Green Options

A post of a few months ago considered whether the Cape Town City Council would have to charge residents to manage the Peninsular Baboons - now they have approved funds and plan a workshop while residents have baboons droping into their bathroom.

City Supports Baboon Monitoring and Wants to Develop a Plan
In the first news story since the recent post on the Cape Peninsular baboons, the Cape Town City Council has set aside a quarter of a million dollars to continue the funding of the baboon monitoring programme on the Peninsula.
This was good news for many as there has been uncertainty, as to whether the city council would continue to fund a ten-year-old baboon monitor programme. The programme has minders keeping watch over baboon troops and where possible keeping them away from the urban areas. Sensibly the city has also decided that the quarter of a million dollars is only an interim solution and will also be working with South African National Parks (Sanparks) and Cape Nature Conservation to address the problem. The city will host a baboon expert workshop at the Civic Centre on July 2, with the aim of finding “the most effective strategy for baboon management in the Cape Peninsula” and determining how best to implement it.

Three different news items highlight the vast differences in viewpoint and the continuing uncertainty around the farming of Jatropha by small scale farmers as a feedstock for Europe’s refineries moving towards meeting the EU’s renewable liquid fuel goals.

Clarity on What Jatropha Can Deliver
At the recent Africa Biofuels Conference in Midrand South Africa, Vincent Volckaert the Regional Manager for Africa of D1 Oils Plant Science presented a paper titled “Jatropha curcas: beyond the myth of the miracle crop”.

Besides making it clear that Jatropha is not a miracle plant and like any other it needs water and fertiliser to produce biomass, he noted it was particularly sensitive to pests and disease when not grown as an intercrop. Volckaert stated that D1 Oil expected to release new seed in 2010 or 2011, that would have a yield of 2 tons of oil per hectare on well managed estates at maturity.

Greenpeace calculates that the exploitation of less than 1% of the total solar thermal potential of the sun would be enough to stabilise the world climate through massive carbon dioxide reductions. Some large scale technologies must become viable to even approach this level.
One’s first thought on solar energy is often the photo voltaic systems (PV) that convert sunlight directly into electricity. These small systems seem to have real potential, especially in areas that lack grid based electricity. However, PV material is expensive and has, to date, not found application as a mainstream alternate energy source.

On 22 May the International Institute for Species Research (IISR) of Arizona State University (ASU) released its list of 18,516 new species discovered in 2007. The top ten selected from these is fascinating, but what does it all really mean?

species from the animalia kingdom
The Top Ten List of New Species
The Top 10 New Species List is chosen by a twelve person panel of international taxon experts chaired by Dr. Janine Caira of the University of Connecticut. The species in the list is selected from the thousands of species that were fully described in the calendar year. Nominations from the public, IISE staff and committee members are judged by the committee which has complete freedom in making its choices and developing its own criteria. The object though is to cover a breadth of species attributes and importance.

Ngorongoro World Heritage Site Under Threat
Thirty years after being listed as a World Heritage Sites the Ngorongoro Conservation area is in danger of being ‘deleted’ from the prestigious listing. This legendary wildlife-filled crater, is a  8,300 square kilometer part of Tanzania’s Serengeti.

The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority very tight goals which must be met if Ngorongoro is to retain its World Heritage Sites listing.

Recent reports that the international demand for crocodile skin is leading to the Nile crocodile being in danger of extinction in Nigeria need some evaluation and would in any case be easily solved through the farming of crocodiles.

There have been a number of news stories (Agence France Presse, Red Orbit) about Ismail Dauda, the crocodile and python skin tanner of Kano in northern Nigeria. He is reportedly processing up to 20,000 skins (crocodile & python) a month. His comment that crocodiles are now harder to source than ten years ago and discussions with conservationists lead to the conclusion that crocodiles “might soon face extinction in Nigeria” if the authorities do start to control this mainly illegal trade.

Cape Town could be forced to increase its residential rates to be able to manage the conflicts that are developing between 11 troops of baboons and the Cape Peninsular’s city and town residents.

The baboons of the Cape Peninsular, south of Cape Town, are a real tourist attraction both within the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP), along the roads that pass through it and at many of the landmarks in the peninsular. They are Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus), also known as the Cape Baboon which are like all other baboons, from the Old World monkey family.

Only a few years ago Jatropha was considered to be the wonder biodiesel feedstock suitable for production by small scale farmers in poor soils and arid countries. It has not lived up to the hype and it will be years before it can compete agronomically with soya and it is not scalable to the refining industry’s needs under small scale farming. Small scale rural farmers are more easily integrated into Jatropha based electrification in underdeveloped rural areas.

The Jatropha Spin
Jatropha curcas, also known as the Physic nut, is a perennial poisonous shrub. It is an uncultivated non-food wild-species that grows easily in hedges and scattered around homesteads.  It was spread from Central America to Africa by Portuguese traders who introduced it as a hedge material and a source of oil for light.

An autonomous, underwater vehicle monitors ocean conditions and water parameters in treacherous, ice filled arctic waters. The information it collects supports the understanding of ocean and related climate changes.

This photo shows the seaglider clearing its antennae from the water to send off data and receive mission instructions before plunging back into the arctic waters. The photo below shows the complete glider, which is about 3 metres (10 foot) long.

South Africa is a world leader both in terms of mineral resources and in the development of mining technology to extract these resources. The industry there leads the world in many areas, and has had enormous impact on the growth of Africa and on the environment.
1. The Biggest Open Cast, Hand Dug Mine in the World

The Big Hole of Kimberly was dug by hand, using picks and shovels. There is debate about whether the Big Hole is the biggest hand dug open cast mine in the world. Its surface area of 17 hectares (42 acres) and depth of around 200 metres (650 ft) required the excavation of around 25 million tons of earth and rock. This was achieved in 52 years between 1866 and 1914 by a workforce of up to 50,000 miners. What is beyond dispute though is that The Big Hole yielded 2,720 kilograms (6000 lb) of diamonds significantly more than the Jagersfontein mine, the other contender for the title of biggest. After all what better metric is there than output!