Environment

Year's Top Issues: Forests

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The good news, as such things are reckoned, is that a recent U.N. study found a net loss of 7.3 million forest hectares worldwide in 2005, down from 8.9 million hectares in the 1990s. Yet massive, government-led reforestation programs around the world are often met by persistent destruction at the grassroots. Burkina Faso exemplifies the problem, in miniature. A government program there to reforest lands in the sub-Saharan region aims to plant nine million new trees — yet two-thirds of the nation’s forests have been cleared for agriculture, and growing populations are increasing the pressure for more farming. Overgrazing and illegal timber-cutting are also to blame, according to reports.

Environment

Year's Top Issues: Water

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Access to clean water is one of the defining issues of the 21st century, and while the problem is global, much of the action is playing out at the community level. Drought is only deepening in Australia and Ukraine. In China, shortages caused by drought and heavy use are profound — the Yellow River rarely reaches the sea anymore, and the Yangtze dropped to a 140-year low last January, according to reports. Add pollution to the mix, and you have a burgeoning crisis for vulnerable populations in the developing world and beyond. Advocates say market forces will effectively deliver clean water to those most in need; some tout the concept of “virtual water” as a means of facilitating water importing and exporting at the national scale.

Democracy & Civics

Ghost of Thatcher Past Haunts Royal Mail

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A British plan to sell shares of the state-owned Royal Mail Group to a foreign firm has created a heated dispute among labor unions, members of Parliament and pundits on the U.K.’s media circuit. The Telegraph reports that a set of recommendations for partial privatization was accepted by the British government, provoking a bidding war among overseas investors angling for up to a 33 percent stake in the Royal Mail service. The two leading prospects are the Dutch postal group TNT, and the private equity house CVC, according to The Times. Boosters say the deal will mean an updated, globally competitive, automated mail system to replace a 360-year-old system that often sorts mail by hand. Yet critics say privatization will mean the loss of thousands of full-time jobs, decreased quality of remote mail services, and a slide towards Conservative “Thatcherite” policies, which doesn’t sit well with stalwarts of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party.

World

Christmas Island Detention Center Set to Open

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Australia is set to open a controversial new detention center for asylum seekers, on an island off the coast of Indonesia, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The country’s center-left Labor government has so far been unwilling to use the much-criticized complex on Christmas Island, which it inherited from the previous administration. Yet a recent influx of more 135 refugee boats has changed all that, and immigration officials have confirmed the opening of the multi-million-dollar facility, which can hold hundreds of people. Immigration opponents say the mandatory detention policy is fair for people who arrive by boat without entry visas, but refugee workers and politicians have called the complex “bleak” and “forbidding.” The government said that women, children and family groups would not be held there.

Democracy & Civics

"Scraper Bikes" Give Kids a Lift

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Oakland, California, is not just the city with the fifth-highest crime rate in the country — it’s also home to the “scraper bike” movement, which according to Wiretap Magazine is giving young people an alternative to the violence plaguing their communities. Scraper bikes are tricked out with unique paint jobs, rims and spinners, and have been modified to resemble “scraper” cars of the late 1980s — American-made sedans decked out with stereo systems, huge rims and imaginative detailing. Tyrone Stevenson, known by friends as Baby Champ and generally acknowledged as the Scraper Bike King, and hopes to make Oakland a little less violent with each customized bike he creates. Scraper bikes came up from the Bay Area’s “hyphy” hip-hop subculture, and gained attention when Stevenson posted a video with his group Da Trunk Boiz on YouTube that highlighted the bikes. Stevenson made his first scraper bikes as a troubled 13-year-old, and now attends adult school and hopes to open a scraper bike shop where young people can learn the craft and meet positive role models.

Democracy & Civics

Strangers Embrace Kindness Club (Mostly)

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Kelsey Hertel, a high school senior and founder of her school’s Random Acts of Kindness Club, didn’t expect to be treated suspiciously by the targets of her kindness. The Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon, reports that while Hertel and her group of more than 70 volunteers have successfully acted kindly in some public settings, they encountered resistance in others. In one instance, the group went into a local neighborhood to rake leaves for free. One woman told them to “do your random acts of kindness somewhere else,” while another thought they were burglars and called the police. At a local mall, security guards showed up to stop the club from handing out cards with positive messages and chocolate mints.

Environment

Africa: Power from the Rift

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East Africa’s Rift Valley may be a huge source of geothermal power, and could transform a continent where two billion people have no access to electricity. SciDev.Net of London reports that pilot drilling in Kenya showed that geothermal energy, which is generated from steam from underground water heated by the Earth’s interior, could be a viable and economic source of power for several African countries. Heading up the project is the African Rift Geothermal Development Facility, which said if the technology is implemented properly, various geothermal sites in the region could produce at least 4,000 megawatts of electricity. The Rift Valley spans several countries, including Kenya, Mozambique and Djibouti. If investment plans are successful, the project will expand to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania.

Democracy & Civics

Kenya: Protesting Reporters Arrested

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Seven journalists were arrested in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi last week, where they had joined activists gathered to protest against a controversial new media bill. The Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation said the Kenya Communications Bill, which recently passed in parliament, gives the government the power to raid media centers, confiscate broadcast equipment and shut down all media during national emergencies. Police broke up the peaceful protest outside the Nyayo Stadium, where President Mwai Kibaki was scheduled to lead celebrations marking Kenya’s 45th year of independence. The media bill, described by Reporters Without Borders as “draconian,” also allows Kenya’s information minister to control what, when and how media broadcasts can occur. Nairobi’s police say the protesters had gathered without giving them adequate warning, and were arrested for wearing T-shirts with slogans critical of the government, according to Agence France-Presse.

Democracy & Civics

Fake Drug Den Targets Texas Police

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Narcotics police in Odessa, Texas, were the unlikely subjects of an online reality show called Kop Busters that aims to expose police corruption. The show crew set up a fake drug den in an empty house with indoor-gardening equipment typically used to cultivate marijuana, but instead growing a pair of Christmas tree saplings. The video on the program’s site shows a group of police entering the house, then discovering the decoy Christmas trees — along with a message taped to the wall, informing officers that they were being recorded and asserting that their search warrant was illegally obtained without probable cause. The origins of the project date back to 2005, when an Odessa woman named Yolanda Madden was arrested and found guilty of methamphetamine possession with intent to sell. During her court trial, however, a police informant testified that he was asked by the Odessa narcotics department to plant the drugs on her, but that he unknowingly planted the drugs on the wrong woman.

Public Health

Child Abuse Underreported, but Questions Linger

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Child abuse in high-income countries is widely underreported, according to a recent study — though some critics doubted the research as well as proposed solutions. The British medical journal The Lancet reports that an eight-year study found up to 16 percent of children suffer physical abuse, and roughly the same amount endure neglect or emotional abuse. The journal, collaborating with the Royal College of Pediatrics, found that only one-tenth of abuse cases are confirmed and addressed. Experts in an Australian ABC radio interview suggested that even one in ten was a conservative estimate — and social-service professionals acknowledged that overwhelmed, understaffed child protection agencies lack the resources to deal with so many cases. The staggering abuse statistics and a dearth of solutions left several news sources asking questions.