These days it seems whenever I look at Puget Sound I can't help but think of the Gulf oil spill. A group of organizations will be doing the same thing on Thursday evening during a fundraiser for The Nature Conservancy, held at the 75th-floor Columbia Tower Club.

STEVE RINGMAN/SEATTLE TIMES

Kayakers paddle among pink salmon jumping in the East Waterway off of Elliott Bay. Scientists from the UW and NOAA said Monday that the changing pH of the seas is hitting Puget Sound harder and faster than many other marine waters, threatening the region's shellfish industry.

"Almost Live!" veteran Pat Cashman will host the event, which includes auction and raffle items and paintings by local artists of scenes from the Gulf area from Art on the Ridge and the Open Arms Campaign.

JUDI BOTTONI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Berms and absorbent materials are used to contain oil following the April 20 spill by BP, the worst in U.S. history.

The benefit is sponsored by Flavor of Seattle, MVMGR Real Estate and Stigmare Couture Marketing. The worst effects are being felt far away, but there's a lot of interest locally. Stigmare CEO Steven Paul Matsumoto says more sponsors contacted him within hours of the event being announced . "It was very heartwarming and a true Northwest response," he said.

Forecasters predict that among other casualties, the oil spill will depress charitable contributions by as much as $600 million in 2011, mainly due to the effects on the Gulf Coast economy, according to PhilanthroDEX, which tracks and predicts charitable giving from sources nationwide. The April 20 explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers. Since then anywhere from 35,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil per day have been flowing into the Gulf.

What do a prince, a painted dog and Paul Allen have in common?

They are all part of a lab in Botswana that is pushing the science of conservation to new frontiers.

The Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPCT) aims to protect free ranging large carnivores such as the African wild dog, cheetah and lion, by understanding their behaviors and communication systems. One of them is the complex code of canine territorial marking (or what domestic dog owners like to call "p-mail").

CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES

African wild dogs are the focus of the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, led by husband and wife team Tico McNutt and Lesley Boggs, one of the longest running large predator research projects in Africa.

Scientists are studying urine deposited by dogs to understand their chemical components and differences in various settings. They combine field work in northern and southeastern Botswana and chemical analysis at a lab in the town of Maun funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. They want to find out how the chemical compounds relate to the dogs' territoriality.

African wild dogs, also known as "painted dogs" for their distinctive fur, carry scent marks that contain hundreds of organic chemicals, some at minute concentrations. The Allen lab has developed specialized methods to collect and process such samples.

PAUL G. ALLEN FAMILY FOUNDATION

Prince William visits with two scientists, Peter Apps (right) and Lesego Mmualefe (left) at the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Wildlife Chemistry Laboratory in Maun, Botswana.

The idea behind the BioBoundary project is to use scent markers as artificial territorial boundaries to keep African wild dogs from straying outside of conservation areas, where they risk being hunted, hit by traffic or killed by owners of livestock.

Allen has been funding the Wildlife Chemistry Laboratory in Maun since 2008 with a $3 million, five-year grant.

The wild dogs are among Africa's most endangered species, dwindling from a population of about 500,000 to less than 5,000 today. They are mostly found in Botswana and a few other countries in southern Africa.

The work is also getting support from Prince William of Wales, who paid a visit to the Allen lab last week. The prince is a patron of the Tusk Trust, a philanthropy that funds the Botswana project.

"He and I clearly share a love for Africa and recognize the important work local groups do to protect some of the continent's endangered species," Paul Allen said in a statement.

Initial results of the unique research are promising, said Jody Allen, the foundation president and Paul Allen's sister. Allen's foundation and the Tusk Trust are talking about ways to further the collaboration.

In the face of the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Senate must pass a clean energy and climate change bill now.

That urgent call today came not from the usual environmental advocates but from business leaders who see their economic landscape eroding along with the melting glaciers without some immediate action.

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Contract workers from BP ferry contaminated waste from the Deepwater Horizon disaster while other workers use skimmers to clean oil from a marsh in Louisiana. This map helps to visualize the size of the disaster if it were here in Puget Sound.

Weyerhaeuser, Nike and other companies from around the Northwest joined Olympia-based non-profit Climate Solutions in urging the Senate to act. They spoke on a conference call with journalists this morning.

Unveiled last month in the Senate, the American Power Act aims to cut greenhouse gases, reduce oil imports and create millions of new energy-related jobs.

Climate Solutions' Ross Macfarlane said the bill has the backing of hundreds of Northwest companies for a variety of reasons, including increasing American competitiveness, creating a stable and predictable environment for investments, protecting national security and minimizing the damage that businesses are seeing in natural resources.

While the bill isn't perfect, the most important element is "a strong and escalating price signal on global warming pollution and carbon dioxide," Macfarlane said.

He also cited recent polls in Oregon and Washington that show public support for clean energy and climate legislation. Washington voters supported legislation by a 13 point margin, while Oregon voters supported it by an 18 point margin, according to surveys done in late May by Public Policy Polling.

The $730 billion U.S. outdoor recreation industry, which includes companies such as REI, Timberland, The North Face and Patagonia, supports 1 in 20 jobs, said Amy Roberts, vice president of government affairs at the Outdoor Industry Association. A warming climate is taking a toll on the ecosystem and the economy, she said, and among the effects is a decline in snow packs, which shortens ski seasons.

Clay Young, co-founder and CEO of Inovus Solar in Boise, said developing new energy technology is a huge opportunity, but he sees this country falling behind. The U.S. is facing strong competition from Chinese companies because of investments and incentives China is making in clean energy.

"We are more and more looking at sourcing energy technology outside the U.S.," he said. "I see our leadership in this sector as waning not gaining."

Changes to energy policy, with a focus on taxing carbon, are needed to stimulate innovation from the private sector, Young said.

Denny Gignoux owns and operates Glacier Wilderness Guides at Glacier National Park in Montana. As the park celebrates its 100th anniversary, the number of glaciers there has dwindled from 150 to 25, he said.

"We're looking at the loss of one of our main attractions," he said. "Where is it going to be for our children and grandchildren?"

Arlo Skari, a Montana farmer, said rising temperatures have brought more flies and insect damage to the state's wheat varieties. As snow melts earlier, spring runoff depletes water supplies, leaving shortages in late summer.

For Nike, its typical consumers are young, active and concerned about climate change, and will be more impacted by it than generations before, said Sarah Severn, director of stakeholder mobilization for Nike.

The company's global supply chain relies on cotton production, which is vulnerable to changing weather patterns, she said.

For Weyerhaeuser, a national policy on carbon emissions makes more sense than state by state legislation, said Sara Kendall, vice president for environment, health, safety and sustainability. The company is looking at ways to turn plant fibers into cellulosic biofuels. "Good policy will allow us to accelerate these investments," Kendall said.

Convincing Northwest businesses to get behind the legislation may be a lot easier than bringing coal companies, automakers or other heavy industrial manufacturers on board.

Ultimately a lot more is at stake than the bottom line.

