Good News

· Northrup Grumman, an aerospace company in California that has had to retool since the end of the Cold War, has developed a lightweight bus shell constructed from space age polymers. The new shell eliminates 10,000 pounds from the standard bus frame, which will save significantly on fuel consumption and decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that buses usually emit into the atmosphere.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, 4/10/95.

· Auto emmisions control devices filter pollutants before they emerge from the tail pipe. A new emmisions control system developed by Engelhard Corporation has developed a new type of emmision control system that would turn cars into air cleaning machines. The new technology involves coating a car's radiator with catalysts that convert smog into oxygen and carbon monoxide ionto carbon dioxide, reducing auto pollutants by as much as 90 percent.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, 4/16/95.

· Collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and governments continues in the search for medicinal plants from the world's rainforests. In Belize, traditional healers have joined with the government in creating a 6,000 acre sanctuary dedicated to preserving and propagating medicinal plants. The New York Botanical Garden's Institute of Economic Botany and Pfizer, Inc., are working to collect a broad sample of United States specimens, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute has invested in a large-scale project to collect plant materials by contracting with the University of Illinois and the Missouri Botanical Garden.

SOURCE: Healthstate, Spring 1995.

· A new global initiative to create volunteer rapid-response teams called the White Helmet Initiative was launched by the United Nations Volunteers, a division of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). The White Helmets are organized to respond quickly toward bridging the crucial gap between an emergency and the period when rehabilitation may begin. Cosponsored by 65 nations, the aim is to expand the White Helmet Initiative into a multinational, non-governmental organization that will recruit its own volunteers and raise its own funds.

SOURCE: UNDP, April 1995.

· As part of the U.N.'s 50th Anniversary programming, a worldwide, year-long programme of activities and celebrations will culminate in a special commemorative meeting of the General Assembly in New York City. The meeting is expected to adopt a Declaration reaffirming the principles of the 1945 U.N. charter.

SOURCE: UNDPI Update, February 1995.

· The 1995 Review and Extensions Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convened in New York City recently, and all participating nations ratified its main principle: to work toward dramatically reducing and eliminating the number of stockpiled nuclear -weapons in the world.

SOURCE: UNDPI Update, May, 1995.

· The Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks convened in March-April in New York City, and the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recently met in Berlin. At the Berlin climate conference, participants agreed to allocate monies toward the implementation of remedial policies and the reduction of greenhouse gasses.

SOURCE: Vital Signs 1995, Worldwatch Institute.

· In 1995, the international community is celebrating the United Nations Year for Tolerance, as well as the World Year of People's Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War. Preparations are underway for the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty (1996), the International Year of the Ocean (1998), and the International Year of the Elderly (1999).

SOURCE: UNDPI Update, March 1995.

World Wind Energy Generating Capacity, 1980-94

SOURCE: Gipe and Associates, BTM Consult

World Photovoltaic Shipments, 1971-94

SOURCE: Maycock

Average Factory Price for Photovoltaic Modules, 1975-94

SOURCE: Maycock

· As part of the international effort to discover and promote new ways in which industrial and developing nations might increase their productivity without destroying the environment, UNESCO will endow a chair at New York's Columbia University in the area of global environmental problems. The UNESCO chair, which is to be affiliated with Columbia's new Program on Information and Resources, will be held by Graelcla Chichilnisky, a professor of economics and mathematics who is Director of the program.

SOURCE: UNESCO News, May, 1995.

· Like natural swamps, -wetlands built by environmental engineers strain and treat suspended solids, dissolved chemicals, and other materials in drainage waters. They also serve as an important habitat for fish and wildlife, and provide flood and erosion control. Research into built wetlands has recently gained prominence in environmental engineering circles, as international concern over wetlands degredation and reduction has grown.

SOURCE: Earth Times, May 1995.

· Global windpower generating capacity jumped 22 percent in 1994, to 3,710 megawatts. The net increase of 660 megawatts from 1993 is an all-time high for the growing wind power industry, which offers a clean, renewable alternative to traditional energy sources. Nations with the largest existing wind power generation include Germany, Great Britain, and India, but they are rapidly being approached by Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, and Morocco. Overall, developing countries appear to have a good chance of dominating global wind power generation by the end of the century.

SOURCE: Vital Signs 1995, Worldwatch Institute.

· World shipments of photovoltaic cells, the small, silicon-based chips that directly produce electricity from sunlight, increased by more than 15 percent in 1994. The cost of producing solar cells fell significantly last year, and technological improvements have added to this clean, renewable energy source's economic viability. The private sector is increasingly active in developing and expanding international solar energy markets, which have the potential to decrease annual environmental degredation rates dramatically by replacing fossil fuel consumption and nuclear generated electricity.

SOURCE: Vital Signs 1995, Worldwatch Institute.

· The U.S. federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are planning a research project on the U.S. Arizona-Mexico border for a two-year study of environmental health problems. The project was initiated following complaints from border residents about air pollution from illegally burning landfills, illegal dumping of hazardous wastes, and poor sewage treatment, which is adversely affecting the health of all area residents.

SOURCE: American Medical News, 5/15/95.