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Can one woman save Africa?
Johann Hari, The Independent
When does planting a tree become a revolutionary act – and unleash an army of gunmen who want to shoot you dead? The answer to this question lies in the unlikely story of Wangari Maathai.

She was born on the floor of a mud hut with no water or electricity in the middle of rural Kenya, in the place where human beings took their first steps. There was no money but there was at least lush green rainforest and cool, clear drinking water. But Maathai watched as the life-preserving landscape of her childhood was hacked down. The forests were felled, the soils dried up, and the rivers died, so a corrupt and distant clique could profit. She started a movement to begin to make the land green again – and in the process she went to prison, nearly died, toppled a dictator, transformed how African women saw themselves, and won a Nobel Prize.

Now Maathai is travelling the world with a warning. As she told the United Nations climate summit last Tuesday, it is not just her beloved rainforest that is threatened now, but all rainforests. "As human beings, we are attacking our own life-support system," she says. "And if we carry on like this, we are digging our own grave."...
(28 Sept 2009)
"The Challenge For Africa" by Wangari Maathai is published by William Heinemann Limited

Africa doesn't need a green revolution. It needs agroecology
Dan Taylor, The Ecologist
Green Revolution architect Norman Borlaug is credited with 'feeding India'. But the feat took more than hybrid varieties and fertiliser, and it will take a much more sophisticated approach to help Africa feed itself

"The conditions for a Green Revolution in Africa are not, and have never been, in place"

The recent death of Norman Borlaug the ‘grandfather’ of the Green Revolution makes this a good time to reflect on food and farming in the 21st Century and the Malthusian Time Bomb that he sought to defuse.

It is often suggested that Borlaug succeeded in achieving significant yield increases in crops in Asia through a combination of dwarf varieties, inputs in the form of inorganic fertlisers and irrigation.

However, the Green Revolution was institutional as well as agronomic, with the state providing the infrastructural support needed for making this transformation successful.

The conditions for a Green Revolution in Africa are not, and have never been, in place. Recent interventions such as the Millennium Development Project, Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa or even the up-to-now successful input subsidy in Malawi are unlikely to be sustainable...
(23 Sept 2009)

Human-made Crises 'Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,' Scientists Warn
Science Daily
The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the sorts of planet-wide challenges now arising.
Pointing to global action on ozone depletion (the Montreal Protocol), high seas fisheries and antibiotic drug resistance as examples, they call for a new order of cooperative international institutions capable of dealing with issues like climate change – and enforcing compliance where necessary.

“Energy, food and water crises, climate disruption, declining fisheries, ocean acidification, emerging diseases and increasing antibiotic resistance are examples of serious, intertwined global-scale challenges spawned by the accelerating scale of human activity,” say the researchers, who come from Australia, Sweden, the United States, India, Greece and The Netherlands...
(17 Sept 2009)

The Australian town that kicked the bottle
Kathy Marks, The Independent
Plastic bottles were ceremoniously removed from shelves in the sleepy Australian town of Bundanoon at the weekend as a ban on commercially-bottled water – believed to be a world first – came into force.

The ban, which is supported by local shopkeepers, means bottled water can no longer be bought in the town in the Southern Highlands, two hours from Sydney. Instead, reusable bottles have gone on sale, which can be refilled for free at new drinking fountains.

Locals marched through the town on Saturday, led by a lone piper, to celebrate the start of the ban. John Dee, a campaign spokesman, said: "While our politicians grapple with the enormity of dealing with climate change, what Bundanoon shows is that at the very local level we can sometimes do things to bring about real and measurable change."...
(28 Sept 2009)

Energy executives offer ideas on stimulus
Erin Ailworth, The Boston Globe
Executives from two local clean energy companies say federal stimulus money will help them create about 2,000 jobs across the country, though few in Massachusetts.

They were among the representatives from nine firms who met yesterday in Washington, D.C., with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu to discuss how more than $500 million in stimulus funds awarded to clean energy companies nationwide this month is being spent. The treasury and energy departments distributed the money jointly under a program that provides cash assistance to energy producers, instead of more common tax credits.

First Wind, a wind energy developer based in Newton, and Ameresco, a Framingham company that oversees energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, participated in yesterday’s roundtable session, during which company representatives also told federal officials how the stimulus program for clean energy could be improved.
(23 Sept 2009)