Being Green

Being Green - 20 May 2022

International Tea Day is celebrated on 21 May. But did you know that most tea bags contain up to 25% of plastic. Many brands use a non-biodegradable plastic called polypropylene in the heat-sealing process and to help keep the bag in shape when it’s immersed in hot liquid. A recent…

20 May 2022 6 min

Being Green - 13 May 2022

The ongoing plague of brown locusts in parts of the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape Karoo, believed to be the biggest in 25 years, has been a nightmare for farmers. Experts say that in just one day, a small swarm can eat the same amount of food as…

13 May 2022 7 min

Being Green - 06 May 2022

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY GERLINDE MOSER OF RE/MAX. Being Green – Your window on the environment broadcast every Friday morning at 9.30. Glynis Crook will focus on key issues affecting our lifestyles, science and research outcomes, the quest for sustainable living and a healthier planet.

6 May 2022 6 min

Being Green - 29 Apr 2022

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Alderman Eddie Andrews, the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, about the annual global City Nature Challenge. This year, over 400 cities are expected to take part in a bid to find out…

29 Apr 2022 6 min

Being Green - 22 Apr 2022

It’s the time of the year that the loggerhead sea turtles hatch on the coastline of northern KwaZulu-Natal and are then carried south by the Agulhas current. Unfortunately, as a result of injury, dehydration and hypothermia, some of the little hatchlings wash up on our beaches here in the Western…

22 Apr 2022 6 min

Being Green - 15 Apr 2022

Monday 18 April will mark the one-year anniversary of the devastating fire that destroyed UCT’s Jagger Reading room and damaged other buildings on campus. It also gutted two historic buildings - Mostert’s Mill and the Rhodes Memorial restaurant - and caused damage to other buildings in the area. The blaze…

15 Apr 2022 6 min

Being Green - 08 Apr 2022

The third and final report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th assessment cycle was published earlier this week. Part 3 finds that, despite warnings, emissions have continued to rise in the last decade, and that only severe cuts will allow the world to avoid climate extremes…

8 Apr 2022 7 min

Being Green - 01 Apr 2022

In the Western Cape, more than 40% of all waste delivered to landfills is organic, and as it decomposes, it releases the extremely harmful greenhouse gas, methane. With the first phase of the province’s new Organic Landfill Ban in effect from this year, residents need to start thinking about how…

1 Apr 2022 7 min

Being Green - 25 Mar 2022

Construction on tech giant Amazon's new Africa headquarters at the River Club site in Observatory has been halted following an interdict by the Cape High Court against developers, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust. In her ruling, Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath recognised the land’s importance as the historic dominion of the…

25 Mar 2022 7 min

Being Green - 18 Mar 2022

Almost 200 of Africa’s most spectacular heritage sites, both natural and cultural, are in danger because of rising sea levels. That’s according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change which found that they face a severe risk of flooding and erosion over the next 30 years…

18 Mar 2022 6 min

Being Green - 11 Mar 2022

In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to Nhlanhla Sibisi, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, which took part in the recent talks in Nairobi, Kenya. At the meeting, 175 nations reached an agreement to start negotiations on an international treaty to tackle plastic pollution. Delegates endorsed a…

11 Mar 2022 6 min

Being Green - 04 Mar 2022

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Gina Ziervogel, Associate Professor in Environmental and Geographical Sciences at UCT. She's lead author of the chapter on cities, settlements, and key infrastructure, in a new report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was published…

4 Mar 2022 7 min

Being Green - 25 Feb 2022

You may mistake their mission statement for a quote from the A-Team, but the Goat Army Africa is a very real herd of goats that is being used to clear alien vegetation like Port Jackson and wattle. It is the brainchild of Pieter Bosman and Ronnie Visser, and the 'unit'…

25 Feb 2022 7 min

Being Green - 18 Feb 2022

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook, speaks to open water endurance swimmer, Sarah Ferguson, about her bid to swim from Durban to Cape Town to put the spotlight on plastic pollution in the ocean.

18 Feb 2022 6 min

Being Green - 11 Feb 2022

Hello again. Let’s look at some of the headline catchers in recent days. You may remember talk of a “Gas Master Plan” surfacing recently, punted by the fossil-fuel lobby, and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy which is unashamedly part of the lobby? (I wonder if Minister Gwede Mantashe…

11 Feb 2022 5 min

Being Green - 04 Feb 2022

Earlier this week, the Two Oceans Aquarium announced the exciting news that a female eagle ray had given birth to four little pups. In Being Green, Glynis Crook, speaks to its spokesperson, Renee Leeuwner, about this type of ray and why they do not lay eggs like most fish. You…

4 Feb 2022 6 min

Being Green - 28 Jan 2022

The current debate on electricity tariffs (current –gettit?!) is generating (gettit?) a fair amount of hot air, which is a mixture of gases, which brings us back to gas. Sorry, I couldn’t resist being facetious – all in a good cause, but I’ll stop it now. So, gas – gas…

28 Jan 2022 4 min

Being Green - 21 Jan 2022

In this week’s edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Sidney Jacobs, chairman of the Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei, about steps that are being taken by the City of Cape Town to remove large quantities of reeds and organic sludge from the Rondevlei weir in the False Bay…

20 Jan 2022 6 min

Being Green - 14 Jan 2022

(website quoted): www.climate.copernicus.eu Fire and heat have been very much on our minds recently – this 2nd week of 2022. Funny how, although we know it’s just numbers, the start of the year feels somehow different. Perhaps it’s the new school year, and the media hype and frustrated journos writing…

14 Jan 2022 5 min

Being Green - 07 Jan 2022

Denmark says it wants to make all domestic flights fossil fuel free by 2030. That’s in just eight years’ time. In her New Year’s address, the prime minister did however acknowledge that the solutions needed to reach this target were not yet in place. So what options are out there?…

7 Jan 2022 6 min