Archbishop Tutu is saving the whales
November 28, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Picture: © IFAW, T. Samson
‘This [campaign against the killing of whales] warns us that we are slowly ourselves committing a kind of suicide. If it is not a physical suicide, it is a moral and ethical suicide. For our own sakes we need to recover our humaneness, and our humanity. It is time to say no, no, no! to the killing of whales’ – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
South Africa’s much-loved Archbishop Desmond Tutu, well-known internationally for speaking out against apartheid, is adding his voice to the anti-whaling campaign.
Yesterday, he launched the Sacred Ocean – Global Voices Against the Cruelty of Whaling initiative at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town by unveiling a 3,4-metre high sculpture named Sacred Ocean by renowned cetacean artist and conservationist Noel Ashton.
The sculpture has been given pride of place in the foyer of Cape Town’s Two Oceans Aquarium.
The installation also features a touch-screen where visitors can register their opinions on whaling and send a “virtual postcard” of themselves and the sculpture to three friends. Tutu cast the first vote via the touch-screen yesterday.
Dr Patrick Garratt, managing director of the Two Oceans Aquarium, said: “The exhibit provides a unique platform for us to gauge public sentiment on the practice of whaling. For the first time ever, people from across the globe will be able to vote for or against whaling and communicate their opinion to the decision-makers.”
Sacred Ocean is a campaign by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Jason Bell-Leask, the Southern African director for IFAW, said: “As we launch Sacred Ocean to celebrate and save whales, we do so knowing the whaling fleets have already set sail for the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to hunt and kill more than 1,000 whales – some of them endangered species – in a sham called ‘scientific whaling’.
“We believe that IFAW’s Sacred Ocean – Global Voices Against the Cruelty of Whaling will send a powerful message that ordinary, and not so ordinary people, are against the appalling and unnecessary cruelty of whaling.”
The Two Oceans Aquarium, is one of South Africa’s top tourist attractions and annually welcomes thousands of visitors from around the world. If you’re going to be visiting the V&A Waterfront, pop in to the aquarium and register your vote.
The campaign also has its own website.
Guide to climate friendlier gadgets
November 26, 2008
Posted in Business, Lifestyle
The lastest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics has just been released and this time, in the run-up to the big UN climate change talks in Poland next week, the focus is on climate leadership.
Consumer electronics can play an important role in moving the world towards a low-carbon future, but most companies have been slow to get serious about climate change, says Greenpeace. Although they have made “gradual” improvements on toxic and e-waste issues over the past few years, only a minority of consumer electronics companies are really leading on energy and climate change. And now Greenpeace wants them to step up to the challenge and show leadership.
Since June, the greener electronics guide has examined companies on their climate and energy criteria, which include, their direct emissions, their product performance, their use of renewable energy and their political support for emission cuts. And here’s what Greenpeace found:
Of the 18 market-leading companies included, only Sharp, Fujitsu Siemens and Philips show full support for the necessary emissions cuts of 30 percent for industrial nations by 2020.
Only HP and Philips have made commitments to make substantial cuts in their own emissions from the product manufacture and supply chain.
All the other companies in the guide make “vague or essentially meaningless statements about global emissions reductions and have no plans to make absolute emissions cuts themselves”.
Many companies have gained points from their products’ efficiency improvements.
Most companies use little renewable energy. Nokia, which is still in the number one spot, sources 25 percent of its total electricity use from renewable energy and is committed to sourcing 50 percent by 2010.
Other brands with points for renewable energy use are FSC, Microsoft, Toshiba, Motorola and Philips.
Although Philips and HP score well on energy issues, Greenpeace says they’re position on toxics is letting them down.
Those who score well on toxic chemical criteria already have products on the market free of the worst substances, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, FSC and Sharp.
Overall, the biggest moves up the ranking are Motorola, (from 15th to joint 7th), Toshiba (from 7th to 3rd) and Sharp, (up from 16th to 10th).
The companies falling down the ranking are the PC brands Acer, Dell, HP and Apple. Although Apple drops a place, it has improved its total score this time because of better reporting on the carbon footprint of its products, and although not scoring any extra points, its new iPods are now free of both PVC and brominated flame retardants.
