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?
Glenn Ashton -
In 2005 two environmental activists published a provocative paper titled 'The Death of Environmentalism.' It was met with predictable fury from the environmental movement and with support from big business who wished for nothing more than to see the extinction of pesky environmentalists.
Hindsight broadens our historical perspective.
Around the same period as the publication of this paper, I rebutted an article in the local media that echoed these allegations of the lack of direction, of...
Saliem Fakir -
The impact of the power revolution is most felt in the way in which the new steam and electrical technologies transformed human life in general – forever, so to speak. One thing fed another, producing a cacophony of innovation and redefining the very nature of abundance.
What industrialisation and the power revolution have unleashed for the west has become the dream of not only of one power, but many powers who feel they have been excluded from its magic and capacity to bring seemingly...
Michelle Pressend -
ESKOM’s plan to take a US$5 billion World Bank loan is a cause for major concern. It raises a number of pertinent questions about South Africa’s energy policy arena and the energy choices being made on behalf of ordinary South Africans.
In the first place, why is South Africa taking a World Bank loan? Doesn’t our state have a role in addressing the current energy crisis or 'bail out' of ESKOM?
Considering the World Bank’s record of reigning in state power, what...
Michelle Pressend -
In this time of multiples crises often referred to as the ‘FFF’ - food, fuel and finance crisis - more than ever before, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, which is to ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’, is a critical goal to achieve.
In the planetary ecological crisis, both the North and South continue to prioritise economic growth based on conventional economic models -- the North wants to maintain its high growth rates and the South wants to play...
Michelle Pressend -
More than 80 percent of the population is still dependent on biomass for energy in the Southern African region, particularly, wood, cow dung and coal. It is mainly women and children in rural areas that bear the brunt of the lack of access to modern, safe and affordable energy. They are the ones that collect wood and search for coal in and around operating and abandoned mines.
As a consequence of no access to modern, safe, clean and affordable energy -- such as electricity -- many...
Is biofuel the answer for energy security? The simple answer is no, but it can play a role in an energy mix, argues Bjorn Stigson of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Much also depends on the new generation of biofuels that are being developed, which will not be dependent on food crops. Looking for new solutions to the world's energy crisis, the tendency is that car producers and the oil industry are now divorcing says economist Ruiz Quintans. The automobile...
