SAFCEI

New SAFCEI website and blog

2011-07-16T10:47:00.003+02:00

SAFCEI (the Southern African Faith Communities' Environmental Institute) now has a new web site and blog.

This blog is therefore redundant and will no longer be updated.

SAFCEI AGM 2011

2011-07-02T10:08:00.000+02:00

AGM of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI)

Tuesday, 19 July 2011, 7 pm

Diakonia Centre , 20 Diakonia Avenue, Durban. (: 031 310 3500

Theme: Global climate talks 2011 (COP17) in Durban – so what?

(Speaker to be confirmed)

All interested people of any faith are most welcome to come along and hear what the faith communities are doing – and should be doing – at congregational, regional, national and international levels as we seek eco-justice: economic and environmental justice.

Please join us before the meeting for a light finger supper at 18h00.
RSVP for catering purposes to: secretary@safcei.org.za or (: 021-701 8145

Havana’s lessons in green living

2011-03-29T08:36:00.003+02:00

Though Havana is a filthy city, the author finds many lessons in green living.

Havana’s lessons in green living:

3. Almost everything can be repurposed.

During my first Cuba trip, I watched my mother-in-law wash and reuse disposable grocery bags until the “nylons,” as she calls them, were worn out. I returned home with an obsession: everything could be repurposed. A rubber band, a plastic shopping bag, the newspaper: nothing should be wasted.

Though I’ve controlled the obsession (partly by becoming conscious of what I consume in the first place), each subsequent trip to Havana has made me realize just how much we could upcycle if we really wanted to try our hand at repurposing objects that have outlived their original use.

Among the things that have been repurposed here as flowerpots is a construction helmet, and various other objects

Hat-tip to Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe: Havana’s lessons in green living.

Mapping Human Vulnerability to Climate Change � GIS and Science

2011-03-21T05:17:00.002+02:00

Mapping Human Vulnerability to Climate Change | GIS and Science: "First global map suggests climate change will have greatest impact  on the populations least responsible for causing the problem

Researchers already study how various species of plants and animals migrate in response to climate change. Now, Jason Samson, a PhD candidate in McGill University’s Department of Natural Resource Sciences, has taken the innovative step of using the same analytic tools to measure the impact of climate change on human populations. Samson and fellow researchers combined climate change data with censuses covering close to 97 per-cent of the world’s population in order to forecast potential changes in local populations for 2050."

Wanted: Operations Manager: SAFCEI

2011-03-19T03:52:00.002+02:00

Wanted: Operations Manager: SAFCEI

SAFCEI is looking for an Operations Manager to join its head office team at Westlake, Cape Town. The Operations Manager will report to the Executive Director. Please download the job description for an outline of the roles and responsibilities of this new post.

The main purpose of this position is to build and run SAFCEI as an organisation that provides maximum support to its programmatic work and achieves its objectives.

Key performance areas include financial management, HR, logistics and operations, administration, fundraising, membership, and monitoring and evaluation.

A broad range of competencies is required, including:

· knowledge and experience of people management, administration, resource management, managing an organisation’s finances, budgeting and strategic planning;

· knowledge of relevant legislation and HR processes;

· people skills, report-writing and communication skills and basic OD skills;

· ability to grow people and support their development.

Experience of fundraising and M&E will be advantageous.

The person appointed to this post should have a university degree, a post-matric financial qualification, and 5 years’ middle-senior management experience. S/he will need to be a strategic thinker, innovative, a team player and willing to do whatever needs to be done!

SAFCEI is a multi-faith organisation and operates from the perspective of faith and the principles upheld by all faiths. It would therefore be appropriate if the applicant is a person of faith.

The salary is negotiable depending on experience and qualifications.

To apply, please send an up-to-date CV with a letter of motivation and the names and contact details of three referees to coordinator@safcei.org.za by the end of Sunday 27 March. (No copies of certificates etc are needed at this stage.)

We will acknowledge receipt of all applications, but please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted beyond that.

SAFCEI news

2011-03-10T05:23:00.001+02:00

A major focus of SAFCEI's work in 2010 will be raising awareness and understanding of the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Durban in December.

We should not think that these conferences, left to themselves, will save us from deadly global warming. In Cancun, Mexico, in December, the world's representatives applauded a deal that in fact leaves Southern Africa on track for lethal warming within the next 50 years.

So it is vital that we in Southern Africa work to get our own house in order, by absolutely rejecting further expansion of coal power, and ensuring that South Africa's new national electricity plan (the IRP 2010) is truly progressive. Warning signs are accelerating:unprecedented floods in Queensland, Australia as this is written; also last year, 16% of hard corals around the world were destroyed by ocean acidification, caused by the increased amounts of carbon dioxide absorbed by sea water.

SAFCEI working with South African civil society, is planning two conferences of African faith leaders and a possible end-of-year summit of world faith leaders. Our aim is to mobilise faith leaders and communities across Africa to increase the pressure on our governments to act decisively.

What do we do locally? Our latest Eco-Congregations News, hot off the press, is available on the SAFCEI website (pdf).

We should not fall into the trap of thinking that the picture is entirely bleak (articles from UNEP's Achim Steiner and New Scientist give hope). Around the world, people are beginning to make extraordinary efforts to reverse climate change and other ecological catastrophes. On our own continent, Ethiopia is planning to be carbon neutral by 2025.

But technology alone will not save us. We need to find the compassion and courage to take responsibility for the suffering that is already being visited on people far away from us, often poor and indigenous people, as a consequence of our all too often wasteful and excessive consumption.

Urgent action is needed: please read 350.org's Bill McKibben, who makes a call for civil disobedience on climate change, here:

"Having been given this earth to keep and protect—dominion over a living planet—we're on the verge of wiping away much of creation. In the process we're already making life impossible for millions of our poorest brothers and sisters. This is ... a kind of blasphemy. Global warming shouldn't be a moral question, but because of our inaction it's become the greatest moral challenge of our time."

Theological reflection

From Daisaku Ikeda, leader of the international lay Buddhist organisation, Soka Gakkai International:

If we pay careful attention to the particular characteristics present in even a tiny patch of land, observing and analyzing them within the processes of living there, we can develop the ability to grasp the characteristics of the entire country or even the world.

[The 1930s Japanese lay Buddhist leader Tsunesaburo] Makiguchi introduces the following story about the early Edo-period politician Doi Toshikatsu (1573-1644) to illustrate how the extension and expansion of our awareness can lead from and be based on concrete examples. One day, Doi picked up a discarded scrap of Chinese silk and handed it to one of his samurai retainers. Many laughed at this seemingly insignificant gesture. Several years later, when Doi asked the samurai about the piece of silk, he produced it, having carefully stored it. Doi praised the samurai and increased his annual stipend by 300 koku (the standard unit of wealth in Japan at the time). Doi then explained his actions:

"This fabric was produced by Chinese farmers who plucked mulberry leaves to raise silkworms and spin thread. It came into the hands of Chinese traders, crossed over the great distance of sea to reach Japan, passed through the hands of the people of Nagasaki, was purchased by merchants in Kyoto or Osaka, and finally reached Edo [present-day Tokyo]. One cannot but be struck by the enormous human effort by which it reached us, and thus to discard it as a worthless scrap is a fearful thing inviting the rebuke of heaven.""

To empathetically connect, through a scrap of fabric, with the lives of farmers working in mulberry fields in distant China – this is precisely what I am referring to as inner universality.

In other words, rather than making the great leap to the vast and complex phenomena of life, we should start from the concrete realities of the tiny patch of land where we are now. It is only by paying relentless attention to those realities that we can freely direct our thoughts and associations to the larger dimension. If we develop such fresh and vital imagination, a keen sensitivity to daily life and to life itself, we will be able to experience not only close friends but even the inhabitants of distant lands whom we have never met – and even the cultures and products of those lands – as neighbors.

For a person who has developed these capacities, war, which ravages the land and lays waste to life, is something only to be abhorred.

We will offer reflections from different faith traditions on environmental responsibility in all future newsletters. Your suggestions are welcome.

Other news

Our latest Eco-congregations News, hot off the press, is available on the SAFCEI website (pdf).

• For Capetonians: We invite you to see the movie Carbon Nation, a documentary about climate change solutions, that will be screened at the Labia on Orange cinema on Saturday 15 January (6:15 pm), on Sunday 16 January (6:15 pm), and on Monday 17 January (8:30 pm). “Even if you doubt the severity of the impact of climate change or just don’t buy it at all, this is a compelling and relevant film that illustrates how solutions to climate change also address other social, economic and security issues.”

We urge SAFCEI members and supporters to organise screenings of this film in other regions.

• An Avaaz petition that is currently doing the rounds – and which we are supporting – is against insecticides that appear to be (partly) responsible for the dwindling of bee populations globally. Please consider joining us and adding your voice!

SAFCEI people

A bit of news related to our Management Committee (Manco) is that the Orthodox Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria, Metropolitan Seraphim Kykkotis – a member of our Manco – has been appointed as ecumenical representative of the Patriarchate of Alexandria on various bodies, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), All-Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the European Union (EU) and the United Nations. Because these duties will require him to travel a great deal, he has been transferred to the smaller Archdiocese of Zimbabwe. We congratulate Archbishop Seraphim on this appointment and are pleased that he is able nevertheless to continue serving on Manco.

Membership renewals

Our members may have noticed that we have not been sending out membership renewal reminders these past few months. We are changing our system so that memberships will be linked to the calendar year rather than to the anniversary of your joining. This is a much simpler and more manageable system. We will therefore be sending out membership/renewal notices to everyone soon for 2011.

SA a major global polluter - Environment - IOL

2011-03-03T18:59:00.005+02:00

SA a major global polluter - Environment - IOL: "South Africa is the world’s 13th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases that are causing human-induced global climate change, Parliament’s portfolio committee on water and environmental affairs has heard.

Dr Peter Johnston, of UCT’s Climate Analysis Group, told the committee this week that China had recently overtaken the US as the world leader in greenhouse gas emissions.

But on a per capita basis, which was more meaningful at the level of political decision-making, South Africa was in 10th place – well ahead of China, which came in 16th, and behind Australia at No 1 and the US second."

Fox Climate Coverage Irony Alert! | Mother Jones

2010-12-17T07:37:00.001+02:00

Fox Climate Coverage Irony Alert! | Mother Jones: "The Fox News memo on how to 'report' on global warming (i.e., suggest the science behind it is fatally flawed) got a lot of attention on Wednesday. Not that anyone was particularly surprised—you can turn on Fox most days and see that policy in action.

But while management at Fox is still banking on sowing doubt about climate change, the big-wigs at parent company News Corp. aren't. Earlier this year I reported at length about News Corp.'s effort to go carbon neutral. Rupert Murdoch has argued that dealing with global warming is not only the right thing to do, it's good for the corporation's bottom line. Yeah, all that stuff about how global warming is just Al Gore's pipe dream? The boss man doesn't think that."

Worldwide Groundwater Depletion Raises Sea Level - NYTimes.com

2010-11-04T06:22:00.001+02:00

Worldwide Groundwater Depletion Raises Sea Level - NYTimes.com: "Worldwide overpumping of groundwater, particularly in northern India, Iran, Mexico, northeastern China and the American West, more than doubled from 1960 to 2000 and is responsible for about 25 percent of the rise in sea level, according to estimates in a new study by a team of Dutch researchers published in Geophysical Review Letters.

The general idea that groundwater used for irrigation is running off into ocean-bound rivers or evaporating into the clouds, only to end up raining into the ocean, has been around for two decades or so; it was a focus of a 2005 paper in The Journal of Hydrogeology. But Peter H. Gleick, a leading expert on water issues, said the new paper offers a fresh way of quantifying the phenomenon."

Meetings on climate change

2010-10-08T01:42:00.001+02:00

On Sunday, October 10 -- that's 10/10/10, a date to remember -- we will gather in climate "work parties" around the globe to demonstrate our determination and trumpet a call to our governments: "We're getting to work... what about you?"

The more of us take part, the more unmistakable our message of determination to defeat climate change. And these parties won't just be vitally important; they'll be fun, too. Click below to find an event near you and RSVP (or register an event of your own) -- it's time to roll up our sleeves and take action:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_work_party/?vl

The timing is critical: in the weeks and months to come, governments will make important decisions about whether to keep striving for a global climate treaty. All year, they've been reeling from last December's Copenhagen summit, where leaders failed to reach a legally binding agreement -- or even commit to developing one. Today, if politicians think that the public outcry for climate action has ended, they will succumb to the whispers of the fossil fuel lobby -- and simply give up on reaching a real deal.

But even as governments dither, the climate crisis itself is accelerating. 2010 is the hottest year on record. Climate-linked natural disasters, like the floods in Pakistan, have claimed thousands of lives. And scientists say the the picture is only getting worse. Our movement must race ahead more quickly than the crisis itself -- and pull the politicians along with us.

By demonstrating our willingness to take action, the Global Work Party issues a challenge to our leaders. Local events include tree plantings in rural Tanzania, solar installation in China, and an international bike-ride from Jordan to Israel -- along with much simpler events organized by small groups of friends. Wherever we are and however we get involved, we're making a point: if we're driving solutions to climate change within our own communities, our political leaders have no excuse not to get to work nationally and globally.

The more of us join, the more powerful our message. 10/10/10 is just days away, and it's easy to get involved -- click to sign up:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_work_party/?vl

Although time is short to confront climate change, the climate movement itself -- from the perspective of history -- is young. Abolishing the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ending apartheid took decades. But climate change, because of its unique threat to everyone everywhere, has a special power to unite people across all lines and boundaries -- if we let ourselves believe that progress is possible.

Last year saw an extraordinary wave of activity, with successive global days of action (21 September, 24 October, and 12/12) that drove heads of government from around the world to personally attend the Copenhagen summit. It was breathtaking, but it wasn't enough. This weekend, let's renew our commitment to the fight of six billion lifetimes -- and show that we're not going anywhere as long as we've got a planet to save.

Blog action day: blog about water

2010-10-06T04:16:00.001+02:00

Hey Blog Action Day bloggers,

Since our announcement last week, more than 1600 bloggers from 100 countries have registered to participate in Blog Action Day 2010, focused on the issue of water. If you haven't signed up yet, you can register here.

Many of you have asked us how you can get more involved. Here are three ways you can help make Blog Action Day 2010 a success, and be part of the effort to save the 3800 children who die each day from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation facilities:

Embed an action widget: Together with US Fund for UNICEF, we're helping to build a movement of people across the world calling on UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to accelerate the UN's work to supply clean, safe drinking water to the world's poorest populations. You can help this movement by grabbing our interactive action widget and embedding it on your blog, empowering your readers to join the cause.
Raise funds for water: We've partnered with leading organizations to enable you to raise money to provide clean drinking water to those in need. Among these is charity: water, which allows you to create a fundraising page to raise money to build wells in Africa. You can also directly donate through Water.org, an organization co-founded by Matt Damon. Just $25 provides clean water for a lifetime for one person.
Spread the Word: We need your help to spread the word about Blog Action Day 2010 across the web. Take a moment to tell your friends to sign up via email, Facebook and Twitter. The more voices we have involved in the conversation, the greater our collective impact.

Blog Action Day 2010 is shaping up to be the biggest online day of action around water to date. But we need your help to make it even more successful. By registering your blog, embedding an action widget, fundraising for clean water and spreading the word, you're helping shed light on an often over-looked, yet incredibly important issue.

We'll keep you updated with any Blog Action Day developments as we get closer to the 15th, but in the meantime don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Notes from underground: Happy Spring Day! Happy New Year!

2010-09-01T08:29:00.002+02:00

For Orthodox Christians, today is the beginning of the new church year, and also a day of prayer for thwe creation and the environment. If you are interested, you can read more here: Notes from underground: Happy Spring Day! Happy New Year!:

Today, we are told, is officially the start of Spring, and it is also New Year's Day -- welcome to the year 7519 (I think).

Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe: Air conditioning: Fossil fuels used for AC in the US is same as all power used in Africa

2010-08-05T19:15:00.001+02:00

Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe: Air conditioning: Fossil fuels used for AC in the US is same as all power used in Africa: "Air conditioning guzzles 15 per cent of total American energy consumption, higher than any other country, using the same amount of fossil fuel as the whole of Africa employs for all its energy needs. Global air-conditioning demands cannot be quantified, but this summer's high temperatures have prompted a surge in air con sales in China, for example. While British air conditioning is less of a societal 'must-have', according to the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), its use is set to swell here by 50 per cent over the next 20 years."

A tsunami of pesticides

2010-07-28T07:09:00.003+02:00

The Asian tsunami of 2004 is said to have killed over 200 000 people, but as many people are killed every year through pesticides, according to this article.

ZCommunications | The Killing Fields Of Multi-National Corporations by Vandana Shiva | ZSpace:

The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worst industrial disaster in human history. Twenty-five thousand people died, 500,000 were injured, and the injustice done to the victims of Bhopal over the past 25 years will go down as the worst case of jurisprudence ever.

The gas leak in Bhopal in December 1984 was from the Union Carbide pesticide plant which manufactured 'carabaryl' (trade name 'sevin') - a pesticide used mostly in cotton plants. It was, in fact, because of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the tragedy of extremist violence in Punjab that I woke up to the fact that agriculture had become a war zone. Pesticides are war chemicals that kill - every year 220,000 people are killed by pesticides worldwide.

SAFCEI AGM 10 August 2010

2010-07-26T19:59:00.002+02:00

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: 10 August 2010

Notice is hereby given of the fourth Annual General Meeting of the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute, which will be held at St Francis of Assisi Anglican Church, 44 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, Johannesburg on Tuesday 10 August 2010. (For directions, if needed, ?: 011 646 2660.)

The gathering will start with a finger supper at 17h30 for 18h00, with the meeting itself beginning at 19h00. RSVP for catering purposes by 6 August.

Thank you.

We also hereby give formal notice of our intention to change SAFCEI's financial year to coincide with the calendar year as from 1 January 2011.

This will be discussed at the AGM.

