TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Zimbabwe's rhinos face poaching crisis More than 80 critically endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) have been poached for their horns in Zimbabwe in the past 12 months, double the number killed in the previous year, a situation that the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) has now decided to disucss at its next meeting. Rhino horns are highly valued in Asian traditional medicine, and are used to make ceremonial dagger handles in the Middle East. Zimbabwe's poor economy and years of political upheaval make poaching a very lucrative, and easy, operation. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Diesel Trucks and Buses Get Cleaner Manufacturers of heavy-duty diesel engines have slashed emissions from new engines by more than 90 percent for most pollutants, according to a study released yesterday. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Handouts for Hummers runs out of bucks Cash for Clunkers, the program that Sen. Diane Feinstein has pejoratively referred to as “Handouts for Hummers,” has likely blown through its $1 billion budget in its first official week. The funds, which provided $3,500 or more for Americans trading in old cars that got less than 18 miles per gallon for new ones with better gas mileage, were expected to last until NovemberThursday night, White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs said the program had not been suspended, but the government was working “to assess the situation...auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that all valid...transactions that have taken place to date will be honored.” [More] rss.sciam.com |
Better Materials Could Build a Green Construction Industry The construction industry consumes truckloads of basic materials, the manufacture of which consumes massive quantities of energy, producing prodigious emissions of greenhouse gases. If materials scientists and entrepreneurs can devise materials that can be fabricated with less energy, climate change could be slowed and many new manufacturing jobs could be created, fulfilling a much-anticipated promise of clean-tech innovation. [More] rss.sciam.com |
One-Quarter of World's Population Lacks Electricity Some 130 years since Thomas Edison's breakthrough with artificial light, nearly a quarter of humanity still lacks electricity, a fact officials here want delegates to the upcoming U.N. climate talks to consider.Vast swaths of the world also have no access to modern fuels like natural gas, kerosene or propane, relying instead on wood or charcoal as principal sources of energy. Switching to energy sources that are more efficient and less detrimental to human health is a prerequisite for raising billions out of poverty as nations promised to do, U.N. officials point out. [More] rss.sciam.com |