By Zachary Shahan •
January 23, 2010
The deadline for agreeing to the Copenhagen Accord may have been dropped, but the pressure to agree to the Accord and to announce commitments to create cleaner energy sources and reduce pollution is still on.
The US Climate Action Network (USCAN) is making it easier for all of us to follow all of the countries’ commitments through a useful chart of their pledges, how their 2020 targets compare to their 1990 pollution levels, their per capita CO2 emissions, and other information.
The chart also lists those countries which reject the Copenhagen Accord.
By Dave Harcourt •
January 15, 2010
While Brisbane’s waste removal system battles to discard perfectly good mangos, this contrasts starkly with the difficulties and opportunities associated with agricultural produce gluts in poor communities in rural Africa.
Brisbane Mangoes
So good is the mango harvest this year, that residents of Brisbane’s suburbs are battling to get rid of their excess mangos.
Apparently some trees are dropping up to 60 mangoes overnight. If these are simply placed in rubbish bins they are too heavy for the mechanical garbage trucks and get left on the street. Normally there would be a $24 fee to get a garbage truck to come back and empty the bin, but the City Council has agreed to waive this cost so long as residents first remove the mangoes. The Council has also removed the charge for dumping mangoes at the city’s transfer stations.
So in Australia the fuss is about getting the mangoes to the dump and not about the waste of food or the loss of income opportunities, that bother the African.
By Jennifer Lance •
July 13, 2009
During his first trip to the plateau continent, Obama has been greeted with much fanfare and love, but some are calling into question his motivation for visiting Ghana. Perhaps it is from eight years of the Bush Administration that have made us suspicious of our president’s oil motivations, but Ghana’s new offshore oil boom may give good cause for doubt.
By Lucille Chi •
October 15, 2008
Pictured here from right to left:
- Can Your Jewelry Save the Earth? Pictured colorfully above, in a rainbow assortment are Relief Beads, which were created to raise awareness and money to aid refugees in Darfur. Relief Beads, is selling handcrafted bracelets made from sand in Ghana, Africa. “Each purchase helps to fund Relief International’s medical clinics for women and children, educational programs for students and counseling for victims of violent acts.” To make this good cause even sweeter,
