Myanmar’s Delta: Water World from NYTimes Dot Earth Blog

The team managing the data flowing from instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite has posted a pair of images of the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar before and after Cyclone Nargis struck, showing vividly the amount of land that was submerged.

From NASA:

Flood water can be difficult to see in photo-like satellite images, particularly when the water is muddy. This pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite use a combination of visible and infrared light to make floodwaters obvious. Water is blue or nearly black, vegetation is bright green, bare ground is tan, and clouds are white or light blue.

On April 15, rivers and lakes are sharply defined against a backdrop of vegetation and fallow agricultural land…. The wetlands near the shore are a deep blue green. Cyclone Nargis came ashore across the mouths of the Irrawaddy and followed the coastline northeast. The entire coastal plain is flooded in the May 5 image. The fallow agricultural areas appear to have been especially hard hit. For example, Yangôn (population over 4 million) is almost completely surrounded by floods. Several large cities (population 100,000–500,000) are in the affected area. Muddy runoff colors the Gulf of Martaban turquoise.

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

From NSTAR:

This July, NSTAR will be offering an exciting new option for customers - the option to have your electricity supplied by renewable sources.

Highlights

• Basic Service customers will be able to choose to have half or all of their electricity come from NSTAR Green.
• There will be an additional premium for this option. While exact pricing still needs to be approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, the NSTAR Green option will, on average, add an additional $4 to $7 a month to your bill, depending on the NSTAR Green option chosen.
• The program is initially offering electricity generated from Maple Ridge Wind Farm in upstate New York.
• Our customers can pre-enroll in NSTAR Green.

From the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) newsletter:

The manager of the UCS Northeast Clean Energy Project, John Rogers, led a coalition of clean energy advocates that worked with NSTAR on the program’s design. The coalition, which included UCS, the Conservation Law Foundation and Environment Massachusetts, also testified before the state’s Department of Public Utilities.

To power the program, NSTAR has signed 10-year contracts for 60 megawatts of wind power from two wind farms: one in New York, the other in Maine. These long-term contracts help renewable energy project developers get financing and help lower the cost of renewable energy. Meanwhile, encouraging renewable energy development diversifies the region’s energy supply and protects customers from spikes in the price of other energy sources, such as natural gas. All customers will benefit from the wind contracts.

Customers who select one of the green power options on their bills would pay premiums above the basic plan to reduce global warming pollution. Most of the nation’s electricity production comes from fossil fuels, mainly coal, which is the nation’s biggest source of global warming pollution. By contrast, wind power and other renewable sources of energy do not produce global warming emissions.

To pre-enroll in the program, you will need to supply your account number, zip-code and email address (optional).

Thanks, Peter H and Tom W.

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

“Censoring Science”
Date: Sunday, June 1
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Cary Memorial Hall, 1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA Directions
Speakers:
James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies;
Mark Bowen, author of “Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming”
Cost: A contribution of $5 per person is requested, to help defray the
cost of bringing top-level climate change researchers and policy-makers to
this area. Seating will be limited, so early arrival is recommended.
Contact: info [at] lexgwac {dot} org

Description:

Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition (LexGWAC) to present an evening with NASA Climate Scientist Dr. James Hansen together with author Dr. Mark Bowen,
speaking about the most recent findings on global warming and government
attempts at censorship.

He will be joined by local author Mark Bowen, who wrote the newly released
book “Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and
the Truth of Global Warming.”

Dr. Hansen will speak about his latest findings and the pressing need to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the next couple of years or face the
consequences of a very different climate. Hansen’s efforts to speak openly
about the importance of reducing greenhouse gases was impeded by political
appointees at NASA, who attempted to censor or alter Hansen’s reports and
writings.

Bowen’s book, “Censoring Science” will be available for sale and signing
after the talk.

