the African Uptimist

Congratulations, AfriGadget!

  AfriGadget, that brave new face of the "can do" attitude personified has joined the prestigious community of  Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites 2008!  Anita Hamilton talks briefly about the process she used in selecting the list and some personal favorites here. i learned about this from Collins Mbalo of the Nairobian's Perspective yesterday.

Congratulations to Eric Hersman, Founder of AfriGadget, and his tireless team of editors who are diligently uncovering the "international development news that doesn't make it onto CNN" and the rest of the mainstream media.  Here's a short blurb on each of them:

• Erik himself grew up in Sudan and Kenya. He is a passionate advocate of change brought about through the smart use of technology. He started and runs the WhiteAfrican personal blog.
• Steve Mugiri is one of the most dedicated editors who is deeply committed to ensuring top quality content.  He has sourced some of the most popular stories on AfriGadget to date. Check out Steve's blog at Ntwiga.
• Juliana Chebet is one of the founding AfriGadget editors. A Kenyan with an engineering degree and a heart for solar power, she currently lives in Chicago, from where she runs Afromusing.
• Juergen Eichholz is a German water & sanitation specialist who, like Eric, grew up in East Africa.  He "has a knack for finding interesting stories that go beyond the normal found on AfriGadget." Now, that's saying something when you realize this: 'normal' on AfriGadget is already parsecs beyond what goes for 'normal' in mainstream media coverage of events in Africa!  Visit Juergen's blog Kikuyumoja’s Realm.

Eric is always at pains to point out that AfriGadget is "a team blog done by Africans all around the world. Stories are sent in to the various authors and they post them - so anyone can contribute" (see comment section of this post over at the treehugger).  This attitude, among other personal attributes of this remarkable individual, is at the root of AfriGadget's success.  As we celebrate AfriGadget's achievements today, one cannot help but wonder how the future will unfold for its growing community of contributors and readers.  Only time will tell the success stories yet to come.

Obama’s Commencement Address at Wesleyan University

"Wow. He makes me cry. And driven to get things done."  That was how tri_blog described his feelings on his journal "Lost in Transition" after hearing Obama's address yesterday at Wesleyan University.  It's hard not to share the feeling after watching the video--with an open mind, that is. i for one learned quite a lot about Obama, and also liked his take on the responsibilities of this generation of Americans concerning energy, climate change and development:

At a time when our ice caps are melting and our oceans are rising, we need you to help lead a green revolution. We still have time to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change if we get serious about investing in renewable sources of energy, and if we get a generation of volunteers to work on renewable energy projects, and teach folks about conservation, and help clean up polluted areas; if we send talented engineers and scientists abroad to help developing countries promote clean energy.

Most interesting...

The “Food versus Fuel” debate is (almost) over: what next for African energy strategy?

Citing researchers working for IEA Bioenergy, Biopact reports that "Africa could produce more than 400 Exajoules of exportable and sustainably produced biofuels by 2050, without impacting the food, fuel and fiber needs of its rapidly growing populations. This is roughly the amount of energy currently used by the entire world from all sources (oil, gas, nuclear, renewables)." In other words, we can—technically at least--meet all our energy needs from biofuels, and even export surpluses, without suffering the catastrophic food shortages prophesied by some opponents of biofuels; we can have our food and burn it. Good. But I would caution against drawing the tempting conclusion from this report that Africa can pursue biofuels as the main (if not the only) solution to its energy problems. History and common-sense show that such 'silver bullet' strategies are inherently insecure. What if—touch wood—after becoming totally reliant on biofuels, the feedstocks that supply Africa's biofuel refineries of the future are either wiped out or seriously compromised by some devastating disease? It would be tantamount to jumping from the proverbial frying pan of expensive fossil fuels into the fire of biofuel insecurity. In my opinion, Africa's energy experts, governments and international agencies must see biofuels for the region as part of a least-cost mix of alternative energy sources, rather than another 'one best way' to eliminate energy poverty. I would celebrate the end of the food versus biofuels debate only if it does not give rise to a new tyranny of biofuels taking over from the authoritarian global fossil energy regime, with its own version of the energy insecurities and scarcities under which oil-importing countries currently suffer.

Delaware university researchers set new record for solar cells

Although dog-tired and jet-lagged from a working visit to New York last week, I was energised just now to read that two scientists at the University of Delaware have just created a new device that can convert 42.8% of the light striking it into electricity.  Given that most solar cells today can barely manage 20% efficiency, this is a pretty big jump, and brings us closer to the day when solar cells will constitute a significant part of building energy systems.  The new record narrowly beats that set last year by Spectrolab.  African energy planners should be watching this space...

Changing the message of the environmental movement

The Good Human has just joined my favorite bloggers' list for crafting a short but brilliant piece of advice for the environmental movement in a post titled "Stop worrying, the planet will survive."  The writer does not mince words:

...[T]he average human sees the earth as much bigger than themselves, and thus much more powerful…and as such can fix itself without our help. And in fact it will…by getting rid of us.

If we continue our "unending assault on the environment," then we should expect to pay the ultimate price when the planet--which doesn't take prisoners by the way--strikes back.  The Good Human advises that a better way to get people to give a damn about global warming is to prove to them that it as an imposition on their own personal lives.  Despite a few inconsistencies here and there, The Good Human's central message should be treated with utmost seriousness as a timely word to the wise.