Read more about how the companies fared.
Join the global day of climate action
November 23, 2008
Posted in Green News
On Saturday December 6 a Global Day of Action on Climate Change will be held to coincide with the United Nations climate talks in Poznan, Poland.
In South Africa, the Greenhouse Project and the South African Climate Action Network are organising an event at the Alexandra Children’s Library, 3rd Ave, Alexandra on Saturday the 6th from 11am to 5pm.
Go along to the event and you’ll see:
- Working examples and demonstrations of renewable energy
- The launch of the Itumeleng Organic Gardening Project
- A giant greenhouse for you to explore
- The Climate Change: ‘Mural of Hope’
- Music and entertainment
- Local food and drink made by solar cookers!
- The Debate Corner for you to ask questions and find out more about Climate Change and what you can do
- An information table with leaflets and brochures for you to take home
- A Kid’s Corner with painting
- Screenings of films throughout the day: An Inconvenient Truth, 6 Degrees and The Power of Community
If you want to get involved, the organisers are looking for volunteers to help them.
For more information about the about the day or if you would like to volunteer to help, please contact France Maleme on 011-720-3666 or 073-002-2274 or maleme2 [at] gmail [dot] com and Kyla Davis on 076-715-2414 or kylalliandavis [at] gmail [dot] com
Disappearing acts: amazing displays of camouflage
November 23, 2008
Posted in Conservation
The footage in this TED lecture by ocean exploration pioneer David Gallo of the way sea creatures can use colour and blend into their environment is truly astonishing.
Car drives coast to coast on one tank of diesel
November 23, 2008
Posted in Transport
A Peugeot 308HDi drove across South Africa on a single tank of diesel last month. The car, driven by two former rally drivers, Andrew Carter and Spotti Woodhead, did the 1,700km trip from Port Nolloth, on the west coast, to Umhlanga, on the east coast, with an impressive fuel consumption of 3,4 litres per kilometre.
“The route is incredibly challenging because it climbs more than 1,800 metres and visits substantial cities like Bloemfontein where there is traffic to contend with. We literally didn’t know we would make it until we arrived at the finishing line,” said Carter.
Peugeot says it devised the Coast2Coast Challenge to showcase the ultra-efficiency of the medium-sized hatchback 30, and highlight the need for motorists to drive fuel efficiently in order to reduce their impact on the environment.
Mike Wilson, Peugeot Motors South Africa’s marketing manager, said: “We knew the 308 HDi was incredibly light on fuel, but we were pleasantly surprised when it pulled up near Durban on the same tank of fuel it had set off with on the other side of South Africa.
“The success demonstrates that when technology designed with the environment in mind is allied to a fuel efficient driving style, the increased distance between refuelling stops can be startling.”
Carter was a guest on Redi Direko’s show on Talk Radio 702 this week and was talking about the fuel-efficient driving techniques he and Woodhead had used on the trip. To a non-petrol head like myself some of them sounded pretty technical, for instance, try to drive your car at maximum torque because that’s when your engine is at its most efficient (that one sailed way over my head, but apparently you can find out your car’s maximum torque in the user’s manual).
There were a few tips that I did understand, though: firstly, you need to learn to be patient behind the wheel (not an easy thing for a Joburg driver), get up to the top gear as quickly as you can without making your engine work too hard – in other words, be gentle on the accelerator, don’t stamp the pedal onto the floor.
Although fuel-efficient driving is not about speed, Carter said the car did reach 130km/h at times. He said they tried to pick up speed going down hills so that the momentum could take them most of the way up the other side without having to put much strain on the engine.
They didn’t take that long to do the trip: they left Port Nolloth on Monday October 13 and arrived in Umhlanga on Wednesday October 15.
The Coast2Coast 308 is apparently 95 percent recyclable and Peugeot has planted trees in the Orange Farm informal settlement near Johannesburg to offset the challenge’s carbon emissions.
