Stephen Leahy
VIENNA, Jun 27 2011 (IPS) – Like our cave-dwelling ancestors of 200,000 years ago, nearly three billion people still use fire for cooking and heating. Of those, some 1.5 billion people have no access to electricity. For a billion more, their only access is to sporadic and unreliable electricity networks.
Now an is being launched by the United Nations to bring electricity to everyone on the planet by 2030.
Energy is the issue for the next decade, said Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the (UNIDO).
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is impossible without energy, Yumkella said at the opening of the last week.
The MDGs include reducing by half the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015, and ensuring environmenta…
Soumaila T. Diarra
BAMAKO, Aug 2 2011 (IPS) – Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death in Mali despite the availability of free treatment. The resurgence of the illness, linked to poverty and HIV infection, could be reduced by changing behaviour, doctors say.
I know people who have died of tuberculosis, Ramata Guindo told IPS.
In this market, a vendor of kitchen utensils died of it last year. He didn t go to a health centre in time. When they discovered what was wrong with him, it was too late, says the vegetable vendor at Bamako s Lafiabougou market.
This teeming market of hastily-constructed wooden sheds perfectly illustrates the overcrowding that supports the transmission of contagious diseases like TB. Between the merchants stalls, shoppers trample …
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Sep 8 2011 (IPS) – While the tendency in the industrialised world in the wake of the Mar. 11 nuclear meltdown in Japan is to abandon plans for further nuclear energy development, in Argentina the capacity of existing plants is being strengthened, and new reactors are being built.
Germany announced that it would start its nuclear power programme; Switzerland will make a ban on nuclear reactors permanent; and more than 94 percent of voters in a referendum in Italy rejected the government s plans to restart the nuclear programme abandoned in the late 1980s.
But that is far from happening in Argentina. The government of Cristina Fernández signed contracts in late August to extend the useful life of one of the country s two nuclear plants, a…
Rosemary D’Amour
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 2011 (IPS) – Dr. Rick Steketee, science director at the Malaria Control Partnership at PATH, a leading nonprofit organisation dedicated to public health in the Pacific northwest city of Seattle, isn t alone when he says that elimination of the infectious disease is a possibility.
In the so-called malaria belt centred around the Equator, the disease is often transmitted year-round. Credit: U.S. CDC
Simple solutions can make an enormous difference in accessibility. Credit: Dominik Golenia/CC By 2.0
WASHINGTON, Dec 2 2011 (IPS) – As the International Day for Persons with Disabilities approaches this Saturday, one institution is working to remove some of the barriers that prevent disabled people from taking a leading role in policies that affect their lives.
BRUSSELS, Feb 5 2012 (IPS) – Dozens of European Union-funded projects across several countries are ‘environmentally or socially unsound’, according to a map created by a joint effort between CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth Europe.
Released Feb. 2, the counted 33 ventures backed by the EU s either projects already funded or under consideration for funding totalling 16 billion euros.
The map highlighted projects in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland and Slovakia, which have been found to be particularly damaging to local biodiversity, to the future possibility of sustainable efforts and to human communities.
Twelve of the 33 projects studied were found in the Czech Republic, the highest number of harmful projects in …
Rousbeh Legatis interviews ERAMITHE DELVA, co-founder of KOFAVIV
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2012 (IPS) – In Haitian refugee camps, women are still crammed under plastic or cloth tarps that provide no security and quickly become overheated by the sun. Sexual abuse, harassment, assault and rape run rampant, even as political responses to these dangers have stalled. But KOFAVIV, a women s organisation founded by and for rape survivors, offers a glimmer of hope.
Marchers, who had been accompanied through Richmond streets by a pink-clad brass band, were welcomed with street theatre, more speeches and music. Credit: Judith Scherr/IPS
RICHMOND, California, Apr 23 2012 (IPS) – This year, Earth Day in Richmond, California was more than planting organic gardens or exploring solar panels.
Occupy Richmond and a coalition of progressive allies turned Apr. 20 into Occupy Earth Day, and took aim at Chevron, one of the world s wealthiest corporations. The corporate giant that turne…
An estimated 162,000 women and girls will be buried in Africa by the end of this year. They could easily be saved if they received essential maternity services. Credit: Bonnie Allen/IPS
NAIROBI, May 25 2012 (IPS) – Three years ago, the African Union began a continent-wide campaign to reduce the number of women who die when pregnant or giving birth.
Called the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa, its slogan is Africa cares: no woman should die while giving life. This was widely welcomed as many African societies give motherhood special status.
The sad truth, though, is that giving life is a leading cause of death of …
Population pressure in Pakistan. Credit: M. Fahim Siddiqi/IPS
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jul 11 2012 (IPS) – “No scalpel, no stitch and no rest needed,” guarantees Dr. Ghulam Shabbir Sudhayao, referring to the surgical procedure called vasectomy the least popular method of birth control around the world, including Pakistan.
“People confuse vasectomy with castration (surgical removal of the testicles) and that scares them away,” Sudhayao, who works for the government’s population welfare department, tells IPS.
Vasectomy involves a minor procedure to snip the sperm ducts. Sudhayao himself resorted to the method when he decided that his family was compl…