What exactly is the cost to society when one million hectares (8,861 sq. miles, an area roughly the size of Costa Rica) of Brazilian rainforest disappears? The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) just released Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature, a report that aims to precisely answer that question. The report highlights government and business development policies that consistently fails to value the true cost of natural resources depletion. The report makes an excellent case for biodiversity loss valuation in all governmental decision-making processes. The report also highlights the strong link that exists between ecological conservation and a society’s ability to Continue reading
Poverty
Hello, Houston? Is that blip on the radar screen actually energy poverty?
Is it just us or is public awareness finally turning its ADHD gaze on energy poverty? Was it Hillary Clinton’s announcement of the launch of the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves at the CGI the catalyst? Is the public finally connecting the dots between deforestation and a series of natural and human disasters? (See Haiti, Pakistan) The fact is that there seems to be more and more ink dedicated to the topic of energy poverty and its impact on public health, poverty, and the degradation of local environments in developing countries. The clearest indication yet that energy poverty alleviation is Continue reading
The Lost Kittens for the week of 18 October
As the new week begins, we bring to you this compilation of Tweets and stories harvested during our internet fishing expedition over the past week. Have a great week ahead! — The Editors 1. Winner of the week’s top comedy award: 2. Nasa, via the NYT, brings perspective to Pakistan’s flooding woes: 3. Biomass more efficient than ethanol Biomass converted to electricity could achieve 80 per cent more “miles per acre” than the same material converted to ethanol, a group of United States researchers announced last year. As an example, the study by researchers from several US universities found that Continue reading
Goal Looms for U.N.: Ending ‘Energy Poverty’
taken from Green, a NYT blog about energy and the environment By Elisabeth Rosenthal New York – Oct. 4th, 2010 — The United Nations Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000 as a commitment to improve health and education as well as end poverty in less fortunate parts of the globe. The eight goals include targets like universal childhood education, reducing infant mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability. This year there has been a growing movement to add a ninth goal: ending energy poverty. Some 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity. Energy experts like Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the Continue reading
Why solar cookers are not a viable option for the energy poor
Solar cookers do not work as reliable substitutes for traditional biomass cooking.
That’s in part because rural inhabitants in developing countries are often small plot farmers who must get up when it’s still dark out to get things going on the farm. Breakfast, the key meal of the day if you’re a farmers, is impossible to prepare before sunrise using a solar cooker.
The working urban poor have a different problem. If a family is out all day and doesn’t return until after dark, how can they prepare dinner? Also, where can you safely leave your solar cooker with food cooking when you live in a shanty town?