tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17960577351485659102024-02-20T09:29:27.242-08:00Sustainable Business & Development BlogJustmeanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09836521335625260861noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-18122422518981483782010-10-15T05:56:00.000-07:002010-10-15T05:59:02.426-07:00Sustainable Development Weekly Updates Oct 08 - Oct 15 - Justmeans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/web-proterra-charging-station2-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/web-proterra-charging-station2-300x225.jpg" /></a></div><b>All Electric Buses En Route To Sustainable Development - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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All-electric buses are coming to a bus stop near you -- or at least, nearer than ever before.<br />
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China has led the way in electric bus utilization for many years, but now bus companies in the U.S. are testing and accepting a variety of all-electric transit vehicles. The relatively sleek, smooth buses offer the potential to save vast sums of operating expenses over the typical bus' operating life.<br />
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One reason electric buses are now appearing on local streets in the U.S. is that their batteries can be charged in just a few minutes, instead of the hours required by older energy-storage technologies.<br />
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<i><b>Post continues:</b></i> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/All-Electric-Buses-En-Route-Sustainable-Development/33646.html">http://www.justmeans.com/All-Electric-Buses-En-Route-Sustainable-Development/33646.html</a><br />
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<b>Sustainable Development Efforts Yield World's First Zero-Carbon City - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/masdar-gds-infographics-217x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/masdar-gds-infographics-217x300.jpg" /></a></div>Masdar City, the world's only zero-carbon city, is still on track to be built in Abu Dhabi, despite massive changes in the world's economy.<br />
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The original project was projected to cost some $22 billion, and to be completed in 2016. More recent reviews considering the financial crisis indicate the advanced residential and industrial cluster may not be completed until 2020 or even 2025. However, the cityi's first phase is still on track to be ready for occupancy by 2015.<br />
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<i><b>Post continues:</b></i> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Efforts-Yield-World-s-First-Zero-Carbon-City/34310.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Efforts-Yield-World-s-First-Zero-Carbon-City/34310.html</a><br />
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<b>Financial Incentives for Sustainable Development - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsire-map1-300x237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dsire-map1-300x237.jpg" /></a></div>Although some have expired, a great many government tax incentives, credits and other financial rewards are still available for homeowners who wish to install some form of green energy system in their principal residence.*<br />
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These incentives are intended both to stimulate economic activity and reflect society's growing recognition of the potential dangers and problems caused by global climate change, dependence on foreign oil supplies, and other impending changes in our energy economy. Governments at the federal, state, and local levels are trying to incentivize their residents to install so-called "green" technology that does a better job of utilizing renewable energy sources and/or being more efficient in its use of energy, regardless of its source.<br />
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<i><b>Post continues:</b></i> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Financial-Incentives-for-Sustainable-Development/34321.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Financial-Incentives-for-Sustainable-Development/34321.html</a><br />
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<b>Zinc Industry's CSR Initiative Helps Tackles Zinc Deficiency - <i>Anna Dubuis</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/african_child_checkup-300x199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/african_child_checkup-300x199.jpg" /></a></div>Zinc deficiency affects two billion people globally and contributes to the deaths of 450,000 children every year. Yet, just like other micronutrient deficiencies, it is often an invisible illness, and consequently as a public health issue it receives little attention. Zinc is an essential micronutrient for human health, helping to fight off illness, like malaria and diarrhoea, and is vital to children's cognitive development and learning. When diets do not contain sufficient amounts of zinc, the consequences include lower birth weight, a decrease in cognitive ability and increased susceptibility to other diseases.<br />
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As a major contributor to over 800,000 deaths each year, what is equally as shocking is that the majority of these deaths are easily preventable with a simple zinc supplement. UNICEF is one of the many humanitarian organisations that are providing zinc and other micronutrient supplements to children in developing countries. Just a few extra milligrams of zinc every day can be the difference between life and death.<br />
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<i><b>Post continues:</b></i> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Zinc-Industry-s-CSR-Initiative-Helps-Tackles-Zinc-Deficiency/34456.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Zinc-Industry-s-CSR-Initiative-Helps-Tackles-Zinc-Deficiency/34456.html</a><br />
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<b>Water Reclamation Center Opens To Boost Environmental Conservation - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/red-desert-wastewater-reclamation-flow_diagram_v2-657x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://usercontent.s3.amazonaws.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/red-desert-wastewater-reclamation-flow_diagram_v2-657x1024.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>A gathering of Wyoming's finest were on hand October 6, 2010, to witness the official opening of the new Red Desert Water Reclamation (RDWR) center. Designed to reclaim water polluted by use within the oil and gas industry, the RDWR facility brings a significantly higher level of environmental sustainability to the state. RDWR is located less than two hours by truck from a large number of multiple oil- and gas-producing basins.<br />
RDWR can treat approximately 20,000 barrels of water per day, using a chemical-free, low-cost technology to transform pollluted water that is currently lost through well-injection or evaporation methods into usable water that easily meets both U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality standards.<br />
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Incoming water is sorted on the basis of its Total Dissolved Solids, as much as 9000 parts per million (ppm), and isolated into tanks. It then passes through a system of clarifiers to remove suspended solids and floating organics, which are neutralized with a bentonite and polymer compound for disposal in a land fill. After clarification, the water goes through electro coagulation, flocculation and separation, and finally Reverse Osmosis. Fully cleaned, RDWR's reclaimed water can be used for irrigation or recycled for re-use in additional oil and gas production processes.<br />
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<i><b>Post continues:</b></i> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Water-Reclamation-Center-Opens-Boost-Environmental-Conservation/34487.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Water-Reclamation-Center-Opens-Boost-Environmental-Conservation/34487.html</a>Justmeanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09836521335625260861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-40360522888976272092010-10-08T06:37:00.000-07:002010-10-08T06:37:11.443-07:00Sustainable Development Weekly Updates - Justmeans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/energy-efficiency-expo-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="62" src="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/energy-efficiency-expo-logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>Energy Efficiency Expo Supports Sustainable Development. - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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A new kind of expo, the Energy Efficiency Expo, is coming to town. It's a newly organized trade fair showcasing products and services to help organizations reduce their energy consumption and become more energy-efficient, and it's scheduled to be held October 18-20, 2010, at the Gaylord Texan Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas (near Dallas).<br />
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"Energy Efficiency has become a key focus for business, government and institutional organizations," said David Webster, president of the new event's producer, Webcom Communications. "Attendees will be able to see and learn about the many new products and services available that can help them reduce energy consumption, lower their energy bills and improve their green footprint. Some will even discover new ways they can turn energy-efficiency capabilities into revenue-generation tools for their organization."<br />
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<b>Post continues:</b> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Energy-Efficiency-Expo-Supports-Sustainable-Development/33634.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Energy-Efficiency-Expo-Supports-Sustainable-Development/33634.html</a><br />
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<b>Sustainable Development: Cleaning up the Kitchen - <i>Anna Dubuis</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/cookstove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/cookstove.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Last week, a new international alliance was launched to address the problems of inefficient cook stoves used in rural, poor households that are responsible for the deaths of almost 2 million people every year.<br />
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Exposure to smoke from traditional cook stoves and open fires kills an estimated 1.6 to 1.8 million women and children and causes countless more cases of pneumonia, lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases. According to the World Health Organisation, cooking smoke is responsible for more deaths than malaria.<br />
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<b>Post continues:</b> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Cleaning-up-Kitchen/33576.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Cleaning-up-Kitchen/33576.html</a><br />
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<b>Renewable Energy Sources in U.S. Power Generation Boost Environmental Conservation - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/renewable-power-costs-fig3-larger-sharper1-300x193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/renewable-power-costs-fig3-larger-sharper1-300x193.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar, and wind provided 11.14% of all domestic U.S. energy production during the first six months of 2010 - the latest time-frame for which data has been published.<br />
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This continues the steady growth trend for renewable energy sources in the U.S.<br />
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In fact, renewable energy sources powered 4.91% more BTUs (4.106 quadrillion) during the first six months of 2010, compared with the first six months of 2009, and 8.37% more BTUs than they provided during the first half of 2008.<br />
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<b>Post continues: </b><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Renewable-Energy-Sources-in-U-S-Power-Generation-Boost-Environmental-Conservation/33624.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Renewable-Energy-Sources-in-U-S-Power-Generation-Boost-Environmental-Conservation/33624.html</a><br />
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<b>Sustainable Development Shown By World Largest Photovoltaic Plan - <i>Robert Moskowitz</i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/photovoltaic-jeremy-levine-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="http://www.justmeans.com/editorial/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/photovoltaic-jeremy-levine-300x225.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>First Solar, a leading manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and provider of solar solutions, and Enbridge, a leader in the safe and reliable delivery of energy throughout North America and recognized as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, have opened the 80-megawatt Sarnia Solar Project for commercial operation, allowing it to take its place as the largest operating photovoltaic power-generation facility in the world.<br />
