 | Third-hand Tobacco Smoke Causes Cancer, Study Shows |
BERKELEY, California, February 9, 2010 (ENS) - That stale cigarette smoke smell in hotel rooms and bars is more than annoying - it could be hazardous to your health. Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens, new research shows.
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BONN, Germany, February 8, 2010 (ENS) - The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has received national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 from 55 countries, including China and the United States, that together account for 78 percent of global emissions from energy use. Severe floods, sea level rise, droughts and heat waves, disease migration and species extinctions are predicted if global warming is not quickly controlled.
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Europe Chooses New Logo to Identify Organic Foods |
BRUSSELS, Belgium, February 8, 2010 (ENS) - The European Union today unveiled the new logo that must be placed on all pre-packaged organic foods produced in Europe after July 1. The logo was chosen by an online vote. Over the past two months, about 130,000 people voted to choose the new organic symbol from among three finalists.
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Violence Escalates in Southern Ocean Whaling Battle |
SOUTHERN OCEAN, February 6, 2010 (ENS) - The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru 3 "intentionally rammed" its anti-whaling ship Bob Barker just after noon local time today, gashing its hull and endangering the lives of its crew. The Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, ICR, says the Bob Barker was the ship that did the ramming while the Yushin Maru 3 was trying to avoid a collison. >>more
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Fishing Industry Killing World's Toothed Whales, Dolphins |
BONN, Germany, February 5, 2010 (ENS) - The Baiji dolphin, which used to live in the Yangtze River, is probably extinct, and the Vaquita porpoise from the northern Gulf of California is facing the same fate. In fact, entanglement and death in gillnets, purse-seine nets, traps, weirs, longlines and trawls threatens 86 percent of all toothed whale species, concludes a new United Nations report released today. >>more
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Bees Can Learn to Recognize Human Faces |
CLAYTON, Victoria, Australia, February 5, 2010 (ENS) - Discoveries by bee researchers from Australia and France could lead to improved artificial intelligence systems and computer programs for facial recognition, the scientists said. "What we have shown is that the bee brain, which contains less than one million neurons, is actually very good at learning to master complex tasks," said Dr. Adrian Dyer of Monash University. >>more
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Obama Advances Biofuels as U.S. Misses Production Targets |
WASHINGTON, DC, February 4, 2010 (ENS) - President Barack Obama has moved to increase America's renewable fuels production, turn biomass into bioenergy, and capture and store the greenhouse gases produced by coal-burning power plants. At the same time, the administration released the first report of the Biofuels Interagency Working Group showing the country is falling short of Congressionally mandated biofuel production targets. >>more
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Winning Battles But Losing the War on Invasive Alien Species |
GLAND, Switzerland, February 4, 2010 (ENS) - Invasive alien species are one of the top three threats to the biodiversity of life on Earth, according to the first global assessment report on this neglected problem. Invasives can be rats, mice, foxes, goats, toads, fish, ants, plants or micro-organisms, to list a few. Spread around the planet by travel, trade, and tourism, these invaders are jeopardizing global biodiversity. >>more |
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