Thank you for traveling with us again during the intense year that was 2018. Personally, socially, environmentally, globally humanity is put to the test – necessitating urgent change. This is our chance to discover the gift in the crisis, which enables the movement beyond our perceived limitations. Perhaps this is what evolution and mastery is all about? So with the world in … [Read more...]
Urgent action needed to remedy South Africa’s water crisis
In 2002 South Africa officially became a water constrained economy, when the National Water Resource Strategy reported that we had allocated 98% of our total water resource. Subsequent high confidence studies have shown that we over-estimated the water available at the time, so in short, we have allocated all the water that we have. This means that we are simply unable to grow … [Read more...]
Children may be eating cereal laced with toxic weed killer
The probable carcinogen glyphosate has been detected in popular cereals, but the EPA is ready to approve its use for 15 more years. Quaker Oats “Life” and “Squares” cereals. Gerber and Beechnut baby oatmeal. Cheerios. Store brand “O” cereals from Target, Safeway, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Kroger. All those products were contaminated with glyphosate (often sold as Roundup) in … [Read more...]
Fukushima plant to leak radioactive water for 4 more years
Operators of Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant Fukushima have warned that it will take a further four years to fix the problem of contaminated water leaks. The admission was made as a sombre nation prepared to mark the fifth anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster in decades. The problem of dealing … [Read more...]
Major no to GMO by majority of EU states
Another victory for the anti-GMO lobby as the bulk of the EU members rejec tdangerous GM plants! Monsanto and the GMO agribusiness cartel have suffered a major new defeat as two-thirds of the 28 EU member states have opted for a full ban on GMO crops. This according to the terms of new Brussels rules allowing national decision on the toxic agro-technology. The bans … [Read more...]
Cansa launches fracking transparency initiative
Cansa is worried hazardous substances & carcinogens could contaminate drinking water in the Karoo. The Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa) has launched an initiative which it hopes will force companies to be transparent, should fracking for shale gas become a reality in the Karoo. The association is worried hazardous substances and known carcinogens, which are … [Read more...]
Monsanto ordered to pay $93 million for Vietnam-era contamination
The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto in August, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals. After years of litigation those living near the former Monsanto factory, which produced toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, are … [Read more...]
Scientists say West Coast fish is safe, for now
Following Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, fear spread about risks of leaked radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant — for the health of those living in or near Fukushima or involved in cleanup efforts, and for the planet and the potential impacts on our complex marine food web. Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, … [Read more...]
Fukushima: Contaminated water flowing into ocean
Water contaminated with radiation is flowing out into the Pacific Ocean from a harbor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant despite assurances from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that it has been "completely blocked." Abe on Sept. 19 based his assertion on measurements taken in the outer ocean. But experts said levels of seaborne radioactive substances stay mostly below … [Read more...]
Minister Molewa urged to address fracking implications
The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) considers the Minister’s decision to gazette the intention to declare fracking a controlled activity a portent of the risk fracking poses to our water resources in the greater Karoo. WESSA continues to urge the Government to exercise the precautionary principle enshrined in the National Environmental Management Act … [Read more...]
State intends to go ahead with fracking
In a General Notice, published by the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Bomo Edna Molewa, dated 23 August 2013, there is a clear indication that the state intends to allow exploration for the purposes of shale gas production. The process used to obtain shale gas is colloquially referred to as "fracking". The Minister has also reiterated in a press briefing in … [Read more...]
Transparency demands amid Fukushima commemoration
Earlier this week, Greenpeace Africa commemorated the 2nd anniversary of the Fukushima disaster with a call to the South African government to ensure transparency and accountability in the nuclear build process. Early on Monday morning, Greenpeace activists staged a silent protest on Johannesburg’s Empire Road. The activists, dressed in black with stickers across their lips … [Read more...]
Are we about to hit peak fertilizer?
The advent of artificial fertilizers and pest controls altered the face of agriculture around the world during the Green Revolution more than half a century ago. And while few people are fully ignorant of the damage done to the environment through the use of these synthetic pesticides (and fertilizers), not many people have given much any thought to what will happen when we … [Read more...]