"Without leadership from the U.S.," said Severn, "the rest of the world will have difficulty coming together" on a climate change agreement.

To look out at Puget Sound on a clear day is to be dazzled by its beauty. But that's just the surface.

Elliott Norse, president of Marine Conservation Biology Institute, a non-profit in Bellevue, struggles with the fundamental problem of public awareness about what's underneath.

Unfortunately, "out of sight is out of mind," he says, despite the fact that oceans make up 99 percent of the habitable space on Earth and provide half of our oxygen.

MARK HARRISON/SEATTLE TIMES

Kayakers paddle back to the beach after an evening outing in Puget Sound.

He's blunt about the problem -- the way too many people, industries and government agencies are treating the oceans.

"Oceans have two purposes -- to take things out, like bluefin tuna, and put things in, like feces," he said. Norse founded the institute in 1996 with a mission he describes as "science for the sake of change," applying marine conservation to strengthen policy.

In the Puget Sound area, almost three million people live on a large mass of land surrounding a relatively small body of water, flushing toilets, changing oil, fertilizing lawns, bleaching laundry and creating other human impacts that the abundant rain washes into the sound, he said.

But the biggest menace is carbon dioxide, which is making ocean waters more acidic and threatening local shellfish, among other effects. It's no longer a problem that can be solved locally, Norse believes. The oceans are declining so dramatically that change will have to be from the top.

Pushing on the policy side, the institute worked to curb bottom trawling and helped convince the Bush Administration to establish three new marine national monuments, creating the world's biggest marine protected area.

"Most Americans don't know that George W. Bush was the best friend of the oceans we've ever had," Norse said.

Norse was optimistic that the Obama Administration would do even more.

One of the institute's main goals is to work with the administration on a National Ocean Policy, which President Obama was on the verge of announcing.

The national policy would mean a coordinated focus on U.S. waters, now subject to 20 federal agencies, state and local governments, and more than 140 different federal laws and regulations, and management based on the idea of environmental stewardship, Norse said.

One of its backers is Jane Lubchenco, the former Oregon State professor now administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

A National Ocean Council would integrate the different branches of government, and a system of Marine Spacial Planning would help determine things like which areas are most fragile, which are best for wind and wave power and how that would affect fishing.

Amid that progress came Wednesday's reversal of a ban on oil drilling off most U.S. shores, which Obama announced as part of a new policy that could mean oil and natural gas platforms in waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and part of Alaska. He explained the change in the context of the nation's need for energy and jobs to keep American businesses competitive.

Norse called it "a carefully calculated political decision," but one he's not sure will achieve its goals.

"This is a president who plays things down the middle. He makes decisions that won't always make his friends or his enemies happy," he said. "This is not something I wanted to see. It's a major change and it's one that has all sorts of ramifications."

One of them is that an intelligent national policy is needed more than ever to balance economic and environmental interests, he said.

"I wish we didn't need to drill for oil, but on the other hand we are addicted to it," he said. "I think we need to understand that our addiction has costs."

In the heart of Vancouver's poorest neighborhood, a thriving business is helping homeless and low-income people earn money by cleaning up the environment.

United We Can pays about 700 people a day deposits on recyclable containers they've collected, distributing more than $2 million a year to "binners" who eke out a living rummaging through garbage. I profiled the non-profit and its founder Ken Lyotier in this story today.

KRISTI HEIM

United We Can safety trainer James Hance, who grew up in Vancouver's tough Downtown Eastside, says he'd rather stay and help the community than work elsewhere. He stands in front of a T-shirt with a corner chewed off by rats in the organization's aging warehouse.

In addition, the non-profit employs 150 part-time and full-time workers to pick up from local businesses, sort bottles and cans in its warehouse, and haul them to a recycling center. United We Can earns a handling fee from beverage producers, who are required by law to ensure that their containers are refilled or recycled. The handling fee supports United We Can's operations, making it a sustainable business.

United We Can will be able to expand its work during the Olympics, hiring 60 additional people to help collect containers around downtown and at local hotels and restaurants.

KRISTI HEIM/SEATTLE TIMES

People line up with carts full of recyclables outside United We Can's bottle depot along East Hastings Street. The average "binner" earns about $10 a day.

Lyotier, who battled homelessness, alcoholism and drug addiction himself, said he has never turned away anyone who wanted to work.

"Many of the people working at United We Can came from the streets," he said.

"I personally believe that when people who have had obstacles discover they do have value," Lyotier said, "they sometimes make the choice to move on to a more normal model of what success means."

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is notorious for a concentration of social problems such as open drug dealing, homelessness, mental illness and prostitution. Blocks away from Olympics venues, the neighborhood will face a global spotlight next month as the focus of protests by activists who are frustrated by a lack of progress on social issues. And yet people at the busy bottle depot see a resilient community underneath.

"You hear a lot of bad stuff but I see so many good things," said United We Can safety trainer James Hance. "Everyone says all you find is misery here, but I find more kindness here than lots of other areas."

The new face of U.S. foreign assistance stared into my living room from the TV screen, looking very familiar. There was Rajiv Shah, the former Gates Foundation agricultural development director, being interviewed by Jim Lehrer about Haiti.

Just when I was getting ready to write about how Shah must prepare to tackle things like streamlining bureaucracy, localizing programs and funding, and strengthening support for democratic governance (no pressure), along comes the biggest disaster in two centuries, striking an already fragile nation 700 miles from Miami. Now Shah, 36, is leading U.S. relief efforts just six days after being sworn into office.

COURTESY OF USAID

Rajiv Shah is sworn in as USAID Administrator as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Shah's family look on. Shah had supported her presidential campaign.

It's interesting to think that Shah was chosen to head the organization after the humanitarian physician Paul Farmer pulled out of the running last summer. Farmer, chairman of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, had dedicated so much of his life to improving health conditions in Haiti through Partners in Health that he would have seemed almost destined for that moment.

At Shah's swearing in ceremony, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lauded his passion, vision and quiet humility, his degrees in medicine and business and experience with the Gates Foundation. "He brings determination and an unwavering belief that anything is possible," she said.

Shah, in turn, said that belief "was founded on our country's rich experience turning crisis into progress."

Shah talked about the necessity of reforming USAID to create stronger local systems in the countries it helps, staying focused on tracking progress and elevating the position of women and girls. Now more than ever the world has the ability -- and the technology -- to create massive improvements in the human condition, he said.

"We find ourselves in a unique moment of opportunity," he said. "A powerful consensus has formed that development is vital both to our national security and the shared interests of an interconnected world."

On TV tonight Shah looked like he hadn't slept in a long time. He talked about President Obama's commitment to focus U.S. efforts around saving lives in the first 72 hours after the quake, working with various branches of the federal government and in partnership with other countries to be as effective as possible. He projected a steady, smart and genuine presence.

Shah's first major test is also an opportunity for the country to show a struggling neighbor how it intends to redefine its role in the world.

Sam Dryden, an investor and entrepreneur, was named the Gates Foundation's new director of agricultural development today.

