Declan Butler, reporter This is the personal blog of Declan Butler, a senior reporter at Nature. All views expressed here are mine, and not those of Nature. Contact me at d.butler@nature.com

I’ve the lead news article tonight in Nature with an exclusive — Further delays to full Agent Orange study — on a complex story behind efforts to get done a large-scale epidemiological study of the health effects, and other combat factors — on Vietnam veterans, almost 30 years after it was first mandated. Nature has an accompanying Editorial — A ghost of battles past.

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A few excerpts from the long news article, and the Editorial, below:

A study to investigate the health effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam War veterans is being obstructed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), claim scientists and veterans’ organizations.

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Ultra-low energy homes are not necessarily architectural boutique projects: above are low-income “passive” terrace houses in Lindas, Sweden

I’ve a 4-page feature in Nature tonight on the huge potential of green architecture for mitigating climate change (pdf file here).

It’s been one of the most challenging articles I’ve had to write, as I had to leave out so much, but at the same time one of the most satisfying. This is a hugely important topic. Buildings account for up to half of all energy consumption, and are the biggest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Much attention is given to exotic future remedies, such as carbon sequestration and clean coal. But a way to slash emissions using existing technologies is sitting under our noses: simply rethinking how we design the buildings we live and work in, to use much less energy.

The arguments for building with energy needs met largely by marrying with the local environment and passive strategies are so compelling that the research for this article is persuading me to switch my own plans to buy a place in French Touraine, where I live, to instead build a zero-energy home — no small challenge though, given that French builders are far behind their German, Swiss, and Austrian neighbours here.

I’ve posted just a few of the links I collected during the research to here on Connotea, and hope to add more.

It’s impossible to excerpt from an article of this length in any sensible way, but just to give you a flavour, here below are a few:

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