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Youth of Color Resist Military Recruiting

In 2006, high school senior Stephanie Hoang started working with Better Alternatives for Youth—Peace (BAY-Peace), educating... more

zoloftkid
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Postcards From the Edge---Of Insanity!!!

Somewhere out there this rings true for some elderly middle age folks. No offense of course. I'm not mad at you!... more

sonjasreality
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My Sister's Keeper reviewed by The Rotten Tomatoes Show

Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox join forces with bloggers, comedians, students and citizen critics to review "My Sister's... more

Ellen_Fox
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FRIZZI TOONS

Editorial Cartoons by Donn Frizzi

D_FRIZZI
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Bathtub Band... The truth about our lives.

We are continually inspired by Flight of the Conchords and Dimitri Martin, so we've decided to bring you this... hope you enjoy.

Lnelsonis
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El Nino develops; what this may mean for Mississippi

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the arrival of El Nino, a climate phenomenon with a significant... more

stormchaser4850
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Why Googles OS may be overhyped, MSN not worried

Silicon Valley watchers like to view the competition between Google and Microsoft through the prism of all-out war. And the search... more

unimatrix0
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Stereotypes are so last year!: Does 'Bruno' have the look of a hit comedy or rampant homophobia?

"Borat" may be so 2006, but controversy never goes out of style. With Sacha Baron Cohen’s most outrageous effort... more

MediaJor
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Not-too-modest Travel Advice

What are the things don't leave home without?

Lnelsonis
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Iowa policy puts religion in school

In Iowa officials are proposing a policy that will put religion back in the public school. The school board in Spencer, Iowa is... more

unimatrix0
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Secret Google Presentation Defends Invasive Behavioral Ads

Consumer Watchdog Releases Satirical Annotated Version, Says Cyber-Spying Should Raise Lawmaker Alarms Over Internet Giant's... more

zoloftkid
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York Galland

York Galland is living out his dreams in the mountains near Redding, CA

mayagsk2
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Immortal Information

For centuries, archivists have noted a curious relationship between “quantity” and “quality” of items in... more

rahoskins
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Africa needs agroforestry to cut forest emissions

The conflict between conserving environments and improving livelihoods is constricting efforts for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Sub-Saharan Africa. But agroforestry — managing trees with agricultural production — could help.

The Financial Times calls the carbon market the world's fastest growing commodity market — with agriculture, forestry and other land use playing an increasingly important role. The idea behind REDD is simple — pay countries to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degraded lands.

But working out practical solutions that meet key Millennium Development Goals — namely, to end extreme poverty and hunger, and ensure environmental sustainability — remains difficult.

More trees, better livelihoods

Developing countries' quest for food security through agricultural expansion often leads to deforestation and forest degradation. The main challenge for much of Sub-Saharan Africa is how to design agricultural landscapes to resolve livelihood-environment conflict and maintain forests' ecosystem benefits such as water storage, erosion control, biodiversity conservation and soil rehabilitation.

The way forward is to integrate climate and livelihood, adaptation and mitigation, REDD and agriculture. Agroforestry should be a key component of this approach. Integrating trees into agricultural landscapes on a massive scale would create an effective carbon sink while ensuring sustainable food production, and would help adapt to climate change in other ways too.

Tree-based systems are much better at accumulating carbon, above and below ground, than pure agriculture. A 'green investment' project in India has demonstrated how to harness tree planting for carbon off-setting (see Growing money on trees?). Tree and carbon experts from the World Agroforestry Centre suggest that a billion hectares of farmland (much of it in developing countries) could be turned into carbon-rich agricultural landscapes, potentially sequestering 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide — a third of the carbon reduction challenge.

Of course, saving carbon is not usually the top priority for small-holder farmers— but agroforestry can contribute many of the other benefits farmers want too. For example, a meta-analysis of 94 scientific publications — conducted by World Agroforestry Centre researchers and published in Plant and Soil in 2008 — indicates that using 'fertiliser trees' that capture nitrogen from the air and transfer it to the soil can reduce the need for commercial nitrogen fertilisers by 75 per cent while doubling crop yields. If combined with other soil fertility management, such as conservation agriculture, fertiliser trees can significantly boost sustainable soil health and increase food security. A diverse tree cover can also increase agroecosystems' resilience towards drought, pest and disease and other threats on food production induced by climate change.

more at the link.The conflict between conserving environments and improving livelihoods is constricting efforts for reducing emissions from... more