Rob Herr has pictured the life cycle of the Manazatia leaf.
Via Max.

This project was presented on the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon last December and is already in work. Still, it reminds widely unknown, but deserves attention:

Senegal started now to plant a "Great Green Wall" of trees stretching for nearly 7 000 km, all the way from Dakar to Djibouti, to stop the relentless advance of the Sahara desert.

"Instead of waiting for the desert to come to us, we need to attack it," Fada Diagne, Environment Minister, told Reuters in an interview. Also, he says, in Senegal the desert is advancing at a speed of 50 000 hectares every year.

The idea, first mooted by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, is to plant a 5 km wide band of trees crossing the world's poorest continent from east to west to stop the desert swallowing precious arable land.

More information: www.biopact.com/2007/12/eu-and-africa-to-build-green-wall.html

The left square would be enough to supply the whole world with energy.

The technical progress allows humanity to consume more than it would naturally be capable. This development is connected to the fast growing population and responsible for our future key issues: climate change, shorting of resources - which are resulting into conflicts over territory, food and water - increases the gap between rich and poor. Our hope is, that this technical progress will arrive at a stage, where it starts to be efficient enough to balance things out. So far this was not the case, but a new project captured our attention and therefore support.

The idea is to create a huge farm of mirrors in North Africa. These mirrors bundle the sun light and so generate a very high temperature. This heat will boil water and create steam. The steam powers a turbine which creates electricity. Sounds very simple. It is - and also is highly efficient.

The project was presented in Brussels by the global think tank Club of Rome last November. The concept is based on studies by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) about solar thermal power generation as a safe, clean and cheap power supply for Europe and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). The key technologies for the concept are solar thermal power plants with thermal storage for day/night operation and low-loss high-voltage direct current transmission to transport the clean energy from the MENA region to Europe.
Due to the higher solar radiation in North Africa, a solar thermal power plant located there can generate three times the energy that would be possible in Germany, for the same investment. Using the right cables, transport losses between North Africa and central Europe can be kept very low (approximately 10 %). If the concept is implemented, it could be possible to cover 10-25 % of the European energy demand using solar thermal power plants in the MENA region by 2050.
The project could gain support (like Prince Hassan bin Talal), but its realisation has still not started. The reasons, says Gerhard Knies, the thinker behind the initiative, are the fears Europe's to involve countries like Algeria or Morocco into such an important area like energy production. But honestly, rather North Africa than countries like Iran, Russia, ...

Please support this project: www.desertec.org

United Nations Environment Program (Unep) released their new report about our world’s health. It’s 540 pages, researched by 390 science experts.

Population is growing and therefore the demand for natural resources. At the same time fertile parts of are earth are diminishing. Deserts are growing. Water need is predicted to rise for 50% in developing areas by 2050.

Nairobi based Unep, established in 1972, is the voice for the environment within the United Nations system.