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Ontario Hailed as First to Subsidize Solar Power

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Mar 28, 2006

Ontario, Canada announced an historic proposal to buy clean, renewable electricity from homeowners and entrepreneurs who produce solar, wind or other green power over the next 20 years by connecting them to the power grid. Premier Dalton McGuinty says he hopes the plan will see a quarter of a million homes powered by renewable energy within a decade.

While Canada is far behind European countries like Germany and the Netherlands in providing renewable energy, Ontario’s incentives are leading the way as the most progressive in North America, says well-known environmentalist David Suzuki.

"We’re taking a bold new step that will allow hundreds of small, local renewable-energy producers to get into the energy market," McGuinty said. (more info)

Nation Overcomes Turbulent History; Christian and Muslim Tanzanians Live in Peace

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Mar 28, 2006

With all the bad news associated with Africa, it is refreshing to read about the successes. Tanzania is a haven of co-existence between two peoples joined in unification in 1964, Tanzanian mainlanders, who are primarily Christian, and the Zanzibaris, who are 98 percent Muslim. Terry Mosher writes in the Montreal Gazette of the “lovely, helpful people” just south of the equator.

Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it got a boost yesterday from the United Arab Emirates who made a large donation out of concern for the country’s food shortages wrought by draught, the Tanzanian IPP Media reports.

While the people are suffering from poverty and hunger, the government does not lose sight of the future.

Realizing that the health of its ecosystem is critical to their fortunes as a country, Tanzania used financial assistance from the World Bank to transfer seventy-two Kihansi spray toads to US zoos in 2002 following fears that they were on their way to extinction.

After remarkable success in the well-managed American zoos, where the toads multiplied by 200 percent, the exiled amphibians are on their way home.

“While many species of flora and fauna may appear to have no consumptive value today for humanity, the same species may prove to be extremely useful in future.”

Valuable Borneo Forests Set Aside to Sustain Endangered Orangutans, Elephants and Rhinos

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Mar 27, 2006

The government of the Malaysian state of Sabah announced Friday it will protect its most important remaining lowland forests on the island of Borneo. The surprising decision will permanently preserve one of just two places in the world where the endangered orangutans, Bornean Pygmy elephants and the critically endangered Sumatran rhino co-exist, and where forests are still large enough to maintain viable populations of each.

The plan, long sought by conservationists, places three forest reserves, which cover an area the size of Rhode Island, under sustainable forest management. Large-scale timber harvesting would end by 2007 and be replaced with sustainable forest management practices.

“This is one of the most important actions ever taken to secure the future of Borneo’s endangered wild mammals,” said Carter Roberts, CEO and President of Word Wildlife Fund – U.S.

Responsible Forest Management in South America

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Mar 27, 2006

Georgetown, Guyana — In a record-setting accomplishment for tropical forest conservation, Barama Company announced that 570,000 hectares (about 2,200 square miles) of Barama’s forests in Guyana is being certified as meeting the rigorous environmental, social and economic standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Thanks to technical and financial support from the World Wildlife Fund, Barama’s certified forest becomes the largest tropical natural forest certified by FSC in the world.

In another example of how rigorous social and environmental practices can improve business as a whole, the certification enables Barama not only to retain access to its current markets in the United States, but opens the door to new buyers in Europe and North America that demand forest products from well-managed forests. As a result, in a country with a high unemployment rate, Barama is able to employ at least 1,500 persons. Before certification, the company was in danger of down-sizing its operations. Today, Barama forecasts increasing employment in the area. Barama’s employees benefit from a better work environment and the company provides social services for local communities such as health services, medicines, transportation in and out of remote areas and emergency assistance. (more info)

The New Medicine Airs on PBS March 29

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Mar 26, 2006

dana reeve, hosts The New Medicine

A burgeoning movement is taking place in hospitals and clinics across the country, integrating the best of high-tech medicine with a new attitude that recognizes it is essential to the healing process to treat the patient as a whole person, and not a cog in an assembly line. A new public television documentary, The New Medicine, suggests that medical practice in America may be on the brink of a transformation. As scientific findings reveal that the mind plays a critical role in the body’s capacity to heal, the medical community is beginning to embrace a new range of treatment options, including many once considered fringe.

The program, which airs this Thursday on most PBS stations, is hosted by the late Dana Reeve, who died last month with lung cancer following the death of her husband Christopher. The two-hour show visits medical schools, healthcare clinics, research institutions, and private practices to show physicians at work on the cutting edge of this new approach. It explores why even some of the most conservative health institutions are now prescribing meditation and self-hypnosis along with high-tech modern medicine.

Saving Wildlife Also Helps Reduce Poverty

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Good News Network

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Mar 25, 2006

A World Wildlife Fund report this week says that efforts to save pandas and tigers and gorillas can also reduce poverty and improve the lives of local communities in rural areas, like Nepal, Uganda, India, Namibia, Costa Rica and China. Species work not only helps eradicate poverty and hunger, but also promotes sustainable and fair development, and in some cases generates significant amounts of money through eco-tourism projects, which allow tourists to observe species in the wild, like marine turtles, pandas and mountain gorillas.

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