We have seen it before, biodiversity is impressively rich in places where Mankind isn’t too much present. Indeed, the WWF wrote in December 2008 that the Greater Mekong is a biodiversity treasure. Now the organization notes : Over 350 new species including the world’s smallest deer, a “flying frog” and a 100 million-year old gecko […]
350 new species discovered in Eastern Himalayas Read More »
Science Magazine published an interesting article on how deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest provides only a temporary increase of living conditions to local populations. To the article: (…) on the basis of an assessment of 286 municipalities in different stages of deforestation, we found a boom-and-bust pattern in levels of human development across the
Local populations don’t profit from deforestation Read More »
Last week, Fortune Magazine published a most interesting article on the Chinese high speed rail project. By 2020 over 25,000 km (16,000 miles) of new tracks will be built for a cost of $300 billion (210 billion €). The People’s Republic government launches this huge project to answer to it’s citizens’ needs of alternative to
China’s huge high speed rail project Read More »
Urban sprawl poses many problems in terms of infrastructures to maintain, increased energy consumption and last but not least important health and environmental issues. With the economic downturn and high energy prices, people are sometimes returning to the urban cores. This leaves empty houses and even districts. In some cases these suburbs are litterally bulldozed
The end of urban sprawl ? Read More »
We have seen it previously, the Amazon Rainforest could become a desert because of deforestation and climate change. As I noted in May a three degrees Celsius increase would destroy it by up to 75 percent. But could global warming help the Sahara region becoming green again ? To National Geographic it could be the
Could the Sahara desert become green again ? Read More »
China has been asking developed countries to commit themselves to cut by 40 percent their greenhouse gases emissions by 2020 at the Copenhagen talks in December. We have seen previously that such targets are reachable. Meanwhile, the People’s Republic is increasingly working on slowing its own carbon emissions by using all means, from energy efficiency
China is getting ready for Copenhagen Read More »
According to a new study by Mc Kinsey, the USA could save up to $1.2 trillion (833 billion euros) by 2020 thanks to energy efficiency. Homes and businesses could cut by 28 percent their bills while industries could cut theirs by 20 percent. The more data I gather, the more I believe America could become
Energy efficiency could save America $1.2 trillion Read More »
Last week Jordan announced plans to build a nuclear reactor by 2013. Other are due to follow. This is done to answer the country’s energy needs which are due to double by 2030. This is a big issue as Jordan imports 95% of its energy. It is the opportunity to focus on an interesting article
Jordan, Chile and many others are going nuclear Read More »
This is that time of the month: the one for me to present my selection of the best pictures of the NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). As always, this month was packed with beautiful images. It was very difficult to select just ten. This month was special as on July 21st we were
Great astrophotographies – July 2009 Read More »
Since I don’t have much time to blog, I restrain myself to publishing here around 25 articles per month. However, many more great news are worth reading and blogging about. My goal being to provide you with the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector , I
Worth an article – my July 2009 tweets Read More »
