Happy Christmas and 2004... and Send A Cow

I am off for my Christmas break so, while I'm away, will leave you with the following entry on the fantastic Send A Cow charity.

My thanks to everyone who has helped to steer me through the ups and downs of my PhD (Mum, Dad, Geraldine, Pip, Graham, George, Oliver, Erica, Paul J, Justin M, Roo, WildCRU) and to Rebecca B, Jacci G, Jez, Roger H + Alex K, who have inspired + encouraged me to keep on producing Earth Info.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas + 2004! Matt

P.S. It's great to hear that Mark H, a friend from Leicester Uni days, has just been released. Christmas is already off to a flying start!

If you would like to buy a present that really transforms someone's life this Christmas, Earth-Info.Net would like to recommend a visit to the Send A Cow website.

This charity was set up in 1988 when UK farmers sent greatly needed cows to Uganda at the end of a long and brutal civil war...

Now all cows are locally sourced and it is possible for you to help communities very directly by sponsoring the purchase of a cow, goats, pigs, poultry, bees or fruit-tree saplings.

If you don't have much money it is also possible to contribute a smaller amount towards a share in one of these sources of food, independence + income or at the other end of the scale... to go the whole hog and provide a whole farm yard!

As part of the deal recipient farmers have to give the first female offspring of their gift to another impoverished family and preference is generally given to helping women (who are often amongst the poorest in society), the disabled or those suffering from AIDS or orphaned by it.

For those of you in the US, Send A Cow's partner organisation in the US is called Heifer International.

As a means of enabling individuals + families to help themselves and one another Earth-Info.Net struggles to think of a better cause to support...

River Water Quality, Downstream Extraction, Bill

The Today programme is having a bit of fun looking for ideas from the public which it could try to have turned into law...

I've had a think + submitted the following to their Listener's Law site:

"I would like to suggest that those responsible for polluting rivers should be made responsible for paying their fair share of the cost of cleaning up the environment.

This could be done by only allowing polluting industries to extract river water from sites that are downstream of their own outlet pipes.

This simple measure would mean that businesses could not pollute river water in ways which effect others, but not themselves, and that businesses would have a personal/commercial interest in making sure that the water they release into the environment is as clean as, or cleaner than, when first extracted.

This elegant step for internalising the cost of environmental damage was first suggested by Prof. Sir Richard Southwood in a 1988 paper written for NATO on how to reduce the levels of pollution in the river Danube, which currently increase, as it passes through Europe.

Surprise at UK export credit agency's pipeline claims

Human rights + environment groups (including Corner House, Platform, Friends of the Earth + the Kurdish Human Rights Project) that have been investigating BP's highly controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline have called the decision by the UK Government to provide $150 million in support for the project politically motivated. The project would see a 1,750 km oil pipeline being built through Turkey, Georgia + Azerbaijan.

The groups expressed surprise at the benefits the UK Government's Export Credits Guarantee Department claimed would come from the Baku project, given that many of the claims are contradicted by readily available evidence.

It includes claims that the pipeline "will serve to promote regional stability", despite the fact that in the past two months, there has been a revolution in one of the pipeline's host countries, Georgia; elections in Azerbaijan that have been called "fraudulent" by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe; and major bomb attacks Turkey.

Similarly the Government touts "the establishment of high quality operations to international standards", when a recent report from the Baku-Ceyhan Campaign identified no fewer than 173 violations of mandatory World Bank standards.

The UK Government's Export Credits Guarantee Department's claim that "significant temporary employment will be created" comes in the same week that workers building the pipeline in Georgia went on strike in protest at reportedly receivingless than 50 US cents a day.

Hannah Griffiths of Friends of the Earth said:

The UK Government shouldn't be using taxpayers' money to support projects that will further fuel climate change. We're bitterly disappointed that despite its so-called commitments to the environment, ECGD is still supporting unsustainable projects.

Anders Lustgarten of the Baku-Ceyhan Campaign said:

"It's clear the UK Government has decided to back the Baku project for the same reason everybody else has: massive political pressure from the US."

Greg Muttitt of Platform, one of the groups involved in the campaign, added:

We presented the Export Credits Guarantee Department with extensive research showing how the pipeline violates their own standards on numerous counts. It seems the standards don't count for much.

Kerim Yildiz, of the Kurdish Human Rights Project, another group in the campaign, said:

The ECGD maintains that the project complies with international human rights and environmental standards. This is clearly not the reality. The Kurdish Human Rights Project is in the process of submitting cases to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of a large number of villagers, who state that their human rights have already been violated.

Nick Hildyard of the Corner House said:

The Government has recognised the project is not yet satisfactory and has set conditions before cover is made available. No money should be provided until the public has been able to comment on the conditions and on BP's fulfilment of them. Taxpayers must be satisfied that BP has addressed longstanding concerns over compensation and new allegations - admitted by BP - of faulty welding.

North Sea cod are still under pressure, despite expert advice to close fishery

Although independent marine scientists recently produced a report which recommended the complete closure of the North Sea's cod fishery in order to prevent its collapse, the UK's fisheries minister, Ben Bradshaw, today claimed satisfaction that, after late-night negotiations cod quota levels will be allowed to stay at the same as they were last year.

At present the cod fishery contains about 53,000 tonnes of cod, rather than the 150,000 tonnes considered necessary in order to support a sustainable fishing industry, and these low levels are unlikely to recover without stocks being allowed to recover, undisturbed for several years...

The latest round of political horse trading indicate that these initial measures to reduce fishing pressure may be inadequate, taken too late or undermined by the problem of mixed fishery issues (where cod are accidentally caught + killed, as a by-catch, along side less endangered fish, such as haddock)...

If you want to help, it might be a good idea to avoid eating cod.

Matt visits the BBC's Today Programme

On Wednesday, I spent the day at BBC Radio 4's Today programme, as a guest of the show's environment correspondent Roger Harrabin.

I had a very interesting day seeing how this 3 hour-long morning news programme is structured, presented, editted + planned and was extremely impressed by all that I saw + experienced - even if my attempt to interview American economist Joel Waldfogel for this piece on the inefficiency of Christmas gift-giving proved much more difficult than I expected... though hopefully you can't tell if you listen to the finished product!

