I am a lover of elephants and I have been lucky enough to watch them in their natural habitat. They are the most majestic animals I have ever come across and the sheer size of an adult bull or cow always leaves me in wonder. Their sense of family and interaction is an honor to watch.  There are two species of elephant; African elephant weighing up to 6, 000kg and its Asian counterpart weighing at around 5,000kg. Every elephant herd is led by a matriarch which is the oldest female in the herd (it’s a female world out there). Her role is to offer guidance to the heard and teach the young ones how to behave. So intelligent are they that they extend their trunks in greetings when they meet each other and are known to perform funeral rituals for their dead. Let me assure you that I am not here to bore you with facts about elephants but to bring to your attention the threat that faces these gentle giants.   On 30th April 2016 Kenya burnt over 100 tones of ivory stock piles which is a representation of about 8,000 elephants that have been lost to poaching in the recent years. This ivory was not only confiscated from poachers in Kenya but from traffickers using Kenyan airports and ports to export the illegal goods. According to the African Wildlife Foundation there are around 470,000 African elephants roaming the wild. Some of us may think that this is a huge number but the picture on the ground is more tragic. Every 15 minutes an African elephant is killed by poachers for its tusks. That means that if this trend continues the elephants will be extinct in the next two decades. Boom! Gone!   The historical burn of over 100 tones of ivory at Nairobi National Park Most of you might argue that we live in a world where it is survival for the fittest and Charles Darwin would definitely back up your argument. However, this is not nature taking its course but human greed fuelling massive killings. The largest markets for ivory products are China and the United States. What disgusts me the most is that it is the elite that are buying the ivory trinkets and carvings to cement their standing in society. The icing on this madness is their belief that the trinkets or carvings are good luck charms, an aphrodisiac (really?) and are a sign of wealth. How low the human race has sunk is beyond my comprehension. The cycle of ivory trade is one of pain and loss of lives. Park rangers are killed daily in the line of duty and war lords like Joseph Kony from Uganda sell ivory to buy arms and continue reigning terror among the innocents. Do not get me started on the crimes his army has committed against women and children as he seeks to quench his power hungry soul.   That is why the action of Kenya to burn over 100 tones of ivory is very significant. It sends a message that Kenya will not tolerate illegal trade in wildlife. It is a cry to the world to pay attention before elephants and rhinos become a tale like the dinosaurs. Many people especially in Kenya have been of the opinion that the ivory should have been sold at an estimation of 172 million USD and the money used for conservation efforts. I choose to disagree; great strides have been made in banning ivory trade in some states in America and parts of China. Releasing such amount of ivory to the market will only refuel the trade and result to more poaching. On the other hand guarding ivory stock piles is an expensive affair and would require 24/7 surveillance. The danger with this is that we have some rotten corrupt individuals who would not blink an eye when sneaking the ivory to the black market. So what better way to stick it up their faces other than burning the stock piles to ashes! We are simply saying elephants are worth more alive, let me explain;   Tourism in Kenya is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue following agriculture. The $1 billion a year industry is a source of livelihood for thousands of Kenyans while our South African counterparts earn more than $ 7 billion every year accounting for around 7.9% of its GDP. I could go on and on about the benefits we derive as a continent from live animals than dead. I recognize that this problem is not only unique to Africa but conservationists around the world are racing against time to save other endangered species like the white rhino, sea turtles, jaguar, panda, white sharks among many others. What has gotten us here is human greed. It is the lack of respect for any other creature that walks on the face of the earth. We have forgotten that man may be supposedly the most intelligent on the web but every species has a role to play in the functioning of the food web.   We are destroying our planet at an unprecedented rate. We have cleared forests to build cities and expand our suburban neighborhoods, we have polluted the same rivers that give us life and turned our ears deaf to the conservationists’ voices of reason among us. History however, will judge us. Generations to come will hold us responsible for not protecting that which was entrusted to us. We owe it to them therefore, to be stewards of this beautiful planet until we can pass the torch to them.

