A recent Green Times article focuses on Dr Sylvia Earle, one of the most famous marine biologists in the world who in her lifetime has spent more time underwater than just about anyone else on the planet.
A team of environmentalists under the leadership of Dr Carin van Ginkel of Cripsis Environment has developed a field guide for identifying our wetland plants. The study, titled ‘Easy identification of some South African wetland plants,’ offers a plethora of plants that people can find in the country.
It may no longer make economic or environmental sense to pursue forestry endeavours using conifers in the Western Cape. If local plantations are to be maintained, invasive pine trees will continue to spread, the Cape’s water supply will continue to dwindle and the unique natural diversity of the fynbos region will be changed forever.
30% of the earth’s surface is affected by fire. Fire destroys forests and vegetations which are our sources of food – it is both a driver and an indicator of climate change.
An atlas that contains mapped rivers, wetland and estuary priority areas in South Africa was launched by the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, earlier this week.
Ahead of the opening of the COP17/CMP7 Conference on climate change in Durban on Monday 28 November, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, performed her first ‘official’ function at the launch of the Durban CEBA (Community Ecosystem-Based Adaptation) Initiative at Durban’s Paradise Valley at the weekend.
The history of post-War economic growth has been one of unsustainable consumption: unsustainable for the planet's ecosystems, for its species diversity, and indeed, for the human race
The United Nations designated 2011 ' 2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity. The word is dropped into conversations daily, but we don't know how much it actually means for South Africa.
The builders departed and the gardening of the small courtyard began. I wanted to bring the garden into the house, so to speak. All shade plants, big and small ferns in our small space but most of all a small bird- bath / pond.
What captures energy like leaves, has fins like a whale, skin like a lizard, eyes like a moth, and interconnected networks like mycellium? 'The future of engineering, design, economics, agriculture, and much more.
Biodiversity is not about a few endangered species ' but rather about the building blocks of life sustaining all earth's ecosystems. Over 600 scientists attending the 2nd major International Biodiversity Conference held in Cape Town recently said in their concluding statement that 'the fabric out of which the earth system is woven is unravelling at an accelerating rate.'
Industrial ecologists use the term "partially diminished fraction," or PDF, to assess the extent to which a product somewhere along its life cycle harms ecosystems.
