Kigali-Kinshasa gas project to provide 500 megawatts of energy from gas under Lake Kivu. By extracting methane gas that is in danger of exploding if allowed to reach strong concentrations, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda not only defuse a time bomb, but lead by example in producing environmentally-friendly energy.[IOL]

Eat In magazine introduces a new ‘best organic producer’ category in the Eat In RMB Private Bank SA Produce Awards. Vote for your favourite food product, producer and outlet online. The Eat In RMB Private Bank Produce Awards were initiated last year in order to acknowledge and celebrate outstanding SA producers for their contribution to our food culture. It aims to recognise the small independent producers whose integrity, care for the environment, passion and innovation are putting SA on the international food map. [vote online for your choice of best organic producer]

Avaaz online campaign persuades leaders to make tackling climate change a #1 priority. In an update on our earlier Avaaz story campaigners hand delivered 100,000 signatures to the environment ministers of the G8 summit, who have now agreed to make climate change the #1 issue for the summit in June. Avaaz are calling for further votes in order to reach a goal of 150,000 signatures to show their call for action is growing. [avaaz]

Further evidence of ‘we’ll only do it, if they do’ in the global warming arena. A day after the Supreme Court ruled that US federal government has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases [greening it up], Bush says his government is doing enough, and points a finger at the Chinese in what can only pass for a two year-old’s reasoning power – ‘Unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time.’ [nytimes]

Here's the full Earth Hour email:

Earth Hour is a fabulous opportunity for you and your family to do something about climate change. On one night, in one hour, more will be done, more will be demonstrated, and more will be learned than through a hundred 'talk-fests'. And you can help make it happen.

What is Earth Hour?
It sounds simple, but it is very, very dramatic. At 7.30pm on March 31st 2007, we will be encouraging companies, government departments, individuals and families to turn off their lights for just one hour. If we meet our objectives during the first Earth Hour, the savings in green house gas emissions will be the equivalent of taking 75,000 medium sized cars off the road for one whole year! Now that's something worth doing.

Why?
The facts are alarmingly clear:
* The climate is changing! The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. In fact 2005 was the hottest year since record keeping began.
* More than 95% of the Great Barrier Reef will have been destroyed by 2050 if carbon dioxide emissions aren't reduced. (WWF-International)
* One million species worldwide are facing extinction due to climate change.

But not everybody listens to the facts. Earth Hour is your opportunity to demonstrate how a simple change in our way of life could change, and help save, our planet.

The goals of Earth Hour:
Households : Most of us use unnecessary electricity. Appliances on standby, old style light bulbs, lights left on when we're not using them. Earth Hour will help us all to realise just how simply we can make a dramatic impact upon global warming (and our own power bills). We will see it in action.

Companies : We want companies to be involved. If every company turned off its lights when the buildings weren't in use, and combined it with energy saving technology, we would save between 2 and 4 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses every year. Earth Hour will show companies just how easy that is.

To make it an annual event : Out of the 8,766 hours in a year, let's give one back to the earth.

What you can do:
Sign up to Earth Hour and Pledge to turn off your lights on March 31st from 7.30pm to 8.30pm by logging onto www.earthhour.org .

You will receive all the information you need to make Earth Hour a great success (and to cut your own energy bills in the long term).
Pledging is free.

Get off standby : Turn off all the electronic equipment and appliances in your home that are not being used or are on standby. Computers, televisions, stereo equipment, phone chargers, DVD or video equipment.
Tell a friend : Spread the word about earth Hour by involving your friends, family and workmates. Get them to pledge at earthhour.org and most importantly, turn off the lights at 7.30pm Saturday 31 March 2007.

Spread the word - Once you have signed up for Earth Hour tell a friend; spread the word at work; tell your boss; mention it at school, at your local sports club or society group, you can even run it past your neighbours!

Make it an event. Get your family and friends to switch off their lights as well; Take some binoculars and look at the stars; sit and talk by candlelight; Explore your backyard by torchlight; Have fun with sparklers; or just do something non-electric as a family; Have a picnic-at-dusk; pretend you are camping; or have a candlelight dinner.

For more info on Earth Hour, check out www.earthhour.org

EARTH HOUR. MAKE IT HAPPEN

Please consider the environment before printing this email

I've just received this email from two unexpected sources: a guy I work with, and an old best friend.

