Development
This page relates to economic sustainable development in Third World countries. Protecting the environment is not possible, or even desirable, without eliminating hunger and poverty.
See also Economics, Environmental JusticeGlobalization, Entrepreneurship, Colonialism,Consumption, and Sustainability, Population and Women
Currently, some of biggest problems to track are in Haiti, Pakistan and Africa, especially Sudan/Darfur.
Big Picture: Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems. TEDtalk
Websites
New Doctors Without Borders has a website with video documentaries on hunger. DWB/MSF has had great results helping kids with peanut butter.
Causes of poverty slideshow.
Oxfam International deals with poverty eradication, especially in terms of hunger.
A motley but interesting set of links
Envisiongood.com has video interviews with a collection of people with interesting ideas.
Interactive
UCSC's Atlas of Global Inequality
Gapminder.org by Hans Rosling is stunning. Hans Rosling created Gapminder.org, video overview. 2009 TEDtalk.
National Development Game: You've just been elected as Prime Minister of Blendia for the next 50 years! Blendia is an imaginary island located off the western cost of Africa. Your job is to help promote the sustainable growth of its economy by minimizing debt and interest payments.
Video
"Kiva.org: a transparent, web-based microfinance system". Premal Shah, President, video on micro-finance 2008 5 min interview video. Kiva co-founder TEDtalk.
You've probably heard about the hundred dollar laptop (TEDtalk video), which provides a rugged, easy to use but powerful tool to kids in the developing world. The Bee is a mobile computing system that allows communication, connectivity and data access in field conditions where such technologies are often difficult or impossible to use. As access to both power and connectivity are limiting factors in many emergency and field settings, the Bee has been built with these limitations in mind. It can be charged with solar power, a car battery, or a conventional power source and can use WiFi, GSM Networks, a FM radio transmitter, or a satellite uplink to communicate.
Impact of Air Pollution from Household Cooking Fires. More than half the world's population cook their meals with solid fuels over open fires or on primitive stoves inside their homes. UCSFs Lisa Thompson explains that this indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants which causes 1.6 million deaths a year. Amy Smith, an amazing MIT engineer and her students have taken on this challenge in Haiti TEDtalk video. UC Livermore lab also has a project in Darfur. video. 9/10 update on US/UN initiative (audio)
TEDtalk theme Re-Thinking Poverty includes:
Cat Laine draws on the Greek myth of Tantalus to explain the frustration developing countries face. She shows how we might help communities rich in human capital, but poor in resources and infrastructure, with cleverly engineered solutions. via TEDtalk
Haiti: Saving the Environment, Preventing Instability and Conflict 28 April 2009. Reversing a decades-long trend of environmental destruction is essential to Haiti’s development, social and economic stability and, ultimately, security. video overview
Kevin Bales is the co-founder of Free the Slaves, whose mission is to end all forms of human slavery within the next 25 years. He's the author of "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves." Slavery (27 million today) is an important factor in eco-destruction. TEDtalk video
Shaffi Mather explains why he left his first career to become a social entrepreneur, providing life-saving transportation with his company 1298 for Ambulance. Now, he has a new idea and plans to begin a company to fight the booming business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time.
Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.
Iqbal Quadir says mobile phones fight poverty (2005 TEDtalk)
Low cost eye care TEDtalk.
Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen argues that reducing humanity's ecological footprint is incredibly vital now, as the western consumer lifestyle spreads to developing countries. TEDtalk.
Articles/Reports
Population: Mother Jones Magazine has a series of articles on population (5/10)One of the authors participated in a radio panel 5/10 . There's a consensus that Earth doesn't have enough resources to support the world's growing population -- but there's disagreement about the root of the problem. Some think the problem lies with the growing third world, others that it is the consumption habits of the developed nations that cause the problem. More. Hans Rosling video and other links. Here are so more amusing and opinionated takes videos. See also Population Page.
Growing a Better Future: Food justice in a Resource-Constrained World 5/11 report from Oxfam.
Gender Inequality and economic development from Oxfam.
Books
Poor Economics addresses the pitfalls of current aid programs and advocates for a radical new approach to thinking about poverty. audio interview. 5/11
See "We Are Still Here" in Earth Odysseyor e-book on the origins of Darfur, Sudan.
Peter Singer, author of The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty
In his new book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown looks at the state of the world's resources ( a "food bubble"), warning that the outlook does not look good when it comes to feeding the world's population.r4e
Audio
Tom Friedman interview based on his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded excerpt/intro 09/08
Interview with Jeffrey Sachs, an economist interested in ecological and social justice issues. Author of the excellent book The End of Poverty. Here's a more recent text interview, with a reference to his new book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
Debal Deb discusses his new book Beyond Developmentality: Constructing Inclusive Freedom and Sustainability. audio
Women raising chickens in Uganda has surprising benefits. LOE.org 2/10
UCSC Resources
Ben Crow has expertise in water and hunger issues. He teaches SOCY-167 - Development & Underdevelopment SOCY-179 - Nature, Poverty, and Progress, as well as SOCY-220 - Global Transformation. He also works on Atlas of Global Inequality
Paul Lubeck has expertise on globalization and advises Global Information Internship Program GIIP. After 12 years, GIIP has transformed from an idea to a full-fledged academic program. Last summer, GIIP became a major and a minor. The sociology department now includes an honors major and minor, Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies (GISES), that is modeled after GIIP.
