article on Steven Chu's alt energy research

At a Sleek Bioenergy Lab, a Lens on a Cabinet Pick - NYTimes.com:

"...He has not said anything publicly about his plans or goals as energy secretary, and he has not talked to the news media since being selected. But his actions as Lawrence Berkeley’s director, including the creation of JBEI, offer hints of how he might harness the 17 national laboratories — or at least the ones not dedicated to nuclear arms research — to address climate and energy issues [...]"

Slavery in Darfur

Slavery in Darfur | FP Passport:

"...If slavery is indeed now a staple of Darfur, as evidence seems to indicate, that means that peace agreements, peacekeepers, and even aid won't be enough to stop the conflict. Peacekeepers, for example, will have to grapple with the presence of civilians among rebels contingents. Peace agreements will need to include extensive emancipation of souls."

academic connections

This is a video Sung Park created for a fall 2008 course called Gender, Education, and Development. She made it to discuss the issue of the mistreatment of women in South Korea through informal employment roles.

OxFam climate change competition

Make the Case: how international law can help protect people from climate change | Oxfam International:

"In order to emphasize the international obligations of states, stimulate innovation and progress in international law addressing climate change, and to bring public attention to the urgency of the matter, Oxfam International, the Climate Justice Program, and Advocates for International Development are together launching a climate law competition. We are calling on lawyers, academics and law students worldwide to put forward the strongest legal case possible to demonstrate that rich countries’ greenhouse-gas emissions are violating the human rights of people in developing countries"

Child Development Index

Save the Children UK What we do: Child Development Index:

"Are some countries making good progress in improving child well-being? Is it getting worse in other countries?

Save the Children's new Child Development Index is the world's first and only tool to answer these questions. It combines each country's performance in three areas specific to children, to produce a score on a scale of 0 to 100. We have measured child well-being over 3 peiods from 1990. Japan is in first place, scoring just 0.4. Niger in Africa is in 137th place, with the highest score, 58, in 2000-2006.

Overall, child well-being as improved by 34% since 1990, but progress is slow. Leaders must consider how children are doing and how their decisions impact them. By telling us how children are faring, this index is the first step in that process."

Africa's hungry tribe: The Masai's struggle to subsist

Africa's hungry tribe: The Masai's struggle to subsist | Life and style | The Observer:

"Prices may be starting to fall in our supermarkets, but in Africa the cost of feeding a family remains terrifyingly high. Alex Renton reports from Tanzania, where the struggle to earn money for grain and the appropriation of grazing lands for tourism is driving the Masai to desperate measures.Millions of people eat it every day, yet you've probably never heard of ugali. Why?"

Ending Child Hunger in America

PPI: Ending Child Hunger in America - a memo for the next president by Joel Berg and Tom Freedman:

"First, the bad news: Hunger and food insecurity are soaring in America, and our faltering economy will only make things worse. The federal government reports that nearly 700,000 poor children in the United States directly experience hunger, and more than 12 million children live in low-income families that suffer from food insecurity, which means they struggle to meet their daily nutritional needs.

Now the good news: By implementing your courageous campaign pledge to end child hunger in the United States by 2015, you have a win-win opportunity to strike a blow against a major social problem while also stimulating our ailing economy. Through practical reforms of existing nutrition programs, along with new targeted spending, your administration could end childhood hunger in America [...]"

America's Health Rankings 2008

America's Health Rankings 2008 - Home Page:

"America’s Health Rankings™, the longest running report of its kind, provides an annual analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis and ranking of the healthiest and least healthy states. The 2008 Rankings reveal the overall health of the U.S. population has not improved for the fourth year in a row."

David Rieff lecture

Just over half way through part 1, Rieff discusses climate change and the need for a new paradigm in humanitarian relief to meet the needs of people suffering natural disasters.

IPK | David Rieff: "On Natural Disasters, Civil Wars, and Humanitarian Actors"

Dot Earth slide show by Andrew Revkin

Dot Earth global climate slide show | The New York Times

Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles That Of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows

Poor Children's Brain Activity Resembles That Of Stroke Victims, EEG Shows:

"...'This is a wake-up call,' Knight said. 'It's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status: fewer books, less reading, fewer games, fewer visits to museums.' [...]"

