The United Nations climate talks have unfortunately been just that for 16 years – just talk and no real action, the most famous of these so far being the failed conference in Copenhagen in 2009. After the deep disappointment of Copenhagen, a South African anti-apartheid activist teasingly noted that the talks had failed because the climate movement didn’t have a song!
On its travels through South Africa the Climate Train has been creating unique spaces for community members - notables and ordinary people alike- to engage in meaningful discussions around climate change and the lively Pretoria was certainly no exception.
The iPhepa Bead project was recently started as a community empowerment project with a number of self-help groups of mostly women and youth from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands of South Africa who are repurposing paper from glossy magazines, boxes, calendars, brochures and other paper, creating beauty out of waste.
My reason for choosing the 'Coffee-Can Drum' craft is; when I observe a young child banging on different surfaces two things becomes very clear; tapping on things comes very natural to us and forms part of how we discover this world.
star nosed mole
you work the world
below in a network
of passages.
you recycle oxygen
as a blood protein
keeps you breathing
in the CO² dark.
acrobat of tunnels,
you somersault
then reverse,
push up mounds
in the middle of lawns
that sprawl across
the moneyed world
that drink all that water.
some say you make
the ground unpalatable
for cattle and sheep.
there are those who
wish to poison you,
skin you for your pelt,
pest that you are
making piles of soil,
ground though grass,
reminding us of
the work you daily do.
you stir the earth
so we can grow patches
of carrot and cabbage.
catch maggots
faster than the
eye can follow.
down there, hidden,
you aerate the earth
eating the worm
that devours the roots.
furred mammal
you nest your young
near a larva larder
in a leaf lined chamber.
feed them mother's milk
nuzzle them fur close
before they dig
their own channel.
wind in willows Mole
mild mannered,
fed up with chores,
you take to the countryside,
ride the river with Rat,
challenge conceited
Toad of Toad Hall,
befriend Badger,
find Otter's missing son.
shrewd woman,
you sense vibrations
with your whiskers
and whole body.
true you are to
your collective noun -
not a herd, flock nor litter
but a labour of moles.
burrow on in blind faith.
excavate all the old beliefs.
you with your second thumb,
a sickle-shaped bone
rising from your wrist,
with your subway of words
cut down our aged ways.
By Dorian Haarhoff
Sept 2011
Photo by Jack Hynes. Source: Flickr
In The Fire Dogs of Climate Change, Sally Andrew engages emotionally, philosophically and practically with global warming. Her creative essays are alive with fire dogs (guardians and watchdogs of the earth), singing dogs and sleeping dragons! The book contains personal stories, fact sheets on climate change, problems and solutions, and practical success stories from around the world that aim to inspire the reader to jump into action!
Where have you gone compost rats,
scavengers of the heap unearthing the germ?
Where have you gone with your furred brown backs
and your furred buff fronts exposed
as you climbed the mesh surround?
August is women's month and so we are looking for women who work hard every day and still get very little recognition. Who better to fit this bill than domestic workers? And they play such a powerful role in how a house is run and managed. That's why we were chuffed to find out about Green Touch, who is teaching domestic workers how to green up the homes they manage and create awareness in those families. This is such a good idea!
recycling for the environment
Plastic bottles take hundreds years to biodegrade in landfill. In Nigeria millions of plastic bottles are dumped into waterways and landfill each year causing pollution, erosion, irrigation blockages and health problems.
Designer Ed Chew takes a green step in the right direction with the TetraBox lamp, a light object made from discarded drink packets that would have otherwise ended up in landfills already packed to the brim.
How could we use the climate crisis as inspiration to develop innovative leadership, creativity and indeed more beauty in the world? Here is one of the most inspiring examples I have yet seen.
Fifty years ago a beer company looked at reshaping its beer bottle to be useful as a building block. It never happened, so Buddhist monks from Thailand's Sisaket province took matters into their own hands and collected a million bottles to build their Buddhist temple. Mindfulness is at the center of the Buddhist discipline and the dedication and thoughtfulness required to build everything from the toilets to their crematorium from recycled bottles shows what creativity and elbow grease can accomplish.
Thinking of becoming an Eco Consultant? Maybe you are simply looking for ways to "green" your lifestyle. For the next 2 days the Eco Institution is discounting it's course fee's. To take advantage of this offer follow the instructions below.
I know the man only as Jerry, yet I trust him enough to take me deep into Kayamandi, where he lives in a small house with three tiny rooms. I am reminded that I'm a child from the bushveld, a tourist looking around in awe at a world that I don't get exposed to enough. Around every corner I see something new and I absorb it metre for metre. 'Jerry I don't want to sound ignorant, but please don't take me anywhere that they'll steal my boss's car,' I say jokingly. Jerry laughs and says I shouldn't worry so much. After a few twists and turns on the brown waste-covered road I am somehow more at ease.
Outdoor Site_Specific Art (or Land Art) combines natural elements like landscaping, permanently sculptured elements, rocks, sticks, soil and plants to create artworks which heighten and challenge appreciation of the beauty of our natural surroundings. Although in time the artworks will be reclaimed by the environment, traces remain to challenge the interpretation and enjoyment of the site and to highlight man's transitory role in nature.
