PARIS (AP) – Rich nations must contribute more to a climate change fund and help fight deforestation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at a conference Thursday on saving the world’s forests – a key defense against global warming.
Sarkozy: more funds needed to fight deforestation Read More »
CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week reported on a story we published back in January. The short video highlights a stove project run by international relief agency Mercy Corps in one of its refugee camps in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Watch the video
CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports on stove project in Congo Read More »
(BBC) More than 300 people are feared dead after heavy rain caused a series of landslides in the mountainous eastern region of Bududa in Uganda. A trading centre in a village was flattened, leaving shops and houses buried under the mud, officials said. Rescuers are digging in the mud with hand-held tools as mechanical diggers cannot reach the affected villages. President Yoweri Museveni visited the affected area, and criticised residents for settling on a floodplain. The president also said the disaster could be partially blamed on local farmers for stripping the land of thick plant life. Some 86 deaths have been confirmed, with local officials saying at least 250 people remain missing.
UGANDA: Landslide linked to deforestation kills hundreds. Read More »
A government ban on charcoal in the Chadian capital N’djamena has created what one observer called “explosive” conditions as families desperately seek the means to cook.
“As we speak women and children are on the outskirts of N’djamena scavenging for dead branches, cow dung or the occasional scrap of charcoal,” Merlin Totinon Nguébétan of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT) in Chad, told IRIN from the capital. “People cannot cook.”
“Women giving birth cannot even find a bit of charcoal to heat water for washing,” Céline Narmadji, with the Association of Women for Development in Chad, told IRIN. (More)
CHAD: Panic, outcry at government charcoal ban Read More »
A new alternative fuel project recently launched in Rwanda promises to combat the deforestation of national parks where mountain gorillas live. The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and Art of Conservation, have partnered together to introduce the new alternative fuel technology–fuel briquettes composed of recycled materials that can be made easily with simple wooden presses–to the communities living near mountain gorilla habitat.
Alternative Fuel Promises to Aid Mountain Gorilla Conservations Read More »
“To me this is one of the top three most important things for Haiti,” said Marc Levy, a Columbia University professor of international and public affairs working on a joint effort of Columbia and its Earth Institute with the United Nations Environment Program.
Haiti Earthquake: Greening of Hillsides Can Bolster Recovery Read More »
On links between environmental and public health; Rebuilding Haiti from the soil microbes up; A humanitarian aid petri dish; Jared Diamond’s checklist for collapse & Haiti as vision what could be in store for the rest of us; Charcoal cartels, Amy Smith’s better answer & Nicholas Kristof’s compost toilet tour
Rebuilding Haiti: On trees, charcoal, compost and low-tech… Read More »
Mountain Gorillas Veterinary Program farm partner Immaculée Uwimana from Rwanda and Justice Mvuyekure from Uganda were both looking for business opportunities that could be operated on small land holdings. We had recently become aware of a program operating in the DRC where byproducts were processed into an alternative fuel source aimed to compete with charcoal for family use. After some discussions, we decided to travel to the training location in Rumangabo, DRC. Read more
Trading briquettes for mountain gorillas Read More »
A seemingly out-of-place artifact discovered along the banks of the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, USA) offers a cautionary tale of how the rise and fall of nations is often linked to their natural resources.
Nation’s fortune rise and fall with the forest resources Read More »
The human toll of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti has been devastating, with the government reporting more than 150,000 dead in the Port-au-Prince area alone. What, if anything, does the disaster mean for the environment?
Haiti’s Environmental Aftermath Read More »
Malawi’s protected areas generate more than 60 percent of the charcoal consumed in the country’s four largest cities.
MALAWI: Nearly 60 percent of charcoal produced from protected areas Read More »
In the Philippines town of Los Baños, 63 miles to the south of Manila, local town officials are marketing briquettes made of discarded waste paper.
In the Philippines: Four briquettes, a cup of rice, and thou… Read More »
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