It's really surprising where green news turns up!

Earth hour is an initiative in Sydney to raise awareness of climate change and to cut back on CO2 emissions by turning off your electricity on Saturday night for an hour betw 7.30 and 8.30pm (local time). It's being supported by Sydney celebs and musicians, including Silverchair, a rock group I'm rather fond of.

EARTH HOUR - 7.30pm to 8.30pm - Saturday March 31, 2007

Earth Hour is a fabulous opportunity for you and your family to do something about climate change. On one night, in one hour, more will be done, more will be demonstrated, and more will be learned than through a hundred 'talk-fests'. And you can help make it happen.

What is Earth Hour?
It sounds simple, but it is very, very dramatic. At 7.30pm on March 31st 2007, we will be encouraging companies, government departments, individuals and families to turn off their lights for just one hour. If we meet our objectives during the first Earth Hour, the savings in green house gas emissions will be the equivalent of taking 75,000 medium sized cars off the road for one whole year! Now that's something worth doing.

Why?
The facts are alarmingly clear:
* The climate is changing! The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1990. In fact 2005 was the hottest year since record keeping began.
* More than 95% of the Great Barrier Reef will have been destroyed by 2050 if carbon dioxide emissions aren't reduced. (WWF-International)
* One million species worldwide are facing extinction due to climate change.

But not everybody listens to the facts. Earth Hour is your opportunity to demonstrate how a simple change in our way of life could change, and help save, our planet.

(This is my abridged version read the entire email here)

Amazingly we've already had our electriciy cable restored after yesterday's cable theft. I was preparing for a whole week without electricity... EARTH WEEK now that would be something!

So courtesy of the Cape Town City Council and Eskom I think we'll be taking part as a show of solidarity with the 46802 (and counting) Sydneysiders. Nice to know there are a few more green minded people out there, even if on the other side of the planet, to share a candlelit dinner with!

For more info check out www.earthhour.org

State-owned chemical manufacturer, Foskor, will have the "green scorpions" knocking on their door today... perhaps.

As with the sudan red story, this is a another case of history repeating itself. A brief history of Foskor incidents and promises of investigations by the "green scorpions":

Jun 2002 - "Foskor plant in Richards Bay was the site of an incident where 200 people had to be treated for gas inhalation after an excessive release of sulphuric acid from the plant engulfed nearby commuters." [groundWork newsletter - mar 2004]

Jan 2004 - "A similar incident occurred again... forty-five people were gassed as a result of the incident. [groundWork newsletter - mar 2004]

Jun 2005 - "Richards Bay residents have reacted with alarm and incredulity to the latest gas leak at the Foskor phosphoric acid plant, which sent 58 people to hospital." [IOL - 06 Jun 2005]

I took my 16-month old son for his first look-in at the Argus Cycle Tour earlier today. Or the "Arduous", as my wife called it. We went down to the Kendal Road offramp at the M3 and joined plenty of other spectators to gawp, chirp and hurl encouragement at the cyclists. My son was gob-smacked. He's seen, maybe, 20 bicycles in his short life. Today was definitely cyclist overload - I've never known him sit cemented to one spot for so long. He had a grand view from the embankment and he was totally transfixed and amazed at the colourful cyclists zipping past.

I was also captivated. There is something stirring watching a mass of humanity pursuing a common positive purpose. It made my hair stand on end. I am so not a cyclist, my distance record (when I used to own a mountain bike) was a whopping 20 kilometres, but today I decided that the Arduous is something I need to do at least once.

It's interesting that the Cape Argus, the world's largest individually timed cycle race, grew out of a protest ride in 1977 called the Big Ride-In to draw attention to the need for cycle paths in Cape Town.

In London I encountered the Critical Mass, a collective of mostly cyclists (but also includes rollerbladers, skateboarders, wheelchairers) that get together on the last Friday of the month for a massive cycle around central London. It's quite something to see a group of around 300 self propelled people zooming past to loud music and a police escourt.

I think we need a Critical Mass Cape Town (it would be the first in Africa). It would be really cool, in fact I'd even buy a bicycle to join in. Goodness knows there are plenty of causes to cycle for, not least of which is that we still don't have any cycle paths in Cape Town...

