Author: Wangũi
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at the agricultural show: reflections on research to action
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A few weeks back I went to the agricultural show in Kisii town in Western Kenya as part of an exhibit combining soapstone sculptures (something Kisii is famous for) and rock art. I had the chance to walk around to other exhibits, and this time I was more interested than…
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design ingredients for sustainable waste management – ii
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“So how should a city’s waste management options be designed? Labels such as those of UCT’s campus receptacles and Hoan Kiem Lake’s bins would communicate the importance of both recycling and reducing one’s waste. The placement of these ideal designed options would consider where disposer traffic was likely to be…
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climate change vignettes
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Climate change, changes to long-standing weather patterns in response to changes in the atmosphere (forcings), is happening today, perhaps has always been happening. In our world today, the largest forcing is human produced greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane and other byproducts of various human activities. Change can mean different…
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design ingredients for sustainable waste management – i
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“Urban areas concentrate not only economic and social production, but also waste production. Waste that is often addressed at the end of a long chain of actors- manufacturers, retailers, consumers, disposers, municipal councils, collectors, recyclers. And thus waste’s final destination and the impacts of the same are made invisible. The…
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the goldman prize and the just beginning fight against lead poisoning
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In late April the 6 regional winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the ‘Green Nobel’, were announced. Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan single mother won the $175,000 prize in the Africa region for her 7 year effort to shut down a used lead acid battery (ULAB) recycling factory…
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on resilience
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In another reflection piece from Cape Town, I wrote about resilience in cities- the inspiration was a day when electricity was out in Langa, a black township where we lived for a few weeks. But now that load shedding– scheduled periods when electricity is out in different parts of the…