O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how big is your Carbon Footprint?
As part of the festive season this year, many of us will either buy a fresh Christmas tree, or we will bring an artificial one down from the attic. Either way, a Christmas Tree often forms an important part of the festivities. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, in 2012, US consumers purchased 24.5 million “real”…
New research claims microplastic pollution is harming marine life
Latest figures show that global production of plastic has risen to 280 million tons per year, with much of this entering the seas and oceans via ships, offshore platforms and fishing, coastal littering and sewage-related debris from rivers and storm drains. UNEP estimates that between 6.4 – 8 million tons of litter ends up in…
Mental Health – What can we learn from low and middle income countries?
“Turning the World Upside Down – Mental Health Challenge” is an open competition to celebrate projects and ideas from low and middle income countries (LIC) which could effectively be applied to major health challenges faced by high income countries. Four case studies were pitched in a Dragon’s Den style challenge on Wednesday 27th November at…
25th Annual World AIDS Day: Progress towards 2015
December 1st 2013 will mark the 25th annual World AIDS Day with this year’s theme, “Shared Responsibility: Strengthening Results for an AIDS-Free Generation”. World AIDS Day provides an opportunity to spread awareness about the current status of the pandemic and to encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment around the world. According…
Marketing Responsible Tourism? Don’t mention the ‘R’ word!
These days, many tour operators and hospitality businesses are keen to stress their 'green' credentials, and tell customers and investors that they practice forms of tourism that are variously described as 'sustainable', 'responsible', or environmentally benign. But is there a market advantage from doing so, and how can the message be presented in a way…
The urgent need for evidence based policy in invasive species management
Hundreds of invasive species experts gathered last week, 23-27 October, in Qingdao China at the 2nd International Congress on Biological Invasions. High on the agenda was how policy makers can respond to the accelerating risk posed by invasive species as international trade increases and climate change opens up new opportunities for invasion. In a session…
Climate change and extreme weather
Image from BBC News images As we have read in the news this morning, the weather system named St Jude's storm swept in from the Atlantic and hit the Southern part of the UK today, with winds gusting up to 99 mph (The Guardian online) and causing a lot of damage, including widespread travel disruption…
Helping the Crowd Fight Malaria
On Tuesday 15th October, I attended the International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases: Integrated Disease Surveillance & Vector Control annual conference in London. While there were many interesting presentations on epidemiology and surveillance techniques, innovations in vector control and the various impacts of resistance, I was most intrigued by the concept of crowd-sourcing for malaria…
World Food Day 2013
How can we feed an increasing population with healthy, nutritional, sustainably-produced food? Each year on the 16 October, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN celebrates World Food Day. This year’s theme, “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”, aims to raise awareness of problems and solutions in the drive to end…
Managing disasters, saving lives…
October 13th is International Disaster Reduction Day, which is aimed at celebrating how people and communities are reducing their risk to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of disaster reduction. While some disasters are man-made and avoidable to some extent, many natural disasters are inevitable. In an Annual Disaster Review of 2012, 357 natural…