March 2015

Urban agriculture: Growing food in our cities

City dwellers have been growing their own food for millennia, but the concept of urban agriculture been formally recognised in research and public policy since the mid 1990s. Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has played a leading role in forging this new discipline and raising awareness of it. In issue 25 of Urban Agriculture Magazine – RUAF 10 years, IDRC program officer and urban agriculture (UA) specialist Luc Mougeot traces the achievements of this young field and the challenges its practitioners face. Taking the lead Before the 1990s, interest in unregulated ‘city farming’ had been largely confined to academic research, often conducted by individual scholars who approached UA primarily from the viewpoint of the informal economy. The rising costs of energy and food, water shortages, and worries about food safety shifted the perspective on city farming toward concerns like food security, eco-development, and self-reliance. Later still, it moved toward urban environmental management and sustainability issues such as waste recycling. In the early 1990s development assistance organisations began placing UA on their agendas. Mougeot traces this growing attention to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. UNCEDÕs Agenda 21 plan encouraged local governments to become involved in managing city environments. In the same year the United Nations Development Programme, as Mougeot puts it, “invited IDRC to take the lead on UA.” IDRC’s efforts accelerated to become a full program of work, highlighted by two phases of its ambitious Cities Feeding People research initiative carried out from 1996 to 2005. Bearing fruit Also during that decade, local governments worldwide began paying attention to UA and raising the issue in international forums, particularly the United Nations. One important side-effect of this shift was that the UN system became more receptive to implementing its own initiatives […]

The power under the ocean

Japan is known to be a country with few natural energy resources. Her current energy self-sufficiency rate is only 4%, although it is normally closer to 20% if nuclear power stations, currently almost all off-line, are included. Japan depends on oil for more than 50% of the energy supply, importing about 90% of it from the Middle East with all the political and security risks to stability of supply involved. Under these circumstances, Japan has been expanding her horizons in the search for sources of energy. Through marine research, the seabed around Japan has started to show the first glimmers of being an unopened treasure chest of potential energy. Methane hydrate, otherwise known as ‘Burning Ice’, is the only energy resource mined in Japan apart from coal. Experimental drilling off the Atumi peninsula ran from February to March this year as part of a national research project. According to the published results, the volume of methane hydrate deposits is estimated to be the equivalent 90 to 100 years of Japan’s natural gas consumption. There are substantial reserves of methane hydrate between 100 to 300 meters from the seabed in the sea off Niigata and around the East Nankai Trough. Developing this field would be the world’s first trial of offshore production of methane hydrate. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) research organisation under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has led this project, supported by the deep-sea scientific drilling vessel ‘Chikyu’, operated by Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) under Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. There are still a lot of issues to be resolved before industrial production can begin, such reduction of mining costs, but the Government has high expectations. The Chikyu research vessel has made a number of other significant […]

Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain

By Elaine Fox $34.99 Random House This is a fascinating, informative and uplifting popular science book exploring optimism and pessimism. The author looks at why some of us are innately optimistic or pessimistic (including notorious extremes such as Michael J Fox), how emotions such as fear, anxiety and pleasure play out in our brains, and – most excitingly – how each of us can ultimately develop a more positive outlook. This is pop science at its most accessible, and while Elaine’s overall message is positive, she’s careful to debunk many of the myths of ‘instant happiness’ or ‘positive psychology’. Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence or Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide. So there’s an element of e.g. Barbara Ehrenreich’s Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled the World, Oliver Burkeman’s Help! how to become slightly happier and get a bit more done

How do you build an international university from Scratch?

By Francisco Marmolejo Recently, I wrote a column discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with the creation of new higher-education institutions, in which I made reference to the specific case of Albukhary International University in Malaysia. This second article describes interesting experiences of a similar kind in India. School children in India. Poised to become the most populous country in the world by 2030, India is facing tremendous challenges in addressing the educational needs of its citizens. To put into context the magnitude of the educational challenge that confronts India, there are more than 370 million Indian school-age citizens (ages 6-23) representing a cohort larger than the entire population of the U.S. and three times the total population of Mexico. Considering the fertility rates in India, this number will remain unchanged for the next 40 years. By comparison, the college-age population in China will be reduced an estimated 23 percent over the same period. Currently, for each preschool student in the U.S., there are four in India, and the number of elementary education students in India is almost six times larger than in the U.S. How can India cope with such great demand? The Indian government has estimated that it will be necessary to build 1,000 new universities and 50,000 colleges by 2020 in order to accommodate expected demand. Just think about the need to build an average of 125 new universities and 6,250 new colleges per year. Among the many universities being built in India, I will discuss two interesting cases. Top-Down Approach: The Case of Ambedkar University A common practice in creating new higher-education institutions is to evolve bottom-up, first establishing a few undergraduate programs, and eventually, in a second stage, creating related graduate programs using a cautious incremental approach. It is an obvious formula, which, in some […]

Out of the Box follows the misadventures of Reg Spiers

Despite the introduction by Lynn Davis one of the UK’s greatest athletes I was sure it was all a joke, No way could all those incredible adventures of Reg Spiers be true. Boy, was I wrong. This is an exceptional book, brilliantly written, wonderfully entertaining and one that will live in the memory for a long, long time. Julie and Marcus McSorley have managed to capture and distill the essence of the Aussie spirit that flows through the veins of Reg Spiers. Here we meet a man with a heart as big as the Australian outback with a rebellious streak that the outlaw Ned Kelly would admire. In fact, I would go as far to say that at some point in the afterlife would they share several tinnies of Castlemaine XXXX with arms around each other’s shoulders – and catch up on old times. At 22 years of age, he had himself shipped back to Perth, Australia from London in a box for his daughter’s birthday. A journey that cost him nothing and took 63 hours Do yourself a mighty favour and lose yourself in this tale. Cheer for the villain, support the underdog and imagine you are walking side by side with Reg Spiers as part of his inner circle. It will do your spirit good. Out of the Box follows the misadventures of Reg Spiers, an unforgettable character who never gives up, and never learns either. The craziest part is, Reg isn’t a character. He’s a real live person! Reg doesn’t always make the right decisions. He often puts his friends and loved ones in danger; but his charisma, charm, and indomitable spirit make it impossible not to root for him. This book spans decades of the man’s life, taking place in Australia, England, India, Sri Lanka, and […]