Thanks for a hugely memorable + fun day Roger!

A recent report by the Overseas Development Insititute estimates that 150 million people - 1 in 8 of the world's poor - depend on wildlife for both protein + income.

In the Congo basin alone, the harvest of "bushmeat" now amounts to 5,000,000 tonnes per annum and concern is growing that these unsustainable + unregulated levels of trade will soon threaten the survival of several endangered species, including elephants + great apes.

According to this BBC report, the environment minister of Cameroon, Chief Clarkson Oben Tanyi-Mbianyor, is currently in London to attend a conference organised by the Bushmeat Campaign, and asking the UK to assist his country by funding the recruitment + training of eco-guards, and the development of alternative sources of income which will keep local people out of the forest.

Many of England's special sites (SSSIs) need improvement

The first definitive survey of the condition of England's legally protected wildlife + geological sites has been completed after six years by English Nature, the Government's independent wildlife advisers, and results published in a report entitled England’s best wildlife and geological sites: the condition of sites of special scientific interest in England in 2003.

The survey involved the detailed assessment of 4,112 English sites of special scientifici interest (SSSIs), covering 1,050,708 ha (2,596,000 acres), about 7% of England, and is believed to be the first of its kind in the world.

Of the sites inspected, 58% of SSSIs by area were found to be in good condition, but 42% needed improvement, while 16% were classified as being in "unfavourable + declining" condition.

The government has made a commitment to ensure 95% of all SSSIs are in favourable condition by 2010. However, the head of English Nature Dr. Andy Brown, has said that this will require investment, alongside changes to legislation and the reform of environmentally-damaging policies.

The biggest threats to special sites are overgrazing, inappropriate moorland burning and coastal management, and problems with freshwater quality + quantity - in particular pollution from diffuse (hard to identify or multiple) sources.

HRW report on preventable civilian deaths in Iraq

A major report by Humans Right Watch called Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq criticises the US, the UK + the former Iraqi government for their conduct during the recent war.

The report:

* Criticizes U.S. air strikes on electrical + media facilities

* Says the U.S. and British forces did not secure large caches of weapons + ammunition abandoned by Iraqi forces, and the ready availability of these explosives also led to dozens of civilian casualties.

* Estimates that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the coalition´s conduct of major military operations in March and April.

* Says U.S. and British forces used almost 13,000 cluster munitions, containing nearly 2,000,000 submunitions, that killed or wounded more than 1,000 civilians.

* That “decapitation” strikes (which used satellite phone intercepts to try to eliminate prominent members of the Iraqi elite located within 100m of a signal) failed to kill a single Iraqi leader, in 50 attempts, but did kill dozens of civilians.

* Iraqi forces, are also criticised for their use of human shields, abuse of the Red Cross + Red Crescent emblems, use of antipersonnel landmines, and placement of military objects in mosques + hospitals.

* The Iraqi military´s practice of wearing civilian clothes also eroded the distinction between combatants + civilians

Renewable energy + planning rules in the UK

The Yes 2 Wind weblog deserves a visit.

It documents the planning saga experienced by a farmer trying to put 5, Vestas 850, wind turbines on his farmland in Oxfordshire - against opposition from some locals + the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Due to the difficulties this farmer + others in the renewable energy sector are encountering during the local planning process the UK's deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, is now consulting on a document called planning policy statement 22 (PPS22) which firmly tells regional planning bodies + local councils in England that they are expected to encourage rather than restrict the development of renewable energy projects.

In particular, it instructs them to adopt "positive" policies on renewables, which must not be "undermined" by other policy issues (i.e. on the grounds of subjective visual impact policies), and warns that if they do not toe the line, the Government will intervene in order to permit the UK to meet national + international targets for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, including the goal to cut the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by some 60% by 2050, with real progress by 2020.

If you live in the UK, and would like to encourage the development of wind power, you can sign up with Juice, a collaboration between Greenpeace and electricity supplier nPower, and help to use electricity generated by a new wind farm located off the North Wales coast.

Intelligent Energy: Combined Heat and Power + Stirling engines

Last week Earth-Info.Net attended a presentation given by a company called Microgen who produce domestic combined heat and power (CHP or co-generation) units.

Their wall mounted units use natural gas to produce hot water, heating + electricity within individual households.

Micro CHP units are very efficient, as they allow hot water to be produced on demand, heating to be generated without energy disappearing up power station chimnies, and electricity to be produced without the losses associated with dissipation over long-distance transmission lines (see the illustration on page 4 of their brochure).

These units combine a modern boiler (that produces low carbon dioxide emissions) with a sterling engine, that can be used to generate electricty...

A sterling engine is a highly efficient (up to 50% of the theoretical maximum), four phase external combustion engine invented, in 1816, by a Scottish clergyman, Rev. Robert Sterling, who was shocked at the danger exploding steam engines then posed to his parishioners.

There are now two main types of sterling engine, both of which rely on a external heat source causing gas within a cylinder to expand, while cooler air contracts in another part of the engine, resulting a flow of air that can, when carefully timed, be used to drive pistons.

Normally, this is done via either two strokes (one hot + one cold) within a single cylinder or single strokes within two cylinders (this will probably only make sense if you look at the animations these two links offer!).

Combined heat and power was first brought to Earth-Info.Net, as an emerging trend, by one of the alternate scenario reports produced by Shell, called Energy Needs, Choices + Possibilities.

This report and the others in the series are of general interest because they give well argued hints as to the social, economic and resources issues that what will be driving decision making within big business, government + society over the next 20-50 years.

Many of the scenarios are quite alarming, especially if you are poor, have low skills or need to import energy... they also suggest that the companies and countries which are slow to learn about, prepare for, and adapt to, new types and sources of global change, including energy supply, will be left in increasingly vulnerable positions.

Private sector fallibility + food security

The BBC's Alex Kirby is producing a series of reports from Ethiopia which touch on many profound issues + merit wider consideration...