Bishop Geoff Davies
Executive Director
~~~~~~~~

For catering purposes, please respond by Friday 6 August 2010 and include the following info:

Name(s):
Faith community/organisation you represent:
Phone number:
Email:
Any dietary requirements.

RSVP by 6 August 2010: email: secretary@safcei.org.za /Tel: 021 701 8145 (am
only) / fax: 086 696 9666 / mail to SAFCEI, Box 106, Kalk Bay, 7990.

Green Prophet Flies To: Mazen Abboud’s Environment Blog in Lebanon | Green Prophet

2010-07-05T05:14:00.001+02:00

Green Prophet Flies To: Mazen Abboud’s Environment Blog in Lebanon | Green Prophet:

The growing awareness of environmental issues throughout the Middle East is manifested in the Internet, which includes an ever growing number of websites, forums and blogs focusing on the environment. Some of the blogs are written in Arabic, others are written in Arabic and include translation into English, and, yet, others are written only in English.

In this weekly review “Green Prophet Flies To…”, we’ll look at a blog from a different country in the Middle East. We aim to give clues to the current environmental issues that each country is dealing with, as well as talk about the identity of the bloggers and the environmental agendas they pursue in their own countries and in the region at large. Here you will find valuable data, opinions and news on environmental topics and exploits which are not discussed anywhere else.

This week we fly to Lebanon and look at Mazen Abboud’s Blog, active from April 2009. In his blog Mazen Abboud writes that he is “an environmentalist, a freelance journalist and a businessman.”

Will humans go extinct within 100 years?

2010-06-29T06:28:00.003+02:00

Homo sapiens is an endangered species, according to an Australian scientist.

Will humans go extinct within 100 years? - Technology & science - Science - msnbc.com:

Is the clock of doom ticking for mankind? Yes, says an eminent 95-year-old scientist from Australia. Professor Frank Fenner — the same scientist who brought the myxomatosis virus to rabbits to control their numbers in the 1950's — is acutely aware of the impact of overpopulation and shortage of resources.

In 1980, Fenner announced to the World Health Assembly that smallpox had been eradicated, an achievement that is widely regarded as the World Health Organization's finest hour.

Now, in an interview with The Australian, the well-respected microbiologist expressed his pessimism for our future. 'We're going to become extinct,' he said. 'Whatever we do now is too late.'

Southern Baptists speak out on the Gulf oil spill | OrthoCuban

2010-06-23T05:58:00.001+02:00

Here's an Orthodox Christian view of the changing US Southern Baptist view of the environment, prompted by the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

Southern Baptists speak out on the Gulf oil spill | OrthoCuban:

I find it startling that the first Scripture actually quoted is the Scripture that was chosen as the theme for this year in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” And, it was chosen last year, long before the oil spill. To me, it is a small sign that God was aware of what was coming.

But, more than that, catch a phrase that Southern Baptists have not been known to use before, “to promote future energy policies based on prudence, conservation, accountability, and safety.” This is a vigorous statement of an ecological viewpoint, one that had often been derided before as the purview of “liberals.” Notice also that the previous phrases call for an involvement by government that is a partial repudiation of the stance that many conservatives had taken previously, which was that the government should stay out of private business as much as possible.

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it | Environment | The Observer

2010-06-16T10:23:00.000+02:00

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it | Environment | The Observer: "Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades"

Patriotic flags increase carbon dioxide emissions

2010-06-14T06:00:00.002+02:00

BBC NEWS | Flag drag will boost fuel costs: "Patriotic drivers showing their support for England with window flags during the World Cup will pay more in fuel costs, an academic has claimed.

An average car with two flags attached burns an extra litre of fuel per hour at an average of 70mph, said Manchester University's Dr Antonio Filippone.

He also calculated that 500,000 drivers all doing the same will create 2.8m kg of carbon dioxide emissions.

The extra fuel consumption is caused by the flags creating drag."

Toxic Corexit dispersant chemicals remained secret as feds colluded with Big Business

2010-06-12T08:46:00.001+02:00

Toxic Corexit dispersant chemicals remained secret as feds colluded with Big Business: "After weeks of silence on the issue, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally decided to go public with the list of ingredients used to manufacture Corexit, the chemical dispersant used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. There are two things about this announcement that deserve our attention: First, the ingredients that have been disclosed are extremely toxic, and second, why did the EPA protect the oil industry's 'trade secrets' for so long by refusing to disclose these ingredients until now?

As reported in the New York Times, Brian Turnbaugh, a policy analyst at OMB Watch said, 'EPA had the authority to act all along; its decision to now disclose the ingredients demonstrates this. Yet it took a public outcry and weeks of complaints for the agency to act and place the public's interest ahead of corporate interests.'"

Hubris

2010-05-25T22:03:00.002+02:00

clipped from news.yahoo.com

Fri May 21, 5:20 pm ET

According to two surviving crew members of the Deepwater Horizon, oil workers from the rig were held in seclusion on the open water for up to two days after the April 20 explosion, while attorneys attempted to convince them to sign legal documents stating that they were unharmed by the incident. The men claim that they were forbidden from having any contact with concerned loved ones during that time, and were told they would not be able to go home until they signed the documents they were presented with.

Stephen Davis, a seven-year veteran of drilling-rig work from San Antonio, told The Guardian's Suzanne Goldenberg today that he was held on a boat for 36 to 40 hours after diving into the Gulf from the burning rig and swimming to safety. Once on a crew boat, Davis said, he and the others were denied access to satellite phones or radio to get in touch with their families, many of whom were frantic to find out whether or not they were OK.

Hat-tip to Wounded Bird: HORIZON SURVIVORS ALLEGEDLY KEPT IN SECLUSION AFTER EXPLOSION for this link. And like Wounded Bird, I have few words, and let the story speak for itself.

But I have one observation. Perhaps our grandchildren's generation may develop the technology to exploit that oil without wasting it or damaging the environment. It seems that BP were out of their depth, figuratively as well as literally. That is our grandchildren's oil that is being wasted by this generations hubris.

Transocean cites 1851 law to limit spill liability - U.S. business- msnbc.com

2010-05-17T17:57:00.001+02:00

Transocean cites 1851 law to limit spill liability - U.S. business- msnbc.com: "The company that owns the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig said Thursday it will petition a federal court in Houston to cap its overall liability from the incident at less than $27 million.

If successful, Transocean Ltd. would be left with as much as $533 million in insurance money from the failed venture. That's almost enough to cover the revenue the company was expecting from a three-year contract with BP PLC. However, it has also estimated additional expenses from insurance deductibles, higher insurance premiums and legal fees at about $200 million.

The move comes as lawsuits pile up against Transocean and BP, which leased the rig and is trying to shut off a well that's spewing 210,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico each day. In addition, hearings by congressional and administration panels this week have raised questions about safety procedures and equipment employed at the drill site."

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

2010-05-07T08:32:00.001+02:00

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans: "Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide (potentially) spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world."

Wild Coast: mining and toll road

2010-05-06T10:03:00.001+02:00

TO ALL CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE WILD COAST

The Wild Coast continues to be under threat from both the application to undertake sand dune mining and the N2 toll highway. The record of decision (ROD) for the N2 toll road was released on 19 April. It is stated that objections need to be made before 19^th May. We are asking for an extension to this deadline but we are also told that DEAT is requiring a notice of intention to appeal. We attach this notice. We write now to ask that if you are registered as an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) and wish to appeal, that you send in this form.

Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC) will shortly issue a brief outline regarding our concerns. We believe it best if comments come from a denomination or a congregation or a faith community, though an individual may also object. If you are not registered as an I&AP but wish to object, please do it through SAFCEI. We will include your appeal with ours.

I do emphasize that we in both SAFCEI and SWC believe that the development of roads in the Eastern Cape is important. Our concern is about the route of this proposed toll road and the fact that it is to be a toll road which will place an extremely heavy burden not only on the people of the Eastern Cape but also on the residents of Durban. As long ago as 2003, we asked SANRAL to upgrade the existing roads. This would not have required an extensive EIA and the work could have been completed by now. Their refusal has been extremely costly in terms of failed development and human lives lost as a result of the poor condition of the present roads. I continue to recall that one of the best priests of the Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, the Revd Madoda Hlwatika, lost his life on 6^th January in 2004 on one of the very road we have asked to be upgraded.

The greenfields route between Lusikisiki and Port Edward is not of concern only because of the threat it poses to the Pondoland Centre of Endemism but it will also isolate the present economic centres of the region, notably Mt Frere, Flagstaff and Bizana and it will have an impact on Kokstad. Certainly the residents of Umtata and Lusikisiki will benefit but the EIA does not include the matter of tolling. This is to be a separate application. We believe this is dishonest as residents of that area have not been informed that toll fees could be in excess of R75 to get to Durban. It is also absurd not to include the toll fees at the outset as the road cannot be built unless it is a toll road.

This highlights the fact that the road is for the benefit of through traffic. The road will isolate communities and provide them with extremely limited access. We believe strongly that the people of the Eastern Cape deserve the development of a road system which does not punish them with excessively high toll fees. It would seem that it is the engineering companies that are driving this proposal. This application has emanated from the Department of Transport but is an unsolicited bid. We were told by the Department of Transport that it was not integral to their development plan.

I think it would be fair to say that the people of Pondoland are divided on their opinion about this road. But there is unanimity in their desire for improved roads in the region. Those who will be directly affected by the toll road are extremely concerned not least because of the lack of consultation.

We hope to send you further information shortly.

With good wishes

Bishop Geoff Davies.

Kate Davies

Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (SAFCEI)

kated@safcei.org.za

083-468-1798

+27-(0)21-788-6591

Massive oil spill was foreseeable

2010-05-04T04:46:00.001+02:00

Massive oil spill was foreseeable: "BP, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded on April 20, is claiming that the spreading oil spill threatening US states along the Gulf of Mexico with economic and ecological disaster was unforeseeable.

Oil is now flowing into the Gulf at a rate of as high as 25,000 barrels a day due to the explosion and the subsequent failure of a blowout preventer (BOP), which is designed to plug the well in the event of an emergency. The BOP is still not responding to attempts to close it.

Neither the company nor the government had in place any backup plans in the event of a failure of the BOP. Options currently being considered to plug the well will take weeks or months to implement and may not be successful."

Once-hidden EU report reveals damage from biodiesel | World | Reuters

2010-04-28T00:50:00.001+02:00

Once-hidden EU report reveals damage from biodiesel | World | Reuters: "BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Biofuels such as biodiesel from soy beans can create up to four times more climate-warming emissions than standard diesel or petrol, according to an EU document released under freedom of information laws.

The European Union has set itself a goal of obtaining 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources, mostly biofuels, by the end of this decade, but it is now worrying about the unintended environmental impacts.

Four major studies are under way."

Antioch Abouna: Global Warning! (mine them, don't fear them)

2010-04-27T06:44:00.001+02:00

Antioch Abouna: Global Warning! (mine them, don't fear them): "There is a danger facing us on this planet perhaps even more severe in its implications for humanity than the global warming. It concerns the global depletion of resources and the impact this will have other seemingly ever increasing population.

Sustainable development has been an issue for decades and yet we do not seem to have made much progress in dealing with it. When I was a teen report was published by the Club of Rome called ' The Limits to Growth ' (1972). This has been updated at least twice since other writing is still on the wall. We cannot keep on living as we have without endangering the ecosystem upon which we depend, but if we must as a species continue to grow numerically and economically, then we cannot look to the earth as an infinite resource for us to plunder indefinitely."

Notes from underground: Going Green: installing a solar-powered geyser

2010-04-26T13:20:00.001+02:00

Notes from underground: Going Green: installing a solar-powered geyser:

This morning workmen came to install a solar-powered geyser in our house. It's a cold and rainy day and winter is approaching, so I'm not sure if we'll see the benefit immediately, but it will be interesting to see if the electricity bills are reduced after a few months.

Eskom, the national electricity supplier, offers subsidies for the installation of solar-powered geysers.

Climategate - MPs report clears scientists

2010-04-05T13:49:00.003+02:00

Remember the "Climategate" scandal of a few months ago -- the discovery of e-mails that showed that climate change was a huge hoax, and that the conspiracy to propagate the hoax had at last been unmasked?

Well, it turns out that it wasn't a hoax, and that the conspiracy didn't exist, and that the whole thing was a storm in a tea cup. But you can bet that that won't get as much media coverage as the original rumours.

The Church Mouse Blog: Climategate - MPs report clears scientists:

The climategate scandal was the biggest challenge to the broadening consensus in Britain about the urgent need to limit carbon emissions to control the effects of climate change. The story broke that emails had been leaked between scientists at the heart of climate change research, in which they apparently stated that they were using a 'trick' to make the trends fit their theories. The conspiracy theories went wider, however, and claims were made that the emails showed that there was a conspiracy to subvert the whole scientific process on this issue.

It was a major international story. So presumably it is an equally big story that the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has now investigated the affair and concluded that there is no cover-up and no conspiracy. Well, no. But it should be.

Now perhaps someone should investigate the conspirators who decided to "unmask" the hoax that wasn't.

Eskom: clean energy, not coal! - Avaaz

2010-04-01T07:39:00.001+02:00

In just days, the World Bank will vote on a proposed R29 billion loan to Eskom to build the fourth-largest coal plant in the world -- a climate disaster. At the same time, Eskom plans to effectively double electricity rates over the next three years. Big polluters are getting cut-rate electricity while ratepayers would be left to pay back this disastrous loan.

But the loan is not a done deal. Some creditors are having second thoughts, with the US expected to abstain and several European delegates reportedly on the fence. And we can tip the balance -- we just need one "no" vote to table the proposal since the Bank rarely proceeds with divisive votes!

While Eskom trumpets the plan, we can tell World Bank directors how we feel about coal. Let the Word Bank know that we don't want its dirty loan - click below to sign the petition today:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_eskom_coal_loan/?vl

The Bank is right to recognize South Africa's energy needs, but this loan would be putting money in the wrong place. Instead of dirty coal, South Africa needs energy efficiency and clean, renewable sources of power that people who most need it can actually afford. If this loan is approved, South Africans will pay for it several-fold -- in meteoric electricity rates, missed clean energy investments, polluted air, destroyed land, and the warming earth on which we live.

Dozens of South African environmental, community, church, labour, academic and women's organizations, representing a diverse, unified voice have mobilized to stop the loan. But every voice counts in these last days before the World Bank vote. Act now -- sign the petition opposing the loan:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_eskom_coal_loan/?vl

With hope,

Ben, Paul, Graziela, David, Alice, Ricken, and the whole Avaaz team

More information --

NGO Response to the World Bank panel report and Fact Sheet
http://www.groundwork.org.za/Publications/EskomFinalDocs/ResponsetotheWorldBankpanelreportandFactSheet.pdf

Original World Bank Fact Sheet
http://www.groundwork.org.za/Publications/EskomFinalDocs/WBEskomloanfactsheet.pdf

Eskom Tariff Hikes Slammed
http://allafrica.com/stories/201002250561.html

World Bank to Consider $4 Billion Loan Application From Eskom
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aGkhG0hBKlrE

SAfrica grants Eskom 24.8 pct price rise for 2010/11
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWEB199720100224?type=marketsNews

James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change | Environment | The Guardian

2010-03-31T08:51:00.001+02:00

James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change | Environment | The Guardian: "Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory.

It follows a tumultuous few months in which public opinion on efforts to tackle climate change has been undermined by events such as the climate scientists' emails leaked from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit."

Earth Hour - 27 March

2010-03-19T18:06:00.003+02:00

On 28 March 2009, in probably the single biggest mass action in history, a wave of darkness swept across the world's cities and towns as millions of people switched off their lights for an hour, pledging their support for decisive action against climate change.

In South Africa more than 100 000 people signed up their support. Further, based on the reduced electricity consumption over Earth Hour, ESKOM estimated that 1 million South African households participated! Earth Hour 2010 will have a very important role to play in ensuring that the South African government takes strong action against climate change.

For Earth Hour 2010, WWF calls on South Africans to switch off their lights on Saturday, 27 March, as a symbolic act to send a powerful message to leaders that the time to act on climate change is now.

This year WWF is challenging individuals, businesses, and communities to take the lead by pledging to reduce their own carbon footprint. We have to show world leaders that we are serious about tackling climate change and that we want them to deliver a fair, effective and binding climate deal.

Rolling out Earth Hour is easy, all you have to do is:

Pledge your support on http://www.wwf.org.za/.
Switch off the lights of your buildings on 27 March from 8:30pm - 9:30pm.
Spread the message to your staff, students, members, colleagues, customers, tenants, yes, everybody! (We will email you a generic message to send out in the beginning of March.)
Show your support by posting the Earth Hour 2010 web banner on your website, printing t-shirts for your staff or having an Earth Hour event on the night.
If you would like to support Earth Hour 2010 in a big way by sponsoring an event or donating advertising space, please contact us on 021 888 2800.

Please save the date: 27 March 2010, 8:30pm - 9:30pm.
We hope that you will support Earth Hour 2010.

Ex-nuclear workers to march on Necsa

2010-02-05T06:27:00.003+02:00

Please be informed that ex-nuclear workers who have repeatedly over the past few years failed in their attempts to get compensation from South Africa’s Nuclear Corporation (NECSA) for debilitating and often fatal occupational diseases, have planned a legal march to NECSA’s headquarters at Pelindaba near Pretoria.

Hat-tip to Ex-nuclear workers to march on Necsa - Environment South Africa

They have vowed to stage a “sleep-in” at NECSA’s gates unless they are adequately responded to by the nuclear bosses. The memorandum they intend handing over is attached.

When: Thursday February 4, 2010

Starting time: 10.30 am

Place: Necsa Gate 3, Church Street, Pelindaba (west of Pretoria) Contact person: Mr. Alfred Sepepe 074 299 8214

Many of these Atteridgeville Township based workers formed part of the sample group of 208 ex-nuclear workers who underwent preliminary medical examinations by respected occupational health medical practitioner Dr Murray Coombs. Coombs found that a significant number of these workers suffered from occupational illnesses resultant from their employment at the Pelindaba complex and referred several cases to the Compensation Commissioner. All these applications were rejected. The Commissioner has yet to make known the basis on which he dismissed these applications despite legislation which entitles these workers to compensation based on presumption alone. Coombs further concluded that most of the ex-workers he had seen needed further in-depth medical tests and in 2006 Dr. Coombs approached NECSA to undertake these tests in the presence of representatives appointed by the workers themselves to ensure transparency. NECSA flatly refused and produced its own medical results that denied the claims made in the Coombs Report.

Almost 30 ex-workers from the original sample group have died penniless and with extreme medical conditions since this process began in 2005/6 – this despite numerous appeals to the President, various Ministers and a special hearing before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee in July 2007 which undertook to ensure justice and compensation for these workers. The chairman of that committee was dropped in the new post-elections administration and to date not a single promise made to these workers has been met.

Please contact Mr. Sepepe for further details.

