![]() Canopies are critical for soaking up rain and taming floods. Deforestation not only releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - it weakens slopes. Researchers weren’t sure what triggered the worst natural disaster in the West African country’s history, but some pointed to Sugarloaf mountain’s vanishing greenery. On August 14, 2017, rocks, debris and mud flowed from above, destroying hundreds of homes and killing more than a 1,000 people in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The view of a hillside outside the Mortormeh community. “The hardest part is getting the word out about this alternative. ![]() “My motivation is: The bigger we grow, the more we can save our trees,” Bah said on a steamy afternoon in the capital, chatting between coconut waste collection stops. One report in the Philippines found that a ton of charcoal look-alikes fashioned from natural waste was equivalent to sparing up to 88 trees with 10-centimeter trunks. His enterprise, Rugsal Trading, has now produced roughly 100 tons of coconut briquettes, which, studies show, burn longer for families who do most of their cooking on small outdoor stoves. Heaps of shells and husks discarded by juice sellers around Freetown provide an energy source that requires no chopping. “All I felt was helpless,” he said, “so I put my attention into finding ways to help.”įour years later, Bah runs his own business with nearly three dozen employees and an ambitious goal: Reduce the felling of Sierra Leone’s trees - a loss that scientists say amplifies the mudslide risk - by encouraging his neighbors to swap wood-based charcoal for a substitute made from coconut scraps. Instead he was sweeping the floor of a drinking water plant when 1,141 people died or went missing, including Abdul’s family.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |