Kenyan blogger Juliana Rotich is the editor of Green Global Voices, which monitors citizen media in the developing world, and is a regular contributor to this page. ThomsonReuters is not responsible for the content - the views are the author’s alone.

                                                                                                                                                  On October 11th 2008, Global Voices Environment, Carbon Smart and Urban Sprout organized a meetup for environment bloggers in Capetown South Africa. What follows is a rundown of what was discussed.

Blogging about the environment is a multi-faceted endeavor, because it is such a broad topic. This was reflected in the concerns brought to the table by bloggers, and when you visit their blogs, you will see that each of them writes about the environment with a different style, and that they have varying concerns.

From Green building techniques and green-tech on Carbon Smart, to reviews of eateries and films on Relax with Dax…The South African bloggers have passion for the environment and are part of the ‘green movement’ happening world wide.

The question I was asked was, how come the bloggers in South Africa are the most active African writing about the environment? Part of the reason is the digital divide. The internet penetration rate in South Africa is relatively higher compared to other Sub Saharan countries. We have not seen more ‘green bloggers’ emerge in other parts of Africa in as big a way as they have in South Africa (particularly Cape town) I am no social scientist, but I do hope that as internet penetration rates increase in Africa, that we have more people writing about issues relating to the environment.

We discussed the business of blogging briefly, particularly whether to accept advertising on your site, particularly whether you can do this effectively without compromising your ‘voice’. For example if you do not condone the actions of a multinational company, yet when you have google ads, their ad could appear on your site. How do you manage that effectively? This remained an open question, though Wanda of UrbanSprout suggested having control over which ads can appear on your site with whichever method of ad service you pick.

Another issue was brought up by Rafaela of greenflavour, about using blogs for environmental activism. The resulting actions such as cease and desist letters from companies that try to sue you for stating an opinion. I did mention Eff.org as a resource, and checking the Berkman Center for Internet and Society on guidance in terms of law and free speech online.

Rory of Carbonsmart challenged all of us that we need to show transformation, to show that the environmental movement is happening, and that people are thinking about their impact on the environment and doing something about it. To this end, Rory has began a mapping project called ‘Greening Africa’. The map was mentioned on an earlier post on GV enviro.

Glen of Urbansprout is considering creating a map of the information contained in the exhaustive directory of green businesses. He and Wanda created the directory from scratch and it is currently part of the Urbansprout site. It is a good resource for the many football fans flocking to South Africa in 2010 for the the world cup. Do bookmark Greenstay.co.za, as he gets this project together.

There were so many other great conversations, but the consensus was that this was the first of many such gatherings for bloggers who share a concern for the environment to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate on various initiatives. I would like to thank each and every one of the bloggers who attended. I hope that this is but the beginning of many more meetups. I left encouraged, and inspired by the environment bloggers of the Mother City.

Links to their blogs are listed here (in no particular order).

Rory Carbon Smart

Dax Relax-with-dax

Glen urbansprout

Wanda Urbansprout

Cecile Dream in Green

Candice Aspirant Locavore

Raffaella Green Flavour

Tracy Capetown Oracle and EcoStreet

Ian ‘GreenMan’

The wiki is available for future meetups around the world, and pictures of Capetown are posted on the flickr set ‘I love Capetown’.

Kenyan blogger Juliana Rotich is the editor of Green Global Voices, which monitors citizen media in the developing world, and will be a regular contributor. ReutersThomson is not responsible for the content - the views are the author’s alone.

Earlier this year, GV Environment listed the web2.0 tools for environment activism. Since then many more tools have been developed to help concerned citizens make decisions about their carbon footprint and engage with others using maps and games. This post will highlight some mashups, online communities, carbon footprint calculators and one online game.

Mashups

Rory of Carbon Smart Blog announced the Greening Africa Map by outlining the goal of the google map mashup and asking others to send in information about projects to be included.

My point is to highlight positive things that are being done in Africa. There are a lot of projects out there, but many are just not visible. The first projects on the map are mostly around Cape Town, just because I live here and have some firsthand knowledge of the area; but I don’t want this to be a South African map.

Greening Africa Map

View Larger Map

Clean Up The World is an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme. It is a global campaign to clean, fix up and conserve the environment and they have created a mashup to show the communities involved around the world. The activities mapped relate to water, recycling, tree planting, education and climate change mitigation. To visit the site please click on the graphic below.

