Power plant operators in the US are keen to trade emissions credits with one another as a way of staying within overall pollution limits. Researchers have warned that unless trading is carefully monitored, the strategy could make pollution worse.

Researchers from the University of Texas created a computer simulation in which 50 power plants in eastern Texas were allowed to trade with each other. Results showed that one in ten trading scenarios created a quarter more ozone pollution than if the same cuts were equally spread across all the power plants. Trades in the wrong direction had also resulted in worse pollution.

In view of the possibility in aggravating pollution with emissions trading, the Texan Emissions Banking and Trading Program tried to tackle the problem by splitting the state into areas and allowing companies to trade only with others in the same area. However, researchers said that this approach is still flawed. According to David Allen of the University of Texas, only the ceasing of the top ten percent of polluters from buying emissions credits would solve a lot of potential pollution aggravation problems.

BP claimed that its new Connect retail site in Hornchurch, Essex would be the world's most environmentally friendly station.

The UK is considering laying a 640-km long undersea power cable along its western coast to link offshore wind farms and other renewable energy projects to the national electricity transmission grid. The move to tap green sources more effectively comes as the government works on a review of energy policy for the next 50 years.

The government wants to supply 10% of Britain's electricity from renewables sources by 2010, compared with just fewer than 3% now. Offshore windfarms are expected to play a crucial role in the expansion of renewable energy use.

Britain's Department of Trade and Industry (DIT) has proposed to introduce the EU's new 'end-of-life' vehicles (ELV) directive in 2002 to prevent scrap cars from being abandoned. Under this directive, car manufacturers would be responsible for recycling old cars and pay the costs of disposing vehicles when they reach the end of their working lives.

However, British car manufacturers urged the government to abandon the plan of making them responsible for recycling old cars under the directive, as it would cause them many problems. If the regulations were strictly enforced, it would weaken the financial strength of the industry and force some carmakers into insolvency as well as create other fiscal and logistical implications.

Researchers of the Genoa-based National Research Center (CNR) discovered that the use of an artificial barrier called the Marine Underwater Depurator System (MUDS) can be a low-cost and ecologically low-impact alternative to treat waste.

Chemical water treatments can be avoided with the use of MUDS near areas where untreated waste is dumped into oceans. MUDS serves as an effective "sludge eater" by allowing microorganisms to settle in and consume the organic waste without causing adverse environmental impact. CNR has filed for permits to allow enough sludge eaters to be placed to handle as high as 90 percent of waste.

However, there are still drawbacks of this artificial barrier technique. It can only work for relatively small communities because of space constraints and it can only be effective in salt water.

European Union member states adopted a plan to set up a global environmental monitoring and security system called the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Systems (GMES) by 2008.

The system would rely primarily on satellite technology to provide the EU member states with an independent assessment of issues relating sustainable development, especially on climate change and bio-diversity loss. The European Commission and the European Space Agency will jointly manage GMES.

According to Philippe Busquin, EU Research Commissioner, GMES aims to obtain accurate and reliable information on the state of our earth and monitor our environment in the wider sense.

Conventionally, the use of asbestos is dangerous because of its lethal nature. According to research by the US Environmental Protection Agency, even with precaution measures taken, asbestos fibres can linger in the air for more than four years. These fibres can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Italian chemists from the University of Turin had discovered that lethal asbestos fibres could be neutralised using a combination of hydrogen peroxide and eugenol, a phenol-like chemical found in cloves.

According to the chemists, when the liquid extract from cloves touches the surface of asbestos, it instantly hardens into a polymer similar to lignin, which gives wood its strength. All the potentially hazardous fibres are then harmlessly embedded in the polymer and could not float off into the air. The output polymer can also remove the "free radical" chemical complexes that lurk on the asbestos fibres and damage DNA, potentially turning cells cancerous.

The chemist team said that the method could be adapted to practical purposes to remove asbestos with eugenol either extracted from cloves or synthesised.

Researchers from the University of Toronto discovered that a group of compounds found in garlic and onions may have an effective treatment for malaria.

Ian Crandell, Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, reported that research results showed that garlic and onions contained natural-occurring compounds called disulfides, which contained anti-fungal, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial properties. The mechanism by which they inhibit persistent malarial infections appeared to be similar to the way they fight cancer cells. According to Crandell, tests were conducted on 11 different synthetic disulfide compounds against malaria-infected cells. Disulfides that were effective at killing cancer cells were also effective against Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite.

The US government reported that the carbon dioxide emissions in the country jumped 3.1% last year, one of the biggest annual increases in a decade. Carbon dioxide emissions, which account for more than 80% to the total US greenhouse gas emissions, reached 1,583 million metric tons of carbon equivalent.

The 3.1% growth was the second highest annual increase during the 1990 - 2000 period, and was well above annual 1.6% growth rate for the period. Carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants were up 4.7% in 2000 to 642 million metric tons, almost double the 1999-2000 average increase of 2.4%.