tagged w/ Developing Nations
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Agroecology is the science behind sustainable agriculture, from the ground up.
It combines scientific inquiry with place-based knowledge and experimentation, emphasizing technology and innovations that are knowledge-intensive, low cost, ecologically sound and practical. By listening to farmers, and using the most up-to-date science, agroecology provides a modern framework for thinking broadly about agriculture in terms of its four key systems properties: productivity, resilience, equity and sustainability.
At PAN, we document and publicize the contribution of the agroecological sciences to climate-friendly, sustainable development, profile the successes of local organic farmers and provide technical support on alternatives to our campaign partners.
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Africa :: The push-pull system (PDF) of ecological pest management is transforming small farms in Africa. It illustrates agroecology's ingenuity, as well as the many economic, food security, health and environmental benefits of this approach.
Kenyan maize farmers have tripled their yields by intercropping maize with plants that repel pests, support natural pest predators and suppress weeds. One of the plants, desmodium, is a nitrogen-fixing legume that is also used as fodder for animals. The inclusion of these plants in the farming system reduces synthetic pesticide use and augments livestock feed, providing families with additional milk and meat for consumption or sale. Additional benefits include reduced run-off and soil erosion, enhanced soil fertility, improved food security and family nutrition, and increased household income. More than 12,000 farmers across eastern Africa have adopted the technology, with another 100,000 expected to do so over the next three years.
More stories at the linkAgroecology is the science behind sustainable agriculture, from the ground up.
It... more
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A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change.
The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.
The deal doesn't explicitly compel any nation to take on emissions targets, although most emerging economies have volunteered to curb the growth of their emissions.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for at least another five years under the accord adopted Sunday — a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.
The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.
The United States was a reluctant supporter, concerned about agreeing to join an international climate system that likely would find much opposition in the U.S. Congress.
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about," said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected, he told the delegates.
Sunday's deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year for poor countries. Other documents in the package lay out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the deal represents "an important advance in our work on climate change."
But the deal's language left some analysts warning that the wording left huge loopholes for countries to avoid tying their emissions to legal constraints, and noted that there was no mention of penalties. "They haven't reached a real deal," said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. "They watered things down so everyone could get on board."
Environmentalists criticized the package — as did many developing countries in the debate — for failing to address what they called the most urgent issue, to move faster and deeper in cutting carbon emissions.
"The good news is we avoided a train wreck," said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure. "The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve."
Scientists say that unless those emissions — chiefly carbon dioxide from power generation and industry — level out and reverse within a few years, the Earth will be set on a possibly irreversible path of rising temperatures that lead to ever greater climate catastrophes.
Sunday's breakthrough capped 13 days of hectic negotiations that ran a day and a half over schedule, including two round-the-clock days that left negotiators bleary-eyed and stumbling with words. Delegates were seen nodding off in the final plenary session, despite the high drama, barely constrained emotions and uncertainty whether the talks would end in triumph or total collapse.
The nearly fatal issue involved the legal nature of the accord that will govern carbon emissions by the turn of the next decade.
More at the linkA U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching... more
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In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate negotiations, from Durban in late 2011 onwards, will increasingly confront the issue of climate justice.
The atmosphere is a common space, a global commons. Industrialised nations pumped a disproportionate amount of emissions into the atmosphere and they have cornered a disproportionate amount of global resources, largely by exploiting nations that are on the other side of the coin. Climate impacts are already being felt in a severe way in Africa as well as in other regions of the global South. Centuries of exploitation have weakened the resilience of these regions and in tackling climate change these historical facts must be addressed. One way of addressing this is by the payment of climate debt to make the needed financial and technological resources available to these vulnerable regions.
The Conference of Parties at Copenhagen and the following one at Cancun did not generate outcomes consistent with scientific warnings that the world faces a severe climate crisis. Copenhagen ended with an accord spearheaded by President Barack Obama of the United States with the backing of the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) concocted in a 'Green Room' dreamed up by Denmark's conservative ruling party. In that room, Patrick Bond recalled, were 26 countries 'cherry-picked to represent the world. When even that small group deadlocked, allegedly due to Chinese intransigence and the overall weak parameters set by the US, the five leaders (Obama, Lula da Silva, Jacob Zuma, Manmohan Singh, and Wen Jiabao) attempted a face-saving last gasp at planetary hygiene.'12
The demand of climate justice is that those who created the climate problem must be the ones to mitigate it, and in the process must transform their economies and societies.13 There are two ways to go about making this happen. First, rich nations must reduce rapacious consumption patterns and address the climate crisis with real solutions and not ones that have been seen to be false. Second, the rich nations have to support the poor nations who are being forced to adapt to a situation they did not create. One practical way of making that happen is through support for sustainable, green development paths.