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<b>Post continues:</b> <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Shown-By-World-Largest-Photovoltaic-Plan/33616.html">http://www.justmeans.com/Sustainable-Development-Shown-By-World-Largest-Photovoltaic-Plan/33616.html</a>Justmeanshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09836521335625260861noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-81509140714842570872010-04-27T02:19:00.001-07:002010-04-27T02:21:38.028-07:00When was the last time you learned from a case study?<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQI8Jh6m2ntGvZsWOn39x5FY8bs8iDUcRGxIJ-t0jKqBaC_ghfe-CLIwlZSKTEsJkIzN5Nuo11_KYstiTHosFD5u3daCJM2zCeSik6THvKN_RzV2I9F2N75dNwfXV5w6jYgEx9999I0wM/s1600/When+was+the+last+time.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 03px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQI8Jh6m2ntGvZsWOn39x5FY8bs8iDUcRGxIJ-t0jKqBaC_ghfe-CLIwlZSKTEsJkIzN5Nuo11_KYstiTHosFD5u3daCJM2zCeSik6THvKN_RzV2I9F2N75dNwfXV5w6jYgEx9999I0wM/s320/When+was+the+last+time.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464744579169010882" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Knowledge sharing is critical – but how can we do it well for sustainable development?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A friend of mine who is working on enabling international businesses to become more sustainable was recently talking to a particularly successful business about the lessons that they had learned in the process of their work. They wanted to share those lessons with other businesses. Well, they said, we could write it up as a case study and distribute it in a newsletter or something to our partners. And my friend said, wait a second, when was the last time you learned and then implemented something that you learned from reading a case study? His colleague paused and thought about it. Never, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Never! That’s a strong word. But I thought back to my own experience. When have I used the knowledge I’ve read in case studies from Africa to India that I have not been personally involved with or have not talked to/knew the people involved in them? Sometimes, I find inspiration from a good blog or a good article about a project, or I might remember an idea I’ve read while browsing through documents, but if I just read it and don’t fully engage with it, I don’t tend to learn much from it either.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I can’t think of any either. Which suggests that case studies, in their traditional form, are often wasted attempts to share knowledge – and will lead to only more frustration of everyone wanting to present their case study but not learning from other people’s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But we do learn from other people’s experiences. I am reminded of the work of the international development organization, The Hairou Commission. They work to organise and connect grassroots women’s organisations from around the world, focusing particularly on knowledge sharing in South-South partnerships. They have primary areas: health, agriculture, climate change, governance, etc. They bring women together to different conferences, colloquiums, and online forums, and other knowledge-sharing platforms to share each other’s stories. These are very powerful; women learn from one another and frequently count these experiences as some of the most important processes throughout their year. They are, in essence, sharing the ‘case studies’ of their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So what’s the main difference?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Besides gender, the main difference is person-to-person (even if it is online) listening and sharing versus reading someone else’s work - which rarely seems to readily apply to your reasonably different situation. Because that’s how learning happens: through listening, sharing, experiencing being heard, and really being in communication with another person. Which is why much of the ‘really good stuff’ at conferences happens in the hallways and over a glass of wine. It’s not just passing name cards around – it is the experience of being heard and listening. So go ahead and make your case study – but don’t assume that just propelling it into the universe will get you anywhere. Find the best times and places to bring it out and use it for real knowledge-creation for sustainable development – usually when people have the opportunity to really engage with it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />Photo credit: </span></span></span><span><a href="http://www.amtamassage.org/journal/win02/images/polarity_main.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">amtamassage</span></span></a></span></p>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-91029227427176322102010-04-26T01:57:00.000-07:002010-04-26T02:00:39.233-07:00Celebrating Sustainable Development - Celebrating ourselves<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8USQNJyix5G8coaCnrnvxx8zXmBxV7JfOw83TWgcN6I2_DZU7eSiW49IhYxy7nm2MrSbit_Aa_MJwmpbpq1O_6_b0RPe33MqWuB7HcQbVhcSczZ-0TRcMbSSXCyFKp7RH43rWgcf49o/s1600/Celebrating+Sustainable+Development.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 00px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8USQNJyix5G8coaCnrnvxx8zXmBxV7JfOw83TWgcN6I2_DZU7eSiW49IhYxy7nm2MrSbit_Aa_MJwmpbpq1O_6_b0RPe33MqWuB7HcQbVhcSczZ-0TRcMbSSXCyFKp7RH43rWgcf49o/s320/Celebrating+Sustainable+Development.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464368405051074322" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I had the pleasure of attending the Awards Dinner for Corporate Register this past week. I listened to corporate responsibility report-writers talk about what they do, and, in the end, celebrate one another's accomplishments. It reminded me of how rarely we take time to celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Even in my own life, how often do I stop at the end of a project or even just a week and think, wow, that was really well done? I've For one of the organisations I work for, they are growing like crazy, but the leaders rarely feel they can take even a weekend off. They are just too busy. Burn out is high. For another organisation I work for, if the stress level's aren't shooting through the roof, then people are just really worn out; the 'leader' occaisionally looks like he is about to fall over. These are highly capable, very self-confident men doing work they believe in. To be fair, I think they do take time to celebrate - but not very often, and in general, they are celebrating other people. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> And then there was Earth Day, in which we are asked to celebrate the single most important enabler of our existance - the earth itself. For me, that is a time when we do not celebrate things well. Truly celebrating the earth - for one thing, that must be done on a daily basis - and for another, Earth Day always seems, well, cheesy. It does not feel like it is truly a time of honoring our home. 'Happy Earth Day' hardly has the same ring as, say, 'Happy Thanksgiving' or 'Happy Birthday'. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I think many of us engaged in sustainable development are better at saying what is going wrong than what is going right. For the few of us who have managed to focus on positive visions, they tend to be 'in the future' instead of right here right now. What can I think of to celebrate in sustainable development? Well, I think we really are beginning to get somewhere in this field - especially if we don't hold too much attachment to what it is called. I think more and more people are coming to recognise its importance, more companies are practicing embedding environmental and social concerns in what they are doing, and more governments are recognising the imperative of acting, not just talking, on climate change. There are some great adaptation programs around the world. The voices from East and South East Asia are getting stronger, challenging previously dominant voices. Sometimes, that means good things for sustainable development. The green economy is growing. And Africa is changing - the change is too diverse to try to label as 'good' or 'bad' (and I'm not that close to God to be able to really know which one is which), but I believe that there is still much hope for the continent. And every day, we get another chance to work and play with others who are learning to live our shared lives a little closer to our vision and a little further from what used to be considered 'normal' - and that is something worth celebrating.</span></span></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-39174326717685814832010-04-13T02:37:00.000-07:002010-04-13T05:59:25.085-07:00Business and Overseas Development: Connecting for sustainability?<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjAMpjfpB2ZFgb3WmFuluUe8bgauSsEgK1BX4NoT_fiuFNmmXlJgv7HR3bg3hQHxdupgfgh0neVt-OOWG6fOAx0thy78VgAnrfJeFqIpWIRg02kbcHSvZ2O04tgdjBXqeyy16bviGWbI/s1600/Business+and+Overseas+Development.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 03px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 185px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjAMpjfpB2ZFgb3WmFuluUe8bgauSsEgK1BX4NoT_fiuFNmmXlJgv7HR3bg3hQHxdupgfgh0neVt-OOWG6fOAx0thy78VgAnrfJeFqIpWIRg02kbcHSvZ2O04tgdjBXqeyy16bviGWbI/s320/Business+and+Overseas+Development.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5459605833060512066" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Business has always been a key section of international development, though that has not always led to sustainable results. One might remember that international development's precursor was colonialism - which thrived in part because of the profit advantages to being able to obtain immensely valuable natural and human resources for almost nothing. Some of the larger 'development organisations' - not least the IMF and the World Bank - have been accused of opening the doors for Western businesses to enter into the developing world and continue that colonial trend - to the great social and environmental detriment of people and planet in the 'developing' world. Not too surprising that the business-development nexus is one fraught with tension - especially since many development actors (though usually not the larger ones) tend towards a certain skepticism of the benefits of 'private public partnerships' (PPP). Who is really profiting from those partnerships - the public-private elite, or the masses?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yet in the past decade or so, international agencies from the US to the UK to Sweden have increasingly reached out to the private sector. It isn't just a variation of these aid agencies growing more neo-liberal; its also a recognition that a) business can add real value to development and b) that business is there - just as one can not ignore economics, nor can one ignore businesses (including multinational corporations). Working with governments isn't enough to reduce poverty. And as a report by the Business Civic Leadership Center pointed out, One of the signs of their presence - multinational corporations gave $3.5 billion to overseas development initiatives. If they were a country, they would be in the top 20 donors. It makes good sense for development to engage with these major actors - on multi-national, national and community levels, for both 'development' and 'business' reasons. Businesses affect pressing developmental issues, from worker safety and well being to environmental challenges to developing emerging markets in healthy directions, and include both global and national programmes. Development agencies act as strategic advisors and broker knowledge. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's not an easy game to play for either side. Development agencies are numerous, fragmented and it is difficult for those in the field to know who is doing what, much less those coming in from outside. It is hard for businesses to know where responsibility and accountability lie. Many 'rules of the game' (especially around leveraging capital) are not developed - or contradictory. Most multi national companies don't work in one of the key priority areas - Africa. Despite these challenges, there are some success stories. USAID has leveraged over $9 bill with over 680 alliances to mobilize investments in sectors ranging from water to micro credit to agriculture. And of course, the micro-credit (and, growing very slowly, the micro-insurance) arenas are well known ways in which much has been done. There are international intentions (such as the UN Global Compact) which are providing a sandbox for figuring out what to do where. I'm not always sure how much is sustainable, and how much isn't. But I know that create sustainable development, both sides need to work together - and hopefully, to get a clearer sense of what is needed to both transform business and aid practices for sustainable development.</span></span></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-68109223738722808832010-04-07T04:07:00.000-07:002010-04-07T04:29:06.708-07:00When one becomes dependent on fears of dependency<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwhx45FgGmgM9hBIP8JZwnNB9LxyYu38DPUgpJwhaxok3V9R9Y-XS1BXzpvsJ-_wyzsF8u_mT5cEqJjUMhbR_wZ-cZ4lWy9WdrYGAaDar2dqY7jUE17vG_9591MIpwTQYaHeRAHMH6gs/s1600/dependent+on+fears+of+dependency.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 03px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwhx45FgGmgM9hBIP8JZwnNB9LxyYu38DPUgpJwhaxok3V9R9Y-XS1BXzpvsJ-_wyzsF8u_mT5cEqJjUMhbR_wZ-cZ4lWy9WdrYGAaDar2dqY7jUE17vG_9591MIpwTQYaHeRAHMH6gs/s320/dependent+on+fears+of+dependency.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5457355785977633154" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Social protection is, once again, becoming increasingly popular as a policy of sustainable international development. However, it still suffers from fears of dependency. Too often, policy makers are too dependent upon their fear of dependency.