Worldchanging board chair Ethan Zuckerman is in Africa, covering the TED Global conference. – ed Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete took the stage with Dr. Larry Brilliant of Google.org and Bruce McNeighbor of Technoserve. Dr. Brilliant announces his support for “Believe, Begin, Become,” a national business plan competition, modeled on the successful experiment Google and Technoserve operated this past year in Ghana. He emphasizes the importance of job creation and business development as critical parts of economic development. Brilliant describes the program as “tried and tested” in Africa and Latin America, where it accompanies investment with intensive entrepreneurship training. He notes that Databank, a Ghanaian investment fund, has launched a $2 million “3B” venture fund to invest in these businesses over five years, investing between $50,000 and $150,000 in businesses that are recognized in the contest. Bruce McNeighbor outlines a timeframe for the project – it formally launces next week in Dar es Salaam and will start training entrepeneurs and helping them craft concepts into business plans over the next five months. At the graduation ceremony, 10 will be awarded capital, and 20 will be awarded certificates to allow entrepeneurs to purchase business services in Tanzania. President Kikwete acknowledges a… (more)

(Posted by Ethan Zuckerman in Social Entrepreneurship at 9:45 AM)

 

The new book A Slice of Organic Life might be better described as A Gigantic Slice of Organic Life. This is not your average-sized serving of tips on how to incorporate more green into your life; it is super-sized. While he book itself is not overly large (it will fit nicely on a bookshelf), it's the content that overflows.

Editor-in-chief Sheherazade Goldsmith packs A Slice of Organic Life full of tips and diy projects for living more naturally, or organically, if you will, whether you live in a tiny New York City apartment, a moderate abode with some outdoor space, a large suburban house with a big yard, or a big ol' farm with a few acres. There are a variety of different suggestions compelete with easy, step-by-step instructions and guidelines. Also rampant in this volume are beautiful, colorful photographs which make a simple flip through the book enjoyable, and give a hearty visual representation of each tip presented.

The book is sectioned off into three parts: 1) No Need for a Yard, 2) Roof Terrace, Patio or Tiny Yard, and 3) Yard, Community Garden, or Field. Within each section, however, are ideas for both small and large spaces: from making and freezing baby foods, to collecting rainwater, growing chili peppers, making summer fruit jam, using renewable energy, planting herbs indoors, keeping honey bees and raising your own chickens.

I live on the Palouse (a region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho), which is famous for its rolling hills and crops such as wheat and lentils. When I think of eating locally-grown foods, lentils instantly come to mind. In fact, lentils are taken quite seriously here. In nearby Pullman, Washington, there is even an annual Lentil Festival celebrating the lovely legume. No, I'm not kidding.

The Palouse is known as the most important lentil growing region in the United States, producing about a third of all lentils grown nationally. So obviously, local lentils are easy to come by around here, and thankfully they don't have to travel far, which makes them a very sustainable option. There is a large lentil farm just a few miles east of me, and many varieties of local and organic lentils abound in the Co-op's bulk bins. Lentils are a great vegan source of protein, fiber, and other nutrients, so they are one of my favorite kitchen staples.

Rokia Traoré welcomes the assembled crowd to the first session of TED Global 2007, “The Africa You Don’t Know,” with a beautiful Malian song. I’m thrilled to see Chris Anderson joined on stage by my friend Emeka Okafor, the remarkable Nigerian entrepreneur, thinker and blogger who’s put together this program. Emeka is clearly nervous to be on stage, co-hosting with Chris… but he deserves the honor given the amazing work he’s done. Euvin Naidoo, the VP of Standard Bank in South Africa, welcomes us home to Africa. He invites the crowd to shout out the worst we’ve heard about Africa: corruption, famine, AIDS, slave trade. “But this is about Africa, the story we’ve not heard.” Africa is on a turnaround, in terms of how it manages its public image and how it manages its destiny. Naidoo’s background is in turnarounds, beginning his work with McKinsey in South Africa. As a graduate student in the US, he wrote a case study on turnaround, focusing on Nelson Mandela – this became part of a book called “Confidence”, written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Naidoo has tremendous pride that an African story was used as an example of turnaround for US corporations. Naidoo uses… (more)

(Posted by Ethan Zuckerman in Energy at 8:50 PM)