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

Related Posts:
Mutton dressed up as lamb: Aquafina’s new ad campaign

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

Onslaught(er) Lyrics

Written by Daniel Bird
Performed by Ohm square

There they go
There they go
There they go
There they go

There they go your trees
Are gone today
All that beauty hacked away

So use your minds

And use your voice to make them stay
It’s not a price you’ll have to pay

They cannot hide

There they go your trees
Are gone today
All that beauty hacked away

Just to soap your hide
Just to soap your hide

Whoa there go the trees
Whoa there go the trees
Whoa there go the trees

via Greenpeace’s Making Waves Blog

The Original Dove Onslaught Commercial

via fubiz

Podcast featuring some companies that are working to make their supply chains more sustainable [Stanford’s Social Innovations Conversation]

With increasing pressures on firms to operate in socially and environmentally sustainable ways, corporate social responsibility has become a regular part of the business landscape. Now those pressures are extending to one’s entire chain of product and service suppliers. But just how do you make CSR work, particularly with your suppliers? How do you justify it financially, and how do you measure its effects? In this breakout panel from the Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains conference at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Bethany Heath of Chiquita and Mike Loch of Motorola discuss the benefits that have resulted from new supplier standards in the areas of energy efficiency, health, safety, and labor. Michael Jarvis talks about how the World Bank works with companies in emerging markets to help them meet CSR standards so that they may gain access to the supply chains, markets, and capital they need.

Subscribe to their feed.

Related Posts:
The Issue with Biofuels…

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

Aid Groups Target Poor Nations as Food Prices Soar (The first report in a six-part series)

“The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year,” [Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization author Lester] Brown says. “And what we are seeing now is the emergence of direct competition between the 860 million people in the world who own automobiles and who want to maintain their mobility while the 2 billion poorest people in the world simply want to survive.”

via Kevin Bullock

Related Links:
Update: Food Riots in Haiti [April 17, 2008]
Eyewitness Accounts of Riots in Haiti
News: Food Riots in Haiti

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

From the video: “A study found that young people could identify 1000 corporate logos bu fewer that 10 plants or animals native to their backyards.” [Citation needed. Anybody?]

http://www.nclicoalition.org to increase environmental education opportunities at your school. Celebrating environmental education and its impact on children’s learning, health and leadership.

Related Posts:
AIDG’s Environmental Education Center: Proyecto Futuros Verdes (Xela, Guatemala)
Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do [TED]
No child left inside: reclaim outdoor play [Boing Boing]

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

Proyecto Futuros Verdes. Future site of AIDG’s interactive environmental education center in Guatemala (Photo taken 03/28/08)

Proyecto Futuros Verdes aims to address the educational component of AIDG’s mission by providing an interactive environmental education center in Xela, Guatemala. This Center will be geared primarily towards schoolchildren, providing general information about environmental trends in Guatemala, simple advice on how to reduce individual and family environmental impacts, and demonstrations of appropriate technology.

The exhibits will be divided into modules (Earth, Water, Wind and Sun) that each feature a set of relevant appropriate technologies. The educational material will cover topics about the major environmental problems facing Guatemala, interactive brainstorms about environmentally friendly household habits and explore the innovative solutions offered by appropriate technology to many environmental challenges.

The Center will be free to school groups, yet tourist groups or travelers would pay a nominal entrance fee (TBD) to defray the operating costs.

The site is scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2008. Use of the property was generously donated to AIDG by a local businessman, Jack Mannen, originally from Texas.

AIDG Intern Carlos Poza describes the project:

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon   

Last week, Pete, Steve C, Candido, Pedro and myself drove to Comunidad Nueva Alianza, our strongest community partner in Guatemala. We’ve been working with them since 2005 on biogas, solar hot water and micro-hydro as the community has been very interested in both renewable energy and mechanisms for developing sustainably. I hadn’t been back in 2.5 years and it was amazing to see all the changes that had taken place over that time, particularly the work that XelaTeco had done (What can I say? I’m biased).

Background on the Community

Comunidad Nueva Alianza, located in El Palmar, Quetzaltenango, is a coffee and macadamia plantation owned and operated by a cooperative of forty families (roughly 200-250 people). The plantation is fair trade and organic, though not currently officially certified. They have, however, begun the long and costly certification process through the help of Cafe Conciencia.

Democracia Social Participativa

Profits raised by the community’s main 3 enterprises, agriculture, ecotourism, and the bottling of spring water, are divided amongst the residents and used to improve the health, education and living conditions within the cooperative.

Sorting macadamia nuts

CNA’s Eco-hostel.