Five students from the Pan African University Institute of Water and Energy Sciences (incl. Climate Change) (PAUWES), Water Track, namely, Claydon Mumba (Water Policy), Oludare Durodola (Water Engineering), Francess Awunor (Water Policy), Margaret Kironde (Water Policy) and Victo Nabunya (Water Engineering), emerged as the best team in Africa and third overall during the 2019 Geneva Challenge. The team presented a project on "Rural Water Filtration Kit" (RUWAFIKI), that seeks to provide water purification solutions for rural livelihoods in Africa using localized materials such as moringa, activated carbon, and filter papers. RUWAFIKI is a water treatment kit that comprises of crushed moringa seeds; saw dust and; filter papers. The kit also consists of other accessories including a funnel, stirring stick, latex gloves, and a user manual with visual instructions on how to use the kit. A proposed design of the kit has been made containing all accessories and dimensions. Their proposal explored the conditions of Makondo Parish in Uganda where they were going to pilot this equipment since the region faced lots of water-borne diseases challenges. They noted that RUWAFIKI was an innovative solution that would enable households in Makondo to filter collected water so as to remove pathogens, improve odor and colour and would thus result in a reduction of the burden of waterborne diseases in the area.The kit is portable, easy to use, and very affordable. The project will be implemented in Makondo in coorporation with various local and international partners. Various performance tools and indicators would be used to monitor and evaluate the performance of the project in Makondo. The project directly contributes to the achivement of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): No poverty; Good Health and Well-being and; Clean Water. The Geneva challenge is an international competition for graduate students that stimulate reflection and innovation on development from diverse disciplinary and contextual perspectives. This competition was launched in 2014 by the Graduate Institute in Geneva. The Geneva Challenge was supported by the late Kofi Annan and is currently supported by Ambassador Jenö C.A. Staehelin. The idea of this challenge is for graduate students to gather contributions that are both theoretically grounded and offer pragmatic solutions to a relevant international development problem stemming from an interdisciplinary collaboration between three to five enrolled master students from anywhere in the world. The 2019 edition asked graduate students to address the complex issues arising from global health and how to tackle these challenges in order to foster social and economic development.  346 teams composed of 1,364 graduate students from 101 different nationalities registered to take part in the Geneva Challenge 2019. 100 project entries were submitted by 410 students from teams hailing from all over the world, with 16 semi-finalists teams. This year, the external Jury Panel chose five finalist teams, one per continent. Team RUWAFIKI (Rural Water Filtration Kit) was selected as the Best African team and was fully sponsored to defend their project before the Jury on Tuesday, 1st October, 2019 at a public event held at the Graduate Institute Geneva, Switzerland.     You can watch as short video of the team here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=i7VjvClw3N0

If you are one to pay attention to job and scholarship adverts you have probably come across the phrase “women are encouraged to apply”. Some go as far as raising the age requirement for women or lowering their required years of experience for a job. Where I come from (Kenya) the constitution allows for the election of women representatives under a category that no man is allowed to compete under. The exodus of all these began in September 1995 during the Fourth World Conference on Women where participating governments came together and passed what is  now famously know as the Beijing declaration. Their aim was to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity. Women and girls were to have equal opportunities in accessing resources, education, health care, leadership positions and participating in the decision making process. But just how did the participating governments hope to achieve this? If you go through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action document I can bet you my stipend (the whole 750$) that you will come across the word equity. I believe this was done in good faith but its implementation has lost sight of what it really means to achieve gender equity. It does not mean that women have to be given special preference to match up to the skill level of men nor do they want to hold jobs simply because they are female. Creating special parliamentary seats for women does not equal to better service delivery or representation of their needs. I think our systems have failed in implementing the goals that were envisioned in the Beijing declaration. Our women and girls do not need special favors just because of their gender nor does it mean we forget the boy child. Forgetting the boy child simply means years from now we will have to launch a new declaration on the empowerment of men. What they all need is mentorship and skill building from a young age. If we provide all the necessary tools and skills for the development of our young girls and boys there will be no need whatsoever to favor one sex over the other when opportunities arise. I will own up to using the gender card to get my way sometimes, like getting to do a class presentation first over the guys in my class or getting a seat in the bus when I am well capable of standing through a trip(hopefully I will still get a seat after this). I will even play the vulnerable card because what man does not want to act as the prince charming to a damsel in distress. Yet I never want my gender to play a role in earning a position or favors that put my skills and abilities into question. Maybe I am being a tad bit hypocritical but I want to believe that I have earned enough skills to compete on the same level with the opposite sex. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a lady accused of using her wiles to get good grades or earn a promotion. Some of these accusations maybe true but who are we to think that they are incapable of earning their way up. It is true that women worldwide face indomitable challenges more so in Africa in areas of education, health care and resources allocation. Gender mainstreaming and equity may offer solutions to these challenges but it does not mean compromising on quality so that we can all pat our backs on how well our society is doing. It is not giving special preference to women over men. I believe it is the nurturing of the skills and capabilities of both men and women from a young age and harnessing what each of them can do best. 

