| Green-planet battle - A fight for ALL !!! |
| Posted by Enviroadmin |
| Monday, 24 May 2010 19:33 |
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By Guy Rogers Environment & Tourism Editor The Herald - http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n20_30082006.htm ENVIRONMENTALISTS and political decision-makers should find ways to make complex environmental issues understandable, so that ordinary people can be galvanised into fighting for “a green planet”, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said yesterday. “We must do all that we can to show ordinary people, particularly the rural poor, have a role to play in ensuring that our environment is protected,” she told the opening plenary session of the third assembly of the Global Environment Facility in Cape Town. The Gef is an independent entity based on a partnership with the UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank to help fund projects aimed at protecting the global environment. Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa was affected by global warming and climate change, with increasing temperatures affecting the wine and fruit industries of the Western Cape. “We need to tell people, if you don‘t protect the environment you will have no wine,” the deputy president said. Sustainable development is “a survival issue” and is at its heart about retaining “the integrity of creation”, she said. Excellent opportunities exist in South Africa to get things right at this basic level, for instance integrating energy effectiveness into the national housing programme. But skills and manpower are lacking around the government‘s capacity to review environmental impact assessments and this needs to be remedied, she said. Mlambo-Ngcuka also said the intensity young black South Africans felt during the 1976 uprising needed to be revived and re-focused on the environment. The people who participated in the protests 30 years ago needed to ask today what legacy they could pass onto the new generation of young South Africans, she said. “To live an environmentally responsible lifestyle is one such legacy. We need to mobilise our youth to embrace this.” South Africa has identified half-a-dozen growth sectors through which it is hoping to achieve, by 2010, an overall six per cent economic growth and, by 2014, a halving of poverty and unemployment levels, she noted. These sectors include tourism, forestry and agriculture. By Guy Rogers Environment & Tourism Editor The Herald - http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n20_30082006.htm |