Climate change and global health

The Lancet Student: Climate change and global health:

"...a few months ago a WHO conference on setting the research agenda for climate change and health outlined major areas for improvement and a need for multidisciplinary approaches. One such research endeavour already underway is the Lancet-UCL commission on climate change and health, headed by Anthony Costello, incorporating academics from law, to medicine, to climatologists, and their preliminary report will be published in February or March of next year [...]"

global development, set to music this time

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Global Change and the Ecology of Cities

Global Change and the Ecology of Cities -- Grimm et al. 319 (5864): 756 -- Science:

"Abstract: Urban areas are hot spots that drive environmental change at multiple scales. Material demands of production and human consumption alter land use and cover, biodiversity, and hydrosystems locally to regionally, and urban waste discharge affects local to global biogeochemical cycles and climate. For urbanites, however, global environmental changes are swamped by dramatic changes in the local environment. Urban ecology integrates natural and social sciences to study these radically altered local environments and their regional and global effects. Cities themselves present both the problems and solutions to sustainability challenges of an increasingly urbanized world."

Women’s Health: Resource Brief

Women’s Health: Resource Brief, MCH Library

"Resource Brief is an electronic guide to recent resources on Web sites, federal offices of women's health, and other related resources for health professionals and families. The brief, produced by the MCH Library, contains links to related bibliographies, knowledge paths, and organizations developed by the library. Topics include AIDS and HIV in pregnancy, assisted reproductive technologies, breastfeeding and working mothers, depression during pregnancy, domestic violence, maternal morbidity and mortality, nutrition and physical activity for women, nutrition during pregnancy, preconception and pregnancy, and smoking and substance use during pregnancy."

The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008

The African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008:

"A groundbreaking report that scores and ranks the performance of African governments in terms of their efforts to improve child wellbeing will be launched on 20 November 2008 in Nairobi and Amsterdam, according to a statement by Dr Assefa Bequele, Executive Director of The African Child Policy Forum, an independent, Pan- African policy and advocacy centre based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia."

Closing the knowledge-implementation gap in HIV treatment

The Lancet Student Archive - Closing the knowledge-implementation gap in HIV treatment:

"...JW Lee, former director general of WHO, coined the term ‘know-do gap’ for the distance between proven effective interventions and their implementation. The above are vivid examples of this ‘knowledge-implementation gap’; while our vast knowledge of HIV therapy marches on to the metronome of scientific discovery, implementation of simple, proven, effective therapies-just getting basic generic HAART drugs to those in need-lags behind, especially in the developing world [...]"

December 1st is World AIDS Day

Maternal death is not often a health issue connected with HIV/AIDS, but this study shows that in one Mozambique hospital AIDS-related infections accounted for more maternal deaths than the traditional big five causes. Maternal risk is not included in the current World AIDS Day Thematic Campaigns.

PLoS Medicine - An Autopsy Study of Maternal Mortality in Mozambique: The Contribution of Infectious Diseases:

"Between October 2002 and December 2004, there were 179 maternal deaths in the Maputo Central Hospital and 31,135 live births, corresponding to a ratio of 874 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. (Because the hospital was a referral center, this ratio would not be expected to reflect the actual MMR for the general population of the Maputo area.) Complete autopsies were done on 139 of the women, HIV infection was measured using standard tests, and malaria was diagnosed by looking for parasites and malaria-associated changes in postmortem samples. Of these 139 women, just over one-third died because of obstetric complications; hemorrhage was the most common cause of death (one in six maternal deaths). The commonest nonobstetric causes of maternal death were HIV/AIDS- related conditions, including infections and cancers (about 1 in 8 maternal deaths; about half the women in the study were HIV positive). Other common causes were pyogenic (pus-forming) bacterial infections of the lungs and brain, and malaria. Together, these infectious diseases accounted for nearly half of the maternal deaths."

Food for the Holidays

Food for the Holidays | The New York Observer:

"...'New York is still the city people look to for so many trends, and we need to keep focusing on these things,' Bloomberg said, referring to the City's newest battles on calories, trans-fat and the sodium content in packaged food products.

