Ideas

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New cheap, environment-friendly solar cell developed

Sun, 2014-05-11 19:30 — Maeryn Obley

Image: The tin-based perovskite layer acts as an efficient sunlight absorber that is sandwiched between two electric charge transport layers for conducting electricity to the outside world.

economictimes.indiatimes.com - May 5th, 2014 - Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

In a breakthrough, scientists have developed a new low cost, efficient and environment-friendly solar cell that uses tin instead of the hazardous lead.

Researchers from Northwestern University are among the first to create a solar cell that uses a structure called perovskite, with tin as the light-absorbing material instead of lead.

"Exculding the use of lead is a quantum leap in the process of creating a very promising type of solar cell called a perovskite," said Mercouri G Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin.

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Community Resilience Going to Scale Resources

Wed, 2013-11-27 05:33 — Amanullah Hotak

Community Resilience Going to Scale Resources

By: Hotak

More talented individuals and scholars of Afghan community, interested in community resiliencies to grow and go to scaling resources, have always trie d to think about or experience ‘what resilience seed could be connected to scale up’. To work around this idea I have developed my own thoughts based on the following seeds;

A) Successes in community:

This is one major seed that can connect to scale up. Community successes may grow in consideration of the following elements that have direct link to the seed;

- Presence of a council (local governance) in a community that is more dedicated to building peace and reaching to problems in some ethnicities or tribes in most districts to grow seeds ,

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Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Spreads to Europe

Mon, 2013-10-21 23:50 — Gina Angiola

Jamie Henn, Huff Post - Green, October 17,2013

The fast growing fossil fuel divestment campaign is headed to Europe.

This Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben and allies like Greenpeace International's executive director Kumi Naidoo will lead a speaking tour to five cities in Europe to help spark a continent-wide divestment effort.

The tour is modeled on 2012's successful "Do The Math" tour which sold out venues in 21 cities across the United States and jumpstarted the fossil fuel divestment movement that has now spread to over 300 colleges and universities, 100 cities and states, and dozens of religious institutions across America.

Last June, 350.org replicated the tour in Australia and New Zealand (where they called it "Do the Maths"), helping launch a divestment campaign down-under. The tour there was equally successful, garnering national media attention and quickly scoring a few early victories, with a number of large churches committing to divestment and the New Zealand Greens adopting the goal.

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New Introductory Guide on Big Data for Development

Sun, 2013-10-20 20:24 — Maeryn Obley

Three opportunities for global development presented by Big Data

Image: Three opportunities for global development presented by Big Data

unglobalpulse.org - July 16th, 2013 - Anoush Rima Tatevossian

Thanks to attention in the mainstream media, the phrase “big data” is becoming more well known, and is beginning to be discussed more frequently among development practitioners and decision-makers. A steady stream of papers are being published, panel discussions and conferences being hosted. Even the recent High Level Panel report on the Post-2015 development agenda notes the need for better integrating and using “new sources of data” to be a priority.

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Mobilizing for Impact Across Africa: 10 Game-Changing Examples of Advocacy and Innovation

Wed, 2013-08-21 21:21 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Expanding Access to Solar Technology By Supporting Women Working in Clean Energy - Photo Credit: Solar Sister

submitted by Albert Gomez

clintonglobalinitiative.org - August 9, 2013

It’s pretty evident: the world is getting smaller. Thanks to new tools and efforts across the globe, it’s also getting better.

For the evidence, look to Africa. From Casablanca to Cape Town, local, regional, and global leaders from every sphere of society are implementing innovative technologies and engaging in grassroots efforts to address some of the greatest challenges of our time. Many of them are members of the CGI community—individuals and organizations that are turning their ideas into action by increasing economic opportunities for women, promoting eco-friendly farming in Kenya, fostering youth entrepreneurship in Morocco, and more.

View the slideshow for 10 examples of mobilizers from within the CGI community that are working to advance positive change in Africa and increase shared prosperity in this ever-shrinking world.

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Resilience

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Slow Ideas - Some Innovations Spread Fast. How Do You Speed the Ones That Don’t?

Thu, 2013-07-25 18:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change. Illustration by Harry Campbell.

newyorker.com - by Atul Gawande - July 29, 2013

. . . In our era of electronic communications, we’ve come to expect that important innovations will spread quickly. Plenty do: think of in-vitro fertilization, genomics, and communications technologies themselves. But there’s an equally long list of vital innovations that have failed to catch on. The puzzle is why.

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Designing a Cleaner Future: Bicyclean Helps Recycle E-Waste in Developing Nations

Sat, 2013-07-20 12:40 — Miles Marcotte

July 1, 2013 — A slum on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, received major media attention in 2010 and 2011 when the outside world realized where computers go to die. In an area called Agbogbloshie, impoverished residents were burning broken electronic parts, discarded and dumped by wealthier nations, to extract the metal components. Crouched around bonfires, they inhaled toxic smoke and unwittingly leached heavy metals into a nearby river, just to eke out a living.

Harvard undergraduate Rachel Field '12, an engineering sciences concentrator, read the news reports and devoted her senior thesis project to addressing the problem.

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Amazing world of Indian shoestring creativity

Sat, 2013-07-20 11:04 — Miles Marcotte

CNN - By Arion McNicoll - 07/25/13

(CNN) -- In 2001 a huge earthquake shook the state of Gujarat in India.
2,000 people were killed, 400,000 lost their homes, and countless more lost their businesses in the

devastation.

One young entrepreneur, Mansukhbhai Prajapati, lost everything, but found an innovative way to get back on his feet. Prajapati designed a low-cost clay fridge which required no electricity and continued to function in the event of major catastrophes or blackouts such as the one that devastated his village.

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