This media release is issued by:

Pelindaba Working Group
acting in solidarity with the plight of these ex-nuclear workers
Dominique Gilbert – 083 740 4676

Source: http://www.cane.org.za/

Earth Hour 2010

2010-01-14T19:17:00.001+02:00

On 28 March 2009, in probably the single biggest mass action in history, a wave of darkness swept across the world’s cities and towns as millions of people switched off their lights for an hour, pledging their support for decisive action against climate change.

In South Africa more than 100 000 people signed up their support. Further, based on the reduced electricity consumption over Earth Hour, ESKOM estimated that 1 million South African households participated!
Earth Hour 2010 will have a very important role to play in ensuring that the South African government takes strong action against climate change.

Please save the date: 27 March 2010, 8:30pm – 9:30pm.
We hope that you will support Earth Hour 2010. We look forward to engaging with you next year on this exciting and important worldwide campaign.

Message from the Director of SAFCEI

2010-01-09T04:33:00.003+02:00

SOUTHERN AFRICAN FAITH COMMUNITIES’
ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE (SAFCEI)
“Faith communities committed to cherishing living earth.”

SAFCEI NEWSBRIEF December 2009

More than 5000 participants from over 200 religions from around the world gathered for the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, from 3rd to 9th December. I went with the hope of sending a message from the Parliament to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Because the Parliament does not issue statements, a “Message to Copenhagen” was signed by over five hundred participants, and the Parliament Council agreed to try to catch the
attention of the media with a banner.

Following the Dalai Lama’s address at the closing plenary, during which he called on the members of Parliament to put words into action and for the voice of religions to be heard, participants walked out onto the bridge and stood behind the Call to Copenhagen banner.

This is our call to you all as we go into the New Year. It has been a tumultuous year in many respects. We – all religions and all people and all nations – now need to:

protect the only earth we have

I pray blessings at this time that it may be a season of renewal for all that lies ahead.

Bishop Geoff
Executive Director of SAFCEI

Message from Melbourne to Copenhagen

2009-12-08T18:30:00.002+02:00

Message from members of the religions of the world gathered at the Parliament of the World’s Religions

We, from the major faith communities of the world, meeting at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Melbourne, Australia, from 3rd to 9th December 2009, send warm greetings to all who are gathering at Copenhagen for your crucially important Conference. We wish to assure you that prayers are being lifted up around the world for this meeting as we recognize that climate change is the single most important issue presently confronting us and the entire Earth community.

Climate change and other critical environmental crises are intricately linked with the financial crisis. We call on all nations of the world, particularly the rich, to recognize humanity’s dependency on the natural environment and therefore on the health and well-being of the planet and seek solutions with the utmost urgency for the global environmental and economic systems.

We therefore call for a meaningful agreement that places the well-being of people and planet before profit.

We believe a dramatic reduction of carbon emissions is possible using the natural energy of the planet, which comes from renewable resources such as the sun, wind, waves, biogas. Therefore we call for a commitment to an immediate turning from reliance on fossil fuel energy and a planned and phased decline in its use in order to bring CO₂ emissions down to 350 ppm.

We believe there is a moral imperative for rich countries to reduce carbon emissions and share wealth and skills with developing countries to adapt to climate change and build their economies sustainably

Climate justice is essential for a sustainable future. Either we follow the moral principles of justice, upheld by all faith communities, and share equitably the resources of the world, or we continue to consume excessively, resulting in ever more conflict and environmental destruction.

We, religious leaders of the world, therefore call on the governments of the world to implement the following resolution:

CLIMATE CHANGE RESOLUTION:

As people of faith, we believe we have a responsibility to the source of life and to future generations to care for this planet – our home. We therefore call on the governments of the world when they meet at the UNFCCC at Copenhagen to take urgent and meaningful action to stem climate change.

Following the latest scientific evidence we believe we cannot allow temperatures to rise by 2 degrees. We therefore call for a reduction of CO₂ emissions to a target of 350 ppm, ensuring that emissions will have peaked by 2015 in all countries, to then decline to at least 85% below 1990 levels by 2050.

We pray wisdom and courage to do what is right.

Issued by Bishop Geoff Davies on behalf of all who endorsed it at the Parliament of the World’s Religions meeting in Melbourne, 3 – 9 December 2009

Contact: geoff.davies@safcei.org.za (Mobile:++27 83 754 5275)

Candlelight Vigil outside US Embassy

2009-12-07T09:27:00.003+02:00

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL OUTSIDE US EMBASSY

11 December, Friday afternoon to evening
(midway through the climate negotiations in Copenhagen)

Join the Action in Tshwane!

When: Friday 11 December from 15h00 onwards, to 22h00.

Where: Corner of Pretorius and Orient Street, as well as Schoeman and Orient Street, close to the entrance of the US Embassy.

How can you participate?

Just be there. Bring along yourself and your friends. Send e-mails to all your friends and challenge them to be there. Bring candles in jars to protect the flame. Bring your own posters or get a poster with a catchy slogan from the organizers.

You don’t have to be there from 15h00 right up to 22h00, but try to set aside two hours to join the vigil during this period. You might discuss the time-slot that you will be available with the organisers (see below).

We will be trying to send out clarifying messages to the passing public.

Parking available in Orient Street.

Organisers:

Janneke Weidema (cell 083 399 2028; e-mail janneke@icon.co.za)

Philemon Beghela (cell 0763050766; e-mail beghela@yahoo.fr)

Annalet van Schalkwyk (cell 082 321 7131; e-mail vschaa@unisa.ac.za)

Please call us if you have any queries.

Some of the participating organizations:

Avaaz (see avaaz@avaaz.org); South African Faith Communities’ Environmental Institute (SAFCEI) and Tshwane Peace Group.

You are welcome to come as a representative of your specific organisation or simply as an individual who desires to make a change!

Call for action:

Dear friends

With the biggest climate summit in history happening right now in Copenhagen, major world leaders are backing away from their promises for a deal to stop catastrophic climate change. The USA is unfortunately proving to be the most obstructionist of all the wealthy nations. Obama will be attending for one day – the 9th of December – when he’ll no doubt deliver a rousing and eloquent speech. He’ll then go to Norway the next day to collect his Nobel Peace Prize.

Currently, the US emissions target of 3 percent in the lowering of CO2 is very far away from the 40% scientists are saying is necessary. The USA now holds the most important key to unlock the climate treaty process, and we need Obama and the US Congress to turn that key.

(According to climate scientist James Hansen of NASA and others, the acceptable level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million and a CO2 reduction of 40% by the year 2020 is necessary to preserve a planet “similar to that on which human civilization developed”.)

The problem is that Europe, Canada and the US send dozens of negotiators to these summits – while most poorer countries and small island states cannot afford to send more than two or three delegates. The result is that the global South is not able to wield a strong enough bargaining power at the Summit.

We need the voices of the global South to be heard. We need the voices of African states to be heard. And we need a strong, focused voice from the South African government, as they participate in the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

We need a fair Climate Summit Deal to ensure a sustainable future for Africa.

If not only the rich countries, but also the global South, fail, it won’t only mean less snow on ski slopes. Much of the Netherlands and Belgium and coastal resorts in Florida, USA, as well as Long Island, Manhattan, could be under water while Durban’s Marine Parade might disappear.

Millions of families in Africa will see their farms turn to dust as the desert advances, many in Asia will die in worsening floods and storms, and entire nations on small islands will be threatened by rising seas – all within 10-15 years.

In South Africa and throughout the world, candlelight vigils are planned for
Friday 11 December to bring the danger to the attention of, specifically, the powerful, but also the less powerful participants in the Summit.

The timing here is crucial – the vigils are part of a huge mobilization on the weekend of December 11th - 13th: midway through the negotiations. The climate talks will build to a head a few days later: so the more the negotiators feel the pressure from citizens around the world demanding a genuine deal and consistent action, the more hopeful the final outcome will be.

SAFCEI and Copenhagen

2009-12-01T04:38:00.002+02:00

News reports reflect an alarming trend that implies the possible breakdown of the Copenhagen international Climate Change treaty negotiations in December because the rich industrialised countries are increasingly obstructing them. We also hear even more alarming scientific evidence of the dramatic increase of CO2 emissions from 2000 to 2008. This sets us on course for a devastating 6oC temperature rise unless we take strong action in the next few years to reduce emissions.

We, from the SA Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI) say that it is absolutely essential that Copenhagen succeeds with a meaningful and binding agreement. From the faith perspective, we must do all in our power to ensure the survival for our children of the life of this planet, and we call on world leaders to attend and commit to meaningful action.

The USA has been avoiding for decades any commitment to reduce its emissions even though it carries the largest historical responsibility for climate damage. It has recently latched onto the Danish Prime Minister’s proposal that the Copenhagen outcome should only be a political statement. SAFCEI’s position is that such a statement will be meaningless and we cannot afford any further delay in establishing a legally binding international treaty.

Countless numbers of people, animals and plants will be destroyed by a failure to reach a meaningful agreement. It will be better to walk away from the table than agree to weak, immoral and ego-boosting trumpery.

We in South Africa argued from principles and the moral high ground in confronting the immorality of apartheid. We are now faced with global apartheid as rich nations refuse to take responsibility for the damage they are doing by altering the climate. This is severely impacting upon poor and vulnerable countries and the natural environment upon which we are dependent. We believe that South Africa is uniquely placed to give a lead at Copenhagen. Climate Change is deeply unjust and we, South Africa, must take a principled stand at Copenhagen. This could break the log jam.

SAFCEI testified at the recent Parliamentary hearings on Climate Change that we have to be led by ethical principles, not economic interests.

It is of deep concern to hear cabinet’s constant cry that since South Africa is a developing country, it must have "carbon space" so as not to jeopardise growth and development. Cabinet, we are told, wants to allow our emissions to continue to rise until 2020/2025, to then stabilize for a decade and only then decline from about 2035.

We in SAFCEI believe this is totally unacceptable.

We don't know if this is a bargaining position to leverage more money "to finance low-carbon initiatives" from the international community, but the position is too serious for games. We cannot fool the natural environment.

We have to act on ethical principles and demand the world does the same. This means that South Africa has the unique opportunity to cut its emissions voluntarily, arguably the only country in Africa that can take such a moral stand in a meaningful way because we are the 12th worst global CO2 emitter, producing more than half of Africa's emissions.

By turning to a low carbon economy, we can develop our green industry and green energy generation, and we will create thousands more jobs.

All faiths call for Justice and Equity. We are told that we should seek God's righteousness, and all else will follow. Put principles first and the economics will follow. We have been guilty of putting economics first - worshipping money and the market.

We live in a time of excessive inequity in a system of global apartheid. The rich and powerful control the wealth of the world to their benefit - to the detriment and disregard of the poor and the natural environment.

Capitalism has flourished over recent decades, but people and planet have suffered. At Copenhagen we call on the governments of the world to be guided by ethical principles rather than self-centred financial considerations. These principles must place the well-being of planet, people and future generations before profit.

The purpose of an economy is not profit but the well-being of all people and of all creation. Economic growth is therefore not an end but a means to achieve good, just and humane societies.

We believe rich countries should sign up to obligations that commit them to:

· Making deep and urgent cuts in their own carbon emissions in line with scientific findings that show that CO2 emissions must be brought down to a maximum of 350ppm.

· Assisting and helping to pay for developing countries to reduce their emissions, develop cleanly and adapt to climate change.

SAFCEI has ttherefore put forward the following resolution, endorsed by major churches and faiths of South Africa

SAFCEI CLIMATE CHANGE RESOLUTION:

As people of faith, we believe we have a responsibility to God and future generations to care for this planet - our home. We therefore call on the governments of the world when they meet at the UNFCCC at Copenhagen in December this year to take urgent and meaningful action to stem climate change.
Following the latest scientific evidence we believe we cannot allow temperatures to rise by 2 degrees. We therefore call for a reduction of CO2 emissions to a target of 350 ppm, ensuring that emissions will have peaked by 2015 in all countries, to then decline to at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

We believe it important for faith communities to be involved as these are moral issues requiring behavioural change.

Now is the time for our President and his cabinet to make choices. There is a small window of opportunity for South Africa to stand once again as a world leader, a nation symbolising hope and forward thinking. Radical and innovative changes are needed, in our aspirations, our behaviour and our governance.

We need to fix our eyes on the moral compass and listen to the laws of nature and the universe, revealed in our sacred texts.

Roshan Stanford
Secretary
Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute
Ph: 021 7018145
Fax: 0866 969666
secretary@safcei.org.za
skype: safcei

Will South Africa step up for the climate?

2009-11-29T05:22:00.000+02:00

This is a time to step up. Next month world leaders gather in Copenhagen to thrash out a new global climate agreement. The outcome will only be so bold as we demand - and it could be as dismal as we allow.

The biggest threat? That among the politicking and bureaucracy, the world forgets what's at stake.

So here's the plan: in the middle of the negotiations, candlelight vigils in every corner of the planet to put real human faces on the need for a real climate deal. It will be the world's largest ever global day of climate action - and one world leaders and media can't miss.

To get started simply pick a good local vigil location nearby and register it on the global map. From there it's dead easy - just bring some candles and pass out the short provided message for people to take turns reading. It takes less than an hour to organise - and Avaaz members in your area will be invited to attend.

This is a time to step up - let's rise to the occasion.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/real_deal_hosts

We're just weeks away from what is truly the most important moment yet in the world's response to climate change. We do not expect, nor do we accept, anything less than what is needed to save our planet.

Here’s how every event will make a difference:

National pressure - in global negotiations every country makes a difference, for better or for worse. The problem is most of the time international negotiations aren’t closely followed at home - but having local events will show leaders in South Africa that this time we’re watching keenly, with the power of a coordinated international movement to name and shame those countries that hold up progress.

World media - creating a world media story takes a world in action. We need to show journalists that this is more than just another protest: it’s a global coordinated day of action on a massive scale. We have demonstrated that this works -- our Global Wake Up Call and the 350 day of action both generated huge global press coverage earlier this year. Now, in the middle of the Copenhagen talks, the media moment is even bigger. Thousands of vigils around the planet will give this day of action the scale we need to make an even bigger global media impact.

Photographic evidence- Photos of every vigil from around the world will be printed and delivered to negotiators and world leaders in Copenhagen - they are evidence that people around the world have the very same ambitious goal for our planet: a real climate deal. All action photos will be also be posted on the internet for millions of Avaaz members to see and distributed to the global media.

This is a time to step up - let's all of us seize the opportunity:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/real_deal_hosts

Thanks for all that you do,
Ricken, Ben, Taren, Iain, Sam, Alice, Milena, Paul, Luis, Julius, Lisa and the whole Avaaz team.

2009-11-17T08:36:00.000+02:00

MANY HEAVENS, ONE EARTH : FAITH COMMITMENTS FOR A LIVING PLANET

Faith leaders from around the world have met at Windsor at an event hosted by HRH The Prince Philip and attended by the Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Mr Ban Ki-moon.

The Long Term Faith Commitments to Protect the Living Planet launched at Windsor are perhaps the most powerful visible signs of the faiths taking up the challenge of protecting the natural environment. This is worth celebrating.

Faith leaders from around the world met at Windsor Castle at an event hosted by HRH The Prince Philip and attended by the Secretary General of the United Nations, His Excellency Mr Ban Ki-moon. One of the many delegates was our own Archbishop Seraphim Kykkotis, (Christian: Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa)

To date there have been 31 long-term commitments by the faiths to protect the living planet. They were launched on November 3rd at Windsor Castle's ARC-UNDP Celebration. Read the summaries of the plans in our special event booklet here. The plans can be found in the second half of the book. In the first half is a guide to how to write your own Long Term Action Plan.

The Windsor Celebration is the launch of the ARC-UNDP inspired Faith Commitments for the Environment programme, in which faiths are assisted in creating long term plans that will protect the planet for generations. This programme was initially titled the Seven Year Plan Programme, to acknowledge the time that would be needed ARC has worked with different faith traditions to create a framework, through which they look at seven key areas where they might have extraordinary outreach in protecting the natural environment. These include: their assets, their educational outreach, their spiritual wisdom and insights into tackling crisis, their traditions of simple living, their advocacy, their networks and partnerships, and perhaps most important, their understanding of celebration.

More general details about the programme can be found on the ARC website www.arcworld.org where the full plans will be downloadable from mid November.

World's churches urged to ring bells against climate change

2009-11-17T08:10:00.001+02:00

The World Council of Churches on Thursday called on churches around the world to ring their bells 350 times during the Copenhagen climate change summit on December 13 as a call to action on global warming. The leading council of Christian and Orthodox churches also invited places of worship for other faiths to join a symbolic "chain of chimes and prayers" stretching around the world from the international date line in the South Pacific.

"On that Sunday, midway through the UN summit, the WCC invites churches around the world to use their bells, drums, gongs or whatever their tradition offers to call people to prayer and action in the face of climate change," the council said in a statement.

"By sounding their bells or other instruments 350 times, participating churches will symbolise the 350 parts per million that mark the safe upper limit for CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere according to many scientists," it added. The chimes are meant to start at 3.00 pm local time in each location. The WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches representing about 560 million Christians in 110 countries.

The Council of European Bishops Conferences, which gathers Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops, is also supporting the campaign, according to a letter released by the WCC.

The UN summit in the Danish capital on December 7 to 18 is meant to produce a new global treaty to broaden cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, but the negotiations are still riven by disagreements. The WCC acknowledged that plans for a bell ringing campaign have stirred controversy.

"In some countries, the question has been raised whether churches have the right to use their bells for what may be considered to be a political campaign," said Guillermo Kerber, WCC programme executive on climate change. "Those who support the campaign see the care of creation and of people's lives and livelihoods threatened by climate change more as an ethical and spiritual issue that, of course, has political implications, not in a partisan sense but referring to the common good," he explained.

Source: AFP World News / English Date: November 12, 2009
GENEVA, Nov 12, 2009 (AFP) -

Faith Leaders Have 'Widest Reach' on Environment, Says UN Head - News

2009-11-06T09:32:00.002+02:00

Faith Leaders Have 'Widest Reach' on Environment, Says UN Head - News: "LONDON (RNS/ENI) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told religious leaders on Tuesday (Nov.3) that they are uniquely equipped to pressure secular leaders to combat climate change.

Ban made the speech at a three-day conference on faith and the environment in England, organized by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the United Nations Development Program.

Ban told around 200 leaders representing nine of the world's major religious communities, 'The world's great faith communities occupy a unique position in discussion on the fate of our planet and the accelerating impacts of climate change. You are the leaders who have the largest, widest and deepest reach.'"