Alex's first report includes an interview with Ethiopia's equivalent of an environment minsiter, Dr. Teowolde Egziabher, a hero of last year's World Summit on Sustainable Development who prevented the WTO being given supremacy over international environment agreements, and now complains of the rich world's obsession with finding private sector solutions to development problems and the difficulties this causes in Ethiopia, where the private sector is not well developed, people are poor + profit margins low.

Interestingly, Dr. Teowolde says that he does not exclude the use of genetically modified crops in solving Ethiopia's food security problems, but he is not happy that the use of this technology is driven by vested interests, that the private sector is treated as a god when it is in fact fallible + that he would feel happier if the results of GM research were in public hands.

In another article, Alex interviews poor farmers who have benefitted from a micro-credit scheme being piloted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) + the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture which enables them to invest in an infrastructure that would not otherwise be possible.

To date, these new funds have helped to buy two water pumps (which ensure fields produce good crops on a more reliable basis) + to establish a dairy business which generates a small income and should eventually permit the village to buy a small tractor.

See also, Alex's recent report on the outbreak of rabies which threatens the already critically endangered Ethiopian Wolf.

COP9 in Milan + changes in CO2 emissions since 1990

The 9th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 9) is finishing in Milan after two weeks of talks designed to monitor developments in the science of climate change and permit countries to formally ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which outlines a legal frame work for regulating cuts in greenhouse gases.

The science of climate change is now relatively robust + widely accepted, although it continues to be refined, and the research by the re-insurer Munich Re has calculated that natural disasters, most of them caused by extreme weather, cost the world more than US$60 billion in 2003.

Unfortunately, a Republican US senator is still busily suggesting that climate change is a hoax (on what scientific basis this statement is made is unclear, although it obviously makes good copy) and the Russians are wobbling over whether they will help to trigger agreed international cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, or not.

Despite this meeting failing to live up to its promise, as a result of humanity blinking yet again, this event does offer a good opportunity to recap what the existing situation is, with regard to CO2 emissions by some of major nations...

China has cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 17% while its economy has grown by 33%.

The US accounts for 36% of global CO2 emissions, and has increased its CO2 emissions by 16% above 1990 levels despite initially agreeing to cut emissions by 6%.

The 15 nations of the EU have had varying degrees of success in reducing their CO2 emissions, but overall increased their emissions by 1% in 2001.

India's CO2 emissions have increased, from an relatively low level, by 52% since 1990... as a developing country, with a low level of economic development and per capita emissions, India has been offered a period of grace before it will also need to make cuts.

In 2002, Russia said that it would ratify the Kyoto Protocol but it has since vacillated on when exactly and under what circumstances it will actually do so. Due to the collapse in the Russian economy CO2 emissions have dropped by 40% below 2002 levels. Having made these cuts Russia is keen to support emissions trading, but will also want to sell natural gas without being penalised.

In the absence of the US signing up, the participation of Russia is essential if 55 countries responsible for emitting 55% of CO2 are to ratify, and thus activate the Kyoto Protocol.

To date countries accounting for 44% of emissions have ratified, and it is thought Russia may be holding out for a deal which will pay for improved energy efficiency within its aging industrial base.

Improving aid effectiveness + efficiency

Earth-Info.Net has noticed a growing trend for international development aid to be endlessly fiddled with, cut or otherwise manipulated in order to fulfill short-term political goals.

This may be inevitable, especially when most aid is allocated by democratic national governments that have to be elected by their own people on a regular basis, but a global NGO partnership called Interaction has produced a timely report called Foreign Assistance in Focus: Emerging Trends which outlines some of the problems that a narrow, selfish + short-term agenda can create, and suggests reforms which would greatly improve the effectiveness + efficiency of US aid...

Problems:

The Administration is dispersing responsibilities and resources so widely that the delivery and impact of foreign aid may well fall far short of expectations, both in countries of strategic interest and on a global basis.

The creation of new entities alongside a diminished – but otherwise unreformed – U.S. Agency for International Development is leading to increased fragmentation of resources and responsibilities, confusion externally about who is in charge, and a loss of coherence in the field as multiple federal agencies pursue similar goals with little coordination. Recent changes in foreign aid structures have been implemented in an ad hoc manner, often with little transparency and consultation with stakeholders, or consideration of lessons learned from the United States’ long experience in foreign aid.

Just as importantly, the Administration’s failure to meet funding pledges and the escalating costs of “extraordinary” relief and reconstruction activities in Iraq and Afghanistan threaten to undercut new initiatives and reduce, rather than strengthen, support for on-going humanitarian and development programs around the world.

Reforms:

* A full-scale review of U.S. foreign assistance programs, organizational structures, implementing mechanisms, and interrelated policies on aid, trade and debt in the developing world, conducted with the support of the Administration, Congress and the development community.

* Interim steps to strengthen existing foreign aid structures, particularly USAID.

* Immediate steps to address the fragmentation of foreign assistance, with greater policy consistency and clarity and improved coordination both in Washington and the field.

* A balance in U.S. foreign aid programs between activities aimed at short- and long-term impact, recognizing the importance of long-term development to lasting and sustainable change.

* Fulfillment of the President’s pledges to substantially increase overall foreign assistance levels by maintaining and enhancing traditional humanitarian and development assistance levels in addition to funding new initiatives like the MCA.

At the domestic level, while living in Australia, Earth-Info.Net witnessed the diversion of funds that were raised from the privatisation of the national telecoms operator, Telstra, away from the study and conservation of critically endangered plants and animals towards community projects during the run up to federal elections so is aware that this sort of cynical, short-term behaviour isn't new.. although it remains disappointing.

While I'm on the topic of Australia... Since I returned to the UK the Great Barrier Reef has been granted some extra, much needed + delayed protection, while the ancient Styx forest in Tasmania remains under threat from woodchippers, who will use the forest's ancient trees to make cardboard...

