Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Tony Carnie is a Durban-based freelance environmental writer. Born in Kenya, he began his writing career as a cub reporter at The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe and has covered environmental issues for The Mercury in Durban for more than 30 years. Carnie has won awards for his writing from CNN, SAB, Vodacom and environmental justice groups.
An oil and gas exploration survey off the Eastern Cape coast is scheduled to start in December. But fishers, residents, environmentalists and activists around the country want none of it.
What will the renewable energy economy mean for millions of people who have spent their lives digging for coal, oil and gas, or servicing other carbon-intensive industries?
Law experts have unveiled a formal definition of the term in an effort to make the destruction of the planet prosecutable by the International Criminal Court. But will it gain enough traction?
As firemen doused the toxic embers and smouldering sludge from a major chemical fire and explosion at a pesticide warehouse, questions about the lack of communication remained unanswered.
Following on from the Catholic Church, the global Islamic community is finalising a new Earth charter to encourage Muslims to combat pollution, climate change and other threats to the planet.
While environmental lawyers and activists have hailed a major win against Slapp suits, corporations still use the legal system and their enormous resources to silence critics.
Fossil fuel companies have targeted South Africa’s oceans for new oil and gas discoveries, using loud equipment to explore the seabed. But how will growing noise levels affect marine life?
There are high levels of air pollution in the South Durban Basin, where industrial plants sit alongside residential homes, but a decades-old plan to clean the air is unravelling.
Experts have linked around 15% of Covid-19 deaths worldwide directly to comorbidities caused by exposure to high levels of air pollution. This figure is higher, at 18%, in South Africa.
By using a baffling methodology, lobby group Plastics SA claims an almost 50% recycling rate. A chemical engineering professor has taken them to task, saying the true rate is about 17%.
There are more than 1 000 licensed waste disposal sites across South Africa. A new study suggests that those who live nearby are at much higher risk of asthma, diabetes, TB and depression.
The government is facing a court battle about big industry’s emissions and their link to poor health. This is a public health concern and government must take action to save lives.
South Africa is home to some of the world’s most remarkable senior citizens – nearly 100 protected trees whose roots stretch back to a time when Africa was not partitioned.
Never mind how trashy it looks. The real focus on plastic pollution should be on how it harms people, animals and the world around us, directly or indirectly.
South Africa’s ‘fossil fish’ has fascinated scientist Mike Bruton since boyhood. Now 73, he is commissioning craftspeople to carve, shape and sculpt the coelacanth.
The commercial timber industry in Mpumalanga is under fire for replacing pine forests with gum species without authorisation and in the process jeopardising communities’ water sources.
South African scientists say African governments have been misled into massive tree planting schemes by the Global North misreading Africa’s grasslands. Megafires and drought beckon.
Toxic farming chemicals banned in Europe are still used widely in Africa despite growing evidence that they harm the environment, food security and possibly human health.
A pilot project could be the answer to electricity, water and waste woes as a communal ablution block is being lit up by batteries that generate power using a microbial fuel cell.
Fifteen years after South Africa passed new air quality laws, government is failing to monitor or manage air pollution, industries are taking advantage of loopholes and the public’s health is failing.
The minister of Manning Road Methodist Church commissioned a mural by street artist Ewok on the church boundary wall, which is a heritage site, creating outrage in the community.