Among governments, the Bolivians have made the clearest call for climate justice while India and China have used related arguments to defend their growth paths. At a time when the world has been calling for a curtailment of polluting industrial establishments, China has been building new coal-fired power plants at a prodigious rate.14 It is interesting to note that while China is massively expanding its coal-powered plants, it is also quickly assuming leadership in the utilisation of wind power. The discourse on how much both China and India must do in tackling global warming must not overlook the fact that vast numbers of people in both India and China still require electricity supply and that meeting that gap requires huge financial outlays.
Following the catastrophic outcome of the United Nations climate negotiations held in Copenhagen in December 2009, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced that the world would meet in Bolivia for a thorough and inclusive discussion on this vital issue.
The summit, held in Cochabamba in April 2010, attracted 35,000 participants from 140 countries. The summit stood in sharp contrast to the Copenhagen event in many ways. First, this was an assembly of governments and peoples. In Copenhagen no effort was spared in keeping civil society out of the conference: the conference was marked by lockouts of civil society, detentions of climate activists and outright brutality towards non-violent protesters on the streets. In Cochabamba the police were offering assistance and were also participants. Whereas Copenhagen showed a disdain for the voices of the people, Cochabamba was about raising the voices of the people. The only similarity between the events is that they were both held in cities whose names start with letter 'C' followed by nine letters.
The key outcome of the Cochabamba conference was the People's Agreement. This agreement demanded that countries cut their emissions by at least 50 per cent at source in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013–17), without recourse to offsets and other carbon trading schemes. In terms of finance, the People's Agreement demands that developed countries commit 6 per cent of their GDP to finance adaptation and mitigation needs. The financial suggestions of the Copenhagen Accord are a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed to secure vulnerable peoples and nations. The peoples of the world also affirmed that there is a climate debt that must be recognised and paid. The payment is not all about finance but principally about decolonising the atmospheric space and redistributing the meagre space left. Developed countries already occupy 80 per cent of the space.
The climate debt is also about taking actions needed to restore the natural cycles of Mother Earth and one clear way of achieving this will be through the proclamation of a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, with clear obligations for humans. Bolivia is in the forefront of promoting the adoption of this declaration at the United Nations. The People's Agreement recognises that the causes of climate change are systemic and that systemic changes are needed to tackle them. On this note, the model of civilisation that is hinged on uncontrolled development can only compound the crisis. The world needs to move towards living well and not continue on the path of domination of others and of conspicuous and wasteful consumption.
An area glossed over in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations is the role of industrial agriculture in climate change. The People's Conference debated this key sector and reached the agreement that the way to a sustainable future is through the enthronement of food sovereignty based on agro-ecological agricultural systems. The issue of access to water being a human right was also affirmed by the people and later on in the year by the United Nations.
In all, the People's Agreement recognises that real strategies to tackle climate change must be based on the principles of equity and justice in dealing with the structural causes. Without climate justice it will also clearly be impossible to achieve the much talked about Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Cochabamba resonated with calls for urgently securing the rights of Mother Earth as a means of reconfiguring our relationship with the earth and with each other – in a way that respects the past, today and the future. All these will be a pipe dream unless peoples' sovereignty is supported, restored or built across the world. Cochabamba was a turning point in the march to transform our world from the path of conflict, competition, exploitation and domination to a path of solidarity and dignity. It held a ray of hope for Africa.
More at the link
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I posted this excerpt from this article because it hits the nail on the head about the mechanisms involved in the schemes being put forth by industrialized nations, the World Bank and corporations (industrial agriculture especially) looking to use this planetary emergency as a way to profit from it without really doing anything to address it. And that includes our seeds and water. Our voices now can make a dfference and they must be heard.In this extract from his book, To Cook A Continent, Nnimmo Bassey argues that climate... more
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Banana peels can be used to purify drinking water contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as copper and lead, according to a study.
Researchers from the Bioscience Institute at Botucatu, Brazil, said that the skins can outperform even conventional purifiers such as aluminium oxide, cellulose and silica. These have potentially toxic side effects and are expensive.
The team's method follows previous work that showed that plant parts, such as apple and sugar cane wastes, coconut fibres and peanut shells, can remove toxins from water.
These natural materials contain chemicals that have an affinity for metals.
