Greta Thunberg bound for Europe as new adventures await

Yahoo – AFP, Ivan Couronne, November 13, 2019

Greta Thunberg wore an oversized black windbreaker emblazoned with the
words "Unite Behind The Science" as heavy, freezing rain pounded the hull
of the sailboat she is traveling on to Europe (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

Hampton (United States) (AFP) - "Extremely educational" is how Greta Thunberg sums up her North American sojourn as she prepares to cross the Atlantic once more, this time bound back for Europe.

The 16-year-old Swede, who became world famous for founding the "school strikes for the climate," will set sail Wednesday morning, weather permitting, after 11 hectic weeks of criss-crossing the US and Canada, making headlines at every turn.

She excoriated world leaders at the United Nations, met former US president Barack Obama, received the keys to the city of Montreal and road tripped across the continent in a Tesla electric car lent to her by actor and ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But what did she make of the impact of the UN summit, the weekly student strikes, the protests where millions packed the streets worldwide to demand action against anthropogenic climate change?

"It depends," she says in her usual matter-of-fact manner in an interview with AFP on board "La Vagabonde," a sailboat owned by a young Australian couple that will be her home for the next two to three weeks.

She is wearing an oversized black windbreaker emblazoned with the words "Unite Behind The Science" as heavy, freezing rain pounds the hull.

"In one way, lots of things have changed, and lots of things have moved in the right direction, but also in a sense we have gone a few more months without real action being taken and without people realizing the emergency we are in," said the high-schooler, who will return to her education next year.

Greta Thunberg expressed her admiration for the people she met "who are

 living at the front line, and who are experiencing and living through the first 

consequences of the climate emergency" (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

She expresses her admiration for the people she met "who are living at the front line, and who are experiencing and living through the first consequences of the climate emergency" -- such as fellow teen Tokata Iron Eyes of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, who fought in vain to stop the construction of an oil pipeline on her homeland.

What did she learn from Obama? "It depends on how you define learning. I got an experience and he explained things to me, how it was to be in his position, how things work, and so on, so that, I guess."

Her assessment of the presidents and prime ministers she encountered at the UN, meanwhile, was less than stellar.

"World leaders and people in power, politicians ask me for selfies and ask other climate activists for selfies because they want to look good next to us and say, 'We care about the future of this planet, we care about future generations and young people today,'" she said, unsparingly.

She won't mention names, but says "it was quite a lot."

Even those countries that have committed to net zero emissions by 2050, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, are not doing "nearly enough," she insists, adding that the media must do a better job of communicating why these targets aren't sufficient to avert long-term climate disaster.

Asia in 2020

When it comes to Donald Trump, dubbed by critics as the "climate-denier-in-chief," Greta suggests that, paradoxically, he may have helped galvanize the movement.

"He's so extreme and he says so extreme things, so I think people wake up by that in a way," she believes.

She preferred not to dwell on a video clip of her appearing to glower at Trump at the UN that went viral on social media, saying she was simply surprised to see him.

The seas are expected to be rougher on Greta Thunberg's return journey to 

Europe, given the season, but she says the prospect of harsh weather 

doesn't perturb her (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

"I wondered why he was there because the thing was that he was not supposed to be there," she explained. "That was the news. So something must have changed his mind so that he showed up there."

Six souls will set out on La Vagabonde: Elayna Carausu, 26, and her partner Riley Whitelum, 35, together with their 11-month-old boy Lenny; 26-year-old professional British sailor Nikki Henderson, who was called upon to help, Greta, and her father Svante.

The elder Thunberg has accompanied his daughter throughout her journey and greeted journalists, but hasn't given any interviews on the trip, and Tuesday was no exception.

They set out early Wednesday from the pier where the "La Vagabonde" has been moored for the past week, the property of a retired couple who are passionate about sailing and who had offered the young Australians a free stopover -- before its most famous passenger was added to the manifest.

Greta plans to attend the COP 25 climate summit in Madrid, which starts in just under three weeks, before heading home to Sweden.

