It’s great to see one of our project sponsors, recycling group Straight plc, continuing to lead the way – this time by agreeing a collaborative partnership with one of the UK’s best known brands of garden products, Stewart. Continue reading
Latest Entries
Straight Goes from Strength to Strength
Solar power, deforestation and climate change
Access to sustainable sources of energy is a major challenge for poverty alleviation and forest conservation across the tropics. In Africa more than 650 million people live without access to electricity. Lack of electricity and a continued reliance on wood and charcoal for energy not only causes health problems and deprives people of opportunities for education but is an ongoing cause of deforestation. In many parts of Africa the collection of fuel wood for cooking and heating is the leading cause of forest loss and degradation. Providing sustainable energy to remote rural communities is the focus of a UBoC project in Tanzania run by the Tongwe Trust and Fauna and Flora International. With support from Premier Farnell the project has provided solar fridges for the storage of vaccines in local village dispensaries. The next exciting stage of this project will start in the New Year (more information available shortly). Meanwhile researchers at the University of Leeds have studied how projected changes to climate over the coming century will impact the amount of electricity generated by solar power.
SAMBBA
Each year large areas of Amazon forest are cleared to make way for cattle pasture in a process called slash and burn. Trees are cut and left to dry before being burnt. As well as releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide these fires emit substantial amounts of smoke into the atmosphere which can cause air quality problems and additional impacts on climate. Black carbon within the smoke particles causes the particles to absorb radiation and warm climate. The smoke particles can also influence the properties of clouds (causing warming or a cooling) and can result in changes to rainfall patterns potentially delaying the start of the wet season. The overall climate impact of the smoke particles is not well known. Continue reading
Up in Smoke
Up in Smoke, a documentary about slash and burn agriculture and the attempts on the Inga Foundation to find a solution airs tonight (Tuesday 27th September, 10pm) on More 4. The program, which took 4 years to film, describes the attempts on Mike Hands and the Inga Foundation to stop slash and burn agriculture in Honduras.
The Inga Foundation is one of our project partners, see here for more information on their project. Dominick Spracklen
Tribute to a Visionary
It was with great sadness that I learnt that Wangari Maathai had died on Sunday, aged 71. Founder of the Kenyan Green Belt movement that mobilised impoverished Kenyan women to plant 45 million trees, she was one of the first to understand that environmental protection has a vital role to play in economic and social progress. Continue reading
