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 […]

What is missing?

After posting the other day about the changing climate and the drought in our part of the world, I was thinking about what else has changed. When we first moved here we had a lot of these . . . By “these” I mean frogs and toads. As you’ll know if you’ve been following my […]

Climate Change on a local scale

M(i)z-Hit-Run wrote an interesting piece the other day about the severe drought which is affecting the region she lives in (the Eastern Cape, South Africa). She didn’t go for the scientific view of Climate Change, but wrote from her point of view. What she personally sees happening, and how it affects the small rural community […]

Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams

In 1989 Douglas Adams (of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame) was asked by the BBC to accompany zoologist and conservationist Mark Carwardine, on a series of conservation expeditions. Their task being to investigate some rare and endangered species. The result of this was a BBC radio series, and also one of my favourite […]