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Social protection is quickly becoming recognised as one of the most critical aspects of sustainable international development by those engaged in supporting poor countries and emerging markets to develop. Social protection - a dimension of the welfare state - gives support to people in need. Sounds broad? That's because it is. It can include everything from cash transfers to food support to waiving education fees. Even elements of corporate social responsibility could be seen as part of social protection (protecting society from abject poverty as can be brought on by the market forces and global changes) - though usually, social protection refers to government programmes. It generally includes social insurance, social assistance and labour market regulation. The basics of social protection form the basics of the UK's National Health System and the US's welfare-to-work programming. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Does social protection work? Sometimes. It needs to be well targeted, which requires a high level of knowledge of local contexts - something governments don't always have, much less donor agencies working in international development. During financial crises, those governments that have decent social protection programmes overall fare better, their people do not go into poverty as deeply or for so long, and the overall economy can improve faster. It also means that in times of crises, some structure already exists - the government does not have to start from scratch just as the world seems to be tumbling around it -it just strengthens and adds greater resources to what it already has. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Recently, social protection has become concerned not only with providing a more or less stable safety net, but a safety net that bounces back - so that when you land on it, you can get thrown back up to the next income level (hopefully above the minimal poverty line). That means social protection is becoming increasingly linked to overall economic growth agendas, and not simply seen as a 'net' that catches the 'poor' and the 'fallen'. Some call this process of moving from dependence to independence 'graduation'. I think of it as one of the core aspects of sustainable development. It's also becoming increasingly important for adaption to climate change - though to distinguish it from 'normal' social protection, it is referred to as 'Adaptive social protection'. Is there much difference? For people on the ground, probably not. For donors concerned with proving the 'additionality' of climate change funding - indeed it does!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But there is a great fear that governments have - a fear of dependency. They fear that people will just live on the social protection and not work to improve their condition on their own. And while there are many stories of such people, and I'm sure it is an element of it, the evidence suggests that, overall, people do try make an effort to move from dependence to independence. But the fear is so strong that governments are reluctant to put in place long term social protection policies. Perhaps it is the lingerings of Thatcher and Reagan that withdrew long term state support. Whatever the reason, the fear of dependency seems to outweigh the fear of deep poverty. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Certainly, social protection does need to be long term. If social protection is going to be linked to poverty reduction - and not just keeping people away from absolute desolute conditions - it needs to be part of a longer-term development which, I would argue, needs to be focused on keeping people out of poverty (aka pro-poor growth) - that's the only way forward for long term sustainable development.</span></span></div><div><br /></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-45528868056988826192010-04-05T04:55:00.000-07:002010-04-05T05:12:14.413-07:00Complexity and Development<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWFeaIEH0JZE-xqXk3yvox43vCE5O5cLhNXNbqLXc8IlKBMdJkoaKgnktE4q2HAHCBHSze9aIBu7aNZKy_KISnpd4A5PzGjAiFlDk2Jdy-oMgeeoyYlmrPVyqhUSO5RVYONlNTQva7fc/s1600/label.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 0px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 196px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWFeaIEH0JZE-xqXk3yvox43vCE5O5cLhNXNbqLXc8IlKBMdJkoaKgnktE4q2HAHCBHSze9aIBu7aNZKy_KISnpd4A5PzGjAiFlDk2Jdy-oMgeeoyYlmrPVyqhUSO5RVYONlNTQva7fc/s320/label.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456624948798566450" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In case you haven't noticed, complexity and chaos science has been movin' and shakin' the natural-scientific world for several decades, leading to fabulous advances in everything from climate science to the human genome project to molecular physics. It's been breaking down disciplinary boundaries and leading to some life-affirming images that grip the popular imagination, from the notion of the earth being one system (Lovelock's beloved 'Gaia theory') to the notion that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can shape a tornado - even the smallest action, in the right circumstances, can make a profound difference. It's a science where the phrase 'we don't know' is common normal - a far cry from much of the rest of the world. But what does it mean for social sciences - and particularly, for practical action and sustainable development? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There's a dangerous breed of managerial consultant-type complexity-specialists (something of an oxymoron if you ask me) who take the language and then insert the latest management flashy answer underneath it. I'm not sure how much these guys really understand complexity and how much of it is window dressing. And there are those who doubt that the natural sciences can really help us understand the complexity of the social world. Oh, wait - that's the whole point. The social world - especially sustainable development - is super-complex. In fact, the problems that most of international sustainable development tries to deal with - poverty, disasters, conflict, international relationships, governance, empowerment, environmental-human systems - those are some of the most complex challenges we've got. So - yes, complexity has a lot to offer sustainable development. I'm not going to get into all of it here - though there's been some fascinating work done on it - but there's a few interesting illustrations I recently learned about that might help open the possibilities.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In many ways, complexity takes ideas that I, at least, thought were 'duh' and grounds them in the 'reality' of complexity science and mathematics. It's not just my common sense talking- the world really does respond better to some ways of thinking than to other ways. Let's take the problem of cause-effect (linear) kinds of thinking. Old pattern, based on Newton and the Cartesian world view: (A) leads to (B). Input leads to Output. Great for machines and much of the industrial revolution. And clocks. And all sorts of things - in a closed-system. Not so great when you start adding things like disgruntled workers into factories who want things like ownership. Or, in the case of sustainable development, when you think that natural disasters are unrelated to society - the notion that we can segregate the 'natural' from the 'social'. But if you take three factors (initial conditions, in complexity terminology) - say, a garbage dump, a poor slum city in south east asia on the edge of the ocean (near the new industrial harbour) and the regular tsunamis (or monsoon rains) that got a little bit worse from climate change, and you put them all together in such a way that the storm hits the garbage dump and the poor people who make their living picking through it, spreads it all over the places, kills people in the process and leads to weeks and months of disease and un-healthy conditions in an already impoverished context, and you've got a serious disaster. It's not just the disaster - its the way it interacts with the initial conditions and the social system. Trying to address just one of those issues isn't going to do much. You have to look at the system, and you have to reconise that those interactions are complex. Patterns can be distinguished, but not necessarily predicted. Which means you need to get out of the input-output mentality - or at least, recognise that while (A) might be necessary to create (B), in a complex situation, it is not enough. Sending aid is not enough. It has to be coupled with the reality on the ground; local ownership of the follow up projects, etc. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sustainable Development is complex. It is well worth looking at how we can best use complexity theory to work in the field better - without pretending we know more than we do (which in my case, isn't much!)</span></span></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-53455101773043983852010-03-29T00:17:00.000-07:002010-03-29T00:27:49.113-07:00Will the UK increase Overseas Development Assistance?<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxGi2WKrzwcGhZQhAaAFetXx8uZh08-HCrPCAr76_f45bp2c3mApOSASBgdfw4OGZfbMmLkTwlqA3aJ8RZZsjaMRN-0ZfekETjjFTVge9rzeSFK7pUnZO3-2pVp6mq-bVRXxlZJcajdEY/s1600/Overseas+Development+Assistance.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 07px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxGi2WKrzwcGhZQhAaAFetXx8uZh08-HCrPCAr76_f45bp2c3mApOSASBgdfw4OGZfbMmLkTwlqA3aJ8RZZsjaMRN-0ZfekETjjFTVge9rzeSFK7pUnZO3-2pVp6mq-bVRXxlZJcajdEY/s320/Overseas+Development+Assistance.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453954038918295906" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There's a bill in parliament to increase ODA. The next government will determine the bill's success. But DfID faces more challenges than convincing the UK government to keep to their old unfulfilled promises.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the UK, election season is swinging into high gear, and many government projects are wondering if they are going to survive - whomever wins the election. Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), generally carried out through the Department for International Development (DFID) is no exception. This week, the International Development Select Committee, which oversees DFID in Parliament, recommended that whomever wins the election should increase international development assistance to 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) to support development efforts in 2013 and each following year.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Back in 2004, the UK government agreed to make the now-famous 0.7% of GNI. This year, they will commit 0.57% of the budget. The government has never made 0.7%. Indeed, the government took 11 years to increase their budget .17%. We're not talking about big percentiles - but increasing the aid budget, regardless of the commitments and the rhetoric, seems to be difficult regardless of who is prime minister. So there is a bill on the table to increase ODA to 0.7% - in other words, to keep their promises. But the bill has a pretty large loop hole: it allows the government to renege on their comittment for 'economic, fiscal or external circumstances'. Given the current climate, that's pretty much the same thing as saying that they don't really have to do anything. It would mean that once again, the UK government is making a promise it won't actually live up to - hardly the first time in the field of sustainable development. The Select Committee discouraged this - not too surprising, given that it is the Overseas Development Committee - they are likely to push their 'select' concern. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of course, even if the bill passes - and even if, by some small miracle, it is done well, and Parliament makes the right decision and takes out that loophole big enough for any government to waltz right through it without even being singed on the edges of their fancy coats, larger questions loom. Does DfID have the capacity to work effectively in increasingly insecure and challenging environments, from Afghanistan to Somalia? How are they going to work with complex emerging actors such as China, or work with internal actors such as the State department, who is increasingly getting involved with 'development issues'? And in times of economic struggle, how are they going to get that much-sought-after 'value for money'? And of great importance, how are they going to work on sustainable development - promoting it and re-imagining it in the context of constrained resources, climate change, the need for low-carbon growth, and the renewed power of actors such as the World Bank who don't exactly have a clean environmental record (though they are making some strides in improving it)? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It's a challenging time for DfID. It's hard to know if their prospects are better with a labor or conservative government - either party might cut, not increase, ODA. Personally, I feel efficiency for sustainable development - which we are still learning how to do, and thus will make many mistakes in learning how to do it well - is one of the greatest challenges, and one of the greatest opportunities. To do it well, DfID can't work alone. Of course, they never have. But maybe one of the solutions to their problems is one of the ones they haven't yet learned to use - the British public. Can social media contribute to DfID's work towards sustainable development? DfID's Canadian counterpart, CIDA, has made efforts to have greater Canadian public engagement in their work and have found it quite challenging. Not too surprising - as corporations and others who try to make use of public engagement have found, its rarely an easy or quick process. But I suspect that greater engagement, not less, is key for DfID, both at home and abroad.