Who said environment is all things around us? Well, dating back to primary school days, teachers used to stress it like that; but does it include “us”- I mean if it’s all things around us, are we part of it or it’s part of us? What happens if people choose to focus on improving their economic status without considering anything around them, does it matter? At least we all know what has ensued in most of those countries that have done their “thing” without the chains of environmental sustainability- examples include European countries, China and the rest. One common feature on these countries is development which is a long distance away from Africa. Is Africa special, like one of those last-borns who have to be treated in some exceptional way regardless of whether it impedes their ability to learn by themselves? This and more was discussed in the second PAUWES debate held at the institute as we take the lead in building future African leaders.How it happenedAfter opening remarks by the head of subject matter team Mr. Andrew Mugumya, the debate was presided over by Ms. Eva Kimonye. The first speaker from proposers Mr. George Kimboowa took the stage. He started by defining sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without hindering the future. He pointed out that sustainability can be viewed in 2 different angles, i.e. ecological point of view and raw material supply. “No one is against economic growth but rather we have to handle it with care”. He acknowledged the fact that economic development is important but it feeds on the environment like a baby and mother. So, to ensure unlimited resource use, environmental sustainability should be put in the light first. He edified the audience about the advantages that come along with proper handling of the environment and how its negligence will drive this beautiful world to doom. He critiqued the research writings of Kenneth Arrow- 1998 that seemingly enforce the sense of “pollute first, clean up later”. “There is no clear evidence that emission levels will fall after countries become richer, generally it’s not clear how the reverse of the effects can be achieved”, he asserted. In a declining voice he called for a first place consideration of environmental sustainability before economic growth - submitted and left the floor. The second speaker, Mr. Martin Lyambai took the stage, he started by defining the environment as the air we breathe. He criticized the world order of consuming more in the name of becoming rich as this leads to depletion of resources and the repercussions are rather intolerable. He gave a case of deforestation happening in the world today, “Over 2 million acres every year are cleared! Look people, the carbon sink is going” he attested. Lake Chad is no more because the people prioritized economic development over the environment. He pointed out how it’s harder than the most expensive diamond today to find people fetching water from wells and rivers, yet it used to be the case some years back. He blamed all this to the copious pollution that has rendered well waters unclean for consumption. He went ahead to point out how the future is important and for that matter it’s imperative that environment sustainability should be at the fore front. A case for Canada selling breathing air to China was pointed out as one of the aftermaths of neglecting the environment to the expense of economic growth. Criticizing the scientific argument of recreating the environment, he added his voice to the believers that such is not possible. He pointed out the Kenya case of nuclear power development, alleging that this is not a sustainable solution to solve energy problems in this beautiful country because the risks are high! Giving an example of Chernobyl and other parts of the world where the effects of nuclear live on still up to date. “Environment has a long term economic growth but it’s worth it, if we don’t realize this, we’re going to cause more challenges for this beautiful planet” he stated. Flooding due to hydropower dams are some of the problems of fronting economic growth. He pointed out how the world is running out of very many precious plant species that would provide healing for the ever developing diseases. Opposers The first speaker from the opposers, Mr. Rolex Muceka- in his opening remarks, “For Africa economic growth should be paramount more than environmental sustainability”. “Look at the people in Africa! Dying of curable diseases because of lack of good hospitals to handle such cases.” Underscoring Tanzania as one of the countries where environment is considered first, he highlighted that people lack land for farming because the fertile soils are preserved. He asserted that a focus on the African scenarios makes it clear that there is a paradox; people are dying because of poverty, poor standards of living, insufficient food supply and many other related issues because the arable land that could be utilized for agriculture is being preserved in the name of environmental sustainability. He posed questions to the audience whose answers no one was ready to give. Is human life less important than the environment? What happened to the coined statements of “environment is everything around us”? If humans are part of the environment why are they left to perish in the name of environmental sustainability? He went ahead to point out economic statistics about Africa, “Three quarters of the people in Africa are poor, they live under 9$ earnings per month yet the continent is among the richest - endowed with significant quantities of resources”. Africa has the lowest GDP with a GDP that is less than that of china as a country! - humbling facts!In his concluding statements, he made it crystal clear that before one starts talking about environmental sustainability, there is a need to recognize that empowerment of economic growth is very crucial for Africa’s case. With 83% unemployment rates, you can’t start