Green Options

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Watch this space: Africa is fast becoming an important player in cleaner energy sources. If only 0.3% of sunlight falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts can potentially provide all of Europe’s energy needs because of its intensity, according to a report, how about everything else?

How much wind blows from Nouakchott to Natal, and how much of this is ever utilized as an alternative energy source? How much water flowing in the Zambezi is used to power villages in Zambia and Zimbabwe; and how much more of the great Nile waters that flow into the Mediterranean can sustainably be harnessed to run corn mills in Nakuru and cotton ginneries in Jinja and Khartoum or fisheries in Cairo?

And now some bold African should emulate John McCain. He may be better known for his tenacity inside the muddle of US politics than for his expertise on the quest for cleaner energy sources. But many surely gaped at the figures he offered for a battery to power America’s engines in the wake of the oil price burst recently.

So, flip flops.  I don’t wear them, but you very well might.  Here in Austin, they’re everywhere, from McDonald’s to the nicest restaurants in town.  We’re a casual people.

(Yes, I ate at McDonalds!  I get one milkshake there about every four years!  Yes, I know it’s wrong!  I was having a really bad day!  I’m sorry!)

UniqEco is just one of the companies making crafts out of recycled flip flops, but I heart them the most.  The company was started in response to an ecological nightmare - discarded flip flops washing up on Kenyan beaches in vast numbers.  (Apparently, y’all flip flop wearers aren’t that concerned about what happens to your footwear - but since they don’t actually provide any protection for your feet, it kind of makes sense that you wouldn’t notice they were missing.)  The invading flip flop armada kept turtle mamas from laying eggs and baby turtles, if any, from getting back into the ocean.

In spite of the sweltering heat, smallholder farmers in this border district of Zimbabwe can cheer about the black-eyed beans. The beans – a new crop in the area - are small, creamy white, with a black mark at the sprouting point, making them easy to recognize.

From the way they cook to the way they sell, black-eyed beans have proved a big hit among the small farmers in this district, traditionally known for growing maize, groundnuts, cotton and sunflowers.

In 2002, USAID’s Linkages for the Economic Advancement of the Disadvantaged (LEAD Program) sub-contracted VeCO, a non-governmental organization, to provide 1,250 farmers with the necessary extension support services, skills and resources to produce both black-eyed beans and Macia sorghum, crops which are drought tolerant. The overall objective was to reduce food insecurity, improve food intake with a new edible crop, and provide a new source of income for poor smallholders in drought prone regions.

Nyarai Njenge, 35, one of the beneficiary farmers, did not know anything about black-eyed beans prior to 2002. But, now, as most of the beneficiary farmers, she knowledgeably recounts the nutritional, income and food security benefits of the crop.

I know many people (including myself) think the United Nations recognized “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” occurring in Darfur is far greater than their contributions. We’ve all seen the devastation featured on the nightly news, newspaper articles and television commercials. And wanted to do something but didn’t know where to start. Well, Relief Beads, a grassroots campaign, is giving us an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of more than 2.5 million refugees that were tragically separated from their families because of genocide , violence and disease.

They are selling handcrafted, original bracelets made from sand in Ghana, Africa to further support the humanitarian efforts of Relief International, an independent, non-profit organization providing necessary medical care, counseling and educational courses to thousands of women and children in Darfur. Relief International’s programs are essential to the recovery of this war-torn country.

More than two decades ago, rock star Sting, and his wife, Trudie Styler, created The Rainforest Foundation and over the last 20 years it has expanded and diversified. There is the New York-based Rainforest Foundation Fund, backed by Sting, which provides funding for three branches - Rainforest Foundation US, Rainforest Foundation Norway, Rainforest Foundation UK (together they directly support projects in more than 20 countries that protect tropical rainforests and the people that live there)…

Every year an area of rainforest the size of England and Wales is cut down. This leaves local people homeless, drives animals and plants to extinction and releases more CO2 emissions (which cause climate change), than all of the world’s planes, trains and automobiles. Tropical deforestation is an issue that affects us all. ~The Rainforest Foundation

One of the biggest crises facing the human population is not a complete shocker. It affects countless nations across our planet, and is continually getting worse and worse. There are things that we can do, but so many of us fail to do anything. Governments are worse, prolonging worsening conditions and human lives in the process.