"I was at home eating bananas when I had the idea: 'Why not make something with this?'" Gustavo Rocha de Castro, a researcher at the institute and co-author of this study, told SciDev.Net.
De Castro and colleagues dried the peels in the sun for a week, ground them and added them to river water containing known concentrations of copper and lead. They found that the peels absorbed 97 per cent of the metals after just one hour.
The peels were tested in the lab and worked perfectly. Eventually their efficiency reduces, at which point the metals should be removed from the skins so that they can be disposed of safely.
Castro said that, although the peels were tested only on copper and lead, the material could also work on cadmium, nickel and zinc.
But he warned that this sort of filter is better suited to industrial purposes and cannot be used for water purification at home as the extraction capacity of banana skins depends on the particle size of the heavy metals — and this is difficult to measure.
Dimitris Kalderis, a wastewater treatment expert at the Department of Environmental Engineering in the Technical University of Crete, Greece, said: "The results are very promising, and the banana peel process has proven to be a cost-effective and quick alternative to conventional methods".Banana peels can be used to purify drinking water contaminated with toxic heavy metals... more
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The first World Social Forum started in Porto Alegre, Brazil in the year 2001. It was meant to serve as a counter to the 'elite' World Economic Forum, which always takes place in Davos, the Swiss elegant ski resort, where attendance commands a hefty price. The WSF is described as a leftist gathering of nations opposed to globalization and the effects it has had on the world's developing and poor countries.
As the conference opened yesterday in the Senegalese capital of Dakar, reports estimated that 10,000 to 60,000 people from every continent were marching to support opposition to the regime of 83 year-old President Abdoulaye Wade, and a candidate for a third term in 2012. There was overall support in the March for the end of autocratic regimes.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: World Social Forum opens in Dakar to thousands of marchers - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/world-social-forum-opens-dakar-to-thousands-of-marchers#ixzz1DKX9G6liThe first World Social Forum started in Porto Alegre, Brazil in the year 2001. It was... more
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There are more people living in India that openly defecate than the entire continent of Africa. Sanitation and hygiene education and access are imperative to providing healthy living conditions in much of India and providing for a cleaner, healthier world. Some progress is being made in some villages, but this crisis is still effecting much of the population. And India is not alone in this.
Sanitation, hygiene, water access, water equity, education... all key elements in lifting developing countries out of poverty and disease and bringing hope to women and girls to provide them with a future. In the 21st century, it is shameful this is still a crisis. With all of our resources millions of people still have no access to dignity or to a clean water source.
This has been a true failure of humanity.
We should be taking better care of our planet, and each other.There are more people living in India that openly defecate than the entire continent... more
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A climate pioneer declares the planet -- with its rising humidity and hot oceans -- dead.
According to Bill McKibben, the respected environmentalist and author of the pioneering "End of Nature," the planet Earth, as we know it, is already dead. Over a million square miles of the Arctic ice cap have melted, the oceans have risen and warmed, and the tropics have expanded 2 degrees north and south. Global warming has caused such pervasive and irreversible changes, he argues, that we now live on a new planet with a new set of environmental and climatic realities — and, as such, it deserves a new name: Goodbye, Earth. Hello, "Eaarth."
(click on the link for the full obituary)A climate pioneer declares the planet -- with its rising humidity and hot oceans --... more
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China and the U.S. spent much of last week goading each other on impassible positions.
The Chinese, on behalf of developing country colleagues in the G77, want developed countries to live up to their “historic responsibility” for climate change and provide enough funding for adaptation and mitigation to help developing countries face the challenges posed by climate change.
The U.S., while offering money to developing countries, denied that China was still a developing country.
Here's why Beijing may come away from Copenhagen looking like the conciliatory party.
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20091215/china-still-developing-countryChina and the U.S. spent much of last week goading each other on impassible positions.... more
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Today in Rome started the FAO summit, the UN organization which has its international headquarters in Italy and that deals with food and agriculture in the world. Absent almost all the leaders of rich countries, the nations that should provide financial resources to FAO to combat world hunger. Absent from embarrassment, apart from our premier who must be present as the leader of the host country, and also because notoriously immune to shame.
http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/faofame161109.htmlToday in Rome started the FAO summit, the UN organization which has its international... more
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One reason why preserving biodiversity and not depending on monocrops is crucial to feeding the future world. Farmers in developing nations will now have to plan on diversifying crops and moving to crops that can be grown under these changing conditions.This is also another reason why bio-piracy of traits in crops that are drought resistant naturally which have been cultivated naturally by farmers for centuries must not be allowed to be patented by large agro-biotech companies for profit. They will doom farmers of developing nations to lives of servitude to their monoculture seeds which will only excaerbate this crisis.One reason why preserving biodiversity and not depending on monocrops is crucial to... more
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Our forests and our agriculture will save us.