Books to whet your apetite for good food
November 21, 2008
Posted in Food
If you’ve ever dreamt of stepping off the career treadmill and moving to a farm somewhere, you’ll find Christine Stevens’ book “Harvest. Recipes from an Organic Farm” (Jacana) inspiring. Because that’s exactly what she did seven years ago, to become an organic farmer and wine-maker in the Western Cape.
“Harvest” is more than just a recipe book, though. It has a lovely personal feel, not just because of the way Christine writes about each of her recipes, but because it’s illustrated with beautiful photographs of the farm and the family. It all looks and sounds idyllic.
“The truth is that it might look romantic from the outside, but farming for real is an incredible challenge on every level,” writes Christine. But the book leaves you in no doubt that however steep the learning curve may have been, she loves her life on the farm.
With no supermarket down the road, she’s had to learn to be pretty self-sufficient, growing her own organic vegetables, herbs and fruit. Many of her recipes are inspired by what’s ready to eat in the garden. So, for instance, there’s a recipe for a french bean, pea and broad bean salad – because “these are the first of the spring vegetables ready to harvest”. All the recipes are simple and relatively quick and easy to prepare (because there’s not a lot of time to faff around in the kitchen when you’ve a farm to run).
I love the chapter names, they’re not you’re usual starters, poultry, meat, desserts etc, they’re more a description of what you might feel like eating: in the chapter called “Crunch” there’s simple salads and light meals straight from the garden. Here she writes: “Everyone seems to be cooking with organic ingredients these days, which is wonderful, but I think we still forget what it’s like to just pick something off the bush or vine, or dig it out of the soil, give it a quick wash and pop it in our mouths.” She’s absolutely right.
In the “Nourish” chapter you’ll find recipes for cooked garden vegetables. They include things like sage mash, ratatouille and farm vegetable soup. There’s nothing new, but it’s unpretentious food that just looks delicious.
The “Fill” chapter is about keeping two growing, “permanently hungry” boys fed. These are quick, healthy meals that are tried and tested family favourites.
Then there’s the comfort food section … cakes, biscuits, bread etc. Christine bakes her own bread, claiming: “Once you get into a rhythm, baking a fresh loaf every day becomes part of daily life and, of course, it makes the whole house smell wonderful.” I’ll take her word for it.
The “Feast” section has very enticing beef, pork, chicken and lamb recipes for long family lunches. The chapter on desserts, entitled “Indulgence”, is full of fruity, creamy, crumbly things. And then the final chapter, “Hoard”, contains recipes for preserving the summer crop for the less bountiful winter months in marmalade, jellies, pesto, sauces and such.
I love this book because it reminds you that eating is a sensory and social experience and that growing food can be a true pleasure – which is easy to forget when you live in a city. If this book doesn’t inspire you to start growing your own veggies, nothing will.
THE SECOND BOOK, “Love Green Food. Cooking and Eating with Consciousness” by Larissa Green (XLIBRIS) is also about organic food. Larissa Green is a trained cordon bleu chef who lives in Cape Town. She says, “Love Green Food” arose from a journey of personal healing and “a drive to ensure that we have a clean and healthy planet to call our home and to leave behind for our children”. Fine sentiments, indeed.
What really struck me is her attitude to cooking. She writes: “It’s all above LOVE! This is the most important ingredient. This is love for yourself, for others, for your environment, for nature and for your home.”
For Larissa, cooking is a spiritual experience. “The experience of creating something really nutritious for the body can transform a person, as the experience also feeds the soul,” she writes.
She describes organic food as “nice, clean food” that’s “almost like a medicine”. But sourcing organic food hasn’t always been easy, she writes that she’s had to put her culinary skills to the test and be creative in order to prepare a variety of dishes with minimal ingredients.
The main emphasis of the book is “to provide easy and great recipes to make all your own food without feeling like you have had to limit yourself in any way”.
I love the homemade flavour section. It contains recipes for things like pesto, sweet chilli sauce, various chutneys, preseved lemons and tomatoes, mayonnaise and thai curry paste. Follow these recipes and you won’t need to get your flavours from a packet or bottle again.
