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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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Rubbish bag homes underwhelm Aid agencies

Faras Ghani has been collecting plastic waste for 22 years.

After twenty years of converting plastic waste into low-cost shelters, Pakistani activist Nargis Latif has sought international support for her project, Gul Bahao.

The project aims to create comfortable, safe spaces in the earthquake prone slums of Karachi, by using bundles of plastic waste as a building material. The result is a loose brick that can be tied or taped together to create a soft shelter supported by wooden posts and beams.

While the homes have been useful in sheltering earthquake victims, they have failed to take off as affordable accommodation. In twenty years, Gul Bahao has built fifty homes.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/woman-turning-rubbish-homes-pakistan-160629181246015.html

30 August, 2016
Volume of sewage surpasses world’s rivers

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and officials drink purified wastewater April 27, 2015

Humanity now produces two million tonnes of sewage every day, more than our own body weight, Canadian environmentalist, Maude Barlow, wrote this week. On an annual basis it is also more water than exists in all the rivers in the world, meaning that they are overloaded with our waste.

An equally dramatic statistic is that we pump 1,600 million megalitres of ground water into the sea each year. Half of this is used in mining and one third of all water usage goes to the production of bio-fuels.

This increase has not been gradual, the last twenty years have seen a huge acceleration in the consumption of water and the effects are now starting to be felt. Cities that rely on ground water are planning to drink treated sewage as the aquifers on which they have depended dry up.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/water-as-a-commons-only-fundamental-change-can-save-us

http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27999661/california-drought-san-jose-mayor-drinks-recycled-sewage

30 August, 2016
Biointensive farming shrinks agricultural footprint

Jean Apedoh, an intern from Togo, is testing strategies for growing rice with minimal water at Common Ground mini-farm. Photo by Cynthia Raiser Jeavons/Ecology Action

Sustainability publication Ensia, this week published an account of bio-intensive farming projects that create more food per aquare metre with less energy, water and nutrients. Whereas corporate, industrialised agriculture is focused on profit and consequently minimizes labour, bio-intensive farming focuses on the minimization of external resources. As a result it is ideal for urban farming and community projects where capital and external resources are in short supply.

http://ensia.com/features/how-three-u-s-mini-farms-are-sowing-the-seeds-of-global-food-security/

30 August, 2016
Russia and China leave US dollar in the cold

The Bell believes the dollar will collapse

The Russian decision to disconnect its currency from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and return to a sovereign currency will have far reaching implications for the USA and its allies according to Bloomberg and The Bell this week.

The impact of Russia’s decision to go it alone will be exacerbated by the Chinese decision to join the IMF. According to The Bell, the relative strength of the Chinese economy will lead investors to prefer bonds payable in Chinese RMB than in US dollars.

The joint effect of Russia protecting its currency by separating from the IMF and China competing with the US dollar in the same market is likely to make it difficult for the US to raise funds by printing more money, a practice known as quantitative easing.

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/dollar-disaster-looms-as-china-and-russias-currencies-break-away/

30 August, 2016
Loggers use fire to wipe out Amazon tribes

Loggers are using fire to destroy the Amazon and indigenous people

Huge forest fires raging in the Amazonian rainforest are threatening to wipe out the Awa tribe, one of the last uncontacted indigenous groups on Earth.

The neighbouring Guajajara Guardians have been fighting to protect the Awa tribe from violence by loggers, disease and land clearing. Despite promises by the Brazilian government to assist, the Guardians have been fighting the forest fires without support from emergency services.

Last year, loggers lit fires which wiped out forest cover across 50% of the region.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/19/amazon-fires-threaten-to-wipe-out-uncontacted-indigenous-people/

23 August, 2016
US Feds to phase out private gaols

Private prisons in the US are abusive, ineffective and more expensive than those run by the state

The US Department of Justice has announced it will phase out corporate operation of federal prisons after A director General’s reports revealed ongoing abuse and failures of the system. This will not affect State penitentiaries or prisons run by other federal policies.

Recent reports reveal that California has built one university and 22 prisons in the last thirty years. Independent reports of widespread institutional abuse and increasing rates of recidivism point to a widespread failure of outsourcing punishment.

The Sentencing Project, an organization working for a fair prison system wrote that the decision, “signals a major milestone in the movement away from mass incarceration.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Justice-Dept-to-End-Private-Prison-Use-After-Scathing-Report-20160818-0014.html

23 August, 2016