Real Life in the Studio

Tonight's programme on Think Globally Radio included Ms. Camilla Lundberg Ney, Communication & Advocacy Officer together with Björn Lindh, Chief Communication Officer from the Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC - wonderful work being done there!), who discussed their great report will discuss their latest report on biofuels and African farming. In the studio we also had a special guest, Ms. Edith Mashoko. Edith, in her soft-spoken and eloquent way, related for the listeners the trials and tribulations faced by small-scale farmers such as herself in Zambia and elswhere. She was in Sweden to participate the Cooperative Center's 50th anniversary celebration, visiting with Swedes to talk about her life in Zambia and how her life had iproved thanks to support from SCC.

Edith is 35 years old and comes from Choma, Zambia, a small village 50 KM south of Lusaka. She has one son, but is also the caretaker of her deceased siblings' four children. She lives in a very simple house on her parent's farm, without electricity or running water (the nearest well is 3 KM away). She grows vegetables and fruits on her farm, and raises cattle. She is also beginning to grow crops for use in biofutles. She is a member of the Zambian National Farmers' Union, where she is an enthusiastic and ambitious participant in study circles and training sessions (attending sessions and then sharing the knowledge in Choma). Thanks to the support from SCC to ZNFU (a collaborative partnership rather than a donor-recipient relationship) she has been able to improve her income and, for example, afford to pay the school fees for all five children.

Zambia has faced many years of drought, and since November of last year, it has suffered from heavy rains. Many fields are flooded and roads as well as houses have been destroyed. In the fields some crops have been rotting and there has been little left for consumption and to take to market.

But Edith is not phased; indeed, she is continuing to work to improve her farm and the lives of those who depend on her. She has, for example, been able to use mobile phone bidding to take her products to market (costs for the phone coverage provided by SCC). Having such a nice, dignified guest on the programme was a real treat for Eric, Jimmy and Dave.

Profiting from doing the right thing

According to the Worldwatch Institute, factories around the world churned out a whopping 4-5 trillion of them in 2002. Recently, I've noticed my local ICA grocery store, in addition to selling ordinary plastic bags for 1.5 kronors each, are selling biodegradable, post-consumer material based plastic bags. Nice to see that. But, the new bags are 2 kronor. So rather than doing the right thing and just switching over to the eco friendly bag and continuing to sell them for the kronor and a half, they are still going to sell the harmful ones and sell the eco friendly ones for even more money. Sure, the environmental bags probably cost more to produce. But, given the profit (sorry, in Swedish) the Swedish grocery retailers make on the bags in general, you'd hope they'd do the right thing. One can always hope!

Poverty reduction through biofuels

Think Globally Radio, this Sunday, February 24th at kl 19:00 CET on 95.3 FM in Stockholm (and, as all other TGR episodes, it will be added to online audio archive a few days after broadcast).

Poverty reduction through biofuels
Global land-use is changing in an unprecedented way. Previously small farmers are realizing the potential in earning greater amounts of capital simply by switching to energy crop cultivation. The World Bank along with other international institutions also realizes this potential, and promotes the cultivation of biofuels as a method in combating poverty in poor regions, especially in Africa.

This Sunday, Ms. Camilla Lundberg Ney, Communication & Advocacy Officer together with Björn Lindh, Chief Communication Officer from the Swedish Cooperative Centre will discuss their latest report “With development in thought” presenting possibilities as well as challenges coupled with biofuel cultivation as a method for development and poverty reduction in under-developed countries.

The mining-biofuel connection

Systematic thinking is vital when considering environmental impacts. Just when you think you understand an issue, some new information or analysis comes along that can significantly shift your outlook. Biofuels have taken much criticism lately, but here is another angle that I had not previously considered: certain biofuels (from crops such as corn and soybean) require large amounts of fertilizer to grow, of which phosphorous is a key component; furthermore, phosphorous is derived from relatively scarce phosphate rock, meaning that a non-renewable, mined resource is a crucial component in the biofuel production chain.

This Sunday, we will be talking about the link between biofuel production and poverty alleviation, so some of the definite upsides will be discussed, which of course need to be balanced against some of these red flags which seem to keep popping up.

Marine biological catastrophes?

