18 November 2009 Economic
Recovery Depends on Rebalancing Global Demand To establish a global
foundation for growth and avert future economic crises, Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner says, the major advanced economies must rebalance global demand. “The
financial crisis also showed clearly that previous global economic patterns were
unsustainable,” he said. “Cooperation through the (Group
of 20) will remain essential as we start to unwind extraordinary measures and put
in place the broad framework to achieve a strong, sustainable and balanced recovery,
and implement profound financial reforms at home and abroad.”
09 October 2009 U.S. Officials Announce New Food and Agriculture Research Agency A new government agency plans to bring together government and private scientists to improve research in food and agriculture. The establishment of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture was announced October 8 by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and White House Science Advisor John Holdren.
05 October 2009 Three American Researchers Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine Three American medical researchers won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for their research into how cells operate. Their work has affected cancer treatment and understanding of the aging process. The winners are Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, Carol Greider of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
02 October 2009 Seeking a New Generation of Cyberdefenders Though they tend to be young and eager, skilled cybersecurity experts are small in number. There simply are not enough of them to meet projected long-term global public and private sector requirements. Corporations, smaller businesses and governments need future leaders who can provide information assurance by protecting computer networks containing proprietary information or political-military strategies and monitoring, detecting, analyzing and responding to any actions that could compromise or infiltrate those networks.
29 September 2009 Successful HIV Vaccine Study Will Lead to Further Research Medical researchers in Thailand have developed an approach to prevent HIV the same way it has been treated, by using a combination vaccine to successfully halt the spread of the disease. Public health officials announced in Bangkok that they successfully used two previously unsuccessful HIV vaccines in combination in a large, six-year study to prevent people from getting HIV, which causes AIDS. The vaccines used in the study cannot cause HIV infection because they are not made from and do not contain the whole virus, active or dead, the medical researchers said.
15 September 2009 Norman Borlaug, "Father of the Green Revolution," Dies at Age 95 Norman Borlaug, the plant scientist recognized around the world as the "father of the Green Revolution," died September 14 in his home in Dallas. He was 95 years old. Borlaug is credited with saving more than 1 billion lives from starvation in Pakistan and India during the 1960s and early 1970s. These years were "the greatest period of food production in human history," said Kenneth Quinn, president of the Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation. Borlaug founded the foundation in 1996.
14 September 2009 Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern will lead U.S. participation in the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate at the Department of State on September 17-18, 2009. Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman will serve as chair. The meeting will take place at the level of leaders' representatives and will be the first meeting since the leaders met on July 9, 2009 in L'Aquila, Italy.
31 July 2009 Less Driving, Better Vehicles: Keys to Energy, Climate Causes When asked if gasoline-electric hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles are the most promising auto technologies, Rob Farrington paused. It wasn’t that he did not know the answer. After all, he heads the advanced vehicle group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. It was that the question did not address the real issue.
31 July 2009 Advanced Cars Will Save the Day, and Fuel, Eventually Who is more environmentally conscious: someone who owns a large sport utility vehicle or someone who has a compact car in his garage? That is the question Rob Farrington asks his audiences when he lectures. The answer is … it depends. A sport utility vehicle whose owner takes a bus to work and drives only on weekends uses less gasoline and produces fewer greenhouse gases than does a compact car used by its owner for a daily commute to work.
16 July 2009 Endeavour Mission Will Finish Installing Japanese Kibo Laboratory Endeavour is on its way to the International Space Station to complete the installation of Japan's Kibo laboratory, after a delay in June to fix a gaseous hydrogen leak on the external tank and a series of July launch attempts canceled due to Florida’s summer thunderstorms.
09 July 2009 Meeting the International Clean Energy and Climate Change Challenges From his first days in office, President Obama has made it a top priority of the United States to accelerate our transformation to a clean energy economy and combat climate change. President Obama is committed to leading the way through strong domestic actions and working with partners around the world to achieve an international agreement that will promote the clean energy technologies necessary to lower global greenhouse gas emissions in the developed and developing worlds alike. As a key part of this effort, President Obama launched the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.
