Enviropaedia’s online green guide is a stunner
July 30, 2008
Posted in Green tips, Lifestyle
I’ve seen the Enviropaedia book in shops and it’s never grabbed me, but their online Sustainable Lifestyle Guide is a completely different story. It looks beautiful and is packed with all the info you need to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Best of all, you don’t have to pay for it and no innocent trees have to die for you to read it. Take a look and start to change your life.
SA is named a top-10 ethical destination
July 30, 2008
Posted in Lifestyle
South Africa and Namibia have made it onto a list of the Top-10 ethical tourism destinations – the only two African countries to do so. The Developing World’s Best Ethical Destinations list is compiled by an American group called Ethical Traveler which assesses countries on their records in environmental protection, social welfare and human rights. Read more
Fossil fuel-free rally from Vic Falls to Cape Town
July 30, 2008
Posted in Transport
Are you the proud owner or developer of an electric, solar, hybrid, biofuel or hydrogen vehicle? Here’s a chance to show it off in a 4,000km rally from the Victoria Falls in Zambia, through the Caprivi and down through Namibia to Cape Town.
Zero Rally Africa says the event will be one of the “greatest demonstrations of sustainable transport in one of the most dramatic settings on Earth”. 
The route is certainly spectacular, besides the Vic Falls and Cape Town, the rally will go through the Caprivi Strip, which is rich in wildlife, particularly elephants, and has no fences so the animals roam freely between Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. It also crosses the Etosha National Park, and passes the Namib desert.
The aim of Zero Rally Africa is to highlight the importance of renewable energy and, in particular, carbon neutral transport. It is open to any non-fossil fuel vehicle and runs from January 28 to February 8 2009.
Interested? Go to Zero Rally Africa‘s website for more information on entrance requirements.
Via :: Treehugger
South Africa’s hot potatoes
July 29, 2008
Posted in Food
In this year of the potato (so named by the United Nations General Assembly, believe it or not) the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) intends to apply to the government for permission to make genetically modified potatoes commercially available in South Africa.
The SpuntaG2 potato is resistant against potato tuber moth damage and, if permission is granted, it will join the GM maize, soyabeans and cotton that are already grown in this country.
The African Centre for Biodiversity, SafeAge, Biowatch South Africa and Urban Sprout have organised an online petition opposing the marketing and growing of the GM potatoes here and are “imploring” the South African GMO Council to reject the ARC’s application.
GM potatoes pose no benefit to consumers or African famers, the group argues. The petition states:
The developers claim that GM potatoes are better for our health & the environment because they reduce pesticide spraying, but this is not true. GM potatoes are engineered with an inbuilt pesticide to control the tuber moth, which is most destructive during storage. The pesticide is now inside the plant and farmers will still use a toxic cocktail of chemicals to combat all the other 99 pests, as well as viral, fungal & bacterial diseases, and weeds that plague potato farming in South Africa.
Furthermore because the Bt toxin is expressed 24 hours a day, it accumulates in the environment and throughout the food chain. The tuber moth will quickly develop resistance to the toxin, so this is a short-term and short-sighted solution to this problem.”
To go to the online petition, click here.
Interestingly, the GM potato petition is the first petition on activism.co.za, according to Urban Sprout. The site has been created to make armchair activism easier for us South Africans by enabling us to support multiple initiatives with a single click. While you’re there, check out the list of DVDs, there are some really interesting ones that you seem to be able to order from the site.
Solar windows could soon tap into sun’s power
July 22, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
Windows that not only let sunlight into buildings but also use it to generate electricity may be a commercial reality in as little as three years’ time, MIT reports.
A research team at the US university has found a way to concentrate solar energy onto solar cells situated around the edge of a pane of glass or plastic.
A mixture of dyes is painted onto the glass or plastic. “The dyes work together to absorb light across a range of wavelengths, which is then re-emitted at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to waiting solar cells at the edges,” the MIT report says.
Similar technology was developed in the the 1970s, but it was abandoned. But the research team has brought it back to life using techniques developed for lasers and organic light-emitting diodes.
The research team’s solar concentrator technology can increase the power obtained from solar cells by a factor of over 40, the university reports. Read more
Put your hands in the air and gimme all your chip fat!
