What’s New January 2008

This page lists changes to this site for January 2008.

See below for other updates and to get notified of changes to the site.

The UN conference on climate change held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007 led to a final agreement known as the “Bali Roadmap”. The Bali Roadmap outlined a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 to feed into a post-Kyoto (i.e. a post-2012) international agreement on climate change. The Roadmap included a decision to launch an Adaptation Fund as well as further decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation. However, as with past climate conferences, this was not without its controversies, especially Europe and developing countries’ criticisms of the US position and negotiation tactics.

Advertising to children involves a lot of money, but has far greater returns, as not only are products targeted towards children, but children are able to influence a great deal of parental purchases. Many critics argue that advertising to children is harmful. Some suggest bans on such advertising, while others call for regulation, self-regulation or even more parental responsibilities. Studies show mixed results with these approaches. Updated statistics and information have been added in this update.

Worldwide, obesity is as large a problem as world hunger and growing. Health professionals are generally agreed that the causes are a combination of social, economic and physical issues and as such a multitude of approaches need to be taken to tackle the problem. This update includes additional details on this.

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