Environment News Service

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The Most Potent Unknown Greenhouse Gas Revealed

SAN DIEGO, California, October 24, 2008 (ENS) – A gas used in manufacture of flat panel televisions, computer displays, microcircuits, and thin-film solar panels is 17,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and it is far more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated. Nitrogen trifluoride, NF3, is at least four times more widespread than scientists had believed, according to new research by a team at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.


New Treaty Aims to Protect Shared Transboundary Aquifers

PARIS, France, October 23, 2008 (ENS) – Underground aquifers contain 100 times the volume of fresh water found on the Earth’s surface but they have been neglected under international law despite their environmental, social, economic and strategic importance. On Monday, that will change as the UN General Assembly receives the draft of a new international treaty to safeguard these enormous pools of underground water shared by more than one country.

eBay Bans Ivory Trading to Protect Endangered Elephants

SAN JOSE, California, October 22, 2008 (ENS) – The top online auction site, eBay, has announced that it will no longer allow the trading of ivory on its websites as of January 1, 2009. eBay’s new policy was announced just hours before the release of the latest investigative report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare showing Internet trade in wildlife poses an immediate threat to the survival of elephants and other endangered species.

Vaccines of the Future Could be Delivered by Mosquitoes

BANGKOK, Thailand, October 22, 2008 (ENS) – Hiroyuki Matsuoka at Jichi Medical University in Japan thinks it may be possible to turn mosquitoes that normally transmit disease into “flying syringes,” so that when they bite humans they deliver vaccines. He is one of the 104 grantees announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the first round of funding from Grand Challenges Explorations.

Canada to Ban Bisphenol A in Baby Bottles, U.S. Urged to Follow

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, October 21, 2008 (ENS) – The Government of Canada led by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, newly re-elected last week, will immediately draft the world’s first regulations to prohibit the importation, sale and advertising of plastic baby bottles that contain the chemical bisphenol A. The government also will take action to limit the amount of bisphenol A that is being released into the environment.
October 24, 2008
Houston Retrofits City Buildings to Save Energy, Protect Climate

Mirrors Up at New California Solar Thermal Power Plant

Sediment Removal Completes Miami River Water Upgrade

Geothermal Development Planned for Western Public Lands

EPA Sued for Allowing Haze to Obscure National Parks

Three New Guides Make Sushi Selection More Sustainable

Railside Waste Transfer Brought Under State and Local Rules