Thursday, June 25, 2015

World Environment Day Celebrations, 2015

I have been honoured to spearhead the World Environment Day celebrations in Garissa which was marked globally in Garissa County. The World Environment Day (WED) is the biggest, most globally celebrated day for positive environmental action. The celebration of WED began in 1972 and has grown to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations encourages positive action for the environment every 5th of June. The theme for this year was, “One Billion Dreams, One Planet, Consume with care”. This year has been an extraordinary one. Garissa has celebrated the biggest World Environment Day celebrations in history held at Young Muslim Academy. The event has brought together different persons and institutions who had big love for environment. It was indeed celebrated in style. Just to name a few activities such as tree planting, entertainment by school children, speeches from high profiled persons an awards session and finally media briefing. We will be holding our first Mazingira Tournament this week. This has been a platform in which all best environmental practices were recognized in addressing different environmental problems affecting us. On behalf of World Environment Day 2015 Garissa celebrations, I say thank you very much to all those who participated in marking this year’s celebrations, through you, we have successfully celebrated this year’s WED celebrations. Let’s all stand for a sustainable environment.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Last evening , I was honoured to receive my Queen’s Young Leaders Award 2015 from Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.The Queen’s Young Leaders Award Programme discovers, celebrates and supports exceptional young people from across the commonwealth, leaving a lasting legacy for Her Majesty the Queen. This has been a lifetime moment for me and to all those who have been very supportive to my Environmental Conservation work. It is an achievement not only to me but to the People of the Republic of Kenya and The Commonwealth at large. This was a great opportunity to meet the members of the Royal family such as Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, Princess Beatrice, the Duke of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent,Sir John Major (Former UK Prime Minister), Rob Brydon, Duncan Bannatyne and John Bishop. Other personalities include The one football legend David Beckham, Kenyan Ambassador to the UK H.E Amb.Lazarus Amayo, UK Comedian David Williams, Steve McQueen, Film Director and many others. It was a one on one meeting with the Queen. Not everybody who gets to meet the Queen but she is just so simple. What I noticed from her is that she is connected to Kenya and loves our beautiful country. This has been followed by an interview with the BBC. I wish to sincerely pass my heartfelt appreciation to all those who have been grateful to me and have been with me, offered all the moral support I needed. This could not have possible without you all. Special regards go to my entire family for their inspiration and offering me the platform to do what I love doing most; Taking care of Mother Nature. I wish to also say thank you all to all those developmental partners whom we have worked together over a decade now. Thank you to all those whom have in one way or the other impact on my life.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Young environmentalist launches a project to plant a million trees

“The future belongs to the young people” Story Summary: Abdikadir has become a leading champion for the environment in northern Kenya. Through his Plant a Million Trees initiative, launched in June 2013, he is galvanising community tree planting projects and establishing tree nurseries throughout his local area with the mission to plant one million trees. He has set up the Yathrib Environmental Library for children and aims to reduce youth unemployment by helping to create green jobs in nurseries, farming and renewable energy. “It is possible to create green initiatives to combat climate change at the same time as creating green jobs,” he says. Abdikadir grew up in a poor rural village in northern Kenya and saw first hand the effects of climate change, drought and deforestation. From a young age, he recognised the importance of engaging local communities to counter such challenges.“There havebeen a lot of issues which have changed the natural environment in this area, like logging and deforestation. We need to work with communities to change attitudes.”As a result of his community tree planting scheme alone, 200,000 seedlings are now growing in local nurseries and 30,000 have been planted into the community. Abdikadir thinks he can reach his target in only four years. And he believes that young people arethe principal force for carrying forward his ideas: “It is what I love doing because every day I come up with new ideas and sit down with young people to talk about how we can make them happen.” In recognition of his work, Abdikadir was awarded a Head of State Commendation from the President of Kenya, and he hasbeen selected as an eco-generation regional ambassador by the United Nations Environment Programme. Abdikadir is one of the first ever recipients of a Queen’s Young Leaders Award. The Award, which will be presented by Her Majesty The Queen in June, is part of The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme, and celebrates the achievements of young people who are taking the lead to transform the lives of others and make a lasting difference in the communities.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Embracing Sustainable Eco-friendly Technologies

