Experts address smoking among the homeless
A panel of policy experts, agencies serving the homeless and homeless individuals gathered in Washington D.C. in late October to discuss the issue of tobacco usage among the homeless. There findings, from a survey by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that there is an 18 percent difference in the national smoking rate between people who make less that $15,000 a year (30.6 percent) and those who make over $50,000 a year (12 percent). "The homeless experience physical and emotional distress. They smoke so that they can lose weight, and to kill the hunger pains, as it is sometimes impossible for many to get three hot meals a day," said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless. "People are ignorant about smoking as a health issue, they simply do not know enough about it." Stoops hopes the meeting will "get this epidemic on the radar screen" and encourage shelters "to create programs that are targeted at the reduction of smoking among the homeless."
--Street Sense, Washington, D.C.
Light for rural poor
When the sun goes down, millions of people across the world are left in darkness, and even the most menial of tasks becomes a difficult chore. Solar power may offer a low-cost light solution. Off-grid applications such as solar cookers and lanterns distributed in India, which can provide several hours of light at night after being charged by the sun during the day, will help cut dependence on fossil fuels and reduce the fourth biggest emitter's carbon footprint, said Pradeep Dadhich, a senior fellow at energy research institute TERI. For the hundreds of millions of people in India that have little or no access to electricity, this technical revolution will prove life changing.
--Reuters
Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics
The capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, is a dubious method of effectively reducing the pollution that causes global warming, experts warn. In Berlin scientists, environmentalists and local communities continue to object to the method, which consists of compressing and liquefying carbon dioxide before sending it to underground deposits, and which has been applied for some time to recover petroleum and gas from partially exhausted oil wells.
--Inter Press News