</span></span></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-5464443466897637342010-03-22T03:33:00.000-07:002010-03-22T03:40:14.418-07:00From Control to Engagement - Not an easy transition, but an important one<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTr4tVBDAwUKDA81xHbn3nJN1onepFp8cQL8PZM_2R6sQyhvpGPXVpeFnRSFDx1KPthFyZrGV7lAXxaaEJLJSw-EFqFm5nBXRXX9a-a6qlg7qULv4FnPPh6ohWnZ33teOVMhXvv32mX24/s1600-h/From+Control+to+Engagement.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 07px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTr4tVBDAwUKDA81xHbn3nJN1onepFp8cQL8PZM_2R6sQyhvpGPXVpeFnRSFDx1KPthFyZrGV7lAXxaaEJLJSw-EFqFm5nBXRXX9a-a6qlg7qULv4FnPPh6ohWnZ33teOVMhXvv32mX24/s320/From+Control+to+Engagement.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451405975570123314" /></a><div>There is a general agreement: to engage with the public for sustainable development in a socially-networked world, companies need to actually engage. I know, I know, that is just oh-so-brilliant. But again and again, companies try to control their messaging and their communications. I've met a lot of ex-corporate communication managers who left because it was, well, boring. These days, both internal and external communications need to move up the spectrum of public engagement - towards engagement (and not just 'talking down' to the public'. I've no doubt that it will, eventually, happen. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are ways to 'help' organisations become more engaged - the same ways one goes about any organisational change. Register what isn't working and why it isn't working. Create a vision for what the company works. Put in place structural management processes, and the necessary evaluations and assessments to measure the halting journey towards better business. That will help lead to sustainable development.</div><div><br /></div><div>Certainly social media can be about transforming the business model. Reuters Market Lite in India is a fascinating example of this. They've devised a new sector: the micro information sector, connecting farmers in India with the market - especially national and global food prices through the use of mobile phones. This has tremendous impact - including return on investment for customers that can increase as much as 1000 times. This innovation-centered, customer-orientated, sustainable business model has gotten huge attention from international media; especially for and from emerging markets. Over two years, they have 200,000 customers, and are keeping as close to their customer base as possible. At the moment, it is mostly a one-way communication and they are thinking about how to go down that route. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; "><i>Photo credit: <a href="http://aestheticsofjoy.com/category/joyful-culture/">Aesthetics of Joy</a></i></span></span></div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-34550312616508315322010-03-15T05:36:00.000-07:002010-03-15T05:42:47.678-07:00Where's the Crisis? Ask the Young Women<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQz1byel-cjJ4aPyl1CFZ-3pOMyWD9menyL4J80EN932ePDMySj38mfqxlaxHcgYHon-ekYtC3XIo2J7o2v_jvS54D9wJKaPDDmjuztKbuFmMRNdHODwJ8mm_yn869LCm_kCJxYaTs35E/s1600-h/Where's+the+Crisis.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 07px 07px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQz1byel-cjJ4aPyl1CFZ-3pOMyWD9menyL4J80EN932ePDMySj38mfqxlaxHcgYHon-ekYtC3XIo2J7o2v_jvS54D9wJKaPDDmjuztKbuFmMRNdHODwJ8mm_yn869LCm_kCJxYaTs35E/s320/Where's+the+Crisis.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448840092828484450" /></a><p>There's been a lot of talk of the financial crisis. Recently, there has been talk of it lessening - even being over. For those looking at international development, East Asia and other countries have been held up better than anyone - including them - predicted. Despite comforting noises from the financial services, development organisations of all stripes are warning the global public that poor and vulnerable people the world over have just begun to feel the effects of the financial crisis. And around the world, it is the women who are feeling it most.</p> <div>Why the women? Because women - especially poor women - are more likely to take care of things when things fall apart. Social networks, especially the family, takes up the challenges of supporting one another. Older women play a significant role in keeping the women together. They care for the elderly and the children. They are more likely to a be in the informal sector, which has been strongly effected by the crisis. Many already work several 'jobs', and when you are poor and working in the informal sector and work dries up, where are you going to go? Many must turn to prostitution to feed their families. As for the 'young' part - at least in many countries, especially in south east asia, young people have been hit harder than older people.</div> <div><br /></div><div>Oxfam recently asked women what they wanted. They wanted school children to have free books, low interest loans for poor people, social security for children which would reduce medical bills, and, when factories got shut down, workers would get some compensation so they were not suddenly left with nothing. These all come under the loose but vital category of social protection.</div> <div><br /></div><div>The age has come for social protection in all countries. But despite the evidence for this, it is questionable if the political will is there.</div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-63110441681002276942010-03-03T05:38:00.000-08:002010-03-03T05:42:30.599-08:00Greenwashing on the high seas: WHY?<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJrvjde1fTjf0RH5c_rpsyEdIaUEvRMS7tG0kpNQgST3gg5y1kak573h318jovrKQUBbOu81-TIJO9X1GH_u2nH4BTPHoMNfFFzBz9W2Q1MGZNxtMNX00VpjpTugNpCLrlNgXolWrdMCM/s1600-h/why-yacht1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 05px 05px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJrvjde1fTjf0RH5c_rpsyEdIaUEvRMS7tG0kpNQgST3gg5y1kak573h318jovrKQUBbOu81-TIJO9X1GH_u2nH4BTPHoMNfFFzBz9W2Q1MGZNxtMNX00VpjpTugNpCLrlNgXolWrdMCM/s320/why-yacht1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444401800671270914" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Wally, a “brokerage and charter service of sail and power boats in futuristic design” has partnered with Hermes, a design company famous for its luxury products, to create the WHY – Wally Hermes Yacht – which debuted last month at the Abu Dhabi Yachts Show and has been touted for its green features. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Really? A Green Yacht?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Okay, let’s start with the specs. The WHY is 58 m long and 38 m wide, with 3,400 square meters [roughly 36,600 square feet] of “guest surface area” spread over its three levels. [One for living space, outdoor deck, spa, dining room, music room and cinema; one for guest suites, lounge area, and library; and the third reserved as the owner’s private space.] Designed to accommodate 12 guests and 20 crew members, it affords roughly 280 square meters [or 3,014 square feet] per guest. Just for comparison, according to the National Association of Home Builders, the average size for a one-family home in the </span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">United States</span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> is 2,330 square feet [216 square meters]. And we Americans are not known for living in tight spaces. The WHY also offers three different sky-lit patios, a 25 m swimming pool with “thermoregulated” water, and a helipad -- for transportation convenience.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It’s “green” features include the following: “ultra-low consumption” LED lighting and air-conditioning systems, wind turbines and 900 square meters of thermophotovoltaic panels -- which reportedly power the boat’s auxiliary systems -- and an aerodynamic hull designed to decrease energy needs by cutting wind resistance. There is also a computerized energy management system that regulates the use of the vessel’s renewable energy and supplementary diesel fuel.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The green stats listed on the WHY website include the annual fuel savings [160,000 litres or 200 tons. A 200 TON savings?!] and the “lost thermal energy recovered” [1,500 kWh/day], but make no mention of the total diesel fuel costs, the energy consumed in the production of 900 square meters of pvs, the total carbon costs of the project, or an explanation of how anyone could possibly need [or justify the purchase of] a 3,400 square meter yacht.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Luca Bassani Antivari, President and CEO of Wally, writes: “This revolutionary concept of the moving island is developed with the latest and most advanced sustainable technologies … the architecture of the whole project fits perfectly in the environment – there are no excesses, nothing is superfluous, the impact on the sea is minimum.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I didn’t make that up; he really claims that “there are no excesses” and “nothing is superfluous.”</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">WHY is a beautiful piece of engineering; its sleak, steamlined design is gorgeous, its luxury features are breath taking, and it certainly looks like an amazing place to spend a vacation…or, well, the rest of your life. But, I’m sorry, I just can’t take the green claims seriously. How can we lend the sustainability label to something that is so obviously </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nothing but</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> excess, that is so clearly a superfluous use of resources.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’m not saying WHY isn’t beautiful; I’m not saying its morally wrong; I’m not even faulting Sheik Whoever at the Abu Dhabi Yachts Show for buying one. All I’m saying is that it isn’t green; Antivari shouldn’t say that it is and we shouldn’t believe him even if he does.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If we’re going to talk about WHY at all, we should recognize it for what it is – an innovating achievement of yacht design and a fantastic display of opulence – instead devaluing the meaning of “green” by using it so inappropriately. </span></span></p>Andrea Brennenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111828091675079593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-45150026264454252412010-03-03T03:51:00.000-08:002010-03-03T03:54:21.480-08:00Sustainable Languages<p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA6p41vGVCAKskjEbbt36xnS4SGzjYz2z9TEad5in0cSqq2dx-kswa0HlC3mAt5Iv-jVlQ5CDXDf4W6Jh78_k3kM06NovjAKnpj6wJb80QJRTpaAwkZxQmxtheVrvY0s0fRLkaopit2ehS/s1600-h/languages.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 05px 05px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA6p41vGVCAKskjEbbt36xnS4SGzjYz2z9TEad5in0cSqq2dx-kswa0HlC3mAt5Iv-jVlQ5CDXDf4W6Jh78_k3kM06NovjAKnpj6wJb80QJRTpaAwkZxQmxtheVrvY0s0fRLkaopit2ehS/s320/languages.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444374591794364066" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">What does it mean for a language to be endangered, and how do languages relate to sustainable development?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Can you read this?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Obviously if you’re reading this you are a speaker of English, native or otherwise.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Do you speak another language?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you’re an American there’s a 75% chance that English is the only language that you speak well enough to converse in.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you’re in the minority 25%, chances are that second language is Spanish.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What about Alyawarre, or Pipil, Itza' or Baldemu, Liv or Karaim?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Chances are you don’t speak these languages, because these languages are on the list of endangered languages.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What’s an endangered language? It’s a language that’s at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Why does this matter?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Because embedded within language are ways of seeing and of understanding. Learn a new language; gain a new soul says a Czech proverb. Language is a huge part of culture, and identity, and examples abound that when people are ripped from their culture, and they lose that identity their societies cannot thrive, even if they are not ripped from their land or other ways of being. You cannot have sustainable development if you destroy a people in the process.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As the National Geographic Society's Enduring Voices Project notes:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth--many of them not yet recorded--may disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and the human brain.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the push towards global connectedness we are leaving beautifully necessary aspects of humanity behind.