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
