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Smoking ban on Stony Stratford streets

A Buckinghamshire town is considering banning smoking from its streets. Stony Stratford town councilor Paul Bartlett is spearheading a campaign which would forbid residents from smoking on the streets.

1 Jul 2011

Take next step on food hedging plan

"We are thrilled that the G-20 is taking the issue of financial risk management (i.e., hedging) seriously. … The next step is to translate this vision into operational reality," Ben Leo and Vijaya Ramachandran of the Center for Global Development write on the CGD's "Global Development: Views from the Center" blog.

1 Jul 2011

Text messages help smokers quit: Study

A behavioral study has found that motivational text messages sent to smokers' mobile phones can double their chances of giving up tobacco. The “txt2stop” trial at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and funded by the Medical Research Council tested the effects of inspirational text messages designed to encourage quitting on almost 3,000 smokers. Participants were twice as likely to banish their habit as another group sent texts unrelated to smoking.

30 Jun 2011

San Francisco grabs the mantle of 'greenest' major city in the U.S.

San Francisco grabbed the mantle of "greenest" major city in the U.S. and Canada Green City Index, with New York, Seattle, Denver and Boston rounding out the top five U.S. cities.

30 Jun 2011

New technique can remove oil spill from soil

It is well known just how damaging oil can be to nature. It is also well known just how difficult it can be to clean up after a spill or contamination. Removing an oil spill or contamination from soil is hard and requires very different techniques to removing oil from water.

30 Jun 2011

COIN hosts ‘Risk vs. Reward: Financing Early-Stage, Emerging Technologies’ roundtable event

The Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology (COIN) has announced the upcoming NanoBio Executive Roundtable event to be hosted at The Hawthorne Inn in Winston-Salem, NC on July 14, 2011. This Roundtable will address a significant hurdle to nanobiotechnology development and commercialization—early-stage funding.

29 Jun 2011

New FAO Director General says he wants to help food importing developing countries address high food prices

In a news conference on Monday, Jose Graziano da Silva, the newly elected head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said he wants to do more to help poor countries deal with volatile food prices, Reuters reports.

29 Jun 2011

G20 agriculture summit communique suggests action is missing

"The G20 agriculture ministers seem to agree: they're all for food security, as long as it doesn't cost anything," according to a post on the Center for Global Development's "Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog."

29 Jun 2011

Former Brazilian food security minister elected to head FAO

"Brazil's one-time food security minister, Jose Graziano da Silva, was elected Sunday director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. agency tasked with reducing world hunger at a time of near-record high food prices," the Associated Press reports.

28 Jun 2011

Synthetic cannabis ban in NSW from 1st of July

Kronic and other named synthetic drugs that induce effects similar to cannabis will be banned in NSW from July 1. NSW Mental Health Minister Kevin Humphries announced this saying use of the products sold online and at retail outlets have led to warnings from doctors. He added that the state government will ban the products under existing legislation.

28 Jun 2011

People's carbon emissions are same in the city and rural areas

Most previous studies have indicated that people in cities have a smaller carbon footprint than people who live in the country. By using more complex methods of analysis than in the past, scientists at Aalto University in Finland have discovered that people's carbon emissions are practically the same in the city and in the rural areas.

28 Jun 2011

Financial Times examines race for FAO Director-General

The Financial Times examines the race to lead the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), saying that "since the 2007-08 food crisis and the price shock of 2010-11, the formerly low-profile FAO has been catapulted to the centre of global policymaking," with six countries putting forth candidates for director-general.

24 Jun 2011

Up to 5M Pakistanis at risk from floods this year, U.N. says

"Up to five million people in Pakistan are at risk from floods this year, partly due to poor reconstruction and the inadequate rehabilitation of survivors who are still reeling from last year's epic deluge, the U.N. said on Wednesday," Reuters reports.

24 Jun 2011

Global development companies form coalition to gain more visibility

More than 50 companies involved in global development work have formed the Coalition of International Development Companies "in hopes of gaining more visibility for their work with the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as with other government agencies and nongovernmental organizations," Washington Technology reports.

24 Jun 2011

Leadership addresses Feed the Future Forum

The Knowledge-Driven International Development (KDID) Portal's "Agrilinks" blog features a summary of several of the speakers who presented at the Feed the Future Forum, including Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities;

24 Jun 2011

Hedging tool for farmers needs safeguards

Writing in the Center for Global Development's "Views From The Center" blog about the creation of a hedging tool by the World Bank and J.P. Morgan to help protect farmers from volatile food prices in developing countries, CGD Vice President for Corporate Affairs Todd Moss says that having safeguards in place to "prevent speculation or abuse" and "credible private sector partners will be essential" to the program's success.

24 Jun 2011

Australian chefs and food bloggers support Oxfam’s 2011 Stop Hunger Appeal with a special cookbook

Acclaimed Australian chefs and food bloggers have donated recipes to a special edition Oxfam cookbook to encourage Australians to get behind the international aid agency’s new ‘Stop Hunger’ appeal.

24 Jun 2011

New CSIRO website reveals high levels of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere

For the first time, greenhouse gas data are accessed easily on a new CSIRO website. The site shows the levels of greenhouse gases measured in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere for the past 35 years.

24 Jun 2011

Computer algorithms might help identify sources of groundwater pollution

Computer algorithms might be useful in identifying sources of groundwater pollution, according to researchers in Australia and India. Writing in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management they explain how notoriously difficult it is to trace such pollution.

23 Jun 2011

Food price increases create discontent among the poor

A new report published on Tuesday by Oxfam and the Institute of Development Studies on the impact of rising food prices "shows that the overall impact of the 2011 food price spike seems to be a ratcheting up of inequality, producing a pattern of 'weak losers and strong winners,'" Duncan Green, Oxfam GB's head of research, and Naomi Hossain, a research fellow in the Participation, Power and Social Change team at IDS, write in a post on the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

23 Jun 2011