Hacking attack downs sister websites

The server I use to host the www.earthsummit.info and Oxford Earth Summit webpages and Earth-Info.Net's bookshop has been hacked again, and will unfortunately be offline for a few days. Sorry about this. Matt

Trained rats, elephant pepper + sport fishing

The World Bank is funding a development project which will use trained rats to detect tuberculosis in the saliva of people in Tanzania.

The powerful sense of smell + trainability of rats has already been used, by an NGO called Apopo, to detect landmines in Mozambique.

Teams of trained rats will enable doctors to screen large numbers of people for TB, with a high level of accuracy, and to identify patients at early stages in the disease when they will respond better to treatment.

Other funded projects include:

The Taimen Conservation Fund in Mongolia, which will use it's money to organise a sport fishing scheme designed to conserve both traditional human communities + threatened habitats.

In Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique the Elephant Pepper project will promote the cultivation of chili as lucrative cash crop + a deterrent for elephants and buffalo.

Follow this link to find out about all of the other projects given up to $250,000 by the World Bank's Development Market scheme.

"No technical solution problems", tick-tack-toe + morality

The prestigious scientific journal, Science has just completed a four-week series of special editions addressing different aspects of the State of the Planet.

These editions have addressed Population + Biodiversity, Fisheries, Soils, and Food Security, Freshwater Resources + the Energy Picture and Air Quality + Climate Change.

Next week a related special issue that will commemorate the 35th anniversary of the publication of the late Garrett Hardin's classic essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons."

This essay should be well worth a look as Hardin's paper asks whether it is possible to achieve philosopher Jeremy Bentham's goal of "the greatest good for the greatest number".

Hardin also discusses the need to consider the rules of any game before attempting to achieve a particular outcome, and to think about the changes in human behaviour, based on morality, required to solve problems which do not have technical/technological solutions.

Americans "behaving like teenagers" over climate change

This morning John Humphrys conducted an interesting interview with Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation and Sir Crispin Tickell, a former UK ambassador to the UN, about the future of the Kyoto agreement on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

Andrew Simms suggested that the EU should calculate the value of the free ride the US is taking as a result of refusing to sign up to the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions proposed under the Kyoto Protocol, and raise the costs of inaction by imposing economic sanctions.

Mr. Simms also said that assessments made by the insurance industry indicate the rising economic costs of global warming are threatening future economic growth, that "We are about half a century away from being ecologically + economically bankrupt because of global warming" and that "There is only a certain amount of time people can go around behaving like teenagers who don't have to care about anybody else..."

Sir Crispin, who originally suggested the use of environmental sanctions 20 years ago, was a little more diplomatic and said that many people were in denial about the threat posed by climate change, not just the Americans. He also pointed out that 12 US states and several major US companies are taking their own steps to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels, as required under the Kyoto Protocol.

On a related note it is interesting to learn about the backgrounds of some of the most vocal environmental skeptics over on www.rebeccablood.net

British Council relaunches the Daily Summit weblog

Earth-Info.Net is very pleased to see that the British Council-sponsored Daily Summit weblog (first launched to cover the UN's World Summit on Sustainable Development) has been revived in order to produce incisive + up-to-date coverage of developments at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (5-8 December) and the World Summit on the Information Society (10-12 December).

Recent posts on the Daily Summit site include a discussion of how investment in radio, a low-cost technology already available to 80% of the world's population, as a development tool, has suffered as a result of heavy investment in the internet... which incidentally reaches far fewer people.

Also mentioned are the activities of a gay rights campaigner called Peter Tatchell who has criticised South Africa's "quiet diplomacy" in relation to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and said "What's the point of having these (human rights) laws if the Commonwealth and the rest of the international community refuses to use them?"...

World AIDS Day: "3 x 5" campaign launched

Today is World AIDS Day and to mark this occasion the UN's World Health Organization, UNAIDS and the Global Fund to fight Aids ,TB + Malaria have joined forces to unveil an action plan to reach the "3 by 5" target of providing antiretroviral treatment to 3,000,000 people living with AIDS by the end of 2005.

The WHO’s strategic framework for emergency scaling up of antiretroviral therapy contains 14 key strategic elements. These elements fall into five categories – the pillars of the 3 by 5 campaign:

* Global leadership, strong partnership and advocacy

* Urgent, sustained country support

* Simplified, standardized tools for delivering antiretroviral therapy

* Effective, reliable supply of medicines and diagnostics

* Rapidly identifying and reapplying new knowledge + successes

The build up to this initiative seems to have been particularly well co-ordinated and it is interesting to see different organisations from the UN system working together on a shared project.

Progress has also been made possible because drug companies, which have previously been more worried about protecting their intellectual property rights than saving millions of lives in the developing world, are increasingly prepared to permit their patented drugs to be made in cheap, generic forms by poor countries facing a medical emergency which threatens to undermine their society + future.

Another exciting development is that combinations of drugs (which can lose their effectiveness if used incorrectly) can now be delivered via single tablets or packets... a simple step which on its own should improve the success of traditionally rather complicated + difficult to manage multi-drug treatment programmes.

See here for a series of graphics, produced by the BBC, which illustrate the negative impacts of HIV in Africa in terms of reduced life expectancy, household incomes, food security, numbers of workers + the survival of parents...

Why not check out this letter that Christian Aid have suggested you send to the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, urging the UK to increase support for AIDS prevention + treatment, overseas aid + debt cancellation if you would like to do something constructive on this issue? It might just work...

Doing nothing, becomes doing something...

Yesterday was Buy Nothing Day.

The organisers hope that urging consumers to resist unnecessary spending for a day will encourage them to asks questions about the products they buy and challenge the companies who produce good + services for them.

The resources + links on offer on the BND site are well worth a look... as is this BBC report on a new book (Jobs and Incomes in a Globalizing World) published by the International Labour Organisation which discusses the complex advantages + disadvantages of globalisation for rich + poor nations with an unusually dispassionate + steely eye.

... Earth-Info.Net believes that consumers (and voters!) have an important role to play in encouraging fairer, longer-term, wiser + more sustainable decisions to be made by big business + governments, and is pleased to see the spotlight being turned on the umpteen small, selfish decisions that we all make, often for perfectly understandable reasons, but which en masse can have large, undesirable consequences.

