Afromusing

This picture was taken by Adriankoto, who writes on the blog Harinjaka [Malagasy]. He is the founder FOKO madagascar initiative which has been active in planting trees particularly in rural madagascar. More on his awesome work here[English].

PS: I know i haven’t been blogged about solar energy for awhile, doesn’t mean i have lost my mojo, I am just re-charging. ha!

I am honored to have been part of the Africa Panel at DEMO 08 which happened yesterday. Erik and Mike did an awesome job of blogging about the sessions. My sincere thanks to Chris Shipley and Erica Lee for having us.

There were so many interesting exhibitors, you can explore a full list and find more information about the cool stuff that launched. I will highlight just a few of the products and services that stood out for me.

The first one is Green Plug - A charger that can be used for multiple devices. Their tag line is “One plug, one planet”. Think of the many chargers you have to carry with you, and when you abandon a device, that charger ends up in a landfill somewhere. The Green plug eliminates the need to carry multiple chargers. The small chip pictured here makes it all happen.

Asankya Hypermesh Network
Forget the current OSPF and BGP routing of packets, this company optimises content delivery by in their own words…

…Using a breakthrough technique for transporting packets over multiple network paths, it enables delivery of real-time content consistently and at a high quality over the Internet.

It is geared towards ISP’s and larger content delivery companies, but from their demo it seems their products could useful for those building new networks and want higher quality video delivery than is currently being offered. I thought of the now delayed EASSYproject that would have brought fibre optic backbone to Kenya…:( and to step back to something i had written last year about building network of networks, in time, it would be great to revisit how this new technology could help in low bandwidth areas or in new network systems being implemented in Africa.

Celsias
“Cooling the planet one project at a time”

Celsias is all about doing something practical to reduce climate change
On Celsias, you can read a widely-recognized climate change blog, review practical projects from all over the world and meet the coolest people who share your passion for stopping human-induced global warming. If you want to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, register on the site, create a project, then recruit people or funding to get your project off the ground.

I think i may have taken too many pics, you can browse through them on this flickr set.

If you know people in Radio, this would be an opportunity to pass along to them.

The Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) have launched the African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change, a scriptwriting competition for radio broadcasters. Deadline: March 15.

The competition is open to all African radio organizations, including broadcasters, production organizations, NGOs with radio projects, and farmers’ associations with radio shows. Submitted scripts may cover themes such as water and soil management, cropping strategies for drought-resistant plants, livestock management practices, fisheries and agroforestry, among others. Scripts must be between 500 and 2,000 words and must include background notes and production notes, in addition to references to information sources used to prepare the reports. Input from local people, especially farmers, must also be included.

More information is available at Scriptcompetition.net

Thanks Solana.

As the leaders of the world continue with negotiations in Bali to chart the successor to the Kyoto protocol, there are some major events this week to make a note of. The first - international demonstrations planned by the Global climate campaign around the world. In Kenya, the contacts are listed as

David Waiganjo dnwaiganjo[at]yahoo.com
(Inter-Varsity Environment Network and African Youth Initiative on Climate)

Charity Weru glady333ke[at]yahoo.com
(Kenya Young Greens)

Grace Akumu cnaf[at]cnaf.or.ke
(Executive Director, Climate Network Africa)

For December 8th there is a plan for a climate parade in Nairobi.

If you will be attending or have more information, please feel free to comment. I would love to see photos and if you are a Kenyan blogger attending the parade please give me a heads up whenever you write about it. Thank you!
From KenyanPoet, The Climate change Orchestra will be playing as part of the WAPI event at the British Council. More details here.

For the Africa online crew there is something for you, you can join the Virtual Rally on the same day Dec 8th by writing about climate change. You do not have to alter the tone of your ‘blog voice’, a quip, a video, a rant, your thoughts… You can also sign a petition here.

At global voices online, we have a special page with links to blogs covering Bali and Climate Change politics, so do check it out. I have been going through the feeds to keep it fresh just for you, so do not miss out on the river of news coming out of Bali. If you are an African blogger writing about the environment, this is the week to do it, Global voices links will show up on the Reuters page. How is that for getting your voice heard!
(please leave me a note if you write something, email is environment [at] globalvoicesonline [dot] org)

Quotables from Prof. Wangari Maathai

* If you don’t raise your voice, then your environmentalism means nothing; it’s mere tokenism or opportunism.

* The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources, they become scarce and we fight over that.

* We have a special responsibility to the ecosystem of this planet. In making sure that other species survive we will be ensuring the survival of our own.

Via Digg

*Vid is abit grainy but not too bad, there is another one here.
This team is on a mission to showcase solutions to global warming…by driving a solar taxi. They are currently in India, where they spoke with the chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Mr. Rajendra Pachauri. Incase you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, IPCC were co winners of the Nobel Peace prize with Al Gore. The Solar Taxi team will be making their way to the United Nations conference on Climate Change next month in Bali Dec 3rd - 14th. How about a stop in Africa sometime in the future? They could even attend the Zero Africa Rally
Cool stuff.

***Please note that the event is for December 15th. and not dec 8th. Thanks.
The latest Globalvoices environment post is on conservation efforts in Zambia, South Africa and D.R Congo. It also includes some links from Phil in Kenya and Mr. SSerwanga in Uganda, writing about carbon footprints and land rights respectively.

While I was writing that roundup I came across the Kenya Organic Agricultural Network. They’ve got an excellent event planned for Saturday December Dec 15th .
You can find more details here. I sure hope the Kwani folks make it there, because that would be just wonderful. A combination of great organic food, music, poetry and exhibits showing renewable energy services in Kenya! Excuse me while I figure out a way to teleport myself there.
Check out what is planned…

Also from the same site, you can download the Bio Safety Bill, which I don’t know if its been passed or deffered till after the elections.

I was wondering what to write about for blog action day…Deforestation? possible land grabbing in Kenya? The need for recycling bins in apartment communities? the politics of climate change…many options to choose from. I happened watch wired science tonight, and they had a fascinating yet disturbing segment on ‘the garbage patch’. A flowing mass of garbage that goes with the currents spanning several oceans. Cargo that ended up in the seas, such as 80,000 pairs of Nike shoes gave the researchers some information about the flow of trash. Weirdly, a left shoe would end up on one shore and the right shoe on an entirely different shore. Intrigued? Below is the video from PBS.

As its mentioned in the video, perhaps if we see the sheer amount of plastic that is ending up in oceans and inside the bodies of countless birds and animals, we just might think twice about how we dispose of our plastic bottles.

Habib Koite of Mali has a beautiful song that captures feelings of concern about the environment and industrialization. Can we keep chugging along on the path to the new African Century without wrecking our environment?
Listen/download ‘Kumbin’.

On Monday October 15th, bloggers will be writing about one topic for one day…the environment. My idea for this day is to appeal to my fellow African bloggers to help make this a fun day in the African blogosphere. The idea is to make it even more special by not only talking about the environment, but by doing something, one thing. So please,

- Plant a tree
- Take a picture or have someone take a picture of you planting the tree
- Please post on your blog

I will be checking the African blogs starting on Sunday, to compile a feature for global voices online.
- Please leave a comment if you will be participating (though you don’t have to, you can tag your post with Africa + Blog Action Day)
Pass the idea along. If we can get one blogger from each country featured on Afrigator, Kenyaunlimited, Amatomu, mashada blogs etc planting a tree, we would really appreciate it.

*Incentive for the first Kenyan blogger to commit to participating: Airtime for you purchased through mamamikes!