Category Archives: Poverty

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NEWS: World lacks enough food, fuel as population soars-UN


LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.

As the world’s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7 billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.

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PHOTO ESSAY: How Manila’s slum-dwellers eek out a charcoal living


This being the UN-declared Year of Sustainable Energy for All, we hope policy-makers and all those pushing for clean fuels in the developing world will look into the eyes of this little girl and remember that solar and wind are not the only solutions. The world needs clean charcoal, too.

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NEWS: U.N. SG: ‘Clean Energy Revolution’ Crucial to Ensure Growth in Poorer Countries


Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for a “clean energy revolution” to help the estimated three billion people that lack modern power and urged countries to recognize the impact that energy security has on all aspects of development.

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The black sheep in Africa’s renewable energy family


Absent in the majority of the speeches we heard at last week’s summit of African Energy Ministers in Johannesburg were references to biomass, either as a renewable fuel with the potential to deliver significant energy for economic growth, or for its contribution to sub-Saharan Africa’s energy balance.

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At last. The moment you’ve all been waiting for: a reality show about clean cookstoves!


There’s no shortage of reality-inspired cooking shows in which participants struggle against long odds.

Now there’s a new offering, with a difference. It’s Stoveman, a four-part video series documenting the efforts of two young men who are part of a “low profit” business aimed at providing efficient rocket stoves to poor households in struggling places.

(taken from Andy Revkin, Dot Earth. The New York Times)

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