This poem titled 'Enslaved to my PC' by W Miles won the South African Writers Circle's (SAWC's) Save the Planet poetry competition.
Biodiversity Expo, Kirstenbosch
5 May 2011 from 9:00 to 16:00
How do we communicate science with the general public in such a way that our readers are engaged, energized and hooked for more?
Climate Change TV is offering US$5,000 for the best video on climate change ' to be voted for by the public.
Submission is free and all entries must be received by 30 June 2011.
All contributions should relate to climate change and must have been produced since the Cancun Climate Change Conference (1 December 2010). It is open to everyone, worldwide.
"Earth has had enough," says Edelkoort, and the writing is clearly on the wall for the "shop till you drop" mentality. One has no choice but to take this elegant, grey-haired wise woman seriously: she is internationally renowned and Time magazine has named her one of the most influential people of our time.
Do you care about the earth's story? Do you love reading and writing poetry? Would you like to combine these passions and write poetry that speaks through creativity and imagination to the heart, mind and soul? The Green Times is starting a poetry corner and you could see your poem published there. Poet and story-teller Dorian Haarhoff (pictured) can show you how to write with energy and detailed observation.
On Saturday, February 19, 2011, the fashion contingent turned its focus to Joburg Fashion Week, which took place on one of South Africa's newest and most iconic landmarks, the Nelson Mandela Bridge. Through its lighting solutions, Philips helped accessorise David Thlale's Autumn collection with a lighting display that framed the show and accentuated the theme.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) empowers children, adolescents and adults to shape their mindset and actions for a sustainable future. We must be aware that our actions today will have an impact on the lives and freedoms of future generations and people in other parts of the world. Education for Sustainable Development is an important aspect of education quality; it enables people to understand their own as well as the global contexts and to shape their actions accordingly. In addition, it conveys the values and principles that form the basis of sustainable development and underlines the complexity and interdependence of three spheres, the environment, society and the economy.
This year's Design Indaba from 25 to 27 February saw an unusual and thought provoking exhibition by contemporary artist Kai Lossgott. He focuses on exploring green politics and systems theory throught the mediums of performance, peotry, motion images and drawing.
Selected as one of three artists presenting their work on the Absa stand, his exhibit showcased his engravings in plant leaves, as well as experimental films and prints.
This year's Design Indaba from 25 to 27 February saw an unusual and thought provoking exhibition by contemporary artist Kai Lossgott. He focuses on exploring green politics and systems theory throught the mediums of performance, peotry, motion images and drawing.
Selected as one of three artists presenting their work on the Absa stand, his exhibit showcased his engravings in plant leaves, as well as experimental films and prints.
At the beginning of a fresh new year, we like to do a collage of what images carry energy for us ' and pop them together in a type of road map for the year.
What is your vision for the year? What would you like to manifest in your life, your community, your country ' what is your vision for the planet?
A two-day introductory course for NGOs and activists
EcoDoc Africa is proud to introduce a two day training course to demystify videography. The training course will introduce storytelling through the medium of video, will introduce the basic elements of good camera work and the basics of editing and uploading to the internet. This course is based on the work of Witness and the International Accountability Project.
Artists are much in demand to communicate critical environmental information straight to the gut and help facilitate the much needed awareness in our society. The final year art students at Stellenbosch University received an assignment this year to do a sustainability project.
The third in a trilogy of albums about nature, which began with 2006's justly lauded 'Palo Santo,' the air is thick on Shearwater's latest album The Golden Archipelago. It's the kind of atmosphere that resonates, as if a magnetic presence is matching the vocal gusto, and shimmering instrumentals of the band itself - and that's saying something.
Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe Me."
Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky. (Hafiz)
"The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river." - Ross Perot
The African Renaissance team have no doubt been in the river getting their hands dirty this past year and the hard work, dedication and vision of 'Green TV Team' is starting to bear fruit. Yesterday, at the 22nd annual SAB Environmentalist and Environmental Journalists of the Year Awards, African Renaissance Productions were honoured with a merit award in the Radio and Television Category for its series, The Nature of Change.
Corné Edwards het 'n obsessie met lap. In haar werk as grafiese kunstenaar en modeontwerper is sy egter nie net gepla met die patroontjies op die lap nie. Sy gee ook om waar dit vandaan kom. Mari Beukes het met haar gaan gesels oor haar omgewingsvriendelike klerereeks en die idee dat klere nie net hergebruik nie, maar ook herwin kan word.
Die lig stroom wit deur Corné Edwards se woonstelvensters. Dit weerkaats oor die leë vloer se houtpatrone en teken 'n blink randjie om haar gesig en kort geknipte swart hare. Waar sy in die hoek van die vertrek sit, lyk sy amper te fyn en te weerloos mooi om alleen in so 'n groot, oop ruimte te woon ' soos 'n skoenlapper alleen in 'n groot glasfles.
