I dream of a world where everyone fixes their own stuff. A world where we take up arms against throw-away culture. I'm not alone—millions of fixers around the world have realized that repair is cheaper than buying new and it's better for the environment. So, I ask you to join us: take the Repair Pledge, and promise to fix the things you own. When I started to tinker with my … [Read more...]
Recycle Swop Shop helps local community
Why a Recycle Swop Shop should be coming to a school near you. I was invited to take a look at a Recycle Swop Shop project in the settlement of Du Noon, Cape Town, by project manager Mariah van der Westhuizen. When I arrived the atmosphere was buzzing with excitement and anticipation. Women, old and young, as well as children were queued outside Inkwenkwezi Secondary … [Read more...]
Home to chill off-grid in the Koo valley
I am always on the lookout for truly green destinations to get away from the tyrannies of modern life. Who doesn’t need to go to the mountains to reconnect with oneself through Nature? When I find out a potential hide-out is off the grid to boot, I leap for joy. You might think me sentimental, but I will never forget family holidays at a tiny seaside place without … [Read more...]
Exciting speakers announced for international recycling colloquium
PETCO, the PET Recycling Company (Pty) Ltd, has just released an exciting line-up of speakers and topics for its forthcoming colloquium with the European Plastics Recycling Organisation (EPRO) that will be taking place in Cape Town on Thursday, 21 November 2013. This exciting event not only sees global collaboration, but local partnerships with the National Research Foundation, … [Read more...]
Community in the Gap talking for Nature
The great spiritual getaway - for me - has always been to the burly mountains of the Northern Drakensberg. Every year some inexplicable force lures me towards the Amphitheatre, where I let myself be swept away by its healing magnificence. Here, it seems, I can touch divinity. For here, the ever invasive human footprint has been managed and kept to a minimum. All that, it seems, … [Read more...]
Eco Tourism promotes lifestyle changes
Going on a holiday can have a large impact upon the environment. The carbon emissions from air and road travel are well known but some of the other issues such as the environmental cost of constructing and running luxury hotels and the impact on the local communities, resources and the local fauna and flora are less obvious. Eco-friendly tourism can play a huge role in … [Read more...]
A beautiful conversation with Ian McCallum
Ian McCallum talks about our profound connection to the wilderness, and our place in it – an instinct we have tuned out. A renowned doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, wilderness guide and poet; Ian uses his insight to connect the dots between human psychology and the role our environment plays in our internal make up. “We are intimately linked to wild places, wild animals, … [Read more...]
Global activists warn SA against fracking
European environmental activists have warned that the oil and gas industry “cuts corners” when drilling for shale gas through hydraulic fracturing. But once disaster occurred, the companies would then blame locally outsourced suppliers, they claimed. Friends of the Earth (Foe) activist Darek Urbaniak from Poland said this during a meeting with Barry Wuganaale, the … [Read more...]
World Youth Day will leave an environmental legacy
In recent decades, mankind has made many efforts on behalf of the environment. With the recent news of scientists about the rapid melting of glaciers and the intensification of global warming at an alarming rate, individuals and institutions have taken numerous actions towards reversing this process and many others that affect the existence of life on the planet. This is where … [Read more...]
Are YOU an Eco-Champion?
Do you help to protect and preserve the Earth? Does your company provide products or services that are helpful to the Earth? If so – then Eco-Logic wants to recognise and support YOU! The search is on for individuals and organisations that contribute to the well-being of the Earth, its wonderful biodiversity and natural resources. If you are such an individual or … [Read more...]
Business needs to address environmental threats
UCT professor Ralph Hamann says complex social and environmental problems can only be addressed if business integrates an understanding of their socio-ecological context in strategy making and execution. The Fairtrade movement, which is gaining momentum in South Africa, is part of a shift in the way business is being done in the country that bodes well for the … [Read more...]
The five stages of environmental grief
The choices that we make (or fail to make) in the next few years may determine whether the human species survives, or goes the way of the wooly mammoth and the sabre tooth tiger. There is purportedly a Chinese curse that goes, “May you be born in interesting times.” That curse must have landed on everyone alive today! One can scarcely imagine more interesting times than we … [Read more...]
Looking to our kids for future leadership
12-year-old Kehkashan Basu has been appointed as youth advisor for the World Future Council. ‘European Hero’ Jakob von Uexkull: "We very much look forward to learning from her." The international policy research organisation World Future Council has appointed 12-year-old Kehkashan Basu as youth advisor. Basu, who lives with her parents in Dubai, was the youngest participant … [Read more...]
