Hotstuff Chillout Diary

CARBON TRADING:A carbon trading tree planting scheme in Kenya could pave way for turnaround in the rate of destruction of forests.The project in agreement with the World Bank\'s BioCarbon Fund could finaly sell 375,000tons of carbondioxide equivalent emission reductions by 2017.At present carbon traders face an uncertain future and low prices because of lack of a new global climatechange agreement.Maintaining forests is the main way Africa can contribute to climatechange mitigation and participate in the carbon market.

bettody@yahoo.com — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:55:36 +0000

LAKE NAKURU It is with great joy that i report here on progress of conservation of Lake Nakuru.Almost a year later after campaigns to save the Mau Forest,the lake is now aliue with flamingoes and all kinds of birds.The animal park also has regained its rich greeness and the return of more wild animals.The lake is regaining its lost glory.

bettody@yahoo.com — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:40:36 +0000

COPENHAGEN The long awaited climate meeting has finaly reached.Delegates from the world over are in Denmark to meet over the effects of climate change and what it means in the next few years if no action is taken.Something needs to be done and solutions must be reached to save our planet.Let us all watch keenly,listen attentively and act wisely to what is taking place.This is the time to save planet earth after the Kyoto Protocal.

bettody@yahoo.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:58:44 +0000

CLEANING LAKE NAKURU

bettody@yahoo.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:35:18 +0000

water catchment area

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:02:45 +0000

Conserve our water catchment area for a better world. Lawrence (Nickname Malaw) I am a believer of change and I believe that it all begins with us. Because we are: change to change for change. Richard I am an agent of climate change! My hobbies are: watching movies, sleeping late, swimming, cycling My environment is my life. We can't do everything but we can do something. climatechange is real and together we can restore the beauty of our land. Vivan, my role model is Obama. Never give up!!!!!!!!! Let's change the environment for the better because together we can. My environment my future life. Let's leave it better than we found it. Mary Ngiendo Don't give up in the middle of the race. I like to be cool with what I am doing. I don't want my futre childrens life to be miserable because of me. Because I did not do my part. Let us prepare the future of our children to be good an be in charge of it. It is in our hands right now. Lucy The taps are running dry the rivers have dried up and the dams are empty. What next for Kenya? We want water, we need water. Water is it. We must plant trees. No more climate change. Michael Plant trees. You can save Mau if you want. Save the Mau. No more floods, no more drought, no more diseases, let us work together. Alvin To all world leaders, politicians, NO cutting down of trees! Save the world. Edward. Destroy it and it will destroy you. SAVE MAU. Green is nature: YES WE CAN. My climate is my life and I will stand up against cutting down of trees and pollution. We must keep our environment clean for a better future in our world. We should join together to protect ourr environment. My name is Beverly. I am the first born. Brown in colour and slightly tall. I love playing football and volleyball, I love listening to music, watching scary movies, reading books, swimming and riding bicycles. I am agent for climate change. My favourite colour is green. I love keeping the environment kleen. Beverly

our environment

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:32:37 +0000

My favourite food: githeri, dry fish, ugali, and cooked bananas. I hate watching bad movies and gossip. Hey! Let us stop destroying the environment for better future and happy generation. Joel John

my aim is to plant 120 trees per year

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:30:31 +0000

My name is Stephen Kinuthia. I like planting trees and flowers. Most of my time I use in playing football and I am a striker. My mission is to change climate for the future generations. My aim is to plant 120 trees per year.

it is not a curse, we are the cause!!!!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:28:59 +0000

every life is crying! the coming generation is under cloud. yet much has been the talk but less if not no action has been done. axiomatically., climate change is felt and fatal, if no action now, no future, no life! that's me: faourite colours: blue green , yellow and orange, gender: male, colour: chocolate brown, name: ojwang philan, Chool: menengai Hgh school, hobbies: listening to music, reading sory boks, writng, cycling, playing football. Defforestation the root cause, afforestation the resolution

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:21:46 +0000

As young as we are we are strong enough to stop climate change. we can do better than what is being done today. so lets do something before it is too late. there is no time for regrets, we shoul always remember that if we destroy mother nature, another nature will destroy us. I am effie belinda, my favourite colour is blue!