Few anthropocentric phenomenons are as frustrating to realize as the systematic depletion of every form of biomass from the oceans. It has been well known now for decades that we are overfishing and extracting reproductive organisms faster than they have the chance to reproduce. Species such as blue-fin tuna, cod and eel are almost completely vanished from our oceans. Not to mention that all the worlds fishing stocks have been depleted up to 70% (average value). But sadly, there are other issues of concern:

Now, the next ancient masters of the oceans, the sharks, are also endangered. One of the largest causes for shark decline is the demand for the fin which, in the East, is a delicacy in soups. And the method for fin production? Capture the shark - cut of the fin - release the shark again into the ocean with absolutely no chance of survival. At the AAAS meeting (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Boston recently, additional causes for shark decline were presented - such as sharks captured as a side-effect of modern efficient fishing boats sucking up large contents of the oceans.

Another exciting scientific statement presented at the AAAS meeting deals with contraceptive pills and their connection to reproductive abnormalities in fish. Gender switches among fishes are not in fact the only marine environmental consequence; contraceptive pills, comprising their hormone molecules, lead indirectly to extinction of fishes (as their reproduction is out of order).

The In Vitro Meat Consortium is a very interesting initiative that reflects the problematic global meat production as well as consumption. According to recent FAO publications, global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 billion kg/year (1999/2000) to 465 billion kg/year (2050). The increase is estimated to take place in now underdeveloped countries that are developing rapidly. Increased meat production is coupled to enhanced global warming due to deforestation to make use of cultivating lands, loss of biodiversity and water depletion.

The In Vitro Meat Consortium is an assembly of scientists that are monitoring the possibility of large-scale industrial investments in manufacturing meat through the use of bioreactors and modern biotechnological equipment.

Interesting developments for modern human food consumption!

More evidence against biofuels

Biofuel skepticism has surfaced several times on Think Globally Radio (see for example "The Dark Side of Biofuels" episode from 9 December 2007 featuring Martina Krueger from Greenpeace, discussing primarily palm oil). This trend seems to be gaining momentum as scientific evidence mounts. A recent NY Times article outlines new studies published in Science that suggest that, if the overall impact of biofuels is analyzed more comprehensively- taking into consideration land use changes provoked by growing crops for fuel- the climate benefits can be outweighed by the costs. Hopefully policy makers will take such reports to heart, and do not succumb to agricultural lobbies and the rush to what many believe is clean fuel source.

DIY electricity

Here's an article from The Economist that discusses a sustainable source of electric energy that we generate all the time: walking around. In parts of the developing world not connected to the electric grid, this may offer a means of providing the energy needed to power, for example, lanterns, medical devices and radios. This could conceivably reduce the need for relatively expensive and carbon-emitting fuels such as kerosene and firewood, and increase access to reading light and informative radio broadcasts. And of course we here at Think Globally Radio like the idea of more people listening to the radio.

Great Pacific Garbage

Some days ago a small piece of shocking of news stole my attention. There are apparently two enormous garbage-continents that combined are bigger than the north american continent and floating around in the pacific ocean. According to scientists, each year, these garbage infernos kill one million sea birds and 100 000 mammals. Other interesting caracteristics include predominant plastic composition, attraction forces by underwater currents and extremely rapid annual accumulation.

Dumping municipal solid waste into oceans is a fast strategy to get rid of the problem for many nations. However, sooner or later, we need to deal with the consequences of our own actions. Not to forget that plastic is practically non-degradable.

Environmental justice - global or local?

During the most recent ThinkGloballyRadio show together with Ms. Karolina Isaksson from the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Royal Institute of Technology, an interesting insight was highlighted. Speaking about environmental justice, most often, needless to say in ThinkGloballyRadio, usually takes a global perspective.

The differances between North/South of total ecological footprints due different energy usage, personal mobility and food consumption is obvious. However, environmental justice can take a local perspective.

Research is beginning to show that upper-middle class income families tend to be more active in their consumer choises (recycling waste, consuming ecological food, using ethanol cars & bying carbon offsets for flights), also effective communicators for these active lifestyle choices. However, and very interestingly, in comparison to low-income families, the total ecological footprints are much higher for the upper-middle class, reflecting the so far proportional relationship between high income and more intense ecological footprint.

High income of course can drive the market towards the right direction by for instance investing in cleantech - enhancing the global as well as local environmental justice for high income individuals...