As people around the world watch the unimaginable images being streamed out of Haiti, humanitarian aid is finally reaching the people that have been devastated by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010. Food, water, medical provisions, shelter and supplies are slowly reaching those affected by the catastrophe. Read the rest of this entry »
While Brisbane’s waste removal system battles to discard perfectly good mangos, this contrasts starkly with the difficulties and opportunities associated with agricultural produce gluts in poor communities in rural Africa.
Apparently some trees are dropping up to 60 mangoes overnight. If these are simply placed in rubbish bins they are too heavy for the mechanical garbage trucks and get left on the street. Normally there would be a $24 fee to get a garbage truck to come back and empty the bin, but the City Council has agreed to waive this cost so long as residents first remove the mangoes. The Council has also removed the charge for dumping mangoes at the city’s transfer stations.
So in Australia the fuss is about getting the mangoes to the dump and not about the waste of food or the loss of income opportunities, that bother the African.Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this month (Dec. 7, 2009), two Op-Ed columns appeared in the New York Times–one, by Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman, supporting ‘cap and trade’ strategies for reducing carbon emissions, and the other, authored by NASA’s James Hansen advocating a new approach that he calls ‘fee and dividend’. So, which is the most effective policy to pursue and implement?
The following is a break down of the two carbon-cutting strategies:
Design of the Svalbard seed vault as of early 2007
In 1992, the Global Biodiversity Convention (GBC) was adopted in Rio de Janeiro, and which placed the biodiversity issue center stage–calling for the world-wide preservation of biodiversity and its equitable and sustainable use. The convention was established in response to both the increasing rate of plant extinction (through habitat loss), fears by poorer nations of “biopiracy”, and the increasing agricultural use of land for high-value crops, to the exclusion of lesser-value ones–a practice that diminishes crop biodiversity. These lesser-value crops are typically grown by independent and small farms in less economically advanced countries. Many of these so-called “orphan crops” risk becoming extinct. Further, many species of plant or tree that fall outside the conventional definition of agriculture–such as the sea-water tolerant mangrove tree–are being ignored, to the possible peril of future agriculture.
The video is explicit, the message is simple: You can transform lives in one of the poorest districts of India by donating a goat.
A life-changing experience in India inspired volunteer Debbie Glasband to launch a program to provide an alternative source of income for tribal people: Goats.
A new report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), attempts to bring to the world’s attention the truly great economic value of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as the benefits of taking these into account when making policies.
The value of the world’s natural ecosystems and biodiversity is something lacking in most economic analyses. Lack of value for what is truly priceless doesn’t just hurt the environment, however. It is also a sort of economic suicide. This new report, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme and supported by key EU, UK, German, Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian bodies, attempts to bring all of this to our attention more and show some positive case studies of how taking the environment into consideration can actually save us money.
As the report says: “the failure of markets to adequately consider the value of ecosystem services is of concern not only to environment, development and climate change ministries but also to finance, economics and business ministries.” Read the rest of this entry »
Foragers coming in loaded with pollen on the hive landing board.
In 2007, large commercial beekeepers started reporting big drop-offs in their bee colony populations. By 2008, estimated colony losses of between 30 and 70% were being reported, as a flurry of bad news about bees made the media rounds.
The loss since then of over 40% of the nation’s commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies–most seemingly due to so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD; caused most likely by the IAPV virus)–ushered in predictions of dire consequences for valuable crops around the world due to a lack of pollinators.
But a recent analysis of global honey bee populations (by Aizen and Harder*) shows a 45% increase in total numbers since 1961. The data for this analysis came from a global database of managed honeybees. The same researchers note, however, that the global stock of honey bees is growing slower than the global demand for them–which comes primarily from the cultivation of “luxury” crops like fruits and nuts. The the year round demand for items like cherries, mangoes, almonds and pistachios is far out-pacing world-wide production, leading to the perception of a shortage of pollinators.
Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.
The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.
The United Nations (UN) released a report on September 1 that gives their strongest criticism of climate change funding to date. They say that rich, developed nations really need to step it up in the battle to control and reduce climate change. They say that funding should be about 27 times higher than it currently is ($500-600 billion compared to $21 billion annually).
The UN states that it does not “shy away… from insisting that the advanced countries will have to deliver resources and leadership on a much larger scale than has been the case to date.” This is a bold statement and a humungous lead-in to the Copenhagen climate conference in December.
Think globally, act locally has been a mantra for the environmental movement for decades. At EcoLocalizer, you can find local news and information about citizens, organizations and businesses that are taking positive green steps forward in their neighborhoods and communities.
