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Climate change is not a crisis of developing countries' making, yet the impacts of global warming will disproportionately hit the world's poorest people.
The Challenge
The impact of climate change presents a new hurdle in the fight against extreme poverty and disease. Experts predict that in many sub-Saharan African countries, climate change could mean more frequent drought and floods, water scarcity, and increased health challenges such as under-nutrition. These new challenges will not only make achieving the Millennium Development Goals more difficult, but could also threaten some of the progress already made in fighting extreme poverty and disease. Read more.. http://www.one.org/c/us/issue/10/
Quick Facts
- 75-250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could be exposed to increased water stress by 2020 as a result of climate change.
- 260-320 million more people could be living in malaria-infested areas by 2080 as a result of changing global temperatures.
- The forests of the Congo basin span 700,000 square miles, making it one of the world's most important carbon sinks.
Success Stories / SMART Aid helps harness Africa's agricultural potential
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) (http://www.agra-alliance.org) is an initiative funded by international donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. AGRA works to enhance agricultural productivity in Africa by training smallholder farmers, supporting the development of high-yielding seed varieties, and ensuring that farmers have access to good quality seeds, tools, and fertilizer. AGRA's Program for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS) provides grants and scholarships to agricultural scientists who take their knowledge into local communities, working with farmers to see which seed varieties best suit their land. AGRA works on innovative ways to make these seeds and other supplies widely available to rural farmers. Since 2006, AGRA has trained and certified over 5,000 new agro-dealers, and aims to reach 9,000 by 2011. This is having a real impact on farmers: in 2006 in Western Kenya, for example, a farmer had to travel an average of 17 kilometers to an agro-dealer to purchase seeds and fertilizer; today that distance is an average of five kilometers. AGRA has also provided loan guarantees through which farmers can access credit to purchase supplies that will boost their yields.
Read more... http://www.one.org/c/us/issuebrief/2818/
Brought to you by ONE, www.one.org
"What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on?"
- Henry David Thoreau
"The struggle to save the global environment is in one-way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies."
- Al Gore
http://www.recyclerunway.com/
OUR MISSION
Recycle Runway strives to change the way the world thinks about the environment through innovative educational programs and couture fashions made from trash. Elegant garments created from recycled materials are exhibited in high-traffic airports to grab travelers’ attention and inspire personal action. Community-based presentations and workshops launch young peoples' imaginations while providing information on how to conserve resources on a grassroots level. Recycle Runway partners with businesses, non-profits, governmental agencies, foundations and individuals who actively support environmental conservation.
Nancy Judd's Recycle Runway features dazzling outfits that are the culmination of ingenious re-use...a faux fur jacket made with endless loops of cassette and video tape, a dress train made of origami junk mail fans sewn together like fish scales, or an evening gown glittering with thousands of pieces of crushed recycled glass. The show travels with the designer, who in each community organizes and inspires people to respond to our environmental crises with creativity.
Ms. Judd has received commissions to create numerous recycled garments and accessories from Toyota®, Coca-Cola®, Novelis Recycling, the Glass Packaging Institute and Starbucks®.
"Youth education through presentations and workshops is a central component of Recycle Runway's environmental education mission."
Environmental educator, artist and recycling consultant, Nancy Judd started Recycled Runway seven years ago. While working as the Recycling Coordinator for the City of Santa Fe and then as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition, Ms. Judd recognized that art and fashion could be used to raise the environmental consciousness of the public in a fun and engaging way. Her project began with the Recycle Santa Fe Art Market and Fashion show, but soon grew into a collection of glamorous recycled fashions that now travel throughout the United States.read more at http://www.recyclerunway.com/
http://www.global-visionaries.orgGlobal Visionaries (GV) empowers youth from diverse socio-economic, ethnic, racial, and geographic backgrounds to become active leaders and global citizens who promote justice. Through socially conscious and environmentally focused education and community service in Seattle and abroad, and recognizing that youth need to work together to be the change for the future, GV encourages youth to seek alternative and innovative approaches to the problems facing their generation.
"We are educators, community leaders, high school students and parents of exceptionally diverse backgrounds. We partner with numerous other local and international organizations committed to our common goal for global social justice and environmental protection."
We believe in leadership in action. As United States and global citizens, we have a vested interest to provide young people opportunities to build friendships across racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds - both across local neighborhoods and national boundaries.
Through Global Visionaries, young people learn respect and acceptance of those different from them. This kind of education is critical for our democracy, a healthy global economy, and most importantly an integrated, peaceful co-existence in our own neighborhoods and in the international community.
Global Visionaries intentionally brings together 50% of participants from low-income families and 50% from middle/upper income families as well as students from many racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.
GV participants learn experimentally as they work side by side in community development projects--projects that greatly impact communities both in Guatemala and in the United States.
