Africa

Climate Change and Nigeria

A population explosion. Sluggish economy. Weak governance. Serious climate impacts. What could possibly go wrong?

By the time my youngest granddaughter is thirty, Nigeria will be the world’s third-largest country. It’s also one of the countries that’s least prepared to adapt to climate change, which will be much worse by then. Nigeria’s population is expected to roughly double by 2050, to around 400 million.  The population was previously expected to …

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Will House Republicans Save Food Aid Reform?

These next 48 hours are critical for advancing reform of US international food aid, which I have blogged about previously.  Short version: because current rules essentially demand that we provide aid in food grown in the US via government subsidy, our current aid regime wastes money, delays delivery of aid by weeks, lines the pockets …

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US Food Aid Rules: If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention

The Obama Administration announced yesterday that it wants to change US food aid rules to allow for more “local procurement” of food aid in the countries that need it.  Predictably, the special interests are aghast.  But the administration is right: current food aid rules are among the most egregious special interest legislation in the world …

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5 Things You Need to Know About Africa

Africa is going to be an increasingly important area in the future, if only because a higher percentage of the human race will be living there.  Here are some key things you should know about sub-Saharan Africa: Population growth. The African population will reach 1.2 billion by 2025, and 1.9 billion by 2050.  Currently, 40% of the …

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Hard and Easy Environmental Questions: A Talk With Ikal Angelei

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IOw9tsS-aI] Ikal Angelei is one of the world’s pre-eminent environmental justice activists: she is the founder of Friends of Lake Turkana, which (as the name suggests) seeks to preserve Lake Turkana from the massive Gibe III Dam planned by the Ethiopian government and World Bank.  As the name does not suggest, the issue is …

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World Environment Day

It may well have escaped your notice — I have to admit it had escaped mine — but today is World Environment Day.  UNEP has chosen Rwanda as the main site for this year’s celebration, which is one reason you might not have known about this if you’re in North America.  You may also be …

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New and Noteworthy in the Eco-Blogosphere

For the environmental world at large, here are some noteworthy posts: Africa needs substantially scaled-up finance, technology and capacity-building to combat climate change 2009 Hurricane Names to Watch for, as Season Begins After a record-breaking 2008 hurricane season, the first storm has formed before the official June 1 start to the 2009 season. The hydrogen …

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