Online Communities

Connect2Earth features environment related photos, videos and posts that are submitted by the public. The entries will be voted on by other members and the highly ranked entrants receive mobile phones from Nokia (A sponsor of the site). The winning entries will be shown at the World Conservation congress in Barcelona. Topics discussed include Global warming, waste & pollution, sustainable transport, mobile life & work, natural habitat, wildlife and clean energy.

connect2earth is a space for you to tell the world why you care about our planet

350

350.org is an online community of activists working to raise awareness of the target for reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere.

350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

But solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and it is visionary. We are activists, scholars, and scientists. We are leaders in our businesses, our churches, our governments, and our schools. We are clean energy advocates, forward-thinking politicians, and fearless revolutionaries. And we are united around the world, driven to make our planet livable for all who come after us.

Carbon Footprint Calculators

Ecorio

Jaimi Heimbuch of Treehugger referred to Ecorio as a super cool app that will be available on the new Android powered G1 Google phone. Ecorio is a mobile application that runs in the background tracking trips. It adds up the miles and shows the carbon footprint and cost of offsetting it.

Dopplr - Carbon calculator for trips

Dopplr is a tool used by frequent flyers to share information about upcoming trips with friends and colleagues. The service shows coincidences and helps people connect. Dopplr added the ‘My carbon’ calculator that shows travelers their carbon footprint by utilizing data from AMEE, an organization better known as the ‘The world’s energy meter’.

Online Game

World without Oil
This is an alternate reality game that is interactive and whose outcome is crafted by the players and their interactions.

The premise of World Without Oil was simple and provocative: What if an oil crisis started on April 30, 2007 - what would happen? How would the lives of ordinary people change? Players were invited to imagine how their lives and communities would be different and how they would cope if the world’s oil suddenly dried up. The “plot” unfolded dynamically. First, the players read the “official news” and what other players were saying. Then, using a combination of blog posts, videos, images and even voice mails, they told their own stories of the challenges they were facing. As the crisis continued, players updated their stories with further thoughts, reactions and solutions.

Anthony Williams of Wikinomics wrote about the game, saying

There is no doubt that fighting climate change will require a massive worldwide effort that could dramatically alter much about the world as we know it today. We need more than just smart public policy. And we need more than a comprehensive retooling of industry and our infrastructure. We all need to give up our oil addictions and that, in turn, will require us to make some pretty profound changes in our daily lives. Alternate reality games like World Without Oil could play a vital role in engaging the public in making those vital changes.

Via Carbon Copy.

Kenyan blogger Juliana Rotich is the editor of Green Global Voices, which monitors citizen media in the developing world, and will be a regular contributor to these pages. ReutersThomson is not responsible for the content — the views are the author’s alone. We welcome her first blog:

Environmental bloggers and activists around the world are increasingly using web 2.0 tools to bring attention to issues ranging from deforestation, conservation and global warming. These are some of the innovative projects I have linked to recently as environment editor on Global Voices Online.

Blogs and video

The global network of Wildlife Direct blogs are a strong example of how to use multimedia in defense of endangered species. Their chairman, Richard Leakey, a conservationist, frequently records video clips from across Africa on his blog

The views of the younger generation on Wild Life Direct are exemplified by the postings on the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya blog. This mobile education unit visits schools in Kenya, recording videos of their conversations with children about the need for conservation and appreciation of the natural environment.

The Gorilla Protection blog uses the internet to provide environmental news from war torn Democratic Republic of Congo. They provide constant updates and photos from the rangers in Virunga National Park, who risk their lives daily to protect mountain gorillas from extinction.

Flickr

On photo-sharing website flickr, an environment photos group pools together images from over 960 members, creating a global visual treasure trove of pictures of flowers, animals, windmills and more.

The flickr photos of the organization Foko-Madagascar show the organization’s efforts plant trees and encourage a sustainable way of life in rural Madagascar.

Data mashups

Some of the most creative environmental activism online happens through “mashups”, where different sets of data are crossed to illustrate an environmental trend. Floodmaps, for instance, graphically illustrate on a Google world map what will happen if sea levels rise.

On Terrapass, travelers can easily calculate their CO2 emissions from airplane travel. The site gives advice on how to bring down your carbon footprint and balance it by purchasing “carbon offsets”.

Another mashup is Explore our Planet. It layers data from satellites over Google Maps to display information about the planet, such as annual CO2 emissions by region/country and tropical storms.

Mobile phones

There are many more examples of how activists are taking their issues to the internet frontlines. The mobile phone landscape is also growing fast. See for instance this experimental initiative by Ken Banks, the founder of Kiwanja.net and Frontline SMS. Ken developed a free downloadable game called Silver Backers. The game educates players about Gorilla conservation, and invites them to join and support the cause.