The right to dry clothes

2009-10-13T08:29:00.004+02:00

Notes from a Common-place Book: Fight For Your Right to Dry!:

Clothes, that is. I am learning of a growing debate in this country over the right to hang out clothes to dry. I have never given this much thought, having lived (outside of college) in either semi--rural areas or small towns all my life. As a consequence, there has never been anyone to tell me what I could or could not do in my back yard. Such is apparently not the case throughout most of urban America. Clothesline proponents, as well as backyard chicken enthusiasts, are taking cities to court to reverse such prohibitions. I find it refreshing to hear of these sporadic outbreaks of common sense.

I believe that some blocks of flats in South African cities have similar regulations agains hanging up the washing to dry. Perhaps one way of combating the energy shortage would be for laws to be past to make such regulations ultra vires.

Yes, we have an electric clothes drying, which we use in emergencies on rainy days. My son is a mechanic and his overalls have to be washed every day, and three or four rainy days in a row can mean that he has nothing dry to wear. But regulations that force people to use such expensive and high-consumption machines even on sunny days really are too much.

See also Notes from underground: Fighting for the right to dry clothes

Message to religious leaders on climate change

2009-10-08T23:21:00.002+02:00

frim Bishop Geoff Davies, Director of SAFCEI

To Faith Leaders of Southern Africa

Climate Change

I am sure you are all becoming aware of the impending crisis of climate change and the need to deal with it realistically at Copenhagen when the UN Climate Change Conference meets from 7^th to 18^th December.

There is also an increasing acknowledgement that it may only be through the intervention of faith communities that we will be able to bring about the changes needed if we are to leave a sustainable world to our children. Climate change is a moral issue and therefore involves us.

I now write as a matter of urgency to ask you to promote and join in the following:

A Call to prayer

I hope we can all join in this. The suggestions are:

23^rd to 25^th October: We ask you to hold prayers and sermons over the week-end of 23^rd to 25^th October in support of the day of symbolic action on Saturday 24^th October.(See paragraph 2 below)

1.2 Preparatory prayers for the build up to Copenhagen. We hope to send weekly prayers with suggested sermon outlines as we approach the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

11^th to 13^th December: Special prayers and worship over the weekend during Copenhagen from 11^th - 13^th December. This is when the WCC will be holding a worship service and the Archbishop of Canterbury will be preaching.

A daily mid-day prayer: I believe this to be most important. Some of you will recollect that during the years of the struggle, many people of faith held a daily two-minute time of prayer for justice and peace for South Africa. We now need to pray for justice and peace globally, praying for “Climate Justice Now” for all people and all of creation.

If you have any suggestions for brief prayers, we would welcome them.

A few suggestions are:

We pray for Justice for all people and all creation, that peace may reign – throughout the earth.

2.2 Keep 1 minute of silence

I pray for the courage and love to bring forth a socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling community and world, and I pray the same for our leaders.
I pray for justice and peace in my home, community, country and world.
May we be Earth keepers (Genesis 2:15) to all for whom the earth is ‘home’.

Participation in the day of symbolic action – 24^th October.

I attach a request from Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, and Prof. Mary Evelyn Tucker of The Forum on Religion and Ecology, asking us all “to help make this the most widespread day of witness the world has ever seen.” Please offer prayers and bring this to the attention of your congregations over that week-end. If you can’t ring your bells or undertake some other symbolic action on Saturday 24^th October, please do so on Friday 23^rd or Sunday 25^th October as part of your regular worship.

If you would like to participate in any 24^th October action happening in your local area please visit the 350.org website for details or email samantha@350.org

Raising awareness

I hope that you will continue to raise awareness among your faith community of the importance of caring for God’s creation. We will attach a list of resources available from SAFCEI which will help you in this important work. There is also a12 minute DVD available, entitled: Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future.

SACC Statement: Climate Change – A challenge to churches in South Africa

This 90 page Christian document provides an excellent theological background to climate change and the challenge it presents to us. It emanates largely from a group of theologians working with Professor Ernst Conradie, following a meeting between SAFCEI and Kerkinactie – of the Protestant Church in Holland. Electronic copies are obtainable from SAFCEI (secretary@safcei.org.za) or the South African Council of Churches (tmm@sacc.org.za). We ask you to consider endorsing this and distributing it among your congregations.

Please let us know if you would like to receive prayers and outline sermons over the next few weeks.

With all good wishes as you seek to care for God’s creation.

Bishop Geoff Davies

Greenpeace climate campaign survey

2009-10-06T05:44:00.001+02:00

Can you spare a minute? We would like to ask you a few questions for a survey -- the results will help us prepare for our next big campaign to save the climate with the help of some very familiar information technology (IT) brands.

Please click here to take the one -page online survey

Looking forward to hearing from you!

All of us,
Greenpeace International
http://www.twitter.com/greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/facebook
Greenpeace International

AVAAZ on climate change

2009-09-21T06:09:00.002+02:00

The global climate wake-up call is here! Now all of us can get involved from home -- by making a phone-call to our own governments, or following this extraordinary day of action as it unfolds around the world -- plus, there’s still time to join a local event near you!

The press is reporting that global climate talks are in a shambles and the UN summit on Tuesday is the only hope to revive them. This Monday, we’re flooding media and government office phone lines worldwide with a wake up call for leaders to act -- with phone calls being made from over 2000 rallies, marches, meetings and "flashmobs" in public places across the planet, and by hundreds of thousands of us from home.

We've sourced government phone numbers for your country, with suggestions about what to say. You find all the information you need about the great Global Wake-Up Call events and phone-calls on the hub page at the link below, including photos, video and a liveblog for us to share our experiences of the day -- make a phone-call from home or work and tell us how it went at this link, or find an event near you to attend:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sept21_hub/

Here are the numbers to call in your country (Please start calling after 12.18pm Monday local time):

President Jacob Zuma
(+27) 012-300 5200 (+27) 021 - 464 2100

President Assistant Private Secretary
(+27) 012-300 5226 / (+27) 021-464 2174/2181

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Ms Buyelwa Patience Sonjica
(+27) 012-336 8733 / (+27) 021-464 1500

If you don't see any phone numbers here, or want to find different contact information, click on the link above.

Make at least one call, and if you don’t get through, it’s probably because we’re jamming the phone-lines and it’s working -- so just keep trying throughout the day, or switch to another number!

We suggest you say you’re calling as part of an international action called the Global Wake-Up call, asking leaders to commit to go to the Copenhagen climate meeting in December and agree on a global climate deal that is FAIR, AMBITIOUS and BINDING (“FAB”), and ask them to register your call and convey the message to the decision-maker.

Once you’ve made your call, visit the Wake-Up Hub at this link and post a short update on how it went in the live-blog on the [right] of the page -- you can also check out other people’s experiences there, and see photos and video from the wake-up call events as they are posted:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sept21_hub/

If you’d like to join a wake-up call event or flashmob in a public place near you, there may still be time -- click the link above and then click on the global map to find events wherever we are.

In recent weeks, we've stunned national governments, heads of state and political parties with sudden barrages of thousands of calls. These phonecalls tie up staff and shut down phone lines -- but they are never missed, and time after time, we're finding, they work. 14,000 calls reversed the Brazilian President's position on a new climate protection law, 3,000 calls persuaded the German Chancellor's party to engage with climate groups, just a few hundred calls got the attention of top advisors to French President Sarkozy.

We have just 78 days left until the final UN meeting in Copenhagen, where we'll succeed or fail to get an historic global treaty to place binding global limits on carbon pollution, stop a climate catastrophe and unleash a new clean and green economy. Our leaders are nowhere near success, they're not even planning on going to Copenhagen.

Let's send them a wake up call they won't forget. Use your phone now, and let’s share our worldwide experiences of this day on the hub page:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sept21_hub/

With hope and determination,

Brett, Paul, Iain, Graziela, Ricken, Alice, Ben, Paula, Pascal, Luis, Benji, and the rest of the Avaaz team

PS - an amazing diversity of wake up call events are happening on Monday, from a drumming circle in Guatemala to a coastal ceremony in French Polynesia to a march in Kinshasa. But one exciting global event is the premiere of the new climate change film The Age of Stupid. Images and videos from the Global Wake-Up Call events will be combined, in a matter of hours, into a short movie to be shown in 700 satellite-linked cinemas at the Age of Stupid's global premiere. The screenings are one night only, September 21 in the US and Sept 22 in over 40 other countries. You can find screenings near you along with all our global wake up call events. For more information about the Age of Stupid movie (and to buy tickets), see: http://www.ageofstupid.net

Reference

The New York Times reports that climate talks are "badly stalled", with a breakthrough needed this week at the UN heads of state summit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/science/earth/20nations.html?hp

ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter!

New Year and Green Day message by Patriarch of constantinople

2009-09-03T10:56:00.004+02:00

This year's green day message by Patriarch Bartholomew:

* B A R T H O L O M E W
BY THE MERCY OF GOD ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH GRACE AND PEACE FROM THE CREATOR OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST
***
As we come again to the changing of the Church year, we reflect once more on the state of God's creation. We think about the past and repent for all that we have done or failed to do for the earth's care; we look to the future and pray for wisdom to guide us in all that we think or do.

These last twelve months have been a time of great uncertainty for the whole world. The financial systems that so many people trusted to bring them the good things of life, have brought instead fear, uncertainty and poverty. Our globalised economy has meant that everyone - even the poorest who are far removed from the dealings of big business - has been affected.

The present crisis offers an opportunity for us to deal with the problems in a different way, because the methods that created these problems cannot provide their best solution. We need to bring love into all our dealings, the love that inspires courage and compassion. Human
progress is not just the accumulation of wealth and the thoughtless consumption of the earth's resources. The way that the present crisis has been dealt with has revealed the values of the few who are shaping the destiny of our society; of those who can find vast sums of money to
support the financial system that has betrayed them, but are not willing to allot even the least portion of that money to remedy the piteous state the creation has been reduced to because of these very values, or for feeding the hungry of the world, or for securing safe drinking water
for the thirsty, who are also victims of those values. On the face of every hungry child is written a question for us, and we must not turn away to avoid the answer. Why has this happened? Is it a problem of human inability or of human will?

We have rendered the Market the centre of our interest, our activities and, finally, of our life, forgetting that this choice of ours will affect the lives of future generations, limiting the number of their choices that would probably be more oriented towards the well-being of man as well as the creation. Our human economy, which has made us consumers, is failing. The divine economy, which has made us in the image of the loving Creator, calls us to love and care for all
creation.

The image we have of ourselves is reflected in the way we treat the creation. If we believe that we are no more than consumers, then we shall seek fulfilment in consuming the whole earth; but if we believe we are made in the image of God, we shall act with care and compassion, striving to become what we are created to be.

Let us pray for God's blessing on the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, so that the industrially developed countries may co-operate with developing countries in reducing harmful polluting emissions, that there may exist the will to raise and manage wisely the funds required for the necessary measures, and that all may work together to ensure that our children enjoy the goods of the earth that we leave behind for them. There must be justice and love in all aspects of economic activity; profit - and especially short-term profit
- cannot and should not be the sole motive of our actions.

Let us all renew our commitment to work together and bring about the changes we pray for, to reject everything that is harming the creation, to alter the way we think and thus drastically to alter the way we live.

September 1 st , 2009 A.D.
Your beloved brother in Christ and
fervent supplicant before God,
* BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

http://www.goarch.org/news/patriarcal_ency-08-31-2009

Experts say urinating in the shower will save water

2009-08-15T09:12:00.002+02:00

Experts say urinating in the shower is not so bad from a health and safety standpoint. - STLtoday.com: "save water — by urinating in the shower.

The group, SOS Mata Atlantica, estimates that each household in Brazil could conserve 1,157 gallons of water annually by avoiding one flush a day.

The humorous spots, which are narrated by children, feature cartoon drawings of people from all walks of life — a basketball player, trapeze artist and even an alien — urinating in the shower.

The ads wrap with: 'Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!'"

Theology and Peak Oil discussion forum

2009-08-06T15:38:00.001+02:00

Elizaphanian:

I'm so excited!! (Theology and Peak Oil): "Following a failed attempt of mine three years ago some of the lead figures in on-line Peak Oil research and writing have started up a Yahoo Group to explore Peak Oil from a religious perspective. What bliss!

The home page is here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peakoilinterfaith/
To subscribe, send an email to peakoilinterfaith-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Even bird-brains know what's good for them

2009-08-02T11:59:00.002+02:00

It seems that chicken feed is not as simple as it's reputed to be, the Oppenheimer family have discovered.

News - Environment: Smart chickens weren't be duped by foul play:

Chickens refusing to eat the maize they had been fed has led to the discovery that their feed had been genetically modified to include a well-known weed and insect killer.

Strilli Oppenheimer was recently approached by Dawid Klopper, the head gardener at the family estate, Brenthurst, informing her that her indigenous African chickens were refusing to eat the mealies in the chicken feed bought from a large supplier. Concerned that the birds may be ingesting genetically modified maize, she instructed Klopper to have the maize tested.

The chickens' diet was immediately changed to include organic vegetables, Oppenheimer stopped consuming the home-grown eggs and the maize was sent to the GMO testing facility at the University of the Free State for analysis.

Global warming TV series

2009-07-14T16:52:00.001+02:00

The series “Global warming and Religions” is to broadcast in the "Issues of Faith" slot at 09:00 on Sunday mornings on SABC 2 on the following dates... 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th August. Each episode runs for 48 minutes.

ZENIT - Orthodox Patriarch Urges Defense of Planet

2009-07-13T12:46:00.001+02:00

ZENIT - Orthodox Patriarch Urges Defense of Planet: "ISTANBUL, Turkey, JUNE 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- No one is exempt from the 'indisputable obligation' to protect the planet, says the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.

Bartholomew I affirmed that climate change is the biggest threat for all types of life on earth in a message for today's World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program.

The Orthodox patriarch urged people 'independently of their religious origins, to take the ecological crisis into consideration,' L'Osservatore Romano reported.

'Today more than ever there is an indisputable obligation for everyone: that of realizing that environmental considerations on our planet are not just romantic ideals of a small group,' he said."

South African Water Action - The Petition Site

2009-07-12T16:59:00.004+02:00

The gold mining industry in South Africa is proposing a water treatment plant that will take mine water contaminated with heavy metals, radioactivity and sulphates, treat it and then sell it on to consumers as part of their environmental management planning to terminate their future liabilities. The public participation phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment is currently underway and will close on Tuesday 14 July 2009, after which a decision will be made to proceed or not to proceed with the project. It is vital that all members of the public in the Gauteng region of South Africa be made aware of this proposed project, because it may affect them directly after the water is delivered to their service provider for onward delivery as drinking water. Now is the time to become acquainted with the proposal in order that you can make an informed decision. Please consult the documentation and send your comments in writing to the Public Participation Practitioner listed therein. If you believe this is important then please pass it along to your friends and family.

South African Water Action - The Petition Site:

Question: Are you willing to drink water that was previously mine effluent contaminated with heavy metals, radioactivity and sulphates that has been treated with a technology, not yet tested?

Question: Are you aware that an Environmental Impact Assessment is currently underway and will close on Tuesday 14 July 2009 after which a decision will be made to proceed or not to proceed with the project. If this continues it may impact on your health Are you aware that you can raise your concern in this regard?

Hat tip to Andries Louw of NextChurch.

Please sign the petition!

Create an oasis with greywater

2009-07-05T12:52:00.003+02:00

It sounds as though this book has many useful ideas.

clipped from www.kk.org

Create an Oasis with Greywater

Greywater is the term for all household wastewater except for the toilet and kitchen sink. This is the only comprehensive book I know of on the subject, and in this fifth and expanded edition, Art Ludwig explains how to choose, build, and use a variety of simple greywater systems. There are clear drawings for sending washing machine water into the garden (with or without a drum), for putting diversion valves on bathtubs or showers, for creating “mulch basins,” for ultra-simple setups like “Garden Hose Through the Bathroom,” and “Dishpan Dump (Bucketing)” -- the latter of which I've been practicing lately to the great benefit of both septic system and compost piles.

Simple Laundry Drum with Rainwater Harvesting

Do Religion and Environmentalism Mix? Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy

2009-07-01T04:10:00.002+02:00

Here's an interesting blog post that touches on the core of what SAFCEI is all about. Do Religion and Environmentalism Mix? Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy:

First, it seems to me that many of the crucial issues of modern environmentalism are not amenable to broad-based moral reasoning and intuition that religion can provide. Religious thinking has little to say about, for example, what is the appropriate amount of particulates that should be in the air, or whether climate change should be tackled by cap-and-trade, or a carbon tax, or command-and-control regulation.

Second, it concerns me to sugges that one cannot be a good Jew/Christian/Muslim/anything else and have a particular position on the environment. The environment is a political issue, and it should be. But that begins to move us toward a political test of religious commitment.

It's worth reading the whole thing.

That is a Jewish perspective -- do other perspectives differ? What about Christians? Buddhists? Muslims? Pagans?

Map of elephant DNA reveals trail of ivory smugglers | Environment | The Observer

2009-06-30T19:49:00.001+02:00

Map of elephant DNA reveals trail of ivory smugglers | Environment | The Observer: "Scientists have used a revolutionary genetic technique to pinpoint the area of Africa where smugglers are slaughtering elephants to feed the worldwide illegal ivory trade.

Using a DNA map of Africa's elephants, they have found that most recent seizures of tusks can be traced to animals that had grazed in the Selous and Niassa game reserves on the Tanzania and Mozambique borders."

Treeplanting at Rietvlei Farm in Gauteng

2009-06-26T07:18:00.002+02:00

Riaz Simjee is inviting for SAFCEI members in Gauteng to take part in a project at Rietvlei Farm:

I have just undertaken a project with the correctional services of Johannesburg female section. Female learners form the institute that I work for and the inmates will be undertaking a project together at a kind of Nature reserve where they will be planting trees etc. this programme will begin on the 29th June 2009 to 03 July 2009. I believe that this will be an ideal opportunity for us to get involved in encouraging the youth into environmental issues an awareness. I would like to know if it is possible to have some of the faith leaders attend. The best part is that they do not have to attend the entire week but we have set a day, 30th June 2009, aside for the tree planting. This will be the ideal day for faith leaders to be present, this can be done with their families. The venue is the ‘Reitvlei Farm, near Alberton, in Gauteng.

Riaz can be contacted at 0845999104 riazsim@gmail.com if you are interested in finding out more.

Fasting and the environment

2009-06-15T18:20:00.004+02:00

Most religions have fasting disciplines. Christians have traditionally fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, abstaining from meat and other animal products.