Embracing Sustainable Eco-friendly Technologies The increasing world population is a threat to the environment. With the current state of the environment, different human activities calls for mass destruction of natural resources. With this trend, it does not only pose a great danger to the environment alone but to the living as well. Climate change affects not only individual quality of life through human health but also national security of island countries through higher seawater level. It is therefore necessary to embrace sustainable eco-friendly technologies that will reduce but as well reduce emerging conflicts over natural resources in the entire world. The most important source of climate change faced by mankind has been known to be global warming from accumulation of greenhouse gases rather than any other causes. The mass production system which was conducted by fossil fuel- based economic development strategy since the Industrial Revolution had led to huge emission of greenhouse gases which lead to range beyond natural self-capacity to absorb them and then to the climate change. To begin with, let’s appreciate the direction in which technology is being driven. They are all geared towards eco-friendly and ensuring sustainable environments. We have five stars hotels that have automated light switches that go off once you leave the room; this is saving energy. Look at taps that produce water when they sense the human hands. Look at our roads, vehicles emitting smoke at the same time not visible. Same as solar powered vehicles; end results is that there is no emission at all. A good example is the Ford Solar Power Car. The Ford C-Max Solar Energi Concept Car feature solar panels on the roof which tracks the Sun's position. The prototype car is said to be able to travel for 21 miles once fully charged, and a full charge can take 6 to 7 hours. The vehicle is intended to be parked under a purpose designed concentrator (a bit like a large magnifying glass) that powers it by 100% by renewable energy. To our modern housing, home owners have resorted to cheap and affordable building materials but that has no effect on the environment. Public schools, hospitals, offices initially had permanent roofs. Their roofing has shifted from asbestos materials to ordinary iron sheets. This has been seen to be carcinogenic; directly involved in causing cancer. It is changing gradually with development too. All these contribute in one way or the other to improving our environment and causing less harms. We all love to shop, but how we can shop to our hearts content with a clear conscience? Look at how well we do our shopping, by the end of the day, take home plastic bags. We are generating bulk waste that cannot be biodegraded. We really need to think hard before we do our shopping and embrace Eco Friendly Shopping. It is estimated that normal domestic homes are responsible for 27% of total carbon dioxide emissions, with each house producing 6 tonnes of CO2 a year. 1.7 tonnes of which is from electricity 4.3 tonnes is from our consumption of gas. One strategy to address these figures is to use less energy, improving our household insulation and recycling. Another complimentary strategy is that of micro power generation, whereby each household sustainably generates their portion, or all, of their own electric and power supply to provide heat or light, and ideally, generates a surplus which they can sell back to the national power suppliers. There are a number of ways in which households can achieve this: Solar panels, Wind turbines, Geothermal energy and Bio dung. The first and the foremost beneficiaries of such eco-friendly technologies should be youth themselves. There has been mass rates of youth unemployment. Such opportunities should be tapped by the young people at early stages making them social entrepreneurs. Their different innovations at this stage are very paramount since their high numbers add up to the list of the unemployed. They really need to take up the challenge and participate in creating effective use of the environmental friendly techniques hence creating self-empowerment and employment. This will save our natural resource and establish a better world with a better foundation for the future generation and better future. Government institutions and private sectors need to create these new jobs and opportunities especially decent green jobs by expanding the size of green industries. Here, therefore an increase of green jobs should be counted as net job creation. The most efficient way to adopt eco-friendly production strategy is through huge investment on green technologies in the long run. The efficient use of energy or energy saving is the goal we can achieve in the short run. Therefore the difference in the investment capacity between developed and developing countries can lead to widening income gap among them. All these emerging dimensions of technology need to take up on issues that are interconnected such as innovations and developments in green technology. This will help us do our bit in saving the planet, and creating eco-friendly technologies with emphasis on practical technology that will help us make a difference to our biodiversity You can reach me on Facebook: Amb Abdikadir Aden Hsc and Twitter: @AbdikadirAdenKE

Forgotten Dump sites

Garissa town is one of the fastest growing towns here in Kenya and East Africa. Increase in population equally means doubling of waste gener...