Elon Musk: Panel Solar Mais Eficiente do Mundo

"Elon Musk e Solar City revelam panel solar que e 'o mais eficiente do mundo'" por L Ulanoff 2/10/2015 Especialistas dizem que o panel de celulas solares media pode converter 14 a 20% da energia que coleta a eletricidade util. Por padroes de fotosintese - uma planta tem eficiencia de 5% - isso nao e mal, mas humanos acreditam que paneis solares deveriam funcionar melhor. Na sexta-feira em Times Square da Cidade de Nova Iorque, SolarCity, o maior instalador de paneis solares dos EUA, e presidente da compania Elon Musk apresentaram o que eles afirmam e o panel solar de telhado mais eficiente do mundo, que consegue uma eficiencia pica de 22,04%. Elon Musk and SolarCity unveil ‘world’s most efficient’ solar panel Experts say the average solar cell panel can convert 14-to-20% of the energy it collects into usable electricity. By photosynthesis standards — a plant is 5% efficient — that's not bad, but humans believe solar panels should do better. On Friday in New York City's Times Square, SolarCity, the nation’s largest installer of residential solar panels, and company chairman Elon Musk introduced what they claim is the world’s most efficient rooftop solar panel, achieving a peak efficiency of 22.04%. http://mashable.com/2015/10/02/elon-musk-solarcity-new-solar-panel/#kUHTlQrnskqi

O Premio Ambiental Goldman (The Goldman Environmental Prize)

O Premio Ambiental Goldman honra herois ambientais populares das seis regioes continentais habitadas do mundo: Africa, Asia, Europa, Ilhas e Nacoes Ilhas, America do Norte, e America Central e Sul. O Premio reconhece individuos para esforcos significantes e sustentados para proteger e melhorar o ambiente natural, frequentemente correndo risco da vida. O Premio Goldman vista lideres populares como aqueles envolvidos em esforcos locais onde mudanca positiva esta criada pela participacao comunitaria ou de cidadaos nos assuntos que os afetam. No reconhecimento destes lideres, o Premio procura inspirar outras pessoas ordinarias para fazer acoes extraordinarias para proteger o mundo natural. 2015 1) Phyllis Omido, Quenia, Africa: After learning her own breast milk was making her baby sick—and realizing her child wasn’t the only one suffering from lead poisoning—Phyllis Omido galvanized the community in Mombasa to shut down the smelter that was exposing people to dangerous chemicals. The burgeoning solar industry in Kenya has increased demand for lead, recovered by recycling car batteries in smelters. Shanty towns across Mombasa, where poor, marginalized workers are desperate for work, are hotspots for such industrial activity. Among them is Owino Uhuru, where a smelter emitted fumes laden with lead, often at night to avoid detection, and released untreated waste water that spilled into streams that residents use to wash, cook and clean. Phyllis Omido was a young single mother with a baby boy when she was hired to manage the plant’s community relations. One of her first tasks was to put together an environmental impact report. Working with a team of experts, she found that the plant’s proximity to the local community left residents vulnerable to dangerous chemicals—and that the plant was likely operating under illegally obtained permits. Her report recommended closing the factory and relocating, but management dismissed the recommendations and removed Omido from the project. Workers at the plant faced the most direct exposure to chemicals. They were provided one pair of flimsy cotton gloves per month, which quickly disintegrated after a few days. Once the gloves were gone, workers continued work with bare hands. In contrast, managers entering the factory did so in full protective gear. About three months into her job, Omido’s infant son became violently ill and was hospitalized. Tests for malaria, typhoid, and other likely culprits all came back negative. Following a suggestion from a plant manager that it could be lead poisoning, doctors tested the baby’s blood and found that he had acutely high levels of lead, which had likely been passed along via his mother’s breast milk. Her son’s medical bills quickly ballooned to more than $2,000, an insurmountable amount for Omido. She demanded that the plant pay for the hospital fees. The company paid her bills in exchange for her silence, but Omido felt a responsibility to the community. She quit her job and began cleaning houses to make ends meet and support her quest to bring justice to the workers and families impacted by the smelter. 2011 In response to Germany’s expanded reliance on nuclear energy, Ursula Sladek created her country’s first cooperatively-owned renewable power company. Twenty-five years ago, the catastrophic Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in the Soviet Union produced a radioactive cloud that quickly spread across Europe. As news of the event rippled through the continent, questions arose about toxic fallout and its implications for communities thousands of miles from Chernobyl. At the time, West Germany relied almost exclusively on nuclear and coal energy to power its growing economy. A small handful of companies held a monopoly on the energy market, controlling most of the local grids. An anti-nuclear movement had been active throughout the 1980s and had gained some popular support, but German power companies did not provide opportunities for consumers to opt out of using nuclear-derived power. For Ursula Sladek, a mother of five from the tiny community of Schönau in Germany’s Black Forest region, the Chernobyl disaster served as a serious wake-up call about the dangers of nuclear energy. She and her neighbors were alarmed by reports about radioactive residue detected on playgrounds, backyard gardens, and farmland in Schönau. Suddenly, it was unsafe for Sladek to go about her normal routine of eating locally grown foods and sending her children outside to play. In response, Sladek, her husband, and a small group of parents began researching the energy industry in Germany to see if there was a way to limit their community’s dependence on nuclear power. They found that power companies were not allowing citizens to have a say in energy production decisions. Chernobyl proved that though nuclear energy could be called “green” by some standards, the safety risks associated with it were cause for deep concern. Sladek also knew that nuclear energy was not the only option. Thus, the group began what would become a 10-year project to take over the local grid, and in a second step, allow people all over Germany to choose safe, reliable, sustainably produced energy. This project would transform Sladek from a small-town parent trained to be a schoolteacher into the founder and president of one of Europe’s first cooperatively owned green energy companies. In the more than two decades since Sladek began working for clean and safe energy in Germany, she has built a company that now provides power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses throughout the country, including Germany’s best-known chocolate factory, which produces the popular Ritter Sport candy for export all over the world.

