Published in August 2013

Johannesburg Volunteer Newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of Greenpeace Johannesburg’s one stop volunteer newsletter: Briefing

you on all the news and updates to keep you actively involved so that you can

“be the change you wish to see in the world”.

THE GREEN LEAF

In this Edition:• World forestry day Cindy De Lange

• I the arctic By Ricardo Rodrigues

• Community clean up in Orange Farm By William Tchadieu

• Zero plastic week By Rebecca Henderson

• Global day of action against coal -By Aarti Bharwani

• Going solarBy Sabata Mohono

• Movie night reviews By Diana Waters

• International news: there’s pesticide in my soup!

By Cindy Delange

• Coming up

Note from the Editor:

Thank you for tuning into our very first news letter and to everyone who made it possbile.

2013 has been an interesting one for us volunteers in the Joburg Network. We have had a lot of firsts and had awesome opportunities to be activly involved in seeking solutions for some important local and global environ-mental issues.

We hope you enjoy reading about or work thus far, and tune in again for our next edition - like many things in life we hope to get better with age!

Rebecca

The 21 March 2013 was an important day in the inter-national sphere as World Forestry Day was celebrated across the globe.

On the 23rd of March Volunteers from Greenpeace Africa headed out to the Brightwater Commons shop-ping mall in Johannesburg to educate the public about the Herakles Farm project, which is threatening rain-forests in Cameroon.

Herakles is an American company that farms palm seed oil. They are trying to secure a deal to farm palm oil in the Cameroonian rainforests. Palm oil is found in most of the products we purchase on a day-to-day basis. You may ask what the problem is if we are all benefiting by such farming? Well, the issue is that the local inhabitants are being misinformed about the long-term benefits of palm oil plantations and the deforestation occurring in their country. They are also being harassed when opposing the project. We at Greenpeace stand firm that we will not tolerate such unethical business practices.

On the 23rd of March we had a great day campaign-ing. The weather was perfect to walk around the Brightwater Commons. We even got an unexpected visit from Greenpeace’s International Executive Direc-tor Kumi Naidoo himself, which really made the day of the volunteers!

Did we achieve what we headed out to do that day? I think that gaining over 250 signatures against Her-akles’ operations and handing out almost double the amount of flyers on the day, we definitely did. We in-formed the public that big US corporations are taking advantage of natural resources in Cameroon, North Africa. It’s up to us to stop such injustices from occur-ring. We may feel that one person is not enough to bring change, but together we can!

On the 23 May 2013 I got the email that I had been waiting for. The Cameroonian government ordered Herakles to suspend its rainforest operation. Well done to all of you for making your voices heard: some-body did listen. It’s victories like this that make us continue to do what we do.

Cindy De Lange

Defending Africa’s Forests: Celebrating World Forestry Day

Both local inhabitants and wildlife rely heavily on forests for their habitation, food and other resources. We must not forget that we live in a balanced eco – system that relies on wildlife and the environment as a whole to exist.

© Greenpeace / Jan – Joseph Stok.Oil Palm Nursery in Cameroon, 2013

Do you the Arctic? - We do!The Arctic Circle remains under a constant threat from the use of fossil fuels, oil drilling and industrial fishing.The problems and interruptions in the planet’s natural cycle caused by these activities result in a dangerous ripple effect that places the entire ecosphere in a situation of environmental instabil-ity. This means that what happens in the Arctic is everyone’s problem.

In April, volunteers from all around the globe came together to express their appreciation for the natural magnifi-cence and biodiversity of the Arctic by forming human banners spelling out “I ARCTIC” and Greenpeace Africa proved to be no exception.

The rolling hills of The Melville Koppies in Johannesburg carried a slight windy chill. The clouds rumbled with intimida-tions of an almost unavoidable deluge. However, this did not deter the mass of volunteers that turned out in full force in their support in the ‘I <3ARCTIC’ campaign on Saturday, 13 April.

