Being Green

In this last edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to esteemed climate scientist, Prof Francois Engelbrecht, Director of Wits University's Global Change Institute, about US President Donald Trump's slew of executive orders back-tracking on climate commitments, and the impact it might have for the rest of us.

Kenya's Lake Naivasha is famous for its flamingos and hippos. But it is being invaded by water hyacinths which are threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen. The alien weed is a huge problem in South Africa as well, the most invasive plant species in our freshwater ecosystems. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Joseph Nguthiru, founder of the Kenyan start-up HyaPak Ecotech, which has developed a way to turn the invasive plant into a bioplastic. Website -https://hyapak.com/

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Professor Guy Midgley, director of Stellenbosch University's School for Climate Studies, about the role played by climate change in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Morgan Griffiths, senior manager for advocacy at the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA), about recent conflicting reports on the quality of Cape Town's coastal waters.

Towards the end of last year, scientists from the European Union said 2024 was set to be the world's hottest since records began. Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service also showed that extraordinarily high temperatures would persist into at least the first few months of 2025. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to UCT climate scientist, Dr Peter Johnston, about the year that was.

Christmas is done and dusted for another year. But what to do with all those leftovers? The amount of food thrown away by South African households soars over the festive season, ending up in landfills where it releases harmful methane gas, a major contributor to global warming. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to British celebrity chef Jameson Stocks, who has a very personal reason for hating food waste.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook together with World Wide Fund for Nature, South Africa's Senior manager, Circular Economy, Lorren de Kock, offer some tips to make your Christmas celebrations more environmentally friendly.

Early morning swimming in the cold water of our tidal pools has become quite a craze here in Cape Town. And with so many of them along our coast, we are spoiled for choice. But these inter-tidal pools are also home to a diverse number of sea creatures. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to writer, photographer, and open water swimmer Serai Dowling about her book, “A Guide to the Tidal Pools of the Western Cape”.

It's estimated that about 600 million people across Africa still lack access to electricity which is fundamental for economic development. GOGLA, the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry, believes off-grid solar energy could help provide electricity to over 40 per cent of them. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to its Executive Director, Sarah Malm.

Developing nations have blasted the last-minute finance deal reached at the United Nations COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan. They say the $300 billion in annual climate finance that rich countries have agreed to provide by 2035 is too little and too late. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Olivia Rumble, director of Climate Legal and an expert on climate finance.

There has been worrying news from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Its latest Red List shows that birds make up a staggering 12 per cent of the world's threatened species. In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to Birdlife South Africa's Dr Kirsten Day about which birds are the most at risk.

Delegates from almost 200 nations are attending this year's United Nations climate conference which is widely being described as the "climate finance COP". The main task for countries is to broker a deal that ensures up to trillions of dollars in financing for climate projects in poorer states around the world. Glynis Crook discusses the first week of COP29 with Professor Francois Engelbrecht, Director of Wits University's Global Change Institute.

Climate activists have described Donald Trump's victory in the United States presidential elections as a major blow to global climate action. The results were announced just days ahead of the crucial COP29 conference which gets underway in Azerbaijan on 11 November. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Llewellyn Leonard, a professor of environmental science at the University of South Africa, about the implications.

It is just a few days before the United States elections. With Democrat candidate Kamala Harris pretty much neck-and-neck with the Republican's Donald Trump, the outcome could go either way. But what impact will it have on the global fight against climate change? Harris describes global warming an “existential threat” while Trump has dismissed it as a “hoax”. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to former US diplomat and Associate Editor of the Daily Maverick, Brooks Spector.

The World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF's) latest Living Planet Index shows that the average size of monitored wildlife populations has declined by 73 per cent in the 50 years from 1970 to 2020. A decline in wildlife populations is like an early warning system for the loss of healthy ecosystems. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to WWF South Africa programme head, Dr Deon Nel, about possible solutions and the need to live in harmony with nature.

Cape Nature says the illegal trade in succulent plants is the most pervasive wildlife crime in the Western Cape, pushing many unique species to the brink of extinction. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Leon Muller, a conservation manager for Cape Nature in the West Coast area, about the problem.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to freelance botanist and fynbos specialist, Rupert Koopman, about the critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and efforts to revive it.

