitutional court, citing environmental protection

theguardian.com - October 11, 2013

France's constitutional court has upheld a ban on hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the law against the energy exploration technique known as "fracking" is a valid means of protecting the environment.

The court in Paris said on its website on Friday that the 2011 law "conforms to the constitution" and is not "disproportionate".

France banned fracking in 2011 and cancelled exploration licences held by companies including Schuepbach and Total SA, the country's biggest oil company, after protests by environmental groups.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Resilience thinking in health protection

Fri, 2013-09-27 01:20 — Elhadj Drame

Many may be struggling to a clear understanding of the real meaning of "resilience". According to this article, the term really expanded in this post 9/11, tsunami and hurricane katrina era to acquire new meanings. This article contains detailed description about how the term "resilience" becomes widely used to describe how people, communities, nations strive to minimize impact of natural and manmade desasters. Click here to read the article.

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Four Cities in Vietnam Participating in the First Round of 100 Resilient Cities Challenge

Tue, 2013-09-24 00:28 — Kathy Gilbeaux

On Sep 23, 2013, at 4:43 AM, Nguyen Ninh <REDACTED> wrote:

Dear Mike and Janis,

For your information, Da Lat City has been registered online for 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge.
So we have now four cities of Vietnam to be participated in the first round of 100 Resilient Cities Program as follows:
1. Rach Gia City - Phu Quoc Island
2. Ha Long City - Van Don Island
3. Da Lat City
4. Thai Nguyen City

. . . <REDACTED> . . .

Best regards,

Ninh

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ST Vuong <REDACTED>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 2:58 PM
Subject: Fwd: Your registration for 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge
To: Nguyen Ninh <REDACTED>
Cc: Nguyen Hoang Long <REDACTED>, "Nguyen Tuan, Anh" <REDACTED>, Hùng Nguyễn Mạnh <REDACTED>

Dear a Ninh;

I have registered to receive the formal application for this
project for the city of Dalat.
Kind regards,

VTS

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Smartphone attachment detects viruses and bacteria

Mon, 2013-09-23 18:10 — gl

theengineer.co.uk - The Engineer - September 18, 2013

Researchers at UCLA have developed a portable smartphone attachment that can be used to perform field testing to detect viruses and bacteria.

This cellphone-based imaging platform could be used for specific and sensitive detection of sub-wavelength objects, including bacteria and viruses and therefore could enable the practice of nanotechnology and biomedical testing in field settings and even in remote and resource-limited environments,’ Aydogan Ozcan, professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, said in a statement.

Using this device, which attaches directly to the camera module on a smartphone, Ozcan’s team was able to detect single human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) particles.

- Read Full Article -

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