singing a boring song about how sweet the environment is. There is a need to focus on what we have and exploit our resources to the fullest. He submitted and left the floor for next speaker Mr. Cuthbert Taguta.He started by decrying the economies of African countries that are mainly characterized by accumulating debts, problems of trade balance and overdependence. He stressed that African countries are being used as ponies in a big game because borrowed money comes with leverages and costs. In his view, Africa should shift her focus to resource exploitation. “Taking a case of developed countries, none of them made it through borrowing, why should Africa take another route we’re not certain of? “, he said. The abundance of resources in Africa, water, minerals and the rest, should we live it to perish because the environment is more important than dying and starving people! Truth is we’re losing much by not exploiting our resources- we really need that money. If people are part of the environment as it’s claimed then you should take care of them first through economic growth.Who should determine the level of environmental sustainability for Africa? We should come up with our own set of rules. According to UN, some of the things that have kept Africa in abject poverty is not utilizing the resources they have. No one is against economic development but there ought to be an approach that caters for environment as well as economic growth. Proper planning is the issue here. He submitted and left the floor. Reaction from AudienceAmong the speakers from the audience, there was one who doesn’t mince words! He rejected the whole idea of environmental sustainability referring to it as a fallacy that was started by a famous Canadian Maurice Strong. He stressed that Maurice strong started spreading the gospel of environmental sustainability after he realized his retirement time had come yet he didn’t have enough in his pocket. He went ahead to clarify that no country has developed among the path everyone is talking about (environment first). Who would want to take a path that has never been taken by anyone? I am sure not many but there is. What is the cost of the environment? What is the cost of human life? Tough questions to answer!From the audience still, one speaker gave a case of a poor man dying because of lack of medication; you want to tell me that it’s ok for that man to die yet he has trees he could probably cut and sell for firewood. Africa is hungry! Should we stop exploiting the rivers we have? Ofcourse not!!In conclusion,The fact is, economic growth and environmental sustainability are both important and for proper performance of countries, it’s important that a holistic approach that handles both is devised for the point that none of them can exist in isolation without problems. For this we should not put a price tag on the environment instead we need policy makers and proper leaders to incorporate economic growth and environmental sustainability. As the editorial team, we take this opportunity to thank the entire students’ body and the different COP teams for making this debate happen. @Editorial_team

When going into the real estate business, or even constructing your own house in Africa, it would be recommendable to go off-grid. This is because there is an alternative source of energy that is not only friendly to the environment but also pocket-friendly. Solar is becoming cheaper by the day and it is particularly cheaper in Africa as the continent is among the sunniest in the world. This has been driven by the reducing cost of solar PV modules as shown above. Looking at the brief analysis below, you can see how cheap solar is getting. The illustration above shows that the price of solar is below 6 dollar cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) anywhere in Africa as the continent is within the solar belt. Remember too that the pricing is unsubsidized. That cost is even lower than what most people currently pay for electricity in countries all over Africa. To put this into perspective, a report released by African Development Bank indicated that the average cost of electricity in Africa was US $0.14 per kWh against a production cost of US $0.18 per kWh in 2010. The situation hasn’t changed much for my country Kenya as the average cost of electricity for the low consumers is currently about US $0.14 per kWh with most average to high consumers paying about US $0.19 per kWh. That cost is expensive compared to solar and doesn’t take into consideration externalities such as environmental impacts from the use of fossil fuel to generate electricity. Energy Storage.. There is no concern with regards to ensuring a 24-hour supply of electricity as a result of declining cost and continuous improvement of energy storage technologies. Companies such as Tesla hope to produce batteries of $100 per kWh by 2020. There are also other companies undertaking numerous research and development on energy storage aiming to lower the price even further. For this reason, it is practical to establish a real estate business or even construct/convert a home to be purely based on solar energy in Africa. The savings will be enormous from a clean and reliable source of energy. Prospects for savings… Let’s assume you are in Kenya and its 2020 already, the cost of solar averages US $0.045 per kWh while the electricity from the grid remains at US $0.19 per kWh for most middle-class consumers. Let’s also assume a consumption of about 300 kWh every month.  The savings from using solar will be about US $522 in a year. The savings for a about 5 years will be able to purchase a solar energy system, including energy storage, that will provide free electricity for at least 25 years more. I hope we see the sense and embrace solar as a dependable energy source. In fact, there is no need to wait until 2020, make 2017 a year for savings on electricity as well as the environment by adopting solar energy.

