I'm a fan of theatre in any form. I particularly admire those who do theatre with a message (alright, I know all theatre has a message, but, you know), especially one with climate change for school kids. And this one is aimed at grades 5 to 9.

What's more, the team of actors, are prepared to act just about anywhere – in a quad, hall or field – just so that they can get their message across.

The “high-octane, action-packed adventure story” by the theatre team Craig Morris, Lerato Moloi, Jacques De Silva and Joni Barnard, from the Well Worn Theatre Company has already made it to the halls and quads of at least 20 schools with their climate change programme.

I can't remember exactly when I became aware of the problem of bottled water. I do have a post on Relax with Dax (The Scourge of Bottled Water) which was written in April 2006, so probably sometime before then. I personally try not to drink bottled water unless there is no alternative, but many people are still unaware of the damage bottled water does. In fact, when I attended the Eat In Awards lunch, they had imported bottled water on the table even though they are promoting local, organic and fair produce!

treevolution a la greenpop.orgThe revolution has a name and it is Greenpop! Greenpop is a volunteer-powered tree planting project - a "creative greening campaign with a treemendous amount going on". Their first aim is to plant 1000 trees at various under-greened areas across Cape Town during spring 2010.

They seem to be up to really good things, including some reverse-grafitti street art and eco-educational upliftment. And thanks to involvement of Misha Teasdale, documentary filmmaker, there are some cool clips to check out on YouTube (be sure to watch them all).

This Sunday (29 Aug) the first trees will be heading groundwards at the Sosebenza Centre for Peace in Masiphumelele. And in conjunction with this, Urban Harvest will be planting a veggie garden too. They're keen to have as many volunteers join them as possible so check out their website for details.

Jeremy Hewitt and other accomplished musos

a greener athloneWe've seen some unexpected media releases in our time, but this one takes the cake. So here it is verbatim:

ATHLONE POWER STATION LOCATION TO BE CONVERTED TO WIND FARM

South Africa’s leading energy supplier has announced that, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town, it will be converting the old Athlone coal fired power station into a wind farm filled with eight new 1.5MW wind turbines.

It indicated that the implosion of the old power station is a symbol of its commitment to clean energy and plans to convert all existing coal fired powered stations into renewable energy sources by 2016.

I loved this documentary. I had heard about the Yes Men, but it was great to actually see them in action and learn about the various stunts they pulled. Imagine this, the Yes Men pose as a Dow Chemical spokesperson and inform 300m people on BBC news that Dow has decided to clean up the Bhopal site and compensate the victims. Dow's stock dropped $2 billion in 20 mins!
Why did they do this? To attract people's attention to the fact that the site has not been cleaned up and still leaks harmful chemicals into the groundwater. And that the people are still suffering the after effects of the explosion more than 20 years later but have received no compensation for their suffering.
This is just one of the many hoaxes the Yes Men have pulled off in their unique style. They do it to try and create

Encounters documentary festival is NOW ON in Cape Town and in Jo'burg. And there are a lot of 'green' angle films, some of them like local film maker and journalist Helena Kingswell's vital "Buried in Earthskin" really worth catching.

The section for the movies with a green bent is called 'Green Movies: rewind, review, remake' and you can look out for the following:

“Dirt! The Movie” Dirs: Bill Benenson, Gene Rosow USA, brings us that much closer to understanding and appreciating the substance that provides food, shelter, implements, warmth, even giving our wines their

Arum lily season is here! You'll know this because at any number of lights around the city, some well-meaning chap will thrust a bunch at your window. And the temptation to buy these gorgeous flowers is enormous.

I've been aware that one shouldn't buy as they're being picked in the wild, destroying the natural balance of what remains of the natural wetlands, wild places and roadsides along which they grow (they're regarded as one of the wild flowers of the flower route and indicated in reports on the flowers).

But what I didn't know is that the endangered arum lily micro frog breeds in the water and dew held in the cup of these lilies.

pic: outdoorphoto.com

Remember last year's 350.org International Day of Climate Action that made the world sit up and take notice?

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That's the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

350.org are calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'. In Auckland, New Zealand, they're having a giant bike fix-up day, to get every bicycle in the city back on the road. In the Maldives, they're putting up solar panels on the President's office. In Kampala, Uganda, they're going to plant thousands of trees, and in Bolivia they're installing solar stoves for a massive carbon neutral picnic...

You can't get high on industrial hemp, but you can create clothing, housing, food, fuel, natural plastics and other locally useful and globally marketable consumer products out of it. And oh yes, did we mention jobs, and lots of them. Hemp is already a multi $ billion a year industry and growing.

The new HEMP NOW website is live, and they're petitioning the government of SA to join those countries already growing hemp. Sign the petition here.

There are many reasons why we should be growing hemp in SA:

• hemp is grown organically
• it is naturally resistant to most pests, so doesn't need pesticides or herbicides (cotton does)
• an acre field of hemp can yield up to 8 dry tons of fibre (3 times more than cotton)
• the same crop will give 4 times more paper than an acre forest of trees...

We walked part of the fan walk on Saturday and were amazed at the masses of people, many of whom, like us didn't have tickets for the Argentina vs Germany game, but just went along with their kids to soak up some gees. More than 300 000 fans were in Cape Town over the weekend, 42 000 attended the Fan Fest and 153 000 supporters used the 2.5 km Fan Walk on Saturday. What a cool sight to see thousands of us mobilised to watch 22 men chase a ball around a little field of grass...

Join 1 Goal
About 70 million children world-wide will the opportunity of education through the FIFA 1Goal campaign, said ambassador Anthony Baffoe of Ghana on Saturday.

One of these children was Ghanaian Stephen Odai, who was given an opportunity to watch Ghana play against Uruguay on Friday.

"My policy has always been combining football with education, 1Goal helps these kids to start their life," said Baffoe, who was at a media briefing at Soccer City in Nasrec.

He said that 18-year-old Odai was the classical example of how education can open doors for young people...