Excerpts from Hope in a Changing Climate (www.open.edu Part I: Loess Plateau, China - youtu.be Part II: Ethiopia - youtu.be Part III: Rwanda - youtu.be Once the scene of devastating droughts in 1984, a few visionaries in Ethiopia have used Agroecological Natural Technology Solutions and Permaculture Design principles to begin bringing areas of arid land back to productivity and ecological balance. Restoring the huge vast degradaded landscape of Ethiopia... critical for the entire region to support life. The impact is regional, national, and international. We can rehabilitate damaged ecosystems. We can transfer technology and capital to empower the local people to restore their own environment to ensure food security for people who are chronically hungry, while at the same time sequestering carbon, reducing biodiversity loss, mitigate against flooding, drought and famine. This can be done on a global scale. We can do this with the simple application of Agricultural Natural Technology Solutions and Permaculture Design principles, such as earthworks, water harvesting, soil building, creating biodiversity.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Korean Drought Worst In A Century For North And South Korea
KOHYON-RI, North Korea — North Korea dispatched soldiers to pour buckets of water on parched fields and South Korean officials scrambled to save a rare mollusk threatened by the heat as the worst dry spell in a century gripped the Korean Peninsula.
Parts of both countries are experiencing the most severe drought since record-keeping began nearly 105 years ago, meteorological officials in Pyongyang and Seoul said Tuesday.
The protracted drought is heightening worries about North Korea's ability to feed its people. Two-thirds of North Korea's 24 million people faced chronic food shortages, the United Nations said earlier this month while asking donors for $198 million in humanitarian aid for the country.
Even in South Phyongan and North and South Hwanghae provinces, which are traditionally North Korea's "breadbasket," thousands of hectares (acres) of crops are withering away despite good irrigation systems, local officials said.
Reservoirs are drying up, creating irrigation problems for farmers, said Ri Sun Pom, chairman of the Rural Economy Committee of Hwangju County.
A group of female soldiers with yellow towels tied around their heads fanned out across a farm in Kohyon-ri, Hwangju county, North Hwanghae province, with buckets to help water the fields. An ox pulled a cart loaded with a barrel of water while fire engines and oil tankers were mobilized to help transport water.
The North Korean villages of Kohyon-ri and Ryongchon-ri were among several areas that journalists from The Associated Press visited in recent days.
Pak Tok Gwan, management board chairman of the Ryongchon Cooperative Farm in North Korea, said late last week that the farm could lose half its corn without early rain. More
The protracted drought is heightening worries about North Korea's ability to feed its people. Two-thirds of North Korea's 24 million people faced chronic food shortages, the United Nations said earlier this month while asking donors for $198 million in humanitarian aid for the country.
Even in South Phyongan and North and South Hwanghae provinces, which are traditionally North Korea's "breadbasket," thousands of hectares (acres) of crops are withering away despite good irrigation systems, local officials said.
Reservoirs are drying up, creating irrigation problems for farmers, said Ri Sun Pom, chairman of the Rural Economy Committee of Hwangju County.
A group of female soldiers with yellow towels tied around their heads fanned out across a farm in Kohyon-ri, Hwangju county, North Hwanghae province, with buckets to help water the fields. An ox pulled a cart loaded with a barrel of water while fire engines and oil tankers were mobilized to help transport water.
The North Korean villages of Kohyon-ri and Ryongchon-ri were among several areas that journalists from The Associated Press visited in recent days.
Pak Tok Gwan, management board chairman of the Ryongchon Cooperative Farm in North Korea, said late last week that the farm could lose half its corn without early rain. More
Friday, July 13, 2012
Senegal begins planting the Great Green Wall against climate change
Africa's proposed 4,000-mile wall of trees stretching from Senegal to Djibouti is designed to stop encroaching desertification.