Dryden, a managing director of New York-based Wolfensohn & Company, an investment company, will begin the new post on Feb. 1. He replaces Dr. Rajiv Shah, who was sworn in Thursday as the administrator for USAID.

"Sam brings a wealth of experience to the foundation -- not only in agriculture, research and business, but also in a wide variety of projects related to agricultural development and public-private partnerships," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the foundation's Global Development Program. "His strong leadership qualities will help the team deliver on our strategy to help small farmers improve their lives."

In his new position, Dryden will lead a team attempting to help the world's poorest farming families boost productivity and incomes with better seeds, management training, access to markets and effective policies. The foundation, which has targeted agricultural improvements as one of its core missions, has committed $1.4 billion to agricultural development initiatives in Africa and South Asia.

Dryden has written and lectured widely on food security and economic development issues and served as an adviser on rural development for the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation.

At Wolfensohn, which was founded by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Dryden focused on investments in alternative energies. He formerly headed Emergent Genetics, which develops and markets seeds. Emergent Genetics, the third largest cotton seed company in the U.S., was acquired by Monsanto in 2005 in a $300 million deal.

The foundation's choice of Dryden raises a red flag for organizations that advocate against genetically modified crops, Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center on Food Safety, told the AP.

"Appointing someone like this as head of their agriculture project is a bad sign," Freese said.

Dryden has also been president and chief executive of Agrigenetics, a seed company now part of Dow AgroSciences, and was founder of Big Stone, a private venture and development company. His career began as an analyst with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Dryden has 25 years of experience as an investor and entrepreneur in the life sciences. He has served on a number of international boards and commissions focused on agriculture development, economic development and food security.

Cassandra Nelson is no stranger to conflict and crisis, having worked for Mercy Corps in hot spots all over the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan and Darfur.

But as she spent November in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she was immediately struck by two things: how much violence is still raging there, and how rich the potential is if the country can move beyond it.

CASSANDRA NELSON/MERCY CORPS

Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo build stoves out of clay for cooking more efficiently and reducing the use of firewood, which contributes to deforestation and is dangerous for the women traveling greater distances from camps to gather wood.

"It's a spectacular country," she said, "lush and mountainous and everywhere you look are flowers. One moment you see that vista, and then you turn your head the other direction and see some of the worst human suffering you've seen in your life... you just think how can this all be in one place?"

More than a decade of fighting has claimed at least 5 million lives and left more than a million people displaced, pushed into makeshift camps to seek refuge. The war has caused nearly seven times the number of deaths of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda, according to the Portland-based humanitarian group. The worst violence has been in eastern Congo, near Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu province.

Recently "there's been a real perception that things have stabilized," Nelson said, but "the moment you leave Goma, things have not changed one bit. Every night there are gunfights and people getting killed."

Women and girls in eastern Congo have paid a terrible price.

Rape has become so common "it is almost a fact of life," Nelson said. "They're terrified of it but sometimes I get the sense they think it's unavoidable. It's happened to everyone."

As women go out to collect firewood for light, heat and cooking, they risk attacks by militia in the jungles and sometimes by government soldiers, too, she said. "Out in those woods there are a lot men with guns. It's either rape or it's harassment -- people stealing their wood or beating them."

The conflict has also taken a heavy toll on the environment. A recent UN study estimated that two thirds of the Congo Basin Forest will have disappeared within 30 years if the present rate of deforestation continues. Illegal logging and charcoal production remain a lucrative industry used to finance the ongoing conflict and buy guns for rebel militia groups, Nelson said. The strain on resources is even more severe as desperate people move into new areas and set up camps.

"First they're going out one kilometer and pretty much everyone has picked those," Nelson said. "In some places women go out 14 kilometers. People are literally spending half their day collecting wood."

CASSANDRA NELSON/MERCY CORPS

Congolese women make and store briquettes they created out of manure, which reduces deforestation and offers a safer alternative than searching for wood.

Mercy Corps is applying a practical solution to address both environmental destruction and women's security -- a fuel efficient stove.

The simple stoves can be made from sand, clay and brick found locally, and they consume less than half the wood of traditional cooking fires. That means women don't have to leave the relative safety of the camps as often.

About 30,000 stoves have been made through the Mercy Corps program and 10,000 distributed this year, Nelson said. Women are also learning to make briquettes from manure and other refuse, which burn more cleanly and are cheaper than charcoal. Besides saving trees, the stoves and briquettes provide a way to earn income for women who make and sell them.

So far Mercy Corps has trained 360 people to pass on the stove building knowledge to more women. "As they go home they take skills back and introduce this method to their villages," Nelson said.

The stoves have generated $160,000 worth of credits in the carbon market from the reduction in carbon emissions, she said. Mercy Corps uses the proceeds to teach women living in camps vocational skills, including animal husbandry, beekeeping and horticulture.

While the country continues to struggle with conflict and corruption, progress is measured in reducing danger and harm.

In the future, she said, "if the violence can ever be brought under control, it is a country with amazing natural resources and so much potential."

As we await news of what world leaders manage to agree on, if much of anything, in Copenhagen, it's worth taking a look at one organization in Seattle that is training environmental leaders around the globe.

COURTESY OF EARTHCORPS

Roshani Rai of Nepal cuts a log for use on a trail structure in Seattle's Colman Park.

EarthCorps has been around since 1993, but it has taken some time for its efforts to gain traction. That's starting to happen as its 750 alumni disperse and apply their skills to new projects, from an international volunteer program at Lake Baikal in Russia, to a "zero waste" recycling enterprise in India.

The non-profit has brought environmental leaders from more than 60 countries to work on projects in the Puget Sound area. Half of its members are from around the U.S. and half are from countries in the developing world, and they share knowledge and expertise.

Besides the main group of about 50 members, EarthCorps now has 11,000 volunteers in Puget Sound, executive director Steve Dubiel told me. The level of interest has jumped this year, with three to four times as many people coming to activities aimed at local environmental restoration. Its teams have worked to improve 100 parks and green spaces in the region.

About 75 percent of EarthCorps' budget comes from fees it collects for its environmental services, so it has a more sustainable model than nonprofits that rely on donations or endowments alone.

COURTESY OF EARTHCORPS

Roshani Rai of Nepal plants native trees and shrubs along the shoreline of Burien's Seahurst Park. The planting followed a seawall removal project and is an example of Puget Sound shoreline restoration.

One EarthCorps alumnus went home to create a program in India that cleans up the streets and helps marginalized people by employing them to collect, sort and recycle 200 different kinds of garbage. Nothing, not even waste, goes to waste.

EarthCorps also emphasizes training women as future leaders.

"We put chainsaws in the hands of women who aren't used to having power," Dubiel said. "It's life changing."

When he joined the organization 15 years ago, Dubiel said, "I don't think people knew what environmental restoration was. I would say 'invasive plant' and people would give me a strange look. Now tons of people are out doing this work."

One of its projects has been removing ivy from Seward Park, where the group has cleared the plant from 42 of 50 acres of the park's forests.

