• The second biggest killer of children under five worldwide is the lack of clean and accessible drinking water.
• Nearly 5,000 children die every day as a result of water-related diseases including cholera, typhoid and malaria.
• Just $1 can provide a child with safe drinking water for 30 days.  

What’s the Tap Project about?

This is the second year that New Zealand has taken part in The Tap Project (also running in the US) and already a record 300+ restaurants and cafes across the country have signed up to participate, including a number of major chains (all listed on our website: www.tapproject.org.nz).  

In the lead up to World Water Day on 22 March, the campaign celebrates the clean and plentiful tap water Kiwis are lucky enough to enjoy, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water for the world’s poorest children, with this year’s proceeds going to specific projects in Laos. 

Five easy ways to get involved

It’s really easy for everyone to get involved and a great way to make a life-saving difference to the futures of thousands of children.

1. Dine out or have a coffee at participating establishments and make a donation whilst there – all venues listed at www.tapproject.org.nz/restaurants.html
2. Make a donation online at www.tapproject.org.nz or by texting TAP to 833 ($3 automatic donation)
3. Join the Facebook group and help spread the word about the Tap Project. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11175254404
4. Get your school or workplace involved by running water-themed events or activities, e.g. donations for drinking water from the water cooler. Download free education resources at www.tapproject.org.nz
5. Come to UNICEF’s World Water Day events:  On World Water Day - Sunday 22 March, local councillors will join a water challenge to coincide with Wellington’s dragon boat festival. On Sunday 5 April, an attempt will be made in Auckland to break the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simultaneous squirting of water pistols.   

Celebrity support

Many New Zealand celebrities are supporting the campaign, including Mike McRoberts, Alison Mau, Jay Reeves and Amber Peebles.

Further Information:

• For news, videos, online donation and useful info and links: www.tapproject.org.nz
• Media enquiries: david@unicef.org.nz (David Youngmeyer)
• General enquiries: carolyn@unicef.org.nz (Carolyn Shivanandan)
• UNICEF NZ: www.unicef.org.nz

‘Dear Friends,

When Africa’s heads of state meet this Sunday, they will be greeted by a crowd of hunger strikers, calling for justice and democracy in Zimbabwe.

Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel, and hundreds of others have joined the campaign and pledged solidarity with the Zimbabwean people—most of whom are now struggling to survive on a meal a day or less. Their powerful demonstration of commitment has seized the media’s attention, pressuring leaders to refuse Mugabe in his attempts to cling to power.

The world’s support is needed now. Kumi Naidoo, a South African activist in his eighth day of a 21-day hunger strike, has recorded a video appeal for Avaaz members worldwide to join the protest by pledging to fast this Sunday, when he will speak to the African Union summit about Zimbabwe’s crisis. If thousands of us fast, our actions will give power to his words.’

watch?v=lMavByxvgzA

The SAVE ZIMBABWE NOW web site is co-ordinating the protest.

Take a look at this video, taken in Welly last month. There are heaps of reasons people go diving - protest at the amount of good food wasted in a world where many still starve, protest against our culture of aesthetic perfection, to save money on food, and heaps of other motivations. These guys are awesome, because they calculate the money they save by diving each week, and what they save is donated to a development project in Burma.

If anyone’s inspired to dive, a few things to keep in mind:

- Leave the area tidier than you found it - if you get caught, insist on tidying up really well before you leave

- If you get asked to leave, be polite and do so

- If you have to climb a fence to get to the skip, it’s against the law to go in

- If diving gets publicity, supermarket owners tend to start locking skips, so keep it on the low (although making people aware of the wastefulness of our current system is important - guess it’s a question of finding a balance…)

Finally, to do your bit to stop stuff being thrown away, when you’re shopping pick the dented can, the imperfect apple and the bag of pasta with a wee hole in it!

It’d also be cool to hear below of other people’s experiences /  reactions to dumpster diving…???

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/organic-farming-could-feed-africa-968641.html

Sustainable Agriculture-not starting from ground zero

Agriculture remains a major employer in the world, providing jobs to about 40% of the total world labour force.

The Global Green New Deal should include a major international program. This should be led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, to provide long-term support for investing in land restoration, soil and water conservation, integrated pest management, organic production, infrastructure development, extension services, and market support in the developing world.

Organic agriculture triggers very polarized views, seen by some as the saviour and others as a niche, even luxury product unable to meet the needs of billions of people.

Studies indicate that organic agriculture in both the North and the South employees more people. But what of the wider benefits?

A new survey by the UN Conference on Trade and the Environment and UNEP in East Africa found that over 90 per cent of studies show that organic or near organic agriculture had benefits for soil fertility; water control; improved water tables, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

This allows farmers to extend the growing season in marginal areas. The research in East Africa was among 1.6 million organic or near organic farmers from seven countries working on 1.4 million hectares.

Other findings include an increase in crop yields of 128 per cent since switching.

Higher incomes too as a result of not having to buy fertilizers and pesticides; more food availability; higher prices paid through certification schemes for both export and domestic markets-addresses poverty in environmentally friendly way.

Close to 90 per cent of cases showed increase in farm and household incomes and because organic agriculture is more knowledge intensive it has lead to improvements in education; community bonds and cooperation on market access.

The report concludes:” Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress”.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=548&ArticleID=5957&l=en

“The land can be… an opportunity to solve most of the ongoing global crises,” Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told a news conference in New York.

The 2005 Convention aims to promote effective action through innovative local programmes and supportive international partnerships to combat desertification, which is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.

Caused mainly by human activities and climatic variations, desertification puts at risk the health and well-being of 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries.

Mr. Gnacadja stressed that “the nexus between land degradation and climate change is clear.” Global warming is likely to lead to more extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy rains, which could lead to soil erosion and loss of land cover.