It's the worst sand storm in a year and people here are worried thatclimate change will cause these events to be more common. Seasons are shifting across the region. In Senegal the rainy season used to start in July or August but now it doesn't start until September. Decreased rain - along with over grazing of land - is causing an increase in deserts across the Sahel. Roughly 40 per cent of Africa is now affected by desertificationand according to the UN, two-thirds of Africa's arable land could be lost by 2025 if this trend continues.
Senegal is one of 11 countries in the Sahel region of Africa looking towards the same solution to the desertification problem: The Great Green Wall. The goal of the project is to plant a wall of trees, 4,300 miles long and 9 miles wide, across the African continent, from Senegal to Djibouti. African leaders hope the trees will trap the sands of the Sahara and halt the advance of the desert.
Papa Sarr is Technical Director for the Great Green Wall in Senegal: "We are convinced that once we start to plant the wall of trees dust will decrease in Dakar," he says.
Sarr sits in the passenger seat of a four-wheel drive on his way to Widou, a village he hopes will serve as a model for the Great Green Wall in Senegal. The paved roads of Dakar give way to red sand paths of the Shahel; a dry savanna transition zone between the equatorial jungles in the south and the Sahara to the north. Black and white goats meander in front of the truck and flat-topped acacia trees dot the sandy landscape. They are virtually the only vegetation in a region where the dry season can last up to 10 months.
Four hours northwest of Dakar, the village of Widou sits next to one section of Senegal's Great Green Wall. The acacia trees here are just four years old, waist high and thorny. The trees are surrounded by a firewall and a metal fence to keep out tree-eating goats. All of the trees were chosen carefully. Sarr says, "When we design a parcel we look at the local trees and see what can best grow there, we try to copy Nature."
Two million trees are planted in Senegal each year; but all of them must be planted during the short rainy season. Labourers plant acacia saplings in the sand along with animal manure for fertiliser. Sarr points to a three feet tall tree. "This one is Acacia nilotica. It produces Arabic gum used in local medicine and a fruit that can be eaten by animals." More
Solar distillation and purification system
F Cubed have developed and patented a unique solar desalination, purification technology called Carocell. Carocell solar desalinating/purification technology is the most efficient and cost effective product of its kind, producing pure, clean drinking water on any scale from any water source, using renewable solar energy, emitting zero carbon emissions and zero liquid discharge.
Solar powered water purifier
Solvatten is an innovative solar-powered water purifier that makes clean water available to even the most remote populations, designed by biochemist and Shamengo pioneer Petra Wadstrom. Want to join our community and hear more about the adventures of our pioneers? Subscribe to our YouTube channel & uploads to get a peek of every new Shamengo pioneer as soon as they appear! Follow us on Facebook facebook.com Twitter twitter.com Google+ plus.google.com Website shamengo.com ******* Shamengo is a cross-media program giving voice to people who care and participate in building a better world. Every week we reveal a video portrait of a Shamengo pioneer who makes a difference through positive action according to one of our four values: - caring for mind and body, - creating with a conscience, - preserving the environment, - taking action to help others. Think you have a pioneer spirit? Meet other pioneers on our website shamengo.com Are you or do you know anyone who has also initiated a positive world-changing action? You can apply to become one of our 1000 Pioneers of the New World!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Pennies from heaven: Arizona Rebate set for rainwater harvesting
Call it the rainfall rebate.
Tucson Water is offering its single-family-residential customers a rebate of up to $2,000 for harvesting and storing rainwater.
"Rainfall is a resource available to everybody," and the rebate program helps people take advantage of that liquid asset at a reduced cost, said Fernando Molina, a spokesman for Tucson Water.
HOW IT WORKS
Water customers may choose from a two-tiered plan.
"The basic rebate covers what is essentially a very simple system," Molina said. "It could be a passive system where they just put in a gutter and dig some trenches to direct water toward trees.
"That's sort of the entry level," he said. "For that, the rebate would cover the cost of eligible labor and materials up to $300."
Customers using such a system aren't required to meet performance criteria for harvesting or storing water, Molina said.
He said the Level 2 option involves more complex systems and meeting performance criteria.
