FYI: We just had a server error that deleted a chunk of our files. We’re working on fixing it right now.
Update:
Some of the photos in the gallery section were lost, we we’re switching over to Flickr for the time being.
FYI: We just had a server error that deleted a chunk of our files. We’re working on fixing it right now.
Update:
Some of the photos in the gallery section were lost, we we’re switching over to Flickr for the time being.
For folks with Times Select, Nicholas Kristof wrote a nice op-ed piece on social enterpreneurship: Do-Gooders With Spreadsheets
Excerpt (I’m hoping this falls reasonably under fair use):
When I travel around the world, I’m blown away by how these people are transforming lives. A growing number of the best and brightest university graduates in the U.S. and abroad are moving into this area (many clutching the book “How to Change the World,†a bible in the field).
It’s one of the most hopeful and helpful trends around. These folks aren’t famous, and they didn’t fly to Davos in first-class cabins or private jets, but they are showing that what it really takes to change the world isn’t so much wealth or power as creativity, determination and passion.
Sho’ nuff.
Thanks Rob K.
After completing the micro-hydroelectric project at the finca, XelaTeco went through a good deal of strategic planning regarding their future and the choices they want to make as a company. Here is a synopsis of the 4 days of meetings that occurred in early January 2007.
XelaTeco’s mission is to provide clean and green technologies to rural communities, individuals, and institutions that not only serve their basic needs but also help reduce the human impact on the environment. They strive to create products that are affordable, easily repairable and environmentally sound. They wish to have a significant impact of sustainable development within their community.
XelaTeco will continue to offer a range of products and services, from complex systems such as micro-hydroelectric installations to simpler products such as hydraulic ram pumps. A major goal for 2007 is to continue improving XelaTeco products to make them cheaper and better for the rural poor. Improvements of appearance, performance and documentation are slated for this year.
Biodigesters
Water pumps
Water filters
Solar water heaters
Because of the history of Guatemala, some communities are initially cautious when they learn that XelaTeco is a private business rather than a non-profit. They feel that XT must have some ulterior motive for wanting to help them. This underscores the importance of community outreach as part of XelaTeco’s business model. Building trust within communities is essential to the overall success of the business.
XelaTeco is currently exploring the possibility of offering classes in how to make some of their technologies. They are also looking into the distribution of other companies’ products (such as cheap photovoltaic panels ).
From the Toledo Blade
BOWLING GREEN — The public is invited to take part in the first public forum held by a group formed to investigate the potential use of biodigesters to turn manure from large dairy farms into energy.
The Wood County Ag-Energy Task Force will hold the forum from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday on the fifth floor of the County Office Building in the courthouse complex.
The Wood County commissioners and Sen. Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green) created the task force in an attempt to address some of the environmental concerns associated with the large-scale dairies that have been built or are planned in the county.
Officials are interested in alternatives to large manure storage ponds and technology that uses animal and food waste to generate electricity. [Emphasis added]
Reservations are not required for those wishing to attend the forum.
Oral or written comments are welcome.
Here are the most searched for items on the blog. I figured I would just put all the info in one place.
Post(s) in this blog
Biodigesters Against Global Warming
Selling to the Bottom of the pyramid (Part 1)
The Reasoning Behind AIDG
Links on aidg.net
Links| Technology Files
Pictures: AIDG Gallery | Flickr
Delicious Tag: Biodigester
Post(s) in this blog
Circuit Training
Is all appropriate technology low tech?
*******The Detailed How to *******
Pictures: AIDG Photo Gallery
Delicious Tag: Electronics
Post(s) in this blog
Hurricane Stan: Pepsi Can Stove
Pictures: AIDG Gallery
Delicious Tag: Stove
Post(s) in this blog
Check out the Haiti Category of the blog.
Mini vid: The making of a charcoal press (YouTube)
Pictures: AIDG Gallery | Flickr
D-lab manual for making briquettes
Must find manual for making the presses. It might not yet exist.
Post(s) in this blog
Appropriate technology innovators bring renewable energy
What can you do with 400 watts?
Microhydro in the blogosphere 01/06/07
Circuit Training
The UNDP Small Grants Program
Is all appropriate technology low tech?
Links on aidg.net
Links| Technology Files (Coming Soon!!!) | Books
Pictures: AIDG Gallery | Flickr
Delicious Tag: Hydroelectric
After my previous semi-tirade (it was more a schmoo than a full rant) about poverty and the environment, I was curious about environmental stories from around the developing world. Here is a random sampling of stories that appeared this past week.
Environmental degradation has remained a major issue at the World Social Forum conference at Nairobi’s Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.
Consumers are turning to solar technologies and other energy-saving technologies in their numbers in a bid to save costs with ever rising electricity bills.
[Note: solar power is not synonymous with photovoltaic. ;)]
TORORO town will soon be garbage-free. The town authorities say they have devised a community-based strategy to solve the problem.
Fishermen in the southern coastal town of Kribi are warily casting their nets after a leak in the massive Chad-Cameroon pipeline last week.
“Our town lives on fishing and tourism. If more incidents like this or worse occur it is the economic future of the town that is threatened,” Kribi Mayor Gregoire Mba Mba told IRIN.
