Blog Action Day

Yes, today is Blog Action Day, when all bloggers are encouraged to write about environmental issues.



You already know that I’m committed to ending poverty by supporting the Millennium Development Goals. And you know that my focus is on giving the poorest kids an education that will break the cycle of poverty in their family, community and country. That’s why I support the fantastic work being done by the School of St Jude in Arusha, Tanzania.

I am also strongly committed to environmental sustainability. So I want to support Blog Action Day by listing the various things I am doing to lower my environmental footprint.

• I drive a Prius.
• At home we recycle paper, plastics and metals; and we run a compost heap.
• We eat vegetables (five serves a day!) and fish and chicken, in preference to beef, lamb and pork.
• We think twice before buying ANYTHING.
• We use gas instead of electricity for hot water and heating.
• My business aims to be carbon neutral in the next twelve months.

What can you do to lower your carbon footprint? Here's a totally funky calculator where you can measure your carbon footprint and see where to start to make the biggest cuts.

I keep thinking about the possibility of introducing solar power to the School of St Jude. It would be a very sustainable alternative to the reliance on diesel generators for electricity at the school. This is one of the things that I want to explore when I visit the School – maybe next year.

Two blogs that I like for information about environmental issues are:

New Scientist Blog
and
RealClimate

So, how many Environment-related blog posts have you read today? I haven't seen as many as I thought I would. But maybe that because I'm in Australia, and the rest of the world hasn't arrived in Monday as yet.

Read a bit, do a bit. If you're not on a learning curve, you're going nowhere.

Dynamic map of African history

Here’s a gorgeous thing from Brown University.

Animated Atlas of African History

The Animated Atlas of African History is a map that shows year-by-year changes of selected themes in the history of Africa between 1879 and 2002. Toggle buttons allow you to select which thematic layers to activate. Choices include:

• Territory names
• Changing boundaries, imperial rulers and political systems
• Violent conflicts
• Economic and demographic trends

You can advance or reverse the chronology and change the speed and pause on particular years. The site also offers a textual summary of the year-by-year changes. The Flash-based animation may be operated interactively on the web or downloaded as Mac OS X or Windows executibles.

The map is designed to be an instructional tool at the secondary and college levels as well as for the general learner.

Brown University teaches a course in African Environmental History. Check out the online course guide for some great resources.

What a great educational resource! And because it is online, the kids at St Judes can use it to learn about African history. I love it when these extremely poor children living in homes with dirt floors and no electricity can access excellent learning resources like this!

Thanks Brown University! This outreach program is great!



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Footprints – are yours too big?

A footprint is the mark we leave behind – a sign that we were here.

WB Yeats said, “Tread lightly because you tread on my dreams.”

The future is a dream, a possibility that is created by our actions now. We need to be intentional if we are to build the future we want, if we are to bring dreams to reality.

A bright future is not our birthright, it is just one of the many alternatives that lie in front of us and our children.

Gemma's book will be published in April

Gemma Sisia grew up with the glimmer of hope that she might live her life in Africa and contribute towards breaking the cycle of enduring poverty. She took steps into the unknown, unsure how to bring this dream to reality. Now, she find that she is living the reality in Tanzania and, with the help of world-wide hundreds of people, her footprint will be large and confident.

An environmental footprint describes how much land is required to maintain a lifestyle. People who live very simply require very few resources and their environmental footprint is small. People in the affluent West, who have plenty of food, good transport and leisure for holidays leave large footprints.

When we add up all the environmental footprints – the too-small footprints of the millions living in extreme poverty, and the too-big footprints of the millions living in comfort – we can see how much of the Earth’s resources are being used.

What if everyone lived your lifestyle? Is the planet big enough to support everyone?

You can check out the size of your footprint at Ecofoot. Their handy gadget will do the calculations for you and show how many global hectacres are needed to sustain your lifestyle. And how many planets would we need if everyone lived like you do.

Some things will need to change if we are to bring about a bright future for all of us.

I think I’ll start today, with one small thing. I’ll leave the car at home.



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