fighting for air and water

Apparently the Ugandan government is allowing the destruction of parts of the country's natural rainforest to address energy and agricultural needs. According to Ugandan lawyer Moses Sserwanga, they have allocated a swath of the forest for new electricity transmission lines, and the National Forest Authority - charged with protecting the country's forests - is complicit in the deal. There have also been over 7,000 hectares of the forest given to Mehta Group for sugarcane production. The trend sounds worrying; this is not an isolated habitat, it's a 30,000 ha green lung. UGPulse reported in March last year:

...further depletion of Mabira forest will reduce the water flow of the surrounding streams and rivers and change rain patterns region wide, which in turn will negatively affect agriculture, cattle keeping, electricity supply and thus all economic activities in Uganda. The Ugandan government has given low water levels in Lake Victoria as the reason behind the country's current electricity crisis, and one would expect the nation's leaders to know better than to destroy the major source of water into Lake Victoria.

Environmentalists say that with the water levels in Lake Victoria already low, destroying part of Mabira forest is likely to lower electricity production, and proposed hydroelectric projects such as Bujagali, the River Sezibwa power plant, will be meaningless. In addition to potential disturbances to the microclimate, destruction of Mabira could also violate major global conservation agreements to which Uganda is a signatory, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). This requires the country to establish and maintain protected conservation areas.

According to African Insights:

President Museveni came out during November of 2007, that Mabira would remain as it was. That was when the Commonwealth Heads of State came to Kampala and the world's attention were on  Uganda. Since then however, the tune has changed and it is back to the give-a-way talk to SCOUL.

Good governance is a prerequisite for environmental protection. Without accountability, the highest bidder wins. But this challenge also raises the thorny issue of national interest versus global efforts to reduce atmospheric carbon. Like the fight over Lake Victoria's water, this is another illustration of how difficult it is to manage a shared resource, even with international agreements in place.

powering our way to extinction

Most references to biodiversity are in relation to how we are reducing plant diversity by taking over habitats either by expanding the built environment or by extending agricultural areas. What is rarely considered is the role of humans as animals (technically 'megafauna') within the ecosystem. An article published in the August 12 edition of PNAS presents a fascinating argument about the risks of population collapse (ours and other megafauna) in the context of energy and climate change.

The creation of biomass, whether as plants or animals, depends on energy flow through ecosystems, and the source of that energy is the sun. Until the industrial revolution, humans relied on solar energy directly, just as other species do - then we extended our ability to grow as a population by drawing from stored energy sources: wood, coal, oil and natural gas. So our current population growth trajectory depends on finite energy reserves. People have written before about the limits to growth - notably the Club of Rome - and their estimates of the limits of earth's carrying capacity have been shown to be inaccurate. But this new analysis approaches the issue from a different angle: the trade-off of biomass among megafauna.

feeling despondent? there is hope

Well, after a week's absence - I have been moving house and travelling on business - here's a feel-good Friday post. Wired presents five people who just might make you feel better about the future of humanity on this wonky planet of ours. News from the World Science Festival held last week.

will that be for here, or to go?

This mobile solar cooker is on display at the MTN Sciencentre in Cape Town. According to the display panel,

The Sustainable Energy Society of South Africa, in collaboration with the Soweto Information Centre in Johannesburg, has initiated a project to promote the use of solar cookers in urban and rural environments of South Africa.

Mathias Weber decided to make a solar cooker more mobile by mounting it onto a tricycle, which is used by the Greenhouse Project for Recycling Programme. His 'Solar Tricycle Pilot Project' has been active in Newtown, Johannesburg, since May 2005 and has created a huge awareness of alternative cooking methods.

The tricycle-mounted solar cooker can cook porridge, pop popcorn and heat up a variety of dishes, using only the energy of the sun.

Currently, street food vendors in South Africa use hazardous, unhealthy and costly methods of cooking, such as paraffin stoves, Primus stoves and Imbaulas (perforated paraffin tins with a fire inside). These cooking methods release harmful gases and ashes into the atmosphere and contribute to the development of respiratory diseases.

Solar cookers are clean, non-polluting, efficient and cost-effective and offer a very viable alternative for street food vendors.

For photos of the cooker out in the community, and a description of Mathias' work, have a look at the Solar Energy Project. The site also describes other solar food projects in a number of countries.

Copenhagen Consensus - four years on

Four years ago, academic Bjørn Lomborg put together a panel of economists under the banner of the Copenhagen Consensus Center to come up with a prioritised list of projects to address a selection of the world's great contemporary challenges. Lomborg's assumption was that money allocated to address climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, governance and corruption, malnutrition and hunger, migration, sanitation and water, and subsidies and trade barriers could be most effectively spent if priorities were based on rational economic assessment. The resulting list put climate change strategies down at the bottom of the pile.