Send a cow, tree or bee to someone who needs one...

If you would like to buy a present that really transforms someone's life this Christmas, Earth-Info.Net would like to recommend a visit to the Send A Cow website.

This charity was set up in 1988 when UK farmers sent greatly needed cows to Uganda at the end of a long and brutal civil war...

Now all cows are locally sourced and it is possible for you to help communities very directly by sponsoring the purchase of a cow, goats, pigs, poultry, bees or fruit-tree saplings.

If you don't have much money it is also possible to contribute a smaller amount towards a share in one of these sources of food, independence + income or at the other end of the scale... to go the whole hog and provide a whole farm yard!

As part of the deal recipient farmers have to give the first female offspring of their gift to another impoverished family and preference is generally given to helping women (who are often amongst the poorest in society), the disabled or those suffering from AIDS or orphaned by it.

For those of you in the US, Send A Cow's partner organisation in the US is called Heifer International.

As a means of enabling individuals + families to help themselves and one another Earth-Info.Net struggles to think of a better cause to support...

Dying to eat. Smoke from cooking food kills millions

The BBC's Alex Kirby reports that research conducted by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) has found that in the developing world 1 person dies every 20 seconds due to smoke inhilation, as a result of using wood, charcoal, vegetation + dung to cook food in poorly ventilated conditions.

This is more people than die of malaria, and the result of people who live + cook in huts breathing in huge levels of smoke - approx. equivalent to that produced by two packets of cigarettes per day.

The ITDG is calling for support for the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, backed by the World Health Organisation, World Bank, US Environmental Protection Agency and others.

Click here to read the ITDG report Smoke: the Killer in the Kitchen + here for the executive summary which includes many useful links.

The world is losing the War against AIDS

Kofi Annan has said that the world is losing the War against AIDS and that the world's leaders are not doing enough to fight this disease + must display far greater leadership.

So far this year 3,000,000 people have died of AIDS. Even so, despite being described as a security threat by many of the world's most powerful nations limited resources, effort + political will have so far been devoted to tackling this disease, especially when compared to the "War on Terror".

As well as criticising the US + EU for their failure to find the political will to provide the drugs + funds needed to fight AIDS, Mr. Annan also criticised African leaders for failing to urge greater use of condoms, due to embarassment, although this simple measure would save many, many lives.

Listen to Kofi Annan's interview with the BBC here.

Further reading:

The UN's Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB + Malaria

The BBC's excellent AIDS debate special feature.

UNAIDS: The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

Things looking up for Ratty

Today I had a chat with Rob Strachan the UK's premier water vole champion about a collaborative project to restore 27,000 hectares of land along the upper portions of the River Thames, as part of a UK scoping project.

Lessons learnt on this project will hopefully enable the large-scale changes in land use + management, associated with reforms to agricultural subsidies, to have the maximum possible benefit for both farming + wildlife.

P.S. I have been building weblogs for this and other projects for the last few days and will post a summary of my PhD (for those of you who voted for this) next week... I'll catch up with news updates once I have got these new sites up and running.

Money cannot buy happiness. Thoughts on wealth + well-being...

Yesterday Earth-Info.Net attended a series of fascinating talks on the relationship between wealth + well being that had been organised by the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy + Understanding.

Many, excellent points were made about the uncertain + unreliable relationship between wealth and happiness.

The chairman, Sir Crispin Tickell (a former UK Ambassador to the UN) reminded the audience that the economy is a wholly owned subsidary of the environment and that most economists are deluding themselves + the rest of us by only measuring part of the living economy.

There is therefore a pressing need to develop new ways of measuring wealth + well-being and to ask challenging questions of ourselves if we want our societies + economies to be efficient, just + sustainable.

The first speaker, Prof Norman Myers, spoke of the danger of relying on the GNP as an accurate + complete measure of national wealth.

This is because black + grey economies may be very large, but concealed, as in the case of Russia where the as much as 50% of the economy is underground, and because an indicator as crude as GNP sums together socially, environmentally + economically destructive measures with those that are beneficial.

Prof. Myers suggested that we should instead adopt alternative indicators which gives a more holistic assessment of wealth + well-being, such as the Genuine Progress Indicator or various indices of sustainability which aim to reduce waste per capita, etc.

Although economists acknowledge that the GDP is a measure of output, not welfare such qualifiers are rarely used by politicians + the media. This leads to the lazy, but widespread, assumption that a larger GDP is always good for everyone + everything.

The second speaker was Sir Richard Jolly a former Special Adviser to the Administrator of UNDP + the architect of the UN's Human Development Report. Sir Richard pointed out that the founders of GNP had a strong sense of their system's limitations, but felt there was value in permitting the economies of different countries to be compared... although they warned that the statistics office should not be allowed to capture decision-making.

One of the most interesting points Sir Richard made was that GNP is not God (i.e. all knowing, benevolent, etc). Instead, it represents an undemocratic conventional measure of growth. The GNP is not decided on the basis of one person, one vote but on an economy's overall output. It is therefore a highly biased measure, as was acknowledged in a 1974 report by Hollis Cheney for the World Bank "Redistribution with Growth", and should be treated as such, even if it remains important in determining employment policy, etc.

The role of Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom book in plotting an alternative course, which advocates a Human Development Index, was highlighted, with its emphasis on creating conditions that ensure people develop the capabilities + choices necessary to live long, healthy + full lives.

In his summing up, Sir Richard said that there were conceptual problems in identifying what we should try to measure and danger in attempting to over-simplify a complicated situation, in order to reach out to a public. He therefore urged those working in this field to be serious, not sloppy or romantic and to use + win over statisticians. Sir Richard also said that there is a need to be clear who will use a new index, when + how and to attack GNP for what it is, not for what it is not...

James Robertson (a founder of the New Economics Foundation) spoke on the need for fundamental reform of the world's current monetary system...

James complained that most intellectual energy + time went into measuring wealth and well-being rather than considering how to implement practical reforms that would distribute money more fairly, efficiently + sustainably.

