Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • In the words of Nelson Mandela, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”
  • Flooding at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Second Place: Jeannie Wallace McKeown
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Winner: Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana
  • Residents of Extensions Nine, 10, Transit Camp, Phumlani and Enkanini voice discontent!
  • Makhanda Creatives Speak Out
  • Running towards a drug and alcohol-free Makhanda
  • What’s On 23 – 30 March
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»The latest on what’s up with our planet
Uncategorized

The latest on what’s up with our planet

Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailMay 21, 2015No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Great community effort – Congratulations to all involved in the great Sugar Loaf Hill clean up on 5 May. 

The urban environment is as important as wild spaces are and is the habitat of a species that could soon be endangered if we don’t look after it – us. 

Great community effort – Congratulations to all involved in the great Sugar Loaf Hill clean up on 5 May. 

The urban environment is as important as wild spaces are and is the habitat of a species that could soon be endangered if we don’t look after it – us. 

Take a look. If you have other ideas for enhancing the area like 'no dumping' signage or planting trees, shrubs and aloes, let us know (see Tim Bull’s contact details below).

Too many people in our society take a passive view of social problems like a dirty landscape or streetscape. In a functioning democracy, the government doesn't do everything.

Ordinary citizens must do their part too. Let's hope this is a start to a new, more active citizenship where we all pitch in to fill the gaps that government leaves. 

Watch out for future initiatives. Or better still, start you own. Let's make this the new normal. Welcome windmills 

The picture in last week’s Grocott’s of parts of a wind turbine arriving were a welcome sight.

While some people have opposed the wind farm, clean energy is the future.

Burning fossil fuels pollutes the atmopshere and those fuels will, in any case, run out eventually. How soon?

Fossil fuel supporters are keen on quoting supply in terms of 'current rate of use', and claim we can keep going for 200 years.

'Current rate of use' is misleading. Energy demand worldwide doubles every 30 years and that means 200 years of reserves, adjusted for growth, will be used up in 70 years.

Plus, we will not use every last bit of fossil fuel. Alternatives will have to be found when shortages and cost of extraction make them too expensive.

But if we wait until then, we will have the massive task of replacing infrastructure that no longer suits energy sources.

And we will have all that extra pollution. Better to start now and replace dirty energy sources in a measured way. 

Last week five donkeys showed up in my street, treating the greenery they could access like salad.

Donkeys always look sad, perhaps with reason. They have a tough life, being expected to work hard on demand. 

Having animals wandering round our town is part of its rustic charm, even if they can be a traffic hazard.

The Makana Donkey Association does good work in encouraging better treatment of these hard-working animals.

Take time to talk to the donkeys if they visit your neighbourhood, but remember a donkey can deliver a sharp kick and is one of the few animals that can kick sideways, so be nice.

Meanwhile in the Antarctic… NASA scientists in a new study show that a major ice shelf – that's ice buttressing land ice, slowing glacier flow into the sea – could all be gone by 2020.

The Larsen B Ice Shelf hit the news in 2002 when a huge chunk disintegrated, and this study gives it only five more years.

Much of the Antarctic ice is grounded below sea level.

If water can find a path under the ice, it can accelerate movement of glaciers and lead to disintegration of huge chunks of ice.

Find us Online: www.grocotts.co.za/environews Contacts for Makana Enviro-News: Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205 | Jenny Gon: j-gon@intekom.co.za, 046 622 5822 | Rachel Ibbetson: g14i5652@campus.ru.ac.za, 079 951 3005| Nick James: nickjames@intekom.co.za, 082 575 9781 | Philip Machanick: p.machanick@ru.ac.za, 046 603 8635 | Tim Bull: timothybull05@aol.com, 046 622 6044, 076 289 5122

Previous ArticleGrahamstown schools brought together by music
Next Article Nyasas and Mawas revive rugby rivalry
Grocott's Mail

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.