"For that one, you have to be able to retain at least a 1-inch rainfall and you have to have storage," Molina said. "It's looking not only at developing the supply but balancing that against demand. So if would be a bigger system with tanks for storage."
The rebate for a Level 2 system is half the cost of eligible labor and materials up to a maximum of $2,000, Molina said. He estimated that $2,000 would cover about half the cost of a "substantial system" for water harvesting and storage.
"For people who are growing a vegetable garden and have a higher water demand, it's an opportunity to store some water in the summer to use later when things dry out," Molina said.
GETTING STARTED
Participants in the rebate program must attend a free three-hour workshop on rainwater harvesting.
Call 626-5161 to register for a workshop. Workshops will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at Pima County Cooperative Extension, 4210 N. Campbell Ave.
Participants are encouraged to bring a basic site plan - a sketch or bird's-eye view - of their property. More
Tucson Water is offering its single-family-residential customers a rebate of up to $2,000 for harvesting and storing rainwater.
"Rainfall is a resource available to everybody," and the rebate program helps people take advantage of that liquid asset at a reduced cost, said Fernando Molina, a spokesman for Tucson Water.
Water customers may choose from a two-tiered plan.
"The basic rebate covers what is essentially a very simple system," Molina said. "It could be a passive system where they just put in a gutter and dig some trenches to direct water toward trees.
"That's sort of the entry level," he said. "For that, the rebate would cover the cost of eligible labor and materials up to $300."
Customers using such a system aren't required to meet performance criteria for harvesting or storing water, Molina said.
He said the Level 2 option involves more complex systems and meeting performance criteria.
"For that one, you have to be able to retain at least a 1-inch rainfall and you have to have storage," Molina said. "It's looking not only at developing the supply but balancing that against demand. So if would be a bigger system with tanks for storage."
The rebate for a Level 2 system is half the cost of eligible labor and materials up to a maximum of $2,000, Molina said. He estimated that $2,000 would cover about half the cost of a "substantial system" for water harvesting and storage.
"For people who are growing a vegetable garden and have a higher water demand, it's an opportunity to store some water in the summer to use later when things dry out," Molina said.
GETTING STARTED
Participants in the rebate program must attend a free three-hour workshop on rainwater harvesting.
Call 626-5161 to register for a workshop. Workshops will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at Pima County Cooperative Extension, 4210 N. Campbell Ave.
Participants are encouraged to bring a basic site plan - a sketch or bird's-eye view - of their property. More
Burning Rivers : How Coal And Nuclear Are Sucking Up Our Fresh Water
The 20th century was characterized by the frenzied acquisition, storage, and use of oil. But many experts believe that the 21st century will be remembered as the century of water.
One of the most alarming emerging issues is the symbiotic — and often conflicting — relationship between electricity generation and water.
A new report called “Burning Our Rivers: The Water Footprint of Electricity” details this relationship, illustrating the massive amounts of water resources used for electricity generation — particularly from fossil fuels and nuclear.
An average U.S. household’s monthly energy use (weighted by cooling technology and fuel mix) requires 39,829 gallons of water, or five times more than the direct residential water use of that same household…. Electricity—as we generate it today—depends heavily on access to free water. The impact to our freshwater resources is an external cost of electrical production. What the market considers ‘least cost’ electricity is often the most water intensive.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 53 percent of all the fresh surface water withdrawn for human consumption in 2005 was used for electricity generation.
While consumption in the U.S. is falling, coal is still the most dominant source of power in the country. It is also the single largest consumer of water resources:
A MWh of electricity generated by coal withdraws approximately 16,052 gallons and consumes approximately 692 gallons of water…. On average (a weighted average taking into account the current mix of cooling technologies being used at coal plants in the U.S.), coal-fired electricity requires the withdrawal of approximately 13,515 gallons and the consumption of 482 gallons of water per MWh for cooling purposes.
The water not used directly for power generation is used in mining coal and other treatment before burning, creating millions of gallons of “sludge” that can potentially pollute freshwater supplies. More
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