Zika virus outbreak is a ‘global public health emergency’, says WHO
The World Health Organisation said the outbreak should be considered a ‘public health emergency of international concern’, putting the mosquito-borne disease in the same category as ebola, which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa. Experts were called in to assess the Zika outbreak after noting a link between its arrival in Brazil last year […]
One of the world’s two worst polluting countries may have peaked
China’s greenhouse gas emissions could start to decline within 10 years, according to a report from the London School of Economics. This would be five years earlier than expected and would offer a boost towards efforts to protect the climate. The shift has been partly caused by a massive commitment to renewables. China is […]
China ‘expanding island building’ in South China Sea
US officials say China has reclaimed 810 hectares (2,000 acres) since the beginning of 2014. China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with its neighbours. More details in this excellent analysis from the BBC Other countries accuse China of illegally taking land to create artificial islands with facilities […]
Future farming to be based on robots and big data
Thought provoking lead from the excellent KurweilAI.net The farm of the future will involve multiple lightweight, small, autonomous, energy-efficient machines (AgBots) operating collectively to weed, fertilize and control pest and diseases, while collecting vasts amount of data to enable better management decision making,” according to Queensland University of Technology (QUT) robotics Professor Tristan Perez. “We are […]