02 July 2009 International Science Council to Revamp World Data Centers For more than 50 years, the International Council for Science (ICSU) has had world data centers — open, nonpolitical repositories of data for scientists in every country. Now, the ICSU is replacing the centers with a leading-edge World Data System (WDS) whose scope and technologies are evolving but whose policy of nondiscriminatory access to science remains a priority.
29 June 2009 Secretary's Remarks: Signing the Statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency "I am pleased to announce that, as part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to the development of clean, renewable energy, the United States today signed the Statute of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). IRENA will engage governments around the world in promoting a rapid transition toward the widespread and sustainable use of renewable energy on a global scale.
26 June 2009 Understanding the Carbon Cycle Carbon: the fourth most abundant element in the universe and the building block of life on Earth. Carbon moves throughout the Earth — between the atmosphere, the oceans, sedimentary rock, soil and plants and animals — in what scientists call the carbon cycle.
20 June 2009 Climate Change Is an Urgent Problem Opening Remarks by Head of the U.S. Delegation at UNFCCC Climate Change Talks, Bonn, Germany
17 June 2009 U.S. Regions Experiencing Climate Change Effects Now, Report Says The first U.S. report in nearly a decade to assess the impacts of climate change in different regions of the United States confirms and extends research that describes rising sea and air temperatures and sea levels, melting ice, intensified hurricanes and many other changes that are happening now. Such changes will continue into the future, affecting water resources, agriculture, coastal areas and health.
12 June 2009 China, United States Can Cooperate to Reduce CO2 Emissions Representatives of China and the U.S. have completed open and candid discussions in Beijing "about what needs to be done on both sides to advance toward a successful outcome" at the U.N. climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern told reporters in Washington June 12.
• Remarks by Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change
08 June 2009 U.S. Global Partnerships Key in Fighting Drug-Resistant TB Thousands of kilometers apart, a classroom in the Philippines, a network of clinics in Brazil and a medical research center in South Korea demonstrate a key element of the United States' response to drug-resistant tuberculosis. Partnerships involving governments, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations are critical in global efforts to conquer multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB).
02 June 2009 Aginst Wildlife Trafficking: Public Service Announcements from Dr. Jane Goodall "When the buying stops, the killing can do too". That’s the message from Dr. Jane Goodall on wildlife trafficking. The illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products is a soaring black market worth an estimated $10 billion per year. It's not only driving many species to the brink of extinction, it has links to organized crime and poses significant human health risks.
29 May 2009 Obama Administration Breaks New Ground on the Internet During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama impressed Americans and the world with his deft use of the Internet and social networking technologies. Now his administration is using the Internet to make government more accessible and include citizens in the policymaking process. The Open Government initiative, calls for more citizen participation to enhance government effectiveness and for greater collaboration across all levels of government and with the private sector to harness innovative tools.
26 May 2009 Space Telescope Fix a Success; Shuttle Prepares for June Launch Space shuttle Atlantis is home after a nearly 13-day mission and a weather-delayed landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 24. Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on June 13, leaving seven flights to go before the shuttle's final flight in September 2010.
19 May 2009 President Obama Seeks New Fuel Efficiency Standards New federal rules proposed May 19 would increase national fuel efficiency standards for vehicles sold in the United States. “We have set in motion a national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the United States of America,” President Obama said at the White House.
13 May 2009 Forecasts Show How Changing Environment Might Affect Life Scientists are combining climate-related data sets, data from Earth-observing satellites and mathematical models of organism behavior to forecast the effects of environmental change on ecosystems, much like how meteorologists forecast weather and climate.
11 May 2009 Atlantis Launch Begins Final Repair Mission for Space Telescope Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew began the fifth and final repair mission for the nearly 20-year-old Hubble Space Telescope with a midafternoon launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 11-day STS-125 mission, which will extend Hubble operations through 2014, astronauts will install two new, cutting-edge instruments to enhance Hubble’s capabilities; replace gyros, batteries and other components; and attempt the first on-orbit repair of two instruments — the space telescope imaging spectrograph and the advanced cameras for surveys.
29 April 2009 Climate Change "Clear and Present Danger, Secretary Clinton Says Representatives of 17 of the most important contributors to rising concentrations of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases met April 27–28 to begin discussions they hope will lead to success at the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.
