SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Apr

16

2021

Air pollution: How to create an ‘air quality’ garden

SUSTAINABILITY

RACHEL BROWN WHY is air pollution a concern? Air pollution is a global problem that affects us all, causing harm to our health, vegetation and ecosystems in both urban and rural areas. It occurs when clean air is polluted by particulate matter (PM). This is made up of solid or liquid particles from natural sources such as pollen and desert sand, or from man-made sources, such as dust, soot and smoke. Man-made PM mainly comes from wood-burning stoves, solid-fuel stoves, and open fires in homes; industrial combustion and processes; and road transport. Air pollution also come from gases that have…

Apr

17

2021

By The African Mirror

Is ‘frugal innovation’ Africa’s ticket to green development?

SUSTAINABILITY

LAURIE GOERING CASH-SHORT Africa will need "frugal innovation" based on simple, local solutions to deal with serious and growing problems, from climate change to a surging youth population and a lack of jobs, African entrepreneurs and officials said on Wednesday. The good news is Africans "have frugal reflexes. They have been doing frugal innovation a long time", said Fatima Denton, director of the U.N. University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, based in Ghana. But sparse research funding, government restrictions, a cultural under-appreciation of entrepreneurs and a focus by many governments on large-scale industrialisation as the way ahead are holding…

Apr

22

2021

By The African Mirror

Who is the man Jeff Bezos chose to spend $10 billion as head of his Earth Fund?

SUSTAINABILITY

MEGAN ROWLING TEN billion dollars - that's a lot of money for one person to invest in anything, especially in the space of just a decade. It's the staggering size of the Bezos Earth Fund, set up last year by the founder of online retailer Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, to tackle climate change. That fund gets a new boss on Thursday: Andrew Steer. Announced in March, Steer's appointment went down well with experts in the climate world, following his respected stewardship of the World Resources Institute (WRI). Known as a straight talker, Steer brings decades of experience in international diplomacy and…

May

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Futuristic computer game hopes to be tonic for climate change anxiety

SUSTAINABILITY

KIM HARRISBERG IT is the year 2050, the planet is warming up, meals come from nutritional food packs and dozens of new zoonotic viruses are spreading. As the editor of an influential newspaper, how would you try to shape public opinion? This is one of the scenarios encountered by players of an online game launched on Monday, which uses humour and interactive decision-making to encourage people to think about the future of climate change, and what they can do about it. Survive the Century is the work of scientists, economists and writers around the world brought together by U.S.-based research group…

May

11

2021

By The African Mirror

As climate change threatens Kenyan tea, millions of workers seen at risk

SUSTAINABILITY

NITA BHALLA CLIMATE change is set to ravage tea production in Kenya, the biggest global supplier of black tea, threatening the livelihoods of millions of plantation workers, a report by British charity Christian Aid warned on Monday. The report looked at how shifting temperatures and rainfall patterns in tea-growing regions in Kenya, India, Sri Lanka and China could affect the quality and yield of the world's most popular beverage. Tea is one of Kenya's top foreign currency earners, along with tourism and remittances, employing about three million people. But the East African country - which produces almost half the tea consumed in…

May

10

2021

By The African Mirror

Youth activists urge bigger say in decision making for climate-hit Africans

SUSTAINABILITY

AMBER MILNE YOUNG African environmental activists say it is crucial those most impacted by climate change have a bigger say in decision-making to find solutions, including at upcoming COP26 U.N. climate talks set for November in Glasgow. In an online discussion joined by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Nigerian environmentalist Olumide Idowu said African youth could "no longer afford to be spectators of our future". "Most of these negotiators negotiate on behalf of us, without us ... we should be looking at how we can be a part of these negotiations," Idowu said. From stronger heatwaves and storms to droughts…

Jun

20

2021

By The African Mirror

Fishermen, farmers fear power ship

SUSTAINABILITY

WENDELLL ROELF A floating gas-turbine generator meant to alleviate South Africa's crippling power cuts has run into objections by oyster farmers and small-scale fishermen, who fear the environmental damage will destroy their livelihoods. The seafood sellers fear the 415 megawatt ship - to be moored for two decades at Saldanha Bay, 140 km north of Cape Town - will pump hot water into the bay and make endless noise, spoiling farmed oysters and scaring off fish as Africa's most industrialised country scrambles to fix electricity problems. Responding to complaints by the Green Connection environmental justice group, the South African government…

May

06

2021

By The African Mirror

Climate change risk is complex: here is a way to assess it

SUSTAINABILITY

A key feature of climate change is that it doesn’t pose one single risk. Rather, it presents multiple, interacting risks that can compound and cascade. Importantly, responses to climate change can also affect risk. NICHOLAS P. SIMPSON, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Africa Climate and Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, University of Cape Town CHRISTOPHER TRISOS, Senior Research Fellow, University of Cape Town In our highly connected world, climate risks and our responses to them can be transmitted from one system or sector to another, creating new risks and making existing ones more or less severe. In many cases risks cannot…

May

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Legal opinion puts governments ‘on notice’ over export finance for fossil fuels

SUSTAINABILITY

MEGAN ROWLING GOVERNMENTS could face litigation if they do not step up efforts to stop their export credit agencies financing fossil fuel infrastructure and activities overseas, legal experts and climate activists warned on Tuesday. Advocacy group Oil Change International released a legal opinion saying the agencies - which provide loans, insurance and guarantees for businesses to invest abroad - should stop lending to oil, coal and gas projects around the world immediately. "If they continue doing this, they are breaching international law," said Jorge E. Viñuales, a professor of law and environmental policy at the University of Cambridge who authored the opinion…

Jun

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Winners of ‘Green Nobel’ fight deforestation, coal power

SUSTAINABILITY

ANASTASIA MOLONEY AS a teenage mother and activist, Liz Chicaje would travel by boat and foot across Peru's Amazon rainforest with her young daughter campaigning to protect the ancestral lands of the Bora indigenous people from illegal logging and mining. To preserve the forest that the Bora and other indigenous people depend on for hunting and fishing in Peru's northeastern region of Loreto, Chicaje spearheaded the creation of a two-million-acre (809,370-hectare) national park. On Tuesday, Chicaje's activism and leadership earned her a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize - known as the "Green Nobel" - which honors grassroots activism, along with five…