The agreement reached yesterday by representatives of the Council and the European Parliament retains the key aspects of the Commission proposal presented in 2008. The recast proposal aims at extending the scope and strengthening the current Directive by setting a legal framework to upgrade the national building codes and by launching an ambitious policy of nearly zero energy buildings, so that all new buildings will be nearly zero energy as of 2020. As for existing buildings, Member States will also draw up national plans to increase the number of nearly zero energy buildings. Moreover, the recast Directive also improves the information provided to consumers in the buildings energy performance certificate. Not only the energy performance certificate shall be shown to the prospective new tenant or buyer of the building, but the energy performance indicator of the building shall be stated in the sale or rental advertisements. Buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of EU CO2 emissions. It is estimated that, by strengthening the provisions of the Directive on energy performance, the EU could achieve a reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 70% of the current EU Kyoto target. In addition to this, these improvements could save citizens around 300€ per annum per household in their energy bills, while boosting the construction and building renovation industry in Europe.
Moreover, the recast Directive also improves the information provided to consumers in the buildings energy performance certificate. Not only the energy performance certificate shall be shown to the prospective new tenant or buyer of the building, but the energy performance indicator of the building shall be stated in the sale or rental advertisements.
Buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of EU CO2 emissions. It is estimated that, by strengthening the provisions of the Directive on energy performance, the EU could achieve a reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 70% of the current EU Kyoto target. In addition to this, these improvements could save citizens around 300€ per annum per household in their energy bills, while boosting the construction and building renovation industry in Europe.
Pfizer and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative announced the collaboration Wednesday. The DNDi scientists will screen Pfizer drug candidates to see if they are effective against sleeping sickness -- also called human African trypanosomiasis -- visceral leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease.
GREAT FIREBALL: A remarkable midnight fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was not a Leonid. Infrasound measurements suggest a sporadic asteroid not associated with the Leonid debris stream. The space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equivalent to 0.5 - 1 kilotons of TNT. Approximately 6 hours later, observers in Utah and Colorado witnessed a twisting iridescent-blue cloud in the dawn sky. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by that time, but the cloud remains unexplained;
A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky: This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.
A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:
This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.
Bold mine. Click the link for video - can't seem to embed it.
wow, daytime. "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
By the way, am I the only person here who'd like to see a live nuclear surface test, standing a few (or a lot of) kilometres away (depending on the yield)? Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
With all but one of the G-8 leaders having failed to attend and no new financial commitments to ending hunger, the summit in Rome has left many wondering what purpose it served. The United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome had all the signs and trappings of a world-class summit: helicopters buzzing overhead for days, whole city blocks roped off to traffic, hundreds of police on guard, and crowds of well-heeled officials from around the globe. Inside the huge, modern, monolithic Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters, just across the street from the ancient Roman Circus Maximus, leaders and diplomats from around the globe spoke one after another of the tragedy of hunger, which now affects over a billion people, more than ever before. Yet despite pleas for action from everyone from Pope Benedict XVI to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, no new commitments have come - neither for more money to bolster agriculture in developing nations, nor to the UN's proposed date of 2025 as the target for ridding the world of malnutrition. Instead, in a watered down statement, already released on the first day of the summit, nations pledged to try to cut world hunger in half by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come "at the earliest possible date."
The United Nations World Summit on Food Security in Rome had all the signs and trappings of a world-class summit: helicopters buzzing overhead for days, whole city blocks roped off to traffic, hundreds of police on guard, and crowds of well-heeled officials from around the globe.
Inside the huge, modern, monolithic Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters, just across the street from the ancient Roman Circus Maximus, leaders and diplomats from around the globe spoke one after another of the tragedy of hunger, which now affects over a billion people, more than ever before.
Yet despite pleas for action from everyone from Pope Benedict XVI to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, no new commitments have come - neither for more money to bolster agriculture in developing nations, nor to the UN's proposed date of 2025 as the target for ridding the world of malnutrition. Instead, in a watered down statement, already released on the first day of the summit, nations pledged to try to cut world hunger in half by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come "at the earliest possible date."
This kind of problem cannot be eradicated except by changing those political and economic systems. Recent experience shows that this cannot be done from the outside.
The Earth's oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels began soaring in the 1950s, and oceans largely kept up, scientists say. But the growth in the intake rate has slowed since the 1980s, and markedly so since 2000, the authors of a study write in a report in Thursday's issue of Nature. The research suggests that the seas cannot indefinitely be considered a reliable "carbon sink" as humans generate heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. The slowdown in the rise of the absorption rate resulted from a gradual change in the oceans' chemistry, the study found. "The more carbon dioxide the ocean absorbs, the more acidic it becomes and the less carbon dioxide it can absorb," said the study's lead author, Samar Khatiwala, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels began soaring in the 1950s, and oceans largely kept up, scientists say. But the growth in the intake rate has slowed since the 1980s, and markedly so since 2000, the authors of a study write in a report in Thursday's issue of Nature.
The research suggests that the seas cannot indefinitely be considered a reliable "carbon sink" as humans generate heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.
The slowdown in the rise of the absorption rate resulted from a gradual change in the oceans' chemistry, the study found. "The more carbon dioxide the ocean absorbs, the more acidic it becomes and the less carbon dioxide it can absorb," said the study's lead author, Samar Khatiwala, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Energy-efficient light bulbs lose on average 22% of their brightness over their lifetime, a study has found.In some cases they emit just 60% as much light as traditional models which are being phased out of shops, it says. The study in Engineering and Technology magazine concluded that consumers were being misled by the bulbs' packaging. Of the 18 energy-saving bulbs tested over 10,000 hours by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, three stopped altogether.
Energy-efficient light bulbs lose on average 22% of their brightness over their lifetime, a study has found.
In some cases they emit just 60% as much light as traditional models which are being phased out of shops, it says.
The study in Engineering and Technology magazine concluded that consumers were being misled by the bulbs' packaging.
Of the 18 energy-saving bulbs tested over 10,000 hours by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, three stopped altogether.