There’s a section on cereal grains, including some lesser-known ones like millet, quinoa, amaranth and spelt. And some bread recipes, including rotis and gluten-free bread and pastry.
The book also contains a nice assortment of breakfast foods, including fruit salads, porridges, muffins, pancakes, eggs and quiches, a few soup recipes and some interesting ways to cook veggies, including crispy coated vegetables and vegetable fritters which might tempt fussy youngsters to eat brocolli and baby marrow.
I really liked the look of the salty fruit salad that involves melons and feta cheese, and a spinach, chickpea, summer fruit and goat’s cheese salad, which I’m sure could look quite spectacular. Also notable is a recipe for chai tea, a drink I have loved since a trip to Zanzibar many years ago.
My only “issue” with the book is one that I have with many health food recipe books and that’s the need for “specialist” ingredients like chickpea flour, coconut oil, spelt flour and Himalayan salt. It means I have to drive for kilometres to a health food shop to find them. But, I supposed you can always improvise with ingedients that are easier to obtain.
Other handy features in the book are a chart showing which vegetables are in season when, and a few recipes for organic and non-chemical household cleaners.
To learn more about Larissa’s cooking and eating with consciousness philosophy or to order the book, you can go to the LoveGreenFood website. Where you’ll also find a very handy South African shopping directory.
(Thanks to Maureen for the books)
SA corporates are getting the climate change message
November 19, 2008
Posted in Business
The results of South Africa’s second annual Carbon Disclosure Project survey show encouraging evidence that companies are beginning to respond meaningfully to the challenge of climate change, the minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said in a speech at the CDP report’s launch on Wednesday.
He said that the companies that responded to this year’s survey “understand that it would not be economically, environmentally or politically sustainable for South Africa to continue to grow our emissions along a business-as-usual path”.
Other points made in his speech include that:
- The sample size had more than doubled from the Top 40 companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange last year to the Top 100 companies this year.
- The response rate this year of 59 percent is apparently better than the global average of 55 percent. (Brazil’s Top 75 response result was 83 percent and India’s Top 200 result was 19 percent.) See Engineering News
- 75 percent of responding companies disclosed their greenhouse gas emissions, which the minister said was a sizeable increase on last year. Even though in several instances the disclosure was only on a “partial basis”, he said there was signs of an “emerging commitment to improved monitoring and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions”.
- Carbon-intensive companies dominate South Africa’s disclosed greenhouse gas emissions. The three largest emitters (excluding Eskom, the national electricity utility) – Sasol, BHP Billiton and Anglo American – account for two-thirds of the total reported greenhouse gas emissions of companies that responded to the survey.
- Electricity consumption constitutes 41 percent of the total reported greenhouse emissions. (About 90 percent of South Africa’s electricity is generated in coal-fired power stations.)
- Awareness of and engagement in government policy on climate issues appears to have increased significantly since last year’s report. Many senior executives across different sectors had been engaged in the process of formulating the government’s Long Term Mitigation Scenarios, which were released earlier this year
- Companies acknowledge that an escalating price on carbon will be part of the future business environment.
- Only 23 percent of companies disclosed specific, company-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. “If South Africa’s emissions are to peak and then decline, companies will need to demonstrate a significantly higher level of ambition” in this area,” the minister said.
- Most of the companies have developed, or are implementing, formal systems for measuring and reporting on their emissions, but gaps remain in their governance systems for climate change, and in the nature and extent of executive board oversight on this issue, he said.
- South African investors do not appear to fully appreciate the business implications of climate change, nor are they exerting a meaningful influence on the corporate sector on this issue.
The minister also said: “Not only does proper tracking and reporting [of greenhouse gas emissions] make business sense, but it is only when companies know their carbon footprint that they can properly plan to mitigate. It is also an indicator of good corporate governance, of accountability, and of taking co-ownership for the future.”
Companies need to be prepared for an era when the reporting of GHG emissions will be mandatory, he added.
