Green Options

First Lady Michelle Obama talks straightforwardly about women and why we all so urgently need health care reform in this five minute short that was just released by the White House. At the moment I know that I am existing in something of a self-absorbed cancer bubble of my own, but I actually found this quite moving and powerful.

Biological and ecological scientists around the world are waiting for stability to return to Madagascar and are using what political muscle they have to convince the new government to restore stability, and to resume and expand its eco-tourism trade. The survival of one of the world’s last, great, biodiversity hot spots depends on it.

Draws upon a recent news reports in Science about the stem rust fungus, Ug99, that is sweeping the globe and threatening to decimated the world’s wheat harvests. Also, the politics behind some nation’s reluctance to give full access of their seed banks (which may possess genetic varieties of these crops that can withstand this and other diseases) to other nations.

Australian musician Ben Lee brilliantly weaves daunting issues such as the global water crisis, religious intolerance, hunger, renewable energy and climate change into this catchy pop song. Lee has also been named one of PETA’s world’s sexiest vegetarians.

Why isn’t Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman the Secretary of the Treasury? More and more people are starting to ask that question. Jonathan Mann, the creator of Rock Cookie Bottom, writes a song every single day; last week he wrote this catchy and moving plea to NY Times columnist Krugman to come to the aid of our nation’s scorched and pillaged economy .

Leading economists – including Nicholas Stern – call for immediate $400bn global fund to generate clean power, insulate homes and create jobs.

Governments across the world must commit to hundreds of billions of pounds in green investments within months in a combined attack on the global economic crisis and global warming, according to leading economists including Nicholas Stern.

The team says some $400bn (£277bn) should be channelled to support low-carbon technologies such as home insulation and renewable energy. Given the urgency of both the economic and climate crises, it wants the green investment made by this summer and to total 20% of the £1.4tn likely to be spent globally as fiscal stimulus.

In an effort to tackle Pakistan’s growing energy shortage, representatives of the burgeoning Chinese solar industry have offered to cooperate with the country on a high profile partnership to manufacture solar energy equipment.

CrisisWire.com gathers information about crises. This site is contains real-time info about what’s happening during a crisis.

The BBC reports that fresh fighting has occurred between rebels and government troops in DR Congo as African leaders, and the UN’s Ban Ki-Moon began crisis talks.  Click here to read the full article and learn more about the conflict.

Photo Credit: By Photo Credit: Julien Harneis via Flickr’s Media Commons

By Lester R. Brown

With water shortages emerging as a constraint on food production growth, the world needs an effort to raise water productivity similar to the one that nearly tripled land productivity during the last half of the twentieth century.

Worldwide, average irrigation water productivity is now roughly 1 kilogram of grain per ton of water used. Since it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of

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