If problems seem overwhelming, it can be satisfying to "just start somewhere," he said. "Stop talking, pick up a shovel and do something."

EarthCorps members working in far worse circumstances inspire others to persevere.

One EarthCorps member is fighting against the odds to preserve a freshwater dolphin in an area of Pakistan where the Taliban is waging war.

"You could have a more lucrative career," Dubiel said, "but don't we owe it to them to do the best we can?"

For another look at how Washington D.C. can learn from Washington state's approach to environmental solutions, see this post.

REI co-founder Mary Anderson seems living proof of the benefits of spending time outdoors and appreciating nature. She celebrated her 100th birthday this week.

In her honor, the non-profit REI Foundation created the Mary Anderson Legacy Grant, a $50,000 annual award to support work to engage young people in learning about nature through hands-on experiences. The foundation plans to award its first grant in mid-2010. I wrote about its efforts to bring more diversity to environmental education here.

COURTESY OF REI

Mary Anderson celebrated her 100th birthday on Monday.

Introducing students to nature was a hallmark of Anderson's life and work as a teacher in the 1930s, according to REI. She was born Mary Gaiser in Yakima Valley in 1909.

In 1938, she and her husband, Lloyd Anderson, founded REI as a co-op with 21 mountaineering friends in Seattle. Those first 23 members contributed $1 each to the co-op to build buying power.

Today REI operates as a consumer cooperative, refunding members a portion of their previous year's purchases, with 3.7 million members, 110 retail stores and close to 10,000 employees.

This story about the Andersons described Mary as stitching tents in their West Seattle home as Lloyd sprayed them with waterproofing. They used the attic as a warehouse and a room off the kitchen as an office. Makes you wonder what they thought about the advent of camp espresso makers and personal planetariums.

The Andersons, who were married for 68 years, received a national leadership award for cooperative business in 1993. Lloyd Anderson, a mountain climber and engineer, passed away in 2000 at age 98. Though she now lives in an assisted home near Seattle, Mary Anderson still visits REI once or twice a year to talk with employees. She spoke at an awards ceremony at the REI headquarters in Kent on Tuesday.

"We are forever grateful to Mary for her passion to introduce people to the wonders of nature," said Sally Jewell, REI president and CEO. "At 100 years young, Mary is an inspiration to me, REI employees and outdoor enthusiasts everywhere."

In honor of her centennial birthday, Gov. Chris Gregoire and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels each proclaimed Dec. 7 as "Mary Anderson Day" across Washington state and the City of Seattle.

By Sandi Doughton

Fear is as infectious as any virus, and gives many Americans a warped view of the dangers posed by vaccines, genetically engineered crops and other beneficial technologies, New Yorker writer Michael Specter said in Seattle Tuesday.

Touting his new book "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens our Lives," Specter took aim at the kind of anti-science sentiment he says is hijacking public discourse and policy.

JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Ice sculptures by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo melt on the steps of Berlin's Concert Hall in a WWF event aimed at calling attention to the earth's melting poles. Specter's book on denialism has been criticized for not tackling the issue of global warming.

"We need to step back and look at the other side of every issue - and we never do," Specter said at a lecture at the University of Washington sponsored by the World Affairs Council.

He was particularly critical of parents, like many who live on Vashon Island, who refuse to vaccinate their children. "This is insane," he said. "Vaccines are the most effective public health measure in the history of the world, except for clean water."

Study after study has shown no evidence that vaccines cause autism, yet people ignore a mountain of data and instead focus on unproven horror stories from neighbors or things they read on the Web, he said. "People jump to conclusions. They decide what makes sense to them intuitively."

While vaccination rates climb in the developing world, they are dropping in the United States and Western Europe - endangering more than the families who chose not to give their kids the shots, Specter said. Last year, children in Minnesota died of haemophilus influenzae for the first time since a vaccine was introduced 18 years ago.

Specter has written for The New Yorker about Bill Gates and his technologically-oriented crusade to improve global health. He's also covered the quest to develop synthetic life-forms, the AIDS epidemic and computer hackers.

Specter's Seattle audience was receptive to his pro-science message, but others have accused him of uncritically accepting arguments in favor of genetically engineered crops. See Tom Philpott's take in Grist.

The same review in Grist also took Specter to task for failing to grapple with the growing numbers of Americans who reject the overwhelming scientific evidence for global warming.

But Specter said he intentionally left that out because it's already been extensively covered.

U.N. Secretary General -- it's a position that seems both enormously important and also largely thankless, but nonetheless a job that very few people are actually qualified to do. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 64, has had mixed results, but as he acknowledged in an interview, he is facing an unprecedented onslaught of global crises all at once. The success of the United Nations is determined by the political will of its 192 member states, not just the man at the helm.

The vast size of the bureaucracy can be crippling, as Ban wrote himself last year: "There is bureaucracy, I discovered -- and then there is the U.N."

MIKE SIEGEL/SEATTLE TIMES

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Seattle to spread the word about climate change.

Today he met with many groups in Seattle, starting with a breakfast meeting at the home of Bill and Melinda Gates, followed by a talk to the World Affairs Council on the U.N. in the 21st century and a lunch sponsored by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce to address businesses about climate change and environmental stewardship. Ban also gave the Political Science Department's 2009 Severyns-Ravenholt Lecture at the University of Washington, where he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at a ceremony in Meany Hall.

Under Ban's leadership, the U.N. has strengthened its role as a peacekeeper, improved the economic situation of the world's poorest, removed land mines, made progress toward nuclear disarmament and focused the world's attention on climate change, UW Regent Bill Gates Sr. said in conferring the honor.

"A great Seattle philosopher once said knowledge speaks but wisdom listens," Ban said, quoting Jimi Hendrix.

He called for a "renewed multilateralism," global cooperation that accepts "how closely our fates are interlinked" and "recognizes the rights and responsibilities of all nations."

Multilateralism is not just not just about government, he said. "It is about all of you. You and me and business and civil society organizations around the world - we all have a stake in our common future."

Ban has been visiting U.S. cities six weeks before the a major climate change conference in Copenhagen. He said he has been meeting with Senators and hopes the U.S. Senate will take action before then on a bill to limit carbon emissions.

"I was very much encouraged by such a strong commitment by President Obama," he said, "but we need now more than a commitment -- we need some actual concrete contribution by the United States."

Yesterday my colleague Sandi Doughton and I had a chance to sit down with the Secretary General for a brief conversation. Besides today's story, here are some additional excerpts from the interview.

Q: On climate change the U.S. has been one of the parties that has been slow to come to the table. The percentage of Americans who believe that climate change is caused by humans is low compared to other countries. What would you say to those people who don't believe it's real?

A: This is completely a minority view. There are some people who believe that it's not real, but I can tell you clearly this is a very minority view. The science has made it quite clear.

I have been really trying to send out such a strong message raising awareness among leaders and the general public that climate change is now happening much, much faster than one realizes.

