Green Movies at Encounters Documentary Film Festival

For our Cape Town and Jozi readers – bring the festival to Durban next year!

Buried in Earthskin

DIR: Helena Kingwill / SA / 2009 / 50min

Living at the end of the world, on the tip of Africa, very rarely do we feel threatened by nuclear contamination, yet this well-balanced, thoroughly researched and enlightening film brings the nuclear debate home; right into our houses. One night, journalist Kingwill has a frightening premonition. It impels her on a quest to uncover the truth about nuclear energy in South Africa. She hears the untold stories of the Namakhoi people and uncovers rumours on Koeberg itself, and then travels to a press briefing at Pelindaba. Determined to give a balanced view she weighs up the knowledge of nuclear analysts, economists, the government minister of minerals and energy, nuclear activists, and a wind farm owner. With the birth of her first child, the matter (and her road trip through our beautiful land) takes on a sense of urgency, especially as the South African government seems intent on ignoring renewable energy options and has commissioned pebble bed nuclear plants.

Courtesy of the Director

PRECEDED BY:
CARE TAKERS (x2)

DIR: Michael Raimondo / SA / 2010 / 2 x 14min

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Seedbombing and the Guerilla Gardening Movement

This article from Worldchanging provides a good insight and relevant links into the growing (sorry) Guerilla Gardening Movement, particularly in the USA:

The popularity of guerrilla gardening is growing. National Public Radio recently covered two stories on the subject, one on American seed bombing and another on night-time planting in London. We’ve covered guerrilla gardening at Worldchanging before (as well as the related topic of public food foraging and mapping), so we thought you might be interested to know about a new guerrilla gardening tool: tech savvy seed bombs that use biodegradable casings and are available at Etsy shops, ice cream trucks, grocery stores, and even vending machines! You can find seed bombs with local varietals categorized by geographic regions in the U.S. at Visualingual’s Etsy shop and at Anthropologie.

Seed bombing

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Freaky Friday

I was hoping to post something ghoulish or freaky (and nature-related) for Friday the thirteenth.

Instead, here are some pictures of the swallows at Mount Moreland at sunset. I suppose [...]

South African legislation has some catching up to do when it comes to rainwater harvesting

As the world increasingly turns its attention to the scarcity of water as its next major environmental and sustainability challenge, forward-thinking nations are passing laws that make rainwater harvesting systems mandatory for commercial and residential properties.

These systems allow home-owners, businesses and industry to collect or ‘harvest’ rainwater from roofs and storm-water run-off, and store it for future use. This prevents water from being lost to evaporation and transpiration, protects river ecology from too much storm-water overflow and, most importantly, saves a significant amount of energy and costs used to purify water for human consumption.

“When one considers that only 10% of water, purified at monstrous expense and carbon footprint, is used for drinking and cooking, while the rest is flushed down toilets, used to wash cars or irrigate gardens, it seems absurd that rainwater harvesting hasn’t been made mandatory before now. The waste is simply staggering,” says Sean Dowds, rainwater harvesting expert and founder of South African company, Rain Harvesting Systems (RHS).

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Sustainable City Exhibition

The Imagine Durban project is pleased to invite all members of the public, businesses and schools to visit our free Sustainable City Exhibition taking place on the 13th to 15th August 2010 at the Durban Exhibition Centre, Hall 2, 11 Walnut Road , Durban. The exhibition will provide you with an excellent opportunity to get more information and a better understanding on how to make your home, your business and your city more sustainable. The following specific events will take place during the exhibition:

13th August 2010 at 09h00 Launch of the Exhibition followed by a book launch: “Innovations in Local Sustainability”: Good Practice in eThekwini. The book also includes a DVD with 32 mini-clips of each of the case studies documented. You can collect a free copy of the book and DVD. [...]