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For a very long time this loss has only been the concern of linguists and anthropologists, which is why Rosetta Stone, the popular language software, foray into the field of endangered languages is worth noticing. The Rosetta Stone Endangered Language Program creates language learning software for endangered languages, allowing indigenous nations to hold onto (or in some cases) regain a linguistic tradition and culture that had been all but lost. The communities hold onto the final product and are free to distribute them as they see fit. </p>Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-31897757975552850222010-02-19T05:28:00.000-08:002010-02-19T05:59:12.806-08:00The greenest city in the U.S.?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbSC-dDySIPQQmoTzle9Fh79q2L1lvZx_Aqc3QWu3FSpwNG6SSvothhDdQt93jgVjHWh1uEtuGOozzxtiQLtx8Qt5f0K4xYfoPsUPlXYKOJyrDELN6R00tGKU3i7xCNApQZ60Bu2CahEs/s1600-h/portland+cityscape.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbSC-dDySIPQQmoTzle9Fh79q2L1lvZx_Aqc3QWu3FSpwNG6SSvothhDdQt93jgVjHWh1uEtuGOozzxtiQLtx8Qt5f0K4xYfoPsUPlXYKOJyrDELN6R00tGKU3i7xCNApQZ60Bu2CahEs/s320/portland+cityscape.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439951606681584258" /></a><div>Justmeans co-founder <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/newsfeed/KevinEdwardLong">Kevin Long</a> recently asked me what I thought was the greenest city in the U.S. and without too much hesitation, I responded with Portland, OR. </div><div><br /></div><div>I’ll admit, I’m biased; I can’t help it; I heart Portland. </div><div><br /></div><div>Everyone hearts Portland, or they should. It’s a great place – beautiful, clean, not too expensive, good food, great beer, free public transportation. What’s not to like? Okay, I know, somewhere out there I’m sure there is a contingent of Portland haters -- people who probably think the city is too yuppie or too upper-middle-class-white or too rainy. [First of all, let me just say that I live in Boston and by this time of the year, February, I’d take rain over frigid arctic temps any day. Second, you can complain about the yuppiness of a place like Portland all you want, but let’s face it, deep down you kind of like it.]</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, Portland was my knee-jerk reaction, but then I got to thinking…why is it that I think Portland is the greenest city in the country? Is it really because of the various sustainable development initiatives put forth by the city? Or, is mostly because Portland is, simply, a nice place to live? Is a nice city with a high quality of life a sustainable city?</div><div><br /></div><div>After a little googling, I found some “objective” support for my case. I am definitely not the first to attest to Portland’s greenness – the city’s progressive planning and land use, urban innovation, air and water quality, and impressive number of green buildings make it an easy choice.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there’s more to it than this. When I think about why Portland feels like a green city, it’s not these measurable qualities that come to mind, but instead, something much more difficult to articulate…something about the culture of the city and the priorities of the people who live there. </div><div><br /></div><div>It’s not just that you can walk out your door and sample locally-brewed beer at any one of the many microbreweries, or go for a trail run in the city’s 5,000-acre city park, or ride your bike everywhere…it’s that the people you meet in Portland really care about these “green” urban features and want to talk to you about them. Portland’s “greenness” is embedded into the culture of the city; people move there because of it and there’s a palpable energy that comes from this collective environmental enthusiasm. </div><div><br /></div><div>People heart Portland. They care about the city they live in and because they care, they work to improve it, even though it’s pretty darn cool already. Maybe that’s not the way we typically think about “greenness” but it sure makes Portland a nice place for the environmentally-minded to call home. </div><div><br /></div>Andrea Brennenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111828091675079593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-56290149560396525382010-02-15T00:27:00.000-08:002010-02-15T00:35:23.573-08:00Pride, Denial and Development<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAr6EZBQU6VLZOGlOGVl6ViWHs56wJcs3kSfe1Ol_613DiibU2E-XqnmrSaISNSmOKAK0SSQi9qNHSjJ6Pd8a0UIds-bT_apfigz_gBzEWhBrP5tGku1CFFLa2btRPAFpNLvF3uUA5TOU/s1600-h/next+super+power.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAr6EZBQU6VLZOGlOGVl6ViWHs56wJcs3kSfe1Ol_613DiibU2E-XqnmrSaISNSmOKAK0SSQi9qNHSjJ6Pd8a0UIds-bT_apfigz_gBzEWhBrP5tGku1CFFLa2btRPAFpNLvF3uUA5TOU/s320/next+super+power.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438386009087444242" /></a><div>Confronting the pride and the denial that are besetting the world's 'greatest superpower': redefining development.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem with being a super power is you tend to think highly of yourself. You are, after all, both super and power. The pride that comes with thinking of oneself as highly developed, or civilized, or at least a great Empire is undoubtably one of the major reasons why it has taken the United States - and other Western countries - so long to fully admit to and appropriately deal with dangers such as climate change and with the challenges of sustainable development and to normalise green growth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take the area where the United States should excel: renewable energy. The US has the old auto factories that easily become wind turbine factories, it has the massive of unemployed, many of who are blue collar workers, it has a social movement (Green for All) that is supporting the transition, it has excellent examples of poverty-energy-growth- win-win-win sustainable solutions, it has global reach, industrial prowress, excellent access to markets, generally favorable trade policies, etc. You know the drill. Who is excelling? China. They are becoming the leaders in green energy - as you probably knew. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are a lot of reasons why. But pride, prejudice, and a dangerous degree of denial are right up there. Not that the United States is new to any of those characteristics - particularly the denial aspect. Which is dangerous for any market entity - it is essential that the US keep its head above water, something its having an increasingly difficult thing doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>There needs, now, a reconceptualisation of development in order to enable sustainable development. With China owning much of the US, and with it clearly racing ahead on what is surely some of the most important emerging markets for this century, we can not longer say that even though China is poor, it is clearly undeveloped. And given the dangers of pride and prejudice, I would be loath to call any country that includes them as 'developed'. Instead, all countries should be seen as developing. That would enable a greater degree of humility - and the chance for learning. And such humility is essential for sustainable development.</div>Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-61004659385566719342010-02-09T00:48:00.000-08:002010-02-09T00:58:26.173-08:00Hope for the jobless?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTr4ToM12QGTo6H7Z6UqecET9tT5JEsUoA1Zntezs4WqYpkof5K7UJICJkEOLsURxOMZTSjD_QH3bIbF2q8eQTuNY5Q9pftvhoDfVEbsInBaKgvXkaWS5Hn1k0rQuk5ipcBiisx2QVEho/s1600-h/2_7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTr4ToM12QGTo6H7Z6UqecET9tT5JEsUoA1Zntezs4WqYpkof5K7UJICJkEOLsURxOMZTSjD_QH3bIbF2q8eQTuNY5Q9pftvhoDfVEbsInBaKgvXkaWS5Hn1k0rQuk5ipcBiisx2QVEho/s320/2_7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436163495436175282" border="0" /></a><meta 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mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I tuned into NPR the other day and Tom Ashbrook was leading a panel discussion where he and several guests were summing up the events of the past decade and discussing what they mean/have meant for life in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region></span> There was a lot to talk about, obviously, but I tuned in just in time for a debate about joblessness, particularly as it is affecting young people in this country.
<br />
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I bring this up because there has been a very similar conversation taking place recently on <a href="http://www.Justmeans.com">Justmeans.com</a>, amongst two of the Sustainable Development writers, Kendra Pierre-Louis and Sara Wolcott. <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Career-Advice/7800.html"><span style="color:blue;">Kendra</span></a> and <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Educating-for-Livelihoods/8125.html"><span style="color:blue;">Sara</span></a></span> have been discussing the high number of young and well educated people who have recently found themselves out of a job, and pondering the shortcomings of higher education, in general.
<br />
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Tom Ashbrook had a caller, James – an unemployed, 27-year-old graduate from a fancy university – who phoned in to say, basically, this: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">“I’ve spent the last decade doing everything I was told I was supposed to do. I did well in high school, went to a good college and studied something that I was passionate about that had real-life applications; I worked internships to get experience and went to another good school to get a graduate degree to set myself apart. Now, I’ve been unemployed for over a year and can’t make my student loan payments. Where is the world that I was promised?”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I was at the edge of my seat by the time the caller got to this point. I was thinking about how many people I know who have found themselves in a similar situation recently and I was desperately awaiting what I knew would be Tom’s reassuring advice to James. I was waiting to hear: “the economy’s tough right now, but hang in there; everything will be okay; you’ll find work; you’ll do great things, etc.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">No such luck. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Tom and two of the other panelists basically told James that they felt his pain over the crappy situation [I don’t think they actually said “crappy” on the radio.] Then, they agreed that everything – the economy, the climate, the way we live our lives – was changing so fast that there wasn’t really any way to anticipate what was going to happen or what skills/jobs/careers would be necessary over the short or long term. Basically they just told James that he was right, that it was very possible he wouldn’t find the world he had been expecting. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">
<br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">Really? </i>That’s it?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In their posts, Kendra and Sara addressed some of the unsustainable aspects of our educational system. I guess all I want to add is that we can’t wait for the system to fix itself. We all know that the world is changing really fast and we’re all looking for better ways to do things – more sustainable ways to live, work, and act. It’s hard to think about big picture things like changing the system when you’re worried about day-to-day things like paying your rent. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Yet, at the same time, maybe the rough job market is an opportunity – a chance to avoid getting sucked into the unsustainable ways of old and to experiment with different lifestyles and different priorities. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Who knows, maybe we couldn’t do it any other way. </span></p> <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div style="font-family: times new roman;" id="refHTML"></div>Andrea Brennenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111828091675079593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-77229624136092512532010-02-08T03:39:00.000-08:002010-02-08T03:45:46.087-08:00Empowering women - but don't 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{mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" >Practitioners and preachers of sustainable development generally adhere to the importance of empowerment. Especially the empowerment of women. Give a poor woman in a village a cow, and she will lift not only herself but her family and many friends and neighbours out of the depths of poverty. If you set up micro finance, set up microfinance with women. Then you will have sustainability.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" >But what does this really mean? Can we really buy into that common narrative? In different places, empowerment means different things.<span style=""> </span>In Ramallah, Palestine, some women feel that the term 'empowerment' is something they associate with a Western, neo-liberal agenda that seeks to give women material things rather than help them face the inherently inequal, unfair and deprived political situation that keeps them away from land and justice.<span style=""> </span>