Excerpt:
South Asian countries must be rewarded for afforestation, reforestation and carbon stock growth, say N. H. Ravindranath and Shamama Afreen.
In December 2007, at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bali, Indonesia, governments from developed and developing countries alike adopted a 'roadmap' for stepping up efforts to combat climate change.
The roadmap included,among other measures,a commitment to establish policy approaches and incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). These are due to be agreed at the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Copenhagen later this year.
Strategies for REDD have been much debated and some developing countries clearly stand to benefit from the proposals. But others, particularly those with low forest cover and low deforestation rates, have little to gain unless negotiators also consider the role of conservation and sustainable forest management.
REDD winners
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the forestry sector contributes about 17 per cent of global greenhouse emissions, making it the second largest source next to energy supply. Estimates put emissions from deforestation in the 1990s at 5.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Deforestation is certainly the largest source of emissions for many developing countries. Research estimates that 12.9 million hectares of tropical forest were lost each year from 2000–2005, mainly through conversion to agricultural land, but also due to expanding settlements and infrastructure.
Brazil, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia occupied the top five positions from 1990–2005, annually deforesting anything from nearly half a million hectares in Zambia to nearly three million hectares in Brazil. And unless action is taken, deforestation is likely to remain high in the tropics over the coming years and decades.
So reducing tropical deforestation is seen as a high-priority way of mitigating potential climate change. And in its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC concluded that it would not cost much to do.
The UNFCCC's vision for REDD is to give developing countries financial incentives to reduce national deforestation rates and associated carbon emissions below a baseline (based either on a historical reference case or future projection). By doing so, REDD should contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.Our forests and our agriculture will save us.
Excerpt:
South Asian countries... more
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Despite the governments of developing nations adopting the Manado Ocean Declaration (MOD) recognizing the impact climate change has on oceans, Indonesia - the host and initiator of the world's first ocean conference - is now facing an uphill battle getting the MOD onto the negotiation table for the Copenhagen climate conference later this year. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the Climate Change National Council (DNPI) to coordinate efforts to register the MOD with the UN system. DNPI executive chairman Rachmat Witoelar, also Indonesia's state minister for the environment, spoke with The Jakarta Post's Adianto P. Simamora on the sidelines of the ocean talks in Manado, North Sulawesi, from May 11-15, 2009.
Question: What's the next step after nations agree to adopt the Manado Ocean Declaration?
Answer: The Indonesian government, through the Climate Change National Council (DNPI), will officially report the outcome of the Manado Ocean conference to the formal bodies at the United Nations. In this case, we will take our findings directly to the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), which deals with issues of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The UNFCCC will host the Copenhagen climate conference in December but before that we still have about four or five UN inter-sessions on climate change. At these, we will try to submit the Manado Ocean Declaration. Hopefully we will get it on the table for the Copenhagen meeting.
Aside from these formal proceedings, we will also make use of informal meetings to push for the inclusion of ocean issues at the UNFCCC. These could prove even more effective for our cause. I will attend the second meeting of the Major Economies Forum in Paris. I will submit the Manado outcome, which highlights the importance of oceans in mitigating climate change, to the forum. It will be attended by leaders of industrialized nations, including the United States.
In that respect, the world will recognize that oceans are an integral part of saving the world from the impacts of climate change and as an Indonesian, I am proud of our nation's initiative to make ocean issues a key focus. This is not only for the benefit of Indonesia, but for the entire world. It is not only the wish of my President *Yudhoyono*, but for all the nations that attended the Manado conference. Furthermore, if we fail to launch this initiative, we will not have access to funding available in the UN for the environment.
end of excerpt.Despite the governments of developing nations adopting the Manado Ocean Declaration... more
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Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute water-environment-poverty challenges facing humankind over the next 50 years. "With earth's water, land and human resources it is possible to produce enough food for the future - but it is probable that today's food production and environmental trends will lead to crises in many parts of the world" says David Molden Deputy Director General of the International Water Management Institute.
This is the opening prognosis given in the Earthscan publication Water for Food, Water for Life: A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The Assessment, the first of its kind, brings together the work of over 700 specialists from hundreds of institutes around the world into the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of water and food ever written, critically examining policies and practices of water use and development in the agricultural sector over the last 50 years.
