Corridors, Climate Change and Democracy April 16, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Climate Change, Conservation , add a comment
Corridors are the sexiest thing in conservation. It has been realised for some time now that Africa will be one of the continents hardest hit by the effects of climate change. When Africa’s protected areas were initially proclaimed, no-one foresaw the increases in human population that we’ve experienced, and now these areas are islands in a sea of humanity.
Power down in South Africa continued… February 2, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability , add a comment
Here’s an excellent post from my favourite blog about energy and the crisis that faces us, The Oil Drum: Understanding the current energy crisis in South Africa, in which the authors point out that the underlying problem is exponential growth. To quote:
Yes, at this rate of growth we will double our economy. What is it we will be doubling? We will double our GDP. This means we will double what we produce. In order to double what we produce we will need to double what goes into what we produce. This includes raw materials and crucially, energy. Yes. Roughly speaking, on this growth path, in the next 11 years we are going to need to double the amount of energy we are currently consuming.
As Albert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Physics Department, University of Colorado, once wrote: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”.
Powerdown and travel January 24, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, News, Sustainability, Tourism , 1 comment so far
The CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), Michael Tatalias, attracted the ire of both Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, and FIFA, world football’s governing body, when he stated that Eskom’s rolling blackouts are threats to both tourism and the 2010 World Cup.
Predictably, the local media latched on to these statements, which I agree are rather sensationalist, and trumpeted them loudly, but failed to even mention the other half of his statement which asks what we as citizens and businesses are doing to curtail our consumption of energy. (Also see my post on this subject recently)
Powerdown in South Africa January 22, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability , 4comments
This post is only tangentially related to travel, but it has a lot to do with sustainability, so I thought I would vent here on this blog anyway. As I sit here writing this, South Africa has entered a period of rolling blackouts. The cause is uncontested: the government failed to allow the national power utility, Eskom, to create generation capacity way back in the ’90s. After an unprecedented period of economic growth the chickens have come home to roost and the reserve margin is down to 8% so that the grid has no resilience when capacity is temporarily reduced by an outage or when demand spikes. Meanwhile the demand trendline shows unabated growth. The crisis is expected to last for another seven years, by when additional generating capacity should come online.
But what interests me are the reactions to the crisis from my fellow citizens, which only serve to show how difficult it is to change behaviour and how invested in our energy-intensive consumer-age paradigm we are. (more…)
Free Energy – 1st in Commonwealth Vision Awards January 2, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Climate Change, Community, News , add a comment
Nestling between the sweep of False Bay and the dragonback Helderberg Mountains near Cape Town (and not far from the ecoAfrica Travel offices) lies Khayelitsha. This sprawling shanty town was the setting for the winning film of the 2007 Commonwealth Vision Awards presented last week in London. Made by Jacqueline van Meygaarden and Luke Younge, the theme for this year submissions was “The Commonwealth – Changing communities, greening the globe”.
There are no words spoken in the film. “I wanted to choose images which are simple and visually based”, said van Meygaarden. The storyline? Well see for yourself. (more…)
Carbon offsets: should you buy absolution? December 19, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, ecotourism , 1 comment so far
Some critics liken carbon offsetting - paying for emission reductions elsewhere instead of reducing one’s own carbon emissions - to “buying pardons from the Catholic church in 16th century Europe” [1]. Absolution. Guilt-free flying.
And yes, there are various, related ethical issues that you must resolve for yourself. If you’re not sure what I am writing about, take a look at CheatNeutral for amusing satirical commentary on the practice of offsetting your “sins”. However, if you are thinking that I am simply about to dismiss carbon offsetting as an immoral or impractical practice, please read on.