O Premio Sustento Justo - The Right Livelihood Award

O Premio Sustento Justo esta um premio apelido de "O Nobel Alternativo," estabelecido em 1980 para honrar e apoiar aqueles "oferecendo respostas praticas e excelentes aos desafios mais urgentes que nos enfrentamos hoje" ("offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today"). Existem em 2016 162 premiados de 67 paises. Apresentado anualmente em Estocolmo numa ceremonia no Parlamento Sueco, o Premio Sustento Justo (Right Livelihood Award) e usualmente divido por quatro Recipientes. O dinheiro premio divido por todos os Laureados e SEK 3 million (2015), mas todos os Laureados nao sempre recebem um premio financeiro. Frequentemente um Premio Honrario esta dado para uma pessoa ou grupo que o Jurado deseja reconhecer, mas nao esta primariamente com necessidade de apoio financeiro. O dinheiro premio esta para trabalho bem sucedido continuando, nunca para uso pessoal. Historia Em 1980, o jornalista e filatelista profissional Jakob von Uexkull sentiu que as categorias do Premio Nobel foram restrito demais em escopo e com enfoque excessivo nos interesses dos paises industrializados para ser uma resposta adequada para os desafios que humanidade enfrenta agora. Em vez disso, ele quis "reconhecer os esforcos daqueles quem estao lidando estes assuntos mais diretamente, identificando respostas praticas a desafios como a poluicao de nosso ar, solo, e agua, o perigo de guerra nuclear, o abuso de direitos humanos basicos, a destituicao e miseria dos pobres e a hiperconsumismo e povreza espiritual dos ricos." 2015 De quatro ativistas premiadas: Sheila Watt-Cloutier e um dos defensores excelentes para os direitos economicos, sociais, e culturais do povo Inuit do Artico. Como uma representante eleita por seu povo, administradora, e defensora, Sra. Watt-Cloutier contribuiu significativamente a uma revisao completa do sistema educacional em Nunavik no Quebec Setentrional para faze-lo mais efetivo para cumprir as necessidades das comunidades Inuits. Ela estava uma forca influencial atras da adocao do Acordo Estocolmo(The Stockholm Convention) para banir poluentes organicos persistentes, que acumulam fortemente nas cadeias alimentares articas. Pela defesa dela, ela tem modificado o discurso sobre mudancas climaticas estabelecendo uma demonstracao como emissoes de gases do efeito estufa violam os direitos humanos coletivos do Inuit. 2014 De cinco pessoas premiadas: Bill McKibben e um ambientalista lider e um dos mais importantes do mundo. Ele e um autor influencial e educador ha 30 anos, e seu livro de 1989 O Fim da Natureza (The End of Nature) foi um dos primeiros livros escritopara informar uma plateira geral sobre mudancas climaticas. Durante os ultimos dez anos, ele iniciou e construiu o primeiro movimento de mudancas climaticas da base e global. Com a organizacao 350.org no centro, este movimento espalha conhecimento e mobiliza apoio politico para acao urgente para mitigar a crise climatica que ja esta acontecendo. 2013 De quatro pessoas: Dr. Denis Mukwegee ginecologista trabalhando na regiao de Kiyu na Republica Democratica de Congo (RDC). Como ciurgiao chefe do hospital Panzi, ele e seus colegas tem tratado cerca de 40,000 vitimas de estupro, desenvolvendo grande periciano tratamento de serios ferimentos ginecologicos. Apesar de ataques contra a vida dele, Denis Mukwege fala abertamente sem descanso para elevar consciencia sobre as realidades da guerra Congolesa e suas graves consequencias duradouras para meninas e mulheres. 2012 De quatro pessoas: 1)Sima Samar e uma medica para os pobres, uma educadora dos marginaliados e defensora dos direitos humanos de todos na Afganistao. Ela estabeleceu e nutriu a Shuhada Organization (Organizacao Shuhada) que em 2012 operou mais do que cem escolas e 15 clinicas e hospitais dedicados a providenciar educacao e servicos de saude, particularmente com enfoque das mulheres e meninas. Ela serviu na Administracao Provisoria de Afganistao e estabeleceu para a primeira vez o Ministerio de Afazeres de Mulheres. Desde 2004, ela lidera a Commissao de Direitos Humanos Independente de Afganistao que faz responsavel violadores de direitos humanos, um compromisso que tem arriscado a propria vida dela. 2) The Campaign Against (the) Arms Trade (CAAT) (A Campanha Contra o Comercio de Armas)tem trabalhado desde 1974 sem descanso para acabar com as exportacoes de armas do RU. CAAT tem aumentado consciencia publica do comercio de armas, e pela defesa implacavel tem ajudado conter subsidios RU da exportacao para empresas de armas, e pressionado instituicoes a desinvestir de exportadores de armas. CAAT tem exposto a corrupcao, hipocrisia, e consequencias letais cercando este comercio e tem sido instrumental responsibilizando o governo RU e empresas de armas por esta mesma coisa. Em particular, CAAT tem colocado BAE Systems, uma das maiores empresas de armas no mundo, sob escrutinio sem precedencia sobre as suas praticas antieticas. 2011 De quatro pessoas: 1) Premio honorario: Huang Ming e um empreendedor e produtor de mudancas visionarios, dedicados, e apaixonantes no setor de energia termica solar. Ele fundou o Solar Valley (Vale Solar) em Dezhou como um exemplo nacional e global de solar como uma alternativa realistica a energia fossil e nuclear e emissoes de CO2 levantando. Em 2005, Huang Ming foi instrumental em consequir a passagem do Lei Energia Renovavel na China, assim construindo um caso forte para o pais dele tomar um papel de lideranca na prevencao de caos climatico crescente. Ele trabalhou como engenheiro no Instituto de Pesquisa de Petroleo de Dezhou. Depois do nascimento da filha dele, ele ficou preocupado sobre o ambiente de viver dela e outras criancas por causa da poluicao. Ele iniciou sua carrera no campo de energia solar secretamente, sem se demitir do seu trabalho no instituto porque ele teve que fundir a sua pesquisa inicial com o seu salario. 2) GRAIN e uma organizacao para fins nao-lucrativos internacional que funciona para apoiar agricultores e movimentos nas lutas deles para sistemas alimentares controlados por comunidades e baseados na biodiversidade. Durante duas decadas, GRAIN tem sido um jogador chave no movimento global para desafiar o poder das corporacoes sobre o alimento e meio de vida das pessoas e para promover soberania alimentar. Nos anos recentes, GRAIN fica no frente da documentacao, e denunciando, o fenomeno acelerando rapidamente de "land grabbing" (a pega de terrenos). 