global climate work partyThis weekend 350.org is promoting events around the world to reduce our impact on the planet with their Global Work Party 10/10/10 campaign. The campaign has been given a huge boost with the announcement that the Obama administration plans to put solar panels on the First Family's living quarters at the White House, returning to a tradition begun by president Jimmy Carter and abandoned by Ronald Reagan.

Around Cape Town at the end of last month you may have come across some strange crime scenes in the city: chalk marks and tape but no body, just the outline of an animal. This is the work of CSI-Cape Town’s “Rhino Patrol”, a group of citizens who are concerned about the fate of one of our most beloved animals - the rhino.

Last month the spotlight was firmly on rhino, as it was save the rhino month, and September 20th was save the rhino day. There has been wide press coverage of the poaching recently, with a poaching syndicate busted just last month. Yet more and more rhino are being poached – over 200 have been killed this year alone and that number's rising.

The population of rhinos in South Africa is about 19 000 white rhinos and just 1,670 black rhino. Rhinos are one of the oldest creatures on earth, and we are wiping them off the face of the earth.

It's UCT's Green Week this week. I'm supposed to be visiting (eek) but I'm also on a deadline...

As part of the Green Week, While You Were Sleeping and the UCT Green Campus Initiative invite you to watch four fantastic documentaries with important environmental themes at the Labia on Orange cinema in Cape Town from Monday 20 September to Thursday 23 September at 6.15pm.

Vanishing of the Bees
The Nuclear Comeback
The End of the Line
Crude

For a synopsis on each of these, .

Don't miss these thought-provoking and inspiring documentary films covering themes from nuclear energy and over-fishing to oil pollution.

A facilitated audience discussion will follow each screening. Tickets are R20 and can be reserved by calling The Labia.

join the solar water heating campaignThe sprouts want to go solar and we need your help. In fact we want to help you go solar too. What we really want is for you to help yourselves to go solar. Actually, we need your help to help the government to help us all to go solar!

Project 90x2030, Oxfam, 350.org, urban sprout and Activist! are calling on the government to spend R 60 billion wisely and commit this money to buying South Africa four million solar water heaters instead of spending it on more coal-fired power stations. Sign this online petition to urge the government to supply households with free solar water heating systems.

The country is already locked into the building of the Medupi power station at an estimated cost of R 125-billion and The Mail & Guardian reported in May the likely cost of the Kusile power plant will be R 175-billion.

This huge capital outlay is buying us a lot more coal pollution, increasing our

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