For 2020, "I don't have any plans right now," she says. Her school year starts in August.

That said, "if I get an invitation to go somewhere, I will definitely try to get to places I haven't been in already, especially places in Asia, and of course, meetings, like, world leaders gathering, if I get invited."

The seas are expected to be rougher on her return journey, given the season, but she says the prospect of harsh weather doesn't perturb her, as the boat's owners and skipper busy themselves with final preparations.

She shows reporters a cabin and the toilets, and says she doesn't suffer from seasickness -- at least she didn't last time.

She does correct, however, the reporter who makes the faulty assumption that she must also be used low temperatures. "I'm always cold," she says.

Old fossils no longer attractive to new generation of engineers

DutchNews, May 1, 2018 

Photo: Shell 

Shell is no longer the employer of choice for young highly-skilled engineering students. Rather than working for a company that still concentrates on fossil fuels the students are increasingly turning to sustainable companies, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday.

The paper bases its claim on interviews with students and head hunters. 

‘We are seeing that companies like Shell are having problems recruiting. Many graduates from Delft University no longer want to commit to this sort of company because they wouldn’t be contributing to a cleaner, more sustainable world,’ director of head hunters Page Group Nederland Joost Fortuin told the paper. 

A poll among engineering students by research bureau Universum shows that Shell has fallen from third to seventh place on the list of popular employers over two years. Number one is the ‘green’ car manufacturer Tesla. 

‘We have to be oil and gas free by 2050 but I wonder if Shell realises what this entails,’ engineering graduate Michiel Bots told the paper. ‘The company is slowing down the transition process instead of promoting it and that makes it a less interesting employer for me.’ Bots, who graduated with honours, is now a trainee at the Dutch Association for Sustainable Energy. 

Fortuin says engineering graduates are scarce as it is and Shell is struggling to recruit. Although Shell is expecting students will come back to Shell once they become familiar with ‘ambitions, innovations and work culture’ Fortuin thinks the change is structural. ‘Shell no longer interview candidates for the job, the candidates are interviewing Shell,’ he told the paper. 

Efforts by Shell to convince young engineers that the company is serious about transition don’t convince Bots. ‘We grew up with the climate problem. Perhaps the older generation is still getting used to it,’ he told FD.

Shut all Dutch coal-fired power stations, say professors

DutchNews, November 23, 2015

The Netherlands should close down all 11 coal-fired power stations in a clear signal of commitment to combating climate change, 64 professors say in an open letter in Monday’s Trouw. 

MPs are due tomorrow to debate the Dutch position at the forthcoming Paris climate change talks when world leaders will meet to discuss how to tackle global warming.

The professors say all the coal-fired power stations can be closed down by 2020 without any problem. This, they say, is the only way to reduce greenhouse gases substantially and that an end to the era of coal is ‘inevitable’.

Shutting the coal-fired power stations and using gas instead would show leadership, the professors, from Delft, Leiden, Wageningen and other universities say. 

The Netherlands is one of the worst performers in Europe in terms of reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy efficiency, according to a report last month from the European Environmental Agency.

In addition, judges in The Hague in June ruled the Dutch government must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by 2020 compared with 1990 – in line with international agreements. 

The court ruled the government has a duty of care and cannot hide behind claims that the Netherlands is a small part of a worldwide process. The Netherlands is on target to reduce emissions by just 17% by 2020. 

Code orange 

A global accord on tackling climate change is crucial for the future of the Netherlands, the Dutch weather bureau KNMI said on Sunday.

‘If we do not reach agreement in Paris and the earth continues to warm up, then it will be code orange,’ director Gerard van der Steenhoven told broadcaster Nos. ‘The climate situation is really critical.’ 

Around 26% of the Netherlands is below sea level and 29% is open to river flooding, making it one of the countries most vulnerable to global warming. 

However, global warming sceptic Marcel Crok told the Telegraaf the KNMI was making a political statement.