Vergenoegd Löw is one of the oldest farms in the Cape and makes award-winning wines, but it is also a beacon of sustainable agriculture and eco-friendly practices. And it just happens to have a very cute flock of ducks running about the vineyards. They act as chief “pest control officers”, making sure the farm is free of snails, slugs, and other damaging insects. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to the farm's managing director, Corius Visser.

Conservationists are questioning Namibia's plan to cull over 700 wild animals, including hippos, impalas, wildebeest, zebras, and 83 elephants. The environment ministry says the plan is to distribute the meat to people struggling to feed their families amid one of the country's worst droughts in recent history. But critics suggest the cull is largely a political decision - coming ahead of the November elections - and that the logic behind it is flawed. Glynis Crook discusses the plan with wildlife investigative journalist and academic, Adam Cruise, in this week's edition of Being Green.

Spring officially arrives this weekend and for many, this time of the year means a reaction to the increased pollen in the air. Some bad news from researchers and doctors is that climate change is not only worsening the symptoms of seasonal allergies, but also making them last longer. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to allergist, Dr Adrian Morris. You can find more on his website: www.allergyclinic.co.za

While we spent the past few months shivering in our boots here in Cape Town, the northern hemisphere was experiencing its hottest summer since records began, increasing the likelihood that 2024 will be the Earth's warmest year yet. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Prof Guy Midgley, Director of Stellenbosch University's School for Climate Studies, about the Copernicus Climate Change Service report.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Tracey Gilmore, CEO of Taking Care of Business. This non-profit social enterprise runs three 2-year programmes training budding entrepreneurs to resell, repair, and remake retail waste items, most of which would otherwise have been sent to landfill. To find out more, or if you want to donate items, go to: www.tcb.org.za or call the Cape Town number: 021-531 2134

Sunday will see the start of the annual National Arbor Week, a time to celebrate trees. Over the seven-day period, people are encouraged to take part in "greening" events to make our communities healthier and more beautiful. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Clare Burgess, chair of Treekeepers Cape Town, about preserving our urban forests and its guided heritage tree walk in Newlands next Friday. To find out more, visit: https://treekeeperscapetown.org.za. Treekeepers

As the Cape Leopard Trust marks its 20th year of working to ensure the survival of this apex predator, Glynis Crook speaks to its CEO, Helen Turnbull, about these highly elusive and resilient animals that survive in the fynbos biome of the Cape Fold Mountains. Find out more at: www.capeleopard.org.za.

Countries around the world marked World Elephant Day on Monday, which aims to bring attention to the plight of the animals in Africa and Asia. On both continents, they are facing increasing threats, including an escalation in poaching, habitat loss, and human-elephant conflict. The Worldwide Fund for Nature says there are only about 415,000 African elephants left in the wild in Africa. In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook speaks to conservationist, Sean Hensman, who is manager of Adventures with Elephants

South Africa's Marion Island is being overrun by more than a million house mice. And as the growing population runs out of their normal food, they're increasingly turning to the island's seabirds as an alternative source of nourishment. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Anton Wolfaardt of Mouse-Free Marion about its project to rid the island of the rodents.

Scientists and officials gathered in Cape Town last week to discuss what they know about the rabies outbreak in Cape Fur Seals and what to do about it. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to one of the delegates, Dr Tess Gridley, co-director of Sea Search, which is a collective of marine mammal scientists, who told her that selective vaccination of seals got underway on Thursday. The City of Cape Town has warned people to steer clear from any seal behaving unusually or aggressively and to report such cases to the authorities on:

As the Olympic Games get underway in Paris on 26 July, the Worldwide Fund for Nature has launched a video campaign urging people to focus on the world records we don't want to break. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to James Reeler, Senior Manager: Climate Action at the WWF South Africa about what it hopes to achieve with the campaign.

Trees and plants make life better in a city, including improving air quality, providing homes to birds and insects, and cooling our streets. A recent heat-mapping campaign as part of the World Bank's City Resilience Programme and the National Treasury's Cities Support Programme found large temperature differences in parts of the city with densely-packed buildings and no trees, compared to leafier areas. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to atmospheric scientist Professor Roelof Burger about why this is and what needs to be done to improve the situation.

An urban greening trend that is gaining momentum around the world for its environmental benefits is something called a Miyawaki pocket forest. The concept was developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist, Dr Akira Miyawaki. Now Aghmad Gamieldien, founder of Mzanzi Organics, has created five of them in Cape Town. He joins Glynis Crook on this week's edition of Being Green.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Prof Peter Ryan, emeritus professor at UCT's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who co-authored a study which found that colourful plastics degrade to form microplastics faster than those with plain colours.