Now there have been proposals for new secular fasts, on Mondays or Thursdays -- for more information and links see here: Notes from underground: Meat-free Monday?

But perhaps there is a need for a revival of the fasting disciplines of the various faith communities.

It would be good if people could explain briefly what their fasting disciplines are in comments below.

For Orthodox Christians it is abstention from meat and animal produce (eggs, cheese, butter etc) on Wednesdays and Fridays, in Advent and Lent, and from today until 29 June, and the first fortnight of August.

Alice In Blogland: Don't Buy a "Green" Thing

2009-06-14T19:38:00.001+02:00

There are all sorts of "green" products advertised that we are often tempted to buy something just because iot claims to be "green". But here's a better way.

Alice In Blogland: Don't Buy a "Green" Thing:

We’re so hooked on consumption that we’re coming up with ideas to reduce it by essentially consuming more. We’re inventing more “needs” that we can satisfy with ideas borrowed from sustainable solutions, while forgetting that we already have real needs far more deserving of our efforts to meet them more sustainably.

GM food conference in the Vatican hijacked

2009-06-01T18:17:00.004+02:00

John Vidal on a GM conference in the Vatican | Environment | The Guardian:

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo is the chancellor of the Vatican s Pontifical Academy of Sciences the official voice of Catholic science. Alas he appears to have no idea how far his organisation has been hijacked by the genetic modification GM companies and their chums. This week the academy is hosting a 'week of study' about food and Sorondo says the intention has been to gather 'an objective' group of experts. Ho-hum. Of the 40 people invited all are well-known GM enthusiasts claims Spinwatch an independent organisation that 'monitors the role of public relations and spin in contemporary society'. One of the participants Eric Sachs is a Monsanto employee; another Robert Paarlberg is an adviser to Monsanto s CEO; and several others work for companies heavily backed by Monsanto.

The Next Generation of Biofuels: Scientific American

2009-05-29T03:38:00.001+02:00

The Next Generation of Biofuels: Scientific American: "Once the next generation of biofuels becomes available, you could swing by the local energy station and fill up on a liquid that is virtually identical to gasoline. It would be made by U.S. companies, not shipped from the Middle East. And even though biofuels release carbon dioxide when they are burned, the organisms they are made from draw an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the air—making biofuels essentially carbon-neutral."

William Kamkwamba's Ingenious Windmill �� MetaEfficient Reviews

2009-05-20T14:19:00.001+02:00

I stumbled upon this interesting example of renewable energy today -- worth a read, to show what can be done if people are willing to try.

William Kamkwamba's Ingenious Windmill: MetaEfficient Reviews:

William Kamkwamba is now an engineering student in Johannesburg, South Africa. But in 2002, when William was 14, his farming family could no longer afford to send him to school when Malawi was hit with its worst famine in decades. He decided to continue studying on his own, however, and chanced upon a library book about wind power. Much to the amusement of his friends and neighbors, William began constructing a homemade wind turbine from wood scraps, plastic, and old bicycle parts. But their skepticism quickly turned to wonder when William demonstrated that his contraption could provide enough energy to power lights and radios in his family’s home, when only 2% of Malawi’s residents enjoyed household electricity.

SAFCEI AGM

2009-05-13T18:01:00.002+02:00

The Third Annual General Meeting of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) will be held at Temple David, 369 Ridge Road, Overport, Durban, on Tuesday 2nd June 2009 commencing at 18:30.

Programme

6.30 pm Finger Supper
7.00 to 8.00 pm Talk and discussion led by Rehana Dada
8.00 pm SAFCEI AGM

Mexican flu, swine flu origins

2009-05-09T04:01:00.002+02:00

From Avaaz.org

No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz, Mexico.(1)

These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health risk to more than just our food -- they and their manure lagoons create the perfect conditions to breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) must investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health.

Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of factory farms and tell your friends and family and we will deliver it to the UN agencies. If we reach 200,000 signatures we will deliver it to the WHO in Geneva with a herd of cardboard pigs. For every 1000 petition signatures we will add a pig to the herd:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel, banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.

Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health.(3)

Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in concentrated large-scale operations, and the devastating economic impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)

But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut down - these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around the world and we are subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the petition for investigation and regulation:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from future animal borne lethal pandemics.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic

in hope,

Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis, Raj, Veronique, Milena, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

(1) Biosurveillance report tracing the disease to the Smithfields farm: http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html
Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.story

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227063.800-swine-flu-the-predictable-pandemic.html?full=true

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/swine-flu-outbreak----nat_b_191408.html

(2) WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19

(3) FAO, EC and CDC reports on the risks of industrial farming on public health
FAO and CIWF and http://www.cdc.gov/cafos/about.htm

(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF and PETA

(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-trouble-with-smithfield-article03132008

http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf

(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-out-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html

What's in your rice?

2009-04-20T19:35:00.001+02:00

Message from Greenpeace

The world's most important staple food is under threat and we need your help urgently.

Sign the petition

Rice is daily food for half of the global population. It has been grown around the world for over 10,000 years and is cultivated in 113 countries. For millions of people rice is not just a food - it's a way of life.

Bayer, the German chemical giant, has created a genetically engineered (GE) variety of rice that will put our health, our agriculture and our biodiversity at risk.

The European Union (EU) will soon decide whether or not Bayer's GE rice can end up on European dinner plates. But this will not only affect Europeans. If the EU approves the import of Bayer's GE rice, farmers in the US and elsewhere may soon start planting the manipulated crop.

Stopping GE rice is not just about consumer choice or the environment - it's a lot bigger than that. It's a matter of global food security, human rights and survival.

You can tell the EU to keep Bayer's hands off your rice - sign the petition.

Thanks for your help saving the world's most important food. Please send this onto your friends today - we don't have much time before the decision is made.

With best wishes
Jan, Natalia, Lisa and everyone on the rice team at Greenpeace

P.S Ecological farming is the safest solution to the food crisis and looming climate change disasters. By signing the petition you're adding your voice in support of global sustainability in the face of climate change.

Blogs in Education

2009-04-13T16:46:00.001+02:00

For a really good account of the uses of blogs in education (including environmental education), see Half an Hour: Blogs in Education

Say No to bottled water

2009-04-11T04:17:00.002+02:00

Ask For Tap Water

By Fazila Farouk, executive director of the South African Civil Society Information Service.

Date posted: 27 March 2009
View this article online here: http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/254.1

The next time you find yourself reaching for bottled water, consider the implications of your actions. Purchasing and drinking bottled water is not only pricey for your pocket; it affects the sustainability of our planet and undermines the right to water as a public good.

Unless you find yourself in a rural outpost with dubious water infrastructure or in an industrial town where the 'big factory' is pissing its by-products into rivers and streams, there is little basis
for the argument that bottled water is safer than tap water in South Africa.

Nevertheless, South Africans and millions more around the world are duped into accepting the perversion that bottled water is safer and even healthier than tap water.

This is simply not true. "Bottled water is one of the most unregulated industries in the world," argues Canadian water activist Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

This lack of regulation has implications both for the health of consumers as well as for the protection of water as a resource that should remain in the public domain as a common good.

In 2004, Pretoria University's Department of Medical Virology argued that little is known about the microbial quality of bottled water in South Africa. Concerned about the situation, the department undertook a study where ten different brands of bottled water were tested over a
three-month period. Researchers were looking for faecal bacteria.

From the specific sample tested in this study, it was concluded that bottled water "generally complied with drinking water regulation." However, two of the ten brands tested were contaminated. It is noted that poorly cleaned equipment and bottles as well as handling by workers, are among the factors that cause contamination. The shelf life of bottled water is also a contributing factor. With improper or prolonged storage of bottled water, bacteria can grow to levels that may be harmful to human health.

The Pretoria University study categorically states, "Consumers should be aware that bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water."

Bottled water regulations have since been introduced in South Africa by the Department of Health, in 2006. However, question marks still hang over what passes for 'spring water' in South Africa, including its quality.

Early last year, Engineering News reported that despite stringent laws governing the bottled water industry, there have been reports that companies are bottling tap water and marketing it as natural or spring water.

John Weaver of the South African National Bottled Water Association (SANBWA) is quoted in the Engineering News article as saying that "one of the biggest challenges facing the bottled water industry at the moment is the perceived low cost of entry into the business of bottling
water. To the inexperienced person, bottling water is seen as merely holding an empty bottle at the spring discharge, putting a cap and label on the bottle and making a small profit."

Meanwhile in a 2006 journal publication of the Water Research Council, it was reported that of the estimated 100 bottlers countrywide, the majority are small hand-bottled operations that employ unskilled workers.

If one starts connecting the dots from the low barriers to entry, to the fact that the industry is dominated by small hand-bottled operators employing unskilled labour, to the fact that regulations have already been circumvented by some companies, then the picture that emerges of our bottled water industry is without a doubt different to the one fed to us by the slick promoters of healthy lifestyle brands. Far from being the healthier option, our bottled water may, in fact, be quite the opposite.

With the enforcement of regulations posing a challenge, what guarantee do South African consumers have that 'clean-room technology', which is a regulatory requirement, is being applied across the board in our bottled water industry?

Still, the myth that bottled water is healthier continues to penetrate our consciousness.

The corresponding reality is that the water industry is growing at a phenomenal rate. Water is a $400bn global industry, coming in third after oil and electricity. "The water sector is going to grow 2-3 times the global economy over the next 20 years." says Rod Parsley of Terrapin Asset Management in the documentary FLOW (For Love of Water).

The bottled water sector makes up an important segment of the overall global water market. Barlow says that something like 50 billion litres of water was put into plastic bottles throughout the world in 2007. This spelt bad news for our environment, as only 5% of those bottles were recyclable.

In South Africa, it's been reported that the bottled water market grew by an estimated 33% during 2005, following on a consistent annual growth trend in excess of 20% since 2001. Industry experts are astonished by this growth and even more surprised that it is taking places despite the fact that, as they put it, "South Africa is one of few countries where tap water in most places is still good enough to drink."

Clearly the growth of the bottled water industry presents us with the classic "people versus profits" dilemma.

As bottled water companies harvest as much water as they possibly can to drive up their sales, they are also increasingly tapping into ground water, impairing the hydrological cycle and affecting the water system's ability to replenish itself. We're already staring 'peak oil' in the
face; 'peak water' is around the corner, if not already here.

According to Barlow, the demand for water is growing while the supply is decreasing. As water becomes scarce, the question about who owns it, is becoming increasingly important.

Barlow contends that every drop of water in the future is going to be corporately owned. However, the market is amoral, she says and it is going to lead companies to taking advantage of pollution and to selling 'clean water' to those who can buy it and not to those who need it.

More specifically, Barlow refers to bottled water as a corporate take over. It makes people think that what comes out of their taps doesn't matter. This in turn leads to people not prioritizing paying their taxes for infrastructure repair, which is extremely important for the future of clean, accessible, safe public water.

It appears that Barlow's work is making inroads in her native country. According to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has asked its members to ban bottled water.

"It's not a (real) ban, we just try to educate our citizens that the water that you pay for in your city is good - use it," said FCM president Jean Perrault in the CBC report.

The expense to consumers was also highlighted as a significant reason behind the move. "Buying a bottle of water costs approximately $2.50. The cost to produce water in the city? I can fill up 6,000 little bottles for the price of $2.50," Perrault said.

Twenty-seven Canadian municipalities have already phased out the sale of bottled water on their properties, while 21 universities and colleges have created bottle-free zones.

It's high time South Africans followed the Canadian example. There is nothing wrong with the water flowing out of the taps in much of South Africa. We're just being sold a misleading lifestyle choice. This may have been fine if our world had unlimited supplies of water, but it doesn't. Public vigilance is what is needed to save our water, our planet and our people.

Fr. Ted’s Blog

2009-04-04T06:54:00.003+02:00

Fr Ted Bobosh reviews an article by Kurt Anderson in the latest issue of Time. The End of Excess Not the End of the World: Fr. Ted’s Blog:

Anderson’s look at America’s economy compares the last quarter century’s years of self destructive and unsustainable economic behavior to an addiction. He proposes the formation of a “Bubbleholics Anonymous” to get us back on the right track.

Worth a read!

US bill to outlaw organic farming

2009-04-02T17:51:00.003+02:00

Not an immediate Southern African concern, but something worth knowing about. There have been conflicting reports about this, however.

The US House and Senate are about to vote on a bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (HR 875).

There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before the public realizes what is happening. The main backer and lobbyist is the Monsanto Corporation (along with Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related chemical and genetic engineering giants).

This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by a newly-formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply".

This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sale. If this passes there will be NO more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsantos genetically-altered seeds.

The name on this outrageous food plan is Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (Bill HR 875). Please contact your local Congressional Representative by phone or e-mail and express your concern about HR 875.

Go to http://wwwcongress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/ to enter in your zip code and find your Congressional Representative.

Western Cape Religious leaders to G20 forum

2009-04-01T13:53:00.001+02:00

WESTERN CAPE RELIGIOUS LEADERS’ FORUM

Dear Friends,

We received this G20 communiqué from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and our Executive Chair, the Archbishop of Cape Town has requested it be forwarded to our religious leadership. South Africa will be represented at the G20 meeting in London and we are asked to support that meeting with our prayers.

To quote from the Acting Secretary for International Development, Helen Stawski:

‘This statement expresses some of the concerns about the current global economic crisis from a faith perspective. It adds the voice of faith leaders to the current debate on how to address the current crisis and what the implication of these policies will be. This statement is an example of some of the advocacy work the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England are engaged in with the UK government.

We are sending this statement to you primarily for information, as a member of the G20 nations, whose Heads of State will be attending this G20 summit. However you may also find it useful to use this communiqué as part of your own advocacy, for example by sending it to your governments before the G20 summit late this week. We welcome any comments on the communiqué that you may have from your own national perspective and would be interested to know if you are doing any lobbying at governmental level in your own countries.’

The WCRLF Working Committee will be happy to receive any comments or feedback.

In faith

Fr John

SA saved 400Mw during Earth Hour

2009-03-31T10:10:00.002+02:00

SA saved 400 MW during Earth Hour

By: Creamer Media Reporter

30th March 2009

South Africans who participated in Earth Hour on Saturday saved about 400 MW of electricity, 400 t of carbon dioxide, 224 t of coal and about 576 000 l of water, power utility Eskom reported on Monday.

Earth Hour was organised by the World Wildlife Fund in an effort to get one-billion people worldwide to switch off their lights for one hour.

“The 400 MW translates to about four-million 100 W bulbs or 6,7-million 60 W bulbs switched off on Saturday. This shows a concerted effort by about one-million households,” said Eskom MD corporate services and Eskom climate change champion Dr Steve Lennon.

Lights on average consumed about 10% of household electricity, whereas geysers used as much as 40% of the total electricity bill, commented Lennon, highlighting the difference that could have been made if South Africans had also turned off their geysers during Earth Hour.

“We believe that the Earth Hour initiative has created incredible excitement around the need for efficient use of energy. As South Africa’s primary supplier of electricity, our hope is that all South Africans harness this excitement and use energy wisely every day of the year,” said Lennon.

City of Johannesburg member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment Prema Naidoo also on Monday applauded the Earth Hour initiative.

“We hope that this symbolic gesture has demonstrated to the world that people everywhere are concerned about this issue, and are willing to act,” he commented.

Naidoo expressed the need for people to take action against climate change and global warning now, saying that it hoped government’s National Energy Efficiency Campaign would be supported by every individual, business and energy player.

“Here in South Africa, we have unique reasons to be concerned about the energy issue. It is not widely understood that the production of electricity produces enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases. As a result of our habits of energy wastage, we have become the eleventh highest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the world, he said.

Edited by: Mariaan Webb

SAFCEI statement on the Dalai Lama affair

2009-03-30T12:33:00.002+02:00

Dalai Lama

The peace conference with three Nobel Peace Laureates was ostensibly being held “to focus on issues of peace and harmony and the role soccer has played in achieving this”.

We in South Africa should know, as well as any in the world, that there can be no peace without justice. We had to get rid of the injustices of Apartheid before we could begin to live in peace with one another.

The Tibetan’s have known no peace since China marched in on them 50 years ago.

We in the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) know that the pursuit of peace is like a three legged stool. If one leg is too short or missing, it cannot stand. The leg of peace requires one leg for democracy with human rights and another leg for eco-justice (economic and ecological justice). In brief, only with democracy and eco-justice will we find peace.

We in SAFCEI have also discovered that when we show respect for the views and beliefs other faiths and cultures, we get on really well. We have far more that unites us than divides us. With Hindus, Buddhists, Baha’i, Muslims, Jews, African traditional religions as well as Christians on our management board, we feel we are an example to the world as we so enjoy our meetings with each other. We know the value of meeting other faiths. None of us have been compromised in our faith.

The banning of the Dalai Lama therefore comes as a rude shock. Not only do we need the presence of spiritual leaders of his standing, we also need the assurance that our government is in pursuit of democratic human rights and economic justice. Or do we see they are in support of a new era of the pillaging of Africa, which China is undertaking with ruthless success.

To add insult to injury, when one cabinet minister has the courage to speak out, she is condemned and vilified. We need to know whether the refusal of the Dalai Lama’s visa was a cabinet decision or a decision of the Department of Foreign Affairs. We also need to know whether our government is that of a military organisation requiring blind obedience as part of its discipline or whether it is a democratic organization encouraging the freedom to think.

After years of refusing to speak the truth to Aids, Barbara Hogan spoke the truth when appointed as Minister of Health and we rejoiced. Now she is the one who spoke the truth regarding the Dalai Lama and the government can’t face the truth. Wither democracy?

