Why Africans don't give a fuck whether Rhinos live or die

As an environmentalists that happen to be African I've noticed the unease with which members from my family and friends greet headline news that involve the killing of the rhinos which have been gracing our television and newspapers.

It is a sad situation, one that every South African should be ashamed of as we are the stewards of the plant and animal kingdom.

Yet, I can't shake off the disdain (who-the-fuck-cares) attitude I pick from mainly African people. Let's face it, the overwhelming majority of protesters at gatherings that highlight the plight of the rhino are white.

Thousands of Marikana miners gathered for a mass meeting to air their grievances on Aug. 17, the day after the massacre. Their employer, Lonmin, the world’s third largest supplier of platinum, employs 28,000 workers, most at the Marikana mine.

There was a surge in the Rhino killings in South Africa around the same time when the
miners were striking for a living wage. Seeing one picture of Africans in solidarity for higher wages and another of white people protesting for the government to do more to protect the Rhinos in the same newspaper reminded me of Thabo Mbeki's two nations divided speech in 1998.

A more black and white picture you will not get than seeing how these two scenarios played itself out in the media.

Save-the-Rhino protest at Parliament in Cape Town

Rhinos and other members of the big five are housed in private game reserves, wild farms and national parks which is financially inaccessible to the majority of South Africans.

These wild animals roam free on land that Africans can only dream of, land which was dispossessed from them.

I realised that it is a little to much to ask of the dispossesses who many have not been compensated for their loss of land to now have to fight for the rhino to live and thrive on the land they once called their own for the benefit of the world's elite. Lets face it, accessing these wild farms for hunting or viewing purposes are for the rich.

Maslow's hierachy of needs

Even if all Africans were in a position to selfactualise I believe that their apathy towards the well being of the Rhino and other wildlife would still exist.

I find myself extremely fortunate to have experienced the wildlife because of my job, however for the majority of Africans it makes little sense to go view wild animals roaming the plains of Africa for a couple of days only to go home to poverty.

This land and the wild that roam on it are viewed as not belonging to Africans so why should they care when rhinos or any other exotic animal gets slaughtered.

Africans can't financially access the 'joy' that these animals give to tourists so why should they now go crazy when these animals get slaughtered.

The relationship between the natural environment and the people of Africa is that of mutual respect. Humans and animal lived in symbiosis for prior to colonization which brought with it the capitalistic system  that saw animals as commodities.

I am of the opinion that we need to re-awaken the relationship between animal and humans that prevailed pre-colonial era otherwise the wild animals like the Rhino will be wiped out in a couple of years.

Water Hungry Coal - Burning South Africa's water to produce coal

Getting to Johannesburg was an absolute mission in order to participate in Greenpeace Africa's protest at Meggawatt Park in Sunninghill last week. My flight was delayed by 6 hours (thanks Kulula.com) and having no no music on me did not help.

The trip from OR Tambo International Airport to Mellville was a slow and bumpy ride but I got to my destination in one piece- 8 hours later!

Changing Eskom's Management
On the day activists confronted the Eskom to publicly highlight that the utility has failed to deliver clean, affordable, accessible electricity to the people of this country, and demand a shift away from the use of coal to generate electricity.

We installed the new management members Bobby Peek (groundWork) as the new Eskom CEO, Makoma Lekalakala (Earthlife Africa) as the new Eskom Stakeholder Engagement Director, and Melita Steele (Greenpeace Africa) as the new Eskom Spokesperson.

Eskom's new management being arrested.

Eskom’s 'New Management' will listen to all South Africans, and finally put the people of this country first by:

• Ending South Africa’s addiction to coal and investing in renewable energy instead
• Providing sustainable jobs for South Africa's workforce
• Averting a water crisis for South Africa
• Providing affordable and decentralised electricity access for all
• Making sure that the people of this country do not suffer from the health impacts associated with coal-fired power stations and coal mines

 The Water Hungry Coal report is unnerving and I believe that all South Africans be very concerned because of our water scarcity status.

Tsebo and I attached to the main entrance of Eskom

Thank God I had that I was wearing comfortable shoes. Due to the inaction of the security guards, Johannesburg Metro Police and the South African Police Service we were stuck there for hours before being confronted by the Special task forces. Now being confronted by men that look as if they just came from a guerrilla war in deep dark Africa is hectic. Tsebo and I had two very different methods of handling the confrontation by dozens of heavily armed men but the end result was the same, the back of a police van.

The etv journalist who covered the story provided for some light relief with his frantic running in and out of the building trying to get as much information as possible about the story.

