Being Green

You may mistake their mission statement for a quote from the A-Team, but the Goat Army Africa is a very real herd of goats that is being used to clear alien vegetation like Port Jackson and wattle. It is the brainchild of Pieter Bosman and Ronnie Visser, and the 'unit' is currently on an operation to munch its way through alien plants at Cape St Francis in the Eastern Cape. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Pieter about the army and how this way of destroying alien plant species works. You can find out more about the unit's work at: https://goatarmyafrica.com/

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 7.15. John Richards and Glynis Crook focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.

Hello again. Let’s look at some of the headline catchers in recent days. You may remember talk of a “Gas Master Plan” surfacing recently, punted by the fossil-fuel lobby, and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy which is unashamedly part of the lobby? (I wonder if Minister Gwede Mantashe gets paid as a lobbyist? He would be paid were this the USA and Washington politics, but it’s not, so I don’t know.) Anyway, some parties stand to gain from the Government’s openly transparent support of fossil fuels. I wonder who? I’m sure you’ve guessed already.

Earlier this week, the Two Oceans Aquarium announced the exciting news that a female eagle ray had given birth to four little pups. In Being Green, Glynis Crook, speaks to its spokesperson, Renee Leeuwner, about this type of ray and why they do not lay eggs like most fish. You can watch a film of the live birth here: https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/stingrays-give-birth-to-live-young-take-a-look

The current debate on electricity tariffs (current –gettit?!) is generating (gettit?) a fair amount of hot air, which is a mixture of gases, which brings us back to gas. Sorry, I couldn’t resist being facetious – all in a good cause, but I’ll stop it now. So, gas – gas as a fuel, which is being punted as a better solution to energy needs than coal, and we don’t need to underline the drawbacks of coal. In fact, Gwede Mantashe would really not like us to do that… But gas is a fossil fuel, and the emissions which are, it is true, less harmful than those from coal-burning, are still emissions that contribute to the atmospheric warming effect. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the DRME, is promulgating a Gas Master Plan, and is inviting comment from anybody interested enough. But you’d better get in quickly, as the deadline is very soon. The DRME has put out a basecase report and the following are their words, not mine...

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Sidney Jacobs, chairman of the Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei, about steps that are being taken by the City of Cape Town to remove large quantities of reeds and organic sludge from the Rondevlei weir in the False Bay Nature Reserve. This is expected to significantly improve the health, biodiversity, and water quality of the wetland system. Rondevlei is home to about 230 bird species, a variety of small mammals and reptiles, as well as a hippopotamus population.

(website quoted): www.climate.copernicus.eu Fire and heat have been very much on our minds recently – this 2nd week of 2022. Funny how, although we know it’s just numbers, the start of the year feels somehow different. Perhaps it’s the new school year, and the media hype and frustrated journos writing facetious paragraphs about fresh starts and that sort of thing? Probably, but I’m just like you, and I cross my fingers and hope there will be a fresh start and against the odds, a better year ahead, whatever better means for you.

Denmark says it wants to make all domestic flights fossil fuel free by 2030. That’s in just eight years’ time. In her New Year’s address, the prime minister did however acknowledge that the solutions needed to reach this target were not yet in place. So what options are out there? And how advanced are we in the development of the necessary technology? In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Ian Cruickshank, an aviation sustainability expert, to find out.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 7.15. John Richards and Glynis Crook 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 offers five tips to make your Christmas celebrations more environmentally friendly.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 7.15. John Richards and Glynis Crook 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 Dr Simon Elwen, director of Sea Search and a research associate at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Botany and Zoology, about the humpback whales that have been spotted all week off the coast of Sea Point, Green Point, and Mouille Point.

(www.nature.org) A good green morning to you. At least that’s what we hope will be the greeting from your bank or FSP one of these days soon. There are concrete developments being reported now in the sphere of green investment, and some of these hoped-for announcements go beyond public-relations media statements. For instance, here’s a case involving one of the most established and tough-minded banks with a solid capitalist history going back to the days of ‘financiers’ as they were called, industry moguls like Andrew Carnegie and banker J P Morgan.

In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Judy Mann, a conservation strategist at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research’s Oceanographic Research Institute, about oil giant Shell's plan to carry out a seismic survey off the Wild Coast in a search for oil and gas deposits. Marine activists and scientists have been up in arms over the issue saying it will have a negative impact on marine life in the area. The survey is due to get underway on 1 December some 20km off the coast of the Eastern Cape and cover over 6,000 square kilometres of ocean surface. Activists are calling on South Africans to boycott Shell service stations over the peak holiday travel season in December in a bid to get them to step down.

www.oceansnotoil.com Thanks for joining us this morning, and welcome to the post COP26 world, as I’m sure you are relieved to hear. It’s all over bar the shouting as I remarked last time, and thanks to Glynis for wrapping up the take-away impressions for us in her interview last week. But there will be a fair amount of shouting and groaning for a long time to come.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 7.15. John Richards and Glynis Crook focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.

Is it all over bar the shouting? At COP26 I mean. The world leaders – those who attended – have departed the stage. Major announcements have been made and photo opportunities for the politically important provided, so what happens now? A lot of negotiating and fine-print examination no doubt, as the guardians of government money – many different governments – try to figure out how much they’re in for and how best to lay off the budgets for “saving the world” or more realistically, working towards realistic goals in the direction of ‘net zero’.

In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Nicolas Simpson, a postdoctoral research fellow at UCT’s African Climate & Development Initiative, to find out what African countries will be hoping for from the United Nations Climate Conference, Cop26, which gets underway in Glasgow this weekend. The talks are widely seen as a “make-or-break” moment for the planet. It’s hoped that delegates will recommit to net zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050 - as well as big reductions by 2030. Many African leaders and experts have pointed out that while we contribute only a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change on the continent are significant, and have highlighted the need for funding for adaptation programmes.

GREEN HYDROGEN! Now there is a new term to get your head around in green circles, and it’s assuming more and more importance. You’ll hear more about it I promise you – so here goes. It’s GREEN HYDROGEN. Hydrogen is the colourless light gas we all know and love from the basic science programme of our schooldays, but why ‘GREEN’?

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 7.15. John Richards and Glynis Crook focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.