I'm reasonably encouraged that climate change has become the top priority agenda of all the leaders of the world. On September 22, I convened a summit meeting where more than 100 heads of state and government participating, including President Obama. It was the first time that a U.S. president had attended this climate change summit meeting.

JAY DOTSON PHOTOGRAPHY

People gathered at Seattle Center over the weekend to form a giant human 350 as part of a synchronous action of 4,300 demonstrations around the world. Activists highlighted 350 as the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide, in parts per million, as a target for reducing carbon emissions. The current amount in the atmosphere is 385 parts per million.

Q: Some say the emergence of super rich philanthropies like the Gates Foundation has undermined the effectiveness of the U.N. and its member organizations, like the WHO.

A: On the contrary that is what we really want -- contributions from the business community as well as philanthropies. We need to have political support, but it doesn't give us all that we need. NGOs and philanthropies and many foundations such as Bill Gates Foundation -- they're taking a very important role. The United Nations stands in the center of mobilizing and raising awareness of climate change and food security. When this H1N1 flu broke out I immediately had a meeting with WHO Director Margaret Chan. We even convened a meeting with international pharmaceutical CEOs in Geneva. We were discussing how pharmaceutical companies could help providing vaccines for developing countries. Major pharmaceutical companies have now donated 150 million vaccines.

Q: Regarding the Millennium Development Goals, in your 2009 report you said progress has slowed if not reversed as a result of the food crisis and global economic downturn. What needs to change?

A: With this economic crisis it's natural we need to have a concern that commitment on Millennium Development Goals may be affected. During the G20 summit meeting in London I raised this issue very strongly and urged them to keep their pledges. Not much has been delivered, particularly when it comes to Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa not a single country is now on track to achieve the goals by 2015. That is why I'm going to convene another summit meeting next year. By then we'll have only five more years to go and we have to take stock. That is one subject I'm going to discuss with Bill Gates.

Q: By working in a quiet, low key manner some people say you have reduced the voice of the U.N. Do you think that criticism is valid and is there anything you plan to do to make your voice more powerful?

A: This is largely a misperception. I believe in diplomacy. Diplomacy involves open and quiet diplomacy. When it comes to very delicate matters you do not discuss these matters very openly. When it comes to universally accepted principles, such as human rights and democracy, you speak out.

The world is now going through multiple crises. Have you ever seen when whole international community has been hit all at once by all these crises: climate change, economic crisis, food security, energy crisis, pandemic? Only one of these would come once every 80 years. Naturally there is a high level of expectation of the international community for what the United Nations should be doing. I can understand the frustrations. The international community has not been able to address all the issues all at once. All these integrated issues require a global response. The United Nations operates on the basis of political will and contributions by member states.

It's too unfair if one just brings all these issues to my personal style... In Darfur there's going to be the largest number of peacekeepers in the history of the United Nations. The number, 26,000, would be bigger than all the peacekeeping operations combined 10 years ago. It was me as secretary general who made this 90 percent deployment happen. The Darfur situation from day one I have taken as number one priority. I have been fighting very seriously with president Bashir and working very hard with military generals. It was me who was able to go there and maybe save at least a half a million people. So I hope you will see the picture correctly. The United Nations has been speaking out, and I have been speaking out."

_____________________________________________________________

What do you think -- has the U.N. been effective? What should it do differently?

Food quantity or food quality? Can the world quell starvation now and still have a healthy ecosystem over the long term?

Tough questions for anyone concerned about agriculture and its relation to hunger and poverty.

In a keynote speech at the World Food Prize symposium today, Bill Gates said he supports sustainable agriculture, welcome words to experts in the field, who say there is no short term fix.

Much as he changed the landscape on health, the world's richest philanthropist is trying to spark a new revolution in agriculture. The first Green Revolution improved crop yields, but at the expense of the environment. This time, there may be a chance to get it right.

"Sustainability takes more time, more learning, more people," said John Reganold, Regents Professor of Soil Science at Washington State University. "In the long run it pays huge dividends."

"I really like the fact that here we have this huge philanthropic foundation and they're really trying to help Africa and South Asia," he said. "I don't mind hearing we want to feed people, we want to raise yields, improve their income, get roads and markets in there."

But Reganold said he would like to hear more about how sustainability will be measured and valued. "We tend to go in and say wow, we improved yields," he said. "That's great because these people need to eat. At the same time I'd like to hear wow, we improved the soil so that down the road they're going to be better off."

"They say the right thing, but I'm not sure they're doing the right thing yet," said Hans Herren, a Swiss scientist who won the World Food Prize in 1995. Both Herren and Reganold are attending this year's conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

Gates said in his speech that in their zeal for an ideal environment, some people "have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it."

Research into plant genetics is worthwhile, Herren said, but critics of its current usefulness in Africa shouldn't be vilified.

"What I think is wrong is to blame the people who question the utility now as the bad guys responsible for hunger," he said. "Look at the people who have quadrupled yield in perfectly good agriculturally sound systems. Why is this not taken as the example, not to multiply everywhere but as the basis to adapt to different systems?"

Herren took issue with the notion that ecological agriculture is a luxury for rich countries.

"The idea that is deeply ingrained is that the poor can't afford it. That's really a big problem and it's not true. To do it the right way is cheaper because you don't get in debt in the future," he said, by buying more expensive seeds and fertilizers.

More global investment is needed in sustainable agriculture, as well as policies to correct fundamental imbalances in trade and access to resources, he said.

Mercy Karanja knows first hand what happens when money for agriculture goes away.

She was working in the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture on extension programs for farmers. The system had been funded mostly from outside donors such as the World Bank.

In the early 1990s, the country started a period of structural adjustment under guidance from the World Bank and IMF. That resulted in a complete reorganization of government budgets. One of the first things to go was support for agricultural extension services.

COURTESY OF THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

Mercy Karanja, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

For Karanja the change hit suddenly.

"The World Bank just cut the umbilical cord," she said. "It was so harsh."

She recalled receiving a notice that the following week there would no more visits to farmers to take care of cows.

"I had cows myself," she said. "It was like this is incredible. Artificial insemination requires refrigeration. Tell me who is going to invest in that?"

The cost of inseminating one cow jumped from 20 cents to $30, she said.

In 1998 Karanja left her government job and joined the Kenya National Farmers Union. She wanted to mobilize farmers to give them a stronger voice in decision making.

Farmers suddenly had to shift focus from relying on the government to fending for themselves, she said. Yet there was not enough of a private sector to support their needs.

"It was extremely painful and it has never come back," she said. "Farmers are still struggling. In my own experience this is what has caused them to really regress."

In the new scheme, the World Bank funding for agriculture was subsumed under rural development, which meant roads and other priorities, she said. As a result, money for farming went from a significant part of the budget to almost nothing.

The World Bank has since acknowledged that agricultural development is a key to reducing poverty in Africa and has increased its commitment.

Karanja was later tapped for a job in France at the International Federation of Agricultural Producers. She joined the Gates Foundation in early 2008, working under Roy Steiner on farm productivity.