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" >Self-determination is impossible - an extra goat won't do a lot of good in dealing with the underlying problems of Israeli occupation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: times new roman;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:100%;" >Other ways of enabling women to be empowered - establishing quotas for women in parliament, for example, can disempower certain groups of women with more radical ideas than 'the system' would allow. Technologies, especially movile phones and the internet, for example, have opened up new worlds and enable them to stretch to new horizons. But technologies can also be seen as sources of moral dangers. Similarly, NGOs, which are 'supposed' to empower civil society, are often far removed from the community and grassroots concerns that people have.<span style=""> </span>In a situation like Palestine,<span style=""> </span>empowerment of women needs to confront Israeli occupation. Which may or may not empower women in Israel - depending on how it is done. Regardless of their Israeli sisters, dealing with the hot political potato of Israeli occupation is something that many many NGOs and their donors are very reluctant to do. Sustainable development may well include empowerment, but empowerment means different things to different people in different contexts. Let's not forget the complecations - and that empowerment means dealing with power, and power means dealing with politics, and sometimes those politics are very complicated and very difficult and not, primarily, about gender.</span></p> Sara Wolcotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239661932308132322noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-52741292234343203752010-02-01T10:36:00.000-08:002010-02-01T10:45:39.546-08:00Why Architects Hate Sustainable Development<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvlKQXmXIwGJlWx88TxwUO4jcDjcXQhWLUbfH-K6pXwMdXghYa4WwXYLmA5QAhBPCLuSLynNKceFKpsIsuhvYUgltHrRghsjDpMF3QbTtpYLX-jnLReMx1zdVgva9-ZuitTcxlCSY_4c/s1600-h/footprint.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvlKQXmXIwGJlWx88TxwUO4jcDjcXQhWLUbfH-K6pXwMdXghYa4WwXYLmA5QAhBPCLuSLynNKceFKpsIsuhvYUgltHrRghsjDpMF3QbTtpYLX-jnLReMx1zdVgva9-ZuitTcxlCSY_4c/s320/footprint.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433347853485597602" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Arno Pro', serif;font-size:130%;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What sustainability means for architects, and what we can do about it. Also included is a look at the changing meaning of “footprint” -- from to plan drawing to carbon counting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Okay, you’re right. Architects don’t really hate sustainable development; no one </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">hates</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> sustainable development. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I mean, if we take the Brundtland Report’s definition of sustainability -- “a process or act that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”– then sustainability is basically a premise that is impossible to oppose. You </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">can’t</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> hate it. Hating sustainability would be like rejoicing in mass destruction…or hoping for environmental apocalypse…or wanting to kill kittens.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This said, the premise of sustainable development poses some really tricky issues for architects, i.e. people who are in the business of designing new buildings…people whose job it is to make things that use lots of natural resources and consume lots of energy…people who build new office towers for wealthy corporations, replacing open space [“nature”] with overly-air-conditioned cubicles. See the problem?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Let me illustrate the dilemma a little further by explaining a change that has taken place with regards to the architectural conception of “footprint.” Pre-sustainability, a building’s “footprint” was simply where [and how] it interacted with the ground – the surface or space occupied by a structure. Today, the understanding of an architectural “footprint” has expanded to incorporate the much more abstract notion of the building’s impact and demand on the environment at large – the embodied energy it consumes and the carbon it emits. This change was initiated in part by ecologist William Reese’s book </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Impact on Earth</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, and has been expanded by the recent media emphasis on carbon counting and offsetting. Whereas the first type of footprint can be represented by a drawing of the building [a “plan”], the second requires a vast array of scientific modeling and measurements, life-cycle analyses, data tables and excel spreadsheets.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The premise of sustainable development carries with it a moral imperative to “minimize footprint.” Taken to its logical extreme, this injunction is incompatible with the very act of building – not building </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">always</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> has a smaller footprint than building. Architects, from the outset, find themselves in a compromised position. Unable to achieve the ultimate goal [“minimize footprint,” “leave no trace,” etc.] they must constantly weigh various options, trying to anticipate which undesirable option will make their work the least bad.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now, I know what you’re thinking. The outlook doesn't have to be so bleak. Architects can simply do their best to minimize the environmental impact of their buildings. The result may not be perfect, but with new technologies and different strategies, it can be more sustainable than what we’ve got right now. Of course, you are right, and let me assure you, there are lots of architects who are working in this way. There are even more architects who are making lots of money pretending to do so, but that is another issue altogether.<br /><br />Let me just leave you with one thought. In my mind, it’s not enough to blindly accept the premise of sustainable development -- to assuage our guilt by offseting carbon in an effort to minimize our collective footprint. We shouldn’t be afraid to be critical of the premises of sustainable development and our critique shouldn’t be interpreted as a dismissal of the problems at hand. We should embrace today’s tone of looming crisis as an opportunity to reevaluate our priorities and to think really carefully about what it is, exactly, that we’re interested in sustaining.<br /><br />As an architect, I guess what I’m searching for is a way to carve out a position for myself that’s somewhere in between loving kittens and hating sustainability.</span></span></p><p></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arno Pro","serif"font-family:";font-size:11.0pt;"></span></p><div style="mso-element:footnote-list"><div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"> </div></div><p></p>Andrea Brennenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18111828091675079593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-69369605155421433412010-01-17T22:26:00.000-08:002010-01-17T22:31:57.501-08:00The Trouble with USAID<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidOTmPo4Jid9tk5eSo3TZvNh2ANVL7EXVvb2TJgeVb5WpVloPzq0AqsMXdz7zkQEZA2xuH-s0QKeuQABJGx3b1UulQUtcTwbURaeLxKVtYLglJc4yRh_zArT4o-EDn56szQ5qKfRaH258w/s1600-h/USAID.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidOTmPo4Jid9tk5eSo3TZvNh2ANVL7EXVvb2TJgeVb5WpVloPzq0AqsMXdz7zkQEZA2xuH-s0QKeuQABJGx3b1UulQUtcTwbURaeLxKVtYLglJc4yRh_zArT4o-EDn56szQ5qKfRaH258w/s320/USAID.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427962830492363250" border="0" /></a><span style="">Why do some people think USAID does more harm than good?<br /><br /></span><span style="">Many people in development circles have feelings ranging from dislike to contempt for the United States’ flagship development organization USAID.<br /></span><span style=""><br />On the surface, there is little to dislike in USAID’s mission to provide US economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. The issues, however, with USAID aren’t with its stated message, but rather lie in its execution.</span><span style="">As a friend who spent years working with USAID in <span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_1">Nepal</span> once succinctly stated “At its core USAID seeks to fulfill US interests. Where those interests align with the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_2">developing country</span>’s interests, great, but when those interests differ US interests will always win out.” </span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="">An example of this practice is when the US gives developing country’s millions of dollars in development assistance; it obligates that nation to use those development dollars explicitly to purchase US made goods. That is, if a the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_3">local government</span> of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_4">Uganda</span> decides that it needs 100 cars, it is obligated to purchase 100 US made vehicles rather than from their own domestic car industry, or say the cheaper Indian made <span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_5">Tata</span>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="">Considering that <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_6">government spending</span> is often one of the best ways of stimulating a local economy, aid given in this way doesn’t just fail to help elevate a nation out of poverty. By forcing governments to purchase US goods from grain to automobile it actually works to undermine local industries and in fact only further deepens a nation’s dependency. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="">Additionally, USAID is often used as a tool not to help lift poor nations out of poverty, but rather to meet the short term political interests of the United States. It’s not too much of a stretch to believe, for example, that the incidents covered in The Tale of the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1263795916_7">Creole Pig</span> had less to do with a genuine risk to America’s pig farmer interests and more to do with cow-towing to pressures of America’s pig lobby (which like much of the agriculture sector is powerful). </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="">It’s not surprising that the US would not want it’s aid to conflict with its own interests, but as long as USAID is subject to the whims of political pressure it can never act in a way that truly is in the best interests of those whom it professes to serve.</span></p><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-76556712734584778832010-01-11T00:40:00.000-08:002010-01-11T00:43:17.142-08:00Fuzzy Reading<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2uQvF0UZFgaHNfFx6BV9n712zXwnqrlw4PRdf8Z_qGJTePdDm-GE0yZ4w3ezUeNDSZsq_1KvQ2Jkgn1ioW3H6-0L3WPHKF0g9CuqEVDqxvWi_YzB32mfJtTTr2ESoKPu0aBOodg-jbLS/s1600-h/kindle2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2uQvF0UZFgaHNfFx6BV9n712zXwnqrlw4PRdf8Z_qGJTePdDm-GE0yZ4w3ezUeNDSZsq_1KvQ2Jkgn1ioW3H6-0L3WPHKF0g9CuqEVDqxvWi_YzB32mfJtTTr2ESoKPu0aBOodg-jbLS/s320/kindle2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425400007130923634" /></a><br />Kendra looks at the environmental and social cost of the rise of the electronic reader.<br /><br /><br />On my morning commute I’ve been reading two very big, very heavy, hard covered books totaling almost two thousand pages. They take up space that could otherwise be occupied by a spare pair of shoes or lunch or simply left empty to allow me to swing my now unencumbered handbag around Mary Tyler Moore style. And while I view hauling around these weighted tomes as part of my passive exercise regimen and active security device (I pity the assailant who receives a whack of my handbag) a quick glance around my subway car implies that I’m quickly joining a rare breed of commuter who enjoys that the printed word be, well, printed.<br /><br />From Amazon’s Kindle to Sony’s eReader, it seems this holiday season the must have gift amongst the commuting set was an electronic book reader. An astonishing number of people I encounter these days seem to have one.<br /><br />And on the face of things this seems like a very personal issue, after all choosing to read a paper versus electronic book is ultimate one of personal choice.<br /><br />However, this personal choice has a deeply social effect.<br /><br />There is of course the obvious issue: the environmental one. There has been a plethora of research citing that electronic readers, assuming one reads at least one hundred books a year, are actually the environmental winner consuming less carbon and water than their printed companions.<br /><br />The accounting, however, does nothing to hi-light the fact that the paper books are based on a renewable resource unlike the plastics and heavy metals which are featured in e-readers. In addition, while publishing is a notoriously noxious industry, it is one that could be cleaned up to operate more environmentally efficiently. I am not sure consuming a resource (plastic) that will never biodegrade can ever be considered truly ‘green’.<br /><br />Utilizing an entire lifecycle analysis, electronic are at best no worse than their paper companions, but more likely are a lot worse than their paper companions not just environmentally but also socially.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Because even the most voracious of readers rarely purchases all of the books that they read. They make use of free libraries, share books among friends, or pick them up second hand at book sales. In other words, purchasing a paper book often becomes a very social act.<br /><br />When a person purchases an electronic book, by contrast, they are in essence purchasing an individual use item, unless they physically share their book reader. Their individual cost may be lower, but the cost society pays as a whole is much, much, higher. In a society that continues to promote the idea that information should be free, the $200+ dollar cost of an electronic book reader is an awfully high barrier towards accessing that information.