31 SA beaches to get Blue Flag status
31 of South Africa’s beaches will be awarded Blue Flag status on Thursday in recognition of their cleanliness and positive environmental management. The 31 beaches span 13 of South Africa’s municipalities and is almost double the number of beaches awarded Blue Flag status last year. Last year just 18 beaches around the country received [...]
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Green tip: Keep the pressure up
We’ve mentioned before that with underinflated tyres your car use up to 4 percent more petrol. They are also less safe to drive on. But here’s a factoid from a report in the Sunday Independent that you may find interesting if you’re driving from the Highveld to the coast this Easter. Apparently tyres slowly deflate [...]
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A green life
Chillies brave the storms
The vicious hailstorm which smashed up most of my seedlings just over a week ago was followed exactly a week ...
Hail setback for Project Green
The hail starts to pile up around the back steps.
Living in Johannesburg we're used to regular summer thunderstorms. So much ...
Clean and green
Keeping your home sparkling and clean could be damaging the world around you. Each day we pour untold amounts of ...
Getting serious about seeds
It's been a month since I launched Project Green, an occasional series of posts on my still-developing gardening skills and ...
Saturday shopping at the Jozi Food Market
Looking for something to do on Saturday morning we headed out to the Jozi Food Market in Parktown North this ...
No monkeying around with recycling
The three-bin system for collection our household recyclable materials.
Regular readers of Treevolution may know that towards the end of 2007 ...
First signs of life
The Garden Cress is very happy in its rich compost mixture.
It was just day four of the project when the ...
Herbs, day 1
Monday morning and the first day of the new gardening project. I only had six seedling trays to hand so ...
Seedlings: Getting started
This is the start of a series of regular posts tracking my gardening skills. I'm not a professional, I'm not ...
Green your home improvement
The BUDD green home-improvement "rule":
B = Buy only what you need,
U = Use everything you buy,
D = Donate any leftover ...
With veg, timing is everything
My “stick it in the ground and see what happens” style of growing vegetables has been surprisingly successful. Since I ...
Food
SA government rejects GM potatoes
The South African government has rejected the Agriculture Research Council’s (ARC) application to provide genetically modified potatoes to local farmers, saying it was concerned about its safety and economic effect, reports Business Day.
“This is probably the most significant victory of my career,” said Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), which spearheaded the [...]
Green News
350: Saturday’s climate change number
350. It’s the amount of carbon dioxide that scientists believe is the safe upper limit for our planet. It’s also the name of a global movement that is mobilising the world to take action on Saturday October 24, the International Global Day of Climate Action. The day of action will include actions from almost every [...]
Green News
Universal phone charger to slash waste
Tired of having a drawer-full of old, worthless chargers that can’t be used to power up your new cellphone? Well, the days of proprietary cellphone chargers are coming to an end.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) today approved a standard for a one-charger-fits-all format for future cellphone chargers. For consumers this means that they will not [...]
Green News
Public space, public fruit
In years gone by, village residents and even early city dwellers were familiar with the notion of “The Commons”, collaboratively owned and managed resources such as grazing land, rivers, forests and water sources. But gradually over time private ownership and corporate growth have whittled away at these all-important resources and today the idea of publicly-owned [...]
Conservation
Natural pest control is such a hoot
Owls are associated with wisdom in some cultures, think of the wise old owl in the Winnie the Pooh stories. But, sadly, those stories are about as close as some kids are ever likely come to the birds.
Not everyone in South Africa would see this as a big loss, though. Owls are feared in many [...]
Green News
Less rubbish, please
The government wants people to throw less waste into landfills and reuse and recycle more. "We need to move away from being a throw-away society ... to one which is much more responsible and cognisant of the need to ... minimize waste and dispose as a last resort," the new(ish) minister of water and environment affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica, said in a speech at the local government indaba on environment this week. But to get more people to start recycling, local municipalities will have to start making it easier to recycle ...
Green News
Recycling firm files for liquidation
Resolution Recycling, which has operated a kerbside collection service in Johannesburg for the past few years, has filed for liquidation. Their collections stopped on June 29, the company said in an email to customers today.
Renewable energy
African projects win green energy awards
In a continent where millions of people have no access to the electricity grid or simply cannot afford to pay for electricity, small-scale energy options can have a huge impact in improving the quality of people's lives. They also play an important role in combatting climate change. Last week the UK-based Ashden Awards gave prizes to two African energy projects that are inspiring examples of how local sustainable energy can make a difference.
Conservation
SA gets new biosphere reserve
The Vhembe region of Limpopo, which includes the Mapungubwe World Heritage site and the northern part of the Kruger National Park, was declared a Unesco biosphere reserve this week. South Africa now has six biosphere reserves.
Business
Wanted: Research and publications officer
The Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Project (SECCP), a project of Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, is looking for a full-time research and publications officer to produce research materials that inform the SECCP’s campaigns and policy positions, both nationally and internationally.
