EcoBuzz: Balancing Equations

How shameful. Over 85% of Kenyans cannot flick on a switch to light to light their homes, yet Kenya is endowed with renewable energy resources that can secure a low carbon and energy secure electrification programme for its people. But it needs the courage of new policy directions. Right now sunny Kenya's energy policy favours a new highly polluting 300MW coal fired power plant for its needs. Meanwhile, cloudy Europe accounts for 82% of the world's solar power generation. There is something surely amiss in the balancing of this equation. Where policy fails, it must be challenged. Look out for the re-launch of solarnet magazine
(info@solarnet-ea.org). The new edition will focus on renewable energy contributions to the national power supply. It is time.

EcoBuzz: Reclaiming Space

A little green space giving a tired hawker a moment's pause in a torrid day. Pictures - functional shack covers in Laini 7 - that may yet invite a little smile when a train passes through. Poetry engraved near a busy commuter terminus in a large city that exhorts the traveller to "Fare well. Return. Fare well. Return again...". With a country so cruelly divided, cities and towns bring us together, force us to live with one another. Our urban spaces should be functional but they need not be banal. They can be great equalisers despite great inequality. It's time to reclaim these spaces, they are ours. Us. Ordinary people: citizens; artists; poets; visionaries; dreamers and workers.

EcoBuzz: Value at Risk

"What is my Value at Risk as a result of climate change? What can my company do about it in our short, medium and long term planning?" As an individual and a business leader in the private sector, these are the questions you need to ask and integrate into corporate planning, and into disaster and risk management forecasts for your company. Take for example the Aluminium company in Southern Africa that invests in malaria control programmes to monitor shifts in malaria trends as a result of climate change and gets early warnings for the resilience of its future labour force and communities. The time has come to set aside childish things: plan for climate change realities rather than praying they don't exist. http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/resources/reports

EcoBuzz: Monkey Business

It’s good to have groups like the Colobus Trust. These are passionate individuals who keep an eye on matters related to their cause whilst the rest of us carry on with our day to day lives. With really important issues such as delivering on poverty reduction, energy access, education and infrastructure rightly at the top of Government’s agenda, it’s important to have people watching out for the interests of those who cannot speak for themselves. Four colobus monkeys and one little baboon were electrocuted last week near a small stretch of Kaya forest in Diani. Why should we care amidst all the problems that face us? Well first, there is a simple and easy solution, and second, our wildlife and natural resources are valuable national assets that require our protection. What happened in Diani is not just monkey business. It’s a disgrace. http://colobus.wildlifedirect.org/2009/01/09/conserving-diani-thinking-triggered-by-the-electrocution-of-a-young-baboon/

Ecobuzz: Climate Change

This year it’s all about climate change. Towards the end of the year in Copenhagen, the world convenes to re-negotiate the rights and responsibilities of countries in dealing with this global threat. Actually, these end up being your rights and responsibilities as an individual, an employee, a company, an association, an MP.....and it would be appropriate in all these capacities, to tell our Government climate negotiators what we expect. Consider this: starving cattle, destroyed livelihoods, dying wildlife and yet the continued extraction of water for supply to a lodge swimming pool - all in the same ecosystem. What’s the response? For tourists to chose not to travel? For cattle insurance schemes for the pastoralists? Developing better water infrastructure to cope with drought extremes? Kenyans need to think for ourselves on these types of scenarios in all spheres, because no one else is going to do it for us. http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/going-green-making-global-warming-hot

Don't Eat Babies

While buying my supply of sea fish over the weekend, I noticed the prevalence of babies on the shelves: baby squid, baby lobster, baby Malindi Sole. Catching baby fish is an indicator of the poor health of our fish stocks - depleting without proper replenishment. When eating babies, they don't get a chance to grow into adults or spawn new babies. In addition, future fishing livelihoods are at stake - whether the artisanal fisherman or the fishing industry as a whole: in Canada, as many as 30,000 jobs were lost when the once plentiful supplies of cod collapsed in 1992. As consumers - whether as families, restaurants or hotels - we are a major part of the problem and we have the power and choice to be the solution too. Don't eat babies.

For more information visit http://eng.msc.org/

Greening your Sex Life

Today, 5th June 2008 is World Environment Day. The purpose of this week's EcoBuzz is to demonstrate how every aspect of our lives has some impact on the environment. It may seem as if environmental protection can sometimes be the preserve of "green nutter" environmentalists in western countries who may even go so far as suggesting measures we can take to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of our love lives. But this would be trivialising a far deeper and more penetrating issue. Here in Kenya we heavily depend on the environment, the land, and our natural resources for our well being and our wealth. Inappropriate disposal of condoms, for example, clog up sewerage systems, have to be removed manually, and reduce effectiveness at treating waste water. It is the most vulnerable people in our society who suffer the consequences of our environmental abuse. If we are aware about the really negative environmental impacts of our lives, then we have a responsibility to take action, even when cuddling our beloveds. More information on greening your sex life.