let\'s adopt ways to prevent climate change!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:18:48 +0000

Hello I am Mirriam Wambui, my hobbies are wathcing tv, playing basket ball and making fun and jokes. My environment is the most important thing in our society. Let us stop cutting trees! For a better tomorrow.

a stitch in time saves nine

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:16:51 +0000

I hate seeing people cut down trees. I shall always stand against climate change no matter what comes my way. I only wish that the time went back for a century ago. Kenyans now regret things after having damaged and neglected the few forests in the country. The children and the youth are now suffering of a disaster they didn't coz. Our foreparents forgot the saying a stitch in time saves nine. Anne Nungari

A

bettody@yahoo.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:09:52 +0000

how many are we?

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:47:10 +0000

Kenya has begun holding its first national census for 10 years, amid controversy over a question which asks which ethnic group people belong to. Many Kenyans believe the question is insensitive, coming 18 months after more than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence after an election. Ministers say the question is needed to help the authorities plan better. Critics say the census will be misused by politicians and could damage efforts to heal rifts between communities. The final results of the last census in 1999 were never released. In the past, there have been accusations that some communities have tried to rig the population numbers to get an undue advantage when it comes to the sharing of resources. Ethnic divisions are deeply rooted in Kenyan society and many people are proud of their tribe. Many Kenyans vote along ethnic lines, which meant that a dispute over allegations of fraud after the December 2007 election led to people being attacked and killed because they were from the same group as either the president or his main challenger. Some people say they intend to answer "I am a Kenyan", when asked which group they belong to. Tuesday has been declared a public holiday as officials encourage people to answer the questions.

national census

bettody@yahoo.com — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:07:14 +0000

Today is our National Census Day,the day when our government is counting all its citizens.This is a very important exercise which is carried out after every ten years.Over the years despite the many challenges that we face as a nation we have continually increased in numbers at a drastic rate.Currently we are faced with the starvation problem and lack of food in many parts of our country.Much has been said but very little done in terms of improving our standards of living and health situations in our nation.It is also important to have this exercise so that the government could come up with strategic plans on how to take care of its citizens in terms of food security,health care matters,education faculties,our security among many other things that touch the people of our country.Our vision this time is that by 2030 our country would have reached close to a developed nation.
Our future generation will have come to a point where they will carry out many activities without relying on foreign nations each time for aid.

The counting is going to start tonight at around 6.30pm.All businesses,shops and work places are supposed to be closed for the counting.Everybody is supposed to be in their houses by six this evening to be counted.Security has been beefed up so that we do not have cases of impersonators attacking people in their houses pretending to be the officials doing the counting.Police and security personel have been deployed everywhere to make the exercise a success.Those in hospitals will be counted there,those in prison the same and those who have travelled will also be counted wherever they are.The one abroad will be counted according to the information the government has about them.We ar all hoping for the best so that at long last we come up with a workable plan for the government to take care of its people.This census is a very important one especially at this time.Our population currently stands at approximately 35million.Some analysts predict that within the last ten years we may reach a staggering 50million.This could be a very big figure as compared to the resources we have.But we shall wait and see the figure given after the census.

Can you picture that?

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:04:03 +0000

What really is happening is that apart from the great Mau water tower there have been numerous illegal allocations of forest land for settlement and logging og trees.At first many people didnt realize the effects of their actions.It started as a slow process with people clearing land they had bought from the government for settlement and others for getting firewood.The government did not heed the advice given and even when Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize it was coz of her efforts to save the Mau and other smaller forests.Nobody wanted to hear what her fight was all about.We still remember when one day she talked about the dangers of what would happen.She said that our country would soon run dry and we may end up being a desert but nobody heeded her warnings.It is now happenning and now most parts of the country is dry and arid.No rains and most of us are farmers.The government has also not taken measures like irrigation for watering our plants.Now without rain and water,there is no crops which can grow.

