Tag Archives: China

Adidas und Nike halten an giftigen Chemikalien fest

By Guest PostNovember 3, 2013Environmentadidas, chemie experte, China, chinesische konzern, detox catwalk, giftigen chemikalien, Greenpeace, hazardous chemicals group, ipe, li ning, manfred santen, mensch, mexiko, nike, online plattform, Pakistan, per, pfc, polyfluorierte chemikalien, textilproduktion, umwelt, zdhc, zero discharge

Neuer Greenpeace-Bericht entlarvt die zwei weltweit größten Sportartikelhersteller

Adidas und Nike haben bisher zu wenig unternommen, um wie versprochen bis zum Jahr 2020 auf giftige Chemikalien in ihrer Produktion zu verzichten. Auch der chinesische Konzern Li Ning hat noch keine konkreten Schritte eingeleitet, um bis 2020 schadstofffrei zu produzieren. Dies zeigt eine neue Online-Plattform von Greenpeace, der “Detox-Catwalk“.

Dort werden die 17 Modefirmen, die sich im Rahmen der Detox-Kampagne von Greenpeace zum Gift-Ausstieg bis 2020 verpflichtet haben, in die Kategorien „Trendsetter“, „Greenwasher“ und „Schlusslichter“ unterteilt. „Vor zwei Jahren waren Adidas und Nike noch Detox-Vorreiter, haben dann aber den Worten keine Taten folgen lassen. Gerade Adidas macht weiter wie bisher, anstatt konkrete Maßnahmen hin zu einer sauberen und transparenten Textilproduktion zu beginnen“, sagt Manfred Santen, Chemie-Experte von Greenpeace. (more…)

Habitat research methods give a new peek at tiger life with conservation

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2013Naturebhim gurung, biodiversity, China, chitwan national park, conservation, habitat research, himalayan lowlands, human population, jianguo jack liu, michigan state university, neil carter, nepal, nepal tiger trust, panda, protected area, sustainability, systems integration, tiger habitat, tiger life

Twelve years ago, a team led by Jianguo “Jack” Liu at Michigan State University showed that China needed to revisit how it was protecting its pandas. Now research on tiger habitat in Nepal, published in Ecosphere journal of the Ecological Society of America, again shows that conservation demands not only good policy, but also monitoring even years down the road.

“Understanding long-term outcomes of conservation programs is crucial and requires innovative methods,” Liu said. “Now we’re learning that Nepal’s outstanding efforts to protect tigers are best supported with close monitoring because conservation situations are so dynamic. In both cases, the key is to understand how the people who live near the valued wildlife are faring as well.” (more…)

Seeing in the Dark

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2013Natureaquatic habitat, aran mooney, baiji river dolphin, China, chinese academy, chinese radiologist, computed tomography, ct scans, darlene ketten, dolphin, hydrobiology in wuhan, marine mammal, noisy environment, porpoise, representative species, sciences, seeing in dark, three gorges dam, toothed whales, whoi, yangtze finless porpoise

New research sheds light on how porpoises hear in one of the world’s busiest rivers

The Yangtze finless porpoise, which inhabits the high-traffic waters near the Three Gorges Dam in China, is highly endangered, with only about 1,000 animals alive today. Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their Chinese colleagues are using medical technology to shed new light on this species’ critical sense of hearing in a waterway punctuated by constant shipping, dredging, and underwater construction.

“We want to understand how they may be impacted by noise,” said Aran Mooney, a biologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a lead author on the study published online this week in the Journal of Experimental Biology. (more…)

On the Road to Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

By Guest PostOctober 11, 2013Sciencealexei fedorov, berkeley lab, bi2se3, bismuth strontium, calcium copper oxide, China, decoherence problem, Environment, eryin wang, fault tolerant, hao ding, high temperature superconductivity, majorana zero mode, mysterious quasiparticle, quantum computing, quantum data bit, qubit, shuyun zhou, supercomputer, topological surface state, tsinghua university, xi chen, xray photons

Collaboration at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source Induces High Temperature Superconductivity in a Toplogical Insulator

Reliable quantum computing would make it possible to solve certain types of extremely complex technological problems millions of times faster than today’s most powerful supercomputers. Other types of problems that quantum computing could tackle would not even be feasible with today’s fastest machines. The key word is “reliable.” If the enormous potential of quantum computing is to be fully realized, scientists must learn to create “fault-tolerant” quantum computers. A small but important step toward this goal has been achieved by an international collaboration of researchers from China’s Tsinghua University and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) working at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). (more…)