2010 Medicos para Direitos Humanos- Israel (Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI)) e uma organizacao de medicos Israelenses e Palestinos que se coloca na frente da luta para direitos humanos - particularmente o direito de saude - em Israel e o territorio ocupado Palestino. PHRI faz lobbying no estado de Israel, exigindo que todos os residentes de Israel e Palestino recebem o mesmo acesso e direito a servico de saude independentemente de seu status legal, nacionalidade, etnicidade, ou religiao. PHRI tambem providencia servicos de saude a aqueles residentes de Israel e o territorio Palestino ocupado quem de resto nao receberam servico de saude apropriado. 2009 A floresta tropical do Congo segundo em importancia so a floresta tropical das Amazonas, esta gravamente ameacada pelas consequencias de guerra, pressao da populacao, e exploracao por corporacoes. Desde 1994, incluindo durante a guerra civil de 1996-2002, Rene Ngongo tem engajado, correndo risco da vida, em campanhas populares, defesa politica, e iniciativas praticas para enfrentar os destruidores da floresta tropical e ajudar criar as condicoes politicas que poderao parar sua destruicao e realizar sua conservacao e uso sustentavel. 2008 Krishnammal Jagannathan e Sankaralingam Jagannathan sao dois ativistas na vida inteira para justica social e para desenvolvimento humano sustentavel, trabalhando com aqueles quem sao no fundo da escada de mao social. Eles continuam o legado de Gandhi o seculo 21 adentro, nunca parando a servir as necessidades dos Dalits, sem terra, e aqueles ameacado pela ganancia dos senhorios e corporacoes multinacionais. 2007 Ate 2007, Grameen Shakti tinha instalado mais do que 110.000 sistemas de casa solares nas areas rurais de Bangladesh. Hoje eles servem mais do que um milhao de clientes solares e ascendem 24.000 casas com energia solar todo mes. A companhia tem mostrado que aplicacoes de energia solar pode ser distribuido enormemente e rapidamente para providenciar para os pobres rurais uma opcao energetica acessivel de custo e positivo para a clima. 2006 Francisco ('Chico') Whitaker Ferreira e um ativista catolico romano, quem tem trabalhado para democracia e contra corrupcao pela vida inteira, ambos em casa e em exilio. Ele e uma das pessoas chaves atras do crescente Forum Social Mundial. O Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin (The International Poetry Festival of Medellín) e um dos maiores festivais de poesia mais prestigiados do mundo. O Festival foi iniciado em 1991 quando Medellin foi uma das cidades mais perigosos e violentos do mundo. Por leituras de poesia nas ruas, pessoas tem repossuido a cidade deles. 2005 Ambos Maude Barlow e Tony Clarke sao ativistas ha muito tempo para assuntos de comercio e justica, agora com um foco especial em agua, cujas vidas fazendo campanhas tem interligado para muitos anos. Juntos, Maude Barlow e Tony Clarke desempenharam um papel chave na construcao de oposicao a, e derrotando, o Acordo Multilateral de Investimento (MAI-ingles) (Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)), e fazendo campanhas contra a agenda da Organizacao do Comercio Mundial (WTO-ingles), especialmente em Seattle (1999) e Cancun (2003). Com as vidas deles intimamente ligados para muitos anos, Barlow e Clarke estao agora reconhecidos como dois dos lideres cidadaos mais respeitados em Canada e no movimento justica global em geral. Ambos tem sido palestrantes destacados no Forum Social Mundial em Porto Alegre e Mumbai. Eles também tem sido inovadores importantes em assuntos internacionais, mostrado no trabalho deles contra o MAI (Acordo Multinacional de Investimento) e WTO (Organização Mundial de Comércio); na criação de modelos democráticos de organizando, mostrado por o Council of Canadians (Conselho de Canandenses), e trazendo novos assuntos ao destacamento do movimento, tanto como com NAFTA, o MAI e aguaç e no desenvolvimento de alternativas confiáveis, que estão apresentado no comum livro deles Global Showdown: How the New Activists are Fighting Global Corporate Rule (2001) (Confronto Global: Como os Novos Ativisãtas estão Lutando Contra o Domínio Corporativo Global). 2004 Memorial e o nome curto da organizacao publico voluntario internacional "Sociedade de Cariedade, Direitos Humanos, Educacional, Historica MEMORIAL." Foi fundado no fim da decada de 1980 como resultado de um movimento significativo em Otubro de 1988, que teve a forma de Grupos de Iniciativa aparecendo em Moscou, Sao Petersburgo, e outras cidades. O trabalho de Memorial cae em tres áreas principais: 1. A criação de uma memória historica sobre os crimes cometidos pelo regime soviético através de pesquisa e publicações Memorial construiu uma enorme rede de arquivos especialiados no campo da pesquisa historica da repressao totalitariana que estao aberta ao publico. Esta obra esta coordinado pela organizacao baseada em Moscou, 'O Centro Cientifico-Informacional e Illuminismo, Memorial,' que tem 75.000 documentos e 23.000 livros, e pinturas e obreas graficas por prisioneiros dos GULAGs. Muitos dos localizacoes regionais de Memorial tambem tem arquivos e museos. Perto da cidade de Perm no norueste das Montanhas Urals, Memorial construiu o unico museo existente dum campo de concentracao sovietico no site do ultimo campo para prisioneiros politicos... 2. Social work for the victims of the Soviet regime and their relatives Examples of Memorial's work in this area include the organisation of meetings, care for the elderly, and medical help for victims; provision of care for people who have been raised in KGB children's homes, because their fathers had been shot as alleged traitors and their mothers detained; and helping victims to enforce their rights under the act on the rehabilitation of the politically prosecuted.... 