A Pune-based scientist has found an efficient way of producing and using biogas as cooking fuel.
A forthcoming U.N. report on climate change will provide the most credible evidence yet of a human link to global warming and hopefully shock the world into taking more action, the panel’s chairman said on Thursday.
China underlines people-centered policy, new development approach
[Chinese State Councilor Hua Jianmin] said … the Chinese government will put efficiency before speed and seek “to build a resources-efficient and environment-friendly society.”
By 2010, China will cut energy consumption of per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by about 20 percent, reduce emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent and increase the recycle rate of industrial solid waste to 60 percent, he said.
As the rural population accounts for over half of China’s total population, he pledged the Chinese government “will continue to strive for coordinated development between rural and urban areas, and follow the principle of industry nurturing agriculture and cities supporting the countryside.”
China’s top environment watchdog has fined the Jilin Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina, the maximum 1 million yuan (125,000 U.S. dollars), for seriously polluting the Songhua River.
Every month the IHT’s Globalization blog does a Global Challenge where they ask their readers to propose solutions regarding various issues affecting the world poor. This month, it’s transport.
This month’s new challenge is transport. We’ve got some good ideas about housing people, but what about getting them to their jobs? Currently, developing cities are crawling with pollution-belching shuttle buses. They’re better than individual cars, but it’s not as though individual cars are an option for most workers in the world. Can we come up with something better, without forcing people to live in labor-camp-like factory complexes? And can we do it without massive investments in new infrastructure?
Post your solutions using the comments link. Go on. Throw your hat into the ring.
AIDG and XelaTeco will be featured on NPR’s national and international news program, “Day to Day”, on Thursday February 1, 2007. The piece, recorded in November by tech journalist, Xeni Jardin, is one of a 5-part series on Guatemala. Audio for the program will be available at approx. 4:00 p.m. ET on the airdate.
Group Works to Identify Remains in Guatemala
Audio Slideshow | Podcast
eatured NGO:Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) (Their website appears to be down at the moment. Traffic spike?)
While writing up the top 10 posts list, I found all sorts of goodies.
Quadir Prize: Annual Global Contest to Strengthen Bangladesh
Hosted by the Center for International Development at Harvard University
Propose an innovative and practical idea that would improve the lives of low- and middle- income people of Bangladesh (everyone except the top-third of the population in terms of annual income). Proposals will be judged by four Harvard University faculty members, in consultation with scholars familiar with Bangladesh.
This global contest is open to any individual in the world. Any compelling essay that establishes a way to improve the lives of low- and middle-income people in Bangladesh is acceptable for submission. The essays will be rated giving equal weights to a) innovative nature of the idea; b) clarity and cogency of argument and writing; c) ease and practicality of implementation; and d) the size of impact.
The author of the winning essay will be awarded the Anwarul Quadir Prize, USD $25,000.
Deadline for submission is June 30, 2007.
via Pienso.
PBS program Now: The Heat Over Global Warming
Ahead of a major scientific report on global warming to be released next week, David Brancaccio talks with Laurie David, a producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and a major environmental activist.
Ms. David levels direct charges against those she feels stand in the way of her mission to alert the world about the dangers of climate change, and says America needs to lead the world in protecting the planet.
via Gristmill
Pete was addicted to Ayiti: Cost of life (he wanted to get all the family members advanced degrees). Will he be wooed away by this game.
via Celsias
Here are my favorite appropriate technology, environment, health, climate change, international development or country specific blog posts (and articles) for the past week in no particular order.
During the life of the Marshall Plan, the United States provided more than 1 percent of GNP, on average, from 1948 through 1952 to rebuild Western Europe, around ten times the current effort as a share of GNP. pg. 342, paperback edition.
So it can be done. I knew it.
Although noteworthy. Between its passage in 1947 and the program’s end in 1952, the Marshall Plan provided $13 billion for the European reconstruction. In today’s currency, that amounts to $88 billion. Or actually $88 billion in 1997 dollars [ref]
Perhaps the reason the World Economic Forum seemed a little flat this year was that, with less Hollywood and fewer crises dominating the agenda, it reverted to, well, a world forum on economic issues.
Also of interest:
Davos Diary, Day 2: An unlikely star
A last gasp for Doha
[O]ver 1,000 middle school students and a crew of climate activists… braved the cold Utah weather to create an enormous piece of aerial art calling on Congress and the U.S.A. to Step it Up and take action on global warming.
See also:
Everything’s Cool (Funny Climate Change Documentary) | Clips from the film
Mounds of foul-smelling waste stand rotting in the cold air. The dark, smog-choked sky lowers menacingly and the river runs slowly, a black tide of toxic sludge. Sandwich boxes carrying the labels of British supermarket chains poke through the dumps; crumpled pizza wrappers and plastic bags blanket the streets. Working in the middle of it all are children, some as young as four, sifting though the waste with their bare hands.
See also Recycled Life (Documentary Short, Recent Academy Award Nominee)
Bonus:
A little cuteness: Love giant pandas? Name them from China Daily