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 is a multidisciplinarian with a background in geography. Besides being a published author, he also edited "A Patented World? The Privatisation of Life and Knowledge," published by Jacana in South Africa. He currently is on the editorial board of the SA Journal of Natural Medicine.
Additionally, Glenn has written many commentaries and analyses of wide ranging issues including waste management, water use, food security, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, health, agricultural fuels, marine resources, climate and many other environmental and socially relevant issues.
He has also presented many papers and talks to a wide range of audiences. He specialises in communicating complex scientific issues in an accessible manner. He is a freelance writer and researcher.
Glenn Ashton -
South Africa may contain the world’s fifth largest reserves of shale gas. Yet there remain critical questions that have neither been raised nor addressed regarding the exploitation of this and other regional gas reserves. The fact is that the full implications of this potentially game-changing proportion of energy supply have not yet been properly examined or analysed. We need to carefully consider how to integrate them into our national and regional energy mix.
The Karoo could...
Glenn Ashton -
Recently government ministers were asked what schools their children attend. Only Angie Motshekga, Minister of Education, responded, admitting her children attended a private institution. Everyone else refused to answer, arguing that this was private information, which was not in the public interest. Their silence spoke volumes.
The state spends approximately R16 000 on each learner every year. The education budget devours more than 20% of our national budget as the biggest single budget...
Glenn Ashton -
The pesticide industry is the only industry on earth which has, as its primary intention, the dispersal of poisons throughout the environment in order to kill living organisms. Only small amounts of toxins applied actually reach the intended target. The bulk of these chemicals are liberated into our soil, air, water and food, where they can remain active for decades, sometimes for ever.
Fifty years ago this month an eloquent book was published which heralded the birth of the modern...
Glenn Ashton -
Food prices are rapidly heading toward new record territory, with far more at play than a simple drought in the US Midwest. There are serious implications, especially for nations with high rates of inequality and poverty. We will almost certainly face a potentially catastrophic, global scale famine in the next couple of decades.
The main reason there are now over seven billion people on earth is largely due to the emergence of two separate technologies. Firstly, cheap fossil fuels have...
Glenn Ashton -
There are two kinds of South Africans. Some, who will read this article - the consumers of printed and online media - and the rest, who most likely will not. The first kind are more likely to be able to access health care on demand. The second probably cannot. How can we get these two worlds to meet?
The National Health Insurance (NHI) programme is a state initiative to improve the constitutional prerogative of egalitarian, universal health care. Although a degree of healthcare is broadly...
Glenn Ashton -
2012 is the year to dispel any doubt that capitalism is terminally ill. The recent Libor scandal in the United Kingdom, where the head of Barclays was pilloried for his responsibility in fixing one of the world’s most important international interest rates was shocking, not for the fact that it happened, but because it was exposed at all. The incestuous relationship between the international banking industry and the fiat-money based central banks is a shell game of staggering duplicity,...
