Wangari Maathai (1940 – 2011)

On Sunday 25 September 2011, Kenya and Africa lost a true leader and visionary. For those of you who don’t know, Wangari Maathai was a “Kenyan environmentalist who began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and who went on to become the first African woman […]

7 Links: A Peek Into My Archives

I do not usually formally accept blogging “awards” I get nominated for. Firstly, because I can’t think of anything remotely witty to write as an “acceptance speech”, but I also find it difficult to pass on the “honour”. However, I’m accepting this nomination from 2Summers (see her post here) because it is different.  I had […]

Things I didn’t know about shark fin soup

Recently I wrote about the effect of shark fishing and shark finning on the Mozambique coastline (see this post). I realized that I didn’t know much about it – what exactly shark fin soup is, who eats it and how it originated. So I did a little research and found some interesting facts about it. […]

Earth tremor in the Southern Cape

According to News24, the S.A Weather and Disaster Information Service and other sources, a “a light, but quite noticeable tremor” took place at approximately 16:15 on Saturday 14 May. It was felt all the way from the George in the west to beyond Plettenberg Bay in the east, and as far inland as the Langkloof […]

Did Earth Hour make a difference?

I know it is over a week since Earth Hour was celebrated around the world, but I want to post my thoughts anyway. Although little has been said in the South African media since Saturday 26 March, the friends I asked all said they had supported Earth Hour. We did too.  I spent Earth Hour […]

Shift in Earth’s axis has little effect, experts say

Since Friday I have been watching events in Japan unfold with great sadness for the Japanese people. Devastation and loss of life on that scale is absolutely heartbreaking. And scary – and not just for the Japanese people. As has been reported in the media, the earthquake has not only shifted the main island of […]

An excellent start to 2011

At the beginning of November 2010, I wrote a post about how the climate in our area had changed, and the fact that we were experiencing the worst drought in many years. Just how many was a little confusing. The local newspaper said it was around 60 years; the municipal records said that the last […]