The leading scientific journals usually have a yearend issue that summarizes the year that was in science.
ITALSScienceEND ITALS magazine has hailed the AIDS treatment therapy study HPTN 052 of Myron Cohen and collaborators as its “Breakthrough of the Year.” This clinical study showed lowered infection rates of HIV-1 (by a factor of 20) between partners using a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs. This treatment, described in a paper in the ITALSNew England Journal of MedicineEND ITALS, combined with other promising clinical trials, may be “The Beginning of the End of AIDS,” as the World AIDS Day (December 1) event last year in George Washington University heralded.

At the end of each year, we usually take stock of what transpired and assess our strengths and weaknesses in order to do better next year. Usually in the form of “New Year’s Resolutions,” we list down what we have to do for the next 365 days. In the light of the recent disasters in Mindanao, we list here the top 7 things we can do to address climate vulnerability in our country.

As the year comes to a close, it now appears that Typhoon Sendong (international name Washi) is the deadliest storm of 2011. It affected more than 27,000 families in around 190 barangays, in 24 municipalities and cities in the 13 provinces of Region VI, Region VII, Region IX, Region X, Region XI, CARAGA and the ARMM. Retrieval operations are still going on and thousands of families remain in evacuation centers as their houses were destroyed and swept away by flash floods. With nearly a thousand dead and still more missing, many are asking how ready the Philippines is as a country to increased hazards such as typhoons and other climate change effects.

[This column is contributed by Marjorie Pamintuan of Agham Youth.]

Environmentalism is perhaps a glamorous advocacy that one could think of with its cycling, rock-climbing, and lifestyle fanfare. Yet this glamorous green image gets tainted red with blood as one remembers that environmental advocates have come under attack in the past few years because their grassroots work grates against big corporate interests.

PRESS RELEASE

September 14, 2011

Just as the bull market for metals has actively pushed the mining industry of the country, the Philippine government welcomed it with open arms with mining applications totaling to 2,136. The liberalization of the local mining industry has been flaunted by the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines to gain foreign partnership in the business of mining. They have sponsored a three-day mining conference from September 13 to Sept. 15 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel. The said conference is participated by almost 500 local and international delegates to discuss the global scenario of mining investments and its opportunities.

THE landslide last April 22, 2011 in a small-scale mining community in Pantukan, Compostela Valley which left 14 dead, 14 injured and 8 missing (NDRRMC), once again brought the concern of small-scale mining to the forefront. The incident reminds us of the ever-present occupational hazards faced by our country’s small-scale miners and signals the need to be pro-active in preventing occupationally-related disasters.

A Filipina cousin of mine who was living 70 kilometers away from the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant sent a message to me through the Internet asking advice on what her family could do about the nuclear accident. It struck me that even if the Philippine government has allayed fears about the direct effect of the nuclear accident, there are Filipinos that are going to be near the site of one of the biggest industrial disasters in record.