“Health and Heroism” is the theme of the second session this morning. Chris Anderson introduces the session by framing some of the difficult health issues, using maps from WorldMapper.com, cartograms that distort the world map to show statistical factors. Maps that show HIV prevalence and malaria prevalence inflate Africa to a huge size; maps that show public and private health spending and working physicians shrink Africa almost to invisibility. Lisa Goldman, in a three minute talk, reminds us that we’ve got tools that are effective against malaria: artemisinin, interior spraying with DDT and insecticide impregnated nets. The nets cost roughly $10 each and last 5 years – the problem is distribution, as they’re bulky and hard to transport. Ernest Chijioke Madu picks up an earlier theme: HIV and malaria are huge problems for Africa, but we need to address more “conventional” healthcare issues as well. More people in Africa die from heart disease and stroke than in the US. Cardiovascular disease kills 17 million people a year. 85% of global mortality is in developing nations, but 90% of medical spending and resources are in the North. “What will happen if you have a heart attack in your hospital room?”, Dr… (more)

(Posted by Ethan Zuckerman in Health at 8:33 PM)

The merits of beer have been heralded from the plays of Shakespeare to the roofs of frat houses. Almost all of us have sipped a cold one at least once (or several thousand) times in our lives. Have you ever given a thought, however, to that bottle in your hands? In a time when we're becoming more clever in creating dual-purpose functions from the most obscure of items, the beer bottle has found a new afterlife: assisting in the creation of hot water.

Sure, this probably isn't very new. With the right materials to capture heat, almost anyone can create their own hot water. This is the first time, however, that I've seen a beer bottle solar collector used so effectively. If necessity in the mother of invention, then Ma Yanjun from China's Shaanxi province is proof that a little motherly love can push you in the right direction. Yanjun came up with the idea of stringing together a collection of green beer bottles to heat water after his Mother became less than comfortable with their previous setup. From the article,

Uber-Eco-Towers: The Top Ten Green Skyscrapers
New Device Turns Waste Heat into Electricity
Sooty Vessels Try to Turn Green
Eating Radiation: A New Form of Energy?
Building Better Biofuels

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(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 6:49 PM)

We are pleased to announce the launch of Worldchanging’s new podcast series, hosted by our colleague and ally, Jennifer Leonard.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Media at 5:38 AM)

A couple of events happening this weekend came across our radar over the last few days, and we thought you might be interested

Tonight in San Diego, the newly-formed Eco-Investment Club will hold a "Greenmeet" at the Hotel Solamar (downtown). International real estate investment strategist Gary H. London, of the London Group, will be speaking about his recently-published article “Green Economics as Applied to Development." Gary will be joined by Kyle Cross and Ruben Robles of Destino Real Estate; they will speak on "Wholesaling Green Propeties."

Tickets for the event are $25 for the general public, and $10 for club members — details and ticketing information are available at the Club's website. We're especially pleased to announce this event, as Eco-Investment Club founder Yeves Perez will soon be joining the Green Options writing team!

On the other coast, in New York City, Tomorrow Unlimited will present Jennifer Leonard, a designer and writer who co-authored Massive Change, and Sarah Rich, a solutions-based journalist who co-authored Worldchanging: A Users Guide to the 21st Century in a discussion entitled "Sustaining Change." Jennifer and Sarah will explore ideas about making the ideas of sustainability sustainable themselves for the long haul. They’ll also discuss ways their own thinking on sustainability has changed since completing their respective projects. In doing so, they’ll ask questions about the role of innovative design and technology in our global future, confront the trendiness of contemporary environmental thinking, and consider the importance of change itself for the long-term viability of the sustainable movement.

Our guest blogger, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

If you have a garden, you know the climate is warming. In temperate zones, the last frost in spring comes earlier, and the first frost in fall comes later. The longer growing season may allow you to grow vegetables you never could grow before. But you also may have noticed your weeds are more aggressive, insect pests are more of a problem, and pollen plagues you all summer long. You're not imagining things!

For over 40 years, gardeners have relied on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map as a guide to what they can grow in their area. But the USDA zone map hasn't been updated since 1990, and gardeners have seen detectable shifts since that time.

In 2003, the American Horticultural Society (AHS) updated the zone map with a grant from the USDA, and published a draft of the new map [PDF] in The American Gardener. Based on temperature information from July 1986 to March 2002, the map showed widespread warming, with zones edging northward.

The USDA rejected the new map without explaining why, and said they would update it themselves. Four years have passed and still they have not released a new map. But the National Arbor Day Foundation has just released one, current for 2006. Like the 1990 and 2003 maps, the Arbor Day map is based on 15 years of data. The changes between 1990 and 2006 are dramatic; the U.S. is clearly getting warmer.