We are facing testing times with the financial crisis and - more serious – growing environmental crises, notably with climate change. We will find no peace in our land or in the world if we don’t speak the truth regarding human rights and equitable sharing of the resources of the world. South Africa once inspired the world in its pursuit of justice. The best thing our government can do is to speak the truth to its people and recommit itself to the principles of democracy and freedom that once so inspired us.

Sea levels may rise by double earlier estimates: study

2009-03-11T03:46:00.001+02:00

ABC - March 11, 2009, 9:27 am

The world's top climate change scientists meeting in Denmark say global sea levels could rise by twice as much as previously thought.

The projection is based on new satellite studies and measurements in Greenland and Antarctica and suggests that ocean levels could rise by a metre or more, which would have a huge impact on 600 million people who live near coastlines.

These latest conclusions will be presented to world leaders at a climate change conference in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

Denmark's climate minister, Connie Hedegaard, says governments must not delay action to limit the effect of climate change.

"If we don't act now, we risk catastrophic changes to our climate, causing destabilising conflict and massive migration of refugees due to water and food shortages in many parts of the world," she said.

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachahuri, says the data suggests global temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4 per cent by the end of this century.

He says even a smaller increase will have serious consequences.

"Even for a range of zero to one degree celsius, we have problems with water availability," he said.

"We also have problems with ecosystems. Food security would certainly be at growing risk. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable, and human health would also be affected."
_______________________________

CLIMATE CHANGE: Acid Oceans Altering Marine Life

By Stephen Leahy

MONTREAL, Canada, Mar 10 (IPS) - Some of the first species impacted by increasingly acidic oceans have been identified just as scientists meet in Copenhagen this week to present new data showing that climate change is far more urgent and serious than current economic problems.

One affected species, foraminifera, a sand grain-sized plankton, is responsible for the sequestration of 25 to 50 percent of the carbon the oceans absorb and thus plays a major role in keeping atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations at much lower levels than they would be otherwise. Now scientists have learned that foraminifera (forams) shells are much thinner in oceans made more acidic by the enormous volumes of CO2 released in the burning of fossil fuels.

It was only a few years ago that researchers realised that human emissions of CO2 were making the surface waters of oceans more acidic. That prompted a rush of new research to determine what the impacts might be. It turns out that forams, other shell forming species like mussels, as well as corals and fish are casualties in humanity's giant, uncontrolled experiment that involves injecting huge quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere.

"We think we are the first to document effects in the field as opposed to in a laboratory experiment," said William Howard of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

The shells of one species of foraminifera (Globigerina bulloides) in the Southern Ocean are 30 to 35 percent thinner than shells than those shells formed prior to the industrial period, Howard and colleagues wrote in a paper published in Nature Geoscience Mar. 8.

Howard told IPS that forams live in the surface waters and when they die they fall to the ocean bottom. As they fell through the water column researchers collected them and compared their shell weights with forams in the sediments. Forams are widespread, numerous and have a 200-million-year-old ancestry. Their hard calcite shells are well preserved, providing a detailed fossil record of their time on Earth.

Using a combination of radiocarbon dating and stable oxygen isotopes researchers determined the ages of the shells on the ocean bottom surface and those buried deep in the bottom sediments. They found a linear relationship between shell weight and atmospheric CO2 concentration over the past 50,000 years. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the thinner the shells, and vice versa, their studies reveal.

The current CO2 level of 380 ppm is the highest concentration in several million years. Projections are that ocean acidification in the coming decades will reach levels unseen since the era of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when the oceans were very different, experts from the University of Bristol in Britain will announce at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen this week, according to news reports.

There is absolutely no controversy about the basic chemistry of additional CO2 increasing ocean acidity. The oceans naturally absorb carbon from the atmosphere and have now absorbed about a third of the total amount of human emissions. This additional carbon has altered the oceans' chemistry, making them 25 to 30 percent more acidic because the extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.

Shell-forming creatures - mussels, corals, hard planktons, shrimps and many more - all need those carbonate ions to build their shells.

Research on the effects of acidification on marine species in the open ocean is just getting started. Lab experiments had previously shown that the ocean's shell-forming creatures produce thinner shells in more acidic ocean waters, so William Howard is unlikely to surprise the 2,000 attendees in Copenhagen when he presents his findings. And no one knows at this point if the thinner shells are harming or affecting the forams.

However, scientists and policy makers ought to be alarmed to learn that Howard's planktonic forams play a crucial role in the sequestration, or storage, of carbon in the deep ocean, accounting for between 25 and 50 percent of the carbon transfer from the atmosphere to the deep ocean.

Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2 and if forams can no longer play their role in this carbon storage system then atmospheric concentrations of CO2 could skyrocket with calamitous effects on the global climate system.

And it turns out that forams have a particularly tough shell, utilising calcite - the most stable form of calcium carbonate and less sensitive to acidification. Many other shell-forming species that are vital parts of the oceanic food chain like pteropods utilise a carbonate mineral called aragonite and are likely to be more vulnerable to acidification, researchers warn.

Another new study has found that the larvae of clownfish - the bright orange and white reef fish - were unable to detect the odours from adult fish that led them to their breeding sites. This lab study shows that acidified waters that are expected before the end of the century affected the larvae's ability to follow odours, disrupting the breeding cycle of an important fish species.

The world's leading marine scientists are increasingly alarmed by acidification and its impacts. Last Jan. 30, they issued a warning to policy makers called the Monaco Declaration that states "acidification is accelerating and severe damages are imminent" and that corals will not survive in most of the oceans by 2050.

The declaration was a dramatic step for scientists, says signatory Victoria Fabry, an oceanographer at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "The potential is there for drastic changes in the oceans," Fabry told IPS.

There is a crucial need to alert policy makers and the public and to act soon. "We can make a difference by reducing emissions," she said.

"About two percent of the Gross World Product would need to be invested in energy production, efficiency and usage to reach the stabilisation target of 450 ppm, a cost considered to be tolerable by most economists," said Hermann Held of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, who helped craft the Declaration.

Despite this modest investment, little is happening to substantially reduce emissions in virtually every country in the world. For that reason this week's climate science update involving experts from 80 countries is a deliberate attempt to influence policy, said conference organiser Katherine Richardson, a marine biologist at the University of Copenhagen.

This latest science paints a dire picture, from increasing ocean acidification to rapidly rising sea levels that will swamp most of the world's coastal regions before 2100, among many other impacts.

The hope is this climate science update will push policy makers to reach a significant emissions reduction agreement at the climate change negotiations at the end of the year in Copenhagen, Richardson has said in media reports.

(END/2009)

Welcome to Rory Short

2009-03-07T08:26:00.003+02:00

Welcome to Rory Short, who has kindly agreed to contribute to the SAFCEI blog.

Rory also has his own blog, Sustainable Communities, which is also worth reading.

I (Steve Hayes) started this blog about a year ago to try to demonstrate to SAFCEI members and the SAFCEI committee how blogs could enhance communication among SAFCEI members, and between SAFCEI and the outside world, but to be effective it needs to be a corporate effort. So thanks to Rory who has agreed to contribute -- you can see at the bottom of each post who contributed it, even if they didn't write it all.

My personal blogs Khanya and Notes from underground deal with more general topics, and not only the environment, but some may find something there to interest them.

It would be good to have two or three more contributors to the SAFCEI blog, preferably from different religious backgrounds. Rory is Quaker/Buddhist, and I am Orthodox Christian.

My other proposal to the SAFCEI committee was that we should start an interactive mailing list. Perhaps I can move on to that now that more people are beginning to participate in the blog.

EARTH HOUR

2009-03-06T17:56:00.001+02:00

EARTH HOUR

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, the contesting parties being ‘life on Earth’ and human induced ‘Global Warming’.
This is an easy opportunity to show your support for life on our planet.

On the 28th of March 2009 between 20h30 and 21h30 you can show your support for our planet, and your opposition to human activities that are causing Global Warming, by switching off all the lights over which you have jurisdiction.

WWF is hoping to enrol at least 1 billion people in this worldwide collective action and by this visible, concerted effort to encourage world leaders meeting in December in Copenhagen, in order to plot the way forward from the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming, to take concerted and meaningful decisions that will lead to real actions to counteract global warming.

You can personally commit to Earth Hour at URL http://www.earthhour.org/

SAFCEI statement on climate change

2009-03-03T18:42:00.003+02:00

SAFCEI Statement for the 2009 Climate Change Summit

For members of southern African Faith Communities, the overriding priority is the health of the planet. As people of faith we believe we have been given custodianship and have a moral responsibility to pass the planet on to our children in a healthier state than we found it. All our sacred texts call on us to care for, protect and sustain nature as we seek justice and peace among ourselves. Our burning of fossil fuels and our destruction of forests, grasslands, oceans and other eco-systems, is placing the well-being of future generations of all life in jeopardy.

We have come to realise that climate change is taking place far more rapidly than has been acknowledged. We therefore believe we cannot wait till 2020 to peak our carbon emissions. We believe that process has to happen with immediate effect. We have the technical means to do so, while at the same time generating the energy our contemporary society has come to expect. We must develop the political will to bring about change.

With the development of Concentrated Solar Power and thermal batteries, and with low voltage Direct Current transmission, we are in a position to start harnessing the greatest source of power, namely the sun. South Africa has been singularly blessed with solar resources. We should implement such generation with immediate effect.

We therefore call on the Government to halt any further development of coal powered and nuclear generation and build clean, renewable energy generating plants as a matter of urgency. We know too that the construction time is far shorter than for coal or nuclear. We also know that in developing renewable energy, we will generate far more employment.

We call on the government to be resolute in overcoming the vested interests of the fossil fuel and nuclear energy industries. Even if – initially – costs for re-newables are higher than conventional coal generation, we believe the future health of the planet cannot be held to ransom by financial considerations. There is no price too high for the future survival of our children and life on this planet. We therefore call, not just for subsidies, but massive investment in renewable energy.

All countries will have to reduce greenhouse gases in the future. Even if other countries are reluctant to reduce their emissions now, we believe that South Africa must be bold and set an example to the world. If we do this we will be in the position to take a lead in the development of renewable energy. This will be a source of great employment in the future.

At the recent National Summit of Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future, we adopted the following resolution on climate change:

Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute and Indalo Yethu

National Summit

Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future

Climate Change and Energy RESOLUTION

We, members of faith communities of southern Africa, recognise that the burning of fossil fuels is causing a greenhouse effect leading to dramatic climate change which could have catastrophic consequences for the future of life on this planet.

We also recognise that communities of Africa are particularly vulnerable to climate change. We need to address this and we urge the South African Government to continue to play a leadership role both regionally and internationally, notably at Copenhagen at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2009. We faith communities strongly express our concern and our position to the government delegation of the need for meaningful action in order to ensure that the meeting in Copenhagen results in positive and significant progress.

We also recognise the need for urgency to reduce greenhouse gases. We, people of faith, recognise that we have a responsibility to care for the planet and all life on it as well as caring for our fellow human beings.

We furthermore recognise that this responsibility includes leaving a healthy planet for future generations so that they are not robbed of their inheritance.

Part of our role as faith communities is to engage with leadership, including government leadership. Acknowledging positive steps that the South African Government has taken to address energy and climate change issues, we call on the governments of southern Africa to earnestly work with civil society. In turn we commit ourselves to working with our respective governments and other leaders in seeking to ensure that the following resolutions are attended to and acted upon. We therefore:

Call on the governments of southern Africa to take on concrete, measurable steps to reduce carbon emissions. This means stopping the expansion of further coal and nuclear generation, and progressively moving away from fossil fuels and nuclear generation towards the increasing development of renewable energy, concentrating on solar and wind, as a matter of urgency. This could be greatly encouraged through the urgent implementation of the feed in tariff.
Call on the Government of South Africa to set before the world community, a Your browser may not support display of this image. emissions reduction target so that the levels of atmospheric green house gases are reduced to below 350 ppm (as a more practical and measurable target than keeping temperatures below a Your browser may not support display of this image. increase).
Call on both Government and civil society to assist vulnerable communities to develop indigenous and local models of adaptation in order to meet the impacts of climate change.
Call on Government to ensure resources are provided for creative and innovative communication and capacity building, as part of a broader commitment to democracy and participatory learning around issues of climate change. This must focus on positive messages of hope that will motivate and inspire all stakeholders.
Call on Government, ESKOM and NERSA (National Energy Regulator of South Africa) to ensure that electricity tariffs include ‘cradle to grave’ external environmental and social costs. A stepped tariff must be implemented so that the poor are not further burdened by increasing electricity tariffs. Renewable, locally generated electricity provides the opportunity for access to affordable electricity for all.
Call for the improvement and shifting of freight from road to railway, setting a target of 40% road freight to be transported by rail by 2020. Call for the improvement and subsidisation of safe, efficient public transport, in particular railways, and encourage and incentivise the public to use it. Implement measurable targets, for example, 20% of private road commuters to shift to using public transport by 2012.
Call for Government to establish and support local innovative technologies to drive new economic sectors such as renewable energy. Such sectors must focus on local job creation, for example, electric vehicles and the generation of electricity by renewable means. The arms industry must be transformed into a renewable energy industry.
Call on the Government to end the policy of enticing polluting industries, such as smelters, to our country with the promise of heavily subsidized “cheap” electricity. Equity must be pursued in that industrial users must not pay less for energy than households.
Acknowledging how critical the supply of energy has become, we call on the Government to ensure that all government departments work cooperatively on climate change, through an interdepartmental presidential task team. We also call on Government to create a separate ministry of energy.
Broadly endorse Hope for the future, the Uppsala Interfaith Climate Manifesto issued by the Archbishop of Sweden in November 2008 in which faith traditions address global warming, (attached). We commit ourselves to sharing the contents with our faith communities and working towards strengthening the voice of faith communities at Copenhagen.
Call on faith communities to take a lead and set an example by implementing energy efficient measures as models of good practice, encouraging their members and the public to do the same. Energy efficiency targets (25% by 2020) must be implemented as a matter of extreme urgency.

12 February 2009

Furthermore, at the international level, we support the Archbishop of Sweden’s call following his Inter-faith workshop in November 2008 for steps that must be taken at the UNFCCC meeting in December 2009.

The Copenhagen Agreement must counteract misuse of land, of forests, and of farmland, using creative incentives for landowners, users and indigenous communities to manage growing forests as carbon sinks.

We ask the global political leadership for:
Rapid and large emission cuts in the rich world. Developed countries, especially those in Europe and North America, must lead the way. In the developed countries emissions should be reduced by at least 40 per cent by 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050 against 1990 levels.
Binding cuts for the rich world on top of their domestic obligations. According to the principles of responsibility and capability countries should pay for international cuts in addition to their own domestic initiatives. These payments should be obligatory, rather than voluntary.
Measurable, verifiable and reportable mitigation actions by developing countries, especially countries with fast growing economies.
Massive transfers and sharing of important technology. All countries must encourage and facilitate the sharing of technology that is intrinsically important to reducing emissions. Developing countries must have viable and technologically responsible opportunities to provide for their populations.
Economic incentives for developing countries to foster cleaner development on a national scale.
Adaptation to climate change. According to the same principles of responsibility and capability, countries must ensure that poor and vulnerable communities are empowered and supported. Adaptation to climate change must not fail for want of money or other resources.

DEAT Climate Change Summit
March 2009

Anglican primates speak on environment

2009-02-18T17:41:00.000+02:00

Anglican Communion Environmental Network - News

Archbishop Moxon calls for moral lead in campaign against global warming

Posted On : February 12, 2009 4:34 PM | Posted By : Webmaster
Related Categories: ACEN

Archbishop David Moxon has told an international press conference that the Anglican Communion should offer "moral leadership" in the campaign against global warming.

Archbishop Moxon has been in Alexandria, Egypt, for a meeting of the Anglican primates of the 34 Anglican provinces that make up the worldwide Anglican Communion.

He had earlier led a special session on the impact of global warming on the environment. He was supported in his 90 minute address by Archbishop Paul Sarkar of Bangladesh, a country which faces dire consequences if sea levels rise. Archbishop Moxon later told a press conference that the gathered Anglican leaders were agreed that the Anglican Communion should offer "moral leadership" in the campaign against climate change.

This, he suggested, was significantly a matter of setting an example. He spoke of the need for Anglicans to embrace lifestyle changes, and to cutback unnecessary or environmentally hazardous modes of travel. He also spoke of the need for Anglican leaders to encourage what he called "eco-friendly congregations and environmental projects."

Archbishop Moxon told the media that the primates believed that the church has a "Biblical, theological and practical role to play in every community" on the issue. Anglicans needed to do what they could to prevent carbon emissions, and the "overcooking or choking of the planet."

Such efforts, he said, should be seen as "an act of participation in God's creation and redemption."

NOTE: A PDF of Archbishop David's Powerpoint presentation to the primates is available at http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/2/4/ACNS4571.
This has four main parts, entitled: The evidence and effects of global warming and climate change; A Biblical imperative; The Christian moral climate; What can the church do?

Conference - Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future

2009-02-12T06:07:00.001+02:00

Is there anyone attending the SAFCEI: Conference: Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future who is blogging about it, or who would be willing to write something about it on this blog?

I was hoping to attend, but was unable to do so, and it would be good to hear what has been going on there.

recycled flip flops | urban sprout

2009-02-12T06:01:00.002+02:00

recycled flip flops | urban sprout:

thousands of flip flops, discarded by their former owners, wash up on the African shoreline – an environmental disaster for the marine ecosystem, as well as an eyesore on the beaches, many of which are sites of natural beauty. Hatching turtles find their already precarious journey into the sea littered with flip flops that prevent their reaching their destination.