In a world where COVID-19 statistics update, from official sites and unfortunately other hoax/fake news via social platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp spreads it’s generally confusing and at most times overwhelming for most people. COVID-19 has become a daily conversation and a reality impacting all society's aspects and for PAUWES students it’s the University life's experience. The focus being far from their homes, anxiety and worry can easily become the norm. So how are the Pan African Students coping with the official imposed lockdown for the past month, one would wonder? The longing for their homes and a return to the academic routines they had grown accustomed to, has been a shared concern among the students. Strategies to cope with social distancing, self-isolation or quarantine are not readily available in any student manual so creativity and ingenuity has become a necessity for survival. The sixth cohort that comprises a combination of academic giants from the Cape to Cairo hailing from the vast regions of our motherland namely the gold coast of Ghana, the Congo carpeted rain forest, the beautiful Zanzibar island of Tanzania, the Kalahari game reserve of Botswana and the great elegant Minarets of Mansourah, devastation, eagerness with hope for an end to this long isolation and immobility that has incapacitated their lifestyles and put a hold on their academic programs, they have had to rise up with creativity, empathy and sympathy for one another as their twin information and concern for their home countries where their families are and their current temporary home in Algeria, so spreading hope and love for each other has become a necessity for survival .This is an uncertain time for everyone, and with different home countries' news updates combined with Algeria's one may be impacted by fear and anxiety. However the 6th Cohort strives to stand the test of time in this lockdown through pure ingenuity and a shared feeling of being each other's keeper as African brothers and sisters in arms has become a source of unifier and spirit of hope for the Cohort. Students have found means to learn new languages, others have taken up passion to learn the different cultures of their friends, and others have found time to bond with each other while mostly the best friend of each student being either his smartphone or laptop., the lockdown has made students to diversify knowledge through online learning, conversations, among others and from a negative perspective it has made students to cling to their beds as a solace. Creativity with interaction and staying connected during social distancing has led to open engagements and comic satire to pass time and give mental relief from anxiety. In attempts to help regain structure at such a time to academic life, the different clubs have become a source of activity with weekly challenges. These have helped the students find mindful practices and creative pursuits as they work on their weekly assigned tasks. The students come up with initiatives and mind-provoking debates held weekly via their respective club WhatsApp platforms. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation club (PEIC) together with Gender and Climate change club (PGCCC) have embraced technology as the rest of the world has had to under current circumstances as a potential learning and enlightening instrument to keep students engaged and progressive in their pursuits on their various virtual platforms For food provision and supply, besides the residence administration which tries to make the stay for students normal, the host students have also taken up the initiative to lend a hand in providing the other necessities for their colleagues under lockdown thereby minimizing movement in line with residence administration orders. The Cohort WhatsApp platforms have become a place of shared humor and creative puns to pass time as comic relief in times where anxiety and panic attacks among other mental health issues may arise. This has helped most students to build a feeling of community at a time where widespread panic and doom may become overwhelming, for the 6th Cohort they have taken this as a time to find “the needle in the haystack” for tough times call for tough people who can stand in the storm with creativity and focus, and above all spiritual wisdom in arms , the 6th Cohort stands as a family connected through academic purpose and now with shared concerns as an example of the value of 'Ubuntuism' , connected hearts and minds working together with technology on its side and creativity in trying times of COVID-19. Compiled by THE EDITORIAL TEAM 2020

