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The ‘Gene Drive’ That Builds a Malaria-Proof Mosquito

Anopheles stephensi Mosquito (female). David Scharf/Corbis

Image: Anopheles stephensi Mosquito (female). David Scharf/Corbis

wired.com - November 24th, 2015 - Sarah Zhang

On Monday, scientists announced they could cheat the laws of evolution: They had devised a way to force a gene that kills malaria parasites to spread through a whole population of mosquitoes that normally carry the parasite—at least in a lab. No malaria in mosquitoes means, hypothetically, no malaria in people, either. All this is possible thanks to a controversial new technology known as a gene drive.

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Climate Scientists Used to Just Get Angry. Now They’re Taking Action

Climate talks in Paris 2015. Christophe Morin/Bloomberg /Getty Images

Image: Climate talks in Paris 2015. Christophe Morin/Bloomberg /Getty Images

wired.com - December 4th, 2015 - Lizzie Wade

Ken Caldeira liked plenty of things about working in finance in the early 1980s. He had studied applied science as an undergrad, and developing software on Wall Street kept his problem-solving skills sharp. But however interesting he found the day-to-day work, Caldeira couldn’t escape the thought that in the grand scheme of things, all he was really doing was “helping rich people get a little richer.”

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Drowning Megacities

             

interactive.aljazeera.com - 2015

The world is getting warmer, the rain is growing heavier and the oceans are rising. At the same time, the world’s rural inhabitants are migrating to its cities on a massive scale.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world most affected by the dual pressure of climate change and the rapid, uncontrolled transformation of its cities into megacities.

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Some communities are destroyed by tragedy and disaster. Others spring back. Here’s what makes the difference.

             

Cindy Quinonez, center, whose cousin Aurora Godoy was killed in last week’s shooting rampage, attends a makeshift memorial Tuesday in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

washingtonpost.com - by Daniel Aldrich - December 9, 2015

How do people survive and move on from tragedies like last week’s terrorist attacks at home and abroad? When does a tragedy — whether human-made or natural disaster or a combination of the two — destroy a community, and when do they recover and thrive? . . .

. . . The answer is in an often misunderstood concept called “resilience.”

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We’ve Learnt Many Lessons from This Outbreak and From the Response – Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola

          

Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola, at a press conference in New York in November 2015. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

un.org

10 December 2015 – In August 2014, amid a rapidly growing outbreak of Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro was tasked with providing strategic guidance for an enhanced international response, and galvanizing essential support for affected communities and countries. As the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. Nabarro played a key role in responding to the outbreak, which mainly affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and claimed more than 11,300 lives to date.

While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has declined significantly in recent months, it is not completely over, making it all the more vital for everyone involved in the response to remain vigilant and focused on stopping the outbreak, staying at zero cases and preventing re-emergence. The Office of the Special Envoy will end its mandate on 31 December 2015, but the UN system will continue to remain fully engaged with the affected countries. 

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Stopping Ebola in its Tracks: a Community-Led Response

reliefweb.int - globalcommunities.org - December 1, 2015

The public view of the Ebola response was dominated by images and stories of medical workers and Ebola treatment units. But there is also the less-known story of the many thousands of Liberian health workers, government staff, traditional leaders and volunteers who played the most significant role in building resilience to Ebola and reducing transmission and infection. It is these groups, working in the frontlines and at significant risk, which Global Communities partnered with throughout the Ebola response.

Global Communities’ approach to countering the Ebola outbreak has been highlighted by President Obama, Dr. Rajiv Shah, former Administrator of USAID, and many others as having been a key component in the successful fight against Ebola in Liberia in the 2014-15 outbreak. This new publication “Stopping Ebola in its Tracks,” has two strands:

It describes Global Communities’ community-driven response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia

It derives from this experience lessons learned and recommendations for preventing and dealing with future disasters

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Relief Effort Underway for Flood-Ravaged Chennai in India

             

People walk through a flooded street in Chennai, India, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. The heaviest rainfall in more than 100 years has devastated swathes of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with thousands forced to leave their submerged homes, schools and offices. ( AP Photo) Associated Press

CLICK HERE - #ChennaiRains Resource Center

cnn.com - by Archith Seshadri - December 7, 2015

Chennai, a city of 4.6 million people on India's southeast coast, is reeling from some of the heaviest and deadliest rains in decades. . . .

"The value of Wi-Fi access cannot be underestimated," said Sharanya Manivanan of Chennai. "Phone lines were down for days, but those with Internet access were able to make things happen.”

Tech workers created a crowdsourcing site called www.chennairains.org so people can find sources of food and shelter using their smartphones or computers.

Drinking water is a megaproblem . . .

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Vodafone Launches Mobile Cash Transfer System in Ghana Where 15M People Do Not Have a Bank Account

             

Moving money: The service, called M-Pesa, will be branded Vodafone Cash in the West African state

thisismoney.co.uk - by City & Finance Reporter for the Daily Mail - December 7, 2015

Vodafone has launched its mobile cash transfer system in Ghana where 15m people do not have a bank account.

The service, called M-Pesa, will be branded Vodafone Cash in the West African state. It allows mobile phone users to load money on to their phones, just as pay-as-you-go customers can top up their credit. 

They can send the funds anywhere in the country with a text message. Recipients can pick up the cash at shops that offer the service.

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At Climate Talks, African Nations Pledge to Restore Forests

         

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2010 file photo, shafts of sunlight filtering through the forest canopy strike smoke from fires burning outside family huts at an Mbuti pygmy hunting camp in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve outside the town of Epulu, Congo. Tree by tree, more than a dozen African governments pledged to restore the continent’s natural forests at the U.N. climate change talks in Paris on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015. (Rebecca Blackwell,File/Associated Press)

CLICK HERE - World Resources Institute - African Countries Launch AFR100 to Restore 100 Million Hectares of Land

CLICK HERE - African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100)

CLICK HERE - Global Landscapes Forum

washingtonpost.com - by Lynsey Chutel - December 6, 2015

JOHANNESBURG — Tree by tree, more than a dozen African governments pledged to restore the continent’s natural forests at the United Nations climate talks on Sunday.

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