South Africa is privileged to have exquisite landscapes and magnificent wildlife. We are both blessed but also tasked with the responsibility of caring for our environment. Unfortunately, our natural world has paid the price for our advancements. Case in point, South Africa’s iconic rhino is facing extinction. South African lifestyle cooking and heating products supplier … [Read more...]
Improve your energy efficiency this winter while keeping warm
South Africans can keep warmer, save money, and take pressure off the national grid by implementing simple low-cost energy saving measures. This call from Barry Bredenkamp, General Manager Energy Efficiency & Corporate Communications at SANEDI, (the South African National Energy Development Institute). “While South Africa has passed the winter equinox, meaning our days … [Read more...]
Kenyan tea farmers switching to renewable energy
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting many Kenyan communities, which depend on the tea sector, as the tea sector's output and demand in tea is falling. However, an innovative Kenyan project running three years is continuing to create thousands of healthier homes, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, while reducing the demand for firewood which helps reduce … [Read more...]
Climate change review: humbling lessons from Australia
Australia, like South Africa in the last week and so many other regions across the globe before, has instituted strict lockdown measures to combat the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Though this is not the first large scale crisis the country has been faced with since the start of the year, as just a few short months ago Australia was still making international headlines … [Read more...]
Affordable housing designed with the environment in mind
A Western Cape design project that encourages innovation and affordable solutions in low-income housing is in the running for a prestigious US$85,000 award. Known as the Better Living Challenge (BLC), the project is in the finals for the Human City Design Award, organised by the Seoul Design Foundation. The winner will be announced on Thursday 26 September in Seoul, South … [Read more...]
Meet the Brazilian tribe fighting to save the Amazon
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research has reported over 80,000 fires in the country as of Sunday night, with more than half of these in the Amazon region. This coupled with an 85% increase in deforestation this year compared to last, and a rate of deforestation at one and a half football pitches a minute, is threatening the future of the world’s largest tropical … [Read more...]
Amazon rainforest fires leave São Paulo in the dark
Forest fires have dramatically increased in the Brazilian Amazon this year in the wake of soaring deforestation rates, raising concerns among environmentalists about the fate of the planet’s largest tropical forest. The number of active fires amounted to 74,155 between January 1 and August 20, a spike of 85 percent compared to the same period in 2018, according to data from … [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...]
Climate crisis forces us to ask: to what do we devote ourselves?
During the times when I’m being as emotionally honest with myself as I’m capable — when I truly ponder the idea that this industrialized version of our species may well have already baked enough warming into Earth’s life-supporting biosphere that all of us may very well be on the way out — I feel at a total loss as to what to do. From that point of numbness, my life force … [Read more...]
Tourists could run drought-crippled Knysna dry
With no proper rain in sight, authorities in Knysna are worried about the added pressure holidaymakers could put on the town’s limited water supply. Experts said the seaside town has only 26 days of usable water left. Thousands of tourists are expected to converge at the popular spots in the coming months. Due to the drought gripping the Western Cape, Knysna was … [Read more...]
Experts warned about Garden Route fires
A group of scientists led by eminent NMMU botanist Professor Richard Cowling warned nearly a decade ago that the uncontrolled spread of alien vegetation posed a fire threat that could devastate the Garden Route. Contained in an article in the 2009 edition of the Veld & Flora magazine, which The Herald accessed yesterday after an alert from the Endangered Wildlife Trust … [Read more...]
DA’s Maimane to visit fire-ravaged Knysna
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane will on Monday visit Knysna in the wake of the devastating fires which have claimed the lives of seven people, including children and left widespread damage across the region. Maimane will visit residents affected by the inferno and assess the damage caused. More than 12,000 people were evacuated from their homes due to the … [Read more...]
Lack of invasive plant management compounds Somerset West fires
“Landowners who have not managed invasive alien plants on their properties must be held accountable for that impact on the fires that have ravaged areas around Somerset West.” That is the view of Dr Guy Preston, Deputy Director-General in the Department of Environmental Affairs, responsible for the Working on Fire and Working for Water programmes. “We know that invasive … [Read more...]