I have had a bit of trouble deciding on the topic for this week’s entry, not because I have run out of topics (far from it) but because with the symposium my mind has been overly stimulated to really settle down on one thing. I am thankful however, that this was accidentally decided for me when we went out for dinner with some colleagues and friends and our main discussion for the night became climate change and most specifically the need for behavior change if mitigation and adaptation measures are to be successful.   What I want to concentrate on is my dilemma on how efforts for mitigation and adaptation are going to be successful when decisions are being made at the top with no participation from those at the bottom especially in the African setting. Scientists and researchers have been able to come up with so much information and data on climate change in the last decades but unfortunately no one is decoding this scientific data into a language that the common man and most elite understand. Farmers, fishermen and pastoralists have all noticed a decline in either their yields or stock but most of them cannot directly attribute this to climate change.   The biggest challenge in the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures is lack of ownership which is supposed to drive behavioral change. Every individual who inhabits planet earth needs to realize that we are all contributing to the emissions that continue to lead to climate variability and change. Simply put we are not living sustainably! I will admit that the concept of climate change is overwhelming even for me but If we can all do the best we can in living sustainably like cycle instead of driving, use public transport instead of private cars, recycle waste or water, turn off the lights or use natural products instead of those that are processed it will have a ripple benefit effect to the environment.   On the other hand we have to consider the societal and cultural norms that we are faced with especially here in Africa. Owning a car is considered as a sign of success while many think cycling is for the poor or the athletic. So how do you convince such societies to try public transport? Like a friend said public transport needs to be made attractive and you can only do that by making it reliable, secure and efficient. The public leaders and servants need to step out of their tinted, air conditioned fuel guzzling cars and live by example. This will only not help in the reduction of emissions but it will see a reduction in the amount of time and money lost in traffic jams.   I will admit the concept of sustainable development especially when coming from the west sounds hypocritical. What is to make Africa and other developing countries buy into this idea if the western economies unsustainably exploited resources to get their economies where they are. Even today most of the raw materials used in western factories come from the developing countries and the means of exploitation leave a lot to be desired. Africa provides a large market for products manufactured in the west like cars and processed goods and do not get me started on the dumping of e waste in the guise of donations. But we cannot afford to make this a blame game on who is doing this or that. When the sky falls like one of our colleagues stated it will fall on everyone.     I could go on and on about what I think is double talk and walk by the different stakeholders in regards to climate change but that is neither here nor there. What we need is to bring everyone on board and have a candid talk on the eventual consequences of our unsustainable living maybe not on us but the future generations. Farmers and pastoralists need to know that the long drought spells and unpredictable rainfall patterns are not a punishment form God but a result of emissions which they have contributed to even in the smallest of percentages. We need to provide alternatives like access to affordable renewable energy if the call to sustainable living is to be embraced. We cannot continue to heavily subsidize fossil fuels and expect the world to embrace renewable technologies. Companies that heavily emit green house gases need to be heavily taxed or closed down(drastic I know) and held accountable for their role in green house gases emissions. Banning of some products from our markets or closing down some markets only creates room for innovation and new discoveries.    If we all take it as our duty to act as stewards of this lovely planet and hold each other accountable we may not reverse the damage that has already been done but we will halt the acceleration of climate change. Until then we can continue attending conferences and conventions and even talk ourselves hoarse but nothing meaningful will come out of any of these if we do not believe we have a personal role to play.     The story of the humming bird by Prof Wangari Mathai, 2oo4 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate  The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire. All the animals in the forest come out and they are transfixed as they watch the forest burning and they feel very overwhelmed, very powerless, except this little hummingbird. It says, ‘I’m going to do something about the fire!’ So it flies to the nearest stream and takes a drop of water. It puts it on the fire, and goes up and down, up and down, up and down, as fast as it can. In the meantime all the other animals, much bigger animals like the elephant with a big trunk that could bring much more water, are standing there helpless. And they are saying to the hummingbird, ‘What do you think you can do? You are too little. This fire is too big. Your wings are too little and your beak is so small that you can only bring a small drop of water at a time.’ But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them without wasting any time and it tells them, ‘I am doing the best I can.’ And that to me is what all of us should do. We should always be like a hummingbird. I may be insignificant, but I certainly don’t want to be like the animals watching the planet go down the drain. I will be a hummingbird; I will do the best I can.  

