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Is DDT making a comeback?

It was back in the 1940’s when dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane, or DDT as it is more commonly known, was labelled a miracle pesticide, and won Swiss chemist Paul Müller a Nobel Prize in Medicine. Now experts are saying that this widely banned pesticide is the best bet to save millions of lives threatened with malaria, a disease that affects mainly pregnant women and children and is spread by mosquitoes.

The US Agency for International Development endorsed the use of DDT for indoor use in May, and the World Health Organisation is expected to follow suit.

But why was it banned? And if it’s so bad, why is it making a comeback at a time when we should be protecting the earth from environmental disasters, not endorsing them?

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High street solar

British electrical retailer Currys has launched an off-the-shelf solar energy product in three of its stores, namely West Thurrock, Fulham and Croydon. The panels, manufactured by Sharp, are priced at £1000 each, making a solar heating system for an average… Read More »High street solar

Next stop, nuclear fallout

Last week a reporter from The Mirror walked up to an unattended nuclear waste train in a NorthWest London depot and planted a fake bomb on the train.

“The gate was open, there were no security guards… I walked up to the train and planted my bomb.”

Tom Parry, reporter

“I’m appalled. Every one of these trains would be a potential target for terrorists. If you had an incident in London, I estimate that 190,000 people would have to be evacuated. Those flasks were designed to counter accidents. But they weren’t designed to counter the likes of al-Qaeda.”

Dr John Large, nuclear transport expert

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Market mechanisms for emissions trading full of holes

Although better than the Bush plan of doing nothing, the Kyoto Protocol has its share of problems. The European Union in particular has relied on market mechanisms to achieve the goal of holding carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. The plan works like this: Governments and Treaties set the level of emissions allowed by a region. Government bureaucrats then divide up this level of emissions into “emissions allowances” for individual emitters. That emitter then has the ability to emit to its full allowance, or cut emissions below its allowance and sell its remaining allowances on the open market. A coal plant may, for example, be given allowance to cover only its current level of emissions. If it wants to increase production, it needs to either purchase more allowances from another emitter or find ways to increase production with fewer emissions. To accommodate this trading, exchanges have sprung up to broker emissions allowances. However, some bureaucrats have demonstrated in this space their woeful lack of understanding of how markets work.

Read More »Market mechanisms for emissions trading full of holes