Being Green

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green is your window on the environment . Glynis Crook will focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Cedric Coetzee, regional manager for the east region at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which manages nature conservation in KwaZulu Natal, about the ongoing rhino poaching in the province’s Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Park. It’s believed that over a 100 of the animals have died so far this year.

Over the past few years, there has been increasing concern about the number of trees in Cape Town that are being illegally stripped of their bark. Taking the bark off puts the tree at risk of viral or bacterial infections and can ultimately lead to its death. Lobby group, Friends of Table Mountain, recently raised the alarm about the destruction of Table Mountain National Park’s limited indigenous...

The Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, whic is endemic to the dry savannas of Southern Africa, was last evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as of Least Concern. This despite the fact that the population appears to be decreasing. But a recent study at the University of Cape Town into the effect of climate change on their breeding succ...

According to a recent assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the IUCN, more than 300 species of sharks, and their close relatives, rays, are threatened with extinction. South Africa is in fact one of the top 5 global hotspots for these marine animals, which is why it is good to hear that WILDTRUST, along with the government, has launched a new campaign to protect these i...

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Stephanie Lamour, founder of the social enterprise, Komani, about their reusable sanitary pads. It’s estimated that it could take between 500 and 800 years for one disposable sanitary towel to decompose on a landfill. This is because they are largely made up of plastic. So when you consider that it’s believed that an average woman uses...

Last month, an extensive spatial biodiversity assessment, prioritization, and planning project got underway in 4 Southern African Development Community countries. This may not sound like the most exciting of projects, but it is a crucial one. The mapping of ecosystems in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Malawi will help these countries to improve their environmental planning and monitoring o...

Today on Being Green, we’re talking about a new local waste-to-energy technology that has been developed by the South African National Energy Development Institute, SANEDI. Glynis Crook speaks to its project manager, Dr Neville Smith, who led the design concept alongside NECSA’s Dr Jaco van der Walt.

As climate change continues to make its presence felt across the world, one unexpected profession has decided it needs to clean up its act. Launched in the United States, the Clean Creatives campaign is asking individual creatives, agencies and PR firms to pledge to refuse future work with the fossil fuel industry. To find out more, in this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Ste...

Last week on Being Green, Glynis Crook spoke to 13-year-old Quinley Wild about his song - SOS or Save our Soil. He wrote it after his mom got involved in a global movement to address the crisis of soil degradation. To find out more about why taking better care of our soil is crucial, this week Glynis speaks to Dr Ailsa Hardie, a senior lecturer in soil chemistry at Stellenbosch University.

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to 13-year-old Quinley Wild about his song SOS (Save our Soil). He wrote it after his mom, Casey, got involved in a global movement to address the crisis of soil degradation. And big local stars like Zolani Mahola, originally from Freshly Ground and now known as ‘The One Who Sings’, joined in to make it all come together. Theo Crous from S...

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to UCT oceanographer and climatologist, Dr Sarah Fawcett, about the vital role played by South Africa’s polar research vessel and icebreaker, the SA Agulhas 2, in the field of climate science.

New Zealand has released a draft plan to tax farmers for the methane emissions from their sheep and cattle. The country is home to about 5 million people, and some 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep, and agriculture accounts for about half of its greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in the form of methane. There’s been a lot of criticism of the government’s failure to tackle the issue of emissions...

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to 13-year-old Quinley Wild about his song SOS (Save our Soil). He wrote it after his mom, Casey, got involved in a global movement to address the crisis of soil degradation. And big local stars like Zolani Mahola, originally from Freshly Ground and now known as ‘The One Who Sings’, joined in to make it all come together. Theo Crous from S...

A recent study, published in the journal Nature, found that one-fifth of the world’s reptiles are threatened with extinction. Scientists examined over 10,000 species and found that 21% of them are critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable to extinction as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Reptiles include snakes, tortoises and turtles, lizards and chameleons. In...

International Tea Day is celebrated on 21 May. But did you know that most tea bags contain up to 25% of plastic. Many brands use a non-biodegradable plastic called polypropylene in the heat-sealing process and to help keep the bag in shape when it’s immersed in hot liquid. A recent study by Canadian researchers found that steeping a tea bag in boiling water releases billions of microparticles of p...

The ongoing plague of brown locusts in parts of the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape Karoo, believed to be the biggest in 25 years, has been a nightmare for farmers. Experts say that in just one day, a small swarm can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people or damage 100 tonnes of crops across a square kilometre of fields. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks...

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green is your window on the environment . Glynis Crook will focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Alderman Eddie Andrews, the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, about the annual global City Nature Challenge. This year, over 400 cities are expected to take part in a bid to find out which can gather the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people. I...

It’s the time of the year that the loggerhead sea turtles hatch on the coastline of northern KwaZulu-Natal and are then carried south by the Agulhas current. Unfortunately, as a result of injury, dehydration and hypothermia, some of the little hatchlings wash up on our beaches here in the Western Cape. So, the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation is calling on all Capetonians to help assist wi...

Monday 18 April will mark the one-year anniversary of the devastating fire that destroyed UCT’s Jagger Reading room and damaged other buildings on campus. It also gutted two historic buildings - Mostert’s Mill and the Rhodes Memorial restaurant - and caused damage to other buildings in the area. The blaze also burnt hundreds of hectares of land in the Table Mountain National Park. To find out how...

The third and final report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th assessment cycle was published earlier this week. Part 3 finds that, despite warnings, emissions have continued to rise in the last decade, and that only severe cuts will allow the world to avoid climate extremes. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to UCT professor Brett Cohen,...

In the Western Cape, more than 40% of all waste delivered to landfills is organic, and as it decomposes, it releases the extremely harmful greenhouse gas, methane. With the first phase of the province’s new Organic Landfill Ban in effect from this year, residents need to start thinking about how to dispose of their food waste in an environmentally friendly way. And for those who live near Sea Poin...

Construction on tech giant Amazon's new Africa headquarters at the River Club site in Observatory has been halted following an interdict by the Cape High Court against developers, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust. In her ruling, Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath recognised the land’s importance as the historic dominion of the Gorinhaiqua nation in pre-colonial times. Building on what many c...

Almost 200 of Africa’s most spectacular heritage sites, both natural and cultural, are in danger because of rising sea levels. That’s according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change which found that they face a severe risk of flooding and erosion over the next 30 years. Scientists mapped out 284 heritage sites recognised, or under consideration, by UNESCO’s World Heritag...