Related Articles:

Open letter by Netherlands scientists on IPCC and errors in Climate Change 2007 report

The Netherlands organises two climate conferences

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much.

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet.

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four. ….”

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”

Dutch invest €135m in developing a quantum computer

DutchNews.nl, June 1, 2015

The Dutch government, research institute TNO and other organisations have agreed to invest €135m in the development of a super fast quantum computer. 

The money will be spent on the Delft-based quantum technoloy institute QuTech and will be spread over a 10-year period. Microsoft has been investing in the company since 2010. 

The new investment will allow QuTech to double its research team to 200 during the duration of the investment, the government says. 

Education minister Jet Bussemaker said the investment is important for Dutch science. ‘This means important scientists will stay in the Netherlands and talents will be attracted to come here,’ she said. 

The development of actual quantum computers is still in its infancy, but practical and theoretical research is ongoing around the globe.

Last year the government declared QuTech to be one of four ‘national icons’ or innovations which will contribute to future prosperity and help solve global problems.

Scientist Ronald Hanson tries to explain how teleportation works,

(Niek Froma/NOS)

Related Articles:

Delft University scientists 'teleport' information over three metres

Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab

Scientists Report Quantum Teleportation Breakthroughs

China looks to quantum mechanics to protect secrets from US hackers

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human, Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"..... The Only Sustainable Quantum Energy on the Planet

Let me take you to an experiment over a decade ago. Two men in Scotland were involved - a physicist and a medical doctor. The medical doctor is Dr. Todd Ovokaitys, my partner's colleague. What a coincidence these two men of science met in this lifetime [Kryon smile]. The physicist and the medical doctor were the first to co-develop a sustainable, coherent, controllable, repeatable, quantum event. That is to say, they have an invention that creates quantum energy that can be sustained, repeated, and used. They've done it by opposing laser energies out of phase through what we would call a quantum holographic lens arrangement. An actual shift of time occurs and that coherent quantum soup, although very small, is controllable and can be repeated, manipulated, and delivered where they want it to go.

Now, they're not the first Humans on the planet to create quantum energy. But they're the first ones to create one that is designed and repeatable. The first Human to create quantum energy was Nikola Tesla. He couldn't control it, but he knew it was there and had seen it over and over within his magnetic experiments.

What the physicist and the doctor did over the next decade showed the quantum factor, for they then applied this designed quantum soup that they had invented to biology. Every time they imbued this energy into a biological test or experiment, they got healing! Think of it. What are the odds that you would develop some kind of an energy on the planet and wherever you pointed it, it healed? What are the odds of that? It's like rolling six and then six and then six. Are you starting to see a pattern?

When this quantum energy is able to be reproduced in other laboratories, there will be those (and there always are) who will try to weaponize it. Here is something you should know: It will be the first energy every discovered that won't allow this. It can't be weaponized because it is benevolent. Imagine, a quantum energy that's just simply physics, but which has an attitude! What does that tell you? It should show you that there's something going on within high physics that is more than math and attributes of matter.

In time, the quantum factor will be discovered on this planet. When it is, it will be highly controversial, and it's going to fly in the face of logic and 3D and the way things work via the scientific method. The ramp-up to all this is difficult. The old souls in front of me have signed on to work this new energy and they've waded through lifetimes, just waiting for this. What would you do as a scientist if the experiments before you had "a mind of their own"? What would you think if magnetics, gravity and light could only be assembled in a certain way that created healing and never a destructive alignment? All this is going to redefine some of the basic forces in the Universe. Intelligent design is only the first, and even today many astronomers and physicists still think it's an anomaly. 

That will be the next largest discovery on the planet. It's been held back from you because it takes a higher vibrating consciousness to create and understand it. When any planet discovers a quantum energy and is able to use it, you could go to that planet and know that you will meet high-consciousness entities. This has never been given to you before that, for within the quantum factor contains the secret of interplanetary travel using large, entangled states. There are ways of doing things you never thought could happen. You can throw away your rocket ships. You're on the edge of that.. ..."

