The market triumph of ecotourism?
Lake in Tambopata region As Editor of CABI's Leisure Tourism Database, I get to keep up to date with news and research in the leisure and tourism industry. It's always of interest to follow developments in places I've been to, so my attention was grabbed last week by an email from the University of East…
Solving the UK’s future energy needs with organic waste
Recently, the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) sent a letter to the Climate Minister Chris Huhne, in reply to Huhne's earlier letter requesting update on the level of the UK renewable energy ambition to 2020. In the reply letter the CCC suggested that one of the country’s renewable energy targets (to obtain 10% of…
On your bike?
One of my colleagues is sitting at her desk with a bag full of bars of Fairtrade chocolate today. No, she's not suddenly acquired an overwhelming chocolate craving. It's all part of 'Green Travel to Work Day', in which local businesses around Wallingford, where CABI has it's headquarters, are encouraging their employees to find environmentally…
World Tourism Day – Tourism and Biodiversity
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. In keeping with this global initiative, this years World Tourism Day (held every year on 27 September) has the theme "Tourism and Biodiversity". The official World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) celebrations were held in Guangzhou, China, bringing together government representatives, biodiversity researchers and private industry representatives. Many countries have…
How the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest – the purest air on Earth – can help to cool the planet
Scientists from Harvard and São Paulo University (USP) carried out a research to try and find out how the planet’s climate was before the industrial revolution. For this they were searching for the purest air in the planet and found it in the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest. The study is crucial to understand cloud…
Millennium Development Goals – where next?
This week the UN debated the progress made on the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These goals, agreed by 189 countries set out targets for achievement in hunger, poverty, education, health, sanitation and equality that have channelled development efforts in the last 10 years. They are much criticised but represent an unprecedented international agreement on what…
Wild chimps outwit bushmeat hunters
Across Africa, people often lay snare traps to catch bushmeat, killing or injuring chimps and other wildlife. But a few chimps living in the rainforests of Guinea have learnt to recognise these snare traps laid by human hunters. More surprisingly, the chimps actively seek out and intentionally deactivate the traps, setting them off without being…
Helping yourself (GlobalHealthTrials.org)
In 2004, a couple of years after I started work for CABI, I heard a talk by Paul Chinnock, then part of the Cochrane Collaboration, (conduct systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare) and now editor of Tropika.net. Essentially this talk outlined the need for evidence-based interventions for developing countries: amongst other suggestions, it called…
The risks and benefits of neutering pets: what is the evidence?
Veterinarians and animal health organizations usually recommend that owners should have their cats and dogs neuter. But what is the evidence that this is a benefit to the owner, the animal and society? Having pets It is estimated that in the USA there are 30-40 million stray or feral dogs and cats roaming the…
Climate change for football fans!
If you’re a football enthusiast and want to know the facts about climate change, then Climate Change for Football Fans: A Matter of Life and Death, by James Atkins, is the book for you. It's written as a series of conversations between Joe, a football-mad Burnley FC fan, and Professor Igor who is obsessed with…