Right now as we mail you this we are having power cuts each week three times.This has been done because we have depended so much on dams to produce electricity.Now without water no electricity can be generated.The water levels of our dams has drastically dropped.We also have water rationing in our houses.We cannot recieve water continously in our taps the whole wek.For instance we recieve water only on Mondays and Wednesdays.We have to have storage containers for water for the remaining days of the week.Can you picture that. We are even so fortunate to have the two days.Others dont even have a drop.They walk for days to look for water,Now if there is no water that means there is no food.We have reported cases of deaths due to starvation.It is a time bomb ticking away.All of us are reallyy struggling to meet the cost of living especially food.It has become so expensive to have decent meal thet most of us have resorted to only one meal a day.It is continually becoming a struggle.Children and the old people are the worse hit.Thats why we are trying to come in and help.

The Red Cross have really tried their best in helping but the numbers have become so overwhelming that they have reached their limit.Right now they too are crying our for help to be able to reach the millions of Kenyans who are starving .We would like to reduce the number that is depending so much on the Red Cross.Immediately we are through with feeding then we embark on finding out a permanent solution so that we do not face the same situation ever again.We would also like our people to start a project be it solar powered,geo or bio supported so that we can carry out our farming on renewable sources of energy.

evictions and starving people

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:26:59 +0000

We have a project idea. We want to plant trees in the Mau Forest, but now we can't go because the situation there change dramatically. What we are doing is try to get as much donation in terms of funds to buy foodstuff for starving families. Imagine children going without food for days,living on wild fruits and rats to survive. It is so pathetic that we had to do something. Its not a longterm solution but good enough for now. Treeplanting and solar use will be next so that there are no more handouts.The Mau Forest was once one of Kenya’s most important water catchment areas. In 1985 round 450,000 Kikuyus who lived and worked on forestry stations in the area were evicted, to make way for Kalenjin settlers under the Moi government. The Mau Forest was the source of several rivers, but after Kalenjin settlers cut down thousands of acres of trees, many of the rivers dried up and drought began ‘to hit Kenya’.. Recognising the ecological importance of the Mau Forest, Kenya’s environment minister has now called for the eviction of Kalenjin settlers. There are now people who say that if the government intends to compensate Kalenjin settlers, it must first compensate the Kikuyu who previously inhabited the forest. Everything turns out really bad. We now lack water and all these shortages are due to depletion of our forest cover.right now many of our people have died because of hunger.Today some of us joined a group of young people who are funding an exercise to feed the over one million people facing starvation.its not a longterm solution but for now it will do. Before 1985, the controversial Mau Forest had both indigenous forest and large acres of trees planted for commercial purpose. On maturity, those trees were sold for the manufacture of papers, guns, buildings and furniture. Once the trees were sold they were replaced with young seedlings. The sold trees earned Kenya millions of shillings every year. There were more than thirty forest stations, each with 15,000 Kenyans in and around Mau Forest. The parents of those families were employed to plant and to look after the young trees, weeding out unnecessary vegetation which tended to interrupt the proper growth of the trees and they pruned the bigger ones to improve their qualities. In total, all the inhabitants of those forest stations were 450,000, most of who were the Kikuyus. There were a few Kisiis, Luhyas and Luos. There were no Kalenjins working in those forest stations. In my school I would like to plant more trees and flowers. According to me, when you plant trees there will be more fresh air and the rain will be distributed accordingly. On top of that studies will be carried out nicely as pupils won't always feel dizzy dizzy. For example when people destroyed the Mau forest we have seen what has happened. Rainfall distribution has started being a problem and our rivers have already started to dry up- I hate so much to just sit an watch how our beatiful country will turn into an arid place. If we gang up and try to fight this endulging scandal then our next generation will be just full of fun. No hunger, thirst and we won't live to regret it at all because the younger people are going to survive though us. Let's gang up to create awareness! Natalia

favorite recipes served from solar powered cookers

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:29:06 +0000

This is a great idea that you are going to build solar-powered cookers, and that passersby will be served with favorite recipes from Kenya. I send you therefore the following recipe:

Recipe For Ol Porda A Traditional Maasai Dish.

Ingredients.

1. Meat from a freshly slaughtered goat. (Specifically the soft steak, small intestines and some parts of the colon.)The quantity varies with the number of people to be served.

2. Fat from the other parts of the same goat.

Procedure.