The program targets small farmers living on less than $1 a day.

"We have to be more creative in reaching these small farmers," she said. One project that looks promising uses radio programs to get information out to farmers, such as how to keep plants free of disease.

As for the role of genetically engineered seeds, Karanja says she witnessed a huge debate in Kenya in the early part of the decade. Kenya has a problem with drought, diseases and productivity, she said.

"We asked transgenic proponents what does it offer us?"

The Gates Foundation has funded reseach into drought tolerant maize and fortified cassava. Such specific products might be helpful, she said, but they're not an option now.

Farmers in Kenya are "not ideologically inclined toward one thing or the other," she said. "They're saying give us solutions. Give me whatever medicine can make me better."

Karanja said the Gates program has made progress helping farmers, including getting more varieties of seeds distributed to agro-dealers and reaching some areas with irrigation, but it's too early to see an increase in productivity.

Drought and civil strife have taken a harsh toll in Kenya, which is experiencing hunger in regions where there was no such hunger before. People will have to take a long view of change, she said.

"Please let's keep the momentum for a little longer to create the mechanisms for the system to stand on its own."

Africa is getting more attention with a new U.S. administration that says it's committed to helping African countries achieve self sufficiency and food security. The Gates Foundation has also brought a renewed focus on African agriculture through its own programs and grantees, including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

What is the best way to move forward from decades of neglect and a recent food crisis that pushed 100 million more people into poverty?

As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tours Africa this week, a coalition of grassroots groups says "business as usual" won't work, and criticized the U.S. for pursuing a narrow approach that puts too much emphasis on biotechnology.

SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets Masaai traditional dancers in Kenya after addressing the 8th Forum of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The US Working Group on the Food Crisis used a visit by Clinton and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to raise the question of whether U.S. tax dollars for food-related aid to Africa are being spent wisely.

The United States and other top industrialized nations pledged $20 billion to promote sustainable agricultural development in the world's poorest regions last month at the G8 Summit in Italy.

The USAID's policies toward agriculture in Kenya, stated here, include a public-private partnership with KARI and Monsanto to develop genetically engineered sweet potatoes resistant to virus, and promote public awareness about the technology in Kenya.

(The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center said it was never involved in the original project. I had listed the Danforth Center among the partners, based on information from the USAID Kenya Web site. Roger Beachy, president of the Danforth center, said the center brought material from Monsanto and KARI to its labs and is working on the project using a different technology, in partnership with the government of Uganda).

After 14 years and $6 million, the project proved to be a failure, the coalition said, adding that local varieties outperformed genetically modified varieties in field trials.

The coalition called such policies "misguided" and at odds with a report on the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. The report, which came out earlier this year, took four years and was commissioned by the World Bank and United Nations to evaluate the impacts of agricultural methods on hunger and poverty, rural livelihoods, health and sustainable development.

The report was approved by more than 50 governments, but not the United States, Canada or Australia.

The way the world grows its food will have to change radically to cope with a growing population and climate change while avoiding social clashes and environmental disaster, said the co-chair of the report, Hans Herren, who is president of the Millennium Institute.

"I fear within the new (U.S.) administration not enough time has been devoted to reading and digesting the report so it can be used for its full potential to address problems at the root," he said.

Herren, who received the World Food Prize in 1995 for developing a pest control program that rescued the African the cassava, said building more resilience in plants through classical breeding is a better answer than engineering for drought resistance. Climate change may produce drought but also may produce severe storms and unpredictable weather patterns. He said the Kenyan agricultural institute is on the right track in broadening its approach more recently.

The report's findings reject current industrial farming methods as a solution to sustainable food production, concluding that the benefits of modern agriculture have not been equitably shared and have come at too high a price to the poor and to the environment.

Josphat Ngonyo, head of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, a network of 60 community groups, said that small holder farmers in Africa have been left out of the process of determining agricultural policy.

"We find that most of African governments ignore local farmers. They are not consulted," Ngonyo said. "We see heavy manipulation by multinational companies who have their ways to influence policies and legislation."

"What (farmers) clearly need is not biotechnology," he said. "They need water, markets for farm products. They need good roads to access markets, and they need incentives that would enhance getting their products to the markets."

The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition said the visit to KARI showcases "the Obama Administration's betrayal to Africa's small scale farmers and misplaced priorities on how to achieve sustainable food security in Africa."

"Chemical-intensive production methods continue to have adverse health and environmental effects," the group said, "while 'modern biotechnology' (genetically engineered seed) has contributed to hardly any verifiable positive impacts on equitable and sustainable development."

Asked to assess the work of Gates-funded AGRA, Herren praised its emphasis on soil quality and a program to train traditional plant breeders.

"What I think is a problem is they feel they know it all," he said. "To go out here and try to replicate the green revolution is not good enough."

He said where the effort falls short is in understanding "how the whole system operates." Key road blocks include lack of market access, infrastructure and training for farmers, he said.

"There are major gaps there in the AGRA program which are not addressed to have the impact they think they're going to have."

AGRA's main programs are seeds, soil health, market access, and policy and partnerships. The alliance has said it seeks to avoid the adverse effects of the original Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America, including overuse of fertilizer, and focus on small farmers living on less than a dollar a day--most of whom are women.

Last month AGRA, chaired by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, launched a program with KARI and other partners to improve maize yields by counteracting soil acidity.

The Gates Foundation's own assessment of the program last year can be found here.

Low income neighborhoods and communities of color often experience more direct negative effects of a polluted world, but they are not well represented in the environmental movement.

Only 18 percent of people of color who live in King County say the environmental quality in their neighborhood is excellent, compared with 40 percent of whites, according to a survey by Elway Research.

Restoring a healthy environment in the Puget Sound area means "we must expand the environmental movement and include people from diverse backgrounds and cultures," the Seattle Foundation said in its report on priorities for 2009 and beyond.

Various efforts are underway to bridge the gap, including an urban farm providing vegetables to communities in South Seattle and a project funded by the REI Foundation and the National Audubon Society to create nature programs tailored to the needs and interests of culturally diverse communities.

AUDUBON STAFF

Kyle Patch (left) and his father Rodney Patch (center), who are Native Americans, help with habitat restoration in Seward Park as part of an Audubon program to bring more diversity into environmental programs. The program is funded by the REI Foundation.

A $110,000 grant from the REI Foundation announced this week will help Audubon build on the success of Latino-focused nature programs at three urban Audubon Centers, including Seward Park Environmental and Audubon Center in Seattle and centers in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Many nature-oriented organizations in the country lack the cultural insights, language skills and community connections to effectively involve Latinos in conservation and experiencing nature, the groups said.

The REI Foundation's mission is to increase diversity among outdoor enthusiasts and conservation stewards, with a particular focus on young people.

Former REI CEO Dennis Madsen started YOLF the Youth Outdoors Legacy Fund, to encourage more kids to get involved with the nature, making grants around the country and focusing on urban and low-income neighborhoods.