Global Visionaries is based in Seattle, Washington and Antigua, Guatemala with satellite offices in San Francisco, California and Northern Colorado.
Global Visionaries intentionally brings together 50% of participants from low-income families and 50% from middle/upper income families as well as students from many racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.
GV participants learn experimentally as they work side by side in community development projects--projects that greatly impact communities both in Guatemala and in the United States.
Check out Flicker to see all the Conservation Dream Theme panels submitted.
The Dream Rocket team will be featuring non-profit organizations from around the world on the "Dream Theme" pages. Our hope is to help inspire participants everywhere to create panels with "Dream Themes" such as poverty, energy, space, health, peace, science/technology, conservation, and community. If your non-profit oganization falls within one of our "Dream Theme" categories listed and you would like to be represented on The Dream Rocket website, please email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
To waste and destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.
-Theodore Roosevelt
Coral Reef Alliance http://www.coral.org/
Originally founded in 1994 to galvanize the dive community for conservation, CORAL has grown from a small, grassroots alliance into the only international nonprofit organization that w
orks exclusively to protect our planet's coral reefs. We provide tools, education, and inspiration to residents of coral reef destinations to support local projects that benefit both reefs and people. We currently work in Hawaii, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.
"We believe in the majesty and mystery of coral reefs, in their ability to teach, sustain, inspire, and give life."
We are their students and their protectors; we hold the knowing that if reefs die, we all die—plain and simple. And the reefs are dying, every day. They are being overheated by the rising temperatures of climate change, overfished by commercial fisherman, and overlooked by ambitious developers and tourism operators. But we can change this—together.
We hold the hope for reversing this crisis and believe in the power of community to make change, to find common ground, and to heal.
Coral reefs are the oldest biological communities on the planet. And to save this community, we must awaken others and remind them that we are all connected—to the reefs and to each other. We must build alliances and forge connections; we must unite to protect this precious resource.
We recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problems affecting the reefs of the world.
Instead, we work within the communities that surround each reef to create solutions that benefit reefs as well as the people who depend on them. Our programs are born out of necessity, out of the local community, and out of what makes sense on the ground right now.
read more at: http://www.coral.org/who_we_are
Coral Reef Education Materials Library
Our Goal with this educational library is to raise awareness about coral reefs and related ecosystems. Knowledge is crucial to coral reef survival, and this global collection of coral reef awareness tools will help local and regional programs maximize the resources and knowledge already available. Rather than researching and re-creating publications, we hope you will devote your time and money to outreach and conservation.
The Library contains descriptions of brochures, books, videos, and other items suitable for raising coral reef awareness and planning educational efforts. Each entry contains a brief description of the publication and contact information for ordering purposes. In some cases, publications are available for download directly from this Web site.
Browse through this library at: http://www.coral.org/resources/education-materials
www.visionsfortomorrow.net
Visions for Tomorrow brings together leaders in science, technology, art, architecture, education and policy to champion a fresh and hopeful outlook on the future and to advance the idea that individuals can affect significant and positive change.
Recognizing the rapid pace at which yesterday's science fiction is becoming today's and tomorrow's science fact, Syfy Channel has launched a new public affairs initiative, Visions for Tomorrow, to inspire individuals
, organizations, corporations and policymakers to meet the growing challenges of the future.
With the prevalence of war and global terrorism, the increasing frequency of natural disasters, and the impact of overpopulation and environmental degradation, there is growing public concern over our ability to solve these seemingly intractable problems. To address these powerful challenges, Syfy believes the world needs -- now more than ever -- an optimistic vision of the future.
Text Credit is courtesy of Visions for Tomorrow http://www.visionsfortomorrow.net/
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science."
- Albert Einstein
www.xprize.orgOverview
An X PRIZE is a $10 million+ award given to the first team to achieve a specific goal, set by the X PRIZE Foundation, which has the potential to benefit humanity. Rather than awarding money to honor past achievements or directly funding research, an X PRIZE incites innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirits.
There are many types of competitions and awards around the world, but an X PRIZE is in a class by itself. What sets us apart from other non-profit organizations is our ability to frame a challenge and incentivize a solution in a way that our efforts and funds are multiplied exponentially by the teams who strive to compete and win the prize.
Ansari X Prize (Won)
On October 4, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured the world's attention when we awarded the largest prize in history, the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, to Scaled Composites for their craft SpaceShipOne.
To win the prize, famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen led the first private team to build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, twice within two weeks.
Spaceflight was no longer the exclusive realm of government. With that single flight, and the winning of the $10 million
Ansari X PRIZE, a new industry was born.