We therefore need to reform the scoring system for economic life and to consider which activities are rewarded by the money system, with changes in perverse or inadequate taxes, public spending, how money is created and put into circulation. These conditions determine how people behave in order to make the bottom line, whereas further measurement may have a small effect on how people behave.

On a philosophical level, James suggested that consumerism trades on a desire for indindividuality, which leads to a homogenisation of consumer culture, a dull uniformity for consumers and an urge to withdraw from the market in order to find a personal identity... In its extreme such withdrawl can lead people to join cults, but on a more commonly experienced level drives people to create an authentic self which involves "people writing the own biography", and creating their own identity, in a way that was not possible 30 years ago. Under these conditions the question "who am I" can be answered by building a suit of armour, a response understood and manipulated by marketers who offer ready made, aspirational identities at a price... while these conditions persist increasing consumption is unavoidable. There is therefore a need for a social readjustment so that a more authentic culture, which does rely on consumption, can be achieved.

Earth-Info.Net collaborates with field projects

Today I demonstrated how Blogger works to Graham Hemson and discussed helping him to set up a collaborative lion conservation weblog...

Hopefully this new blog will be one of a stable of high-quality environment + development field projects that Earth-Info.Net will help to get online + publicise.

The idea of collaborating in this way is to give a frank, first person summary of the ups + downs associated with running a field project, demonstrate what is happening at the grass roots level + aid the engagement of field workers with collaborators, sponsors + the public...

As many of the projects I am approaching work in remote parts of the world + are understaffed I hope that a group of us working together will be able to produce a more compelling site than any of us can manage alone and also give readers a broader impression of the range of worthwhile work that is going on out there, below the NGO level.

See here for a letter Graham recently had published in New Scientist regarding the resolution of conflict between lions + people in Botswana.

The Predators + People weblog will go live in the next few days...

Civil Society, Export Credit Guarantees + REEEP

Yesterday Earth-Info.Net had a very interesting day in London thanks to invitations organised by Shelaine Weller of Globe-UK (an all-party sustainable development group based in the Houses of Parliament)...

In the morning, I attended an informal consultation meeting of The Secretary-General's Panel of Eminent Persons on Civil Society and UN Relationships hosted by the One World Trust. This group of eminent persons represent a variety of perspectives + experiences and have been given the task of review past + current practices and then make recommendation for future improvements in the interactions between civil society and the United Nations.

The need to improve the involvement + access of civil society in international decision making is clear, and much of the discussion was centred on strengthening the representation + role of NGOs, local government + the global south.

This reform appears to be designed to strengthen the mandate of the UN and the multilateral approach to global problem solving and you are invited to do your bit by submitting your suggestions for improving the relationship between the UN + civil society.

Earth-Info.Net's suggestion was to establish a forum for ordinary people who do not have the vested interests of (elected) politicians, (unelected) NGOs + countries but might be able propose actions for the common good and strengthen the connection between the publics of different nations + the UN. I proposed a good way to select people, to serve for a year or so, might be to use national electoral rolls and appoint random people to represent countries, in a similar way to jury service.

In the afternoon, I learnt about the vast sums of money the UK government spends on Export Credits Guarantee Department (guaranteeing payments for goods that UK companies export to poor countries).

Much of this money (approx £3.5 billion per annum) is spent supporting the arms trade, building coal-fired power plants + supporting the sale of agricultural products.

However, in reports written by Corner House "Turning a blind eye", WWF "Credit where it’s due", Greenpeace "G8 Plan For Africa Pointless Without Renewable Energy Support" + Friends of the Earth "Green" Company Violating International Norms in Controversial Caspian Oil Pipeline) serious concerns have repeatedly been raised that commercial interests are routinely placed above internationally agreed social + environmental standards.

The sums and issues are quite staggering, so if you would like to learn more about export credits I recommend that you start by reading a copy of a briefing paper prepared for a UK NGO Seminar on Export Credit Reform entitled "Beyond Business Principles".

In the evening, I attended the launch of Climate Change Capital a specialist merchant banking firm which provides financial services + products to organisations affected by the convergence of laws and policies on energy and the environment. This company seemed to see opportunities rather than a burdens in the challenge of climate change and it was interesting to see someone taking a commercial approach to tackling something which is generally treated as a campaigning or political issue.

Last but not least, I ought to mention a scheme I learnt of while at the CCC launch... the UK's renewable energy and energy efficiency partnership (REEEP) which was initiated at the Jo'burg World Summit and launched recently... REEEP is a coalition of progressive governments, businesses and organisations committed to accelerating the development of renewable and energy efficiency systems. This is a great idea and one that I hope will flourish!

If only all days were so interesting!

$20 billion in tax breaks for US oil, gas, coal + nuclear industries

According to Reuter's Planet Ark, Republican law makers are proposing an energy bill loaded with some $20 billion in tax breaks they say would create U.S. jobs while boosting oil, natural gas, coal + nuclear production.

Unfortunately, this bill misses many opportunities and could be positively harmful as it lacks any measures to tighten U.S. automobile fuel standards or reduce emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide...

Earth-Info.Net therefore wishes that the US Administration could see the wisdom in creating new jobs in clean technologies and would instead put this sort of money into removing society's reliance on fossils fuels (and nuclear fuels which still cannot be disposed of safely!).

Efforts to do this would be both socially + environmentally beneficial and help us to move towards an economy that is highly energy-efficient, self-sufficient + based on renewable energy sources. Perhaps within 5-10 years?

Many of the technologies necessary to make such a dramatic transition already exist but need a new infra-structure to be put in place + some financial assistance in order to start enjoying the economies of scale established sources of energy already benefit from.

For example, hydrogen-powered cars release only water through their exhaust pipes (can travel over 10,705-mile per gallon), and even in more standard vehicles offer a high level of performance while powered by a combination of solar electricity + hydrogen.

Savings Albatrosses + Asia's threatened birds

Good news from Birdlife International...

South Africa has become the fifth country to ratify the global Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), guaranteeing its entry into force. ACAP is an essential step in halting continuing declines in the world’s 21 albatross species, all of which now face varying risks of extinction according to the recent BirdLife upgrading of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of globally threatened species. You can find out more about the Save the Albatross campaign here.