Electronic waste is the fastest-growing solid waste stream in the world. In 2022, a record 62 million tonnes were produced globally, up 82% from 2010. But less than one quarter of the year's e-waste mass was documented as having been properly collected and recycled. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Keith Anderson, CEO of the e-Waste Association of South Africa (e-WASA) about the growing problem. UNITAR · EWASA

In this week's Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Pavs Pillay, behaviour change lead and WWF-SASSI manager, about the initiative's new report, “The hidden costs of your seafood”, which focuses on the crucial role played by retailers and suppliers of seafood in ensuring responsible and sustainable fishing practices are implemented.

In Being Green this week, Glynis Crook continues her discussion with Wild Survivors founder, Francesca Mahoney, about elephants in Tanzania, and how their fear of bees is being harnessed to protect farms and help communities along the animal's migratory corridors. To find out more, go to: www.wildsurvivors.org

In this week's Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Francesca Mahoney, founder of Wild Survivors, an organisation that works to create a sustainable solution to the conflict between elephants and humans along the animal's migratory corridors in northern Tanzania. To find out more, go to: www.wildsurvivors.org

A study published recently by the British Antarctic Survey raised concerns about the record low levels of sea ice around Antarctica. Scientists found that in 2023 – compared to an average winter – the maximum extent of the Antarctic Sea covered by ice, shrank by over two million square kilometres. It found that these historically low levels were a one-in-2,000-year event without climate change but are four times more likely to occur under its effects. In this week's Being Green, Professor Marchello Vichi, Director of the Marine and Antarctic Research Centre for Innovation and Sustainability (MARIS), speaks to Glynis Crook about the shocking decline.

Plastic waste is poorly managed along coastal zones in West Africa, and Tanzania is no exception. But as the public becomes more aware of the problem, there are an increasing number of initiatives to deal with the problem, and opportunities to recycle. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Alexis Cronin, co-founder of Dunia, a sustainable design company based in Arusha, that makes high-end furniture from plastic waste.

The powerful El Nino weather phenomenon, a big contributor to last year's record-breaking global temperatures, has faded. Its opposite, La Nina, is expected to emerge in the next few months. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook asks Dr Christopher Jack, deputy director of UCT's Climate System Analysis Group, what impact it is likely to have.

Wood vinegar, a by-product of charcoal production, has been used in agriculture for over two thousand years, both as a growth booster for plants and a natural pesticide. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Ralf Dedig, the owner of Namibian company, Makarra Wood Vinegar, about the benefits of the product.

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on earth, and products made from this grass are highly eco-friendly. Among its many benefits to the environment is the fact that it absorbs twice as much carbon dioxide as trees and generates an impressive amount of oxygen. Glynis Crook caught up with Go Bamboo, a company that imports bamboo toilet paper, kitchen towels, and facial tissues at the recent Organic and Natural Products expo. She spoke to co-founder Nashrad Dass about their products.

Two bird conservation organisations, BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob, are taking the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment to court over what they see as a flawed plan to protect the endangered African Penguin. In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook asks Sanccob's head of conservation, Nicky Stander, what motivated them to do this.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Nileta Knoetzen, co-founder of Malmesbury-based company, Growing Paper, which not only hand-manufactures paper from paper waste, but also infuses it with seeds so you can “plant” it after use.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to World Travel Market Africa sales manager, Penny Fraser, and marketing manager, Olivia Gradridge, about how seriously the tourism industry is taking the negative impact it makes on the environment.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Heather Wares of the Two Oceans Aquarium about the incredible work done by its foundation in the field of ocean research and conservation and the beach clean-up it is holding at Surfers' Corner, Muizenburg, on Saturday morning. Time: 9h-12h. Bring along gloves and a bucket to collect the trash.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Honest Chocolate co-owner, Anthony Gird, about their efforts to make their products sustainable and environmentally friendly and how climate change is impacting cocoa bean production. To find out more about their chocolate and workshops, visit their website: honestchocolate.co.za

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Greenpop's Zoe Gauld-Angelucci about the organisation's incredible urban greening and forest restoration projects and the Reforest Fest is it holding in the Overberg on the Easter weekend.