The Ansari X PRIZE was modeled after the Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for being the first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris, and mirrored the hundreds of aviation incentive prizes offered early in the 20th century that helped create today's $300 billion commercial aviation industry. Dr. Peter Diamandis designed the prize after reading The Spirit of St. Louis about the winning of the Orteig Prize. In 1996, he formally announced the prize in St. Louis, and the race was on.
read more at: http://space.xprize.org/ansari-x-prize
Check out Flicker to see all the Energy Dream Theme panels submitted.
The Dream Rocket team will be featuring non-profit organizations from around the world on the "Dream Theme" pages. Our hope is to help inspire participants everywhere to create panels with "Dream Themes" such as poverty, energy, space, health, peace, science/technology, conservation, and community. If your non-profit oganization falls within one of our "Dream Theme" categories listed and you would like to be represented on The Dream Rocket website, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Nearly 11,500 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Nearly two-thirds of these people are living in sub-Saharan Africa
The Challenge
Although HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are three treatable and preventable diseases, they are having a devastating impact in the world's poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 90% of malaria deaths, two-thirds of all people living with HIV, and nearly one-third of all TB cases. The human impact of these three diseases is undeniable, but their social and economic impacts are also severe and measureable. In sub-Saharan Africa especially, AIDS threatens to wipe out an entire generation during its most productive years. Businesses are losing their workers, governments are losing their civil servants, and families are losing not only their loved ones, but also their breadwinners.
The Opportunity
The tools to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are affordable, effective, and already saving millions of lives each year. For example, thanks to successful efforts to push down the price of medication and the establishment of programs such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence in the world's poorest countries. An estimated 3.2 million Africans are now receiving HIV/AIDS medication, up from only 50,000 people in 2002. Treatment for tuberculosis has also become more available -- nearly 32 million cases of TB were treated between 1995 and 2008.
Progress is also being made in preventing the spread of these three diseases. 88 million bed nets to protect families from malaria have been delivered by the Global Fund alone, and over half a million pregnant women with HIV received medicine to prevent passing the virus on to their babies (up from only 150,000 women in 2004).
Read more...
http://www.one.org/c/us/issue/187/
Brought to you by ONE www.one.org
Health and intellect are the two blessings of life. - Menander
(Medecins Sans Frontieres - MSF) www.msf.org
www.doctorswithoutborders.org
After Cyclone Aila: Outsmarting the Floods
A journal by an MSF water and sanitation expert
July 10, 2009
Kathy Dedieu is working as a water and sanitation specialist in the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency project in Bangladesh following Cyclone Aila. The disaster contaminated many water sources, and ongoing flooding during high tides makes it difficult to clean and repair them. It’s Dedieu’s job to come up with alternative ways to get safe drinking water.
July 4: Looking for a dry spot
It is my third day here in Satkira District of Bangladesh. About six weeks ago, this place was inundated with water when Cyclone Aila hit and broke many levees in a region where people live at or below sea level. The result was much like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans: the water just poured in, and a lot of it hasn’t left, even weeks later. Some areas are flooded again during every high tide. Elsewhere, the water is just sitting.
When the ocean broke through the levees, it brought salt water to the area’s drinking water supply. People in this area of Bangladesh get their water from large rainwater-collecting man-made ponds that have a sand filter at the end for treatment, or from deep tube wells that have a hand pump on top. The man-made ponds are now filled with salty, undrinkable water which needs to be pumped out so that the pond can be filled with fresh water. The tube wells need to be repaired and improved, and disinfected with chlorine. In some places, the population has moved to the top of the levee for now, the only dry place during high tide. These people lost everything and need to start at square one.
MSF is helping in several ways right now, and yesterday I assisted in the distribution of non-food items. This is a kit we are giving to the survivors of the storm, and it includes some rope, some buckets and plastic sheeting so that the families can collect rain water to drink. Today, I was with the medical team at a mobile clinic and saw several families using the supplies MSF had given them. They stake the plastic sheeting out at a slight slope to collect the maximum amount of rain water, which collects in the buckets. Now that monsoon season has started, it rains heavily almost every day, so this is a good source of drinking water for them. The monsoon will also help fill the emptied man-made ponds with fresh water.
Read more at: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news
“WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.
In the 21st century, health is a shared responsibility, involving equitable access to essential care and collective defence against transnational threats."
When diplomats met to form the United Nations in 1945, one of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization.
WHO’s Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day. “
“The site provides interesting information regarding current health issues such as AIDS and Tuberculosis. It describes its current initiatives in eradicating debilitating diseases in addition to its success in ending the smallpox epidemic. Overall, it is very informative.
"The famous powerhouse of information on world health." - JDH
"This site is available in six languages with a plethora of information that is waiting to be accessed." - FRH
Thank you Hearts & Minds www.heartsandminds.org
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Quilt Exhibition: (on display for 60 days) May & June 2010
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