Kgotso confronting Eskom in Johannesburg as a bewildered Eskom employee looks on

I was a bit disheartened by the reaction of my social media friends, who have a 'television and newspaper knowledge' of Greenpeace, to the protest. My I just remind everyone that Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace has been working in Africa to end environmental destruction and fighting for the right of Africans to a healthy environment since the early 1990s.

Speaking truth to power with courage and imagination

Coal's Hidden Water Cost

• Kusile, an Eskom coal plant under construction, will use 2,9 million litres of water an hour! That is 173 times more than Wind power would use per unit of electricity. This water will come from the Vaal River. The closest water source, Olifants River, are too polluted for use because of coal mining and associated industries.
• Gauteng gets most of it's water from the Vaal River. Now water will be diverted away from agriculture and residential use in order to feed Kusile Coal Power Plant.
• Kusile's coal will come mostly from a new Anglo American mine. That mining is expected to have a drastic effect on local wetlands and water systems.
• Due to Eskom's reliance on coal, it's total water use is a staggering 10 000 litres per second. This is enough to fill an olympic size swimming pool every 4 minutes. In one day Eskom uses enough water to grow almost 1 million kilograms of maize.
• Eskom is classed as a strategic water user under the National Water Act meaning that the utility is guaranteed a supply of water , come hell or high water.
• The difference between South Africa's water supply and demand by 2030 will be 17%. This means that water prices could triple as water gets scarce. (Today's price of water per unit is R7-12)

Water is a critical resource and under threat. Two of the recommendations of the report is that:

1. the South African government should immediately prioritise renewable energy over water intensive coal fired electricity.
2. Kusile should be cancelled and no further investment made in coal-fired power stations. 

Environmental activists outside the Randburg Magistrate court where they appeared on a charge of trespassing

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Renewable vs Nuclear energy for Africa

On May 29 I participated in a Greenpeace Africa demonstration to show the Minister of Energy's clear bias towards nuclear power in South Africa. The protest created awareness and highlighted the lack of democracy and transparency that is prevalent within the nuclear industry and called on all South Africans to support Greenpeace's call for the Minister to stop forging ahead with nuclear power.The South African government is planning to build 6 new nuclear reactors  at a cost of R300 billion and R 1 trillion.

Disadvantages of Nuclear power
The nuclear industry often claims that nuclear energy is needed to combat climate change because it generates less greenhouse gases emissions as compared to coal power. However, nuclear power is expensive and dangerous and the above claim from the nuclear industry is distracting people from real solutions to climate change.

Greenpeace activists blocking the gate leading to the venue of secret nuclear energy discussions at the IDC in Sandton

Nuclear power could at best only make a negligible contribution to emission reductions, even if the entire global fleet of reactors was quadrupled, a completely far-fetched scenario, this would lead to at most a 6% reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions , which would come too late due to long construction times , well beyond the deadline that climate scientists have set for avoiding catastrophic climate change.
Nuclear power is different to coal power but is no better a solution to combating climate change and solves the energy problem by creating another, NUCLEAR WASTE.

I have family members that live close to the Koeberg Nuclear station so taking part in this anti-nuclear protest was very personal and not just another "tree hugging exercise".

One of the major reasons why nuclear energy will not be favored over renewables and energy efficiency is that it is far too expensive to consider realistically. Nuclear power's bad economics makes it unfinancable in the private capital market. The World Bank will not even provide loans for nuclear energy. The cost for nuclear energy persists long after the plant has ceased operation .These include

• disposing of radio-active waste
• guarding closed reactors
• decommissioning the reactors following a more or less lengthy "cool-down" period

Nuclear energy is expensive and prone to construction delays. In developed countries like Finland, the delays have resulted in costs being increased by almost 100%, from EUR3.2 billion to EUR6 billion. France, a country that is one of the strongest proponents of nuclear energy has had to delay the construction of its reactor being built in Flammenville. The French reactor has faced numerous delays and cost over-runs since the project began.

The Emergency Plan of the Koeberg Nuclear power station is vague and outdated and have not learned from the lessons from Fukushima.

Why Renewable energy is the future
During the last five years, 22 times more new power generating capacity based on solar and wind was built (230 000 MW) compared to nuclear (10 600 MW). Even if we factor in their lower utilization rate , renewable power plants built in 2011 alone are capable of generating as much electricity as 16 nuclear reactors.

In hindsight I am not to sure about the white shoes that I wore hhmmm

Africa has very good potential for renewable energy technologies. Given the vast areas that require energy, renewable energy will be the best solution to develop decentralised grids that could power rural and urban demands.

in terms of economic growth, Africa should look at the potential for manufacturing and skills development through renewable energy.

