Jobs & Economy
Do-It-Yourself Enviro, Ag, Science "Afrigadget" Makers Gather in Accra
Published August 10, 2009 @ 08:45AM PT
Above: The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days...Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the lidded inner pot is cooled by evaporation. More info at the end of this post.
The first-ever Maker Faire Africa, happening this week in Accra, Ghana, will put a heavy emphasis on what activist-entrepreneur Emeka Okafor calls bottom-up indigenous industrialization. It's a challenge to the top-down style of international aid and development programs, which typically focus on bringing "First World" technologies and agriculture methods into poorer nations, whether or not they really suit local conditions. (Worse, these are often technologies and food production methods that contribute to worsening global warming.)
In contrast, bottom-up indigenous industrialization offers solutions that are based on local knowledge, materials, and infrastructure. The emphasis is on smaller-scale, local economic development, rather than projects that generate food and goods for export to Europe and North America.
The event in Accra looks like it will feature more pragmatic inventions and innovations and get them into mass distribution; tech that's locally designed, with the potential to help people pull themselves out of poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation (while steering firmly away from digital information and communication technologies, or ICT):
Maker Faire Africa asks the question, “What happens when you put the drivers of ingenious concepts from Mali with those from Ghana and Kenya, and add resources to the mix?”
Maker Faire Africa will engage on-the-ground breakthrough organizations like Ashesi University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to sharpen focus on locally-generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development. Specifically, Maker Faire Africa will take an approach that will achieve three principal aims:
- Brighten the light on local examples of the “fabrication” ethos
- Provide mechanisms to incubate these innovators and their products to a point where they can be taken to market
- Connect refined plans to disseminate innovations with venture finance
The aim is to identify, spur and support local innovation. At the same time, Maker Faire Africa would seek to imbue creative types in science and technology with an appreciation of fabrication and by default manufacturing. The long-term interest here is to cultivate an endogenous manufacturing base that supplies innovative products in response to market needs.
That's not to say everything must be serious. Maker Faire Africa is being programmed on four tracks, according to the event's first press release, which factor in art, craft and Lego blocks along with the bio-energy sources:
- Robotics – Lead by Afrobotics in the ROBOlab, this track host lectures as well as a LEGO robotics workshop and competition.
- Agriculture & Environment – takes a new look at sustainability, green technologies and innovations such as biofuel and architecture.
- Science and Engineering - this track will highlight new innovations from the 3rd annual International Development Design Summit (IDDS) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) (a joint project with MIT and MacArthur “Genius Grant” award winner Amy Smith, who has focused on fostering indigenous technological development).
- Arts & Crafts – held at an outdoor art center, this track will showcase everything from sculptures to toys to textiles
Maker-type events I've been to in the US typically feature a lot of whimsical gadgetry, some hacked energy conservation-related tools, and a smattering of works with loftier artistic goals. They're fun, sometimes thought-provoking, and often more than a little anti-corporate. The fundamental organizing principle is that you can make something yourself instead of buying it at the store -- reflecting both our high level of prosperity as a nation, and a major challenge of American-style late stage capitalism: transforming ourselves back into citizens who shop as necessary in order to live, instead of consumers who live to shop.
Understandably, Maker Faire Africa's gadgets and gizmos are likely to be more down-to-earth. We've got our problems, and they've got theirs.
I'd love to be in Accra this week to enjoy Maker Faire Africa firsthand. (Hello, assigning editors!) Ah well: If you won't be making it to Ghana, either, I'd recommend keeping an eye on the following blogs and tags for first-hand reports from the scene:
Maker Faire Africa blog
Maker Faire Africa on Twitter
#mfa09 on Twitter
Emeka Okafor, at Timbuktu Chronicles
I'll add more links if and as I encounter them...please add yours to the comments!