<br /><br />Even if libraries manage to work out deals that allow them to lend electronic books, it is naive to assume that people are going to have the financial resources to purchase a device that allows them to read electronic books – as anyone who has ever waited to use a computer in one of New York’s Public Library can tell you, the number of people who still exist without personal home computers is astounding.<br /><br />In addition, I spent my holidays going through my possessions and clearing out massive piles of books which I am in the process of donating to a charity that puts books in the libraries of prisons and juvenile detention centers. The impetus to share these books was simple: they were occupying physical space, I no longer needed or wanted them, but their inherent remaining value would have made me feel bad about simply tossing them in the trash. By contrast, with computer storage costing mere pennies these days the impetus to get rid of and otherwise share electronic books will virtually non-existent. Consequently, a host of education and literacy programs in the developed and developing world which depend either directly on book donations or indirectly (through book sales) on printed manuscripts will find themselves scrambling for new models of financing and organizing.<br /><br />None of this is real of course.<br /><br />Right now most people still read print books, electronic readers remain a niche market and libraries are still as sound as ever.<br /><br />But these conclusions while not inevitable are plausible and for me that is cause for alarm. The constant adoption of supposedly better technologies without ever pausing to ask what was the true cost of said technologies is what has gotten us into this environmental and social pickle. For me, the rampant adoption of this new technology without pausing to ask if it makes sense represents more of this same kind of thinking. And for this I am deeply saddened.<br /><br />With that said, if you'll excuse me, I need to go out and purchase a new 3D TV.Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-50642947231749203752009-12-29T22:46:00.000-08:002009-12-29T23:09:58.328-08:00Interconnectedness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5o5ZD2CE-3cITnIbn0r8TK2h0YalizgVVklGFIDDSTJ_XEhgx5guOIYw433VgpohmyBh29sT85-TgC4TaS0BIEzOrOXCDKF6rDm9hsXrE3XuL27QFTabjzs4ZHdCFMW1sNxMtgv9b7on0/s1600-h/Interconnectedness.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5o5ZD2CE-3cITnIbn0r8TK2h0YalizgVVklGFIDDSTJ_XEhgx5guOIYw433VgpohmyBh29sT85-TgC4TaS0BIEzOrOXCDKF6rDm9hsXrE3XuL27QFTabjzs4ZHdCFMW1sNxMtgv9b7on0/s320/Interconnectedness.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420922696482910818" /></a><br />Kendra looks at New York City’s transit situation and illustrates how one policy decision can negatively impact seemingly disconnected issues.<br /><br />In New York City, where I live, if you live more than a mile or so from the school that you attend (public or private), you are eligible for a free New York City Student MetroCard. The Student MetroCard enables students (regardless of financial need) to go to and from school for free.<br /><br />Unlike in other municipalities few kids in NYC above the age of elementary school or so ride the yellow school busses that are so ubiquitous elsewhere in the country. The public transport system is what New York City kids depend on to cart them to school, extracurricular activities, and even occasionally, field trips. In addition, unlike in other places kids in New York can live as far away as 90-minutes (each direction) from the school that they are attending – even when the student is attending public school.<br /><br />Currently, the MTA – the body that runs New York’s Public Transport system – is threatening to eliminate student metrocards in an attempt to balance its budget (and others speculate squeeze more money out the already broke state government).<br /><br />While much can be said about the MTA’s mismanagement of funds which created this predicament (ahem, 2nd avenue train line, and ridiculous executive salaries), the real issue is that by removing free student MetroCard the MTA is placing a roughly 800 dollar per student burden on New York City families.<br /><br />It is in essence a school fee.<br /><br />Although the issue is particularly felt by those with children of school age this is an issue that affects all of the city’s residents, and to a certain extent the country.<br /><br />First, because in New York many of the kids who go to school outside of their home communities, are students of modest economic backgrounds whose local schools fail at the task of providing quality education. By denying those who have illustrated they have the drive and the capacity to excel, the opportunity to do so, we are only serving to further entrench poverty. We’re creating a bigger divide between the have-lots and the have-less.<br /><br />Secondly, we are in essence sending a message that education matters only to those with the means to afford it. We’re sending a passive message that those who cannot afford transportation to school, basically, don’t count enough to be education.<br /><br />Thirdly, millions of New York City school students receive free breakfast and lunch at school, often the only real food they would otherwise get. Reducing their access to education, therefore, not only limits their future, it also very much impinges upon their day to day survival and also serves to further exacerbate financial issues as families that are already struggling.<br /><br />The reason I bring this up is to remind us that sometimes one seemingly <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/Chucking-Short-term-thinking/3664.html">disconnected ‘solution’</a> can cause a myriad of far more expensive problems. Eliminating student MetroCards may (and that’s a big may) help the MTA reach its budget in the short term, but it creates massive ripples that can be felt across the city – as an increase in neighborhood school overcrowding, will lead to a rise in truancy, which often leads to an increase in petty crime, some such as graffiti in the subway, which may negatively impact the MTA’s bottom line. In other words, the MTA may find that eliminating student MetroCards may actually cost them more than it saves them. It’s already cost them a great deal in the court of public opinion.Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-64974333979705590562009-12-24T02:22:00.000-08:002009-12-24T02:27:10.175-08:00Walking the Walk<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSrOAgzihHGAplMbeFpDHY64rKIVYPz3aUCcAwvI6GXHycS1elUwQukAcBQ0ESakzffNQ9p0iuEgSpHHGAHzeCkquSLUjSwq7JxvrLDAkz6KLzScKOgpXUqP_HY9WX8pWLFAj9AtGy2U/s1600-h/WalkScore+MLS+Graphic.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSrOAgzihHGAplMbeFpDHY64rKIVYPz3aUCcAwvI6GXHycS1elUwQukAcBQ0ESakzffNQ9p0iuEgSpHHGAHzeCkquSLUjSwq7JxvrLDAkz6KLzScKOgpXUqP_HY9WX8pWLFAj9AtGy2U/s320/WalkScore+MLS+Graphic.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418747000697084930" /></a><br />One of my favorite web sites is <a href="http://www.walkscore.com">Walkscore.com</a>. Walkscore maps the closest grocery store, school, restaurant, and several other places you might walk to from any address in the United States or Canada. It also gives each location a "Walk Score" based on the distance to those amenities. In addition to the Walkscore for a given address, the site will also produce a "walkshed map." <br /><br />I've advised realtors to use this web site to focus their inventory to address the higher gas prices that are likely to return as economies recover out of this slump, (and not incidentally focus on development that reduces energy use and emissions) and then market accordingly. Now someone's doing it! One Colorado realtor is using a home's Walkscore as a selling point along with the more typical amenities. <br /><br />We had best not get complacent about the price of gas. The summer of 2008 was a harbinger of the new reality, not a quirk in the old one. No matter how much reserves the world's oil producers proclaim, the reality is that each drop of oil is harder to get out of the ground (and requires more energy in extraction) than the previous one. If the Sustainable Development community can anticipate this, we can drive some changes. <br /><br />Here's the next step - We need to press developers to design and build to a Walkscore target, to get them thinking and working as if walkability mattered. They should use this quantitative tool to assess their progress. Why shouldn't this tool be turned around and used to design walkable communities? <br /><br />We have a grand nexus here of commercial and environmental interests if we can take advantage of it. The nexus is that as economies recover, the price of gas will rise again. (Any developer growing complacent about the price of gas is, I believe, in for a rude surprise in the next year or two. It's already creeping up it seems.) And a "walkable" development has to hold some appeal to anyone who lived through the summer of 2008. <br /><br />Environmentally, the time to stop auto emissions is obviously past. But I refuse to shrug in resignation. There's still work to do. A Walkscore-rated development will lower life cycle emissions and energy use. <br />So, who's on board here? We need developers interested in designing this way, and we need to approach Walkscore.com to convince them to create a tool for those developers. Who's on board? Who wants to lead and make this happen? Leave your contact information as a comment.Paul Birkelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09187531592202507162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-21254001500282857762009-12-18T00:25:00.000-08:002009-12-18T00:32:18.850-08:00Peak Oil & Sustainable Development<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj103DOihExGS7W7s2u-BwmAJTCAjBXsmTh4FybfGXAoWQ0KLIjFwueJ-6xPFN4RLRnsgcMBa1Db9WkovZl1jCOlVOmVRLhkGYfmCJ1qPaJQebBPFaJUQzAyEN4rZCSaQha9P8lKZmLy6E/s1600-h/PeakOilPoll.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 265px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj103DOihExGS7W7s2u-BwmAJTCAjBXsmTh4FybfGXAoWQ0KLIjFwueJ-6xPFN4RLRnsgcMBa1Db9WkovZl1jCOlVOmVRLhkGYfmCJ1qPaJQebBPFaJUQzAyEN4rZCSaQha9P8lKZmLy6E/s320/PeakOilPoll.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416491191465410002" /></a><br />Before the mortgage debacle hit last fall, gas prices were already playing havoc with real estate sales as the old advice to "drive until you can afford a house" took on a different meaning, and suburban/exurban home sales slowed. So, once the economy rights itself, will that earlier trend continue? Seems so. <br /><br />An October 2008 survey of petroleum geologists found that a whopping 61% believe that Peak Oil has either already occurred or will occur within 10 years. This was reported in the journal of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. <br /><br />For those unfamiliar with Peak Oil, it is the point at which global oil production gradually declines, never to return to its former levels. US Domestic oil production peaked in 1972 leading to the first oil crisis, which was mitigated only by the discovery of North Sea oil and a ramp up of our oil imports from the UK and Middle East. <br /><br />Unlike some "dark green" prognosticators, I don't believe that oil will not just 'run out.' What runs out is the easily extracted oil. What happens is that more and more of the energy being extracted must be used to extract the next barrel. In the 1970s, on average it took a barrel of oil of energy to extract 25-27 barrels of oil from the ground. By the 1990s, this had decayed to where a barrel of oil of energy would extract 14 or so barrels of oil - an almost 50% decrease in the "Energy Return On Investment," or EROI. The new technologies promoted by the oil companies today result in 4-5 barrels of oil extracted for every barrel of oil of energy used. It's a losers' game. <br /><br />Interestingly, because of this, economists studying Peak Oil anticipate not a steady rise in the price of gas, but a series of increasingly volatile peaks and troughs in gas prices, with higher highs and higher lows, as demand repeatedly probes the supply limits and falls back (with economic slowdowns due to the cost of energy). Last summer's oil price spike was perhaps the first, but certainly not the last. <br /><br />We had best not become complacent about the price of gas. Sustainable development should focus on energy efficient homes located in walkable or transit-accessible neighborhoods. This is doubly promising since these are precisely the kinds of neighborhoods that have been shown to strengthen communities. And strong communities are the foundation of sustainable development.Paul Birkelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09187531592202507162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-86547949172134466762009-12-17T00:04:00.000-08:002009-12-17T00:11:02.353-08:00Who Decides?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPhwV1XD83gpSYjgd9t-dKkKeeqTiMO3fVtzaNHb3Rrla6GnmRW34ZxsOeDvQzcMJMBRLsEmLEqW-EFIL9MmTaN9bkJ_UKqJR04Wg7oFjMBOMAZIOx8CcDvs469gexL0bgKWSzhBhlvWP/s1600-h/Who+Decides.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPhwV1XD83gpSYjgd9t-dKkKeeqTiMO3fVtzaNHb3Rrla6GnmRW34ZxsOeDvQzcMJMBRLsEmLEqW-EFIL9MmTaN9bkJ_UKqJR04Wg7oFjMBOMAZIOx8CcDvs469gexL0bgKWSzhBhlvWP/s320/Who+Decides.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5416114565405382738" /></a><br />Does awareness of perceived injustice compel one to act?