Later, once everybody had arrived, a short uphill walk to the designated area ensued and the crowd of mo-tivated Greenpeace supporters and staff gathered in a charming heart formation, the international symbol oflove, fraternity and appreciation. After a few moments of position adjustments the vital photographs were taken just moments before the first droplets of drizzle hit the ground.

These photographs, along with the similar photo-graphs from the corners of the globe were placed in an album of sorts. The book that contained over 17 000 testaments of love and indebtedness of people supporting the safe and responsible management and usage of the Arctic. The destination of these ‘I ARC-TIC’ books was none other than The Arctic Council in Kiruna. The books were handed over to the four rep-resentatives of Arctic Indigenous Peoples and Gustav Lind, Chair of the Arctic Council.

This meeting in Kiruna was an important realisation for the consideration of international environmental welfare and a significant occasion on which the dec-larations of the ordinary populaces could be heard reverberating through these human banners.

Ricardo Rodrigues

The morning kicked off with a short brief on the pro-ject and the mapping out the perimeter of the ban-ner. The volunteers and children, dressed in red, were greeted by a friendly “Polar Bear” and as the tempera-ture of the afternoon increased the over-heated Polar Bear became a symbol of the tragedies of climate change in this glacial land mass.

© Greenpeace / Shayne Robinson. ‘I Love Arctic’ Day of Action in South Africa, 2013

© Greenpeace 2013

Getting Involved with our communities - Getting Dirty to Get Clean in Orange FarmEnvironmental stress is often a result of the growing demands on natural resources and pollution gener-ated by the rising standard of living of the relatively rich. But poverty itself pollutes the environment. The poor and hungry are often forced to destroy their immediate environment for their survival. Forests are cut down, livestock overgraze grasslands and marginal lands are overused. As poverty levels increase, con-gested cities are put under further stress. The cumula-tive effects of these changes are so far-reaching, they make poverty itself a major global problem.

It was on a cold, chilly morning after a rainy night that we left to do a community clean up in Orange Farm with another NGO “The Nala Street Sweepers”.

It was pretty exciting since it was my very first time working with a local community. I could barely sleep and I could hardly wait to get started with the day. A fellow volunteer Diana, who is such a nice person and always happy to help picked up my friend Thabo and I.

Due to the weather we had a late start to the day, but waiting at the office we felt the gathering excitement of the volunteers.

One great thing about volunteering is that you always get to meet new people who are very enthusiastic to do something about the environment. Once at Orange farm we drove straight to the community hall where we found everybody waiting for us. People were cheering and very excited about this new experience. This is where our journey started.

We made our way into the heart of the township, all dressed in our orange overalls and equipped with gloves and plastic bags- ready to do some cleaning. We were given different coloured plastic bags: one for plastic, one for paper, one for metals and one for unrecyclable waste. We cleaned up a large area of undeveloped land and were very happy as we all came together, Greenpeace volunteers and the Nala street sweepers to clean up the community. Later on, when we were done we went back to the community hall where we had lunch, donated some cloths and later departed back to town.

This was a great experience and initiative. I think it was a great success because we educated the commu-nity about the importance of recycling and it’s benefits in long run.

William Tchadieu

© Greenpeace / Rebecca Henderson Volunteers from the Johannesburg Network together with “The Nala street sweepers” cleaning up a common land in Orange Farm. in South Africa, 2013

The Zero Plastic Week Challenge

This year we joined forces with our fellow Dutch Greenpeace activists to support their campaign to go zero plastic for a week.

The Greenpeace Netherlands group started zero plastic week a few years ago and already the idea has spread to over 10 countries.

Activists from each country pledged to boycott buying products either wrapped in plastic or made of plastic for a whole week. What a challenge and learning expe-rience it turned out to be!

Why boycott plastic? According to the organizers of 0 Plastic week, there are two

main reasons.

The first is that plastic is harder to recycle than you may think. There are over 6 types of plastic, all of which have different recycling methods, meaning that the sorting of plastics in order to be recycled is both costly and time consuming. Not to mention that plastic must first be ‘decontaminated’ or washed in order to be recycled – meaning further environmental concerns such as water consumption, which is of great concern in South Africa particularly.