Alianza Agua Pura

The families at Alianza, many of whom had been working that plantation land for 3 generations, came to own it after a long hard slog with the previous owner. In the 1990’s, coffee prices on the international market plummeted to their lowest real levels in the 20th century due to overproduction by coffee-producing nations. Throughout Guatemala, plantation owners were forced to leave the business and/or sell their farms. The owner of Alianza tried to soldier on by slashing costs and tightening belts, more specifically by not paying his laborers. From 1998 and continuing on for 18 months, the workers did not receive wages. Many hoped that back pay would be granted when the market picked up. Some stayed on and subsisted by gathering wild plants while the farm went into default. Others left to find work elsewhere.

When it was clear that the owner had no intention of compensating them, they sued for the back wages. To avoid his debts, the owner transfered his assets to his wife and declared bankruptcy. The bank repossessed the land and through some dodgy shenanigans, the owner’s brother was granted control of the property. Through advice received from several union organizations, the workers of Alianza occupied the land to force negotiations with the bank and the Guatemalan government. The following bargain was struck: if the workers would agree that the bank/financial group was not liable for back wages, they could buy the land. Through the Land Trust (Fondo de Tierras), a Guatemalan governmental organization to promote agrarian reform, they obtained a low-interest rate loan (0% for the first 4 yrs, 4% for the next 8) to purchase the property. December 18, 2004, they received title to the land.

The work by Fondo de Tierras can in no way be called an unqualified success. Many of the communities that have received similar loans are struggling to pay their debt despite the satisfactory loan conditions. Alianza has been particularly lucky to have exceptional leadership, community resolve, enterprising spirit, access to committed volunteers (gringo and chapin), technology transfer, and grants/financing from the UNDP, World Bank, etc.

Three of CNA’s residents (including the community’s leader Javier Jimenez) plus some of the many people who have passed through to lend a helping hand.

CNA and Renewable Energy
As I mentioned early, the members of Alianza have been very open to using renewable energy on the plantation and testing out new technologies. We first met Javier Jimenez, the community’s leader, in 2005 when they was looking for a contractor to build a micro-hydroelectric system on site as well as install an electrical distribution system to the residents’ homes. With the help of Erick Gonzalez Sr, the father of two of XelaTeco’s staff, Alianza had won a grant from the UNDP for the project.

Electricity Poles

Hydro system Manifold

The hydro system, completed in 2006, is operating very well. This time of year is the dry season which means less water for hydropower. So currently the community is running it primarily at night. A problem that they are having right now is that as they have become more prosperous, the capacity of the system is fast becoming too small for them. The max output for the system is 16KW which for 40 families gives you only about 400 Watts per household. Great for small appliances like cell phones and radios or for lighting, but rubbish is you want to use anything with a motor, like a blender for tasty licuados. Luckily and through great forward planning on their part, the distribution system installed by XelaTeco can be plugged into the national grid once a grid extension to those parts occurs. The community is still deciding how to use the hydropower once they make that transition. One idea is to use it exclusively for the eco-hostel. It is a bit of a bummer (okay a big bummer) to think of them going from clean to dirty energy, but they need more power than their existing renewable resources can provide. [As an aside, they previously tried photovoltaics. From what I hear, but they found them lacking. Too cloudy during the rainy season presumably.]

Biogas

Biodiesel production during Hurricane Stan. Photo Courtesy of Matthew Rudolf

The Biodiesel Building

In addition to biogas, the Community has had a decent amount of biodiesel production. One of their first batches of biodiesel helped them weather Hurricane Stan and continue running their water purification business. In the past, they were contemplating making biodiesel from castor beans or jatropha grown on the plantation. For now, that project is still on hold.

From experience, Comunidad Nueva Alianza is one of the best examples of a worker-owned cooperative/community successfully loosening the chains of poverty through the embrace of sustainability.

Related Links:
Comunidad Nueva Alianza website
GUATEMALA/MEXICO, Coffee Country [PBS, Frontline]

Related Posts:
Appropriate technology innovators bring renewable energy
The Comunidad Nueva Alianza Wins World Bank Rural Productivity Award
What can you do with 400 watts?

Bookmark blog post on:
Del.icio.us    digg    FURL    reddit    Stumble Upon