Nelson Mandela Bay residents to benefit from historic renewable power deals

First of all, congratulations and happy 89th birthday to the incomparable Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders in our modern era.  For the residents of Nelson Mandela bay, South Africa, July 2007 also marks another important event in their lives--their municipality made history on July 4th as "...the first local authority in the country to kick-start renewable energy projects valued at billions of rands, aimed at providing its residents with reliable and affordable alternative energy."  Reporting on this revolutionary achievement, Max Matavire of Solar Intelligence explains:

Four renewable energy contracts were signed between the municipality and a consortium of companies led by Lereko Sustainability and the Central Energy Fund, bringing to an end months of highly technical negotiations.  The consortium will be involved in three of the four projects, but one will be done jointly with Straits Group, which is already involved in the multi-million rand chemical plant to be built at Coega IDZ.  The actual projects to be implemented in two to three months are the demand side management, also called energy efficiency, the solar water geyser project and the landfill gas in which methane gas is to be utilised.  The fourth project...which will be finalised in the “near future” [will utilize] wind energy from the wind farms and small scale hydro electricity projects.

In these times of climate change and energy insecurity, it is good to see Nelson Mandela bay residents and leaders blazing a clean energy path to a sustainable future.  They must have been inspired, no doubt by some of that vision, wisdom and courage that Mandela brought, and continues to bring to African--nay--global society, politics, and life.  As we celebrate this 89th year of his life, we wish him continued good health and happiness for many, many more years to come.

Web 3.0?!

Just when i thought we had the "Web 2.0" thing down pat, here comes the How to Split an Atom site with the longest blog post i have ever read talking about--"Web 3.0"?  They define Web 3.0 as "Highly specialized information silos, moderated by a cult of personality, validated by the community, and put into context with the inclusion of meta-data through widgets," and go on to elaborate.  For me, the most convincing is what they have to say about search:

• Search engines will be replaced by smaller, specialized searchlets
• Search engines will be able to understand context through tagging and community interaction.
• Search “profiles” will become portable, allowing us to have the digital equivalent of body language.
• Natural language search will be improved once search engines have a stronger understanding of context.
• People search will become more important.
• Guided / Editorial search will be a stopgap where search engines still fail to provide relevance.

The 2007 AfricaLoft Cyber Essay Competition

AfricanLoft is marking its official launch as a "platform for Africans and Afrophiles worldwide" with, among other activities, an essay competition. They invite competitors to "pick and discuss" any or all of the following:

• My Greatest Life Challenge
  • An essay on your greatest life challenge or challenges
• My Best Adventure Story
  • Present your best adventure story ever
• I’m Going to Rant!
  • Just rant about an issue that bugs the living daylights out of you.

Check out the AfricanLoft site for more information, and start writing!

Live Earth, Climate Change and African priorities

Kofi Bentil speaks for millions of Africans when he observes that most of them have "neither television nor electricity" and hence will be unable to "...see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff during the series of Live Earth concerts..." taking place this weekend.  Kofi might not yet be aware that a power system featuring a combination of renewable electricity  and energy efficient appliances is at least 10 times cheaper than one dominated by oil.  This is the main reason--rather than just climate change--why it makes sense for African countries to consider integrating more renewable energy and energy efficiency into their energy portfolios.

Nevertheless, Kofi scores some very good points with the following hard-hitting message to the promoters of the Live Earth concerts, and some African leaders--especially the so-called hippos:

Even if we accept that global warming may have a significant effect on our climate, limiting the use of fossil fuels in Africa would be counterproductive. Respiratory infections are the leading cause of childhood deaths on my continent, mainly from inhaling the smoke produced by burning wood and dung in our quaint mud huts...
The second leading cause of childhood deaths is not malaria or AIDS, it is diarrhoea, caused by drinking dirty water. Why is our water dirty? Mainly because we lack cheap, efficient means of pumping and cleaning it. That requires fossil fuels--either directly or to produce electricity...
An underlying cause of many health problems in Africa is malnutrition. This is a consequence both of inefficient farming and poor food distribution. To rectify this situation will mean using cheap and relatively clean fuels, such as gasoline and diesel.
(Of course we also need better roads--which can only be built using machines that burn… fossil fuels.)
Unfortunately, our beggarly governments are very susceptible to diktats from on high, especially when they are offered aid (which they use to line the coffers of their bank accounts): don’t encourage them!

So, Kofi Bentil has some very good points, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.  For one thing, it would be short-sighted for African countries to embark on an all-out pursuit of fossil energy systems in the name of 'development.' Many dangers lurk in ambush along that route, not the least of which are the economic and political instabilities associated with oil supply chains.  Oil imports gobble up sizable chunks of African countries' GDPs, accounting in some countries for up to 50 percent of their total import bill.  We all know the situation in many oil producing regions at this time. These issues seem to be getting worse, not better.  Faced with high, unstable and generally rising costs of reliance on oil-based energy economies, African countries are better advised to pursue a more balanced energy strategy: invest in cleaner fossil technologies as intermediate solutions, while seriously pursuing a long-term agenda of renewable energy and energy efficiency for sustainable development.

The "jesting seriousness" of Global Warming

Professor John Brignell has devoted his site, Number Watch, "...to the monitoring of the misleading numbers that rain down on us via the media."  He wants to nail at least a few of the "growing band of people whose livelihoods depend on creating and maintaining panic...[and] some who are trying to keep numbers away from your notice and others who hope that you will not  make comparisons..."  Although he doesn't attempt to separate the bogus from the serious facts about climate change, his "complete list of things caused by global warming" makes good reading for the discerning reviewer.  It also helps, in going through the list to note that Brignell is obviously inspired by John Marston, the "savage and misanthropic" English satirist of the 16th century who wrote "The Scourge of Villanie."  An excerpt of his namesake's work adorns  John's 21st century webpage: " In serious jest and jesting seriousness, I strive to scourge polluting beastliness."

clipped from www.numberwatch.co.uk A complete list of things caused by global warming