Industrial Noise affects our Whales
Marine scientists have discovered that underwater noise has an impact and adversly affects whales almost 200km away. In light of the news filtering in of prospecting rights been given for possible mining off the sensitive Zululand coast, this is something that should be strongly considered while debating the impact on our environment. Given that this [...]
Court order for Karoo anti-fracking group
This week saw a win for the Karoo Action Group in their fight to prevent fracking in the Karoo regioin. We pick up this story published in the Business Day with their permission: “A PRETORIA judge yesterday ordered Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu to supply anti-fracking lobby group Treasure the Karoo Action Group with an [...]
Zululand Coast Offshore Mining Threat
Zululanders are slowly waking up to the news of the possibility of the equivalent of an open cast mine off the coast that could have dire consequences to the marine ecology of the entire north coast, stretching into Mozambique. We pick up on this article by Tony Carnie, environment writer for The Mercury: THE FUTURE [...]
The Fracking Saga Continues
The decision by Sasol not to persue hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Karoo has been a welcome one in the fight against this dirty and unsafe practice. This is a continuing and pressing problem of international importance. It has the potential of jeopardizing our waterways, as part of the process includes injecting toxic chemicals [...]
Invitation to strategic planning session
I would like to encourage everyone to take note of the following invitation regarding future development in our area and to get in touch with the planners to book your place: Kindly RSVP with Ms Kirsten Gallaher at Tel: Tel: 031 566 4368 or Email: kirsten.gallaher@mottmac.com Herewith invite to Review Workshop which may be of [...]
The Green Building
I receive a regular newsletter from The Green Building, a South African e-journal highlighting issues around environmental building methods and progress that is being made in this field. Here is their latest letter from the editor Llewellyn van Wyk: In many ways 2011 can be described as the coming-of-age of green building. Twenty-one years ago [...]
Barefoot Community Works
Barefoot Community Works, an NGO operating near Sodwana on our north coast, recently ran this competition with huge success. We need more ideas like this to get the community involved from a young age in understanding the benefits of recycling, and the impact we are having on our environment. Although the competition is over, have [...]
Climate Change progress being made
A micro hydro power project in Peru that delivers electricity and education to the local population; a solar energy retrofit in South Africa that brings not just clean energy, but jobs to a poor township; these are some of the development benefits revealed in analyses being conducted by the UNFCCC secretariat on Clean Development Mechanism [...]
World Oceans Day
This week saw the celebration of World Oceans Day, an opportunity to reflect on what our oceans mean to us, and how to protect and conserve this resource. First proposed by Canada in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the movement has grown in success from year to year, becoming an [...]
Let us all be heard on this…..
Two prominent environmental activists add their voice to the growing concern over proposed exploration methods to be used in the Karoo that could have damaging repercussions for the whole country through contamination of our underground water systems.