A ground-breaking guide has also been launched for governments + civil society in order to help prevent the extinction of Asia’s birds, 1 in 8 of which is under threat. HIH Princess Takamado of Japan unveiled the blueprint, Saving Asia’s Threatened Birds, at a ceremony in Tokyo.

BirdLife International produced the guide with financial support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to help avoid the extinction of 324 threatened bird species, 12% of Asia’s total. Already 41 Asian bird species teeter on the brink of extinction, classified as Critically Endangered under World Conservation Union criteria. Of these, 11 may already be extinct, including the Javanese Lapwing of Indonesia and the Pink-headed Duck of India and Myanmar. Six of the species, such as the Bali Starling, number fewer than 50 mature individuals in the wild.

See here for some case studies of bird species under threat in Asia.

Childhood obesity a "ticking timebomb"

In an interview for last week's Observer, Sir John Krebs the head of the UK goverment's Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned that the young of today could have shorter lives than their parents because of their poor nutrition + lack of exercise.

Sir John has also called for changes in food marketing and an end to celebrity endorsements of meals and snacks containing high levels of fat, sugar or salt.

According to the FSA options that should be considered by the Government include:

* reducing fat, salt and sugar in children's food;

* restricting the amount of advertising of sweets, crisps and snack foods during children's programmes;

* banning food adverts aimed at pre-school children;

* making 'health warnings' compulsory on some foods;

* banning vending machines from schools which only sell sugar drinks or sweets;

* blocking celebrity endorsement of sweets and promotions which link the buying of sweets and crisps in return for school equipment.

On Tuesday a "salt summit" was held where the FSA was expected to demand action from companies such as Heinz, McDonald's + Bird's Eye.

This demand for action follows FSA research which found that ready meals can contain 98.3% of a whole day's salt quota of 6 grams + recent success with the bread industry which voluntarily reduced salt (sodium) in bread by 21% once it was proved that considerable health benefits could be achieved without sacrificing taste.

Earlier this week celebrity endorsements of junk food were also criticised in an editorial of the medical journal the Lancet + the Observer Food Monthly reported on role that unhealthy+ extra large food portions play in boosting profits + waistlines.

UK gets serious about energy efficiency

The UK government is funding a campaign, called Action Energy, which makes the business case for greater energy efficiency...

Not only does wasting energy harm the environment, but saving energy can be very good for business, with a 20% reduction in waste potentially offering the same benefit as a 5% increase in sales!

In addition to offering advice on loans that are available to replace existing equipment with more energy efficient kit + surveys which can help companies to identify how to cut their energy use by 10-30% the site offers the following top tips which can be applied to any organisation:

* 'If you can't measure it, you can't manage it'.
Check regularly on your consumption of electricity, gas and oil, and check that your bills relate to what you actually use, rather than an estimate.

* Switch off lights in empty rooms
Turn off lights in empty rooms and corridors - especially at the end of the day. This can save up to 15% of your energy bill.

* Keep windows closed in cold weather
If staff are too warm, turn the heating down instead.

* Use just the light you need
Lights too bright in corridors? Remove or switch off alternate fittings.

* Use daylight
It's free - so keep windows and skylights clean and clear.

* Clean light fittings annually
Dirt reduces lighting efficiency, encouraging people to switch more lights on.

* Too hot?
Set the thermostat at 19° - costs rise by 8% for every 1° increase.

* Don't heat unused space
Storerooms, corridors and areas where there's heavy physical work can be set to lower temperatures. Reduce heating during holidays and weekends.

* Thermostats
Check that thermostats are sited out of draughts and away from either cold or hot spots.

* Keep radiators clear
Don't block radiators with furniture -it reduces efficiency and output.

* Consult your colleagues
Ask your colleagues where they think energy is being wasted, and for their ideas about saving energy.

The above advice does not require the invention of any hugely expensive, non-existent rocket science, it does however require something that human beings tend to find much harder to get excited about... changing entrenched, lazy + costly behaviours.

Earth-Info.Net certainly hopes that the free
helpline 0800 58 57 94 and the straight forward Action Energy website will make some of low-tech strategies + equipment that are available today much less painful to adopt and permanently undermine the feeble excuses we all tend to fall back on...

BBC News Online's AIDS debate special includes a staggering graphic which highlights the difference between inaction + pro-active preventative measures on the spread of HIV by 2010.

It shows how serious the problem is in many different regions of the world and that there is still a lot to play for...

If only we can find the will to act sooner rather than later (or not at all).

Earth-Info.Net opens a bookshop

Thanks to the wonders of technology and Amazon you are now able to buy books via this site (see the links on the left of this page).

You can of course buy any book you like via Amazon, but I have started the ball rolling by highlighting a selection of books that fit with the categories of ecology + poverty.

Any book you buy via a link from Earth-Info.Net earns this site a small commission and will therefore help to keep me online...

In future I will also try to highlight individual books when I come across them, but please feel free to speed this process up by letting me know of any titles you would like to recommend.

IUCN conservation action plans made available online

The editor of the Carnivore Conservation information portal, Guillaume Chapron, has converted hard copies of the IUCN Conservation Status + Action Plans for Wild Cats, Hyaenas, Red Pandas, The African Wild Dog, Ethiopian Wolf, Bears + Weasels, Civets, Mongooses and their Relatives into pdf files that can be downloaded off the web.

This is a major service to international conservation, especially to people working in developing countries, and Guillaume deserves to be congratulated for putting in the time and effort required to obtain the necessary permissions from the IUCN, then scan each report and post them online.

Hopefully more public + charitable organisations will start to make sure that the majority of their reports + documents are automatically made available on the internet once they are published in hard copy, and will stop relying on the unpaid enthusiasm of people such as Guillaume to make crucial information available as widely as possible.

Corner House briefing on Corruption

I have just come across an excellent briefing document on corruption entitled "Exporting Corruption: Privatisation, Multinationals and Bribery ". This document was produced in 2000 by a UK charity, called Corner House, which monitors social and economic issues, policies + practices in the UK and overseas.

