In a small British coastal town, a business owner is brewing beer and storing it in his eco-friendly warehouse. In Greening Big Warehouses, Worldchanging team member Hana Loftus told us the story about how her father's company, growing increasingly more successful, needed to build a bigger warehouse. The decision to spend more initially to build the warehouse was easy, once all the information was laid out on the drawing board table.
...they commissioned their architects (a large, commercial practice) to cost two options: the absolutely standard steel facility that will meet their needs, and the greenest possible building with all the bells and whistles; and also to estimate the energy costs of the two. If they can make the sums add up, they will go with the green option. If...
This article was written by Alan AtKisson in August 2006. We're republishing it here as part of our month-long editorial retrospective.
Here in this country of nature-lovers, berry-pickers, and climate-change activist weathermen, you would think that the introduction of a modest toll imposed on cars driving into the capitol city -- enacted with the intention of reducing rush-hour traffic, improving air quality and health, increasing use of public transportation and multiple other benefits -- would experience political smooth sailing. Especially after a similar initiative in London has worked beautifully, while charging more than twice the proposed toll at rush hour.
Not so. Or at least, not at first.
Last year, the politics around the planned "congestion tax/environmental...
The Government must step up its efforts to boost recycling to help us to get the most out of the world's finite natural resources - and make sure that our waste doesn't mount up here or on the other side of the...
The Government can stop the suffering caused by rocketing energy bills if it follows a ten-point Fuel Poverty Charter launched by fuel poverty experts from a range of charities and consumer bodies...
from IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 8 September 2008 (PlusNews) - Around the world an estimated 3,500 girls under the age of 15 become child brides every day, while another 21,000 get married before reaching the age of 18.The consequences of such early marriages, according to a new report by the Christian humanitarian organisation, World Vision, include an increased risk of HIV and maternal death, an abrupt end to a girl's education and a greater chance of violence and abuse.The practise of coercing girls into early marriage occurs all over the world, but the report, "Before She's Ready", lists 15 countries where it is most prevalent.In Bangladesh, which ranks number one, more than half of all girls (52.5 percent) are married before they turn 16; in Niger the proportion is 37.6 percent, and 34.9...
JOHANNESBURG, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - A series of workshops, hosted by the South African government and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), are being held to enlist the support of the media in raising the public profile of human trafficking....
DAKAR, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - Sibling and family rivalries, parental and community pressure, continue to encourage undocumented migration, according to a four-country Irregular Migration in West Africa study released by the Soros Foundation-funded Open Society Institute of West Africa...
CHITUNGWIZA, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwean government has confirmed the deaths of four people from cholera, and is verifying the cause of death of eight others in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, 25km southeast of the capital,...
The Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, like the Democratic National Convention in Denver the preceding week, featured high-level side events on global poverty. Despite a much smaller audience and far fewer international attendees in Minneapolis, global poverty made a brief appearance on center stage at the Republican convention.
CGD President Nancy Birdsall joined the ONE Campaign's panel on "growth, opportunity and stability in the developing world" moderated by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is currently co-chair of the ONE Vote 08 campaign, to get the presidential candidates talking about global poverty and development in the elections.
Other panelists included:Dina Habib Powell, director of Global Corporate Engagement with the...
An estimated 630 people have been killed as a result of the severe storms that have hit Haiti in the last few weeks....
One-third of China’s greenhouse-gas emissions in 2005 were due to production for export. Glen Peters sees a bright future ahead if rich nations can match rhetoric with reality and support low-carbon growth in developing countries.
China’s impressive economic development has come at the expense of increased environmental impacts. China overtook the United States in 2007 to become the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, decades sooner than scientists were predicting only a few years earlier.
A significant share of China’s emissions growth is due to production for export. One-third of China’s emissions in 2005 were due to exported products, up from 16% in 1990. In the last five years, over one-half of the growth in Chinese emissions...
from Ekklesia By agency reporter8 Sep 2008'The Bible has revolutionary power to free the poor', Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a conference of Evangelical UK Christians and church leaders in London at the weekend.The Nobel Prize winner was speaking at an event organised by Evangelical aid agency Tearfund and Jesus House for all the Nations on Saturday, where he challenged churches to be 'the hands, feet, eyes and ears of Jesus' in the fight against local and global poverty.Drawing on his experiences in apartheid-dominated South Africa, the Archbishop told more than 800 delegates; "If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible.“There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression...
By Worldchanging Canada writer Jason Diceman.
Politicians should take note; there is a new answer to some of the toughest questions of our times. When presented with an issue with no obvious popular and sensible solution, or a situation where a legislature is unable to make progress on an important topic, 100 random citizens can be called on to solve the political puzzle, as they did in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario (my home province).
Following the 2001 election, the newly elected premier of BC followed through on a promise to create a citizens' assembly to consider changes to the provincial electoral system. In 2006 the Ontario government followed suit as part of their democratic renewal efforts. Both citizen assembly projects followed an innovative...
Everyone who drives feels the increasing price of gas in their pocketbook. But what are the additional social costs of transportation? How would one even start thinking about this question clearly?
Transport Canada recently released a report quantifying the full costs of transportation, that made national headline news in Canada. The full costs of transportation were estimated to be between $198 billion and $233 billion (all figures $CDN) - that's about $7000 per capita.
