While it is clear that food insecurity threatens the life of millions of Kenyans, lifting the ban on GMOs is not the solution.
While it is clear that food insecurity threatens the life of millions of Kenyans, lifting the ban on GMOs is not the solution.
How digital capitalism, despite often being framed as potential growth engine, exploits the already marginalized and reproduces inequalities and power-relations between Africans.
Quatre choses à savoir sur la catastrophe nucléaire de Fukushima
Dissimulation de défauts de conception et de production dans certaines parties des réacteurs de Fukushima, nombre de personnes évacuées vivant toujours - deux ans plus tard - en logement temporaire, fabricants des réacteurs qui font maintenant des bénéfices en nettoyant la catastrophe qu’ils ont (…)
Le monde de la géo-ingénierie
ETC Group publie une carte du monde de la géo-ingénierie - un ensemble de technologies expérimentales qui visent à modifier intentionnellement le climat à l’échelle globale et régionale. Cette carte documente près de 300 projets de géo-ingénierie, des recherches et expérimentations à l’échelle (…)
Les biotechnologies agricoles devraient être ’open source’
Résumé en français : Pour certains scientifiques, l’intégration des principes de l’accès libre aux biotechnologies agricoles pourrait procurer d’énormes avantages aux pays en développement.
[NEW DELHI] Open source biotechnology, through which biotechnology inventions are made freely available (…)
By Kushal Pal Singh and Jonas Hamberg
About 40 kilometres from Delhi, in the bustling real estate market of Noida-Greater Noida, lies the biggest irony that the renewable energy industry faces. Indosolar, the country’s largest manufacturer of solar photovoltaic cells, has set up a 400 megawatt unit. [...]
Polysilicon wafers, the (…)
Cecilia Rosen
Argentina is a step closer to becoming the first country to pass legislation to make all publicly funded research available in open access repositories.
The Chamber of Deputies passed a new bill last month (23 May) stating that all national scientific institutions must provide open access (OA) (…)
By Sadie Robinson
As the row over nuclear power grows, Sadie Robinson spoke to scientist and activist Dr Helen Caldicott about the dangers of nuclear power, the powerful interests that back it and how we can win a better world.
The environmentalist George Monbiot has recently spent his time attacking (…)
By Nick Ishmael Perkins
The shortage of credible and diverse voices in science undermines the capacity of journalists to respond to development challenges.
When reviewing the agenda of the first Africa Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya, this week, I was reminded of my (…)
By Glenn Ashton
The South African Department of Minerals and Energy (DoE) is holding its final public consultation meetings about the adoption of regulations relating to the mandatory blending of biofuels with petrol and diesel at the end of February. This follows the publication of the draft regulations in (…)
By Michel Bauwens
Open-source software, shared innovation and crowd-sourced manufacturing threaten capitalism as we know it.
Chiang Mai, Thailand - Does Facebook exploit its users? And where is the $100bn in the company’s estimated value coming from?
This is not a new debate. It resurfaces regularly in the (…)
By Nicholas Hildyard, Larry Lohmann and Sarah Sexton
How can fossil fuels and uranium be kept in the ground and agrofuels off the land in ways that do not inflict suffering upon millions? Mainstream policy responses to these issues are largely framed in terms of "energy security".
Yet far from making energy supplies more secure, such policies (…)
’Use of a failed and dangerous technology’ expanding
Despite the Fukushima nuclear disaster, potentially flawed plant design and worlwide protests, the world is moving towards building more nuclear power plants.
Just last week the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted licenses to build (…)
By Himanshu Thakkar and Bipib Chaturvedi
Only four of the 12 hydropower projects in the Northeast generate at their projected 90% dependability or higher. The rest are underperforming miserably. Regardless, several big projects are under construction in the Northeast. Why don’t the stakeholders analyse the performance and impact of (…)
Science and technology can seem remote from the unfolding dramas of the world but they were never far from the front line in the first months of the Arab Spring.
When revolution broke out in Egypt’s Tahrir Square in January, scientists were there in force, helping to plant the seeds of change. (…)
By M V Ramana and Suvrat Raju
When nuclear companies are unwilling to stake their financial health on the safety of a reactor, how can the Government ask local residents to risk their lives, ask M V Ramana and Suvrat Raju.
As the local people determinedly continue to resist the commissioning of the Koodankulam reactors, (…)
By Latha Jishnu
Most of the clean energy innovations are with just six rich countries and hardly any technology is coming to developing nations.
What is the outlook for developing countries in getting clean energy technologies transferred to them at a reasonable fee? Will intellectual property rights (IPR) (…)
By Dinsa Sachan
Nanoparticles are harmful, but India is yet to regulate their use
NANOTECHNOLOGY has revolutionised industry. It is used to improve wide ranging products, from cosmetics, toys and toothpastes to textiles and missiles. Industry thinks the technology holds promise to change every facet of life (…)
By Bharat Lal Seth
The Southeast Asian city-state strives to end its dependence on Malaysia for water
How does a city-state that has no natural water body, very little groundwater and even less land to store rainwater quench the thirst of its five million people? Singapore faces this question just as one of its (…)
By Li Jiao
The recent nuclear scare in Japan has reinforced pressure in China to raise its awareness of the risks of new technologies.
Like many other countries, China is currently reviewing the safety of its nuclear power programme following the damage caused by Japan’s tsunami to the Fukushima nuclear (…)