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Image: "The Zeer pot is an African cooling gadget which, for less than $2US in local materials and without electricity, can extend the storage lifetime of fresh produce by as much as 18 days. It is of staggeringly simple design: Two clay pots are nested with a relatively thin layer of sand between them. The sand is watered twice daily, and the inner pot, which is lidded, is cooled by evaporation. It's interesting to note that, although the technology to manufacture the zeer pot has existed literally since the dawn of civilization, it is not known to have been produced until recently. Who would have thought there was a profound invention remaining to be discovered using only clay and sand?" Via Make Magazine Blog
Live Senate Hearing: Climate Change and Ensuring that America Leads the Clean Energy Transformation
Published August 06, 2009 @ 08:09AM PT
The full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is meeting today to discuss how to implement successful, and largely market-driven, clean energy policies.
12:30: Hearing adjourned!
12:15: Sen. Whitehouse, to Krupp: You've said in your testimony that CCS is ready to roll? Can you elaborate on that?
Krupp: I was quoting an official at British Petroleum, noting that in Norway there are enormous amts of CCS going on. Because there's a price on carbon in Norway, so they're avoiding that cost by keeping it out of the atmosphere.
Until there's a driver, there's no reason to capture carbon.
Our nation does burn a lot of coal -- half our electricity generated from burning coal. We should leave a path open to cleaning up the carbon dioxide from that, the same as we have a path to cleaning out the sulfur dioxide.
12:12: Sen. Whitehouse: Saying technologies aren't ready is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
12:00 noon: Sen. Boxer: Specuation issue. As former stockbroker, I understand what happens with speculation, there's cause for concern. In ACES, there's a floor of $11 on price. Some utilities have said to me, what about a collar?
Fehrman: Collar would help protect ratepayers, would still impose a second cost on customers however.
Sen Boxer: Some utilities, like Duke, which is heavily dependent on coal, support ACES. Supreme Court says carbon emissions are covered by the Clean Air Act. So it's unusual that a business person would rather choose a hard cap, with no ability to get allocations, offsets. Won't that put costs thru roof?
Krupp: Mid-America is in unique position. Made some decisions that were in retrospect bad: big new coal-fired plant online in 2007. Wholesale a lot of their energy. Under Waxman-Markey, the allocations follow the electrons.
Certainly the proposition, a cap but no trade, would be extraordinarily expensive to consumers. Trading promotes lowest-cost options, allows utilities and customers to switch energy generation sources.
Price collar: Just another world for a safety valve, which busts the integrity of the cap. Wont' guarantee emissions reductions, we won't be able to say to other nations, we're reducing emissions, we want you to as well.
Many things in ACES control costs -- cap and trade mechanism; allocation directly to consumers. In terms of market manipulation, whatever comes out of this committee has to have jail time for those who game the maket.
Sen. Boxer: Look at a collar in slightly different way. If we know that $11 is the floor, and that's sending a price signal, not sure why we can't use this to create regulatory certainty.
Sen. Inhofe: I read a whole long list of House Democrats, as well as James Hansen, who oppose cap and trade, in my opening statement. Ralph Nader opposes it. You have stated that "make polluters pay" slogan is wrong; that consumers will pay.
Fehrman: At Mid-American, we haven't had a base rate increase since 1975, and are a leader in renewable energy generation. This bill creates unreasonable costs for our customers, fees for allowances. We'd be better off taking those dollars and investing in renewables and nuclear, actually reducing our emissions to meet those caps.
Inhofe: How will purchasing allowances not reduce GHGs?
Fehrman: Waxman-Markey takes 2005 emissions and applies sliding cap to that level. There's cost of compliance -- driving emissions down -- and there's buying allowances from first emission of CO2 up to the cap. That latter cost doesn't reduce CO2 emissions.
Sen Inhofe: Your view on carbon capture and storage? When would be be commercially scalable?
Fehrman: We find that there is execptional work going on in industry, pilot projects, in a number of years, be it five or ten years, there will be CCS tech available. We will say that sequestration of carbon hasn't been studied, don't know all the issues involved. Need more study to fully understand the impacts.
Inhofe: "Majority of people believe" that tech isn't here on renewables and all sorts of these things. If we have these resources, and are only country that doesn't develop them, we need to use them as a bridge to the future.
11:50 ET: Second panel is introduced: Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund; and Bill Fehrman, President and CEO, MidAmerican Energy Company.