So where did all this money go? Over 80% went to financial costs (vs social costs). 80% of the financial costs are due to road transport. Air, rail, and marine, in that order, make up the rest.
Slicing the financial costs another way, the cost of vehicles (capital and operating) was more than 80%....
When reporters are assigned to cover a war or conflict somewhere in the world, they better have some training on how to survive. Reporter Rob Crilly of the Christian Science Monitor talks with Peggy Wehmeyer about his training with British Royal Marines. Crilly, who is based on Kenya, says knowledge of first aid is essential, but protective gear, such as a flak jacket, could make you a...
Aid groups and politicians for years have debated the best way to eliminate poverty in Africa. A writer for Business Week magazine suggests “greed.” Host Peggy Wehmeyer talks with Roben Farzhad who interviewed venture capitalists, Wall Street investors, and international business people who see financial opportunities in Africa that also create social benefits. For example, Iranian investors put money into growing a plant that can be used to produce bio-fuel. More than 600 people now have jobs because of that...
The Beijing Olympic Games are over, but an eight-year-old girl from Hainan Island is already training for the 2016 Olympics by running up to 28 miles a day. Critics accuse her father of exploiting the girl and pushing her too hard. But little Zhang Huimin says she just loves to run. She made headlines in China when she ran from Hainan Province to Beijing -- a distance of more than 2,100 miles -- in just 54 days. That’s like running from New York City to Phoenix, Arizona in less than two-months. Jennifer Dunn...
As rains from Hurricane Ike drenched northern Haiti yesterday and today, international humanitarian agency World Vision continued its relief activities for communities still reeling from the effects of Hurricanes Hanna and...
Famed Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has argued forcefully for the protection of property rights as a key ingredient in economic development. His book The Mystery of Capital became a big hit with its argument that the poor had plenty of capital but that the lack of property rights meant it was unusable. De Soto hammered home this point again with the publication of Making the Law Work for Everyone. While there is general consensus on the importance of property rights, there is still a huge, unanswered question: How do we create them?De Soto was not the first to recognize the value of property rights. In 1898 the United States took possession of the Philippines, and shortly thereafter attempted to create a system of property rights. A new paper by Noel Maurer and Lakshmi Iyer looks...
I just returned from the ministerial day at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, where I moderated the two main plenary discussions. The forum generated a great deal of drama over the outcome document, known as the Accra Agenda for Action. This had been carefully prepared over many months, as a consensus statement to be approved by Ministers. When I turned up for my breakfast briefing at 7 am on Thursday morning, the news was that the process had broken down over dinner the previous evening and that the whole negotiation was in jeopardy....(read more)...
MBABANE, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - Some of the largest demonstrations in Swaziland's history, this time against growing poverty, took the shine off twin celebrations to mark King Mswati's 40th birthday and 40 years of the kingdom's independence....
JOHANNESBURG, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - Around the world an estimated 3,500 girls under the age of 15 become child brides every day, while another 21,000 get married before reaching the age of...
NAIROBI, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - A study of Kenyan sex workers who appear to be immune to HIV could provide important clues to the development of an effective AIDS...
In the first of a series of journeys due to take place over the coming month, 400 Druze pilgrims living in the Israeli-occupied Golan have crossed into Syria proper with the help of the ICRC....
For any new researchers out there, I have compiled a guide to information resources relating to refugees and forced migration. It is available as a wiki at http://forcedmigrationguide.pbwiki.com.
You can use the guide in two ways. First, read through the chapters just like you would a regular text. Part one begins with an introduction to the concept of “forced migration” that includes a...
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLVI, no. 56, 29 August 2008
Tender: Republic of Botswana: revision of the national standards for road construction: Botswana Road Design Manual (BRDM) and Standard Specification for Road and Bridge Works (SSRBW)
4316
Tender: Republic of Botswana: supply of avicide Fenthion 64 per cent ultra low volume
4369
Tender: Republic of Botswana: a services...
The EU's fair share of the global bill for tackling climate change is €60bn annually, according to a new analysis by Brussels-based think-tank the Centre for European policy studies (Ceps). The figure covers mitigation and adaptation efforts in both the public and private sectors, and encompasses domestic EU spending and money spent on action...
In my previous post about Anand Jaiswal’s article, Erik Simanis left a comment adding one more critique to the approach to BoP markets from a producer/consumer framework. In this critique he refers to “Beyond Basic Needs Business Strategies”, an article he recently co-authored with Stuart Hart and Duncan Duke. The article offers a very good overview of the current approach that is being developed in their Base of the Pyramid Program and that, by extension, lays the groundwork for their BoP Protocol Initiative. It is written in a clear and concise language and I would strongly suggest anyone interested in their work to take a look at it. (And for those who want to get a better feeling of what he means, do check out Robert Katz’s interview from last April).In his article, Simanis...
BISSAU, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) - When Aisha (not her real name) went into labour in Gabu, 160km east of the capital Bissau, she did not know she was pregnant with twins. The first delivery went smoothly, but she needed a Caesarean section for the second. But the doctor had bad news: the hospital's generator was broken, so she needed to drive four hours to Bissau for her...
IFPRI Food Policy Review. Presents a rationale for FFE programs and undertakes a critical review of the causal evidence on the impact of FFE programs on education participation and attainment, learning, cognitive development, and...