I will be honest with you, most times I have no clue what my next blog will be about. It is hard to explain the writing process but unless inspiration strikes most times I just stare on a blank page with a blinking cursor. So as you can imagine it is always a pleasure and relief to come across a subject I can explore and hopefully stimulate a discussion on. I am not a movie lover; in fact you do not want to watch a movie with me because I have to know the ending before I watch one and most times than not I will be talking your ears off about the different characters. I will admit though there are times my nose is pulled out of a book long enough to watch one. This week it was John Q, a movie about a desperate father played by Denzel Washington trying to get his dying son on top of a heart transplant list. A really sad story with a happy dramatic ending, but it raised my interest on organ and tissue donation in Africa.   A quick search on Google gave me very little to go on. In fact, I mainly got statistics from South Africa whose donation ratio is estimated to be 2 to every 1 million. Shocking, I know! Kenya’s situation is worse with for example people suffering from corneal blindness getting their cornea transplants from the USA at a cost of 2000 USD which roughly translates to 200,000 KES. This is an exorbitant fee for most of those seeking a new lease in life so most are condemned to a life of blindness. All the organ banks in Kenya are mostly empty and those who donate are usually living relative trying to save the life of a loved one. The law in most African countries I came to find out is not clear on the guidelines for organ donation so those who can afford it opt to seek medical care outside the continent. So dire is the situation that the black market in organ harvesting is thriving in places like Egypt and South Africa where the poor and refugees are targeted. Their organs are either harvested through coercion, consent or downright theft.   It is clear that there is a big gap between the number of those waiting to receive organ and tissue transplants and those willing to be donors. So why are the majority of us not registered as organ donors when we die? I believe it is for a number of reasons mostly cultural, legal and religious. African cultures believe in the continuity of life and there is really no distinction between the soul, spirit and the body. Giving a part of your body is considered giving up a part of your whole being. On the other hand most religions believe in the continuity of the human spirit yet no one is talking about the benefits our mortal bodies could bring to this world. Over all there is very little information within our belief system for people to begin questioning about the possibilities that exist and what they can do to help. Sadly in this case belief marks the end of reasoning.   I admit signing up as an organ donor after death makes us confront our mortality and it is a hard truth to face. I have flirted with the idea of visiting an organ donation center in Kenya but I have never really committed to it. If I died tomorrow, donating my organs could help give up to seven people a chance to live longer; donating my soft tissue could improve the quality of life of up to 50 more people. I think that is an empowering and selfish thought at the same time. I acknowledge that our cultures and religious beliefs are deeply ingrained in us and sometimes our loved ones may prove to be the biggest obstacles to overcome. What I wish to do is to start a conversation on how we can make lives better even when we are gone or how we can ease our family into the idea that it is alright to share us with the world. I hope that you will visit your physician and have a candid discussion on the alternatives available in your country. Let us be part of the change and the better Africa we want to see even in death!    

As part of the activity of the summer school on renewable energy systems organized by the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) a delegation of students and professors from Mali’s University of Bamako recently visited UNU-EHS. You can read the news on the UNU-EHS website, ITT website, and check the pictures of the event here.      

