Water is the most vital resource for life on Earth and no living thing exists without it. The global water story exhibition, H2O Today, examines the diversity and challenges of water sources worldwide and promote conversation, creativity and innovation through art, science and technology. The exhibition is now on at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town. An … [Read more...]
Is the Marine Living Resources Act being enforced in South Africa?
“We are very concerned about the national state of fisheries management and over exploitation. This is a disturbing global trend which we see manifesting itself locally as well to the detriment of livelihoods and ecosystem functioning. We note the court action with regard to the West Coast Rock Lobster and trust that this will help bring sanity back into the management of … [Read more...]
Finding smart insulation for a hot house
Another summer almost over … hope to goodness the worst heat is over. How clueless was the building industry about energy efficiency when most of our houses were built! Who does not want to save energy now – and it is indeed all our duty to relieve the pressure on the national energy supply. Our double storey really cooks upstairs, where we work. Ancient traces of insulation … [Read more...]
Al Gore’s climate observing spacecraft gears up for launch
After nearly 14 years in limbo, an Earth-monitoring spacecraft built by NASA is finally set to fly. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), scheduled to launch as soon as January 29, will constantly observe Earth’s sunlit side from a distance of 1.5 million kilometres. It will track daily weather patterns and seasonal vegetation changes, monitor atmospheric pollution … [Read more...]
UN climate report set to establish ‘global carbon budget’
The UN's landmark climate science report is likely to set a figure on the amount of fossil fuels that can be burnt if global warming is to be limited to safe levels. It could warn that less than a quarter of the planet’s oil, coal and gas reserves can be consumed between now and 2050, and set a worldwide ‘carbon emission budget’. Previous studies have indicated that the … [Read more...]
Extreme violence & climate change linked by scientists
Scientists are convinced climate change is a contributor to increased interpersonal violence and social upheaval that they say is happening from even small spikes in global temperature. Conflicts of all types are expected to worsen with global warming. But what’s actually causing the increase in human violence from more rainfall and warmer weather remains a mystery. In a … [Read more...]
Pressure on after lack of leadership at Bonn talks
As UN climate negotiations closed among terrible floods in Southern Germany and Eastern Europe, civil society observers warned that the European Union had a lot of work ahead to make November’s annual UN climate summit in Warsaw, Poland, a success. “This week one of the most conservative bodies in the world, the International Energy Agency, warned we are on track to risk … [Read more...]
R8.3 million invested into sustainable agriculture
The future food security in our country this week received a great boost with the announcement that South Africa’s green bank Nedbank has invested R8.3 million into the WWF-SA Sustainable Agriculture Programme. This programme was launched to promote and support sustainable agricultural production practices in SA. Speaking at the official launch of the partnership at Spier … [Read more...]
People & Planet Benefit From Alternative Transport
Rapid transit and safe cycling/walking networks are good for both health and climate – and climate experts should consider more systematically how these strategies can reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, one of the world's major contributors to climate change, says a new WHO report. The new report, Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation - Transport sector … [Read more...]
Klerksdorp – where climate change is more than talk
For the past week we've been doing a lot of climate talk, tree planting and painting with the aim to raise awareness about climate change. We've travelled through four cities and worked with over 3000 children and adults, but when we arrived in Klerksdorp on Friday, we were taught a couple new moves. Known as the 'city of people' the footprints of the first gold miners still … [Read more...]
No ‘clowning’ about climate change
On October 10, 2010, millions of people across the globe got together to work towards solving climate crisis as part of the global 'Work Party'. There were more than 7000 events taking place in 183 countries. 350.org 'Green Bay' Global Climate Change Awareness Campaign, co-ordinated by ETC-Africa, hosted at Boardwalk Inkwazi Shopping Centre over the weekend, made a huge … [Read more...]
African new head of Greenpeace
Proudly African human rights activist, Kumi Naidoo, has taken over as the Greenpeace International Executive Director. Dr Kumi Naidoo is well known for his extensive human rights activism as well as his work in civil society. Naidoo became involved in South Africa's liberation struggle at the age of 15. He played a leadership role in a national student protest against the … [Read more...]
All aboard to stop the crash course
"Progress has been made"- this is not something you hear often when it comes to climate negotiations. The agreements that came out of Cancun won't be enough to get the world back to 350 - but they offer a glimpse at a path forward that just might. The feeling of momentum emerging from Cancun was refreshing: countries rebuilt trust, and wrestled with difficult issues like … [Read more...]