Corner House generously allows its material to be reproduced provided due acknowledgement is provided, so I am posting the following and urge you to read the full document and their other briefings + documents which cover a wide range of social and environmental issues extremely well...

Briefing document 19: (corruption):

Corruption takes many different forms, from the routine cases of bribery or petty abuse of power that are said to "grease the wheels" to the amassing of spectacular personal wealth through embezzlement or other dishonest means.

For multinationals, bribery enables companies to gain contracts (particularly for public works and military equipment) or concessions which they would not otherwise have won, or to do so on more favourable terms. Every year, Western businesses pay huge amounts of money in bribes to win friends, influence and contracts. These bribes are conservatively estimated to run to US$80 billion a year -- roughly the amount that the UN believes is needed to eradicate global poverty. In 1999, the US Commerce Department reported that, in the preceding five years, bribery was believed to have been a factor in 294 commercial contracts worth US$145 billion. In 1996, the magazine World Business reported that the bribes paid by German companies alone were over $3 billion.

Corruption has become a major international concern. The topic of international conferences, policy forums and ministerial speeches, it is also the subject of a recent OECD Convention and the focus of an international non-governmental organisation, Transparency International. Corruption is increasingly cited as a reason for withholding foreign aid or debt relief. If a country's inability to pay interest on its loans is due to its leaders siphoning off national earnings into their own bank accounts, the reasoning goes, surely extending aid or cancelling the debt will merely sanction further graft.

Most commentators on corruption -- and on the "good governance" initiatives instigated to combat it -- dwell on developing countries, not industrialised ones. Most scrutinise politically-lax cultures in the South, not the North. Most call attention to the petty corruption of low-paid civil servants, not to the grand corruption of wealthy multinationals. Most focus on symptoms such as missing resources, not causes such as deregulation of state enterprises. Most talk about bribe-takers, not bribe-givers.

This focus needs to be shifted. If corruption is growing throughout the world, it is largely a result of the rapid privatisation (and associated practices of contracting-out and concessions) of public enterprises worldwide. This process has been pushed by Western creditors and governments and carried out in such a way as to allow multinational companies to operate with increased impunity. Thus multinationals, supported by Western governments and their agencies, are engaging in corruption on a vast scale in North and South alike. Donor governments and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund frequently put forward anti-poverty and "good governance" agendas, but their other actions send a different signal about where their priorities lie.

Read more here...

Global debate on AIDS get underway on BBC

BBC News Online is hosting a global debate on AIDS.

Special features of the debate include a talking point putting questions to Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS + Carol Bellamy, head of UNICEF.

Other features include the personal stories of people infected with HIV in the Ukraine, Iran + South Africa, reports on the cost of drugs + outlines of some of the connections between AIDS and poverty...

This special feature is excellently put together, and with
46,000,000+ people infected with HIV well worth exploring if you have time...

Well done to all of those at the BBC responsible for putting it together!

Video of Mark Henderson released by kidnappers

I am very pleased to see that a video of Mark Henderson has been released by his kidnappers in Colombia. Mark was kidnapped by a group of ELN geurillas 8 weeks ago and is sadly one of the 3000 people abducted in this country this year.

Under normal circumstance such statistics might wash over me, but I knew Mark when I was doing my degree, and I really hope he get's home soon. If there can ever be a bright side to such a traumatic + dreadful experience I am sure he is doing a good job of keeping everyone elses' spirits up during this diffficult time. He's a great guy + greatly missed by many people.

Dirty needles + unnecessary injections increasing health risks

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) approximately 75% of injections given in the developing world are given using re-used, unsterilised equipment which increase the risk of infection.

The re-use of needles is most common in south Asia, the Middle East + the western Pacific.

Often people in developing countries are also receiving too many injections for illnesses that can be treated with oral medication or no drugs at all.

The World Health Organisation estimates that about 16 billion injections are given in developing + transitional countries each year and as many as 70% are unnecessary.

Nearly 2% of all new HIV cases, or 96,000 people, are infected through unsafe injections, according to the WHO.

Dirty needles are also the most common cause of infection of hepatitis C, a potentially deadly liver disease, and account for 33% of new hepatitis B cases, another serious illness.

The WHO is recommending an increased emphasis on providing disposable needles, improving awareness of the risks associated with unsafe medical practices and the danger of healthcare helping to spread blood pathogens such as hepatitis B and C, HIV, absceses, septicaemia, malaria + haemorrhagic fevers.

Radio programme on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions

The latest edition of the BBC Worldservice's radio programme One Planet does an excellent job of outlining why emissions of carbon dioxide need to be reduced and the importance of adopting strategies that encourage greater energy efficiency + the use of renewable energy sources... where possible using existing technologies.

Highly recommended!

BAT pulls out of Burma

British American Tobacco has announced that it will be pulling out of Burma following a formal request by the UK government that it do so.

In July, following the arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said that the government does not believe British companies should be trading with or investing in Burma while its military regime continued to suppress basic human rights.

Today, foreign minister Mike O'Brien said "I appreciate that this was a difficult process, but I am in no doubt that the decision was the right one''.

Less diplomatically, John Jackson, director of the Burma Campaign UK, a London-based pressure group said "They had to be dragged out kicking and screaming, but at least they are out".

Killing badgers aids spread of bovine TB

Today, Animal Health Minister Ben Bradshaw has announced the suspension of badger culling in areas geographically close to recent cattle TB outbreaks on particular premises.

This is because the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB which designed, and now monitors, trials that are comparing the effectiveness of different intervention strategies has found that there is a 27% increase in the number of cases of bovine TB (breakdowns) in (reactive) culling areas compared to the related survey-only areas where no badger culling took place.

It is known that badgers can carry TB but it appears increasingly likely that any failure to kill all of the badgers in a sett when culling in an infected area actually aids dispersal of the disease.

Although previously uinmentionable, the roles of cow-to-cow infections, farm hygiene and movements of infected cows between farms in tackling bovine TB are increasingly having to be considered...