28 April 2009 Half of Population at Risk for Curable, Preventable Malaria Malaria infects more than 500 million people a year and kills more than 1 million — mostly infants, young children and pregnant women in Africa. Fighting the disease takes the determined work of many around the world, all of whom were recognized on April 25, World Malaria Day.
27 April 2009 Obama to Seek Record Levels of Research Investment In a speech before a group of scientists and engineers April 27, President Obama announced new measures to bolster science and technology research and a new initiative to encourage the development of clean energy technology.
27 April 2009 Swine Flu Outbreaks Mobilize International Public Health Effort Outbreaks of a new strain of influenza virus that began in north-central Mexico March 22 and have spread to the United States, Canada and Spain so far have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the event a public health emergency of international concern.
10 April 2009 Technology Demonstration Projects Pave Way for U.S. Smart Grid Around the U.S., teams of utility companies, universities, national laboratories, state regulators and private companies are developing and demonstrating on a limited scale some of the key technologies that will eventually make up the 21st-century version of the nation’s aging electric power infrastructure.
09 April 2009 U.S. Electric System Begins Long Transformation to a Smart Grid Following the lead of some European and Pacific Rim nations, U.S. government technical and regulatory agencies, electric utilities, energy service providers and private companies are working to turn the nation’s century-old electric power grid into a 21st-century "smart grid."
08 April 2009 Scientists Find Humans Grow New Heart Muscle Scientists are using measurements of the radioactive carbon produced by Cold War-era nuclear bomb tests to prove adult humans replace heart muscle.
06 April 2009 United States Hosts 32nd Meeting of Antarctic Treaty Nations At a critical time for the Antarctic Peninsula, which scientists say is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and the increasing loss of summer ice in the Arctic Ocean, the first joint session of officials representing the Antarctic Treaty and the Arctic Council convened April 6 in Baltimore.
26 March 2009 Video: Science, GMOs and Food Security Dr. Nina Fedoroff, Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State and USAID Administrator discusses the benefits of GMOs.
25 March 2009 Food For Thought: USDA Promoting American Food Overseas
A look at the US Department of Agriculture's role in promoting American food and drink at the International Food & Drink Exhibition in London.
16 March 2009 Shuttle to Deliver First Japanese Crew Member to Space Station Ten minutes after the sun set in Florida and just over a month after its original launch date, space shuttle Discovery roared off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center March 15 on a 13-day mission to deliver the International Space Station’s final set of solar array wings, completing the station's backbone.
20 February 2009 Spacecraft Missions Play Dodgeball with Orbiting Debris Tens of thousands of pieces of space debris, or space junk as some call it, orbit the earth, threatening to disrupt space travel and destroy communications satellites on which the world depends.
30 January 2009 New NASA Spacecraft Dedicated to Studying Carbon Dioxide NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 23, the first U.S. spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide. The spacecraft will map the globe once every 16 days for at least two years.
2008
31 December 2008 U.S., European Instruments Join India's Unmanned Moon Mission Circling the moon in a polar orbit 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the battered surface, India’s first lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, ancient Sanskrit for "lunar craft," is also an international venture that carries instruments from the United States and Europe.
17 December 2008 Transformation of U.S. Nuclear Security Agency Mission The plan to transform and downsize the United States National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) infrastructure moved forward yesterday as the head of NNSA signed two formal decision documents to begin its implementation. That action allows the agency to continue the process of moving from an aging, Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex into a 21st century national security enterprise.
12 December 2008 Obama Team, Congressional Leaders Work on Economic Recovery Plan A well-designed economic stimulus plan can reduce the severity of the recession in the United States and lay the groundwork for sustained economic growth in the near future, according to private-sector economists.
12 December 2008 Three Cents' Worth of Paper and Tape Help Diagnose Diseases Using paper and adhesive tape, scientists have developed an inexpensive device to analyze bodily fluids for signs of disease. The low-tech diagnostic tool could bring tremendous benefits to public health in poor nations.