3. Human rights work in present-day Russia Memorial monitors the situation in so-called 'hot spots' of actual or potential conflict and human rights abuse - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, Moldavia, Crimea (Ukraine) and, in Russia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar region, and Ingushetia. Since 1994 Memorial's main focus for this work has been Chechnya. .... Raúl Montenegro nasceu em 1949. Desde 1985, ele é Professor de Biologia Evolucionário na Universidade Nacional de Cordoba. Em 1982 ele era o fundador principal de FUNAM (Fundação Defesa Meio Ambiente), e e o presidente dela desde 1995. Desde 1980, Montenegro esta envolvido, normalmente num papel iniciador, numa série e numero estonteantes de atividades ambientais, que incluem: Anti-nuclear: Isto tem sido provavelemente o maior campo de atividades de Montenegro, que inclue: uma campanha de seis anos que teve sucesso de fechar a mina de uranio Los Gigantes; Since 1980 Montenegro has been involved, normally in an initiating role, in an astonishing range and number of environmental activities, which include: Anti-nuclear: this has been probably Montenegro's single largest field of activities, which have included: a six-year successful campaign to close Los Gigantes uranium mine; campaigns against plans for nuclear waste dumps, nuclear waste shipments and nuclear releases; a successful campaign to stop the construction of a reprocessing/MOX plant and a Cobalt 60 irradiation plant; a successful campaign to stop nuclear prospecting in the Traslasierra Valley; promotion, with substantial take-up, of the concept of municipal nuclear-free zones; campaigns against the privatisation of Argentina's two nuclear plants (third under construction), against the construction of a fourth plant, and against the import of Canadian CANDU reactors, into both Argentina and Guatemala.... National parks: Montenegro has been instrumental in the establishment of six national parks or nature reserves. He has prevented car rallies through one, and received death threats for campaigning against the building of a golf course in another. Disposal of toxic waste: Montenegro has fought many successful campaigns against plans to build toxic waste incinerators, exposed, and forced the clean-up of, a number of toxic waste dumps. Pollution by chemicals and high-voltage power lines: Montenegro has exposed polluting releases by factories and successfully fought to have high-voltage lines located away from population settlements. Forests, wildlife and biodiversity: he has stopped the deforestation of at least 500,000 hectares, campaigned to prevent forest fires, run campaigns to protect endangered ecosystems, and acted to tighten up the protection, and national trade rules affecting the export, of several endangered species. Water environment: he has run several campaigns against dams and for the provision of clean water and for ecologically sensitive water management. ... 2003 The CCEJ is a Korean citizens' movement working for economic justice, environmental protection, democratic and social development and reunification of the divided Korean peninsula. Founded in 1989, it was Korea's first fully-fledged citizens' organization and is now one of its most influential. It has 35,000 members and 35 local branches, and its work is carried out by about 50 staff nationwide, with the guidance and support of about 150 specialists who serve on the 17 subcommittees of the Policy Research Committee. The subcommittees cover subjects such as Banking, Local Autonomy, Finance and Taxation and Welfare. 2002 The Centre Jeunes Kamenge (CJK) is helping to deal with socio-political difficulties inherited from the past with long standing ethnic tensions and nine years of civil war in Burundi (that) have brought fear among people and many, many deaths. The impoverished northern neighbourhoods of the town of Bujumbura have experienced their share of these atrocities, plus other problems particularly common to youth in such towns: alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution, AIDS, unemployment, criminality and general hopelessness. This is the context of the work of the Centre Jeunes Kamenge (CJK). 2001 Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian and priest, was one of the founders of Liberation Theology. Silenced twice by the Vatican, he is still active as a lay priest in poor communities, helping people find a vision that encompasses social justice, human spirituality and most recently also ecology. His work can be seen in "comunidades de base" or 'Base Christian Communities' and also found in the more than 70 books he has written. José Antonio Abreu was born in Venezuela in 1939. His education pursued two tracks: he obtained a Ph.D. in petroleum economics in 1961, and in 1964 graduated as a composer and organist from Venezuela's national conservatory of music. By 1969 he was a Professor of Economics and Professor of Planning at different universities, and was also a Deputy in the Venezuelan Congress. In 1975 he began the work for which he has been awarded, founding the Symphony Orchestra Simon Bolivar and the National Symphony Youth Orchestra (NSYO). The success of the NSYO under Abreu's direction led to the establishment of youth orchestras in other Venezuelan States, which has grown into the National System of Children and Youth Orchestras of Venezuela, under the auspices of a State Foundation, FESNOJIV. This now involves 110,000 Venezuelans, grouped in 120 youth orchestras, 60 children's orchestras and a network of choirs, with musical training starting from the age of two. The orchestras are based on 75 'orchestral cells' around the country, each with at least one orchestra, and the System also includes workshops in which children learn to build and repair instruments, special programmes for children with disabilities or learning difficulties, and specialist centres or institutes for phonology, audiovisuals and higher musical education. Perhaps the most remarkable element about this orchestral System is that it is explicitly oriented towards lower-income social strata. It has been described as "a social movement of massive dimensions, that works using music as the instrument that makes the social integration of different Venezuelan population groups possible and supports the strata with low income." The orchestras have had a substantial social impact in the communities in which they are active, legitimising and promoting music throughout the community and leading to something of a musical and cultural renaissance. Studies have also shown that the young people involved in the orchestras also perform better in other areas of academic and social life. 2000 Birsel Lemke was born in 1950 and studied political science at Ankara University and in the USA. She lived and worked in Germany from 1975-85, before