It is not just climate change that threatens our survival, but resource extraction and pollution, a major conference heard last week, writes Legalbrief. Thousands of delegates, business leaders and campaigners gathered at the five-day 4th UN Environment Assembly, the top ... Read More
Eskom estimates that emissions from its coal-fired power stations kill 534 people a year – but an independent review of Eskom’s data estimates that the number of people who die is at least 1 850 a year. According to a ... Read More
Eskom's deals with independent power producers (IPPs) came under scrutiny when the Coal Transporters Forum yesterday asked the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to prevent the parastatal from signing any agreements with the producers. A TimesLIVE report notes that the ... Read More
With more electricity disruptions expected to occur over the next few years, solar energy may be the answer. According to a Cape Times report, this is according to a study aimed at identifying the key factors and forces pertinent to ... Read More
We should take heed of young people who marched all across the world last week to demand action on climate change, writes Melissa Fourie, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Rights, in an analysis on the Daily Maverick site ... Read More
Families in one of Africa's poorest countries hope documents from the Panama Papers will force a foreign-owned company to compensate them for alleged pollution, forced removal, health complaints and human rights violations. According to a report on the allAfrica ... Read More
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said last week it has seized 15 tons of ivory from within and outside Uganda over the past five years. A report on the allAfrica site notes that Margret Kasumba, an enforcement manager at UWA ... Read More
Uganda’s rapidly growing urban population is boosting the demand for timber, accelerating one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world, according to researchers. A report on the allAfrica site quotes Arthur Owor, a director at the Centre for ... Read More
Air pollution is killing more people every year than smoking, according to research published last week that called for urgent action to stop burning fossil fuels. According to a Cape Argus report, researchers in Germany and Cyprus estimated that air ... Read More
More than 100 schools in Malaysia have been closed after the dumping of toxic waste into a river caused hundreds of people to fall ill, including many children, authorities said. According to a report in The Guardian, a lorry is ... Read More
The town of Mangaratiba, in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, fined miner Vale and closed its iron-ore port terminal last week, citing pollution problems and the alleged lack of an operating licence. A Mining Weekly report notes that the ... Read More
* The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) has appointed its first deputy director. Wandisa Phama is a public interest lawyer and activist, and a former acting co-deputy director and head of the Business and Human Rights Programme at the Centre for ... Read More
* Malawi and Tanzania have launched the $829m joint Songwe River Basin Commission in the Tanzanian border town of Keyla. The commission aims to improve agricultural and Songwe environment management activities through dams of irrigation, and will also drive basin activities ... Read More
* A starving whale with 40kg of plastic in its stomach has died after being washed ashore in the Philippines, activists said yesterday, calling it one of the worst cases of trash poisoning they have seen. Environmental groups have tagged the ... Read More
Holiday company warns on SA water Don't drink the tap water. This is the advice to visitors to SA from holiday company Globehunters on the release of its new map showing tourists where to avoid tap water. ‘When travelling ... Read More
Escaped lion spends night behind bars The lion who escaped from the Karoo National Park near Beaufort West last month has spent a night behind bars. The lion was finally found and captured last week after being darted near Sutherland ... Read More
Company punts seaweed straws Plastic straws are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, with South African fast-food chains and hotels banning them, while other establishments now hand out straws only on request, or have switched to alternatives. Now edible ... Read More
