Comment piece in Nature on sharing data, access and academic credit in the Earth Sciences in the context of the International Polar Year. Assesssment of technical and cultural barriers to access. Carlson, D (2011) A lesson in sharing. Nature 469 293 (20 January 2011) doi:10.1038/469293a
There is current interest in rare earth and strategic metals in UK policy circles - I made a post on this in December. The UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has just issued a briefing note for parliamentarians to tie in with the Select Committee inquiry. Covers the basics, but not much reference to other international policy initiatives.
Interesting paper in Science in December comparing a range of models and scenarios for biodiversity in the 21st Century. General conclusion is of continuing loss, but the degree of potential loss is uncertain, with very different projections from different models. Pereira et al. 2010 Scenarios for Global Biodiversity in the 21st Century. Science 330 1496-1501. doi: 10.1126/science.1196624
Useul exploration of the ABS protocol, including history and implications: Kamau, E C, Fedder, B and Winter, G (2010) The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing: What is New and what are the
Implications for Provider and User Countries and the Scientific Community? 6/3 Law, Environment and Development Journal (2010), p. 246
