Nedbank’s Green Trust is funding a three-year project led by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to create the first national map of our South Africa’s reef systems. The South African Reef Atlas is based on underwater photographs and gps co-ordinates submitted by ‘reef users’, notably divers, research organisations and government. It will significantly [...]
The government, women, coalminers, business…each sector of South African society needs to be involved right now if, as Africa’s highest emitter of carbon, South Africa is to transform to a low carbon economy. The Green Trust is doing something about it. The Green Trust is funding a project that is contributing to climate change policy [...]
Some things in life are fair. Life does not distinguish between so-called good families or so-called broken families, between rich or poor, educated or uneducated, first world or third world when it comes to the black sheep or wayward soul. Black sheep are as prevalent in families in South Africa as they are in families [...]
“Do you get angry?” Doctor Bolotovsky, the iridologist, enquires. I’m sitting in his consulting room with my right eye gummed to his oculist scope as he peers into my iris. The reason I’m here is because it’s a new year. I am done with last year’s tears, fears, self-sacrifices and self-worth woes. This year my [...]
Mongolia is a long way to travel for a health massage. Fortunately my friend Tracey is extremely intrepid and will journey to the ends of the earth in search of one. “Ulaan Bataar is where I wish to receive my next massage,” she stated the day she departed. Ulaan Bataar or ‘UB’ to those who [...]
Does the idea of running twice the number of livestock on your land for significantly more profit while improving your veld and grazing appeal to you? There’s no livestock farmer in the world who’d say “No”. Enter Allan Savory. Over 50 years, he has proved that this and more is achievable on holistically managed farms [...]
She said: “I had to phone you when I received this invitation because I immediately thought of you. Of all the people I know, I’m sure this will be a dramatic turning point in your life.” When a friend calls to tell me this, I am interested; I’d go so far as to say I [...]
Studying the shape, horns and colour patterns of Nguni cattle is like palm-reading the history of Africa. For Nguni cattle have always been, and will continue to be, the symbol of wealth, status, spirituality and political power in Africa. Exceptionally fertile and disease-resistant with unmistakable, multi-coloured hides, the widely beloved Nguni breed has evolved in [...]
“I can’t believe I’m seeing Saturn and the craters on the moon!” a visitor on the night sky tour at the Astronomical Observatory near Sutherland gazes through a 16-inch telescope, operated by astronomy guide Glenda Stoffels. The same visitor asks Stoffels if she is an astronaut, but it matters not in the infinite wonder of [...]
Oblivious to the precariousness of our place on the planet and on the human family tree, us ‘modern humans’ are the masters of the grandest, most misguided belief in our own invincibility. “We are tottering on the brink of extinction and still we don’t see the danger,” says Donald Johanson, one of the most eminent [...]