Category Archives: Announcements

Inspiration for Copenhagen

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Here are a couple of websites that were listed by Dana Roth and Fred Stoss on Chemical Information and Science & Technical Librarians listservs:

1. From Saturday’s International Day of Climate Action http://www.350.org/?p=4

2. Announcing two major photography exhibits, "Climate Change In Our World" and "How We Know About Our Changing Climate," which will premier in Washington DC just as the U.S. Senate begins debate on climate and energy legislation and a month before the international UNFCCC meetings in Copenhagen.
In an effort to educate and inspire about climate change and its solutions, Gary Braasch brings twenty 5-foot color photographs of climate change and its solutions today, to the Washington headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences — November 10 through March 15, 2010.
Accompanying this show of images from his book Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World is a teaching exhibit for kids and adults about how scientists learn about climate change, in association with Lynne Cherry. This show includes educational ideas for classrooms and Cherry’s films about kids who are reducing their climate impact in school and their communities.

Location: AAAS

For more information:

http://www.earthunderfire.com/pages/exhibit.html

Special Note: The "Young Voices" films also will be shown several times at events in Copenhagen.

NRC Report Examines Hidden Costs of Energy

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"October 19, 2009 — A new report from the National Research Council examines "hidden" costs of energy production and use — such as the the health impacts of air pollution — that are not reflected in market prices of coal or oil. The quantifiable damages alone were an estimated $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, a number that reflects primarily health damages caused by air pollution from electricity generation and motor vehicle transportation."

Source: National Academies Newsletter; WhatsNew@nationalacademies.org

Norman Borlaug, of the Green Revolution, has died

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Nobel Winner Norman Borlaug Dies At 95
Norman Borlaug, the U.S. agricultural scientist who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for developing high-yielding crops to prevent famine in the developing world, has died at age 95.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17778-norm-borlaug-the-man-who-fed-the-world.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture

Article from New Scientist online from 9/18/09. A shorter piece is available here:

The New Scientist, Volume 203, Issue 2726, 16 September 2009, Page 7

doi: 10.1016/S0262-4079(09)62442-8

Climate Change Conference, free online, Smithsonian Institution

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The Smithsonian Education Online Conference on Climate Change" is a 3-day, free, education online conference taking place, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2009.

Open to everyone, registration is here:

http://www.SmithsonianEducation.org/Climate

Sessions will be recorded for later viewing at the same site.

Climate change issues will be discussed from the aspects of science, history and art.

Source: Email from John Walber at LearningTimes.org.

World Library of Toxicology

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World Library of Toxicology Launched

World Library of ToxicologySeptember 9, 2009: Toxipedia.org, in partnership with the USA National Library of Medicine (NLM), the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX), and the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders (INND), announces the launch of the World Library of Toxicology, Chemical Safety, and Environmental Health, briefly referred to as the World Library of Toxicology (WLT) (http://www.wltox.org).

This free global Web portal provides the scientific community and public with links to major government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities, professional societies, and other groups addressing issues related to toxicology, public health, and environmental health.

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment is the source of the above text.

New Database on Pesticides, Food, and Health Risks

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New Database on Pesticides, Food, and Health Risks

From the RTKNet.org Web Site:

A new searchable database shows what pesticides are found on different foods, in what amount, and the health effects associated with exposure to each of the chemicals.

Access the Database

See Also: Where Does the Data Come From (Methodology)?

Source: Pesticide Action Network (via RTKNet.org)

Seconary source: Gary Price’s ResourceShelf Newsletter #420, Shirl Kennedy

Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE)

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Netherland OARE programme registers 1500 institutions in less than three years – 18 May 2009

Research4Life has announced that the Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) programme has registered 1500 institutions since its launch in 2006, an increase of nearly 700 percent. Scientists, researchers and environmental policy-makers in 1,500 not-for-profit institutions in the world’s poorest countries will now gain free or low cost access to the latest environmental science literature from the world’s leading journals, books and databases. Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA and OARE, the three public-private partnership programmes of the WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.

OARE’s sister programmes, HINARI Access to Research Initiative and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), have also shown significant growth. Established in 2002, registrations for HINARI have grown by 61 percent since 2006 so that researchers at 3,866 not-for-profit institutions in 108 countries now have access to over 6,300 medical and health journals. Registrations for AGORA (established in 2003) have increased by 77 percent since 2006, providing researchers at 1,760 developing world institutions with access to 1,276 food, agriculture, and related social sciences journals.

More than 150 publishers now participate in the programmes, including Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer and many university and society presses. Together with technology partner Microsoft, Research4Life seeks to help achieve the UN’s millennium development goals by providing the developing world with access to critical up-to-date scientific research.

Click here to read the original press release.

Environmental Resource — new website coming from Gale Pub.)

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“GREENR: Your Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources
GREENR (Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources) is part of a new generation of online Gale resources offering authoritative content on the environment, energy and natural resources. Launching in June 2009, GREENR focuses on the academic study of sustainability and the environment. Both interactive and current, GREENR allows users to navigate open Web-like issue, organization and country portals. A one-stop site, this resource provides news, background information, video, unique commentaries, primary source documents and statistics in highly accessible, visually-appealing research areas, covering relevant categories including energy systems, healthcare, food, climate change, population and economic development.

GREENR is coming in June!
Researchers: ask your librarian for more information.”

Some websites are listed here.

Incidentally, the federal government has some good websites relating to environmental issues: www.epa.gov,
www.nrel.gov,
www.usgs.gov,
www.energy.gov

Through GPOAccess, Environment links are here.

This page of environment, energy and agriculture information links for the public is obtained via USA.gov.

Sustainability, The Journal…freely available, April, 2009

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Sustainability, The Journal of Record Available Online in Celebration of Earth Day

New Rochelle, NY, April 16, 2009—In recognition of Earth Day 2009 activities, publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., will provide complimentary online access to the bimonthly journal, Sustainability: The Journal of Record for the remainder of the month of April. The purview of this journal supports the Earth Day mission “to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet.” Complimentary access is available online at www.liebertonline.com/sus

Source: Email ad from MaryAnn Liebert Publishers

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