Krupp: My message is simple: We can achieve strong emissions targets by 2020, at low cost, and create millions of new jobs in the process. Begins to cite a number of non-partisan studies on both costs and technologies -- see his formal statement to the committee for the details.
Fehrman: We oppose trade part of cap and trade: Customers will pay for emissions, plus the structures to reduce those emissions. Free allowances based on retail sales will favor utilities that rely largely on hydro and nuclear power, not allow coal-dependent utilities to receive enough allowances. Shortfall of 11 million allowances in just the first compliance year; and ratepayers will foot the bill.
Under acid rain program, allowances went to emitters who needed them to comply with new regs. Under Waxman-Markey as currently written, will be huge windfall to utilities that don't need them; also, penalizes utilities that have already made big investments in renewables.
11:49: Sen. Whitehouse to Sandalow: Over time, a lot of objection has risen to nuclear power, primarily around safety. But US Navy and European power agencies have demonstrated that it can be used safely. Around cost -- it appears that as we move toward modular systems, can better control costs. And disposal: we don't have a means for getting rid of horribly dangeous waste.
Traveling wave technologies: Create power off current stocks of waste. Are you following that?
Sandalow: I'm not personally following that; we'll get back to you, Senator.
11: 43: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: Wildlife adapation amendments related to climate legislation are gathering broad, bipartisan and multi-regional support. Is that true?
Strickland: True. Adaptation challenges with public lands, protecting wildlife, and dealing with real world impacts of climate change are vitally important.
11:39: Sen. Benjamin Cardin: Where are we at on using public lands to develop renewables?
Strickland: We're at the very early stages. Regulations are being put in place to develop offshore wind. We're moving quickly to put infrastructure in place with solar also; now we have a huge backlog of private sector interest in dev. solar on public lands. We've used some of Recovery Act dollars to create four offices in the West to deal with that backlog. We're in early stages, but there's huge potential.
Wants Boxer to organize committee letter to get documentation on how much public land is available to use for generation of renewable energy vs. extraction of mineral resources.
Sen. John Barasso says that 138,000 acres of land would be needed to build a wind farm with capacity to replace one coal-fired power plant. That's three times the size of the District of Colombia. Are we willing to set aside enough land to replace hundreds of coal-fired power plants?
Wellinghoff: Starts by countering some misquotes on his positions that Barasso has just read into the record, to the overall point that he does not believe that renewables will completely replace fossil energy sources, but that there is enormous capacity for different kinds of renewables, combined with energy efficiency and nat'l gas. Spurred by a market-based carbon control system, says all this could allow nation to transition successfully (and implication is with minimal pain and gnashing of teeth) to low-carbon energy economy. "There's plenty of land out there in the ocean" to create millions of gigawatts of wind power.
11:24: Sen. George Voinovich brings up energy security. Concerned we have not harmonized energy, environment, economic, national security policies. "If nation knew how vulnerable we were today in terms of oil, they'd be shaking in their boots." Cites billions of dollars sent overseas for oil, with no idea of environmental impacts that it's having.
Tells Strickland we should take advantage of all resources we have, including domestic oil, but be the most aggressive in reducing use of oil as well (such as upgrading the energy grid to enable growth of EV use.) Wishes the president would talk about using less oil and also going after more domestic oil production.
11:21: Sandalow says the $2.4 billion being allocated to next-gen electric vehicle battery development, announced yesterday by President Obama, has the potential to be transformational in cutting the nation's dependency on foreign oil.
Video: Navajo vote for green collar jobs
Published July 24, 2009 @ 09:20PM PT
For your Friday evening inspiration: One of the citizen activist groups that lobbied for the Navajo Nation green jobs measure, Black Mesa Alliance, has created this video update on the Navajo Council's Tuesday vote to pass the legislation..
Green Economy Rising: Navajo Nation Votes 'Yes' for Green Jobs
Published July 21, 2009 @ 03:32PM PT
Above: Green jobs advocates walk to today's summer meeting of the Navajo Nation Council.
