News

November 11, 2015

The U.S. Senate passed Nov. 10 the final version of a commercial space bill that extends two key regulatory provisions and provides limited property rights for resources extracted from asteroids. The Senate approved by unanimous consent H.R. 2262, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. The bill reconciles a House bill, originally known as the Spurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Act of 2015, passed in May with a Senate bill approved in August.

November 10, 2015

The problems associated with drilling oil on Lake Malawi have resurfaced with the new claims challenging Malawi that they need to revoke the licenses they gave to Surestream for them to explore the possibility of drilling oil on the lake. A report that Malawi24 has seen warns Malawi that it stands in violation of the international law in its awarding of licensee for the mining of oil in Lake Malawi. The report published on Further Africa quotes an environmental activist Godfrey Mfiti who dares the Malawi government to immediately revoke the licenses.

November 10, 2015

The British Met Office said global temperatures in January-September were 1.02 C above the 1850-1900 average, adding that the remainder of the year is expected to remain hot because of the El Nino weather phenomenon. "We've had similar natural events in the past, yet this is the first time we're set to reach the 1 degree C marker and it's clear that it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory," said Stephen Belcher, director of the Met Office Hadley Centre for climate science.

November 05, 2015

Geoethics was present, in connection with geoeducation, in the prestigious ICTP (Trieste, Italy). The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics organized an extremely interesting and significant Conference on Future of Earth-Space Science and Education. The Conference was held in the prestigious Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).

November 04, 2015

Scientists confirm their fears about West Antarctica - that it’s inherently unstable. It may be the biggest climate change story of the last two years. In 2014, several research groups suggested that the oceanfront glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region of West Antarctica may have reached a point of “unstoppable” retreat due to warm ocean waters melting them from below. There’s a great deal at stake — West Antarctica is estimated to contain enough ice to raise global sea levels by 3.3 meters, or well over 10 feet, were it all to melt.

November 3, 2015

Amnesty International claims that the oil giant Shell has not cleaned up oil spills in the Niger Delta, despite the firm's promises to do so. "When you visit these communities, the first thing you notice is the stench of crude oil," says Makmid Kamara, a business and human rights campaigner at Amnesty International. The environmental clean up of the Niger Delta, the biggest oil-producing region in Africa, is long overdue, Kamara told.

October 28, 2015

Chinese state media has dubbed the United States a “paper tiger” and says it is “playing with fire” after sending its warship close to China’s artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. Its actions early on Tuesday morning led to numerous angry commentaries in mainland newspapers.

October 28, 2015

Geoethics will be present in the IX Geological Congress of Spain, Huelva, Spain. Geoethics is for the first time included in the Geological Congress of Spain. A special symposium entitled Geoethics (Session S6) will be included in the program of the congress which will be held in Campus del Carmen, University of Huelva, Huelva (Spain), from 12-14 September 2016. Two IAGETH members will be part of the coordination committee of the symposium (José Luis González, ISAB member and President of the Spanish

October 26, 2015

A magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck southern Asia on Monday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Local news agencies quickly reported death tolls in the dozens, though exact numbers were hard to collect as communications were down in many places. But in one province alone -- Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province -- at least 71 people were killed, Amir Afaq, director general of the provincial disaster management authority, told CNN. At least 589 people were injured. Afghan broadcaster Tolo TV showed images of collapsed structures.

October 25, 2015

November 19 – 21, 2015, will host Federal Arctic Forum «ARCTIC DAYS in MOSCOW» organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation.

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