press review 6

——————————————————————————————————————-

Fuel Cell Vehicles 15 Years Away, Research Council Says

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5828

Hydrogen fuel cells may be the best energy-saving alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles, and the technology could be economically competitive by 2023, a U.S. National Research Council report announced Thursday.

—————————————————————————————————————————

http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/07/24/ciencia/paineis_solares_sara_para_iluminar_a.html

Painéis solares no Sara para iluminar a Europa

Energia. O sol do deserto africano pode fornecer três vezes mais energia do que o sol no Norte da Europa. Os cientistas europeus defendem que bastaria recolher 0,3% dessa luz para fornecer electricidade verde a todo o Velho Continente

—————————————————————————————————

World Bank Revisits the Meaning of “Absolute” Poverty

The World Bank has announced a new poverty line on the basis of revised estimates of Purchasing Price Parity (PPP) price levels around the world. In the working paper that explains the basis for the new line, poverty measurement guru Martin Ravallion and his co-authors make two proposals.

http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2008/07/world_bank_revisits_the_meanin.php

—————————————————————————————————

Cassava for food and energy security

25 July 2008, Rome – The tropical root crop cassava could help protect the food and energy security of poor countries now threatened by soaring food and oil prices, FAO said today. At a global conference held in Gent, Belgium, cassava scientists called for a significant increase in investment in research and development needed to boost farmers’ yields and explore promising industrial uses of cassava, including production of biofuels.

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000899/index.html

http://biopact.com/2008/07/fao-calls-for-boost-to-cassava-research.html

———————————————————————————————————————————————

World Bank Criticized on Environmental Efforts

The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report.

The review, released Tuesday, examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent pledges for environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not put into practice when dollars were turned into dams, pipelines, palm plantations and the like.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/23enviro.html

———————————————————————————————————————————————