returning to Turkey. From 1987-90 she was a Board member of the Green Party in Turkey. In 1990 she founded the Citizens' Initiative HAYIR (No) against gold-mining projects. The immediate cause of this initiative was the proposal by the companies TUPRAG and EUROGOLD to establish two gold mine pilot projects at the Bay of Edremit and in Pergamon, using them as a base to develop 62 mining projects from Troy to Pergamon in the Turkish Aegean and finally 560 projects all over Turkey. The proposed extraction technology uses cyanide, which has been responsible for numerous environmental and human disasters worldwide. The most recent of these occurred in Romania in late January 2000, when 3.5 million cubic feet of mine waste contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals was released into a tributary of the Danube, killing practically all aquatic life along a 250-mile stretch of the river. Lemke was determined to defend her homeland - with its agricultural wealth and natural beauty - from this ecologically barbaric technology, which Friedhelm Korte, professor of ecological chemistry at the Technical University of Munich, has described as 'disastrous and unacceptable' on scientific grounds. Lemke began by convincing the farmers in the locality of the first proposed project to resist the proposal. She then persuaded the 13 mayors of the province to oppose it. She took them to Germany (whose Dresdner Bank was due to provide funding for the mines) and showed them the Rhein biosphere reserve as an alternative destiny for their own municipalities. They won support in the Hesse parliament and the Dresdner Bank withdrew. HAYIR also won support in the European Parliament and made the issue of cyanide-based gold mining the first national focus of popular environmental concern in Turkey.... The Land Institute (TLI) is a private, non-profit organisation established in rural Kansas in 1976. Wes Jackson, geneticist-agronomist, was its co-founder, abandoning academic life to pursue his vision of a natural farming system based on perennial crops. At the outset, Jackson set himself and the Institute a 50-year timeframe for proving and demonstrating that there is a better alternative to the wasteful and destructive conventional agriculture. The alternative in his region would be a mix of perennial foodgrains, derived from perennializing conventional annual crops plus domesticating wild perennials. The biggest advantages would be ecological stability and grain yields hopefully as good as those achieved with annual crops. The ecological objectives would be attained by ending the huge problem of soil erosion, since annual ploughing would no longer be needed, and by ending the pollution caused by agrichemicals. Through the 1980s the Institute's long-term research, education and field trials took shape. By the mid-1990s, at the end of the programme's second decade, Jackson was able to report positive answers to his key research questions, some of which were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Jackson has emphasised that the implications of this work were not limited to the American prairies. "By demonstrating underlying principles rather than practical applications only, we are showing that the 'natural systems' approach could be transferable worldwide, as long as adequate research is devoted to developing species and mixtures of species appropriate to specific environments. We believe that an agriculture is well within reach that is resilient, economical, ecologically responsible and socially just." Hermann Scheer, founder of EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Solar Energy, promoted the development of solar energy worldwide, starting from the premise that the main obstacle to an economic system entirely based on renewable energy is mainly political. He believed that the continuation of current patterns of energy use will be environmentally catastrophic and lead to the end of human civilization, while the only realistic alternative energy source is solar energy. Scheer considerably lobbied at the European level, initiating a EUROSUN Intergroup of the European Parliament and became chairman of its Advisory Board. 1998 The International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) was the name taken by a small group of organisations and activists who came together in 1979 at the end of the WHO/UNICEF joint meeting on infant and young child feeding. The meeting had recommended an international code to regulate the marketing of infant formula and other breastmilk substitutes. The founding group consisted of six NGOs. 30 years later, IBFAN has 200 affiliates in more than 100 countries and is the oldest single issue network in the world. Breastmilk is the most universally available and complete food resource. However, it has been under subtle and overt attack for at least 60 years by commercial interests. UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million children die annually because they are not breastfed. IBFAN brings together the non-governmental organisations which are addressing infant feeding and health and unites these organisations in a common aim: improving breastfeeding rates, reducing dependence on industrial artificial milk products, and protecting women's and families' freedom of choice based on full, unbiased information and support, free from commercial influences. Key to this campaign is the regulation of marketing of infant feeding products, by means of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, which was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981. In the face of the enormous power of the multinational companies which dominate the world infant baby food market, IBFAN has continued to find means to mobilise people effectively to press their governments for action, to undertake citizen monitoring of compliance with the recommendations of the World Health Assembly, and to stimulate self-reliance and effective action at the grassroots level. Katarina Kruhonja was born in Osijek in 1949. She is one of the founders of the Centre for Peace, Non-Violence and Human Rights in Osijek in the East Slavonia region of Croatia. She is a physician and was the nationally recognized senior specialist in nuclear medicine in Osijek hospital. ... As a result of work facilitated by Terselic and Kruhonja, in March 1996 three organisations