Guerilla bagging takes world by storm. Over 1 million plastic bags are consumed per minute globally & marine wildlife mistakes plastic bags for food. Now, pods all over the world are sewing bags made out of old duvets and curtains, whilst having fun drinking wine and meeting new people, before giving them for free, guerilla style, outside supermarkets. [morsbags.com]

A new website called SwitchPlanet provides a marketplace for recycled goods to stem our addiction to buying new. [greenoptions] Don’t forget freecycle – your trash is another person’s treasure. There are groups in Bloem, CT, Durbs, Jozi and PE, and it aims to give things away for free to save our planet from landfills. [freecycle.org]

Biofuel that grows like a magic mushroom? We questioned biofuel’s contribution to a greener planet [greening it up]. Now an Israeli scientist may have discovered an alternative to corn and soy – a GM mushroom. To GM or not to GM...[treehugger]

In the face of the departing honey bee.The catastrophe of the loss of honeybee colonies around the world, some say as a direct result of global warming, spells immediate bad news for agriculture, who rely on the bee as a natural pollinator. So what does business do if its key service supplier folds? [greenbiz]

So the curry I made last night using "Robertson's Rajah Curry Powder (Medium)" wasn't one of the six chilli spices tested by the Sunday Times and found to be contaminated with Sudan IV, a potentially cancer causing industrial dye.

Will I sleep any better because of this? Probably not.

It just serves as a reminder at how unnatural our food supply has become in a couple of generations. Sure, adulteration of food has always taken place, but never on such a global scale with such far reaching consequences. Our health expended for making a quick buck.

Would it make any difference to have one more chemical added to an already vast cocktail of chemicals in our diet that we consume without our knowledge? To me it definitely does.

The Sunday Times broke the story yesterday, reporting that Pick ‘n Pay, Spar and Shoprite were withdrawing implicated products from their shelves as a precaution. Seems like just the other day when we last had this scare, back in March 2005.

So where are all the government, industry and consumer bodies that are there to protect us against this scourge from happening again and again?

Well, the government is not too worried, as Thami Mseleku, Director-General of Health, says,

pringle bayThe hostile reaction of Pringle Bay ratepayers to a progressive eco-village development means the plans will be shelved. Another example of NIMBYism (not in my backyard) by local residents ensures the self-sufficient eco-village on the banks of the Buffels River will not see light of day.

The development would have consisted of 79 "off-grid" houses using their own rainwater, solar power and gas instead of the muncipal supplied services. The proposed village would also have had its own sewerage system. The residents, citing "environmental" concerns for their opposition of the plans, are delighted with their victory over the "developers".

So where is the "environmental" justice? Upmarket golf course development draining millions of litres from the water table daily = GOOD (it pushes our property prices even further into the stratosphere). Eco-village promoting responsible land use, minimum ecological footprint, renewable energy etc. = BAD?

Organic industry booming – 75 million acres of farmland are now organically certified worldwide. IFOAM presented the latest stats and emerging trends last Friday that also show that organic products offer attractive opportunities for producers in developing countries. [organic consumers]

SA is headed for a heat wave – the central parts of the country will be very hot this week and parts of the coast will also be very uncomfortable. [IOL]

Avaaz leads the way in ‘climate wake up call’. The new MoveOn-style group that will mobilize members all over the world to take action on global issues, is airing a TV ad to petition World leaders. The ad shows world leaders snoozing in their bedrooms, while climate disaster rages outside and urges them to "set binding global targets" for carbon emissions. It began airing in Washington on 6 Feb and will also show in Paris, Berlin and Delhi.[avaaz]

live earthA series of simultaneous 24 hour music concerts, Live Earth , designed to trigger a global movement to combat climate change was announced yesterday as part of Save Our Selves (SOS) – The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis.

SOS was founded by Kevin Wall, executive producer of Live 8, is fronted by Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, Pharrell Williams and others and will be digitally broadcast around the world by MSN.

"In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people," said Gore, the environmental activist, filmmaker and almost President of the US.

SOS has announced 25 of the 100 Big name artists including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz and Black Eyed Peas.

"That’s what it takes to engage billions of people. We’re not just engaging fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg, or the Foo Fighters and Faith Hill. We’re engaging them and everyone in between," Wall said. "We’ve been overwhelmed by the response from the artist community and are feverishly working out the logistics for all of the bands that want to be involved."