Month: December 2009

In April 2009, the French environmental magazine Terra Eco published a story on the Solar Electric Light Fund, “SELF ou l’empire du soleil électrifiant.” That story grabbed the attention of Vu du Ciel, a National Geographic-like program hosted by world-renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  You may have seen or own a copy of Arthus-Bertrand’s stunningly beautiful coffee table book Earth from Above.  Or perhaps…

I’ve just returned from the COP15 talks in Copenhagen. One of the events I attended was a CNN/YouTube–sponsored debate that featured the following panelists: Yvo de Boer, exec. secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, NY Times Op-Ed columnist and Pulitzer-prize winning author Thomas Friedman, actor/environmentalist Daryl Hannah, and Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. Mr. Lomborg, an…

“I’m lovin’ it”??  There is still hope in Copenhagen. And a sense that our time is running out.  The sincerity of the world’s young people is on full display, as Bishop Desmond Tutu observed.  The question I’m raising is: Can our governments and our businesses show the same level of commitment? Earlier, Bishop Tutu had raised the question…

One of the central issues that will be discussed at Copenhagen is the obligation of rich nations to help poor nations by committing “to far deeper emissions cuts than they already have, and to provide them with cash and technology so they can prepare for the worst and develop a clean energy infrastructure for themselves.” In spite of all the uncertainty…

2008 was an extraordinary year of accomplishment and transition for SELF. The projects you’ll find described in our annual report have taken our work to new levels: In Benin, West Africa, our Solar Market Gardens – solar-powered drip irrigation systems – have vastly improved villagers’ nutrition and income; Building on our collaboration with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, SELF has begun solar-electrifying clinics across Rwanda and Lesotho through…