from Serbia and eight others from Croatia came together to form the 'Coordination of Peace Organisations for East Slavonia, Baranja and West Sirmium', which has made a major contribution to the prevention of a massive movement of Serbs out of the region, their integration in the Republic of Croatia, the prevention of incidents and violence and the processes of rebuilding trust between divided ethnic groups. In order to initiate the process of dealing with the past and the establishment of factual truth about the war, the Center of Peace, Non-violence and Human Rights Osijek, the Center for Peace Studies, the Civic Council for Human Rights, and the Croatian Helsinki Committee together established in 2004 DOCUMENTA, a Centre for Dealing with the Past. The key reason for establishing this centre was the experience of suppression and falsification of war crimes and other war events in the younger history of the Balkans. Vesna Terselic is the director of DOCUMENTA..... 1997 Severely poisoned herself by a gross misapplication of pesticides in her apartment, Cindy Duehring intensively campaigned for the rights of chemically injured people. She founded and directed the Environmental Access Research Network (EARN), later merged with the Chemical Injury Information Network (CIIN), raising awareness on the chemical effects on human health and the cost of ignoring them, for example by making scientific, medical, legal and government literature available both to experts and laypeople. Considered one of the leading organisations in the world in this field, CIIN/EARN works with healthcare professionals and governments in many countries, and the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Union have both recognised CIIN/EARN's work. In 1991, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry designated CIIN a clearinghouse to aid communities and individuals on the toxic health effects associated with low levels of chemical exposure. Michael Succow is a German academic and environmental activist, who has dedicated his life to nature conservation issues at home and abroad. Travelling all over the former USSR, he advised the new governments on land use and contributed to set up biosphere reserves as well as national parks. Back to Germany, he helped design a general reform of land-use policies and developed a new integrated university curriculum for teaching land use and sustainable development. Succow has also being very active in promoting scientific research, ecological education, so as to create environmental NGOs in the relevant areas and to ensure the full participation of the local population. 1996 The foundation of KSSP (Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad), which literally means Science Writers' Forum of Kerala, can be traced back to that of a Science Literary Forum in 1957 by a group of concerned activists and science writers. KSSP was established in 1962. By 1968, having made touch with scientists from Kerala working all over India, KSSP was a well-defined organisation with a focus on the popular communication of science in Malayalee, the local language, and had become a movement for the mass dissemination of science in Kerala. Herman Daly was born in 1938. He took a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University in 1967. In 1989, Daly was one of the key figures in the foundation of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), and served as Associate Editor of its journal Ecological Economics. ISEE is the major forum that links economists and ecologists, and academics and environmental activists. Daly's professional concerns have been two: the relationship of the economy and the environment, and the relationship of the economy to ethics. CSMR (The Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees of Russia) was founded in 1989 and officially registered the same year by 300 mothers of soldiers, whose initial aim was to campaign for their sons to return home early from military service in order to resume their studies. They succeeded in bringing home nearly 180,000 young men for this purpose. 1995 Since its creation in 1994, the Serb Civic Council (SCC) has conducted an intense struggle in order to achieve peace by political means, safeguard a united and multi-cultural Bosnia-Herzegovina, grant the observance of parliamentary, plural democracy, as well as the respect for human rights and ethnic equality. Its Declaration of Peace also aims at the full implementation of the right of all displaced and expelled citizens to return to their homes and the punishment of all war criminals. Because of its activism, members of the SCC have been specifically targeted for assassination by snipers. The Hungarian Foundation for Self-Reliance (HFSR) is the English name of Autonómia Alapitvány (literally, the Autonomy Foundation). It was founded in 1990 by András Biró, who had returned home to Budapest five years earlier after an international career as a journalist and UN consultant. HFSR initially set itself the goal of reinforcing the overall process of democratisation in Hungary by supporting activities concerned with (i) the environment (and sustainable development), (ii) minority rights and the alleviation of poverty, focusing particularly on the Roma (gypsy) community, and (iii) the promotion of civil society and democratic processes at grassroots level. These were seen as key areas of need in the aftermath of 40 years of totalitarian government. 