"FUTURE AND PHYSICS (#)" - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) 

(#) New major Discoveries (This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication to humanity from the Source)

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super coaling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

China, Kenya launch solar technology transfer center

English.news.cn   2015-04-25

NAIROBI, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Kenyan investors on Friday launched a technology transfer and training center to promote assembling of solar lighting systems so as to meet a huge demand for green energy sources in the East African nation.

Executives said the China-Kenya Solid State Lighting Technology Transfer Center, based in an industrial park near the capital Nairobi, will spur growth of a homegrown solar industry in the country.

"Our partnership with a Chinese firm will facilitate the establishment of a local assembly plant for solar products. The new center will expose Kenyan technicians to the latest solar solutions," said Maina Maringa, Director with Sunyale Africa Limited, which launched the center in partnership with a Beijing- based company.

Established 2014, Sunyale Africa is a leading player in the nascent solar technology market in Kenya. Both Chinese and Kenyan investors have stakes in the company that supplies affordable and high quality solar lighting systems to households, schools, hospitals and business premises.

"The Chinese are really helping us in terms of technology and information sharing. We think after some time doing this, we can gain a lot," said Robert Kipkorir, an engineer and one of eight trainees currently at the newly-launched center.

"If I earn the chance and capital, I would like start something for myself. With the knowledge I've gained from here, I would be able to do things of my own in this field," he added.

Newton Mhae, another trainee, said the technology is updated at the center, which can prepare them to learn the new machinery as well as develop new skills.

"I am going to use the technology I learned here to impart the community, especially on the solar panels," said Mhae.

Chinese investors are optimistic about the growth of renewable energy sector in Kenya thanks to a friendly policy and regulatory environment.

Dang Song, CEO of Sunyale Africa, said the nascent solar industry in Kenya has potential for growth given its foreign direct investments and availability of skilled workforce.

"We import solar products and assemble them in a factory outside Nairobi. Our partnership with Kenyan investors has made it possible to train local technicians on assembling solar lighting systems," Dang said, adding that the center will enable Kenya to realize green aspirations in line with vision 2030 blue print.

"There is a huge market for solar solutions in rural areas and urban slums. The new center will help meet this demand through assembling of state-of-the-art solar lighting systems for households and institutions," he said.

Maringa told Xinhua Sunyale Africa has a strong presence in seven Kenyan counties where solar energy has transformed livelihoods.

"Our goal is to fill renewable energy gap in the country through supply of cheap but durable solar solutions. Government incentives that include waiver on import duty for solar panels has made this possible," said the director.

He revealed that demand for large scale solar lighting systems among small factories has spiked recently in Kenya, and Sunyale Africa has adopted social entrepreneurship model to promote access to solar energy among the rural and urban poor.

"We are keen on the east African market where demand for solar products is on the rise," said Maringa, adding that they also plan at advanced stage to venture into neighboring countries.

Editor: xuxin

Slow Food sows message in Africa

Yahoo – AFP, Amy Fallon, 4 Nov 2014

Duncan Senoga, a volunteer with Slow food International in Uganda, helps pupils

 of Buiga Sunrise Primary School in Mukono District, Uganda on October 2, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani)

Banda Kyandaaza (Uganda) (AFP) - Powerful herby coffee, sun-dried fish and succulent beef from Ankole cattle are just some of the Ugandan delicacies in a mushrooming movement across Africa to safeguard traditional foods.

Slow Food, a global grassroots organisation that promotes "good, clean and fair food", is spreading its reach across Africa after making its first inroads on the continent a decade ago.

Today the movement counts 30 African projects as food communities preserve, and rediscover native breeds, plant varieties and products, from Moroccan Zerradoun salt, to Ethiopia's Tigray white honey, Zulu sheep in South Africa and Sierra Leone's Kenema kola nuts.

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in

Italy, Slow Food started with one Ugandan

local chapter in 2008, since growing into 13

across the east African country (AFP Photo/

Isaac Kasamani)

For Ugandan schoolboy Isaac Muwanguzi, that meant finding a vegetable known as eggobe springing up in his school garden when he returned from the holidays.

