Women’s Movement | 2012
The Green Light. One of the more exciting green ideas to crop up lately, as described by Inhabit, is biophotovoltaics. That’s right, biophotovoltaics: the practice of capturing energy created by the photosynthesis of plants, primarily algae and moss. The practice isn’t efficient enough just yet for the mass market but researchers at Cambridge University, who believe the technology could eventually outpace such standards as silicon-based solar panels, have envisioned some pretty incredible applications. One example is the Moss Table by Biophotovoltaics with the potential to power its own lamp.
Rio+20. Held two weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro, the Rio+20 conference marked the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The lofty goal: to explore methods to reduce poverty and ensure a solid environmental path for the planet. But, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon stated at the conference exactly what many fear—progress towards environmental goals has been too slow. NPR reported that with this in mind, Ban Ki Moon launched a focus on Sustainable Energy for All, a program intended to encourage investment in eco-friendly solutions to end energy poverty by 2030.
Women of Bangladesh, Shine On. Leave it to the fairer sex to already get a jump on delivering clean energy to the rural poor. National Geographic News Watch recently reported that Bangladesh has created a solar program that brings clean power to rural areas. Women here, whose traditional role of managing the home includes supplying domestic power via not-so-clean kerosene or wood, are getting involved in the program, which trains them as solar technicians. This direction has enabled many of these women to become the primary wage earner in their household. So far, the ladies involved in the program have installed nearly 1.5 million solar power systems.