Secondly, a huge amount of plastic never gets re-cycled. Unfortunately most plastic just gets sent to dumps and landfills, or ends up in our rivers, dams and oceans. This plastic both poisons our water resources and poses great threats to our wildlife.

Animals who mistakenly eat plastic eventually starve to death, as they are unable to pass the waste through their digestive tract. Smaller animals also get trapped inside pieces of plastic such as beer rings, and suf-focate to death. In some cases the animal will grow around the plastic noose, becoming deformed. Not a pretty picture, is it?

But luckily where there is a need and call to take ac-tion, Greenpeace is there. Thanks to this campaign, thousands of people around the world took to the streets to both educate people and take up the zero plastic week challenge.

During the week we were challenged, shocked and inspired from stories across the world. Once story that stuck out to me was the story of Terry, 48 from Cali-fornia who has managed to go plastic free for 6 years! That’s correct folks, Terry hasn’t purchased anything plastic or packaged in plastic for 6 years!

Here at home in South Africa I rediscovered the joys of freshly baked bread in paper wraps; had several comical discussions with staff at grocery stores when refusing a plastic bag; and even had one lovely cashier enthusiastically help me wrap up my shopping in my jersey when I forgot my “bag for life” in my car.

We “wrapped up” the week by hosting a workshop on how to quickly and easily make your own “bag for life” from an old tee shirt. Volunteers brought their old favorites and we quickly transformed them into Green-peace branded shopping bags. We intend on rolling this out in the form of public workshops and stalls where we will sell our trendy bags to fundraise money for Greenpeace.

We want to thank everyone who supported this first year of zero plastic week, lets make next years one even bigger!

Rebecca Henderson

Pictures courtesy of zeroplasticweek.org.

Pulling the plug on coal - A Global Day of Action The mission: To pull the plug on coal power stations.

The Method: To take part in a Global Day of Action against coal.

The Why: To end the age of pollution-causing coal as our source of energy.

South African households rely mostly on electricity generated from coal power stations, and most people don’t think beyond this. They are made to believe that burning coal is the only or most viable means to generate energy. However, there are more sustain-able methods of generating energy other than burning coal.

Living in a country that receives so much sunshine we have huge potential for solar power. We also have a large coast where power can be generated from the wind and oceans. People should become more aware that there are cleaner, cheaper and safer methods of generating energy.

With the realization of the amount of air and water pollution that coal power stations create, Greenpeace decided to take a stand. Enough is enough! This is the message we wanted to send out to those who provide us with electricity.

On 29 June 2013, a Global Day of Action against coal took place. People across the globe met in city centres to show their support for a clean energy revolution. We met at Gandhi Square, Johannesburg to “pull the plug” on coal! We know pictures say a thousand words, so hopefully this is one step in the right direc-tion.

Aarti Bharwani

Greenpeace want to create awareness and encourage people to help us spread the word.

© Greenpeace / Shayne Robinson. Volunteers ‘pull the plug’ on coal at Gandhi Square, Johannesburg, 2013

Going Solar: The Rooftop Revolution Begins

My name is Sabata Mohono, I am an activist and a volunteer who joined Greenpeace Africa in 2010. It’s been a very exiting journey to volunteer for this or-ganization which defends and protects environmental rights of the global communities. Through scientific research and political lobbying we aim to end environ-mental injustice – hence promoting peace and envi-ronmental awareness.

One of the most special moments around this jour-ney was when I was given the opportunity to go on two weeks solar training. The first week we learned the theory and a few weeks after that it finally got practical. The first week was an awesome experience; learning how photovoltaic works and how solar cells help to minimize the amount of pressure on energy circulation.

The solar lessons gave me broad information on solar installations around the world. Within this learning ex-perience I also found that the South African’s biggest energy portion is produced out of coal and other non-renewables, e.g. gas, nuclear and oil. But I have now realized that sunlight can be used more effectively to electrify our houses, streets, our hospitals as well as our schools.