Thoroughly wash the meat using clean water.
Cut this meat into small pieces, about one and a half inches. Drain the water and let the meat sit in the bowl for a while.
Obtain the fat for cooking by using other parts of the goat e.g. the muscles and scrapping fat out using a knife.
Place the fat in a clean pot.
Add the meat you chopped earlier on.
Without adding ANY water, put this mixture on a moderate fire so that it cooks slowly then cover with a lid. The goat fat melts then begins to fry the meat mixture.
Let this cook for two hours. At intervals of ten minutes, stir the meat.
Once ready, the meat appears dry. Remove the pot from the fire.

Serving

· This dish may be served when hot. Although it is usually taken on its own, you may use it to complement other foods preferably starchy ones, e.g. potatoes or rice.

· Alternatively, the meat can be poured into a container after removing it from the fire, and then it is covered and stored in a cool, dry place, (not in a refrigerator). After about 12 hours the fat solidifies and it can be taken as a snack at any time. When served this way, the meat can go for about 3 months without getting spoiled! This explains why it is popular among long distance travelers, who can enjoy a dish of home made Ol Porda even when they are miles away from their families.

Significance of the dish

This dish is a clear example of how economic traditional Maasai people are. From the recipe above, you must have noted that the only requirement was meat which is obtained from only one goat. It gets me thinking about how some resources can also be used economically. An example is the solar energy that can meet most domestic fuel needs yet maintaining the environment at the same time. Think about this as you enjoy your meal!!

Sylvia Nashipae, my climate club. Menengai

High school KENYA.

that\'s us

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:30:12 +0000

Hello! We would like to know more about you. I will do a brief introduction of some of us. 1.Samuel Kariuki,16yers old,in Form two class.Interests include,reading,swimming,travelling,environment and sportsLast born in a family of five children.
2.Catherine Akinyi Okello,16year old girl,in Form one.Interests include,reading,singing,dancing,playing netball.Fourth in a family of seven children.
3.Charles Njoroge Mbuthia,14year old boy, in Form one,Interests include,reading,drawing,painting,watching television and music.Second born in a family of three children.
4.Aden Anyasi,15year old boy,in Form two,interests include,music,gardening,singing.First born in a family of four children.
5.Natalia Nyaboke,14year old girl,in Form one.Interest include,socialising,travelling,reading and music.Second born in a family of three children.
6.Belinda Nasirumbi,14year old girl,Form one.Interests include,gardening,reading,making friends.Sixth born in a family of eight.
7.Anne Mumbi,15year old girl,Form two,interests include,reading,cycling,swimming,music.Second born in a family of three children.
8.Joseph Wesonga,15year old boy in Form two.Interests include football,travelling,reading,cycling.Last born in a family of three children.
9.Atem Matthew,17years old boy,in formtwo,interests includereading,envirnment,music.Last born in a family of seven children.
10.Mariane Wanjiru,15year old girl in Form one,interests include,playing,sports,reading ,travelling and music.first born in a family of three children.

RENEWABLE ENEGRY ACROSS AFRICA!!!

bettody@yahoo.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:06:31 +0000

As countries celebrate World Environment Day,renewable energy and energy sufficient initiatives are starting to be implemented across the continent.The projects which reduce the gases that cause global warming are being backed under the Clean Development Mechanism[CDM]It allows developed countries to offset some of their emissions from cars,factories and homes by funding clean energy projects in developing countries.Many of these projects range from those which are wind-driven to those that switch power stations from coal to cleaner natural gas.This is opening doors to renewable energy across AFRICA.

Explaining Global Warming - What Has Ozone Got To Do With It?

bettody@yahoo.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:11:38 +0000

When asked to describe global warming, many people respond that it is a problem with a hole in the ozone layer. They think that there is a causal link between the ozone hole and the planet warming up. Global warming and ozone depletion are two separate but related environmental threats. Global warming and the greenhouse effect refer to the warming of the atmosphere (mostly in the lower part, also known as the troposphere) due to increasing concentrations of heat-trapping gases. By contrast, the ozone hole refers to the loss of ozone in a higher part of the atmosphere, known as the stratosphere. Ozone loss is a serious concern because stratospheric ozone blocks incoming ultraviolet radiation from the sun, some of which is harmful to plants, animals and humans.