As part of its drive to create a healthy, happy city, the Mayor's Office has three goals:

* Get city agencies to abide by high nutrition standards that include lowering salt and calorie contents and supplying more high-fiber meals;
* Make healthy food more affordable; and
* Bring healthier food to low-income neighborhoods.

Each year New York City schools serve 225 million meals, more than any other US agency other than the Defense Department. The challenge, Bloomberg noted, is getting people to eat the healthy food provided. In other places getting people to eat healthy means increasing access to nutritious food. More than 1/4 of all Harlem residents are obese, a health problem that continues to get worse even as the city become more environmentally friendly, Bloomberg noted [...]"

what is gentrification and how does it affect our neighborhood: Harlem

found via Uptown Flavor

Global Climate Campaign

Global Climate Campaign:

"This webpage has been set up to publicise and promote plans for demonstrations on climate change, to coincide with the United Nations Climate Talks (COP14/MOP4) in Poznan, Poland, December 1st to 12th 2008.

We intend synchronised demonstrations around the world on Saturday December 6th 2008 - in as many places as possible - to call on world leaders to take urgent action on climate change."

Halting AIDS vs. denying it

Halting AIDS vs. denying it | FP Passport:

"The juxtaposition of two of today's headlines pertaining to AIDS in Africa is glaring. One touted a new strategy for HIV testing that could slow, if not altogether halt the spread of the virus, while the other released the devastating findings of a Harvard University study which linked 365,000 premature deaths to former South African President Thabo Mbeki's refusal to acknowledge scientific evidence of HIV/AIDS's viral capability [...]"

Cholera aggravates Zimbabwe collapse | FP Passport

Cholera aggravates Zimbabwe collapse | FP Passport:

"...But after everything else, it might be cholera that pushes the limits of how far failed this failed-state can go. South Africa is doing its best to keep the cholera on one side of the border, but further collapse could send an flood of refugees where there has always been a trickle. That would further destabilize a politically shaky South Africa in the midst of its presidential transition."

The pitfalls of Africa's aid addiction

BBC NEWS | Africa | The pitfalls of Africa's aid addiction:

"Where I come from in West Africa, we have a saying: 'A fool at 40 is a fool forever', and most African countries have now been independent for over 40 years.

Most are blessed with all the elements to help compete on a global stage - abundant natural resources, a young population and the climate and conditions to be a major agricultural force.

And yet today, my continent, which is home to 10% of the world's population, represents just 1% of global trade. I have no doubt we have to take responsibility for our failures. We can't afford to keep playing the blame game.

But when 50 years of foreign aid has failed to lift Africa out of poverty, could corruption be the reason?

Could that really be all there is to it? [...]"

Let’s Build a Sustainable Auto Industry

Let’s Build a Sustainable Auto Industry | Steve Cohen blogging in The New York Observer:

"...The truth is that there is no tradeoff between environmental protection and economic growth. Destroy the environment and you cannot grow food, draw fresh water or breathe. If you poison the land with toxic waste, it costs billions of dollars to detoxify. Economic growth depends on environmental protection. The real benefit of the sustainability perspective is its goal of driving waste and pollution out of the production process entirely. If you make a product with fewer raw materials and less energy, your efficiency should result in lower prices or higher profits – and possibly both. Pollution is a form of waste and waste is the enemy of efficiency."

New Tactics | Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience

"Are you interested in participating in an online dialogue with other human rights educators sharing ways they have incorporated practical experience in their curriculum? Come and join us on the New Tactics website!"

New Tactics | Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience:

"The November New Tactics on-line dialogue will feature “Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience”. This dialogue will specifically feature ideas, experiences and methods from human rights higher education programs for incorporating practical experience into human rights curriculums to better prepare human rights advocates for doing “on the ground” and “in the trenches” human rights work."

Global health is “the new pink”

The Lancet Student Archive Global health is “the new pink”:

"...To effectively practice medicine internationally, a doctor should be more than a doctor. He should be the health system administrator, public health advocate, policy maker and implementer, the economist, and the voice of the people he is serving. In theory, an effective global health doc would have an MD, MBA, MPH, JD, and a PhD all in one! In practice, people simply don’t have the money to go through 15 years of post-graduate work to help an underserved population."

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Hooray for Annie for moving us forward at warp speed into the blog age!

welcome to Interdisciplinarities: the blog