Being Green

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 plastic into your cup. To find out how to brew an eco-friendly cuppa, Glynis Crook spoke to Mingwei Tsai, the owner of Nigiro Tea Merchants and tea café.

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 to Laura Standford of the Nairobi-based regenerative agriculture company, The Bug Picture, which has come up with a novel way of dealing with the millions of locusts in a swarm.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 9.30. 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. In last year’s edition, Cape Town had the most observations, came second in the number of species identified, but fell short on how many people took part. So, the race is on for this year’s event which takes place from Friday through to Monday and the City is hoping we will bag all three top spots this year.

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 with the rescue of these little turtles. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to the aquarium’s communications manager, Renee Leeuwner, about why they are getting into trouble and what you can do to help. Here is the sea turtle rescue hotline: 083 300 1663. To find out more you can go to: https://aquariumfoundation.org.za/sea-turtle-rescue-rehabilitation-and-release/become-a-turtle-rescuer/

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 rehabilitation of the mountain is progressing, Glynis Crook, in this week’s edition of Being Green, speaks to the Park’s manager, Frans Van Rooyen.

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, one the lead authors of the latest report, about the finding. Cohen is also one of the directors of The Green House, a sustainability consultancy.

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 Point, Constantia, or the Gardens, there is a simple solution with the Ladles of Love’s Feed the Soil programme. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to the organisation’s founder, Danny Diliberto, about the initiative.

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 consider sacred land has been the dominant theme in the ongoing controversy over the development. But another element is the fact that it is taking place in an environmentally sensitive area. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Kevin Winter of the University of Cape Townʼs Future Water Institute to remind us of the environmental concerns.

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 Heritage centre and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to one of the study’s authors, Dr Nicolas Simpson, a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town.