Australia Is Baking And Chicago Is Freezing - What Is Going On? By Dr. Marshall J. Sherphard I often remind people that Earth has a split personality. As the Northern Hemisphere experiences winter, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. People can be so narrowly focused on where they live that they overlook this fact. It caught my eye that we are currently seeing extreme temperatures on both sides of the ledger right now. Chicago, Illinois is expected to deal with life-threatening and record cold air this week. On the other side of the planet, Adelaide and other parts of Australia are shattering heat records. What is going on? Surface temperatures for Sunday January 27th on Earth.CLIMATE REANALYZER.ORG Chicago is often referred to as the Windy City, but this coming week extreme cold makes its claim for the headlines. According to a CNN wire story on the KDVR.com website, The forecast models the weather service is referring to have consistently shown numerous days dropping to at least minus-20 degrees or colder next week. For reference, Chicago has had only 15 days ever drop to minus-20 or colder in 150 years of record keeping. There is also the potential that Chicago will see multiple days that fail to reach 0 for the high temperature — something that has happened only twice in the past 20 years, and 22 times in the past 100 years.   Life-threatening temperatures in the Chicago area this week.NWS CHICAGO VIA TWITTER The National Weather Service-Chicago tweeted the graphic above warning of life-threatening cold and wind chills in the middle of the work week. What's the cause? It is winter. Because of increasingly infrequent extreme cold events, these events definitely get our attention as they should. Meteorologically speaking,  after a low-pressure system brings wintry precipitation to the Midwest United States, a very cold Arctic high pressure system (1040 mb) system settles into the northern Plains by midweek. The low-pressure system is projected to be near the Great Lakes by Wednesday. Meteorology 101 tells us that the circulation around a High is clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and the circulation associate with low pressure is counterclockwise. This means the flow pattern and a difference in pressure (a gradient) will cause cold air to spill into the region along with gusty winds. If you look at the weather map for Wednesday (bel0w), you can see some of these features. To visualize the cold stream of air that will flow into the Midwest, simply follow those red lines of constant pressure (isobars).   Weather map for Wednesday January 30thNWS WPC Because the Earth's Northern Hemisphere is tilting away from the Sun right now,  it is winter there. The Southern Hemisphere is receiving more direct, intense energy from our star and is experiencing summer. A graduate school colleague of mine, Richard Henning reminded me, in his social media post, of a lyric from the song "Beds are Burning."  In that song, the Australian rock band, Midnight Oil, sings of "steam in forty five degrees." Adelaide, Australia broke an 80-year heat record with a temperature of 46.6 deg C this past week. That value converts to 115.9 deg F. The Bureau of Meteorology, South Australia tweeted on January 24th: #Adelaide is now the hottest capital in Australia, having just reached 46.6C at 3:35pm, beating the previous record in #Melbourne of 46.4 @BOM_Vic More records: Whyalla 48.5 (prev. record 48.0), Leigh Creek 46.9 (prev. 46.3), and Port Augusta 49.1 (prev. 48.9) #heatwave Temperatures for January 27th, 2019.AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY Many experts are projecting this to be the warmest January on record in parts of Australia as a brutal heatwave continues. The current heatwave has led to health emergencies, energy crises, fire hazards, and disruptions of the Australian Open tennis tournament. A stagnant area of high pressure situated over southern Australia means sinking, warming air and dry conditions. Ironically, a recent report issued by Australian government warns of increasing threats from such heatwaves. The 5th biennial State of the Climate report declared that: Australia's climate has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910 leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events...There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia. The report also warns of more hot days, heat waves and fewer cool extremes. Earth is clearly exhibiting its seasonal and hemispheric split personality, but there is something that I want to point out as I close. Extreme events are what we notice not averages. Isn't it ironic that it has become breaking news when it gets cold in Chicago? This is consistent with scientific literature that finds "extreme cold" events becoming less common. Will they continue to happen? Of course. We must look at weather extremes and climate within the proper context. There are many people that draw conclusions based on what is happening where they live or on a given day. That's a no-no. Stay warm Chicago (or cool Adelaide).   Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Dir., Atmospheric Sciences Program/GA Athletic Assoc. Distinguished Professor (Univ of Georgia), Host, Weather Channel's Popular Podcast, Weather Geeks, 2013 AMS President Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program. Dr. Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and hosts The Weather Channel’s Weather Geeks Podcast, which can be found at all podcast outlets. Prior to UGA, Dr. Shepherd spent 12 years as a Research Meteorologist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. In 2004, he was honored at the White House with a prestigious PECASE award. He also has received major honors from the American Meteorological Society, American Association of Geographers, and the Captain Planet Foundation. Shepherd is frequently sought as an expert on weather and climate by major media outlets, the White House, and Congress. He has over 80 peer-reviewed scholarly publications and numerous editorials. Dr. Shepherd received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in physical meteorology from Florida State University.