May 20, 2013

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! Check out some of our reflections and thoughts from past Earth Days, below. “Earth Days” Links 1960s Radicals to Today’s Policy Wonks by Rachel Voss. John Grant Discusses the Benefits to Alternative Fuels by Joel Velarde Solar Energy- Getting it From the Sun: Energy Solutions in Front of our Eyes by Moustafa Hassab-Allah Adaption Aid: Dealing with Climate Change in the Developing World by Rachel Voss. Greening Urban Tourism: Progress in Urban Ecotourism by Katherine Zobre. Learn more about Water … [Read more...]

Peace Loving or Peace Destroying?

For the past few weeks now, humanitarian ships are trying to travel to Gaza, but this year it is not only one, but several. Twelve countries in Europe and one ship from the US will be traveling to Gaza in order to alleviate the blockade that Israel is imposing. The European ships carry members of parliaments and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that he will continue to impose the blockade on Gaza and that these ships will be returned back to where they originated from. This rhetoric is quite similar … [Read more...]

Dispatches From Peru: Adventures in the Amazon, Oil Companies, and Indigenous Amazonian Communities

Hey AIDemocracy network! I am writing you from Cusco again, after having had pretty crazy adventures in Iquitos and the northern Amazonian region of Peru. I guess I’ll just sort of give a run down and then some thoughts on the whole experience… So our group of students had been invited to visit a native Amazonian community outside of Iquitos the second full day we were in Iquitos. This meant that we had breakfast around five in the morning and were headed out on our bus to another town by quarter of six. We had a two hour bus ride ahead of us … [Read more...]

Resource Scarce Refugees: A Gazan Case Study

In conflict areas with high refugee populations, environmental concerns are paramount. Such concentrated populations take their toll on environmental sustainability, requiring more resources than the land can offer; the increased environmental damage often spurs continued conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has taken an enormous toll on environmental resources, in turn exacerbating the conflict itself. To better understand the implications of resource scarcity, this brief focuses on water as a dwindling commodity in the Gaza … [Read more...]

AIDemocracy’s Story of the Refugee Crisis

Here at AIDemocracy, we are always focusing on the interconnectedness of global issues and how everything has an impact on something else in some way, no matter how major or minor. In considering scenarios that could best depict this, we decided to create our "Refugee Crisis Story," which will pull together Global Peace and Security, development, health, and environment (as well as other major global issues) as a way for us to conceptualize the interrelatedness in a new way.  So what are the major connectors that make the refugee crisis an … [Read more...]

The “Buzz” on Water and Malaria

Malaria is a preventable disease: it has been eradicated from the United States and many other developed nations for more than 50 years! This makes it seem as though it is an easy feat to eliminate the disease from an entire country, or continent in the case of Africa, but in order to do so we must consider all the different issues and epidemics that create breeding grounds for the disease to develop and grow to its current level. Another major issue in Africa right now is that of water sanitation and the building of sustainable water projects that will … [Read more...]

Happy World Water Day!

In my apartment in Washington, DC, I rarely think twice before filling my Brita filter with cold water, running a load of dirty dishes in my dishwasher, or filling up the ice tray.  The utility bill comes monthly and it is dutifully paid on time so that my roommates and I can continue to have  constant and consistent access to water. Those in developing countries are often without that luxury.   And the focus of this years World Water Day is Water for Cities.  Why?  Because 1 in 2 people on our planet now live in cities.  Urbanization has been … [Read more...]

Total Water Consumed…by my Clothes?

When you first think about businesses ‘going green’, what usually comes to mind? Probably the auto industry, energy manufacturers and other producers of industrial goods. How about the fashion industry? That’s right, nowadays even clothing designers are thinking of innovative ways to produce clothing with less waste. The latest issue of Time magazine contains an article titled Green Jeans, that focuses on famous jean manufacturer Levi and its new pair of 501 denim Water<Less jeans. You can read the entire article yourself by clicking here. … [Read more...]

Water for the World: Act Now

Is access to clean water a right or privilege? Three billion have no running water within a kilometer of their homes - half the world’s population. Every eight seconds, a child dies of water-borne disease, causing almost four million unnecessary (and in every case preventable) deaths. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is really a misnomer, and quite frankly, superficial in nature. Every country that signed on has duty to provide certain rights to their own citizens, but no duty to provide for citizens outside its borders. That … [Read more...]

What would captain planet do?

Two days ago I went to a climate finance rally spearheaded by 1Sky . Surrounded by a bunch of environmental enthusiast I stood in the cold shivering uncontrollably.  Everyone gathered together in front of the White House calling out their organizations and shaking hands while checked to see if my hands were still there. But when the speakers began to talk about the numerous impoverished nations that are so gravely affected by climate change and how President Obama made a promise to raise funds for them, but has not  pulled through, I thought; What … [Read more...]