IT IS not a matter of keeping the same industries we have today, so much as finding those with which we can live. The only reason we are not using Earth Friendly Technologies is because the financial markets are invested in fossil fuels beyond their ability to realize the wealth of other energy sources. Holding on to old ways does not work in the year 2005. We need leadership that can make a difference and not just moan and groan about how THEY CAN'T achieve reductions in Carbon Dioxide levels without hurting economies. Economies come before people, that is wrong and immoral.
SciDev.Net
(London)
January 20, 2005 Posted to the web January 20, 2005
Peter Wamboga-MugiryaKampala
Close to the centre of the Ugandan capital Kampala, near the shore of Lake Victoria, is an area known as Luzira. In this unimposing place, two old buildings stand facing each other.
The buildings seem abandoned, but every day the space between them teems with activity. Like bees with their honey, the workers at Luzira labour to produce the raw material for one of our favourite sweets: chocolate.
The Luzira cocoa processing plant, however, is unusual in its use of plastic. In the only operation of its kind in east and central Africa, the workers at this site are harnessing the power of the sun to dry cocoa for export.
Cocoa is a major earner of foreign exchange in Uganda, fetching US$1,500 to US$1,700 a tonne - three times what Uganda gets for coffee, its main export crop.
...The power of plastic
Given its promise for the industry, the technique is remarkably simple. A special type of plastic sheeting that converts the sun's ultra-violet rays into infra-red is put up on an aluminium frame and the beans are spread out to dry beneath the plastic after workers have rubbed them over sieves - rubber mat-like structures - to remove any dust or mould.
The polythene sheeting produces temperatures of 50 to 60 degrees Celsius, which dries the cocoa to perfection.
