By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — After months of delays, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has finally opened the country’s first vehicle research and testing laboratory equipped with a chassis dynamometer and emission analyzer used to assess viability of different alternative fuels.

The facility is located at the Melchor Hall of the University of the Philippines, where the DOST’s academic partner institution, the UP Department of Mechanical Engineering is located. DOST is also represented by its sub-agency the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD).

The facility is created under the requirements of Republic Act 9637 or the Biofuels Act to provide infrastructure support for assessment, validation, and performance testing of biofuels . The facility will also develop test protocols, standards and regulations including the use fuel-saving emission and control devices.

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MANILA, Philippines – Key United Nations (UN) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials will speak in a food, energy and climate summit seeking to raise public awareness on these three interconnected issues in the Philippines next week.

Stephen Anderson, UN country director and representative to the Philippines for its World Food Program and Xianbin Yao, ADB acting director general for regional sustainable development, will speak at the said summit organized by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

The summit aims to discuss these issues and find ways to mitigate adverse effects of climate changes to food and energy and vice versa. UN experts have warned that rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, according to AIM.

A recent World Bank report revealed that at least 33 countries are facing political and social unrest due to rising food and energy prices. The report already noted riots and unrest have erupted in 22 of these countries.

Meanwhile, the International Alert (IA), a London-based peace-building organization, released its own report in November 2007 highlighting the “risks of conflict and instability as a consequence of nations’ inability to adapt to climate change”.

The said report identified 46 countries facing a high risk of armed conflict as a “knock-on” consequence of climate change. IA’s list includes the Philippines as well as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, all of which have a history of armed conflict.

Foreign affairs secretary Alberto Romulo and Agriculture secretary Arthur Yap will also be delivering keynote presentations in the summit which happens August 27 at the Hotel Sofitel in Pasay City.

By Agence France-Presse

NEW York — A fourth of the fish for sale in New York City markets and sushi restaurants is mislabeled, a study launched by two high school students has found.

Cheap fish masquerading as fancy and endangered species disguised as eco-friendly have both been busted by the enterprising young scientists and a new technique called DNA bar coding, the New York Times said Friday.

Kate Stoeckle, 19, and Louisa Strauss, 18, collected 60 samples of seafood from four restaurants and 10 stores in Manhattan, preserved them in alcohol and sent them to the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada for genetic analysis.

Stoeckle’s father Mark Stoeckle is an expert on birds and a proponent of DNA bar coding, a field developed since 2003, in which scientists use a single gene to identify a species rather than the entire genome, the daily said.

One evening, over dinner at a sushi restaurant, Stoeckle asked her father if the technique could be used on sushi, and a high school science project was born.

In Canada, Guelph graduate student Eugene Wong compared the DNA of the samples the young women sent him to a global library of 30,562 “bar codes” representing nearly 5,500 fish species, the Times said.
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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is urging car manufacturers to bring in more hybrid models into the country while calling on the adoption of fuel-efficiency and renewable energy measures.

“We await the arrival of the hybrid models that can shift from gas to electricity,” Arroyo said in her opening address at the Philipine International Motor Show, organized by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI).

The President took note of the presence of 15 major car manufacturers in this year’s show. But a significant portion of her speech was spent calling on “clean and green measures.”
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By Alexander Villafania

INQUIRER.net

The effect of the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries can be likened to the effect of the information technology revolution today. It created new industries and new skills that changed the way people lived. Yet, both periods in history also had their share of negative impact: pollution.

The industrial revolution saw an increase in use of petroleum products and chemical compounds that seeped into the ground, polluting water and soil. IT industries, with the constant replacement of old equipment for better ones, is also causing a new generation of garbage and it could get worse as the demand for IT products continues growing.

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