When Albert Pati moved closer to the sea to open a beach bar overlooking the Mediterranean in Albania, he never imagined that the sea would also be moving closer to him, now eroding the soil around his restaurant floor. Even before the outbreak of Covid-19, families and businesses around the Adriatic Sea were faced with a serious threat. One of the countries hardest-hit by … [Read more...]
Civil Society calls on the African Development Bank to quit fossil fuels
Africa Day 2020: African Climate Reality Project along with 25 fellow civil society organisations, are calling on the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) to immediately put in place and publish on the AfDB website a fossil fuel finance exclusion policy that states that the Bank will not fund, provide financial services or capacity support to any coal project on the African … [Read more...]
Protesters demonstrate outside Cape Town oil conference
The Africa Oil Week conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre this week is bringing together governments, investors, international corporations, and lobbyists, who - despite our imminent global ecological crisis – remain unchallenged by our politicians as they further push our world over the edge of collapse through their aggressively escalating production of … [Read more...]
Least developed countries launch vision for climate resilient future
More than two-thirds, about 69%, of people killed in climate-related disasters in the past 50 years were living in 47 of the world's poorest nations, according to findings released by the group of least developed countries (LDCs) ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit, which took place this past weekend. The LDCs, which make up 13% of the global population, … [Read more...]
Ethiopia plants 350 million trees to fight deforestation
Ethiopia has planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours, its government announced, claiming a world record. Across the country, volunteers took part in the mass planting as part of the “Green Legacy” initiative, a programme that aims to reforest large swathes of the land. The efforts far surpassed an original target of planting 200 million seedlings in a day. … [Read more...]
Plastics industry tackles waste in the environment
The local plastics industry will once again demonstrate its commitment to cleaning up the environment and removing plastics litter from our rivers, streams, oceans and neighbourhoods when the annual Clean-up and Recycle SA Week takes place from 16-21 September 2019. According to Douw Steyn, Sustainability Director of Plastics|SA, this is the 23rd year that they will be … [Read more...]
Arbour week celebrates good green deeds
Climate change is the 21st century’s greatest threat to both humanity and biodiversity. The massive increase in the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere by industrial processes, transportation and veld fires (to name a few) is increasing the global temperature which is resulting in an adverse change in weather patterns. In … [Read more...]
Cape Town’s pollen level spike cause for concern
This year saw some of the highest recorded pollen counts in history, which had cities from Europe to the US covered in clouds of pollen as a result of global warming. A spike in South Africa's pollen production has also been flagged by local scientists who are calling for an urgent expansion of the country's pollen monitoring programme. Prof Jonny Peter, Head of the … [Read more...]
Central banks are waking up to climate change dangers
The impact of climate change on the stability of individual financial institutions and the financial system in general is growing. It influences the types of activities that financial institutions will fund and the cost of finance. For example, the increased frequency and intensity of floods, storms and droughts is complicating the insurance industry’s ability to assess … [Read more...]
Coal is unaffordable and deadly, and we don’t want it
South Africa must never build another coal-fired power station. Next month, on September 20, we will take to the streets to demand this. Across South Africa we will be joined by school children striking to prevent a future ruined by carbon emissions and a deepened climate crisis. “You’ll die of old age. We’ll die of climate change,” they will cry. We will be joined around … [Read more...]
Wildfires and heatwaves: how the Arctic is nearing a point of no return
Many of the globe’s far northern regions have been experiencing extreme weather events over the past two months. Plumes of smoke have been picked up by satellites from wildfires across Alaska and Siberia and Greenland has experienced rapid ice loss as usually frigid regions have experienced heatwaves and record temperatures. As the Arctic faces extreme weather events caused … [Read more...]
18 months to restore nature’s equilibrium
Humanity has 12 years to dramatically rein in carbon emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change, as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sobering report last year. But the real climate deadline is just 18 months from now. That is the assessment made by a number of climate scientists and world leaders, who point to 2020 as the … [Read more...]
Climate change a major health threat to children
Kids face unique health burdens because of the climate crisis, including “the broad effects of weather disasters, exacerbated allergic and asthmatic diseases, food and water insecurity, and heat-related deaths.” When the world gets warmer, the results impact real people’s lives. It’s a truth that too often gets lost amid data points and science jargon, late-breaking news, … [Read more...]