1994 Ken Saro Wiwa (1941-1995) was a member of the Ogoni tribe of some 500,000 people, living in densely populated Ogoniland in south-eastern Nigeria. He studied at the University of Ibadan and in 1973 he began to write books and articles and produced television programmes. He wrote 27 books and in 1994 received the Fonlon-Nichols Award for excellence in creative writing. Ogoniland has produced US$30 billion worth of oil for Nigeria, mainly through a joint venture in which the government is a majority partner, with Shell the largest private partner (30%). The oil production has resulted in very severe pollution of Ogoniland. To combat these effects, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was set up in 1990, as the umbrella organisation for a number of broad-based organisations addressing the needs of Ogoni women, youth, churches, teachers, students and other professionals. MOSOP has formulated two sets of demands: one directed to the Nigerian government, one to the Shell Corporation. The first of these were set out in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, drafted by MOSOP in 1990, which expressed Ogoni determination to secure their political, economic and environmental rights. With regard to Shell, Saro-Wiwa demanded that the company bypass the central government, engage immediately in environmental impact assessments of its past activities and raise its standards to best practice. Shell's response in 1994 was to cease production in Ogoniland. In January 1993, to mark the start of the UN Year of Indigenous People, 300,000 Ogoni people demonstrated peacefully in favour of their demands, but the Nigerian government responded to the Ogoni mobilisation with brutal repression. In a military occupation that lasted more than four years, over 1,000 people were killed and many more were made homeless, refugees or were imprisoned without trial. 2) Hannumappa R. Sudarshan was born in 1950 and graduated as a doctor in 1973. He turned his back on the possibility of lucrative urban practice in favour of working with poor communities, and in 1979 he arrived in the B.R. Hills to work among the Soliga. Since then, the Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK), which he founded in 1981, has blossomed into a sustainable tribal development program. The Soliga tribals have for centuries lived in the Biligiri Rangana (B.R.) Hills of Karnataka State, for most of that time leading 'a life of abundance and peace, surviving by hunting and shifting cultivation', worshipping God in nature and living in harmony with it. From about the 1950s, however, their forests started to be cleared for industry and modern agriculture, their land expropriated by others, and the Soliga sank into a condition of the utmost poverty and exploitation. VGKK differs from most such enterprises in that it is based on a respect for tribal culture and a determination to perpetuate it, even while developing the requisite skills and capabilities among the tribal people to enable them to become self-reliant in today's India, which is Sudarshan's eventual goal. VGKK's longstanding work on health has achieved such results among the 20,000 people served. The 500-pupil school that is part of the program aims at spontaneous blossoming of a child's personality with an attitude of service and pride and confidence in their culture. The curriculum covers all normal subjects taught to national standards and also things such as environmental workshops, herbal gardening, value education, especially with regard to tribal values, and encouragement of tribal culture. More than 95 per cent of children now get primary education. Tribal Forestry School and Nursing School have been added to the existing education complex. Some Soliga children from the school are now going to university, and several graduates and post-graduates have returned to serve their community. Jade Gowda, the first tribal boy to do post graduation and an PhD in Agriculture is the President of VGKK. VGKK's vocational training scheme gives instruction in 16 crafts. Over 60 per cent of Soliga people now get a minimum of 300 days' employment a year from the Forest Department, other agencies and a system of Tribal Cooperatives were set up by VGKK, which employs 1,200 Soliga directly. VGKK has also pioneered the sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and the creation of Tribal Enterprises to process them. 1993 1) Arna Mer-Khamis, teacher and founder of the organisation Care and Learning, developed creative teaching ways. Her life was characterised by campaigning for peace and justice acting and speaking out uncompromisingly for the rights of the Palestinian people. Because of her activism, she was imprisoned several times, for example after protesting against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Her lifetime focus was the need to establish educational/cultural centres where children could recover from the violence around them. 2) Globally well-known intellectual and activist, Vandana Shiva has shown ongoing commitment in different fields, making it difficult to label her name under a precise and unique category. At the core of her activism there are: counter-development in favour of people-centered, participatory processes; support to grassroots networks; women rights and ecology. Author of numerous important books and articles, Vandana Shiva has shown a lifetime interest in campaigning against genetic engineering and the negative impact of globalisation, advocating for the crucial importance of preserving and celebrating biodiversity. 3) The Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP) of Zimbabwe was founded in May 1981 out of the Rural Development Co-ordination Council, itself set up by a small group of people in Matabeleland to discuss development options following the independence war, which ended in 1980. The word development in the Sindebele language means taking control over what you need to work with, and ORAP has always worked on the basis that rural people are underdeveloped because they have been dispossessed of their culture, traditional knowledge, language and way of life, and of a voice in the structures that control and determine their lives. In seeking to reverse this condition, ORAP has always laid great stress on its own need to be democratic and participatory with regard to its members, and autonomous and in control of its priorities with regard to outside donors.

Sobre o IPEMA: Instituto de Permacultura e Ecovilas

O IPEMA - Instituto de Permacultura e Ecovilas da Mata Atlântica - é uma Organização Não Governamental sediada no município de Ubatuba, litoral norte de São Paulo. O IPEMA fomenta e difunde a permacultura para a criação de grupos sustentáveis sejam rurais ou urbanos e desenvolve trabalhos relacionados ao manejo florestal junto às comunidades tradicionais. O IPEMA atua desde 1999 oferecendo cursos, visitações, programas especiais para grupos e imersões, na conscientização e capacitação de pessoas para as áreas de permacultura, ecovilas, bioconstrução e atividades correlatas em sua sede do bairro do Corcovado. Os cursos são realizados de maneira a estimular a discussão e o debate, na busca de soluções criativas, originais e apropriadas aos problemas sociais, econômicos, ambientais e de políticas públicas. Em seus projetos e programas, como o Programa Juçara, a organização trabalha junto às comunidades tradicionais quilombola, caiçara e indígena, com o objetivo de promover a recuperação ambiental através de princípios ecológicos para conservação da Mata Atlântica no Mosaico da Bocaina, visando o fortalecimento de arranjos produtivos da sociobiodiversidade, com o manejo sustentável da Palmeira Juçara, do Cambuci e outras espécies nativas e de uso tradicional. Atualmente os trabalhos realizados abrangem o município de Paraty na Costa Verde, Estado do Rio de Janeiro; e Ubatuba, na Serra do Mar, Estado de São Paulo. veja algumas fotos aqui