The Navajo Nation Council voted 62 to 1 to establish the "Navajo Green Economy Commission" at its meeting today in Winslow Rock, Arizona. "According to Enei Begaye, who spearheaded a coalition to create the legislation, it is the first tribal government initiative to create green jobs policy and structure. Undoubtedly ambitious -- combining traditional culture, web-based marketing and cutting-edge green technologies -- the plan could transform the Navajo Nation and serve as a model for other tribes," reports Marty Durlin of High Country News.
The legislation will establish a commission to implement projects in seven areas: renewable energy (large-scale and small), green manufacturing (focused on traditional crafts such as rug-weaving, combined with sophisticated marketing and PR campaigns), sustainable agriculture, weatherizing and making energy-efficient traditional and nontraditional homes, green workforce training, management training, and a small business initiative.
A series of 10 pilot projects will launch the program, along with research on current job opportunities and a needs assessment. The legislation will also create “green teams” which will support community initiatives and help with business plans.
The fund will pursue federal grants that have been earmarked for green collar job development, and channel them into small-scale, community development projects within the Navajo Nation.
Wahleah Johns, who helped organize the Navajo Green Economy Coalition, told the Farmington, New Mexico Daily Times that green jobs can help Navajo preserve traditional ways of life, while also bringing much needed revitalization to the reservation economy. "This will help small-scale green projects revitalize sustainable life," Johns told reporter Alysa Landry. "For example, there are a lot of sheep on the reservation, and there are ways to use sheep in a green fashion. We need to make that more marketable." The group expects that the new fund will create hundreds of jobs on the 27,000-square-mile reservation.
Native communities are often on the front lines of the nation's unsettled energy policy -- in part because the federal Department of the Interior represents both Indian tribes and resource extraction agencies like the Office of Surface Mining. OSM exists pretty much to assist energy companies in mining on public lands.
Per the Black Mesa Water Coalition (which also supports the green jobs measure), the Bush administration executed a midnight maneuver in January, giving coal giant Peabody Energy a lease to reopen a controversial, enormous coal mine on Black Mesa, in Arizona, and consolidate it with the nearby Kayenta coal mine. Peabody's operations on Black Mesa use the same groundwater supply that Hopi and Navajo communities in the area rely on for drinking water.
Five Encouragements to Curb Your Consumerism
Published July 15, 2009 @ 09:49PM PT
Lowered demand for goods means less energy is being generated to produce them -- and since most of the world's energy is generated by burning fossil fuels, that's good for the climate.
But frugality is pretty iffy when undertaken as an activist tactic, as long as the world economy relies so heavily on consumer capitalism for its health. I could opt to buy less as a statement about stopping global warming. But most other citizens would keep on shopping, if and when they regain both consumer confidence and financial stability.
Their spending keeps my macroeconomic boat afloat, and those overseas factory workers employed, no matter what small gesture I make by keeping my money in the bank.
All that said ... there are all too many reasons these days why any of us might want to curb our shopping habits. (If slowing down global warming is one of them, all the better.) And it can be a challenge. So here are some resources and revelations that help me keep my desire to spend in check:
1. The Consumerist: Almost nothing disincentivizes spending more, for me, than reading this blog every morning. I'm less eager than ever to give corporations my money when I read story after story about the contempt most of them have for the people who buy their goods and services. The Consumerist's editors report this constant tide of outrageous conduct with biting humor, and offer a lot of good advice for outgunned consumers, as well.
2. Buying Green Could be Ruining Your Credit: Treehugger picked up on a new report that documents how using using plastic for thrifty, low-consumption purchases like shoe repair, tire retreading, or thrift shop clothing can ultimately worsen your credit rating -- which in turn could make it hell to get a major loan like a mortgage. "[I]t's actually a pretty definitive referendum on good ol' American consumer culture. It boils down to a simple, deeply-ingrained axiom: if you're not buying new stuff, something's wrong with you."
3. I Will Teach You To Be Rich: With a book out and appearances on major news programs, Ramit Sethi's personal finance blog is no big secret anymore. But aside from occasionally over-hyping his book (and okay, a guy's gotta make a living), Ramit remains his upbeat, practical, pragmatic self when it comes to guidance on spending plans, saving, making priorities, and guilt-free spending.