And no, it’s not global warming. It’s the myriad humanitarian crises that plague the third world.

That I am writing about it here though, obviously speaks to a link to one of PlanetSave’s main topics; climate science.

Many thanks to our friends at ZapRoot for featuring Sam Aola Ooko’s post on Chinese importation of African ivory on their latest show (above). We’re big fans… no one does indepth coverage with a healthy dose of humor better. Keep an eye out for more from ZapRoot on Thursdays: we’re going to start featuring them regularly on the GO Media blog network.

A South African company called Moladi is promoting their system for quickly building homes. Using their system, the exterior walls for a single-family dwelling can be built in a matter of just a day or two, and it can be done using unskilled labor. But, while their goals are admirable, it’s a question whether or not this is a really green method of building.

The system uses lightweight formwork panels, much like those used for poured concrete walls. Once erected, the forms are filled with mortar (concrete without stone) which can be hand-mixed and hand-placed, or which can be mechanically mixed and pumped into place. Typically, the formwork can be removed the day after the mortar is poured. The result is a smooth finish material, little more than a roof is needed to complete the building.

On the downside, this material uses 250 kilograms of portland cement per cubic meter (about 420 pounds per cubic yard), making it fundamentally the same as a concrete building with an enormous carbon footprint stemming from the extensive use of cement in these buildings.

Scientists in South Africa are testing a genetically engineered tobacco plant which detects the presence of nitrogen-dioxide, a marker for landmines, to turn red, in the hope that it may eventually be used to clear mine fields in post-conflict zones around the globe.

The team is part of a joint initiative of University of Stellenbosch and the Danish biotechnology firm, Aresa, which has developed the “RedDetect” bio-sensor technology in a weed called Thales Cress.

The weed changes color from green to autumnal red when it detects nitrogen dioxide leaching from mines buried in the soil.

Because the weed is too small to be seen from a safe distance, the scientists went looking for a more viable alternative, and landed on the tobacco plant, which grows easily in most parts of the world, with a little help from genetic engineering.

This guest post comes to us from the Blue Planet Run Foundation.

Annette Fay visited Blue Planet Run’s project in Kisii, a crowded town nestled on top of a hilly, green part of the Kenyan countryside. The news from the completed water project demonstrates just how immense the impact of safe drinking water can be on a community. Annette shares her story:

I met with the Hospital Superintendent Dr. Otomu, the District Water Engineer Mr. Orangi and the Head Nurse Mrs. Monayo, the latter two walked me through the project.

The 200 bed Kisii District Hospital serves 525,000 people directly and is a referral facility for an additional 2,430,000, as far south as the Tanzanian border and west as Lake Victoria’s south-eastern shore. The Kisii area has a high density of HIV/AIDS victims and is known for the prevalence of the deadly highlands malaria after the rainy season.  The hospital’s water needs are 180,000 litres per day. Before the water project, if all systems were functioning properly, the hospital had 40,000 litres of water per day from the following sources: 15,000 from a borehole, 10,000 litres from rainwater harvesting and 15,000 litres from the municipal water system.

The developers of Medina Palms, an eco-friendly residential development, have determined to set eco-standards in Africa and are donating a percentage of its income to the international wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation, to help preserve marine life.

Medina Palms also supports a billfish tagging initiative to monitor fish populations in the Indian Ocean by The Billfish Foundation, a non profit dedicated to conserving and enhancing billfish populations around the world.

The Foundation claims that over 90% of marlin mortality is the result of bycatch in commercial fisheries outside the US yet tremendous pressure continues to be placed on oceans from fishing fleets trying to meet the demands of a hungry world.