<br /><br />Over the weekend I got into a debate with a colleague over who is responsible for development. His opinion is that in the case where human rights are being denied it is the obligation of those who are in a position to do so to intercede (though not necessarily militarily). <br /><br />I politely disagreed. <br /><br />Outside of the obvious cases such as genocide, sex trafficking, and child slavery, my argument was and is that as much as I may think that certain practices and aspects of a society are reprehensible, it is not inherently my responsibility as someone outside of that culture/country/society to do something to ‘fix’ them. First, because to do so supposes that I am coming from moral high ground, which has nasty hints of Colonialism which apprehended religious speech to justify unjust actions. Secondly, until a certain amount of movement comes from within those nations clamoring for change, there is almost no way to sustain change – it becomes something imposed as opposed to something home grown. And finally, when speaking of developing nations we act as though the playing field is even – it is not; often those who are most in a position to act wield economic or military power over those they seek to change. Change comes, then, not from the will of the people, or out of the needs of the people but rather the needs of those interceding: be they economic needs or needs of conscience. <br /><br />The risks of interceding are clearly on display in the case of Uganda and its Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009. The bill would sentence HIV positive homosexuals to death for having sex, severely punish any homosexual with up to life imprisonment, and punish any Ugandan, gay or straight, who knows a homosexual and fails to report him or her to the authorities with up to seven years in prison. The bill goes so far as to repatriate homosexual Ugandans living abroad so that they can face sentencing at home. <br /><br />How is this ugly bill related to the dangers of those in a position to intercede according to their moral code?<br /><br />It’s simple. This bill is the outgrowth of years of several decades’ worth of effort on behalf of a US Based Evangelical Christian organization called The Family. The Family has used its power and influence in Uganda to promote anti-gay rhetoric, and a Christian agenda which promotes among other things abstinence only education. Because of their efforts Uganda’s AIDS education program once one of the best on the African Subcontinent is flailing and homophobia which was always problematic is on the rise as evidenced in this bill.<br /><br />It would be easy to say that The Family and its ilk are misguided, and maybe they are. But who is to say that others acting in accordance with their own conscience are not equally misguided. As it stands now we have The Family on one side, western anti-homophobia activists on the other and The Ugandan people in the middle; their destinies shaped less by their own wills but by whichever side wields the most political influence over their government. <br /><br />In addition, something my colleague could not seem to wrap his head around was that by acting on behalf of those he deems oppressed in other countries takes away their own agency. It creates a broad brush labeling and creating victims, a view that those people may not hold of themselves. What right do we have to define another individual, never mind entire groups of individuals?<br /><br />His response was simply that denied education many of these people were simply not in a position to know better and in essence that it was our obligation to think for them. And yet, history is littered with the stirring actions of an uneducated minority: The United State’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln only had about 18 months of formal education, Harriet Tubman had none; Mussolini on the other hand had plenty. A hungry person is not too stupid to know that he is hungry, an uneducated person can and often is still wise enough to draw the links between their own hunger and the social inequities in the world around him or her, and to be bold enough to take action. To presume otherwise, is to laud our own intellect while degrading that of those we presume to want to help.Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-63592185512619678272009-12-10T21:46:00.000-08:002009-12-10T22:12:28.222-08:00Ch-ch-changes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9jb6eU4DLBdwK7_PC9EtxRMRuL2j4P2D1tyah2DF_pnt7g-8_A0R_Jb7fAAiobC2EzgctUlISio4q2_g_kutGW-CNnmgpql9S-hcQKkuHa99fkKIfUsAWWfAM3fXYA5oZiJJ5Qw6LdPt/s1600-h/change.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9jb6eU4DLBdwK7_PC9EtxRMRuL2j4P2D1tyah2DF_pnt7g-8_A0R_Jb7fAAiobC2EzgctUlISio4q2_g_kutGW-CNnmgpql9S-hcQKkuHa99fkKIfUsAWWfAM3fXYA5oZiJJ5Qw6LdPt/s320/change.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413857550398400162" /></a><br />Kendra wonders how do we bring about permanent global change on fundamental levels? <br /><br />I’ve been thinking a lot about change lately, first because on a personal level there are some new habits I’d like to cultivate (hello running) and because on a global level, that is what sustainable development is about isn’t it? <br /><br />At its core Sustainable Development is about changing the way that we as a species operate on a fundamental level.<br /><br />If it were just about shifting technologies as so many economists and scientists seem to believe, then we could have accomplished it already. Witness the shift from ozone depleting chemicals to non-ozone depleting chemicals as experienced under the UN’s Montreal Protocol, the shift (of questionable environmental efficacy) to dolphin safe tuna, or the move from organic fertilizers to chemical based ones. <br /><br />We are very good at changing technologies. <br /><br />But if you take a step back, each of those shifts was a baby step that did little to fundamentally change how humans operated; at least not at first. Dow and other companies had discovered other chemicals that we could use to keep our aerosol cans without punching a hole in the ozone layer. Farmers lay down chemical fertilizers with no clue as to what it would do to the longer term fertility of their soil, to groundwater, to the state of modern agriculture – it was decades before the full brunt of those actions were felt. Dolphin safe tuna did not in any way impinge upon our ability to eat tuna even though by saving the dolphins we put dozens of other species at risk.<br /><br />Truly sustainable development means that we have to look beyond the immediate problems (climate change, hunger, systemic poverty, cultural and linguistic extinction, biodiversity loss) and find the root causes in order to not only fix the current problem but also to avoid creating new ones. <br /><br />And anyone who sits down and looks at the intersection of culture, environment, and economics recognizes that means we have to change, truly change, how we interact with each other and with the planet. It means a shift in thinking from one in which consumption takes center stage to one in which people and the environment occupy the main frame. It means creating economic systems (note the plural) that serve people, instead of people that serve a system. It means a shifting from binary thinking, from black and white, right and wrong, to one in which a plurality of ideas can coexist peacefully. It means accepting conflict, but rejecting war.<br /><br />The question really isn’t do we need to change, but rather how do we bring about Cultural Revolutions in a broad and long lasting way. <br /><br />Any suggestions?Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1796057735148565910.post-25874943099151486142009-11-30T03:11:00.001-08:002009-11-30T03:15:53.673-08:00Development or Agro-Imperialism?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sustainable-development-blog.blogspot.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjucRkYKMLvRX3G6LIh3Ofv-hPuf0Qn8CPxgf-1YlrrmqZBnY8ltNMkIpU4dzZJ5JCV5CqGzdl0WveqjmJExcpeALKd7RlhfyHx6LMHNs4gAqwQT2ps0CxyU0HlcPdMr_xlvEPnEg-3Fdho/s320/Development+or+Agro-Imperialism.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409852850107349522" 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mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As foreign countries and private money flows into African agriculture, the question remains who benefits?</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
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<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> A recent New York Times article posits the question, is there such a thing as Agro-Imperialism?</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Faced with an increasing world population and dwindling land resources - 90% of the world's arable land excluding forests and fragile ecosystems is already in use, claims the Times - countries are getting creative in figuring out how they will continue to feed their populations.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Increasingly, nations are eyeing land in Africa. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and South Korea are securing land deals in countries such as Ethiopia, Madagascar and Tanzania. </span>
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<br />The promise?
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<br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> In exchange for the right to farm, the investors - some representing foreign governments, others foreign private investors with heavy government influence– promise to increase infrastructure, bring in new technologies, create jobs and boost the productivity of the land allowing them to grow enough food to feed both the local populations as well as the populations of their home countries.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> On the one hand, these are all things that many countries on the African continent need. Many <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/A-new-chapter-for-sustainable-development-in-Africa/3085.html">of these countries are struggling to feed</a> their populations and improved infrastructure could provide benefits such as improved medical and clean water access.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> On the other hand, we are not talking about small parcels of land. Land deals profiled in a recent Food and Agriculture (FAO) report on the issue include approved include a 452,500 ha biofuel project in Madagascar, a 150,000 ha livestock project in Ethiopia, and a 100,000 ha irrigation project in Mali. These are large parcels of land being taken out of the control of a nation's people and being conscripted into service to feed or meet another nation's needs. Is that in any way sustainable or equitable?</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Many countries cite that their concern over food security as the impetus to their interest in agricultural investment in Africa. The recent food crises have left them uneasy, and as nations with little arable land, increasing populations, or both, they worry that the day will come that food cannot be purchased at any price. Fair enough. But in increasing their own <a href="http://www.justmeans.com/What-is-Food-Sovereignty/5480.html">food security</a>, aren't they wresting from these African nations the right to do the same? </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> As the FAO piece points out many of the countries involved in these deals do not have in place legal or procedural mechanisms to protect local rights and take account of local interests, livelihoods and welfare.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> This is cause for concern.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Not just because this so-called development may lead to many benefits for the investors and none for the invested-in, but because it may also hamper real development while also spurring on hunger. It may hamper development by taking land out of local hands, reducing the ability for local development. It can spur on hunger, because it is not uncommon for poor nations to be net exporters of food even while their own populace starves; it is doubtful that the local populations can pay what the producers could get, for example, on the international market; and it’s questionable as to what rights if any the local governments can have over the producers beyond what is explicitly stated in their agreements. </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> The most egregious example of how this can create a hunger situation is in the Irish potato famine of the 1800's in which 1 million Irish people died, and another million emigrated. Throughout the entire famine Ireland was a net exporter of food; the food, however, came from land under British control and was exported to England where it could command higher prices. </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> This is not an issue left to the 1800's, either.</span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span>
<br /><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> During the 1973 Wollo Famine in Ethiopia, food was being shipped out of Wollo to the capital city of Addis Ababa where it could command higher prices. In fact a 2006 paper titled Famine without Shortages by Nigar Hashimzade details how famines can happen without scarcity. In short, as a 2006 famine in Lesotho illustrated, in which 2/3rds of the population did not have access to food, despite there being no food shortage. They were simply too poor to purchase the food. </span>
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<br />Taken together this creates a picture that is cause at the very least for pause, if not outright concern.
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<br />The investing countries should also be concerned. To quote the Times article "“The idea that one country would go to another country, and lease some land, and expect that the rice produced there would be made available to them if there’s a food crisis in that host country, is ludicrous.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<br />Kendra Pierre Louishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07427320281137654278noreply@blogger.com1