Environment

SACSIS is concerned about the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on the lives of the poor. The poor carry a disproportionate burden as result of environmental injustice. SACSIS supports the ethical, balanced and responsible use of land and renewable resources.

The Future Is Here, but South Africa Is Stuck in the Past

Picture: Urbee Hybrid - the world Fazila Farouk - Some parts of our world are already being delivered into a new industrial revolution, but this revolution is one that will likely pass by South Africa due to our continued reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Embracing the forward-thinking technological advancements of the 21st century, the economies of Northern Europe are realigning completely to adapt to new modes of production based on renewable energy. Clean technology is integrating into the digital economy to produce a new...

From Norway to Scotland to Hawaii: Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign Racks up Major Wins

Picture: Waging Non-Violence Nadia Prupis - Rack up some more wins for divestment: the University of Hawaii System, the University of Edinburgh, and the Norwegian wealth fund have all within the last week answered the growing global call for institutions to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry. Norway's parliamentary parties announced on Thursday that the government would divest its $900 billion sovereign wealth fund from coal, citing the industry's impact on climate change. According to the Associated Press, environmentalists...

Europe: New Energy Policy Needed as Nuclear Giants Take a Hit

Picture: Anti-nuclear campaigners in London in protest at the industry Paul Brown - LONDON, 28 May, 2015 − The European nuclear industry, led by France, seems to be in terminal decline as a result of the cancellation of a new Finnish reactor, technical faults in stations already under construction, and severe financial problems. The French government owns 85% of both of the country’s two premier nuclear companies – Areva, which designs the reactors, and Electricite de France (EDF), which builds and manages them. Now it is amalgamating the two giants in a...

French Hypocrisy on Whose Lives Matter

Picture: 350 Africa Dominique Doyle - On the 7th of January 2015 the Yemenese branch of Al-Qaeda took responsibility for a brutal attack on the French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo. Eleven people were gunned down and a further eleven people injured. The attackers justified their violent actions because they found the way in which the newspaper depicted the Prophet Mohammed insulting, disrespectful and exemplifying Western carelessness over other people’s beliefs and cultures. The cruel attack rightly outraged France...

An Unenlightened Vision for Energy Security Casts a Pall over Our Future

Picture: Solar farm courtesty TckTckTck Glenn Ashton - Our most recent round of load shedding, coupled to Eskom’s current application to increase power tariffs by over 25 percent, has raised the level of public anger and frustration with both the national power utility and government. Eskom has now ineluctably demonstrated its incapacity to deliver on its mandate to provide reliable electrical power at a reasonable cost, as set out in its 1923 founding charter. So how do we meet the collective challenge, as South Africa Inc., to supply...

The Cruelty of Dairy Farming

Picture: Fish and Game New Zealand Chris Hedges - MINISINK, N.Y.—The affable, soft-spoken dairy farmer stood outside his 70-stall milking barn on his 230-acre family farm. When his father started farming there in 1950 were about 800 dairy farms in New York state’s Orange County. Only 39 survive. Small, traditional farms have been driven out of business by rising real estate prices, genetic manipulation of cows, industrial-scale hormone use that greatly increases milk production, wildly fluctuating milk prices and competition from...