World Malaria Day: UN seeks near zero preventable deaths
New York, Apr 26 (IBNS): The tide has turned on malaria, with mortality rates for children in Africa down by half, but a stronger surveillance system is urgently needed to prevent new outbreaks and resurgences, United Nations officials on Friday warned, marking the sixth annual World Malaria Day.
UN summit commits to improve ocean health
New York, Apr 26 (IBNS): A United Nations-backed summit wrapped up in the Netherlands on Friday with a set of concrete actions to turn around the health of the world's oceans and food security for millions by tackling key threats such as climate change, overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.
Forensics uncover planetary disks in NASA archive
Washington, Apr 26 (IBNS) Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have applied a new image processing technique to obtain near-infrared scattered light photos of five disks observed around young stars in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes database.
NASA telescopes find close, cold neighbor of Sun
Washington, Apr 26 (IBNS) NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest "brown dwarf" known -- a dim, star-like body that, surprisingly, is as frosty as Earth's North Pole.
American Center celebrates Earth Day
Kolkata, Apr 24 (IBNS): The American Center, Kolkata, in collaboration with the Earth Day Network and Banglanatak.com, on Tuesday celebrated the Earth Day with 80 Kolkata school children.
NASA satellites show drought may take toll on Congo rainforest
Washington, Apr 24 (IBNS) A new analysis of NASA satellite data shows Africa's Congo rainforest, the second-largest tropical rainforest in the world, has undergone a large-scale decline in greenness over the past decade.
UN seeks sustainable food systems to adapt climate change
New York, Apr 24 (IBNS): Countries need to shift to more sustainable food systems to adapt to the effects of climate change, the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Drug Organization (FAO) Jose Graziano da Silva told a conference in Morocco on Wednesday, warning that the phenomenon has the potential to reshape the planet's food production scenario.
UN marks Mother Earth Day, urges protection of planet
New York, Apr 23 (IBNS): On International Mother Earth Day, the United Nations urged greater efforts to promote sustainable development and use of renewable energy sources, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealing for worldwide changes in attitude and practice to curb the negative impact of human activity on the planet.
UN urges coordinated action on food security
New York, Apr 23 (IBNS): Overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution are atop the agenda of a United Nations-backed summit on the role of oceans in global food security, livelihoods and economic development which opened on Tuesday in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Ford to increase green content in manufacturing
New Delhi, Apr 21 (IBNS): Ford on Monday announced that its emphasis on environmentally sound manufacturing began at its manufacturing facilities.
4.5 lakh child labours in e-waste activities: Study
New Delhi, Apr 21 (IBNS) In India, about 4.5 lakhs child labours between the age group of 10-14 are observed to be engaged in various e-waste (electronic waste) activities, without adequate protection and safeguards in various yards and recycling workshops, according to the ASSOCHAM recent study on ‘Earth Day’, to be observed on Tuesday.
NASA discovers Earth-size planet in 'habitable zone'
Washington, Apr 18 (IBNS) Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.
Greenpeace demands cancellation of Mahan forest clearance
New Delhi, Apr 16 (IBNS): With another multi-crore scam tainting the UPA government, fresh evidence has surfaced on Wednesday exposing how Environment and Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily favoured Essar by gifting it Rs 52,000-crore worth Ratna oil field, off the Mumbai coast1, Greenpeace said.
Toxic waste spill at Essar's Power Plant in Singrauli
Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, Apr 15 (IBNS): In yet another stark example of massive negligence, the mud wall that lined the fly ash dyke of Essar Energy's Mahan-I (600MW) thermal power plant in Singrauli collapsed leading to fly ash-laden water seeping into Khairahi village, the Greenpeace said on Tuesday.
Ban welcomes report on mitigation of climate change
New York, Apr 14 (IBNS): United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the findings of a long-awaited United Nations report on the mitigation of climate change released earlier on Sunday in Berlin and urged all countries "to act swiftly and boldly" to reach a "global, ambitious and legal [climate] agreement in 2015."