Free April 27 London Screening of Sundance Film Festival documentary “Chasing Ice” with Q & A
INVITATION: You are cordially invited to a special screening of the award-winning documentary ‘Chasing Ice’ and a Q & A with the film’s director, Jeff Orlowski. This event is being sponsored by the U.S. Embassy as part of the first-ever Sundance Festival in London.
Smithsonian Ocean Portal and New App
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and more than 20 collaborating organizations launched an Ocean Portal – a unique, interactive online experience that inspires awareness, understanding, and stewardship of the world’s oceans. The State Department collaborated this month with the Smithsonian Institution to create a mobile application featuring content from the National Museum of Natural History’s critically acclaimed Ocean Hall. Available for download on Android, iPhone, and HTML4 systems. Watch the video below for more information on what the Amazing Read more 
$120 Million Storage Hub, NY Tidal Energy Project, CCS Research, and other U.S. Government News
This week, I highlight several developments in clean energy technology and energy efficiency: a new battery storage “catapult-style” technology hub, the first commercially licensed U.S. tidal energy project, an Energy Department carbon capture storage (CCS) research agreement, new energy efficiency awards, and a publically-accessible clean energy database. The federal government also launched several new initiatives toward preserving America’s forests, cleaning up its beaches, investing in STEM education, and taking a first step toward eradicating malaria. I finish with two videos, the first from NASA’s GRAIL satellite of the far side of the moon and the second from the Washington Monument during last year’s earthquake. In follow up to last week’s blog entry, here is a fact sheet released by the White House that explains President Obama’s energy agenda in simplified, graphic representation. Read more
World Wetlands Day is here!
Congratulations to the winners of our Wetlands Photo Celebration fan favorites — with images and photographers from around the globe in the four categories of the Wetlands and Tourism theme: Plants, Landscape, Tourists and Wildlife. Check out the lush stilt village in Ghana, a peaceful river in West Virginia, a snorkeler in the gorgeous coastal wetlands of Mexico, and a beautiful damselfly in Cambodia. The four fan favorites chosen by the public were: Read more
Weekly highlights of U.S. Government news
Please allow me to introduce myself, Michael Wautlet, the new Environment, Science, Technology, and Health (ESTH) Officer at the U.S. Embassy in London. I encourage all of our readers to post comments and ask questions about blog posts, announcements, or events related to ESTH topics.
Climate Change. Today’s “U.S. Government highlights” cover a range of issues from the past two weeks. I begin with the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa. Jonathan Pershing, the Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State and head of the U.S. delegation for the first week of the Read more
Weekly highlights of UK news
With preparations underway for the UN Climate Summit in Durban, the UK Government has been setting out its position ahead of negotiations. In other green news, DEFRA has published a revised timetable for the designation of Marine Conservation Zones, London Mayor Boris Johnson has launched plans to help London become “zero waste” and MPs have urged the Government to do more to improve air quality.
Weekly highlights of U.S. Government news
This week’s U.S. Government highlights cover a range of issues. We begin with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who recently announces the winners of its “Apps for the Environment” challenge. The Department of Energy announced funding that will be made available to local communities to improve energy efficiency by improving access to electricity consumption data. The State Department’s Kerri-Ann Jones held a press briefing to discuss a new information gathering exercise underway as part of the Keystone XL pipeline review process. And, the Secretary of State and large group of Pacific Island leaders met to discuss a range of issues including the environment and climate change, renewable energy, fisheries, non-communicable diseases, and maritime security. Read more
Weekly highlights of UK news
This week the Prime Minister was questioned on his Government’s green credentials, DECC published details of their proposals to reduce solar subsidies, and the independent Climate Change Committee published a report on the UK’s share of international shipping emissions.
Welcome to the New ESTH Blog!
Hello all, and welcome to U.S. Embassy London’s new Environment, Science, Technology, and Health blog. We’ll be updating the blog at least 3 or 4 times a week, so check back regularly to see what’s going on in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Go ahead and bookmark this site now, and check in regularly to see what’s new.
We intend to use this blog to cover a range of Environment, Science, Technology, and Health issues, trying to focus on the most important issues of the day in the U.S., the UK, or around the globe. Issues are likely to include climate change, renewable energy, nuclear energy, science and technology cooperation, space and aviation, and medicine. Of course, if other issues gain prominence, we’ll try to cover those as well.
We plan to follow a semi-regular blogging schedule, where we’ll provide regular roundups of official U.S. government announcements and UK government announcements (we’re currently planning to post these every Tuesday and Thursday, respectively). We’ll try to spotlight the innovative work that American businesses are doing, especially here in the UK. And, we’ll regularly check in with postings on various conferences, meetings, and events that we are attending in the area. Finally, because this is a blog, and a little bit less formal than some of our other means of communicating, we’ll try to occasionally post things that we simply find interesting or amusing.
For now, the blog will be a bit of a work in progress, so we appreciate any thoughts along the way. Are there things you would like to see us cover in depth? Are there things you think we’re focusing on too much? We invite you to use the comments section, and we’ll see if we can’t steer some of the upcoming posts to focus on areas our readers mention.
Thanks, and we look forward to helping this blog grow into an active community.