Finance and Investments

Mobile Phone And Internet Use Grows Robustly

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Mobile Phone and Internet Use Grows Robustly The use of mobile telephones and the Internet continues to grow worldwide, and the two technologies are increasingly becoming integrated through advances like Internet-ready “smart” phones. In 2009, mobile phone subscriptions hit the 4.6 billion mark, doubling in less than four years. Their use has increased worldwide at over 21 percent annually over the past five years, and subscriptions are projected to reach 5 billion in 2010.

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Solar-Power Plane Stays Aloft For 26 Hours

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BERN, Switzerland, July 8 (UPI) -- A solar-powered plane completed its test flight, staying aloft for 26 hours and 9 minutes before landing near in Bern, Switzerland, its pilot said Thursday. The record-setting feat caps seven years of planning, bringing the Swiss-led project a step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only solar energy, The Daily Mail of London reported. "We achieved more than we wanted.

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The Return Of The Bicycle

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Lester R. Brown

The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car. Bicycles increase mobility while reducing congestion and the area of land paved over. Six bicycles can typically fit into the road space used by one car. For parking, the advantage is even greater, with 20 bicycles occupying the space required to park a car.

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Governments Face Cost Hurdle To Halve CO2 By 2050: IEA

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Country: USA/FRANCE Author: Tom Doggett and Muriel Boselli Governments will have to grapple with sharply higher upfront costs to deploy clean energy technologies and halve carbon emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. Action to curb greenhouse gases is going in the "wrong direction," said the energy advisor to 28 industrialized nations, adding that under current trends carbon emissions would instead double by mid-century. Many renewable energy technologies cost more upfront but benefit from fuel savings.

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Rust In The Bread Basket

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Rust in the bread basketA crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world’s great wheat-growing areasJul 1st 2010IT IS sometimes called the “polio of agriculture”: a terrifying but almost forgotten disease. Wheat rust is not just back after a 50-year absence, but spreading in new and scary forms. In some ways it is worse than child-crippling polio, still lingering in parts of Nigeria. Wheat rust has spread silently and speedily by 5,000 miles in a decade. It is now camped at the gates of one of the world’s breadbaskets, Punjab.

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Security Tops The Environment In China’s Energy Plan

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Color China Photo, via Associated PressA worker walks past solar panels at a solar farm in Shilin, China.By KEITH BRADSHERBEIJING — When President Obama called this week for a “national mission” to expand the u

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Emerging Renewables To Have More Profile In Next Statistical Review

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The ‘Statistical Review of World Energy’ does not include wind, solar or geothermal in its primary energy forecast, but these sources will be added next year because they are reaching “sufficient weight in a number of countries.”

Hydroelectricity and nuclear remain the largest non-fossil fuels in the world, with a combined share of 12% in primary energy, explains BP’s chief economist Christof Rühl in the 2010 Review.

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Global Arms Spending Tops $1.6T

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The Associated PressArmed soldiers on guard in Kingston, Jamaica, in May 2010. (Associated Press)Despite the global financial crisis, world military spending almost doubled in the past decade to reach $1.6 trillion Cdn in 2009, a Swedish think-tank said Wednesday. In its 2010 yearbook, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said that spending between 2008 and 2009 grew 5.9 per cent. The United States remains the biggest spender, accounting for some 54 per cent of the increase, the report said.

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World Needs Clean Energy Revolution: UN chief

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UNITED NATIONS — Rich and poor nations need a "clean energy revolution" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said here Wednesday.

 

The Druzhba thermal power station in Sofia

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