July 14, 2008
Posted in Transport
Rising oil prices have had a profound effect on the world, but one of the weirdest stories I read lately was in the New York Times about the rise in used cooking oil theft from fast-food outlets in the United States. In April a “bandit” was caught with 9,500 litres of cooking oil in his truck apparently stolen from the rubbish outside a number of restaurants in Northern California. One restaurant owner said he was thinking of installing a surveillance camera to watch over his used oil barrel because theft was becoming such a problem.
As strange as it seems, used cooking oil is traded on the commodities market and its value has reached historic highs because of high fuel prices. Known as yellow grease, its price has risen from 15 cents a kg in 2000 to more than 60 cents a litre last month. So, as the New York Times pointed out, the bandit’s 9,500 litre haul would have been worth $6,000. The used cooking oil is converted into biodiesel.
Update: Kimberley’s flamingos
July 14, 2008
Posted in Conservation
More than 5,600 people have signed the online petition to save the only lesser flamingo breeding site in South Africa on Kamfer’s Dam in Kimberley. The dam is one of only four sites in Africa where the flamingo breeds and it is seriously threatened by a leaky sewerage works in desperate need of repair and a potential housing development. If you want to sign the petition or find out more, go to the Save the Flamingos website
Fuel consumption figures at your fingertips
July 14, 2008
Posted in Transport
Here’s good news for anybody out there who can still afford to buy a new car and is more interested in fuel consumption than how many seconds it takes to reach 100km an hour or whether your car is bigger than any of the others on the road. All new vehicles will now have to be labelled with their fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions at the point of sale.
The New Vehicle Comparative Fuel Economy Labelling System was launched on July 1. All new vehicles are now tested under the same conditions to determine fuel efficiency and the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) has compiled a comprehensive list of the fuel efficiency levels of more than 1,200 cars sold in South Africa.
Once upon a time, before the fuel prices began their giddy ascent, people used to go for diesel vehicles because they were more fuel efficient. But things have changed apparently, with diesel now more expensive than petrol, people don’t think it’s worth paying the extra “R20,000 or R40,000″ for a diesel model, said a motoring editor quoted in the Sunday Times this week. Diesel vehicles get more kilometres per tank in long-distance driving, but they don’t make much difference when driving around town, the editor said.
Fuel consumption and emissions data are available on the Naamsa website – although not as a comparative table which would allow you to compare cars. You have to select cars by the make and model and then only can you see the data.
Much more useful, though limited, is the table the Sunday Times [please note that this link no longer works] printed this week showing the 17 top fuel savers and 12 biggest gas guzzlers. The (cheapest) petrol car with the lowest fuel consumption is the Citroen C1 (4.6 litres/100km) , according to the table. At the other end of the scale are the Jeep Grand Cherokee 6.1 (16.1 litres/100km) and Range Rover (16 litres/100km).
Coral species in hot water
July 11, 2008
Posted in Conservation
A third of the world’s reef-building coral species may be in danger of extinction, reports ScienceExpress. A new comprehensive study of reef-building species suggests that they are surprisingly fragile and sensitive to changes in their environment — such as nutrient overloads caused by agricultural runoff, invasive species, and ocean acidification — the report says.
Most affected are species growing in the Caribbean Sea and in the “Coral Triangle” of the western Pacific, which spans parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, says the report. It adds that the researchers estimate that as recently as a decade ago less than 5% of the affected species would have been considered threatened or near-threatened. Read the full report on ScienceExpress
Picture credit: NOAA
Makeover for nukes
July 10, 2008
Posted in Green News
The government has employed a “brand consultant” to work on the image of nuclear power in South Africa, according to a report on News24. Freedthinkers, the consultants, are looking to “unearth the perceptions, misperceptions, fears and expectations surrounding nuclear power and related issues”, the report says. Apparently the initiative is being led by the department of public enterprises, which is working with the department of minerals and energy and Eskom. Surely there are more pressing issues the government could be spending money on than a branding exercise for the nuclear industry? Read the full report on News24
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Japan may be looking at the possibility of building 12 atomic reactors in South Africa as part of a plan to cut greenhouse emission and offer assistance to African countries.
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