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What if all you could feed your kids was flour?
In the lakeside capital of the central African country of Burundi, 40-year-old Lucie Nahimana on Thursday fed her family of six "black flour," a low-quality cassava root that many here have resorted to eating because they can't afford anything else.
Thousands of miles away, in the port city of Tianjin, China, physician Ning Aimin scanned the shelves of her supermarket for yogurt, a food that was practically unheard-of here a decade ago but has become a favorite of many of China's newly affluent.
On a chilly highway outside Gualeguaychu, Argentina, 10 trucks carrying enough rice to feed 3 million people in one day sat stranded on the side of the road, casualties of a 100-day-long farm strike that's paralyzed that country's giant grain industry.
These three episodes, all on Thursday, are interconnecting pieces of what's emerged as one of the biggest challenges facing the planet: how to feed humanity in this age of skyrocketing food and energy prices...
(click on the link to read the rest of the story)
In the lakeside capital of the central African country of Burundi, 40-year-old Lucie Nahimana on Thursday fed her family of six "black... more -
10M children worldwide die from lack of health care
More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia, a U.S.-based charity said this week.
Nearly all of the deaths occur in the developing world, with poor children facing twice the risk of dying compared to richer children, according to Save the Children's global report.
Sweden, Norway and Iceland top the ranking in terms of well-being for mothers and children in 146 countries surveyed, while Nigeria ranks last.
Eight out of 10 bottom-ranked countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, where four out of five mothers are likely to lose a child in their lifetime, Save the Children said.
The top three among the 55 developing countries ranked in the survey are the Philippines, Peru and South Africa — all surveyed for the first time. Indonesia and Turkmenistan tied for fourth. More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from t... more -
A Thirsty Planet Looks For Solutions To Water Shortage
Another important issue that should be on the news and in every newspaper, but isn't.
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Global economic growth, population pressures and the rise of mega-cities have all driven water use to record levels.
Mexico City, Jakarta and Bangkok, to name a few, have underground water sources -- some of them nonrenewable -- depleting at alarming rates.
In Beijing, home to 16 million, aquifers have fallen by more than a dozen metres (40 feet) in 30 years, forcing the government to earmark tens of billions of dollars for a scheme to ferry water from the Yangzte River in the south to the country's parched north.
Aggravating the shortages are pathogen and chemical pollution, which have transformed many primary sources of water in the developing world into toxic repositories of disease.
Desperation forces people to consume these contaminated waters.
"In the coming decades, water scarcity may be a watchword that prompts action ranging from wholesale population migration to war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found," comment a team of researchers in a review of water purification technology published Thursday in the British journal Nature.
But even as scientists and governments look for ways to satisfy a thirsty world, another threat looms on the horizon: global warming.
Rising sea levels are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia, according to UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Experts and policy makers point to three broad categories of initiatives to ease the shortage of clean, drinkable water, especially in the world's poorest regions: sanitation, purification, and water management.
end of excerpt.
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Another important issue that should be on the news and in every newspaper, but isn't. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... more -
Critical Decision Time for Humans: Earth's Kyros Moment, learn focus through jubil...
The founders of the Turtle Island Project believe residents of Earth are facing a Kyros moment because of the abuse of the environment.
Kairos is Greek for seizing the moment.
The Turtle Island Project promotes respect for the planet, nature, wildlife and fellow humans.
Turtle Island Project founders say we can learn a lot from Earth-based cultures like the Celts and Native Americans.
Dr. Cairns said a former of chanting called jubilation (that he demonstrates in this video) helps him focus on the problems he wants to tackle - plus demonstrates the interconnection between humans and the Earth.
TIP volunteer media advisor Greg Peterson reports
TIP website:
http://www.turtleislandproject.org
Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv/
Turtle Island TV (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse
Turtle Island (myspace)
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject
Turtle Island Project websites/Blogs:
http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/
email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net
White Buffalo Calf Woman Society:
http://www.wbcws.org
Solastalgia is a term by Glenn Albrecht to describe profound sadness over the effects of the long-term drought in Australia
Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher, University of Newcastle:
http://healthearth.blogspot.com/
http://healthearth.blogspot.com/2007/03/solastalgia-new...
http://home.iprimus.com.au/tammie1/Publications%20-%20J...
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/news/2006/09/newsyndrome.ht...
Solastalgia:
http://vector1media.com/spatialsustain/?p=255
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2005/12/s...
http://watershed.typepad.com/watershed/drought/index.ht...
http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/07/word-of-the-day-so...
http://fermiparadox.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/solastalgi...
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Huston Smith: Scholar, writer and a Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus Syracuse University
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/video/Kenan/Smith/index.html
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Species Extinction/Endangered Species
http://www.ecosyn.us/ecocity/Challenges/index.html:
http://eelink.net/EndSpp
http://www.animalinfo.org/rarest.htm
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/
http://www.teamhumanity.com/News-Environment08012004.ht...
http://www.planetguide.net/book/chapter_5/extinction.ht...
http://www.sciencenewsden.com/2007/riskofextinctionacce...
http://www.grconnect.com/murals/html/n2252462.html
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement - Plus Graphic by Nina Paley:
http://www.vhemt.org/aboutvhemt.htm
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030721/carbon.html
http://www.zeroextinction.org/charts.htm
http://www.nhbs.com/averting_extinction_tefno_63272.htm...
