This is a reprise/update of a diary I wrote on the weekend.
I hope to write several of these diaries, highlighting efforts around the world to combine helping the poor and middle class with helping the environment. For too long the right wing has tried to convince us that it is either/or: EITHER people's lives are improved OR we help the environment and reduce greenhouse emissions. But this is a false conflict. There are MANY ways we can both improve the lives of poor and middle class families while ALSO helping the environment and reducing greenhouse emissions. In fact I would argue that in many ways you can't do one without the other if you really want to succeed.
Let's start with Mongolia.
Most of my knowledge of Mongolia goes back to the time of Genghis Khan and his successors, and includes the knowledge that an amazing number of people alive today (as much as 0.5 percent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million people) very likely are descendants of Temujin himself through his many wives and children.
I have always wanted to travel to Mongolia. I never have, but a conversation about this urge DID lead to a trip to Moscow where I stayed at a friend's apartment. That was a trip I expanded into a major search for my ancestry, leading to both my family accidentally winding up in Russia illegally (despite our best efforts) and to my starting a project to save the last surviving synagogue in a town in Latvia. But so far I haven't made it to Mongolia.
I know little of modern Mongolia. So it was with considerable surprise that I learned that recent rapid development in Mongolia has led to a real growth in GDP, but also to a great deal of environmental problems. Currently one of the worst polluted cities on earth is Ulaanbaatar. The pollution is so bad that about 1 in 10 deaths in that city can be attributable to air pollution. Burning of coal in poorly insulated homes with old, inefficient furnaces is one major problem that leads to deaths every year from pollution. Widespread use of old, fuel efficient cars is another.
I like simple and effective solutions to problems like this. These problems in Ulaanbaatar are killing residents of that city. In addition, the same things that contribute to these deaths also contribute greenhouse gasses, affecting the entire world. Mongolia is developing. For decades developing nations have almost been forced to repeat the mistakes of the past, poisoning their own citizens and following down wasteful, fossil fuel dependent paths that were pioneered by the West in the 19th century. Simply telling them not to do what we did is arrogant and is perceived as keeping them from developing. To me the obvious thing is to help them develop solutions that mitigate or avoid the mistakes made by the West from the 19th century to the present.
Kiva.org has a long history with Daily Kos. In fact Daily Kos was one of the main ways word got out about Kiva and when some articles were written by Kossacks, Kiva.org took off rapidly and has been a success ever since. Kiva.org hooks up people like you and me with small businesses and individuals around the world who need credit and works out a microloan. Dozens or hundreds of individuals loan as little as $25 to a single business or individual and the aggregate tiny loans add up to a significant loan at far below bank interest rates. The default rate of loans through Kiva is also much lower than traditional bank loans. I have been lending for many years and by relending to another business or individual each time I am repaid I have helped hundreds of people all over the world. Many Kossacks are lenders.
Recently I found that if you click on "Green loans" at Kiva.org, by far the majority of green loans are in Mongolia and they are aiming to address the issues I started this diary pointing out. The sad thing is that over and over I see these loans fail to raise adequate money to be filled and they fail to get funded. These loans are doing some great things both for the people of Mongolia but for the environment as well. I would like to see more of these get funded. More below.