This kind of technology is inexpensive accessible, efficient and easy to install. As practical part of the training we installed solar panels on the roof of the Greenpeace Africa office in Johannesburg. That’s an exciting and very interesting experience! Working with Sunworx company we managed to install almost 22 solar panel per one direction from east and the other 22 towards west,.

We firstly erected the structure which serves as a base to place a solar panel on, the roof top solar energy serves as a central point to enable usto access elec-tricity from two different power supply, However, the most important thing is to minimize the high consumption of dirty energy produced out of non-re-newables. This has the additional advantage of filling power back to the grid. Thereby our office will miti-gate the high cost of buying electricity from the main power supplier.

Sabata Mohono

It’s a fact that the sun produces 1’000 times more energy than what humans are consuming today!

© Greenpeace / Phillip Schedler. Roof top solar installation at the Greenpeace office in South Africa, 2013

Did you know that Greenpeace Africa hosts a monthly Movie Night?

Once a month we invite the public to come join us to watch a documentary at Greenepace’s Head Of-fice in Johannesburg -with pop-corn of course!

The movie night showcases films concerning the world’s environmental challenges that affect our lives today, as well as the major challenges we will face in the future. These evenings aim to enlighten the public about what is happening in the world around us and to spark concern. It is also a great place to mingle with likeminded people who share common interests.

At the end of the movie we invite the viewers to share any ideas, ask questions and provide possible solutions. If you’re interested in joining us just keep your eye on our Facebook page and make sure you sign up to receive our emails so you’ll be kept up to date with all our activities.Missed the last movie nights? We have our own movie guru who has taken the time to write up re-views on them – so you don’t miss out:

“Do the Math”

The Film “Do the Math” is based on a multi-city tour and subsiquent article that appeared in the Rolling Stone Magazine by Bill McKibben.

For those of you who haven’t yet heard about Bill Mckibben, he is an environmentalist, author, activ-ist and the co-founder and Chairman of ‘350.org’; an international climate campaign. ‘350.org’ is named after the calculated safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere which is 350 parts per million. His first book titled ‘The End of Nature’ (1989) is considered to be the first book written about climate change.

The film aims to express climate change in just three numbers which emphasise the importance of our ac-tion in addressing climate change.

The first number is 2’C. This is the absolute maxi-mum temperature that the global temperature can increase by in order to avoid devastating damage to the earth and our climate.

The second number is 565 gigatons. This is the maxi-mum amount of Carbon Dioxide that we can pump into the air in order to keep the global temperature increase below 2’C.

Lastly, the third number is 2, 795 gigatons. This is the amount that fossil fuel companies have in their reserves (coal, oil and natural gas). It has been cal-culated that in order to keep climate change “under control”, we can only use 20% of those reserves, the other 80% has to stay in the ground.

We are in the position where we can make the change. And it is up to us to make that change.

Follow the link below to read Bill McKibben’s full article that appeared in the Rolling Stone magazine.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

Watch the trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLr_lfyRfqY&feature=player_embedded

“Blue Gold: World Water Wars”

In the first ten seconds of this documentary you are met with shocking visuals and audio that sets the tone for the rest of the film. The narrator begins with the following commentary in a deep, growling voice:

“This is not a film about saving the environment. It’s a film about saving ourselves. Because whatever one’s environmental, political, or religious opinions, whatever one’s race, sex or economic standing, whomever of us goes without water for a week, cries “blood.”

We have all been taught the water cycle. We were brought up to believe that this is a never ending cycle that will continue throughout time.

When you think of water, words like “pure” ,“clear”, “clean” and “source of life” may come to mind. What about “corporation”, “pollution”, “power”, “greed” or “money”? Maybe those are the phrases that should come to mind, because the world behind our taps is vicious and power hungry.

Unfortunately this is not the case. The scary reality is that we are running out of fresh water.