UNIVENS: 20 anos de história e de luta

Na semana passada a Cooperativa de Costureiras Unidas Venceremos- Localizada em Porto Alegre/RS completou 20 anos de história, ela foi fundada em 23 de maio de 1996 por mulheres entre 18 e 70 anos com o objetivo de promover geração de renda e trabalho de forma coletiva. Atualmente a cooperativa tem 24 cooperadas que produzem peças de vestuário como camisetas e uniformes, além da confecção e gestão na comercialização das peças da Rede Justa Trama. Nelsa Nespolo, relata um pouco da história da UNIVENS – “Em uma Vila, na periferia de Porto Alegre, em 1996, primeiro vieram 19 mulheres, e na segunda reunião eramos em 35. Assim no dia 23 de maio criamos uma cooperativa, a cooperativa de Costureiras Unidas Venceremos. Parecia que assim tínhamos resolvido nossos problemas de trabalho e de renda. Mas cada dia tínhamos novos desafios; a busca de pedidos de produção, a falta de capital de giro, qualidade em nossos produtos, uniformidade na produção, local para trabalhar, maquinário… Acha que desistimos por isso? Não, somos mulheres fortes e determinadas. Seguimos. Encontramos muitos apoios tanto na divulgação, como financeiros e assim fomos nos fortalecendo. Todas morando na própria Vila Nossa Senhora Aparecida na Zona Norte de Porto Alegre pudemos assim cuidar de nossa comunidade através do orçamento participativo que trouxe as melhorias de infraestrutura compondo a Associação de Moradores e na constituição da Capela assim cuidando de nossos filhos e família, podíamos almoçar com eles e acompanhá-los ate a escola e isso tudo fazíamos a pé. Com a cooperativa chega a Incubadora popular, a Escolinha de Educação Infantil e a Cooperativa Nova Geração e vem a Justa Trama. Construídos no conceito da Economia solidaria, com participação nos Fóruns de Economia solidaria, filiadas a Unisol Brasil desde o principio, seguimos firmes. Cada dia um novo desafio. Cada dia mais desafios..... http://www.unisolbrasil.org.br/univens-20-anos-de-historia-e-de-luta/

Wikileaks mostra que Temer é ainda mais próximo dos EUA, diz Greenwald

Jornalista revela que novos documentos demonstram que presidente interino contribui em espionagem Fania Rodrigues e André Vieira Rio de Janeiro (RJ), 02 de Junho de 2016 às 11:35 Nascido nos EUA, Glenn atualmente é correspondente do jornal The Intercept no Rio de Janeiro. - Créditos: Reprodução Nascido nos EUA, Glenn atualmente é correspondente do jornal The Intercept no Rio de Janeiro. / Reprodução Glenn Greenwald é o jornalista responsável por um conjunto de matérias que revelou ao mundo as espionagem do governo dos Estados Unidos por meio da Agência Nacional de Inteligência (NSA, sigla em inglês). Entre as espionadas estava a presidente Dilma Rousseff. Nascido nos EUA, Glenn atualmente é correspondente do jornal The Intercept no Rio de Janeiro e foi o primeiro jornalista a entrevistar Dilma após a votação do processo de impeachment na Câmara dos Deputados, em 17 de abril deste ano. Confira a entrevista completa: Brasil de Fato - O site Wikileaks chegou a denunciar que o presidente interino Michel Temer seria informante dos Estados Unidos. O que você pensa dessa relação? Glenn Greenwald - Quando o Wikileaks divulgou esses documentos pela primeira vez, quatro anos atrás, foram feitas algumas matérias no jornal Folha de S. Paulo e em outros jornais. Na época, ninguém prestou muita atenção porque as pessoas não se importavam muito com Temer. Mas agora, claro, o foco está nele. O que o Wikileaks disse agora é que o Temer está espionando o Brasil, junto aos Estados Unidos. Esse documento mostrou um comportamento muito raro, muito estranho, muito suspeito. Para mim esse documento subiu o nível da espionagem ou traição. Eu acho que esses registros são muito interessantes porque mostram que Temer é muito próximo dos EUA. Tem muitas pessoas achando que esse impeachment é para afastar o Brasil dos Brics [grupo formado por Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul]. Querem o país longe da China e mais próximo dos EUA. E esse documento é uma evidência de que o presidente é uma pessoa que tem um relacionamento muito próximo com os EUA. Na realidade ele estava passando informação não pública a um governo estrangeiro. Acho que, pelo menos isso, deve ser investigado. Como você vê a postura dos EUA nesse processo de impeachment no Brasil? Essa questão sobre o envolvimento dos EUA com a política interna do Brasil é muito sensível porque todos os brasileiros, ou a maioria do povo, sabem que os EUA estiveram envolvidos no golpe de 1964 e que apoiou muito a ditadura. Quando a presidente Dilma deu uma entrevista à RT [canal Russia Today] ela disse que não tinha evidências de que os EUA estariam envolvidos [no processo de impeachment]. O que eu posso falar, com certeza, é que o governo dos EUA tem uma preferência pelo governo Temer, se comparado ao governo do PT [Partido dos Trabalhadores]. O governo Temer oferece muito mais benefícios aos EUA, aos bancos estadunidenses e ao capital de Wall Street [mercado financeiro]. Então, acho que talvez eles não estejam apoiando o processo, mas aprovando, mostrando que eles não vão impedir. Um dia após a votação na Câmara dos Deputados, o líder da oposição, o senador Aloysio Nunes, foi para Washington e encontrou com políticos do alto escalão do governo dos EUA. Ele disse que estava indo dar informações, dizer que não é um golpe. Claro que quando um líder da oposição se encontra com membros do governo em Washington, nesse momento tão importante e sensível, levanta suspeita sobre o papel dos EUA nesse processo. https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2016/06/02/wikileaks-mostra-que-temer-e-ainda-mais-proximo-dos-eua-diz-greenwald/