China vaulted past competitors in Denmark , Germany and Spain and the United States last years to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this years. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last 2 years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels.

The national energy demand of countries fluctuates between day and night, and between seasons. Renewable energy sources are better suited to follow the demand with a mix of different technologies, management of the demand for electricity, ans some storage of renewable energy in hydro power stations, for example.

Most renewable energy sources are easy to turn on and off; they are flexible and can be used to meet varying demand. Solar photovoltaic and wind depend of course on how much sun and wind are available but they often balance each other over time and across larger geographical areas.  Bio-energy, hydro, geothermal, concentrated solar power stations can be turned up or down depending on need.

Numerous expert studies have already shown that when properly planned and smartly integrated to the electricity grid, the supply of renewable electricity can be as reliable as conventional energy. Detailed modelling and simulations of an energy system based on a mix of renewable energy supply have been performed example for Europe , and confirm that the grid can function reliably 24/7 even under various weather extremes.

Activist showing their disgust at the South African Government's plans to build 6 new nuclear reactors.

Renewable energy are the cheapest and technically best options for achieving a secure energy supply and for gaining independence for any African country. Renewable energy is tailored towards decentralised energy access, not falling into the fallacy of thinking that bigger is better. Decentralised systems reduce transmission losses by having a generation close to demand and can adequately adjust to demand growth. In addition they can both operate in both island mode and grid connected mode making operation flexible, and can also offer grid support features.

Personal Reflections

1. When I saw the front page picture of the Business Report( a national business supplement) of the drumming team I knew that me wearing white shoes was not a good idea...what was I thinking?
2. The fact that the Minister of Energy did not attend the secret nuclear talks, as scheduled, was a huge victory.
3. I hope that Greenpeace Africa will stage protest in the 'real Africa'. Lets face it, there is very little African about Sandton or Sea Point

Khotso being unceremoniously escorted onto the IDC premises. I love this picture :-)

 Conclusion
The Fukushima  nuclear disaster is a reminder that "nuclear safety" does not exist in reality. There are only nuclear risks, inherent to every reactor, and these risks are unpredictable. At any time an unforeseen combination of technological failures, human errors or natural disasters at any one of the world's reactors , could lead to a reactor quickly getting out of control.

Nuclear energy will be a mistake for South Africa and the continent especially in terms of cost, waste and potential for disasters and accidents. The amount spent on nuclear will close the market for renewable energy growth.
There is no place for nuclear in Africa, a continent blessed with rich renewable energy resources ans hungry for sustainable development. As a continent we should be learning from what history has to teach about nuclear power: It is a dirty and dangerous source of energy, and one that will always be vulnerable to the deadly combination of human errors, design failures and natural disaster.

Greenpeace:Anti-nuclear energy demonstration

What a day?

We were up at 3am on Monday 5 March to protest against the South African government's plans to build 6 new nuclear reactors around South Africa in the near future.

Having studied Environmental Science I always felt guilty that I do not  have any link to any environmental project due to the nature of my work and saw Greenpeace Activism as an ideal way to use my energy working towards a sustainable future.

Even thought the activity was straight forward and not as militant and risky as some of the Greenpeace demonstration in other countries I was concerned about police reaction towards a bunch of 'hippies' on Sea Point beach.

The South African police force (not service) has a reputation that they 'shoot to kill'. With that in mind my connection with God via prayer was constant during the activity. I was relieved when I saw the Metro Police vehicles leave the 'scene of the crime' 2 hours into our demonstration.

***phewww***

Their presence caused me to sweat up a storm even thought it was an overcast morning with the sun's rays intermittently greeting us when the clouds allowed.

The white chemical gear was comfortable, however the white heavy boots was a mission to wear. To make matters worse, my boots were filled with water halfway throughout our 4 hour awareness making stunt.

The aim of the demonstration was to stimulate debate around nuclear power in South Africa and to point out the simple fact that a nuclear meltdown could happen at any of the world's 437 nuclear reactors. Nuclear is never safe.


This simulated nuclear pollution exercise seeks to increase public interest around nuclear energy.

I was unable gauge the reaction from joggers and people that passed by because my team mates and I were trying to look as authentic as possible.

I sincerely hope that message, that Nuclear energy is not the way to go, has been communicated effectively.

LET US GO THE RENEWABLE ROUTE AND USE THE SUN AND WIND MORE!

Me at the right helping to cordon off the 'scene'