4. Cool Tools: "Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true." I consider my own purchases more carefully for their durability, usefulness, and long-term value, thanks to what I learn at Cool Tools. And I can read about and appreciate why these gadgets, services, sites, etc., are great -- with no pressure to buy.
5. What's Inside: Thanks to this regular Wired feature's dissections of common consumer products, I no longer chew gum, or feel a twitch of temptation when Hostess Lemon Pies are in stock at the corner deli.
Addendum: Early in the year, I made a "conscientious consumerism" decision to do most of my shopping locally, and a lot less of it online. My thinking was that it would help the independently-owned businesses that keep this city economically sound, its people working, and the neighborhoods livable, survive the recession. And I'd miss these businesses if they vanished.
Wouldn't you know: there's a whole darn movement springing up around this very idea. Check out the 3/50 Project (pick three independent stores you'd miss, spend $50 in each), not to be confused with the 350.org climate action project, to learn more about it.
Across the Change-i-verse
Published July 12, 2009 @ 06:24PM PT
14-year-old Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs Global Warming
Highlights of the past week's blogging by the smart, talented, and good looking editors at Change.org:
Youth Taking Action: Kids vs. Global Warming: The Social Entrepreneurship blog chats with Ashoka Youth Venturer Alec Loorz, 14, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming. On positive ways to make change, Alec says, "Even though the actions we need to take might seem small in comparison to the enormity of the problem, every thing we do brings us one step closer to making the shift that we, as a whole society, need to make," says this remarkable peer organier. "It's also true that we can recycle and ride bikes all day long and we still won't be making a huge dent in the problem. Our whole world needs to get serious and make big changes. We need to be involved in the changes that governments and businesses need to make too."
Is Oil Ever NOT Connected to War? On the occasion of Sudan joining the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), Stop Genocide editor Michelle notes that the membership is composed of nations with striking histories of civil war and human rights abuses. "And to Energy Gluttons elsewhere in the world: How often do you stop to think about the human cost of your weekly fill-up?"
Climate Change, People and Poverty: Humanitarian Relief editor Michael Kleinman has put together a good resource page on the Humanitarian Impact of Climate Change.
The Slave Behind Your Bargain: Another example of just how interlinked human rights abuses and environmental pollution have become: "[H]ave you ever wondered why that bookshelf or tennis ball or t-shirt is so cheap? Have you ever wondered if a slave is paying the cost of your bargain?", writes End Human Trafficking editor Amanda Kloer. "The Human Trafficking Project writes about the prevalence of slave-made consumer goods on the market...They also share some hopeful ideas, like whole towns committing to selling only fair trade goods. However, the fact is that slave-made goods are in every part of our lives, and in many cases they are bringing us the bargains we so love."
Amada frequently highlights Fair Trade products on the HT blog in her "Red Light Specials." This week it was Cocoa Minty Lip Balm.
A caricature-buster, via Dave Bennion at the Immigrat Rights blog: GOP Voters Support Path to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants
Immigration Restrictionists Make Bad Environmentalists: Dave also makes a great catch on the real motivations of immigration reform opponents who make an environmental case for their arguments: "[T]he members of Congress that NumbersUSA, [an anti-immigration John Tanton-organized] outfit, rates most highly on immigration policy voted against the recent Waxman-Markey climate change bill by a margin of more than 5 to 1."
Dave's Open Letter to John Tanton on Global Warming asks, "Will you ask Congress to support ACES and other environmentally-friendly legislation? Or will you continue to assert that policies that limit immigration, rather than those that limit carbon emissions, are the key to slowing climate change?
Obama's Nominee for FWS: No Friend to Endangered Species: According to Animal Rights editor Stephanie Ernst, "Obama has nominated, to enforce the Endangered Species Act as head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sam Hamilton: the FWS official with 'by far the weakest record on Endangered Species Act enforcement of any comparable official in the country'...Obama is no animal rights advocate, but surely he can do better--and the animals deserve better--than Sam Hamilton."
Suggest a story to Stop Global Warming
Published July 10, 2009 @ 08:01AM PT
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