"In the village it's very rare," said the 13-year old, whose country is at the heart of Africa's slow revolution.

Eggobe, which has a plantain-like taste and softens when steamed, is also said to be handy for treating diabetes, hypertension -- and even reportedly for increasing the size of one's manhood.

It's one of a handful of vegetables a group of students at the primary school here at Banda Kyandaaza, a village about 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Kampala, are hoping to put back on Ugandan plates.

Eggobe has been nominated for Slow Food's Ark of Taste, an online "living catalogue of delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction."

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Italy, Slow Food started with one Ugandan local chapter in 2008, since growing into 13 across the east African country.

In Uganda, they've helped students create 75 gardens in more than 50 schools to taste and test products.

In the school garden in Banda Kyandaaza, students are now growing cassava, cabbage, pumpkin, African eggplant and black nightshade, as well as eggobe.

Boosting rare produce

Recent Ugandan additions to the list include small white mushrooms called Namulonda, as well as the Nakitembe banana, which is traditionally presented by the groom to a bride's family, but is at risk of disappearing due to the "continuous and indiscriminate hybridisation of bananas."

"We use the gardens to restore the crops that are at risk of disappearing," said Edie Mukiibi, 28, a Ugandan agronomist who was in February appointed co-vice-president of Slow Food International, alongside the influential US chef and author Alice Waters.

The country's capital Kampala may now be home to a handful of international fast food chain outlets, but Mukiibi said he was "proud" that Uganda had been "slow" to adopt fast food compared to other countries he'd visited.

Late last month he accompanied about two dozen Ugandan students, farmers, cooks and restaurant owners to Slow Food's Salone del Gusto, the world's largest food and wine fair, and Terra Madre, a concurrent global gathering of food communities in Turin in Italy.

About 450 delegates from 45 African countries took part -- and Ugandan bananas, vanilla and coffee were on display.

"We musn't only speak about poverty in Africa, we have to speak about culture, about the natural richness that you have in different recipes," said Serena Milano, General Secretary of the Slow Food Foundation of Biodiversity, who coordinates African activities.

"It's fascinating the diversity of products and recipes that Africa has."

With about 85 percent of the population involved in the sector, Mukiibi called agriculture Uganda's backbone.

Slow Food was working to address the "many injustices" facing the country's small-scale farmers.

"You find some supermarkets importing potatoes from France and South Africa," he said. "Slow Food creates a market for the local uncommon products to compete."

In the traditional Ankole kingdom in southwestern Uganda, the indigenous long-horned Ankole cow symbolises wealth.

"From its milk come so many traditional dishes and other products," said Mukiibi.

Vice President Slow food international,

Edie Mukiibi shows Agobe seeds at Buiga

Sunrise Primary School in Mukono District,

Uganda on October 2, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Isaac Kasamani)

These include the eshabwe ghee sauce, also listed in Slow Food's Ark of Taste.

But Mukiibi said many years ago an influx of imported animal breeds began being mixed with local ones, encouraged by "the NGO world."

Now, some locals are starting to discard the Ankole cow, saying it takes too long to grow and gives very little milk.

Slow Food are working with one of Uganda's biggest slaughterhouses in Kampala, so producers can sell the animals they raise directly to them.

They're also providing training on improving meat quality.

Meanwhile, in the school garden, students who used to view farming as a punishment are now realising the value in spending two hours a week out of class, learning everything from how to water crops to managing an agriculture enterprise.

"You farm, you get food," said Muwanguzi, bending over in a cabbage patch. "You farm, you get money."