Report on LNG Project in PNG warns of major challenges

A new report on the impacts of the multi-billion dollar Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project in Papua New Guinea highlights the industry’s achievements in addressing social change but warns of continuing major concerns that need to be addressed. The report, The Community Good Examining the Influence of the PNG LNG Project in the Hela Region of Papua New Guinea, finds that, although the project has boosted the local economy through employment, the project is fuelling community tensions because of inadequate community awareness-raising, belief that the process of landowner identification is flawed and community concern about how project benefits will be shared. At the same time, the report notes the potential for resolution through constructive stakeholder dialogue. The Liquefied Natural Gas Project (LNGP) will extract natural gas from the Hela region in the Highlands, condition and send it to the coast for liquefaction before exporting the gas to overseas markets. The initial construction phase of the LNGP began in 2010, with its completion expected in 2014. Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director, Barry Coates said this report was an important reminder that while large-scale resource-extraction projects could deliver economic development benefits, it was vital that they also resulted in enduring improvements to human well-being. This was not always an easy task, but it certainly was possible. “Throughout this research, the voices of the people of Hela Province can be heard – loud and clear,” Mr Coates said. “We hope that decision makers give proper consideration to this important study to ensure that benefits from the LNG project are maximised for all citizens of Papua New Guinea, particularly women and children in those communities where the impact of the project will be the greatest.” “All stakeholders must take responsibility to ensure that the project does not cause harm to local people. The New […]

Businesses not adapting to climate change

Companies are failing to develop the resilience they will need to cope with climate change, say two business experts from The University of Queensland. Dr Martina Linnenluecke and Professor Andrew Griffiths of UQ Business School have spent 10 years working with businesses to develop climate change strategies. “Companies should be planning now to safeguard their long-term future,” Dr Linnenluecke said. “Climate change is upon us but the business community has not yet fully considered the implications. “Some firms are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there has been little discussion of how to cope with the physical impact of climate change. “Temperatures are gradually rising, but even more concerning is the increase in extreme weather.” Storms, floods and other climate events were likely to be more damaging for businesses than higher temperatures, and few areas would escape the effects. “Even where businesses sustain no direct damage, they are likely to be affected by power cuts or damage to infrastructure,” Dr Linnenluecke said. “With companies increasingly reliant on high-tech systems, any outages can result in large-scale disruption.” Dr Linnenluecke and Professor Griffiths’ book, The Climate Resilient Organization, argues that businesses have two courses of action: reducing greenhouse gas emissions to try to prevent further climate change, and adapting to change. “We say companies need to do both,” she said. “Unless we make attempts to avert climate change, it could become so severe that we will be unable to adapt at all. However, even with the most stringent efforts, we cannot fully avoid the impact. “We will have to learn to adapt to gradual changes, such as the rise in temperatures, and also build the resilience required to be able to recover quickly from extreme weather incidents.” Dr Linnenluecke said companies also should look at how they could take advantage of any opportunities associated […]

Great by Choice Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck

Morten T. Collins Jim/Hansen Random House $60 Following on from the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? In Great by Choice – based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories – Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times. No mere sequel, Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins’s prior work by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. With a team of more than twenty researchers, Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to greatness – beating their industry indexes by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years – in environments characterised by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or control. The research team then contrasted these “10X companies” to a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments. The study results were full of provocative surprises, such as: * The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. * Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline. * Following the belief that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action” is a good way to get killed. * The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies. The authors challenge conventional wisdom […]

Eco marketing: What price green consumerism?

Remember the innocent days of the 1980s ethical consumer movement? New Age entrepreneurs rode the green wave into the hearts and malls of the world. The promise? Buying pricey ice-cream or hair rinse made with Brazil nuts (or the stocks of the companies that made those products) would make the world a better place. That myth crashed. Consumers, it turned out, were not willing to buy idealism in a bottle if it came at a premium. Two decades later, green marketing remains with us, more intense than ever. Is green yet more than a fad? The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability annual survey estimates that 13-19% of American adults are dedicated green buyers Ð a $290bn market. The US-based Cone Communications estimates that 70% of American consumers consider the environmental impact of their purchasing. The UK and Europe show similar numbers. According to marketing experts, however, these figures are wildly overstated, reflecting attitudes, not buying patterns. “Buying green products presents people with a social dilemma: they have to be willing to pay premium prices – not for their own direct benefit, but for the greater good,” says professor Shruti Gupta of Penn State University, a world expert in ethical behaviour. ‘While people love to voice their idealism to survey companies, the cold facts are they almost always put their self-interest first.” Take Elizabeth Romanaux, a consultant from New Jersey interviewed by the American Association of Retired People for a magazine piece about green buying. She considers herself environmentally conscious. She recycles. She composts. But she won’t pay a premium for an eco-friendly hotel room or cleaning products. “It isn’t that I can’t afford them,” she told AARP Magazine. “It just goes against my grain to pay more.” “Consumers will buy pricier green products,” Gupta says, “but only if they are […]

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