Feature Article

A growing number of companies are adopting intelligent, IP-enabled systems to implement and track enterprise-wide environmental initiatives.

The paper analyzed the socio- economic characteristics of fuel wood marketers in Yola Areas of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Primary data was used for the study. The data was collected using structured questionnaires administered to 120 firewood marketers sampled from the main towns of Yola North and Yola South Local Government areas of Adamawa State. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data.

This study evaluated the persistence of heavy metals, cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) in surficial marine sediments and their relationship with textural characteristics. Furthermore, heavy metal distribution was studied against organic carbon concentration within the sediments. Our results suggest that Cochin estuary is highly polluted in the case of all heavy metals (Pb of 29.48± 4.37µg/g, Cd of 0.21± 0.17µg/g and Hg of 0.17± 0.15µg/g). All the studied trace elements showed negative correlation with sand particles.

A sustainable energy system across India's industrial sector can help the country reduce its energy consumption faster - A CyberMedia Research Survey findings.

The concern today for corporates is about how to use technologies to address the kind of problems that we face and how to generate the technologies to address the issues specific to India. (Extract from the inaugural keynote address by Ajay Mathur at Technology Review's Business Impact: Corporate Energy Strategy Conference on September 22, 2011 in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

A village in northern Jordan depends on polluted water from a spring, as four German and Arab students discovered. Their final report shows how matters could be improved.

To prevent trees from being cut down for firewood, attempts have been underway to introduce fuel-efficient cooking stoves in Nigeria for decades. Today, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) provides an opportunity to lower the purchase price of such stoves. Bureaucratic challenges are tough, however, and it remains unclear whether stove projects really help to reduce Nigeria’s carbon emissions.

The world is undergoing a phenomenally fast wave of urban growth. Research that can help tackle some of the ensuing problems is likely to originate in cities themselves. (Editorial)

In recent years, international climate policy has increasingly focused on limiting temperature rise, as opposed to achieving greenhouse-gas-concentration-related objectives. The agreements reached at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Cancun in 2010 recognize that countries should take urgent action to limit the increase in global average temperature to less than 2 °C relative to pre-industrial levels.

Ruth Loos and colleagues report findings from a meta-analysis of multiple studies examining the extent to which physical activity attenuates effects of a specific gene variant, FTO, on obesity in adults and children. They report a fairly substantial attenuation by physical activity on the effects of this genetic variant on the risk of obesity in adults.