Environment

• Thursday, November 26th 2009 - 05:28 UTC

  Future algae bio-fuel production confirmed in southern Chile

  

  United States corporation Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) has founded a subsidiary, BAL Chile, through which the company has already begun cultivating 100 hectares of seaweed on the island of Chiloé, with the aim of producing bio-fuel.

• Wednesday, November 25th 2009 - 06:00 UTC

  On the 150th anniversary of “On the origin of species”, Darwin’s missing notebook

  

  Charles Darwin's encounter with the first of the two creatures that would provide him with the early clues for his theory of evolution was not a dramatic one. “Met an immense Turpin; took little notice of me,” the 26-year-old jotted in his notebook in 1835.

• Tuesday, November 24th 2009 - 12:57 UTC

  Boeing 747 flies an engine with 50% bio-kerosene mix

  

  A Boeing 747, one of four engines powered by a 50% bio-kerosene mix, circled the Netherlands for an hour on Monday for what airline KLM called the world's first passenger flight using bio-fuel.

• Tuesday, November 24th 2009 - 12:45 UTC

  Deep sea abyss swamped with diversity of life and new species

  

  From a translucent giant octopus to a fish bearing barbed fangs, a team of international scientists say they have discovered hundreds of new species living in total darkness at least 5km beneath the surface of the world's oceans.

• Tuesday, November 24th 2009 - 03:02 UTC

  “Flush” of icebergs heading for New Zealand

  

  Over one hundred Antarctic icebergs are moving towards New Zealand in an extraordinary happening that has raised a shipping warning, officials announced Monday. An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist stated that the bergs, pinpointed by satellites, have floated past the Auckland Islands, and are 280 miles northeast of the Island.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 11:31 UTC

  World largest solar powered trimaran prepares to circumnavigate the world

  

  The world's largest solar-powered trimaran, PlanetSolar, will not have sails. Instead of wind it will rely on the power of the sun to circumnavigate the world in 140 days. That's according to plans sketched out by the financial backers and designers of the triple-hull, 30-metre-long, 15-metre-wide boat under construction at Knierim shipyard in Kiel, Germany.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 10:53 UTC

  Cruise vessels on alert as four icebergs are spotted drifting towards New Zealand

  

  At least four icebergs are bearing down on New Zealand, drifting only a few hundred kilometres off the South Island coast and moving closer by the day.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 08:59 UTC

  Sour anniversary for Botnia pulp mill Argentine pickets

  

  An Argentine company has purchased 500 tons of pulp from the Uruguayan Botnia mill which is at the heart of a serious diplomatic controversy with Argentina that has reached the International Court of The Hague.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 05:49 UTC

  Ten-year input for the Atlas of the Patagonian marine ecosystem

  

  The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and BirdLife International have released the first-ever comprehensive atlas of the Patagonian Sea -- a globally important but poorly understood South American marine ecosystem.

• Tuesday, November 17th 2009 - 09:10 UTC

  Latinamerica at the heart of a climate change deal, says Miliband

  

  United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday a politically binding deal on climate change will only be struck with the agreement of leading South American countries.