Twenty-five thousand people die per day from starvation, while as many die of obesity-related conditions. This was just the start of what I learned at the launch of Jason Drew and David Lorimer's new book, The Protein Crunch at The Bay Bookshop in Cape Town. If these words are a fracture of what's contained in the book, I thought, it is going to blow my mind. And that's … [Read more...]
Born Wild
Tony Fitzjohn has spent over forty years re-introducing lions, leopards, rhinos and African hunting dogs to the wild. He is one of the world's leading field experts on the relationship between man and African wildlife. He is currently in South Africa to launch his first book, 'Born Wild.' Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Africa is conservationist … [Read more...]
Beginner’s Guide to Earthworm Farming
If you are concerned about the health of our planet then turn your attention to what lies under your feet. In the soil below are creatures that are responsible for producing the food we eat. Earthworms have been described by Darwin as the most important species on our planet and by Aristotle as 'the intestines of the earth'. Beginner's Guide to Earthworm Farming: Simple … [Read more...]
Marion Island and environs encapsulated in new book
The first coffee-table book - one that is a pleasure both to read and to look at - on the history, beauty and conservation of South Africa's southernmost territories, Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, has been compiled by experienced researchers who have spent decades studying sub-Antarctic islands. The book, Marion and Prince Edward - Africa's southern islands, was … [Read more...]
SANBI publishes new Red List
In one of the continent's largest collaborative conservation projects to date, South Africa has become the first of the world's mega-diverse countries to fully assess the status of its entire flora - a staggering 20 456 species. The assessment has been published in a book entitled the Red List of South African Plants. It was appropriately launched by SANBI in Cape Town on Earth … [Read more...]
Scorched
Scorched is a vivid journey through southern Africa's mesmerising landscapes as climate change sets in. It wanders through the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to capture the last faltering calls of a rain frog that was named after the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Author Leonie Joubert pauses for thought following an elephant stampede to consider how savannahs might shift in an altered … [Read more...]
Top 50 Sustainability Books
Green Drinks Cape Town shares their top 50 sustainability books: 1 A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold (1949) 2 Silent Spring Rachel Carson (1962) 3 Unsafe At Any Speed Ralph Nader (1965) 4 The Population Bomb Paul L. Ehrlich (1968) 5 Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth R. Buckminster Fuller (1969) 6 The Limits to Growth Donella H. Meadows, … [Read more...]
Why we can’t leave saving the planet to environmentalists
In the fall of 2004, two young environmentalists, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, triggered a firestorm of controversy with their essay, The Death of Environmentalism. In it they argued that the politics that dealt with acid rain and smog can't deal with global warming. Society has changed, and our politics have not kept up. Environmentalism must die, they concluded, so … [Read more...]
The Halo and the Noose
The Halo and the Noose is a book about the power of story telling and story listening in business life. It is aimed at all leaders and motivators who would rather use a gentle approach to lead and guide. The book is also for any person who wants to grow and learn on a spiritual front. Authors Dr. Dorian Haarhoff and Graham Williams set out their complex and important theme … [Read more...]
365 ways to change our world
Everyone is talking about greening their lives, the state of the planet and global warming, but most people don't know how to get involved. Going Green: 365 Ways To Change Our World, written by South Africa's most popular weather man and climatologist Simon Gear, will help readers 'go green' one day at a time. Filled with simple and easy-to-implement tips and steps on how to … [Read more...]
Peak Poison
Governments and corporations will gather in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, to plot a way forward on climate change. Peoples' movements, and even main stream civil society organisations, are increasingly sceptical that they have the political will, imagination or wisdom to put people and the future of the planet ahead of corporate profits and economic growth. People's … [Read more...]
Boiling Point
The Ruth First Memorial Lecture: When you tug on a single thing in nature, the conservationist and writer John Muir once wrote, you find it attached to the rest of the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the climate crisis. Tugging on a thread of our shared atmosphere in China or the US, by shunting pollution into the skies there, is causing the fabric of local … [Read more...]
Heat
Started to worry about just how hot our world is going to get, and whether you can do anything about it? As the effect of climate change grows by the day, so does the amount of hot air and bluster spouted by politicians and businessmen on what we should do about it. What with the excuses, the lies, the fudged figures, the PR greenwashing and the downright misinformation … [Read more...]
