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Archive for September, 2010
Restoring Ethiopia’s Forest Cover
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
IPS: Mesfin Mengistu has been growing trees on his two-hectare farm in Menagesha Woreda for years. "I understand planting trees helps maintain environmental balance, but I do it to earn extra income to cover the rising cost of fertilisers," Mesfin said. Wheat and maize are his main sources of income from his plot 45 kilometres west of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. In the last year, he has earned 10,000 birr (over $730) from his trees alone, an income most Ethiopian families would ...
Peru: ‘We will have no water and that will be the end of the world for us’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
Guardian: Julio Hanneco is possibly the world's greatest potato grower. Some call him the King of Potatoes, but I prefer Señor Spud because Julio is as humble as the vegetable he grows. He lives in a small village called Pampa Corral, at 4,020m (nearly 13,000ft) in the Cusco region, and he grows a staggering 215 varieties of potatoes - red ones, black ones, translucent ones, shapes and sizes you cannot imagine. He can name every one, like his family, but his favourite is a fantastically knobbly ...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Peru: ‘We will have no water and that will be the end of the world for us’Floodwaters Give New Life to Pakistani Class Dispute
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 16th, 2010
NYT: Despite being flooded out of their homes and forced to camp on embankments, there is one community that is happy about Pakistan's worst floods in living memory. They are the fishermen of the Indus River delta, whose livelihoods have diminished over the years from a lack of water, and who welcome the sudden abundance. "It is a blessing," said Yar Ali Mallah, 21, who comes from a long line of fishermen living in the delta, at the southern end of Pakistan. "When good water comes, our ...
United Kingdom: Three of the best eco kettles
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Guardian: Fans of "eco kettles" were scalded earlier this week by remarks from Richard Gillies, the director of Marks & Spencer's "Plan A" green initiative. Gillies told a sustainability summit hosted by Prince Charles that he had ceased using his because it "costs more, it's bug-ugly and it's difficult to use". Embarrassingly, he was talking about a product that was sold at – but has unsurprisingly since been withdrawn from – his own company's stores. Eco kettles work on the principle that ...
Getting real about a warmer, wetter Minnesota
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Minneapolis Star Tribune: It might be hard to imagine a Minnesota where the big fishing day is the bass opener. Or where the pine forest has given way to maple woods. Or where summer heat -- not blizzards -- is the dominant weather threat. But public planners are already beginning to sketch out a future like that. Thursday they'll gather for a two-day conference at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to swap ideas not on how to slow or reverse climate change, but how to live with it. The Clean Water and ...
Killing frost touches Canada, but wider frost delayed
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Reuters: Killing frosts hit crops in northwestern Alberta on Tuesday, but a widespread frost across the Canadian Prairies looks to arrive a day later than expected, a Canadian Wheat Board analyst said on Wednesday. The frost may have left little damage in the Peace region because wheat and canola crops there are mature enough to withstand it, said Mark Cutts, a crop specialist for the Alberta government. Frost is of particular concern to Western Canadian farmers this year because many ...
Papua New Guinea to power far north Queensland
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
Brisbane Times: A massive proposed hydro-electric power project in Papua New Guinea could deliver reliable renewable power supplies to north Queensland in the future, the state government says. Premier Anna Bligh today threw her support behind the multi-billion-dollar project, which could supply green energy directly to Townsville and significantly boost the nation's clean energy supplies. Ms Bligh said she would today sign a memorandum of understanding with the PNG government and Origin ...
Small-scale solutions key to water security
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
SciDev.Net: Electric pumps have been the most influential technology in water for agriculture in the last 20 years Small-scale water solutions are a key to increasing agricultural productivity in the face of climate change, says water expert David Molden. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a dire warning that climate change could halve crop yields in some African countries by 2020. The prediction has since become controversial, with even an IPCC ...
Malawi ‘pays heavy cost for environmental damage’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
AFP: Impoverished Malawi loses 191 million dollars (147 million euros) a year to environmental damage including soil erosion, deforestation and over-fishing, a UN-backed study said on Wednesday. "This cost is equivalent to 5.3 percent of GDP each year," said Ronald Mangani of the University of Malawi, who led the research financed by the UN Development Programme. "Malawi would be richer by 191 million dollars each year," he added. "Malawi pays a high price for unsustainable ...
Farming revolution ‘route to water security’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 15th, 2010
SciDev.Net: Investing in agricultural infrastructure, from roads to fertilisers, will cut water wastage on a scale greater than any other intervention and is the best way to solve the world's water problems, a leading specialist has said. Colin Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka, was talking to SciDev.Net to highlight the launch of a book he has co-written with colleague Samyuktha Varma. The book describes a 'six−point plan' for saving ...