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.

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...

Bet you thought the day could never come. All this blarney about fish running out is just part of the whole green thing, people are just over-reacting, as usual... right?

Wrong. The prediction is that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048.

Imagine, for a moment, an ocean without fish. Your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This if the future if we do not stop, think and act.

The End of the Line is a film that reveals the impact of overfishing on our oceans and our global love affair with fish as food.

The major feature doccie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, is screening overseas at the moment, and is due in South Africa in September at a cinema near you.

It is possible to do something that has a real impact on the nuclear furture of South Africa.

These words arrived in my inbox this morning, sent by Peter Becker to members of the .

The deadline for submissions on the Environmental Impact Assessment for Eskom's proposed Nuclear-1 project EIA: 12/12/20/944) is tomorrow. You can make a difference. And here's how. Send an email to bongi.shinga[at]acerafrica[dot]co[dot]za. In the body of your email, if you don't have the time to actually comment, say something along the lines of:

Hottie – The world’s most travelled hot dog stand comes with a social and environmental conscience.Become a part of the World’s most travelled Hot Dog Stand and support kids of the Bushmen in South Africa. Dream, inspire and create positive social change to neglected children.

This Hot Dog stand is travelling around the world handing out a bite of Danish culture and hot dogs for free. Countries visited since 2003 include Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, England, China, Japan and across the US. Next stop South Africa soccer World Cup 2010.

How does it work? The visitors get a hot dog for free and the

Second Edition Cape Town Green MapWe've been working on a project with the City of Cape Town's Environmental Resource Management Dept and A & C Maps for the last eighteen months and today we're launching the second print edition of the Cape Town Green Map, ahead of World Environment Day tomorrow. The online map was launched a year ago, and Open Green Map, the global green map system we are affiliated with, is also turning one tomorrow.

There are many things that we can do everyday that can help stop climate change. It may be something small, but collectively, these small changes add up to a big difference.

Ten organisations including 350.org, Project 90 by 2030, and I am changing the world, are all proposing challenges that they will undertake to help reduce climate change. The challenge starts today (Friday 21 May).

They are encouraging both companies and individuals to take part. Prizes will be awarded to those companies and organisations that meet their goals each month and overall prizes at the end. They are aiming to get as many South African organisations and individuals taking part as possible. You can go and sign up, with your pledge here.

These are the ten different categories of challenges that you can set yourself and they fall under the broad areas of:

Energy efficiency (reducing how much energy is needed by simply using less)

1.On-line submission of targets for carbon footprint reduction of at least