Spearheaded by International Water Management Institute (IWMI), one of 15 CGIAR agricultural research centres striving to increase food production, increase rural incomes, and safeguard the environment, the report is co-sponsored by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), FAO, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the Convention on Biological Diversity in a bid to find solutions to the challenge of balancing the water-food-environment needs.
The assessment finds that 1/3 of the world's population live in areas where water scarcity must be reckoned with. While much of this water scarcity cannot be avoided, water problems can be averted through better water management.
Growing cities take more water, and environmental concerns are rising. A water-food-environment dilemma. Water use in agriculture is recognized as one of the major drivers of ecosystem degradation, causing habitat loss, drying up of rivers, and reduction in groundwater levels. Flows in the Colorado River in USA, the Yellow River in China, the Indus in India and Pakistan - all important food producing areas - dry up because of the water needed for irrigated agriculture. Clearly limiting agricultural water use is key for environmental sustainability. Therein lies the dilemma. More people require more water for more food; more water is essential in the fight against poverty; yet we should limit the amount of water taken from ecosystems.
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Since climate change is expected to hit these areas hard, better water systems will be a key to helping people cope with dry spells. Poverty, hunger, gender inequality, and environmental degradation continue to afflict developing countries not because of technical failings but because of political and institutional failings. There is need for drastic reform in the water sector. Governments must lead the reform process, but ironically state institutions themselves are in greatest need of reform. While water scarcity is here to stay, many of the problems associated with water scarcity can be avoided.
This will require that we deal with difficult choices and tradeoffs. Reconciling competing demands on water requires informed negotiations by the many stakeholders involved in water with transparent sharing of information. "The hope is in realizing the unexplored potential that lies in better water management along with non-miraculous changes in policy and production techniques" says Margaret Catley Carleson, Chair of the Global Water Partnership, "but world leaders must take action now." As Sunita Narain, 2005 Stockholm Water Prize Winner says, "this issue must become the world's obsession."Only if we act to improve water use in agriculture now will we meet the acute... more
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Yes says this first study on the monetary damage of environmental policies on poor nations. What do you think?Yes says this first study on the monetary damage of environmental policies on poor... more
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DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) - Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates announced a new direction Friday as he pledged $306 million in grants to develop farming in poor countries, leading the charge for corporate responsibility at a major meeting of business chiefs.
DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) - Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates announced a new direction... more
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Chique
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Intel repeatedly attempted to derail the One Laptop for Every Child Project, according to Professor Nicholas Negroponte, head of the charity in charge, by offering to sell Intel brand laptops (Intel logo included) to developing countries after they had already signed contracts through the non-profit charity. Negroponte told BBC News at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, that "[Intel] would go in even after we had signed contracts and try to persuade government officials to scrap their contract and sign a contract with them instead. That's not a partnership."
When asked about the "partnership", Intel's CEO Paul Otellini said, "I don't want to get into specifics but we met every obligation we were committed to."
Intel made the decision to drop out of the partnership, which was intended to provide laptops to children in developing nations. The OLPC's $100 laptops run on open source software and AMD processors. Intel's version, the "Classmate PC", is more expensive and operates on Microsoft's closed-source Windows.Intel repeatedly attempted to derail the One Laptop for Every Child Project, according... more
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If you're feeling flush and really want to help someone out, take a look at this site. The concept is very simple. You loan somebody in need an agreed sum of money for something they need to improve their lives, with a focus on entrepreneurial start-ups. How sweet is that? If you're feeling flush and really want to help someone out, take a look at this... more
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Glad to see the developing nations putting pressure on the United States to lead or get out of the way. Our old "do as we say, not as we do" mentality has finally started to fall on deaf ears.Glad to see the developing nations putting pressure on the United States to lead or... more
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And guess why poor naitons won't do so? Yes, because the assbackwards Neocons running this country don't want to compromise their relationship with oil companies. This is why cities, states, businesses, and individuals in this country must show them that we will not be shamed in the eyes of the world once again. That we will stand up for what is morally right. If we take the lead other nations will follow. And don't think China won't then use our not doing so to the advantage of themselves. They will pledge cuts and once again leave the U.S. in the cold. And guess why poor naitons won't do so? Yes, because the assbackwards Neocons... more
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Women Deliver is a landmark global conference that will focus on creating political will to save the lives and improve the health of women, mothers and newborn babies around the world. It will be held October 18-20, 2007, at the ExCel Centre in London by UNICEF and UNFPA.Women Deliver is a landmark global conference that will focus on creating political... more
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Dflo
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