Robert Camacho:
http://www.robertcamacho.com/paintingpic4.htm
http://www.archbold-station.org/fai/species4.html
Eco Kids
http://www.ecokidsonline.com
Kyros (Greek) unique moment in time, gives people a platform to serve God.
Kairos (Kyros), a fullness of time, an appointed time purposed by our creator.
Kyros (KIR os): The Greek word for power that is legitimate, but limited and compassionate
Kairos’ is Greek for ‘occasion’ or ‘timing.’ Kairos is the art of seizing the moment.
Kairos, or kairotic time, refers to God's eternal time.
Kairos is the ancient Greek term that can roughly be interpreted as a rhetorical combination of understood context and proper timing.
Kairos: ancient Greek word meaning right or opportune moment
http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/layers/start.html
http://www.kairospower.org/whowe.asp
http://www.kyros.org/NEWKyros_AboutUs_TheMeaningOfKyros...
http://www.kairostherapy.com/why_kairos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos
http://www.kyros.org/NEWKyros_AboutUs_TheMeaningOfKyros...
Jubilation:
http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/2.3/ihaveaquest...
http://blip.tv/file/480070 The founders of the Turtle Island Project believe residents of Earth are facing a Kyros moment because of the abuse of the environment... more -
The End of Poverty - The "Homework" of Our Generation
My name is Shawn and I used to be a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame. I was inspired to put graduate school on hold and leave the comforts of home behind and come to Bangladesh after meeting Dr. Jeffrey Sachs. Dr. Sachs is author of the book called "The End of Poverty". His message is simple: we can end poverty in our lifetime and it doesn't take drastic changes for that to happen. I've been here since the last week of June '07 trying to do my part to help the poorest of the poor. This the first of many videos documenting my experiences here.
I also run a blog at http://uncultured.com
I look forward to being able to share this with the Current.com community! My name is Shawn and I used to be a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame. I was inspired to put graduate school on hold an... more -
China coal demand unfazed despite winter storms
by Siobhan Devine
Washington, March 5, 2007
When snowstorms blanketed large swaths of China this winter they aggravated transportation bottlenecks and already-depleted coal reserves, provoking local power cuts and highlighting the vulnerability of China's reliance on coal. But despite such challenges and coal's damaging environmental side-effects, demand is unlikely to wane soon.
"The government is very aware of relying too heavily on coal, because it contributes to the energy security issue and the environmental issue," said Yingling Liu, China program manager at the Worldwatch Institute. Nevertheless, she predicts coal demand will increase in the near and medium term.
"Urban demand has driven the expansion of the heavy industry sector, and this trend will continue in the next two decades. This means that demand for energy, and coal specifically, will increase," she said.
Chinese demand for coal has registered 12 percent annual growth since 2001, and coal makes up almost 70 percent of China's energy consumption, according to a joint report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. According to a separate CSIS report released in October, demand is expected to triple by 2025, particularly due to growth in the nation's electricity sector. And coal demand in China's non-electricity, primarily industrial, sectors is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the Energy Information Agency.
Coal's widespread popularity in China derives from its abundance there. China is the world's top coal producer, providing 40 percent of global supply in 2006, according to BP. Such production is sustained by the world's third-largest share of proved reserves (13 percent of the total), and a healthy reserves-to-production ratio of 48 years.
As such, coal in China is relatively "cheap and stable, so it meets the demand for a reliable and affordable energy supply," said Liu.
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Based on this, how can we expect China to sign any global treaty when their rapacious and continuing use of coal would only negate any promises they make? by Siobhan Devine Washington, March 5, 2007 ... more -
FACEing the Global Health Challenge
HIV/AIDS has dropped the life expectancy in Kenya from 64 to 48 years. In parts of western Kenya, 40% of the adults are infected with HIV, and most of them are young working adults with children and families. When they die, their children will become one of the 15 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the added risk of becoming child prostitutes and child soldiers. HIV/AIDS is devastating Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa.
We now have life-saving, relatively affordable HIV medications in Kenya. But now the challenge to how to get the medications to the people. Only 20% of the Kenyans who really need HIV medications (based on their health status) are getting these medications. There are only 14 doctors per 100,000 people in Kenya- compare this to having 256 doctors per 100,000 people in the US; that's almost 20 times fewer doctors for 20 times more HIV cases.
What do we do about this pandemic? The UN wants us to provide HIV care to all people living with HIV/AIDS by 2010. Can we do this? FACES, the clinical program featured in this documentary is trying to do exactly that. They are a vibrant, dedicated group of Kenyans working hard to provide HIV care to people in even the most remote island communities of Kenya. And they are doing it with compassion and with the best possible treatments we can make available to places without electricity or running water. They are going to places where there are no doctors. HIV/AIDS has dropped the life expectancy in Kenya from 64 to 48 years. In parts of western Kenya, 40% of the adults are infected with... more
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Global Health
