The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Jodie Gummow -
With last week's news that Earth’s resources have slipped into an "ecological deficit" for the rest of 2014, many countries around the world have come under scrutiny for taking more from nature then their own ecosystems can supply.
What exactly is this ecological debt? Essentially, it means we have used up all the planet’s natural resources available for an entire year—think deforestation, soil erosion and carbon dioxide emissions—so now we’re...
Glenn Ashton -
The air in the interior of South Africa is amongst some of the most polluted in the world. It is killing our people. We see photographs and reports of air pollution in China and elsewhere but seldom do we see any comparable local coverage of the scourge of South African air pollution. Our coal addiction silently kills thousands of people every year, with impunity.
Over the past two decades South Africa has developed some of the most comprehensive environmental legislation in the world....
In 2002, investigative journalist and TED Fellow Will Potter decided to take a break from his regular beat, writing about shootings and murders for the Chicago Tribune. He went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing: "I thought it would be a safe way to do something positive," he says. Instead, he was arrested. Potter relates the bizarre tale of how animal rights activists and conservationists have become the FBI’s number one domestic terrorism threat in...
On a single Sunday in May this year, Germany was able to obtain nearly 75 percent of its electricity from renewable resources. By noon that day, electricity prices went negative. Small producers such as small businesses, families and co-ops are producing large amounts of wind and solar energy at near zero marginal cost, which is fed into the grid. Renewable energy technologies have sprung up in tandem with information technology heralding a move away from energy being supplied by large...
Recent research from the World Health Organisation reveals that air pollution is responsible for one in eight deaths globally. For people living on the Highveld in South Africa, these statistics represent a genuine threat. People in the Highveld suffer disproportionately from health problems directly related to pollution from Eskom’s coal-fired power stations in the region. Instead of trying to address the problem, Eskom has applied to the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) for...
Stefanie Krasnow -
From 2008 to 2014, insurrectionist activity has sequentially erupted across the globe, from Tunisia and Egypt to Syria and Yemen; from Greece, Spain, Turkey and Brazil to Thailand, Bosnia, Venezuela and the Ukraine.
In every instance, there was a tipping point: in Tunisia, it was Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation; in New York City, it was the Wall Street bailout; in Istanbul, it was a few threatened trees in Gezi Park; in Brazil, it was a 20-cent increase in transit fare. Today, the...