Another local example is Marra Farm, a four-acre community farm in Seattle's South Park neighborhood. Its goals are to practicing sustainable agriculture and education and enhance local food security. Farmers grow more than 13,000 pounds of organic produce each year on Marra Farm. Local residents grow food for their families, and produce is also distributed in donations through the Providence Regina House Food Bank, Mien senior citizens, and Concord Elementary Schools. Some produce is also sold at the University District Farmer's Market through an employment program for at-risk youth run by Seattle Youth Garden Works.

This post was written by Sandi Doughton

Somalia is the "most dangerous place on Earth," says Matthew Lovick.

That's why it's one of the African nations where Portland-based Mercy Corps is expanding operations, Lovick told a small group of Seattle supporters Thursday.

MOHAMED DAHIR / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Somali government soldiers engaged in a shootout with Islamic militants in Mogadishu this week. The heavy fighting in a densely packed neighborhood sent thousands of residents fleeing the capital.

"There's not a single person in this room who could go to Somalia and not be kidnapped and ransomed," he said during the informal briefing on the aid organization's Africa programs.

Even Lovick stays out of the country, though he's Mercy Corps' regional director for East and Southern Africa. All of the organization's work there, including cash-for-work levee construction to protect villages from seasonal floods, is run by native Somalis.

Mercy Corps specializes in conflict zones, where it moves in quickly to help fill immediate needs, like clean water -- but also to build roads, establish jobs programs and take other steps to get beyond the immediate crisis and push development forward, said Phil Oldham, director for West and Central Africa.

"We're not going to tread water for years on end," Oldham said.

As the need for outside help has dropped in places like the Balkans, Mercy Corps has quadrupled its work in Africa over the past 3 years. Ten African nations now account for more than a third of the group's budget.

But decades of work can be wiped out by conflict, and Mercy Corps is riding the new wave in aid work: Promoting reconciliation and peaceful conflict resolution.

Programs go beyond training communities in conflict resolution, Lovick said. Most conflicts originate in poverty and competition for jobs, money and resources. So in Kenya, for example, Mercy Corps hires young men from warring factions to work together on road-building and other infrastructure improvements.

Mercy Corps is also unusual in incorporating global warming in its programs.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 850,000 people displaced by conflicts live in sprawling camps, the demand for fuel wood is decimating forests. Mercy Corps has distributed more than 20,000 fuel efficient stoves, which use half the wood of traditional stoves. And they've sold credits from the resulting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on the European market.

At the same time, Mercy Corps is helping villages plant tree farms, to provide a sustainable, future source of firewood and protect native forests.

Mercy Corps was one of 13 NGOs expelled from northern Sudan recently, in response to the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir for war crimes in Darfur. (Some leaders of humanitarian organizations, such as InterAction chairman Charles MacCormack, thought the indictment might do more harm than good.)

The groups met last week in Khartoum with Scott Gration, the US special envoy to Sudan, but Lovick said the concerns of the NGOs are only a small part of Gration's mission.

Jingjing Zhang works for the first and only non-governmental legal aid organization focused on environmental issues in China. It's her job to go after polluters in court.

Zhang, litigation director for the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims, is in Seattle for a few days, where she's giving a lecture at the University of Washington tonight and meeting with local organizations including EarthCorps, Earthjustice, Sightline and RDI. She was invited to UW as the Severyns-Ravenholt lecturer, named for Marjorie Severyns Ravenholt, a UW graduate who chronicled the development of Asia as a foreign correspondent. Zhang was a Yale World Fellow in 2008 and a visiting scholar at the Yale China Law Center.

COURTESY OF JINGJING ZHANG

Jingjing Zhang, one of China's top public interest lawyers, is an outspoken environmental advocate. She argues cases on behalf of pollution victims across the country.

At 39, she has been an outspoken environmental advocate for more than 10 years. She won a landmark legal victory against a company in 2005 when she represented farmers in Fujian Province, where a chemical factory released Chromium and killed their bamboo trees, took away their livelihood and made them sick.

It was the biggest environmental class action lawsuit in the country, representing more than 1,000 people. At every hearing, hundreds of farmers would show up in the courtroom, she said. Some had left their homes in the countryside days before and ridden to the city in a rented van.

The plaintiffs won compensation for damage to their livelihoods but not for their health.
Still it showed the power of the law could be wielded to protect citizens.

"We are facing this environmental disaster," Zhang said. "If you go to Beijing from the plane you see the whole city covered by yellow and brown air. This is our capital city. If you can't see clean air here, how can you expect industrial cities to be?"

Among NGOs in China, environmental groups are the most active, and public support for environmental protection is growing. The center offers free legal aid to the public and a telephone hotline for people suffering effects of pollution.

Chinese environmental law is actually very strong, Zhang said. "The problem is we have laws on paper. We lack implementation and enforcement. We lack action."

Chinese officials think clamping down too hard will sacrifice jobs, she said. Politicians fear losing control and suspect civil society groups of threatening the government. "They misunderstand," she said. "Our role is a bridge between citizens and the government."

Zhang is now pursuing a case against a huge state-owned iron and copper mining company in Guangdong Province, where heavy metal pollution has leached into groundwater and soil, polluting the river, fish and rice crops. The village has seen a surge in cancers of the liver and digestive system. Of 400 residents, 28 have died of such cancers since 1996 and many more have the disease, she said. The problem has likely spread beyond Guangdong, as rice is sold to other towns and provinces.

Taking on such entrenched business and government interests is a risky endeavor, she acknowledged. Her name Jingjing means be careful, the same characters in a Chinese idiom that translates: "When you walk on thin ice, you must be very careful."

It was given to her by her father, who was persecuted in the 1950s after he spoke out against the government.

But defending the environment isn't a task for the meek, and pollution is an issue without boundaries, she said. "Meeting people who share the same concerns, I feel I'm not working alone."

As members of NetHope continue their annual meeting in Redmond this week, it's fascinating to look at how the landscape of technology has moved from responding to crises to creating solutions tailor-made for development itself.

These worlds are increasingly converging in places like Seattle.

On Thursday evening at MOHAI, NetHope co-founder Ed Granger-Happ of Save the Children and CIOs of Oxfam, CARE and The Nature Conservancy will talk about how information and communications technology affect the work of humanitarian agencies in "International Relief, Development and Conservation in the Cloud."

SCOTT COHEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kentaro Toyama shows a project designed to help people who are illiterate use computers.

Also Thursday Microsoft will announce a $2.4 million software donation to The Nature Conservancy to develop a virtual world for collaboration, based on SharePoint and other technology.

The software will help The Nature Conservancy bring together scientists, conservation managers, volunteers and hundreds of local partners working in 700 offices in 30 countries, allowing them to collaborate virtually and respond to rapidly changing conditions.

The Nature Conservancy, like other non-profits, has seen its donations fall during the global recession. One of the first things to be cut from constrained NGO budgets is information technology, yet that plays an increasingly important role in the speed and efficiency of humanitarian efforts.

Other hot topics discussed in the context of philanthropy include text-message donation campaigns and mobile phone banking for microfinance projects.

