The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

We hope you're enjoying our daily presentations of photos from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have another photo that combines hope on one side and the devestating reality on the other side. The photo is of Chiefs Forest guards that RIPPLE Africa organized to visit recently destroyed forests.

We'll continue our celebration this upcoming week with new photos from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Monday's green books series: 'Ecological Debt' by Andrew Simms

We see these days what happens to the economy and to us as a whole when many individuals and companies don't operate within their financial means.

Can we imagine what will happen if we don't live within your environmental means? is it already happening and we're in environmental debt? our green book for this week is seeking the answers.

Our book for today is:

Ecological Debt: The Health of the Planet and the Wealth of Nations (second edition)

Author: Andrew Simms

Andrew Simms is the new economics foundation's (nef) Policy Director and head of nef's Climate Change programme. He is the author of numerous other publications about human development and the environment. He is co-editor of, Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth? (2008), and author of Tescopoly: How one shop came out on top and why it matters (2007).

Andrew studied at the LSE and has worked for a variety of development and environmental organisations, including Oxfam and the International Institute for Environment and Development and has been a regular contributor to the International Red Cross’s annual World Disasters Report. Andrew is a board member of Greenpeace UK and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Europe. Previously, Andrew led campaigns for the development agency Christian Aid which included being one of the original organisers and leading advocates for the Jubilee 2000 Coalition debt relief campaign, the precursor to the Make Poverty History campaign.

Publisher: Pluto Press

Published on: February 17, 2009 (first edition was published on May2005)

What it is about (from Borders website):
This is the second edition of Andrew Simm's highly regarded guide to ecological debt. Simms shows how millions of us in the West are running up huge ecological debts: from the amount of oil and coal that we burn to heat our houses and run our cars, to what we consume and the waste that we create, the impact of our lifestyles is felt worldwide. Whilst these debts go unpaid, millions more living in poverty in the majority world suffer the burden of paying dubious foreign financial debts.

The book explores a great paradox of our age: how the global wealth gap was built on ecological debts, which the world's poorest are now having to pay for. Highlighting how and why this has happened, he also shows what can be done differently in the future. Now updated throughout, this is a clear and passionate account of the steps we can take to stop pushing the planet to the point of environmental bankruptcy.

Why you should get it:
Nowadays when everyone is worried about the economy it seems that our usage of the planet's resources is getting pushed a little bit to the side, but it shouldn't be this way. This is not the 'real' world. This is a kind of a bubble. And we all see now what happens when one day reality knocks on the door. And you cannot nationalize planet earth, with or without calling it nationalization, until things will get better. It just doesn't work this way.

The recession might be actually a good timing to read the second edition of this book that looks even more relevant and more urgent in its call for action. Simms believes that our economy, resource base and biosphere are interdependent and hence the solution is integrative and include social, environmental and economic dimensions that enforce each other and can actually make it work. How developing countries should exactly reboot themselves to live within their economic and environmental means? and is sustainability the answer? the book is definitely a good place to start understanding these questions and figuring out the replies.

What others say about the book (its first edition):
"Creative and compelling." Guardian

"Essential reading." Head of the IPCC

"A new phrase has entered the language." Anita Roddick

Want to learn more about the ideas an concepts Simms presents in the book? check out this video of Resist Network:



More videos with Simms can be found at http://network.resistnetwork.com/video/video/listTagged?tag=debt

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on our website's green resources section.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Another photo from Malawi, Africa

We continue our daily presentation here of photos from Malawi, Africa, where our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have a photo of the Makuzi Afforestation club.

We'll continue our celebration this upcoming week with new photos from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

New study shows: tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised!

Speaking of the planting season in Malawi, Africa, I have just read in the guardian (thanks to Grist for the link!) on a laborious study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa. The study is showing that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised.

The guardian reports that "Simon Lewis, a climate expert at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said: "We are receiving a free subsidy from nature. Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of change.""

Lewis adds that another conclusion from the study is that on average the trees are getting bigger - compared to the 1960s, each hectare of intact African forest has trapped an extra 0.6 tonnes of carbon a year. And it adds up - over the world's tropical forests, this extra "carbon sink" effect adds up to 4.8bn tonnes of carbon dioxide removed each year - close to the total carbon dioxide emissions from the US.

Another interesting quote on the article is of David Ritter, senior forest campaigner at Greenpeace UK, who is quoted as follows: "This research reveals how these rainforests are providing a huge service to mankind by absorbing carbon dioxide from our factories, power stations and cars."

We definitely agree with him. Moreover, we know that trees have many other qualities that benefit both the environment and local communities in these areas (you can read more about it on our benefits page). In any event, since fighting global warming is at the top of the world's priorities it's important to establish again the important role of trees in this fight as does this new study.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

Following our promise yesterday, we present here every day for a week a photo from Malawi, Africa our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today we have a sad picture of a sad reality in Malawi: We're seeing part of 10 acres destroyed by one man in 3 months.

We'll continue our celebration tomorrow with a new photo from RIPPLE Africa.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

We have winners on our newsletter special offer!

The February issue of our newsletter was released today with a special offer that included 3 great prizes: a copy of "Of Parrots and People" by Mira Tweti, a beautiful Natural Jute Eco-Friendly Deluxe Shopping Bag Set, and a set of plantable greeting cards from Wishrap.com.

The prizes were awarded to the first three subscribers that balanced out books on our website following the release of the newspaper. And we have winners: Jim, Geoffrey and Catherine won the first, second and third prizes respectively. Congratulations!

We invite you all to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. We will continue to have special offers to our subscribers and it's very simple - all you have to do is just to sign up, using the box on the right side of the page saying 'Join Our Email List' and that's it.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

The daily photo from Malawi, Africa

Following our promise yesterday, we present here every day for a week a photo from Malawi, Africa our planting partner RIPPLE Africa has finished another successful planting season. About 1.5 million trees being planted on December and January!

Today our photo is of Fumbani Ripple Africa manager:


















We'll continue our celebration tomorrow with a new beautiful photo so stay tuned!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Photos are courtesy of RIPPLE Africa (www.rippleafrica.org)