Conservationists to appeal decision to build near flamingo dam
November 17, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Photo: Flock of lesser flamingo on Kamfers Dam, Kimberley. © Save the Flamingo campaign
The Save the Flamingo campaign and BirdLife South Africa have indicated that they will appeal the decision to allow a massive housing and commercial development to be built next to Kimberley’s Kamfers Dam, South Africa’s only lesser flamingo breeding site, Eleanor Momberg of the Sunday Independent reports.
The Northern Cape department of tourism, environment and conservation gave the Northgate development the go-ahead in a record of decision issued on November 7.
If the appeals are unsuccessful the Save the Flamingo campaign will consider taking legal action to stop the development, Momberg reports.
The Save the Flamingo campaign has been trying to raise money and collect signatures on a petition to urge the authorities to take action to save the flamingos. Not only from the proposed development, but more urgently, to do something about the deteriorating water quality in the dam as a result of the inability of the Homevale sewerage treatment works to process Kimberley’s sewerage. Raw effluent has reportedly been pouring into the dam and surrounding wetlands and affecting the health of the flamingos.
Meanwhile, on the matter of the three officials suspended by the department apparently for their involvement in trying to protect the flamingo breeding site: a department spokesman told Momberg that Eric Hermann of scientific services had been reinstated to his post. The disciplinary hearing of Julius Koen, the deputy director of conservation, has been scheduled for later this month. And world-renowned ornithologist Mark Anderson’s hearing is expected to be held in March 2009. Anderson took up the post of executive director of BirdLife SA in October.
Joburg wins award for Xtreme Park project
November 13, 2008
Posted in Green News
Johannesburg City Parks’ innovative Xtreme Park project, which turns barren patches of land in the city’s townships into community parks in just 24 hours, has won an international award, reports Bua News.
Earlier this year, the Xtreme Park Makeover 2008 project turned a piece of land that had been a dumping ground for rubbish in Soweto’s Diepkloof informal settlement into a place where children could play and the community could enjoy the outdoors. The project was inspired by the Extreme Makeover TV series.
“We build parks within 24 hours that are equipped with basketball courts, mini-soccer pitches, fountains, big-screen televisions, fencing, paved walkways and ablution facilities,” Luther Williamson, the MD of City Parks, told Bua News. “The parks are about two hectares in size and cost R4.6 million each to build”.
City Parks has built two of these parks, one in the Diepkloof informal settlement and the other in Weltevreden Park in Randburg.
City Parks won a Gold Award in the Natural Projects Category of the United Nations-endorsed International Liveable Communities Awards 2008.
Obama could usher in a new era for solar in the US
November 13, 2008
Posted in Renewable energy
President-elect Barack Obama’s increased emphasis on renewable energy could help to finally unleash the United States vast potential for solar energy, but economic difficulties may prove a barrier to some of the more expensive renewable initiatives, says information technology research and advisory company Gartner, Inc.
“Demand for solar energy remains dependent on government subsidies, because it costs more than conventional forms of electric-power generation,” said James Hines, research director at Gartner and lead analyst for solar energy technologies.
“However, the new US administration could help encourage investment in solar energy projects if it succeeds in implementing some of its plans, which is more likely with majorities in both houses of Congress.”
The increased emphasis on renewable energy and the extension of the 30 percent investment tax credit for solar projects – passed last month – could provide a significant boost to the US solar industry. It could potentially help the US to overtake Germany as the largest photovoltaic market within a few years, said Hines.
President-elect Obama’s New Energy for America plan includes:
- A federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that requires 10 percent of electricity consumed in the US to come from renewable sources by 2012
- A $150 billion investment over 10 years in research, technology demonstration and commercial deployment of clean energy technology
- Extension of production tax credits for five years to encourage renewable energy production
- A cap-and-trade system of carbon credits to provide an incentive for businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
“The new president will face a difficult economic situation that could significantly impede his plans. Expensive government programmes will be hard to pass if tax receipts are declining and corporate earnings are depressed, even with Democratic control of Congress,” Hines said.
“It is likely that the RPS will be passed during 2009, which will provide a strong boost to US demand for solar energy. The other provisions, which require significant spending or tax incentives, might have to wait until the economy starts to recover.”
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