New Results from Daya Bay – Tracking the Disappearance of Ghostlike Neutrinos

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2013Scienceacrylic vessel, antineutrinos, Beijing, berkeley lab, beta beams, China, daya bay, daya bay collaboration, disappearance, electron, electron neutrinos, evolution of universe, ghostlike neutrinos, hong kong, jim siegrist, kam biu luk, kamland, ling ao, liquid holding, mass hierarchy, mass splitting, millions of quadrillions, minos, muon, neutrino energy, neutrino oscillations, south dakota, steve kettell, super beams, tau, universe

Daya Bay neutrino experiment releases high-precision measurement of subatomic shape shifting and new result on differences among neutrino masses

The international Daya Bay Collaboration has announced new results about the transformations of neutrinos – elusive, ghostlike particles that carry invaluable clues about the makeup of the early universe. The latest findings include the collaboration’s first data on how neutrino oscillation – in which neutrinos mix and change into other “flavors,” or types, as they travel – varies with neutrino energy, allowing the measurement of a key difference in neutrino masses known as mass splitting.

“Understanding the subtle details of neutrino oscillations and other properties of these shape-shifting particles may help resolve some of the deepest mysteries of our universe,” said Jim Siegrist, Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the primary funder of U.S. participation in Daya Bay. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Releases Most Comprehensive Databook on China’s Energy and Environment

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2013Environmentberkeley lab, chemical oxygen demand, China, china energy databook, china energy group, CO2 emissions, comprehensive databook, david fridley, energy, energy consumption data, Environment, hongyou lu, john romankiewicz, level, lynn price, organic pollution, pollutant, power plants, solar power generation, sulfur dioxide, united states, water, world energy markets

In the five years since the China Energy Group of the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released its last edition of the China Energy Databook, China has achieved two dubious distinctions: it surpassed the United States in energy consumption and it surpassed the United States in energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide, becoming the world leader on both scores.

With these important shifts in the global energy landscape, the eighth edition of the China Energy Databook is being released this week. The Databook is the most comprehensive publicly available resource known to exist covering China’s energy and environmental statistics. The China Energy Group researchers have amassed an enormous trove of data from firsthand sources and organized much of it into a relational database, making it far more useful for research and analytical purposes. (more…)

Mercury levels in Pacific fish likely to rise in coming decades

By Guest PostSeptember 4, 2013Environmentatmospheric problem, bacteria, bioaccumulation, China, coal burning, fish, India, isotopic fractionation, isotopic measurement technique, joel blum, lantern fish, mercury, mercury emission reductions, mercury pollution, methylmercury, moonfish, north pacific ocean, ocean surface, opah, open ocean fish, organic matter, pacific ocean, photochemical degradation, power plants, rainfall, source, toxic form, toxin, university of hawaii, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan researchers and their University of Hawaii colleagues say they’ve solved the longstanding mystery of how mercury gets into open-ocean fish, and their findings suggest that levels of the toxin in Pacific Ocean fish will likely rise in coming decades.

Using isotopic measurement techniques developed at U-M, the researchers determined that up to 80 percent of the toxic form of mercury, called methylmercury, found in the tissues of deep-feeding North Pacific Ocean fish is produced deep in the ocean, most likely by bacteria clinging to sinking bits of organic matter. (more…)

Schleppender Start für den Meeresschutz: UN-Treffen zur biologischen Vielfalt der Meere

By Guest PostAugust 30, 2013Environmentaustralien, biodiversity beyond areas, biologischen vielfalt, China, europaeische union, g77, Greenpeace, high seas alliance, hsa, meeresschutz, Mexico, nanna zimmermann, national jursidiction, neuseeland, rio, sofia tsenikli, un, un generealversammlung

Die erste Meereschutzkonferenz nach Rio+20 ist vorbei. Und das Schiff scheint Segel gesetzt zu haben, zwar langsam und gehemmt von eisigem Gegenwind, aber es ist in See gestochen. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt das Bündnis „High Seas Alliance“ (HSA), an dem sich neben anderen Meeresschutzorganisationen auch Greenpeace beteiligt.

Im Zentrum der Verhandlungen stand ein neues Durchführungsabkommen im Sinne des Seerechtsübereinkommens der Vereinten Nationen (SRÜ). Dieses erhielt von vielen Staaten starke Unterstützung, darunter die G77 und China, die Europäische Union, Australien, Mexico und Neuseeland. Trotzdem verlangsamten die Blockadeversuche einer kleinen Minderheit dieses Prozess deutlich. (more…)