I saw six sharks being cut up for their fins yesterday. And as monstrous as it was, it won’t make headlines, it isn’t News: currently the fins from between 26 million and 73 million sharks are sold a year, that’s up to 8 000 sharks killed an hour. And the market is booming. I’m currently […]
Environment
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, News/Politics
Drilling Africa’s Arctic
The Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest Unesco World Heritage Site, is situated along the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. It contains more species of mammals, reptiles and birds than any other protected area on the continent. It has an exceptional diversity of landscapes stretching from the glaciers of the […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General
Did you buy into Nedbank’s greenwash?
As the bank with “green answers” – according to their marketing campaign – I have a few questions for Nedbank. Nedbank has put a lot of effort into creating the impression of being a ‘green’ bank. They have an entire website devoted to the environment, and a range of account options with a green ‘flavour’. […]
Posted inEnvironment, General, Lifestyle
Kusile protest: Greenpeace disputes Eskom claims
I was one of the Greenpeace climbers who scaled the crane inside Eskom’s Kusile construction plant on Monday morning. In climbing the crane and dropping the two banners, our goal was to highlight the true cost of coal-fired electricity in South Africa. We wanted to put Kusile back on the agenda after months of dialogue, […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, News/Politics
Imagine your electricity bill went up 459%
You’ll often hear that renewable energy is a nice idea, but it’s simply too expensive to be a realistic option. The choice between burning coal and switching to renewable energy is said to be a simple cost calculation — one that coal wins every time. It’s the rationale for why Eskom is going ahead with […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, General, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Things aren’t alright
I’ve been writing for Thought Leader for roughly two years, and consistently on the same types of issues. I write about consumerism, “affluenza”, climate change, environmental degradation, oil and coal addiction, and the politics of eating meat — and after each piece, when I go through the comments, I’m left with the same overwhelming feeling: […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Thoughts on the Greenpeace action at Eskom
Recently Greenpeace Africa took action at Eskom’s Megawatt Park, dumping five tonnes of coal at one entrance to the power utility’s headquarters. The act was a protest against the way Eskom produces South Africa’s electricity, 90% of which comes from climate-changing coal. As the twelth largest CO2 emitter in the world, located at the foot […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
There’s no place for fracking in our future
Recently I went to a public debate about fracking in the Karoo. The motion debated related to the moratorium that’s been imposed — should it be permanent or simply scrapped altogether? The four speakers — two in favour of the moratorium, and two against — each presented their views and spoke about numerous aspects of […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
Shell, fracking and job creation
The degree to which Shell disgusts me is no secret, and this will not be the first time I write about the multinational. Take the worst aspects of capitalism, the most perverse levels of greed, and the highest disregard for nature: combine them and you have the Shell corporation. Whereas in the past Shell has […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle
Powering madness
For a while now I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how recent events in Japan and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are similar in some way; what’s the link between them? I’m not talking about some weird conspiracy theory, like the one linking the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Lifestyle
Nuclear: A phone call away?
The good news is that energy department officials have been facing pressure from MPs to cut South Africa’s dependence on coal. The bad news is that a few MPs seem to think that nuclear energy can help achieve this. Following some time with French nuclear company Areva, DA MP David Ross recently told the portfolio […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Population explosion!
Some time later this year, probably toward the end of October, the 7 billionth person will be born, and judging by birthrates, (s)he will most likely be Indian. The jump from 6 billion to 7 billion people on the planet will only have taken 12 years. The birth of this 7 billionth person raises important questions about […]