And in Kenya there is a project to recycle them.

Conference:Living together in peace and harmony

2009-02-02T16:49:00.000+02:00

Interfaith Foundation of South Africa
would like to invite you to the conference:
LIVING TOGETHER IN PEACE & HARMONY
Thursday February 19, 2009
6:30 pm.
Geosciences Lecture Hall
Geosciences Building
East Campus
WITS University, Johannesburg, South Africa
Free and open to the public
Kindly RSVP at rsvpjhb@interfaithsa.co.za
For further information call 082 559-2107

Adnan Yaman
Project Manager
Interfaith Foundation of SA

Hindus laud Albania Orthodox Autocephalous Church for strong stand on environment - BALTISCHE RUNDSCHAU

2009-01-25T07:20:00.000+02:00

Hindus laud Albania Orthodox Autocephalous Church for strong stand on environment - BALTISCHE RUNDSCHAU: "Hindus have praised Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania for promoting “respect towards the environment” and calling over-exploitation and contempt towards nature an “unforgivable abuse”.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, applauded Archbishop His Beatitude Anastasios’s powerful stand in this regard: “…cultivation of a religious conscience, with evident interest in the natural environment, constitutes the basic element of glorification and gratitude towards the Creator of the Universe.”

Faiths coming out in support of the environment was a remarkable signal, Rajan Zed said and urged all world religious leaders, religions and denominations to openly bless the environmental causes. Ancient Hindu scriptures, especially Atharva-Veda, were highly respectful of mother nature, he added."

Biowatch versus Monsanto -- appeal for support

2009-01-16T12:07:00.001+02:00

Biowatch will be arguing for leave to appeal and appealing the costs orders against the organisation at the South African Constitutional Court on Tuesday, 17 February 2009. The Centre for Child Law and Lawyers for Human Rights are the amici curiae for the appeal which should be the final step in a long legal wrangle over gaining access to information pertaining to the release of Genetically Modified Organisms into the South African food production system and the environment. We invite as many of our friends and supporters, as are able, to attend the Constitutional Court hearings at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

The legal wrangle began in 2003 when Biowatch applied to the Pretoria High Court for an order that the Minister of Agriculture and the Registrar for Genetic Resources provide information on the basis for granting permits for genetically modified crops in SA.

Monsanto SA, a producer of genetically modified seeds, joined the court proceedings to oppose the application by Biowatch. The case was heard in 2004 by acting Judge Dunn who in February 2005, ruled that Biowatch should be given access to eight of the eleven categories listed in its request to the government departments. He stated that Biowatch had a constitutional right to the information it requested, that access to the information was in the public interest and that Biowatch had been forced to go to court to get access to the information. However, he supported Monsanto’s argument that Biowatch had cast its requests so widely that Monsanto was forced to go to court to protect its commercial, confidential interests. Judge Dunn ordered Biowatch to pay Monsanto’s legal costs.

A full bench of the Pretoria High Court heard an appeal by Biowatch against the costs order in April 2007 when the organisation argued that the awarding of a costs order against a nongovernmental organisations could have a deterrent effect on future public-interest litigation.

In November 2007, Judges Fanie Mynhardt and Molopo-Sethosa dismissed Biowatch's appeal. However, Judge Justice Poswa, in a minority, dissenting judgment handed down in May 2008, stated that he would have ordered the Department of Agriculture and Monsanto to pay all Biowatch's legal costs.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed Biowatch's application for leave to appeal against the high court order with costs.

Over 200 individuals and organisations have sent in letters of support to Biowatch

Biowatch email address for letters of support is: biowatch@mweb.co.za

Phone: 021-447-5939

Double standard in Wild Coast toll road

2009-01-15T17:07:00.001+02:00

With the deadline for public comments for the Wild Coast Toll road looming on 22 January, Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC), has condemned the new EIA as ‘still saddled with dealing with the problems of an extensive infrastructure proposal that was developed and promulgated in a manner that was anything but objective and independent’.

In its comment on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), SWC argues that the foundations of the proposal are fundamentally flawed because the SANRAL preferred route was developed as an isolated and unsolicited bid by a consortium of private bidding companies whose primary motivation was profit, rather than arising out of an integrated and comprehensive regional development plan. As the basic premises of the proposal remain unchanged, many of the fundamental concerns that were raised by the public in 2003 have still not been addressed.

SWC lists numerous public and legal concerns that were raised in the 2004 Appeal Review which the new EIA has failed to address. These include unrealistic mitigation measures given the current capacity of local government structures in the Eastern Cape Province; that by excluding the tolling process from the EIA a bias is created in socio-economic impact assessments and that it is still not certain that tolls will be affordable for poor communities, that the need for a Toll road and for a route through the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism (an internationally recognized ‘hotspot’ of plant endemism) are still not adequately justified, that the precautionary principle has not been applied, and that public participation processes are still not in compliance of NEMA.
The Appeal Review was commissioned in 2004 by the new Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Minister van Schalkwyk, in response to the large number of public appeals petitioning against the Record of Decision (ROD) made in December 2003 which had approved the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road Environmental Impact Assessment of 2003.
The SWC EIA commentary states that the EIA is ‘rank with double standards’.

Posted on January 14th, 2009 (www.swc.org.za)

Floods in KwaZulu-Natal and Mozambique

2009-01-12T16:04:00.002+02:00

Statement from the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, on the storms and flooding in KwaZulu Natal and Mozambique

Thursday 8 January 2009

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has sent messages of support to areas of KwaZulu Natal and Mozambique where storms and flooding have caused death and destruction. The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, whose area of responsibility includes several of South Africa's neighbouring countries, assures the Bishops and people of the Church's prayerful support, while calling for greater political commitment and practical action in overcoming global warming.

Writing to the Bishop of Natal, Rubin Philip, and the Bishop of Lebombo, Dinis Sengulane, Archbishop Makgoba says: 'Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones, who have been injured, and who have lost homes and livelihoods through these storms and flooding. We hold them all in our prayers and in our love, and especially remember before God those who have died. May all in need hear the still small voice of God within the anguish and chaos they face, bringing comfort and strength in the days ahead.

'I encourage our churches and parishioners to offer what help they can, whether through prayer upholding all who have died, been injured or displaced, of providing practical assistance wherever possible. I call on the governments and authorities concerned to take the necessary steps in declaring these disaster zones and providing both immediate help and longer term resources for reconstruction.'

The Archbishop adds: 'Events such as these demonstrate the need for greater political will, and more urgent and comprehensive action, in overcoming global warming and its effects. Humanity must learn to treat God's creation with due respect, if we are not to do our world and ourselves irreparable harm. The rest of the world must take account of what is happening here, for what we are experiencing is a global problem requiring global solutions.'

Issued by the Office of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
Inquiries: Cynthia Michaels 021- 763-1320 (office hours)

Conference: Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future

2008-12-18T18:02:00.005+02:00

A special conference of “Religious Leaders for a Sustainable Future”, is to be held from 10th to 12th February, 2009 at Eskom Centre.

This is a critically important conference being jointly organised by SAFCEI and Indalo Yethu. At this conference we want to agree on resolutions that we will address both to government and to faith communities about the challenges lying ahead regarding justice and peace in the world.

The Archbishop of Sweden, Anders Wejryd, has issued a multi-faith manifesto regarding Climate Change. It calls for extensive and speedy reduction of carbon dioxide emission in the wealthy parts of the world and formed the basis of a WCC statement presented at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan calling for “effective and equitable global climate policy regime built on the ethical imperatives of justice, equity and solidarity.”

It would seem that political leaders still have a long way to go to implement the steps needed to counteract the effects of Climate Change. We need to take decisive action within the next 10 years.

At our forthcoming Summit we wish to consider which steps our government should take to meet the environmental crisis and what steps the faith communities should take.

From a letter from
Bishop Geoff Davies
Executive Director: SAFCEI
Office Tel: (+27) (0)21 7018145 Fax: 086 6969666
PO Box 106, Kalk Bay, 7990
Email: coordinator@safcei.org.za

Please pass this on to religious leaders in Southern Africa who may be interested in attending, or draw their attention to this post.

Greens' six steps to economic recovery

2008-12-12T10:51:00.001+02:00

Greens offer six big steps for economic recovery

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty@greens.org Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
starlene@gp.org

Greens support workers occupying a factory in Chicago after layoff: bailout
money isn't being used to help working Americans

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders said today that the incoming Obama
Administration and Congress should take six major steps to reverse the
financial meltdown and restore financial security for Americans.

The steps include a Green public works program, aid for state and muncipal
governments, expansion of mass transit, Single-Payer health care, a peace
dividend gained by ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and an
end to the wasteful war on drugs.

Green Party candidates running for local, state, and national office in 2008
promoted many of these ideas even before the crisis precipitated. In
September, Cynthia McKinney published a ten-point list of solutions and
reforms in response to the Wall Street meltdown, titled "Seize the Time"
(http://votetruth08.com/index.php/learn/mckinney-messages).

Greens expressed support for United Electrical Workers union members
occupying a Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago after the plant was
shut down and they were laid off with three days' notice and told they had
no assurance of receiving severance and unused vacation pay. The company's
creditor, Bank of America, received $25 billion from the government's
financial bailout package. Greens said that the bank's actions, including
refusal to allow Republic to give workers 60 days notice (as required by
law), demonstrates how bailout money isn't being used to assist working
Americans facing financial hardship.

Six Green steps for economic recovery:

(1) Enact a massive Green public works program, creating new living-wage
jobs in conservation (including weatherization and energy retro-fitting);
clean and safe energy technologies to replace fossil fuel and nuclear
sources and create a carbon-free economy; repair and improvement of
America's deteriorating infrastructure (especially water and sewer systems);
and improvement of public schools and Green job training programs.

"The collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis in 2007 was a result of the
neglect and starvation of funds for maintaining infrastructure that was
built decades ago. The ideology of privatization and hostility to 'big
government' is no longer tenable during the financial crisis -- the current
White House and Congress conceded as much when they began pushing for
bailouts. Public works programs built America, and public works, with
hundreds of thousands of new Green jobs, is what America needs now for
economic recovery," said Rosa Clemente, the Green Party's 2008 candidate for
Vice President (http://www.rosaclemente.com).

"We're encouraged that President-elect Obama intends to launch a public
works program along these basic lines, but we hope Congress and his own
administration don't undermine and dilute such a program out of traditional
Democratic and Republican loyalty to corporate interests and fear of being
labeled liberal or socialist. It's time to follow the lead of the Green Jobs
For All movement," Ms. Clemente added.

(2) Bail out financially ailing towns, cities, and states before bailing out
private corporations: millions of public sector and contractor jobs depend
on the fiscal security of municipal and state governments.

Greens noted that municipalities and states are businesses that drive state
and local economies throughout the US. They also provide the social safety
net that millions of working people need during the current crisis.

(3) Jumpstart our country's mass transit system, giving people an
alternative to cars while saving them money and providing jobs.

"Making autos more efficient will only get us part way toward solving our
energy and climate challenges. We need to get people out of their cars
altogether. Communities need the ability to provide local solutions for mass
transprotation: new trains, subways, light rail wherever they fit," said Wes
Rolley, co-chair of the Green Party's EcoAction Committee.

(4) Enact a Single-Payer/Medicare For All national health plan, providing
every American with coverage and removing the burden of health care from
small and large private businesses.

"The skyrocketing cost of health care under our private health care system
has created much of the economic instability as businesses struggle to
provide workers health benefits. If President Obama and Congress have the
political will to resist the power of the insurance, HMO, and pharmaceutical
industries that siphon their profits off America's need for health care, the
relief that Single-Payer will be a huge economic boost," said Sanda
Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

Single-Payer would cover all Americans regardless of income, employment,
residence, age, or prior medical condition, allowing choice of health care
provider, and costing working people far less than they now pay for private
coverage. In 2003, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article
estimating that Single-Payer could cut health care costs by $350 billion
annually (http://www.pnhp.org/publications/nejmadmin.pdf). Greens sharply
criticized Barack Obama during the election season for rejecting
Single-Payer out of concern for health insurance companies.

(5) End the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The staggering expense of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and
occupations haven't only cost American, Iraqi, and Afghan lives. It also ate
up trillions of dollars away that could have been spent on human and
environmental needs. If we call home our troops right now, we can divert the
money needed for military occupations to Green public works and other
programs to jumpstart the economy -- a new peace dividend," said Starlene
Rankin, co-chair of the Lavender Green Caucus.

The Green Party opposed both wars from the beginning and has criticized Mr.
Obama's plans for delayed and partial troop withdrawal from Iraq and for
sending more troops to Afghanistan.

(6) End the war on drugs, which wastes billions annually, hasn't curbed drug
use, and ruins lives by incarcerating nonviolent offenders (mostly young,
African American, Latino, and poor white) at further government expense.

"The war on drugs is America's longest and costliest war. With Afghanistan
providing the world's world's biggest poppy crop, it's one of the main
reasons the US is fighting a war there," said Cliff Thornton, co-chair of
the Green Party and co-founder of Efficacy, Inc.
(http://www.efficacy-online.org), which promotes major reforms in drug
policy.

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron has estimated that legalizing cannabis would
save federal, state, and local governments $44 billion a year in enforcement
costs (http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.html). Governments could
collect another $33 billion in revenues by taxing cannabis as heavily as
alcohol and tobacco.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193

http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=152

Critical climate change meeting

2008-12-11T08:26:00.001+02:00

Afrom Avaaz.org:

Pressure is rising as critical global climate negotiations near an end this week. Germany, Poland and Italy had been the main blockers, but now Poland has begun to waver! This leaves just Germany and Italy left standing in the way of the strong European leadership that's essential to secure us all a global deal.

Germany is the key – Chancellor Merkel is normally a climate champion, but has caved to industry, fearing for German jobs. She needs to hear from us that a Green Recovery is the answer to both our climate and our economic crises.

Merkel cares a great deal about her international reputation, which is why Avaaz has delivered our 150,000-strong petition and protested at her international meetings with the Poles. But now for the punch: an Avaaz commissioned opinion poll which reveals that 85% of Merkel’s own people are calling for her to show leadership in securing a strong climate deal. Together, we can help push Merkel over the edge -- follow this link to leave her a quick message encouraging her to do the smart thing for the environment and the economy:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/merkel_lead_on_climate

The growing Avaaz petition, our joint demonstrations, the Fossil of the Day Awards (delivered to the climate offenders of the day) and our advocacy meetings with leaders are starting to shift climate positions at the global climate talks in Poznan. New heroes are emerging, such as the group of small island states whose revolutionary climate solutions we have supported before. The umbrella group for developing countries, the "G77", and China are also now standing firm to the Europeans.

Dying crocodiles

2008-11-29T06:11:00.003+02:00

The deaths of hundreds of crocodiles in the Kruger National Park’s Olifants River this year seems to indicate South Africa’s heavily polluted river systems have reached a ‘tipping point,’ explains Danie Pienaar, the head of scientific services at SANParks.

This tantalising snippet appeared on The Times home page, but will probably disappear as the page is updated.

There was a link to an audio clip, which was useless to me, as my computer doesn't have speakers, and there didn't appear to be any link to a print version of the story. Nevertheless, the story adds to the concern about South Africa's water resources, and puts the sacking of Dr Andrew Turton from the CSIR in an even more serious light.

in her own write

2008-11-26T18:42:00.002+02:00

It seems as though people in Australia have had a similar idea to SAFCEI:

in her own write:

Four months ago a meeting was held in Melbourne with the purpose of establishing a multi-faith environmental organisation. I have never actually joined an environmental organisation before - but when I heard about this I was moved to action. You see, while I don't deny the science of climate change and I don't wish to ignore technology in finding solutions to problems, I am tired of the never-ending rationalism involved in the science, technology, economics and politics relating to climate change and environmental matters. My view is that human communities and the Creator of the planet need to be more clearly acknowledged in the debate.

From that very first meeting in July, GreenFaith Australia has been established and I have finished up its Secretary.

CSIR Silences and Suspends Top Water Scientist

2008-11-26T16:17:00.004+02:00

Dr Anthony Turton, who delivered a very disturbing presentation at the SAFCEI National Conference in Rosettenville in April this year, has just been suspended by the CSIR. Dr Turton spoke on the “water crisis” in SA and the mining operations in Gauteng in exacerbating the crisis.

We have been informed that Dr Turton has been suspended by the CSIR (see CSIR statement) prior to delivering an address entitled, “Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-Makers Need to Know About and How the CSIR Should Respond”, which was intended to be delivered as the Keynote Address at “A Clean South Africa” CSIR “Science Real and Relevant” Conference on the 18 November 2008.

CSIR Silences and Suspends TOP Water Scientist - Environment South Africa - NEWS - FORUMS - ARTICLES - LEGISLATION:

DR. ANTHONY TURTON WAS SUSPENDED WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT FROM THE CSIR ON FRIDAY, THE 21ST OF NOVEMBER, 2008 AND HE HAS BEEN INSTRUCTED TO VACATE THE PREMISES. THE REASON FOR THE SUSPENSION WAS FOR ALLEGEDLY BRINGING THE CSIR INTO DISREPUTE THROUGH HIS WRITING AND FOR FAILING TO OBEY A LAWFUL INSTRUCTION.

This action comes just days after he was due to deliver his Keynote Address at a high profile conference but was not present at the conference and was more than likely prevented (or threatened) from attending the conference.

So much for our taxes at work !!! The CSIR is funded by public funds and Dr Turton's work was to reveal serious problems with Water in South Africa which clearly the current ANC regime do not want made public.

It is time for the public to stand up and ACT against this gross violation of Democratic and Constitutional Rights. Clearly the powers that be do NOT want you to know that you and your family are being slowly poisoned by greedy corporations and government officials.

Please go here to sign the petition against his suspension.

The bottled water scam

2008-11-20T05:08:00.003+02:00

CounterPunch -November 18, 2008

The Bottled Water Con
Buying the Message on the Bottle

By Wendy Williams

I remember when the name of the game at my gym was pump 'n' swig. Weight
lifters and treadmill sloggers routinely carried with their sweat towels
expensive water in plastic bottles.

Drinking commercial water was the cool thing. In 2006, Americans bought 32.6
billion single-serving bottles of water, and another 34.6 billion larger
bottles.

With a slew of brands for basically the same product, image marketers have
pushed the envelope - the bottle itself. My favorite absurdity: "Bling H2O,"
with the motto "More than a Pretty Taste." You can buy this water in a
"Limited Edition" frosted-glass bottle encrusted with crystals for $40.

The surprising truth is that an estimated 25 to 40 percent of bottled water
comes from public drinking reservoirs. Pepsico's Aquafina label shows
high-peaked mountains, but the water is from municipal systems, including
