Definition and insertion of the GSPC in the political context of Mexico.

Mexico as a megadiverse country houses between 6 and 8% of the world's flora. However, the Mexican flora is facing challenges, including the presence of at least 981 threatened plant species and 618 exotic plant species, habitat loss, pollution, overexploitation of natural resources and the adverse effects of climate change, which are compromising its conservation and sustainable use. Mexico has been actively involved in the development and update of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As a party to CBD, Mexico has established a Coordinating Committee for the Mexican Strategy for Plant Conservation (MSPC), which has adapted the GSPC to fit national needs and drafted a number of projects, indicators, means of verification and actors to ensure that the MSPC, as a public policy tool, really drives conservation and sustainable use actions among all sectors and lasts beyond the current administration. An agenda is being developed with activities that include the following: approaching Congress, identifying the relevance of the MSPC in the National Development Plan and the Mexican Biodiversity Strategy, making use of current environmental policies and an aggressive awareness programme. The MSPC includes simultaneous programmes of technical and political work.

Historical CO(2) emission and concentrations due to land use change of croplands and pastures by country.

This work is aimed at estimating the historical land use change emission and concentrations of CO(2) by country. Calculating the area differences of each biome (associated to carbon factors) converted to cropland (including urban areas) and pastures by country we calculated the land use change CO(2) emission over the past 300 years using a new dataset, which is a well known one in the literature: the HYDE land use database. According to IPCC-SR-LULUCF (2000) the net cumulative global CO(2) emission from land use change (1850--1990) is estimated to have been 499+/-205 Tg CO(2), our result is 360 Tg CO(2) for the same period, and Houghton's (Houghton, RA, 2003a. Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850--2000. Tellus 55B, 378--390) result is 492 Tg CO(2). We have also used the Bern model (IPCC-TAR-WG1, 2001) of decay time of CO(2) to estimate the concentrations of CO(2) in the year 1990 due to land use change emission, once the CO(2) emission from the past is still decaying in the atmosphere.

[Brazilian physician José Pinto de Azeredo (1766?-1810) and the chemical examination of Rio de Janeiro's atmosphere]. / O médico brasileiro José Pinto de Azeredo (1766?-1810) e o exame químico da atmosfera do Rio de Janeiro.

José Pinto de Azeredo, of Rio de Janeiro, studied medicine and conducted notable experimental research in Edinburgh (1786-88), presenting his graduate thesis on gout in Leiden. Already appointed surgeon-general of Angola, he returned to Rio in 1789 and practiced medicine in Brazil. In 1790 he moved to Luanda, where he practiced at the Hospital Real and founded a medical school that did not survive his departure for Portugal in 1797. He worked at Lisbon's main military hospital and as a private physician until his death. His written works (some ten manuscripts and five publications) warrant an examination from the perspective of the history of medicine. In an article published in 1790 on Rio de Janeiro's air quality, he reveals the skills of an analytical chemist, his interest in the effects of different air components on organisms, and his concern with air quality in Brazil and Europe.