Being something of a free spirit, I wasn€™t too keen to visit a lion park for captive-born lions. Maybe the lions would be depressed and the pens small. Instead I found a genuine sanctuary, and a story of hope and human kindness.
In South Africa the killing of leopards and predators on livestock farms continues, on the grounds that they are a problem to farmers. A leopard caught and left in a trap on a livestock farm in Uniondale died of dehydration and sepsis, and was left to rot in the trap.
€˜And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.€™ (Shakespeare)
A really cool product I discovered for organic waste is the Bokashi Kitchen Waste Microbial Bin, which I am now using in my kitchen.
The End of the Line, the first major documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year.
2009 is the International Year of the Shark. The Minister of Environmental Affairs is advocating Eco Tourism marketing to be expanded to THE BIG 7, including the Shark and Whale.
Nature sets the perfect example €“ she recycles all her waste. Every atom from dead plants or animals is recycled into nutrients, which feed new living things.
It€™s the middle of a cold and stormy Cape winter and your hollow-fill duvet or thermal underwear might just be made from recycled PET.
In 2007 a group of concerned Hout Bay residents created the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). This environmental action group focuses on creating awareness of how and why we should responsibly manage our waste.
Green taxes are about to be introduced in South Africa. It means local businesses will soon be able to cut their tax bill by reducing their carbon emissions.
This positive decision came after a report by Greenpeace, which indicated that funds from the international Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, were contributing to one of the biggest causes of climate change by enabling Bertin to further expand into the Amazon region. The bank withdrew a USD 90 million loan.
What does the concept of corporate responsibility (CR) mean to you, and to us as South Africans? Simply, it has to do with a company€™s community investment, environmental policy, and responsible-ethical practices through the organisation and its supply chain.
If we are really committed to being energy smart, we will be willing to state our EE goals and values on paper. You know the saying, 'If you don€™t write them down, they€™re not real€. This is the first step. What you put down on paper is equally important. We often see EE policy statements that are so vague, it renders them useless. A proper EE policy will have measurable objectives, milestones and clear strategies.
According to authors Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston, green is the new gold. The trend towards 'going green€ is everywhere; even the American government is catching on. In South Africa the trend is no different and companies are moving swiftly to keep up.
For those of us who were brought up e-marketing, e-shopping, and all things e, we may feel smug that we are €˜paperless€™ and green. Well, it€™s time to wake up!
An exciting new joint venture is set to harness the Cape wind!
This is a huge opportunity as wind energy is an untapped resource in South Africa. Mainstream Renewable Power, an Irish-based global renewable energy provider, recently signed a joint venture deal with South African wind farm developer, Genesis Eco-Energy, to build wind farms that will generate more than 500 MW of wind energy in the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape by 2014. The deal involves a capital investment of ‚¬850 million (R11bn) over a five-year period.
The hike has divided the nation and the cabinet with many vehemently opposed to the hike, especially as the country is in the grips of a recession.
Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan has warned any funding shortfall for the power utility could derail its expansion plans, but Energy Minister Dipuo Peters rejected rapid cost increases, saying they would hit the economy and the poor.
To advertise with a conscience we need products with a conscience. From the industrial revolution and the invention of the steam engine, man€™s appetite to consume has grown with such ferociousness that we€™ll soon need to start duplicating our planet if we are to carry on at this relentless pace.
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 that something new can be born.