that of Ayer, Mass., a town next to a military base and a short drive from
Boston. Coca-Cola's brand, Dasani, also uses municipal systems.

I remember a Dennis the Menace cartoon showing Dad, dazed and bleary-eyed at
3 a.m., holding out a glass of water. Dennis says, "That's bathroom water! I
wanted kitchen water!"

It's all in the marketing.

At some restaurants, "water sommeliers" have pushed $75-a-bottle water for
each course. I once took my husband for his birthday to a restaurant where
the waiter asked if we would like our water bottled or - with curled lip -
"native." That convinced us. We absolutely had to go local.

We still laugh about that.

For years, the joke's been on consumers. We spend all that money on water
and plastic, and toss the plastic. It litters America from sea to
bottle-bobbing sea.

"We estimate that fewer than 20 percent of those get recycled," says Betty
McLaughlin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute.

Elizabeth Royte, author of the highly readable "Bottlemania: How Water Went
on Sale and Why We Bought It," says America uses about 17 million barrels of
oil each year to make plastic water bottles.

"If you have good tap water, if bottled water is redundant, why wouldn't you
go for the low-impact option?" she asks. "Bring your water over to the
Stairmaster in a reusable bottle."

That message finally seems to be getting through. Today I see the beginnings
of a bottled-water backlash. At my gym, almost no one wants to be seen
swigging from throw-away plastic anymore.

Some restaurants have abandoned bottled water. New York City's Italian
restaurant Del Posto, where it's easy to drop hundreds of dollars on dinner
for two, has a 61-page wine list with many bottles priced over $1,000, but
you can't buy bottled water at any price. Says one of the restaurant's
owners: "To spend fossil fuel trucking water around the world is absurd."

At colleges nationwide, students take the "no bottled water" pledge.
Realizing that spending taxpayer funds on bottled water is careless
environmental stewardship, Illinois has canceled contracts for bottled
water. The city governments of Fayetteville, Ark., and Albuquerque, N.M.,
won't buy the stuff. Chicago has a tax of 5 cents per bottle to cover
disposal costs. Michigan may extend its 10-cent deposit on soft-drink
bottles to bottled water.

For a while, bottled water had a good thing going. In 2006, the industry
worldwide grew 7 percent in dollar sales. Some forecasters suggested 40
percent growth over the next five years.

But recently, those phenomenal growth rates have slowed worldwide.

"Bottled water sales have gone flat for the first time in 30 years, at both
Coke and Pepsi," says ad executive Erik Yaverbaum, founder of Tappening,
which encourages people to drink tap water. "I think people are realizing
they are wasting money buying water that's the same as what comes from their
tap."

If I'm going to the gym now, I drink a glass of water before I go. If I'm
going on a long car trip, I fill up a clean glass jug. My mom did that. And
we never went thirsty.

***********

Wendy Williams, who lives in Massachusetts, is co-author of "Cape Wind:
Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for Our Energy Future." She
wrote this commentary for the Land Institute's Prairie Writers Circle,
Salina, Kan.

http://www.counterpunch.com/williams11182008.html

***********

And in South Africa it is no different.

Some brands of bottled water are simply tap water, so you might as well refill them at the tap and recycle the bottles instead of adding them to the landfill.

Southern Ocean close to acid tipping point

2008-11-12T07:18:00.002+02:00

Australian researchers have discovered that the tipping point for ocean acidification caused by human-induced CO2 emissions is much closer than first thought.

Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and CSIRO looked at seasonal changes in pH and the concentration of an important chemical compound, carbonate, in the Southern Ocean.

The results, published in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, show that these seasonal changes will actually amplify the effects of human carbon dioxide emissions on ocean acidity, speeding up the process of ocean acidification by 30 years.

Dr Ben McNeil, senior research fellow at the UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre, says the ocean is an enormous sink for CO2, but unfortunately this comes at a cost.

"The ocean is a fantastic sponge for CO2, but as it dissolves in the ocean it reduces the pH of the ocean, so the ocean becomes more acidic," says Dr McNeil.

This acidification makes life especially hard for marine creatures such as pteropods - an important type of plankton found in the Southern Ocean - whose shells are made up largely of calcium carbonate.

Once the acidity of the Southern Ocean reaches a certain level, the shells of these and other calcareous marine creatures will start to dissolve.

"That's a really bad point to get to," says McNeil. "After that point, we can't go back unless we suck the CO2 out of the atmosphere."

This so-called 'tipping point' of acidification had been predicted to occur when atmospheric CO2 levels hit 550 parts per million, around the year 2060.

However, the new research shows levels of the carbonate that these creatures need to build and maintain their shells drops naturally in winter, due to natural variations in factors such as ocean temperature, currents and mixing, and pH.

This means the tipping point is likely to be reached at far lower atmospheric CO2 levels - around 450 ppm, says McNeil, which also happens to be the target set by the IPCC for stabilisation of CO2 emissions.

"That's the benchmark that a lot of climate scientists have said we want to reach," he says, but this concentration is forecast to be reached around 2030.

Dr McNeil says ocean acidification could lead to large scale ecosystem changes, affecting not just plankton but other marine life including fish, whales and dolphins.

"They're at the base of the food chain ... so right now we don't really know the ramifications."

from:
"EconomicDemocracy Coop" econdemocracy@gmail.com

Renewable Energy lobby group:

2008-11-11T14:43:00.001+02:00

A group of parliamentarians have formed themselves into a Renewable Energy lobby group called e-REACT. The first major outcome of this group is a private members bill on Feed In Tariffs called REFIT. Nersa announced at a WWF conference on Renewable Energy last week that Feed In Tariff legislation will be ready for implementation by February 28th, 2009 (postponed from September 25^th). Eskom is likely to be the only approved power purchase agency. Only wind, solar, landfill gas and hydro will qualify for power purchase agreements. Biomass and Solar PV will not qualify.

Sponsored by Dr Ruth Rabinowitz (IFP) who is also the convenor, the private members bill supports speedy introduction of Feed In Tariff legislation and aims to be a wake-up call to Ministers that we are nowhere near realisation of the 2003 White Paper on Renewable energy which set a target for 10 000 GwH by 2013. The e-REACT private members bill will be discussed in parliament on 18 November at 12h30.

If you cannot attend the discussion, please consider emailing a note of support to either Ruth Rabinowitz (IFP), Gareth Morgan (DA), Lance Greyling (ID) or Judy Chalmers (ANC), stating your name, telephone number, fax (if you have one) and email address and a note saying why you support REFIT.

You can email it to one of these addresses:

Dr Ruth Rabinowitz (IFP) reureka@iafrica.com

Gareth Morgan (DA) morgan@da.org.za

Lance Greyling (ID) lanceg@id.org.za

Judy Chalmers (ANC) jchalmer@mweb.co.za

For further information contact Dr Ruth Rabinowitz MP on 011 802 1826 or 082 579 3698

Nations under threat of climate change

2008-11-11T07:49:00.001+02:00

November 10, 2008 4:17 PM
Five nations under threat from climate change
"The first line of coconut trees has disappeared" - Kiribati inhabitant

While the world dithers about tackling climate change, in some parts
of the world people are running out of time. In Florida sea level
rises can be worked around to some extent - condos can be put on
stilts and moved away from the shoreline. But on some islands you can
only move back so far before you have to start worrying about the
water at your back door as well as the water in front.

Here are five islands whose inhabitants are going to need a new home soon:

1. The Guardian reports today that the new president of the Maldives
will be putting part of the country's profits from tourism into a very
special - and unusual - fund: one that will be used to buy a new,
climate-change-friendly home. With its highest point reaching only 2.4
metres, the Maldives is one of the lowest-lying nations in the world
and risks being submerged by rising sea-levels.

2. Tuvalu is another small pacific island state, and after the
Maldives the second-lowest nation in the world. At its highest, it is
5 metres above sea-level and could be gone by the middle of this
century. In 2002, the government was said to have hired two
international law firms to look into suing polluting nations for
effectively evicting its citizens.
3. Kiribati is a group of 32 atols and one island that peaks at 6.5
metres above sea-level. The World Bank has been involved in assessing
the nation's vulnerability to climate change. I attended a talk by one
of the project leaders some years ago in Paris. She quoted a few of
the changes which the islanders were noticing. The one that has always
stuck with me was "the first line of coconut trees has disappeared".
Salt-intrusion was killing off the trees that were closest to the
water.

4. The inhabitants of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea may be
among the first climate refugees - their home lies just 1.2 metres
above the waves. The government of Papua New Guinea adopted a plan in
2005 to evacuate the locals to the neighbouring island of
Bougainville. The relocation was initially scheduled for 2007, then
delayed. According to this report, there was a trial earlier this
year, which created some tension as relocated citizens were used as
labourers in coconut plantations on Bougainville.

5. In 1995, 500,000 inhabitants on Bangladesh's Bhola Island were
forced to move in when half their island was permanently flooded. Some
claim they were the first climate refugees. Scientists predict that 20
million Bangladeshis could suffer the same fate by 2030.

Catherine Brahic, environment reporter
New Scientist

The tyranny of oil

2008-11-08T04:48:00.001+02:00

From a book review:

Antonia Juhasz - The Bush Agenda:Index: "Juhasz investigates the true state of the U.S. oil industry—uncovering its virtually unparalleled global power, influence over our elected officials, its lack of regulatory oversight, the truth behind $150-a-barrel oil, $4.50-a-gallon gasoline, and the highest profit in corporate history. Exposing an industry that thrives on secrecy, Juhasz shows how Big Oil manages to hide its business dealings from policy makers, legislators, and most of all, consumers. She reveals exactly how Big Oil gets what it wants—through money, influence, and lies.

The Tyranny of Oil offers both a new take on problems and a new set of solutions as Juhasz puts forward an immediate call to action—a formula for reining in the industry, its governmental lobbying power, environmental destruction, and violence while reducing global dependence on oil. Her thought-provoking answers to the most pressing energy questions speak directly to readers concerned about oil and gas prices, global warming, wars for oil, and America’s place in the world. With the major players in the world’s most powerful industry charged with collusion, price-gouging, anti-competitive behavior, and unabashed greed, Juhasz calls boldly for the breakup of Big Oil."

Celebrate frogs

2008-11-02T06:46:00.003+02:00

CELEBRATE FROGS

Spring is sprung and the grass is riz and I wonder where the froggies is ……..

It’s that time of the year again – when we all listen out for the return of the frogs. Their chirping and croaking fills the night with reassuring sounds that our planet is still healthy enough to support these delicate indicator species. However, all is not well in our amphibian world. The world is facing what may be the single largest mass extinction event since the time of the dinosaurs: as many as half of the world’s 6,000 known amphibian species could be wiped out in our lifetimes.

At Sea World we are participating in a worldwide effort to help frog conservation. 2008 has been declared the Year of the Frog by the Amphibian Ark (a grouping of conservation groups working to help frogs survive into the future). The campaign hopes to raise awareness about the vulnerability of frogs and to rescue some of the most threatened species. The frogs will be protected in zoos and aquariums until, hopefully, the threats to the wild populations can be controlled and the animals can be released back into nature. Zoos around the world have been asked to become ‘arks’ to help save threatened species of amphibians. In South Africa the major threats to frogs are habitat loss and pollution.

Now is the time to celebrate frogs in your garden. Sea World is launching a “Fantastic Frogs Foto” competition ………….

Anyone can enter as long as your photo’s are taken within the boundaries of South Africa. Prizes will be awarded to the top three photo’s and all submissions will be displayed in the Aquarium at Sea World during the coming December/January festive season. Your photo can be submitted either by emailing ann@seaworld.org.za or by post to Fantastic Frog Foto competition, PO Box 10712, Marine Parade, 4056. Closing date for the competition is 21^st November 2008.

When submitting, please include your name, address and contact number as well as the date and place where you shot the photo.

So, when next you hear that loud croaking – smile – you are lucky enough to live in a special part of our planet – where the frogs have not been silenced forever!

Somali piracy and toxic waste

2008-10-29T15:17:00.004+02:00

Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy

By Najad Abdullahi

Somali pirates have accused European firms of dumping toxic waste off the Somali coast and are demanding an $8m ransom for the return of a Ukranian ship they captured, saying the money will go towards cleaning up the waste.

The ransom demand is a means of "reacting to the toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years", Januna Ali Jama, a spokesman for the pirates, based in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, said.

"The Somali coastline has been destroyed, and we believe this money is nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen on the seas."

The pirates are holding the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military hardware, off Somalia's northern coast. According to the International Maritime Bureau, 61 attacks by pirates have been reported since the start of the year. While money is the primary objective of the hijackings, claims of the continued environmental destruction off Somalia's coast have been largely ignored by the regions's maritime authorities.

Dumping allegations

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia confirmed to Al Jazeera the world body has "reliable information" that European and Asian companies are dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coastline. "I must stress however, that no government has endorsed this act, and that private companies and individuals acting alone are responsible," he said

The pirates are holding the MV Faina off Somalia's northern coast [Reuters] Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as illegal fishing, have circulated since the early 1990s. But evidence of such practices literally appeared on the beaches of northern Somalia when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) reported the tsunami had washed up rusting containers of toxic waste on the shores of Puntland. Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman, told Al Jazeera that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a "frightening activity" that has been going on for more than decade. "Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there," he said.

"European companies found it to be very cheap to get rid of the waste, costing as little as $2.50 a tonne, where waste disposal costs in Europe are something like $1000 a tonne. "And the waste is many different kinds. There is uranium radioactive waste. There is lead, and heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also industrial waste, and there are hospital wastes, chemical wastes you name it."

Nuttall also said that since the containers came ashore, hundreds of residents have fallen ill, suffering from mouth and abdominal bleeding, skin infections and other ailments. "We [the UNEP] had planned to do a proper, in-depth scientific assessment on the magnitude of the problem. But because of the high levels of insecurity onshore and off the Somali coast, we are unable to carry out an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem," he said.

However, Ould-Abdallah claims the practice still continues. "What is most alarming here is that nuclear waste is being dumped. Radioactive uranium waste that is potentially killing Somalis and completely destroying the ocean," he said.

Toxic waste

Ould-Abdallah declined to name which companies are involved in waste dumping, citing legal reasons.

But he did say the practice helps fuel the 18-year-old civil war in Somalia as companies are paying Somali government ministers to dump their waste, or to secure licences and contracts.

"There is no government control ... and there are few people with high moral ground ... [and] yes, people in high positions are being paid off, but because of the fragility of the TFG [Transitional Federal Government], some of these companies now no longer ask the authorities they simply dump their waste and leave."

Ould-Abdallah said there are ethical questions to be considered because the companies are negotiating contracts with a government that is largely divided along tribal lines.

"How can you negotiate these dealings with a country at war and with a government struggling to remain relevant?"

In 1992, a contract to secure the dumping of toxic waste was made by Swiss and Italian shipping firms Achair Partners and Progresso, with Nur Elmi Osman, a former official appointed to the government of Ali Mahdi Mohamed, one of many militia leaders involved in the ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia's former president.

At the request of the Swiss and Italian governments, UNEP investigated the matter.

Both firms had denied entering into any agreement with militia leaders at the beginning of the Somali civil war.

Osman also denied signing any contract.

'Mafia involvement'

However, Mustafa Tolba, the former UNEP executive director, told Al Jazeera that he discovered the firms were set up as fictitious companies by larger industrial firms to dispose of hazardous waste.

"At the time, it felt like we were dealing with the Mafia, or some sort of organised crime group, possibly working with these industrial firms," he said.

Nations have found it difficult to tackle the problem of piracy [AFP] "It was very shady, and quite underground, and I would agree with Ould-Abdallah¹s claims that it is still going on... Unfortunately the war has not allowed environmental groups to investigate this fully."

The Italian mafia controls an estimated 30 per cent of Italy's waste disposal companies, including those that deal with toxic waste.

In 1998, Famiglia Cristiana, an Italian weekly magazine, claimed that although most of the waste-dumping took place after the start of the civil war in 1991, the activity actually began as early as 1989 under the Barre government.

Beyond the ethical question of trying to secure a hazardous waste agreement in an unstable country like Somalia, the alleged attempt by Swiss and Italian firms to dump waste in Somalia would violate international treaties to which both countries are signatories.

Legal ramifications

Switzerland and Italy signed and ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which came into force in 1992.

EU member states, as well as 168 other countries have also signed the agreement.

The convention prohibits waste trade between countries that have signed the convention, as well as countries that have not signed the accord unless a bilateral agreement had been negotiated.

It is also prohibits the shipping of hazardous waste to a war zone. Abdi Ismail Samatar, professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, told Al Jazeera that because an international coalition of warships has been deployed to the Gulf of Aden, the alleged dumping of waste must have been observed.

Environmental damage

"If these acts are continuing, then surely they must have been seen by someone involved in maritime operations," he said. "Is the cargo aimed at a certain destination more important than monitoring illegal activities in the region? Piracy is not the only problem for Somalia, and I think it's irresponsible on the part of the authorities to overlook this issue."

Mohammed Gure, chairman of the Somalia Concern Group, said that the social and environmental consequences will be felt for decades.

"The Somali coastline used to sustain hundreds of thousands of people, as a source of food and livelihoods. Now much of it is almost destroyed, primarily at the hands of these so-called ministers that have sold their nation to fill their own pockets."

Ould-Abdallah said piracy will not prevent waste dumping. "The intentions of these pirates are not concerned with protecting their environment," he said. "What is ultimately needed is a functioning, effective government that will get its act together and take control of its affairs."

Orthodox primates speak on human divisions and the environment

2008-10-14T07:07:00.002+02:00

The primates of the Orthodox Churches, meeting from 10-12 October at the Phanar, Istanbul, have issued a message to all Orthodox Christians throughout the world, urging them, among other things, to play a part in healing human divisions and caring for creation.

Russian Orthodox Church (Brussels Representation) - Eglise Orthodoxe Russe (Repr�sentation �Bruxelles):

The various nationalistic, ethnic, ideological and religious contrasts continuously nurture dangerous confusion, not only in regard to the unquestionable ontological unity of the human race, but also in regard to man’s relationship to sacred creation. The sacredness of the human person is constrained to partial claims for the “individual”, whereas his relationship toward the rest of sacred creation is subjected to his arbitrary use or abuse of it.

These divisions of the world introduce an unjust inequality in the participation of individuals, or even peoples in the goods of Creation; they deprive billions of people of basic goods and lead to the misery for the human person; they cause mass population migration, kindle nationalistic, religious and social discrimination and conflict, threatening traditional internal societal coherence. These consequences are still more abhorrent because they are inextricably linked with the destruction of the natural environment and the entire ecosystem.

The greenhouse effect that may be cooling the climate - earth - 10 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment

2008-10-14T05:04:00.002+02:00

The greenhouse effect that may be cooling the climate - earth - 10 October 2008 - New Scientist Environment: "HERE is one greenhouse effect that is welcome: the roofs of hothouse farms in Spain reflect so much sunlight that they may be pushing down local temperatures.

Since the 1970s, semi-arid pasture land in Almeria, south-eastern Spain, has been replaced by greenhouse horticulture. Today, Almeria has the largest expanse of greenhouses in the world - around 26,000 hectares."

Hat-tip to Nouslife, who comments: "Of course, the effect of this agriculture on the water table is another story."