Kentaro Toyama, assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, writes a cautionary note about how technology projects involving PCs and mobile phones can sit like rusting tractors in a field unless they're designed with local institutions and people, who are willing (and able) to maintain them.

A local group called AGRA Watch is taking aim at some of the strategies for improving agricultural production supported by the Gates Foundation.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), was created and funded by the Gates and Rockefeller foundations in an effort to help small farmers improve productivity by using better seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and access to broader markets.

AGRA Watch calls that approach "politically, environmentally, socially, and ethically problematic." It's too heavily focused on technology solutions such as genetic modification, fertilizer and pesticides, rather than what could be more ecological farming methods and indigenous practices, say the group of volunteers, who are part of the Community Alliance for Global Justice.

The Gates Foundation has said it will consider many different methods to improve farming, but that soil in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa lacks sufficient nitrogen for organic agriculture alone.

AGRA Watch is holding a series of talks next month at the University of Washington. While the topic has provoked polite and somewhat indirect debate in two recent forums, rarely have local groups come forward with such an openly critical position on one of the Gates Foundation's programs.

Finding the right answers has become more urgent as the dally food intake of many of the world's poorest people dropped in the recent food crisis, and climate change complicates the problem.

Phil Bereano, UW professor emeritus in technical communication, kicks off the group's meetings April 1 with a critique of Gates' support of technology and the assumption that technology is in itself neutral. Other sessions are planned on genetically modified seeds, problems of the original Green Revolution in Africa and the role large agribusiness plays.

During a long day of discussions on the energy and the environment involving the world's top two consumers and polluters, one of the most startling facts was a look at where greenhouse gases are increasing fastest.

Over the past decade, carbon dioxide output increased about 1 percent in the United States and 4.7 percent in China but 12.7 percent in Indonesia, according to McKinsey & Co., which is researching the potential of various technologies to reduce carbon, and weighing them against cost. Measured in gigatons of CO2 per year, the U.S. now produces about 7.2, while China produces 6.8 and Indonesia 3.1.

MERCY CORPS

Women operating small food stalls use new clean burning stoves in a program being tested in a Jakarta slum.

Two local efforts address climate change in emerging markets by linking them with carbon credits, trying to reach the millions for whom survival means burning coal, slashing forests and breathing toxic indoor air.

In Indonesia Mercy Corps is using private seed capital (much of it from Seattle) to fund a program to manufacture new cooking stoves and replace kerosene with compressed bricks made from plant matter. The program aims to offer the stove buyers an immediate financial reward for reducing their carbon emissions. That's a whole story in itself, related to the purchase of a commercial bank, which I'll write about later.

MERCY CORPS

New stoves are made to burn vegetable pellets, cheaper and less polluting than kerosene.

MicroEnergy Credits is a Seattle-based effort to use microfinance as a way to pay the upfront costs of purchasing simple clean-energy systems, such as stoves, solar panels and biogas digesters. Through carbon credits, microfinance institutions earn revenue when they lend money for such systems that create verified carbon emissions reductions.

MicroEnergy Credits Director James Dailey, a Peace Corps veteran, previously worked for the Grameen Technology Center, where he led development of the Mifos open source software project. Co-founder April Allderdice is a veteran of Grameen Shakti and McKinsey.

The World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit is testing the waters with agreements to buy the carbon credits associated with greenhouse gas reductions in Bangladesh.

With carbon cap and trade programs, measurement and verification remain key questions. Nevertheless, the work of small start-ups and non-profits is important to addressing the energy problem, and a resource that big government and business pow-wows haven't given adequate attention. By making clean energy part of building small enterprises from the ground up, the hope is that poor countries can grow economies without the heavy toll on the environment that richer ones have already taken.

During the recent floods this winter, I couldn't help but think of Marla Smith-Nilson. If only we could take all the excess water creating havoc in the Northwest and pipe it over to the places she's trying to reach. Smith-Nilson is an engineer who founded Water 1st, a Seattle non-profit working to relieve poverty by starting with the most basic necessity: safe water.

There's nothing fancy or high-tech about the group's work. They work on the simplest kinds of wells or distribution systems from local springs that can be built and maintained by communities, one village at a time. Water 1st works with local partners in four countries: Honduras, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and India.

One problem with past projects built by outside organizations like the World Bank is that they are complex and expensive, but not regularly maintained or repaired, Smith-Nilson said. Locally no one can agree who is responsible for the well, so half of them fail.

ALAN BERNER/SEATTLE TIMES

A farm is totally surrounded by flood waters in the Snoqualmie Valley.

Water 1st decided to enlist local residents to plan and build the projects.

"If you've invested half a year of labor, there's no way you're going to let that system fail," she said.

Progress is especially important for women and girls, who are usually the main water bearers. If they don't have to walk miles every day to collect water, they can spend more time in school. Water 1st also focuses on training in food preparation and hygiene and building latrines.

In Seattle Smith-Nilson raises money mostly by word of mouth through her network of friends, enlisting help from local schools and businesses.

ALAA AL-MARJANI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A man sows a crop on a dry field on the outskirts of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

On Friday evening Water 1st is holding its fourth annual Water 1st - Beer 2nd event at the Lake Union Park Armory, including a presentation about the world water crisis.

Another event on the calendar is a unique combination of water causes and the trendy microblogging phenom of Twitter. On Feb. 12 Twestival Seattle, a grassroots effort to raise money and awareness for charity, will kick off with a focus on water.

One person in six, or more than a billion people worldwide, has no access to clean water, according to the group. More than 4,500 children die each day from dehydration and water-borne diseases.

One of charity:water's solutions is to donate 100 percent of profits from the sale of a $20 bottle of water to help build wells. Founder Scott Harrison said he had to rethink his lush life in New York after a trip to Liberia, where he could feed four people for the price of one $16 margarita he consumed in Manhattan. That's nice. But maybe he should rethink those plastic bottles... no sense helping one problem only to contribute to another.

Donations to a trust that secures local farmland for organic food production rose 110 percent over the past year.

PCC Farmland Trust, an independent non-profit formed by PCC Natural Markets, said thousands of donors helped it surpass its fundraising goals for 2008 despite the sour economy.

Its annual campaign raised $128,000, topping its goal of $80,000. The non-profit also completed a six-month challenge to its donors to match $150,000 in grants from the Washington Women's Foundation and an anonymous donor.

The combined $300,000 will go into the trust's Future Farm Fund to purchase conservation easements on local farmland and restrict development on the land.

News about food and environmental issues over the past year has driven public interest in safe, local food, making farmland preservation a priority, says Kelly Sanderbeck, development and communications director.

"I think it's just in people's minds," she said. "It's personal as well as global. We're worried about food safety and looking for what's really going to help this planet."

The trust works to secure and preserve threatened farmland in the Northwest. Since 1999, the trust has saved three Washington state farms, in Sequim, Walla Walla and Carnation. It's considering using the fund to secure three additional farms in Pierce, Thurston and Kittitas counties.