Get up & Go Breakfast - Green Actuality - Elma Pollard

Elma Pollard is the editor of the Green Times. The Green Times is a social enterprise focused on climate change and other environmental news with a particular focus on creative and constructive solutions. Every Wednesday morning, Elma directs our thinking to ensure we understand the urgency of effective stewardship, and she tells us how to maximize our combined efforts.

Weekly English South Africa Religion & Spirituality · Christianity Brad Kirsten Elma Pollard

131 Episodes

52 – 72

Elma Pollard - Fracking: a dragon SA will not be able to tame - 27 July 2022

“The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment has released proposed regulations for onshore oil and gas exploration and production, including the use of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and these regulations have been met with great concern.”

27 Jul 2022 9 min

Green Actuality - Elma Pollard - 20 July 2022 - “Plastic Free July”

Elma shares around the topic of Plastic Free July, from 2 of The Green Times’ Headline Stories: “Working towards a litter free world” and “V&A Waterfront strives for zero single-use plastics”

20 Jul 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 06 July 2022 - Earth Jurisprudence and systemic change

In South Africa, we are seeing environmental struggles being fought every day. Activists, communities, lawyers, school children and many others are fighting to protect the ecosystems that sustain us all.

6 Jul 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 29 June 2022 - Artists and environmentalists start conversation about conservation

Art has a key role to play in supporting and promoting conservation, particularly in Southern Africa. This was the core premise of a thought-provoking event called “Art and Conservation – a Southern African Dialogue” held at the Alliance Française in Johannesburg on 15 June.

29 Jun 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 22 June 2022 - Fishermen unite for Africa’s first Plastic Fishing Tournament

Over 100 fishermen headed out to sea off Cape Town recently to reel in some of the ocean’s greatest scourge – plastic. In recognition of World Ocean Day, 20 boats took part in Africa’s first Plastic Fishing Tournament, covering over 30-square kilometres of the Atlantic Ocean and retrieving 300kg of…

22 Jun 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 15 June 2022 - Number of wildfires to rise by 50% by 2100

Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by the end of 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century, according to a…

15 Jun 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 8 June 2022 - Developing a sustainable venison sector in Africa

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations says that wild meat possesses several added advantages over domesticated species in terms of range usage, physiological and ecological adaptations to the African environment, disease tolerance and productivity, crediting it among the healthiest meats available.

8 Jun 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 1 June 2022 - Beetle wages ecological destruction in SA

The Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer beetle poses a significant threat to what makes South Africa’s biodiversity unique. It could potentially be one of South Africa’s largest ecological tragedies

1 Jun 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 11 May 2022 - Western Cape reducing organic waste to landfill

At the end of 2022, the Organic Waste Landfill Ban in the Western Cape will kick in requiring a 50% reduction in organic waste going to landfill. The Organics Recycling Association of South Africa is actively marketing the new requirements with regards to the management of organic waste to ensure…

11 May 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 27 April 2022 - Global coalition releases climate literacy statement

On Earth Day, Friday 22 April, Fridays for Future in collaboration with EarthDay.org and Take Action Global demanded worldwide access to climate literacy and education programs to ensure a holistic understanding of the ongoing climate and biodiversity crisis and its underlying causes and consequences.

27 Apr 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 13 April 2022 - R8-billion needed to clean up SA’s stinking sewage and wastewater crisis

Elma shares on this Daily Maverick story that they featured on The Green Times' Facebook page.

13 Apr 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 30 March 2022 - Educational campaign seeks responsible water management

Save Our Schools non-profit organisation (SOSNPO) launched an educational fundraising campaign at the V&A Waterfront, Wishing Well for Communities, in celebration of World Water Day on Tuesday. Elma shares more on this headline story from the Green Times.

30 Mar 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 9 March 2022 - South Africa’s southern right whales need our help

WWF South Africa and the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit are teaming up to support research on southern right whales which are facing a variety of new threats, not least the impact of a warming climate on their food supply.

9 Mar 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 2 March 2022 - Cutting ties with fossil fuels critical to SA’s future

Amidst blackouts, rampant electricity tariff hikes, and the mounting economic costs of air pollution, South Africa urgently needs to begin cutting its ties with fossil fuels and speed the transition to renewable energy to secure a better future for the country, says Alumo Energy Managing Director Rein Snoeck Henkemans.

2 Mar 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 16 Feb 2022 - Will SA join the call to protect 30% by 2030?

Time is running out to protect nature — that is the clear message from the newly launched 30×30 NOW campaign, which aims to highlight the severity and urgency of the biodiversity crisis that South Africa and the world is facing and champion the global goal of protecting at least 30%…

16 Feb 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 9 Feb 2022 - Environmental regulation amendments to threaten constitutional rights

Proposed environmental regulation amendments will violate fundamental constitutional rights to public participation, affecting the poor and vulnerable communities disproportionately.

9 Feb 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 2 Feb 2022 - Eco beds help conserve our forests

The wood used in eco-friendly wooden furniture is sourced from carefully grown and harvested trees from sustainably managed forests. Hence the Slumberland Ecolux Base is made by a company that uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified supplies. As the original pioneers of forest certification, the FSC uses their expertise to…

2 Feb 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 26 Jan 2022 - Cell towers on the ocean floor

In 2018, on land and in space, preparations to deploy millions of antennas were very publicly being made and advertised, for “5G,” “Smart Cities,” and the “Internet of Things.” At the same time, and without any publicity, governments, research laboratories, and commercial and military interests were collaborating on plans to…

26 Jan 2022 14 min

Elma Pollard - 19 Jan 2022 - SA’s antique farming laws in dire need of updating

The SA law that’s supposed to protect us and the environment from agricultural chemicals was written in 1947! Act 36 is unconstitutional, as it does not protect our constitutional rights. A growing body of evidence internationally is suggesting that glyphosate, the active ingredient in some weedkillers, may be responsible for…

19 Jan 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 12 Dec 2021 - Stop the imminent seismic survey off the Western Cape coast

Civil society movement We Are South Africans has begun the process to seek an interdict to stop Australian company Seismic Searcher from its 2D/3D seismic survey, planned to commence off the Western Cape coast on 15 January. Elma shares more on this story…

12 Jan 2022 10 min