News around the world today includes:
Local organic wine maker, Johnathan Grieve, has begun using ducks, wasps and beetles in a bid to farm organically on his Avondale farm in the Paarl area. Nothing new to the permaculture community, but for South Africans, using natural predators instead of chemical insecticides is.[Mail & Guardian online]

The first UK solar energy charity, aimed at the developing world, was launched last Tuesday at the Climate Clinic Night Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Their aim - using solar energy to relieve poverty and educating in matters relating to solar energy, climate change and protecting the environment. They intend doing this by training local communities in DIY solar skills and have already started in Malawi with a project that is installing solar panels for a youth centre, which helps children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Read more about it

News around the world today includes:

Arnie's signing a law which has set targets to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions - way to go California! [BBC] Someone called Babs is busy blogging about trying to get to Brisbane from the UK, without travelling by plane as it's so environmentally damaging - now that's quite a feat if you can pull it off. I just hope she can convince her employer to change the number of days' vacation she's entitled to? [ecostreet]

Someone's started recycling plastic bags into funky, very aesthetically-pleasing bags, now that companies and even cities have begun banning them - a nifty idea and possibly a business plan for an entrepreneur in SA? [Treehugger]

Yahoo Uk's front page today has finally got wind of Al Gore's documentary - An inconvenient truth - which looks at the myths & misconceptions around global warming.

Treehugger.com was airing stories about Al Gore's attempt to get across his environmental message as early as February! (possibly before) The film sold out at the Sundance film festival and the Q&As before the screening were packed. Amazing how the minute you get celebs to draw focus to an issue, people sit up and notice! Now they've coined the phrase 'green celebrities' - I mean, hello! I suppose we should be grateful that these sorts of issues are becoming mainstream, but look at the lengths someone as famous as Al Gore has had to go, just to get people to listen? It certainly didn't seem to do the trick when he presented to governments - he is supposed to have presented his talk, before the film, to various government officials from around the globe.

It seems to take the mainstream a lot longer to catch on to anything remotely 'green'? Largely due, I think, to the misconception that 'green' and being environmentally responsible is someone else's problem?

What are we doing in South Africa about global warming? Today's green clipping's headline that SA is to 'green' the 2010 world cup and the Global Environment Facility, the world's largest funder of projects to protect the environment, is planning to help our country with the greening of its public transport system.