At the same time, land degradation releases carbon into the atmosphere, worsening global warming and climate change.

“If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon,” said Mr. Gnacadja, calling it a “win-win” situation. “By doing that, we are improving biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and improving the productivity of the soil, therefore impacting the livelihoods of affected populations.”

Improving land productivity will also boost the capacity to produce more food and therefore tackle the issue of food security. “We are also making the world much more able to produce more agro-fuels,” he added.

“An ecosystem is like a bank account,” Mr. Gnacadja noted. “If we keep on withdrawing, and we don’t invest by feeding the soil and enabling it to regenerate, we are moving towards bankruptcy.”

The Second Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement, issued this year, found that an additional 24 per cent of global land had been degraded in the period from 1981-2003. However, what was really worrisome is that these lands are mainly in humid areas where rainfall is not an issue.

The Assessment also found that 16 per cent of land had been improved, including some of the drylands in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Australia.

“We know that drought and land degradation are predictable, and land degradation is reversible when the tipping point is not reached,” Mr. Gnacadja said, adding that the social and economic impacts on livelihoods are, therefore, to a large extent the result of “public and even global policy failure.”

This includes the failure to scale up good practices, to spread available information and knowledge, and to mobilize the required resources.

UN Press Release, 29 October 2008

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28756&Cr=desertification&Cr1=

According to this, the average NZ footprint is 57.5 global hectares. If my maths is correct (which is not a given…), we’d need 3.66 Earths to sustain the global population if everyone lived like the average kiwi.

To be honest, I was surprised that my food footprint is only marginally smaller than the average Kiwi since I don’t eat meat. Away with the smugness of vegetarianism then!

Low carbon diet promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkURVgR16E

David Gershon from Seventh Generation discusses current consumption in the U.S. and moving towards a low carbon diet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xMMkJZpzs0

Food for thought is great, but action is better!

- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-

I first got involved in Transition Towns after we went round the neighbourhood introducing ourselves to the new neighbours right after moving into a new house in the centre of Wellington. The spunky guys down the road were really excited about this new movement that seeks creative local responses to the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil.

We’re constantly fed this litany of depressing information, overwhelming, dismal facts about how we’re all stuffed. This gets pretty disempowering because the problems just seem so huge and lots of us just figure, “I’m only one small person and really the politicians / business corporations / exuberant activists are the ones whose responsibility it is to do something about them.”

The Transition Towns initiative gives us the opportunity to say “Hey, what can we do right here in our neighbourhood to respond positively to these problems and actually do something about them?” There’s an amazingly inspiring sense that rather than being a dismally austere place, a lower-energy, more local future could actually be preferable and a much more fun place to live.

Imagine communities where people know their neighbours and feel a sense of belonging, places where resources and skills are shared, where people grow and share their own food, where people car-pool, walk and bike. Imagine reconnection with neighbours, nature, seasons, healthy food, skills that our grandparents took for granted that we have lost.

Transition Towns are local, community based movements trying to find creative, empowering responses to climate change and the end of cheap oil by creating vibrant, resilient communities. Transition initiatives are popping up like mushrooms all over Britain, Australia, Ireland, Wales and New Zealand. There are over 40 groups in New Zealand, and counting.

They are based on Rob Hopkins’ model in his inspiring and easy-to-read 2008 book “The Transition Handbook,” which outlines twelve steps that can be adapted to suit local contexts and priorities, and individual passions and areas of interest. You can buy the book online in various places, including our website, justice.net.nz. For more on Transition Towns, visit transitiontowns.org.nz.

Anne Heins likes her name to be pronounced properly (Ana) and lives in Stillwaters urban community in central Wellington.

- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-

My vision of the future involves empowered communities living in edible landscapes.

I see the transformation of the city into a vibrant, beautiful, sustainable, healthy, playful place to live. I see people redesigning their lifestyles, neighbourhoods, businesses, and cities through fun, practical means. Church groups, primary schools, residents associations, government departments and so on working together as design teams.

Rather than leaving the design and decision-making of our communities up to specialists, I see people empowered to take responsibility and make creative choices about how our neighbourhoods could look, and then being supported to put these plans into action.

I see this transformative environmental education being offered through Urban Permaculture Design Academies.

I see communities in the future that reflect, celebrate and embody the diverse dreams and cultures of their people - that really tap their potential as visionaries and agents of change (no matter how big or small). A key to this is listening and ‘appreciative inquiry’. By focusing on what’s working and what’s possible, rather than what is not, we can acknowledge and appreciate the precious people, stories and resources that make up our communities.

I see regular ‘community conversations’ in which residents talk about what they really like about where they live and how this value could be increased. A group I’m involved in called Four Million Dreams is all about this - having ‘transformative conversations’ about possibility. I see this way of sharing being popularized. Nationwide there would be video submissions about of people’s visions and people in conversations everywhere which tap everyone’s rich stories and connections to culture, place and future hope.

“The rising tide raises all boats” – I see cross sector collaboration in the form of leadership incubator courses, in which motivated people from different sectors take part – arts, environment, social sector and so on. People from community, business and government would come together to work on projects that have multiple benefits.

As a member of Transition Towns Aro Valley Wellington, and owner of Living in the Landscape – Permaculture Design and Training Business, I am actively involved in making this vision a reality.

Transition Towns involve people in learning how they can creatively respond to the challenges of peak oil and climate change and renew and redesign their environment to care for people, and to care for the earth. It’s all about relationships: understanding how natural ecological systems of people, plants, animals, soils, water, air, and sun interact, and actively involving ourselves in that.

The possibilities are enormous if we work together. If we ask “what’s your vision?” and “how can I help?”

Andrew Morrison is a permaculture educator working with others to pioneer tools that enable people to be active citizens, living together with commitment and insight.