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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - October 24, 2007

Wordless Wednesday particpants this week

Idyllic? This old picture from Arica, Northern Chile 1997/98 made me think. Here we were unconcerned about how close we were to the Atacama desert. Dryest place on Earth.

In the meanwhile, look at this leaf.

Thus these two stories:

Food and freshwater - Two important projects for Mankind

On travellingspouse’s blog, I read about a very interesting and important project that can help farmers in arid zones increase yields and help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tropical Legumes Project

ICRISTAT, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics are conducting a research and development project to improve the productivity of legumes.

By reading this post, I come to think about another very important project along the same road.

The Great Rivers Partnership

Worldwide water usage has increased six times since the 1900s. That's twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, nearly half the world's population will experience critical water shortages by the year 2025.

The Nature Conservancy began the Great Rivers Partnership to help protect freshwater resources, transforming the way large river systems are preserved and protected. What impact will construction of a new dam have on the water supply of a town downstream? Will clear-cutting a forest in the upper part of a river's watershed imperil the fish stocks local people depend on for food?

Addressing these questions will help government organizations set policy and management decisions to help conserve the natural environment and benefit residents at the same time. The project will initially focus on three large river systems: the Mississippi River basin in the United States, Brazil's Paraguay-ParanáRiver system and China's Yangtze River.