11 December 2008 NASA Delays Launch of Mars Science Laboratory Until 2011 The largest and most capable rover ever designed to look for microbial life — past or present — on the Red Planet will begin its interplanetary mission in 2011 rather than 2009 because of manufacturing problems and time needed to test the complex system before launch.
ExchangesConnect An International social network from the U.S. Department of State
18 November 2009 State Department launches second Annual ExchangesConnect Video Contest
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today launched the Department
of State’s second annual ExchangesConnect Video Contest, “Change
Your Climate, Change Our World,” with a video message on the ExchangesConnect
social network at http://connect.state.gov.
The
contest is a call to action for global citizens around the world to engage in
cross-cultural community building and mutual understanding. The Bureau of Educational
and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State launched ExchangesConnect
social network in October 2008 and it has attracted over 14,000 members.
People all over the world, ages 14 and older, are invited to submit their 2-minute
videos to ExchangesConnect at http://connect.state.gov.
Two international and two American winners (one in each of the two age categories:
14-17 and 18 and older) will receive one of four Grand Prizes: an all-expense-paid
two-week international exchange program. Last year’s contest drew over 8,400
new ExchangesConnect members from 170 countries and the winners were featured at http://exchanges.state.gov/news/ovc.html.
Video submissions will be accepted November 17, 2009 through January 12, 2010.
The ExchangesConnect community will vote on video entries and an expert panel of
judges, all ECA exchange program alumni, will rank the “top 40” videos
based on originality, creativity, effectiveness and production quality.
12 November 2009 Mitigation
Policy Central Challenge in Climate Change Negotiation When negotiators
meet in Copenhagen in December to discuss international action to fight global
warming, the hottest debate will concern how to reduce the concentration of carbon
dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Policies designed to reduce CO2 emissions and
stabilize greenhouse gases at a level that is environmentally sustainable are
crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change.
12 November 2009 Clinton
Sees Copenhagen Climate Conference as Steppingstone The U.N.-sponsored
climate conference in December in Copenhagen can become the steppingstone to a
full and binding legal climate agreement if it focuses on the right blend of practical
approaches and principles, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says. “The
United States has taken dramatic steps in the past year to change the way we use
energy at home, and we have taken our seat at the table in international climate
negotiations,” said Clinton in a press conference at
the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
forum in Singapore
12 November 2009 International
Collaboration Key to Mitigating Climate Change (Part 1 in a series) Human
activities, especially those that burn fossil fuels and emit planet-warming carbon
dioxide, are driving changes in the climate system. Mitigating these changes
and their potentially disastrous effects is stimulating a new kind of technology
cooperation among governments, industries and institutions.
The
third World Climate Conference took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 31 August
to 04 September 2009. Full details of the Conference as well as news and reports
are available at http://www.wmo.int/wcc3/.
16 September 2009 The 21st-Century Challenge Award-winning
writer and journalist Michael Specter, writes for America.gov on the realities of global warming and how urgent steps must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it is too late.
04 September 2009 World Climate Conference Launches Global Climate Services Effort Global leaders, climate scientists and experts from sectors such as water, agriculture and health finished their work here at the third World Climate Conference, launching an effort that will help people better understand and adapt to a rapidly changing planet. The Global Framework for Climate Services, agreed upon by more than 2,000 conference attendees, will strengthen the production, availability, delivery and application of science-based climate predictions and other services.
28 August 2009 Adaptation to Climate Change Focus of Meeting in Geneva For the first time since scientists determined unequivocally that the planet is warming, experts who collect and analyze climate data and those who manage the world's land and water resources will meet to decide how to help each other adapt to a changing climate. At the third World Climate Conference (WCC-3) in Geneva, August 31-September 4, some 1,500 policymakers and resource managers — the end users of climate forecasts — from more than 150 countries will join with scientific experts to begin the hard work of translating science into practical steps that people can use to adapt to a changing climate.
11 May 2009 New Research Reveals Droughts Common in West Africa The decades-long drought that began in West Africa in the 1960s is not an anomaly compared with what the region has faced during the last three millennia. An analysis of sediment from a crater lake in Ghana shows periods of severe drought lasting from decades to centuries throughout the last 3,000 years, according to a study published in the April 17 issue of Science magazine.
