Get up & Go Breakfast - Green Actuality - Elma Pollard

Elma Pollard - 19 OCtober 2022 - Hunger relief celebrates major milestone

Sunday 16 October marked the global commemoration of World Food Day, the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – a date that is focused on increasing awareness of world hunger and poverty and inspiring solutions for world change.

25 Oct 2022 7 min

Elma Pollard - 12 October 2022

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…

13 Oct 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 05 October 2022 - Hike raise over R1.3 mil for endangered species

On Saturday 17 September, 44 determined individuals united in a gruelling summit for a worthy cause. The Rhino Peak Challenge in the Southern Drakensberg – a 21km hike/run with over 1,300m of vertical climb – was their mission; and raising funds for rhinos, vultures, and cranes was their driving force.

11 Oct 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 28 October 2022 - Radon Gas: The Road to Awareness

The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) aims to bring awareness to South Africans regarding the potential threat of a naturally occurring radioactive gas, called radon, to draw up a map of potential high and low risk areas in the country and to set action and mitigation levels to minimise risk. This…

11 Oct 2022 10 min

Elma Pollard - 21 September 2022 - A cleaner Stellenbosch through upcycling

The great words ‘Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are’ by Theodore Roosevelt run true for this year’s Stellenbosch Network #IdeasForChange Challenge winner and founder of Lilly Loompa Upcycled Homeware, Lizl Naudé. The Paarl-born entrepreneur turned an unfortunate situation into treasure when she started her business.

21 Sep 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 14 September 2022 -Opportunity for creatives in Climate Story Lab

Calling creatives to act on the most pressing emergency facing humanity – the climate crisis. Climate Story Lab ZA invites Southern African creatives to submit innovative and imaginative projects for an opportunity to participate in a four-day residential lab near Cape Town in January 2023.

21 Sep 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 07 September 2022 - Youth mental health levels dropped since 2010

Young people’s mental health has seldom been more fragile. The latest Mental State of the World Report, the largest and most comprehensive global mental well-being study, drawing on 223 000 respondents in 34 countries, found ‘a profound generational decline in young people in every country.’ Nearly half had mental health…

7 Sep 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 31 August-Spicing up female empowerment with sustainable farming

Born from the idea, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”, founders Dom Johnson- Allen, Anna Lusty and Leila Blom are empowering women to sustain themselves through farming. Backyard Farms is…

5 Sep 2022 8 min

Elma Pollard - 24 August 2022 - Scaling up drought relief for the Horn of Africa

As the threat of famine looms in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that it is scaling up operations to support millions going hungry who “cannot wait” for assistance.The region is in the grip of a historic drought, brought on by four consecutive failed…

24 Aug 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard - 17 August 2022 - Celebrating Girls in Conservation this Women’s M

On the 9th of August South Africa celebrates Women’s Day – part of a month dedicated to the strength and resilience of women and their contribution to society. The Green Times thought this a particularly fitting time to share a feature on our ‘Girls in Conservation’ programme and celebrate the…

19 Aug 2022 9 min

Elma Pollard – 10 August 2022 - Empowering women to safeguard the environment:

The first step towards tackling the challenges of climate change is empowering women to safeguard the environment. Women bear the brunt of climate change, but they are the world’s best bet in the fight for a clean, healthy, and sustainable planet.

10 Aug 2022 7 min

Elma Pollard - 03 August 2022 - UN declares healthy environment a human right

“With 161 votes in favour, and eight abstentions*, the UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution last week, declaring access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, a universal human right. The resolution, based on a similar text adopted last year by the UN Human Rights Council, calls upon States,…

8 Aug 2022 8 min

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