environment

We only have a limited amount of freshwater on this planet, so how do we use it? Petra Kjell reflects on World Water Week 2011. When did you last think about the many different ways water influences our lives? For me, a yearly reminder is the World Water Week conference in Stockholm, which gathers some of the most prominent scientists, thinkers and others interested in water iss

I wasn’t sure what this blog’s theme would be, I intended to just update you on the week’s activities but it seems to have evolved into a blog about the environment. Climate change muralAfter being ill, I got back to work on Wednesday, where we finished the climate change mural in the school. I painted a few flowers – I was afraid to do anything importan

I just got back from El Salvador where I went to see an environmental project in El Tamarindo, travelling with Maggie von Vogt, our development worker specialising in communications and advocacy.  El Tamarindo is on the coast (“el tamarindo” is also a slang word here for thief, but I digress). The community is by a river delta that comes through the mangrove and out to the sea.

Yesterday I visited some Progressio partners in the place known as Nahuaterique in Honduras. Set high up in the mountains bordering El Salvador, the lush fields of maize, interspersed between a mixture of pine and deciduous forest, belie the fact that many of the 7,000 or so inhabitants are in fact malnourished, only 250 of the 4,000 children can go to school, and the whole population is effect

The Horn of Africa region, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan, is currently experiencing a severe food security crisis. How is this affecting Somaliland, and how is Progressio responding?

After two years of lobbying and campaigning, is the world finally waking up to water? Two years ago, I first made the journey to Bonn in Germany for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on water resources together with our colleagues in the Water and Climate Coalition. I spent many

It’s fashionable to talk about climate change these days, and super fashionable to talk about ‘recuperating ecosystems’ in order to adapt to climate change. Well, who better to talk about all this than a group of people who 1) you don’t have to convince about the value of protecting the ecosystems, 2) are fun to be around, and 3) are the future generations? Who better, in fact, t

Great expectations In June 1992, nations from around the world gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or the Earth Summit, to discuss the state of the world’s environment. It was a big summit with high international profile – over half of the national delegations sent their head of state or government to attend.

In recent years, Zimbabwe has started to promote the growth of crops for biofuels – but what does this mean for food security, asks Progressio development worker Angeline Mujeyi… Faced by ever-rising fossil fuel prices, Zimbabwe has started to promote jatropha production in order to use its seeds to produce biodiesel. Some argue that fuel-generating crops like jatrop

Petra Kjell reflects on the importance of water and the daily struggle to find it. Today is World Water Day. It’s celebrated around the world to remind ourselves of the importance of water.