21 April 200 Antarctic Treaty Nations Tackle Tourism, Protect Native Species Native Antarctic animal and plant species will be better protected and the number of tourists to the planet's southernmost continent will be limited after a two-week meeting in Baltimore of representatives from 28 nations that have ratified the 50-year-old Antarctic Treaty.
30 March 2009 United States to Host Climate Change Forum in April The United States has invited 16 major economies to a forum in April to discuss climate change and clean energy ventures, the White House said.
19 March 2009 "Planetary Skin" Tool Aims to Improve Response to Climate Change Every day, on and above Earth, millions of sensors collect vast amounts of data representing interactions among the planet's systems of land, air, water and life. This is the kind of data needed to address the complexities of climate change or a move to a low-carbon-dioxide world economy, but gathering it is just the first step.
06 March 2009 Those Most Affected by Climate Change Seen as Unaware of Dangers The issue of climate change has gained prominence in the Western press, but in many developing countries the topic rarely appears in headlines, and citizens remain relatively uninformed about the risks they face from environmental degradation.
27 January 2009 Obama Makes Climate Change a National Priority Climate change is a planetary process, but its effects — sea level rise, shrinking glaciers, changes in plant and animal distribution, early-blooming trees, permafrost thaws — are regional and local. Some of the effects are already occurring, and the newly installed Obama administration, in power for just more than a week, is moving fast to put the United States in a leadership position to work with nations of the world and meet the challenges of climate change and energy security.
26 January 2009 Obama Sets Bold New Principles for U.S. Energy, Climate Policies President Obama vowed the United States will lead the global fight against global warming as he moved emphatically to overturn Bush administration's energy and climate change policies. During his campaign, Obama promised to fight global warming, cut energy consumption and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources.
12 November 2009 H1N1
Flu Activity Rising in Several Northern Hemisphere Countries Pandemic H1N1 influenza virus has become the dominant flu virus in all countries
and territories where people are affected, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO), and the illness that H1N1 produces has specific features that differentiate
it from seasonal flu. As of November 1, more than 199 countries and overseas territories/communities
have reported 482,300 laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009,
including 6,071 deaths. The case count is much lower than actual cases because
many countries have stopped counting individual cases, particularly of milder illness.
14 October 2009 WHO to Ship Swine Flu Vaccine to Poorer Countries in November The
World Health Organization says it will begin shipping millions of doses of
the swine flu vaccine to poorer countries, possibly as early as November. WHO
vaccine chief Marie-Paule Kieny says about 100 countries will receive donations
of the vaccine.
15 September 2009 Single-Dose Vaccines for Pandemic H1N1 Will Protect Most Adults Pandemic H1N1 influenza continues its sweep through nations in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere as national health officials and vaccine manufacturers in several countries work to begin producing the first doses of vaccine to protect people against the novel flu.
13 July 2009 U.S. Summit Readies Communities for Autumn H1N1 Flu Surge As the number of cases of pandemic H1N1 continues to rise around the globe and uncertainties remain about the novel influenza's continued spread, severity and genetic stability, the Obama administration held a high-level summit July 9 to help state and local governments and communities prepare for the coming flu season.
02 July 2009 Scientists Take Lessons from Past Pandemics for New H1N1 Virus As cases of the novel H1N1 flu rise to 77,201 worldwide and three new human cases of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu bring that global total to 436 since 2003, scientists in the United States are examining past pandemics for lessons that might help with the response to the 2009 pandemic H1N1.
11 June 2009 World Health Organization Declares Global Pandemic for H1N1 Flu The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the pandemic alert to the highest level, phase 6, after confirming with virus experts and member countries that the novel H1N1 virus, which causes in most people a mild seasonal-flu-like illness, is spreading from person to person in a sustained way in 74 countries on three continents.
27 April 2009 Swine Flu Outbreaks Mobilize International Public Health Effort Outbreaks of a new strain of influenza virus that began in north-central Mexico March 22 and have spread to the United States, Canada and Spain so far have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the event a public health emergency of international concern.
Science, Energy & Environment
U.S. Taking Practical Action on Climate Change
18 November 2009 