This documentary aims to reveal the growing battle over control of the global water supply. The film exam-ines how major corporations and financial institutions are buying up territories where large water supplies can be found. It looks into the fight to protect the Great Lakes, and what ordinary citizens can do to keep the water supply free and shared fairly by all.

The film also exposes how we are using up the worlds fresh water at a much faster rate than what nature is able to replenish.

Not only does the film aim to highlight the water crisis that we face, but it provides solutions to this crisis. Inspirational stories about people who stand up and protect our waters by objecting to these corporations are also shared.

Watch the trailer here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikb4WG8UJRw

Diana Waters

International NewsChina: There’s Pesticide in my Soup!

Traditional Chinese medicine dates almost 5000 years back. Throughout the centuries the only thing that has not remained traditional is the farming methods used to farm the herbs used in the majority of these medi-cines. This is where our story begins…

Due to the increase in popularity of the use of these medicines, the farming of these herbs now takes place in highly industrial agricultural farms. These farms use chemical pesticides in their operations, some of which have been banned in China (as found in a Greenpeace East Asia study of over 65 samples of Chinese tradi-tional herbal products).

The question then arises, how healthy are these medicines to the people who are consuming them? Do the health risks associated with the pesticides used in these farms outweigh the benefits traditionally associ-ated with these herbs? According to the Greenpeace report traditional Chinese medicine has “fallen sick” due to pesticide intensive agriculture, and needs our help to “get better”.

“How,” you may ask, “can we make it better?” The answer is through the use of environmentally aware farming practices. This will reduce and eventually eliminate the use of pesticides.

This is an ideological view to be taken at a global stance and not only by the Chinese agricultural indus-try.

Greenpeace wants governments to: implement more stringent controls and monitoring systems for pesti-cides resdues in food products, carry out pesticides re-duction programs and divert financial funding towards more ecological farming practices (in particular non-chemical alternatives to control pests).

Greenpeace’s campaign aims to raise global awareness and strive towards a pesticide-free future for all. Also, Greenpeace is calling on the Chinese herb com-panies to publicly disclose all pesticides used in the production of their products, and provide a timeline aimed at reducing their usage. You can sign the pe-tition (in Chinese) to contribute to the companies demands by following this link: http://www.greenpeace.org/china/zh/action/2013/

healtheherbs/?eng/

Cindy De Lange

© Greenpeace / Alex Hofford. Farmer Sprays Pesticides on Food Crops, 2006

© Greenpeace.org

Things you can personally do to heal global agriculture:

• Cook more often. Cook your own meals

at home using real food, grown ecologi-

cally (fresh, organic, local or seasonal),

rather than ready meals or processed

food. It’s more healthy and fun!

• Grow your own food. Take control of

your food by growing it yourself. Not only

will you reduce your dependency on agri-

business, you’ll also learn a lot about how

food is grown and appreciate better the

challenging work of farmers. So get your

hands dirty and start a vegetable garden

and do it without pesticides!

• Buy organic and local food. Buy organic

food that is grown locally by farmers in

the area, and that you know and trust.

You’ll often find them at the nearest

farmers market.

• Follow the seasons. Buy seasonal fruit

and vegetables, following more the natu-

ral growing season in your area. Do we

really need to eat strawberries in winter

and broccoli in summer?

• Avoid food waste. Only buy the food you

really need, when you need it and food

you know will actually be eaten. Buying

smaller quantities of food but more of-

ten will help reduce food waste at home.

Also tell your supermarket to reduce food

waste in its daily operation. By reducing

overall food waste, we can reduce pres-

sure to produce ever more foodstuffs.

• Be more creative with the ingredients

already in your fridge.

http://www.greenpeace.org/china/zh/action/2013/healtheherbs/?eng/

Get ready for...A new Conscensous consumer guide will be released soon about the Tuna we eat here in South Africa.

The question is: will you change your tuna?

Contact us:

W: www.greenpeace.org/africa

F: https://www.facebook.com/GreenpeaceVolunteerNetworkJohannesburgSouthAfrica?fref=ts

T: 011 482 4696

E: info.africa (at) greenpeace.org