Lomborg's panel is meeting again this month for a fourth anniversary update, so it's worth considering why climate change fared so badly last time, and what might be different now. SourceWatch has noted that the Copenhagen Consensus "has been strongly criticised by NGOs such as Oxfam for drawing attention away from the existing consensus built up over several years and codified in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals." Given the political will needed to put significant resources towards any of these development challenges, this is a serious charge.

the planet will survive - but can we?

Today is Earth Day. Joseph Romm explains why he thinks our attention is misdirected.

green blogs highlighted on Talk Radio 702

I am happy to announce that Carbon Copy did not win "best green blog" in the SA Blog Awards last week (because, after all, Urban Sprout deserves the title), but thanks to everyone who voted. The main purpose of the awards is to raise the profile of blogging in South Africa, and I am sure that has been achieved. Climatologist Simon Gear mentioned the green blog finalists in today's edition of Redi's Green Tip of the Day on Talk Radio 702. (I think the podcast is only available for a day.)

UK eco-towns raising hackles

With the UK government planning a series of eco-towns to act as models for zero-carbon urban development, there are a few objections. The Campaign to Protect Rural England says that the towns shouldn't be on greenfield sites. They could rather be "eco-extenstions", or other forms of development that are potentially less damaging to the environment by avoiding sprawl and improving existing urban areas. The CPRE suggests a number of tests by which the eco-towns should be judged before their plans are finalised.

Urban planner Nicholas Falk adds that some of the eco-towns are on sites that were previously rejected as locations for new towns on other grounds, suggesting that criteria for sustainability aren't being applied properly. The objections don't seem to be over the concept of eco-towns, but over appropriate locations for development.

But a DCLG spokeswoman said the policy would encourage “well planned sustainable growth” on brownfield and greenfield land.

“The statutory planning process will ensure that areas will be protected from inappropriate development,” she added. “These settlements will be designed to the highest standards, make the most efficient use of land, and be designed sustainably and to zero-carbon objectives.”

think globally, bake locally

It's got skylights, natural ventilation, a grey water system, a car that runs on biodiesel... and it's a gingerbread house. That's right, the folks at bakeforachange held a competition to see who could come up with the most sustainable gingerbread house design. It's too late to enter, but you can view the results on Flickr. [via SCQ]

ectopias of the world

We all like lists, right? Here is a compilation of places vying for the title of "greenest community" - some built, some still on the drawing board. I guess a bit of rivalry is good for innovation. Courtesy of Wired:

• Costa Rica: plans to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021.
• Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: will promote bicycle use and carsharing, and build structures out of trees that were submerged by reservoirs.
• Dongtan, Chongming Island, China: to be powered from renewable sources, fuel-cell-powered transport and organic farming.
• Green Mountain, Libya: luxury hotels to be powered by wind turbines and solar farms.
• Guangtang Chuangye Park, Liuzhou, China: biogas from human waste to generate electricity, and filtered rainwater for bathing.
• Masdar, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: wind turbines, photovoltaics, grey water recycling, transport by light rail and walking only.
• Northstowe, Cambridge, England: brownfield development on an old airfield, with water recycling, photovoltaics, wind power and buildings insulated with recycled paper.
• Norway: plans to cut emissions by 30% by 2020, and become carbon neutral by 2050.
• Treasure Island, San Francisco, USA: brownfield development on a former naval base, to grow food and use congestion charging to discourage car use.
• Vauban, Freiburg, Germany: passive houses designed to minimise energy consumption, carshare service, and 40% of residents pledge to live car-free.
• Växjö, Sweden: already one of the world's greenest cities, with half its power from renewable sources, and one of the lowest per-capita carbon output rates in Europe, aiming to be fossil-fuel free by 2050.

There are a few others missing from the Wired list. Iceland and New Zealand have also pledged to achieve carbon neutrality as countries. They have joined the UN's Carbon Neutral Network, announced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at its special session in Monaco last week. Costa Rica and Norway are also part of CN Net, as well as Sweden's Växjö and three other cities: Vancouver in Canada, Arendal in Norway, and Rizhao in the northern China province of Shandong. There are five corporate members, one being South Africa's Nedbank.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP executive director, says of CN Net:

This new initiative supports the formal negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here governments need to navigate the Bali Road Map to a successful conclusion in Copenhagen in 2009.

The CN Net can assist in building confidence through demonstrable action at the national and local level on the art of the possible.