“Integrating the Environment in Urban Planning and Management: Key Principles and Approaches for Cities in the 21st Century,” a report launched on 8 April 2014 jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Cities Alliance at the 2014 World Urban Forum in Medellin, Colombia, says that as consumers of over 75% of natural resources, cities can be major contributors to efficiency and sustainability.
This article compares quantitative estimates for groundwater loss and glacier recession and considers the significance of their relative magnitudes. It concludes that the effect of food and agriculture, hence of population, may be significantly greater than that attributable to the global warming caused by industrial production and transport.
Outcomes of this research are contributing to the system-level understanding of human-machine interactions, and motor learning and control in real world environments for humans, and are leading to the development of a new generation of wireless brain and body activity sensors and adaptive prosthetics devices.
This is the third article of a series on “Realizing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All.” It features the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) progress in meeting sanitation and hygiene needs with the help of the communities themselves and assistance from the WSSCC managed Global Sanitation Fund.
NEWater’s comprehensive public communications and education program was recognized by UN-Water for building public confidence and acceptance in NEWater, Singapore’s own brand of recycled water which comes from collected and cleaned wastewater.
CVS Caremark announced today that it will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its more than 7,600 CVS/pharmacy stores across the U.S. by October 1, 2014, making CVS/pharmacy the first national pharmacy chain to take this step in support of the health and well-being of its patients and customers.
This article focuses on the background of the problem, what it means for nearly half the people of the developing world who lack adequate sanitation and hygiene. Today, an estimated 2.4 to 2.6 billion individuals lack access to any type of improved sanitation facility according to the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) half of the developing world, more than 35 % of the world’s population lack access to adequate sanitation. And, poor sanitation and hygiene are inextricably linked to water quality.
WHO and Health Care Without Harm have joined forces to launch a new initiative to get mercury removed from all medical measuring devices by 2020 by ending the manufacture, import and export of these devices and by supporting the deployment of accurate, affordable, and safer non-mercury alternatives.
An exploration of groundwater resources has identified reserves of water in Turkana County in drought-stricken northern Kenya. Of Kenya’s 41 million people, 17 million lack access to safe water and 28 million do not have adequate sanitation.
Climate change is already affecting the spread of infectious diseases--and human health and biodiversity worldwide--according to disease ecologists reporting research results in the August 2, 2013 issue of the journal Science. Modeling disease outcomes from host and parasite responses to climate variables, they say, could help public health officials and environmental managers address the challenges posed by the changing landscape of infectious disease.