According to the United Nations 170,000 square kilometres of forest is destroyed each year. If we constructed solar farms at the same rate, we would be finished in 3 years. This would require only 12 times the land area currently devoted to golf courses.
The influence of the Mercator projection runs deep –Africa is much bigger than most people think. Check out this map (c/o Owen Barder)
And while we’re on Owen Barder’s blog, read some pingpong over his criticisms of Oxfam’s call for raising $280bn from innovative forms of financing (see my blog here) and a nice piece on the case for more ‘advance market commitments’ to overcome the financial obstacles to pro-poor research in a range of technologies.
The latest in Oxfam’s excellent series of country case studies of the impact of climate change and how communities are adapting comes from Nepal. Find out how poor communities are facing up to a horror story of melting glaciers, rising temperatures and catastrophic ‘Glacial Lake Outburst Floods’.
‘The economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.’ Paul Krugman takes on the maths geeks (and John Keats) as he reflects on the punctured hubris of the economics profession in an important essay in the New York Times magazine.
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy are seeking entries from inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy programmes from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Entry is free, and up to six winners will receive £20,000 each in prize money for programme development, with one overall Energy Champion awarded £40,000. Check out short video clips of last year’s winners here.
And this is what success in climate talks looks like – a handy (and moving) reminder from Alex Evans of the breakthrough moment at the Bali climate summit in 2007.