World population to hit 11bn in 2100 – with 70% chance of continuous rise

New study overturns 20 years of consensus on peak projection of 9bn and gradual decline

theguardian.com, Damian Carrington, Thursday 18 September 2014

A crowded Oshodi market in Lagos, Nigeria – the country’s population is expected
to soar from 200m today to 900m by 2100. Photograph: James Marshall/Corbis

The world’s population is now odds-on to swell ever-higher for the rest of the century, posing grave challenges for food supplies, healthcare and social cohesion. A ground-breaking analysis released on Thursday shows there is a 70% chance that the number of people on the planet will rise continuously from 7bn today to 11bn in 2100.

The work overturns 20 years of consensus that global population, and the stresses it brings, will peak by 2050 at about 9bn people. “The previous projections said this problem was going to go away so it took the focus off the population issue,” said Prof Adrian Raftery, at the University of Washington, who led the international research team. “There is now a strong argument that population should return to the top of the international agenda. Population is the driver of just about everything else and rapid population growth can exacerbate all kinds of challenges.” Lack of healthcare, poverty, pollution and rising unrest and crime are all problems linked to booming populations, he said.

“Population policy has been abandoned in recent decades. It is barely mentioned in discussions on sustainability or development such as the UN-led sustainable development goals,” said Simon Ross, chief executive of Population Matters, a thinktank supported by naturalist Sir David Attenborough and scientist James Lovelock. “The significance of the new work is that it provides greater certainty. Specifically, it is highly likely that, given current policies, the world population will be between 40-75% larger than today in the lifetime of many of today’s children and will still be growing at that point,” Ross said.

Many widely-accepted analyses of global problems, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s assessment of global warming, assume a population peak by 2050.

Sub-saharan Africa is set to be by far the fastest growing region, with population rocketing from 1bn today to between 3.5bn and 5bn in 2100. Previously, the fall in fertility rates that began in the 1980s in many African countries was expected to continue but the most recent data shows this has not happened. In countries like Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, the decline has stalled completely with the average woman bearing six children. Nigeria’s population is expected to soar from 200m today to 900m by 2100.

The cause of the stalled fertility rate is two-fold, said Raftery: a failure to meet the need for contraception and a continued preference for large families. “The unmet need for contraception - at 25% of women - has not changed in for 20 years,” he said. The preference for large families is linked to lack of female education which limits women’s life choices, said Raftery. In Nigeria, 28% of girls still do not complete primary education.

Global population trend Photograph: Guardian

Another key factor included for the first time was new data on the HIV/AIDS epidemic showing it is not claiming as many lives as once anticipated. “Twenty years ago the impact on population was absolutely gigantic,” Raftery said. “Now the accessibility of antiretroviral drugs is much greater and the epidemic appeared to have passed its peak and was not quite as bad as was feared.”

The research, conducted by an international team including UN experts, is published In the journal Science and for the first time uses advanced statistics to place convincing upper and lower limits on future population growth. Previous estimates were based on judgments of future trends made by researchers, a “somewhat vague and subjective” approach, said Raftery. This predicted the world’s population would range somewhere between 7bn and 16bn by 2100. “This interval was so huge to be essentially meaningless and therefore it was ignored,” he said.

But the new research narrows the future range to between 9.6bn and 12.3bn by 2100. This greatly increased certainty – 80% – allowed the researchers to be confident that global population would not peak any time during in the 21st century.

Another population concern is the ageing populations currently seen in Europe and Japan, which raises questions about how working populations will support large numbers of elderly people. But the new research shows the same issue will affect countries whose populations are very young today. Brazil, for example, currently has 8.6 people of working age for every person over 65, but that will fall to 1.5 by 2100, well below the current level in Japan. China and India will face the same issue as Brazil, said Raftery: “The problem of ageing societies will be on them, in population terms, before they know it and their governments should be making plans.”

In separate work, published on Monday, Wolfgang Lutz, director of the Vienna Institute of Demography, highlighted education as crucial in not only reducing birth rates but also enabling people to prosper even while populations are growing fast. In Ghana, for example, women without education have an average of 5.7 children, while women with secondary education have 3.2 and women with tertiary education only 1.5. But he said: “It is not primarily the number of people that’s important in population policy, it’s what they are capable of, their level of education, and their health.”

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”