August 2022 News

Image from Mushrooms of Southern Africa

IN THIS EDITION

Welcome

News
Why the creative industry must stop enabling companies driving the climate crisis
Africa getting just 12% of financing needed to adapt to climate change
African penguins endangered by shipping noise in Algoa Bay
New WWF report makes case for circular plastics economy in Africa
Extinction Rebellion’s Creative Hub

To Diarise
Cape Town Joins “No Mow” Movement
Creative Exchange: Finding common ground
World Water Monitoring Day
The Ocean Impact Pitchfest 2022

Film Festivals and Competitions
International Earth Film Festival, Iran
Climate Change Film Festival, Greece
Nature Festival, Australia
Houston Underwater Film Festival, USA

Interesting Reads
South Africa’s proposed fracking regulations should do more to protect groundwater
The right to food: activism and litigation are shifting the dial in South Africa
A meat tax is probably inevitable – here’s how it could work

We Are Loving …
Mapping South Africa’s marine protected areas
How to Catch Mermaid Tears

Who are Mycelium?

WELCOME by Stefanie Swanepoel

I love this time of year, as we move from darkness to light, coming out of a period of reflection to one of action. And more and more people are acting in efforts to avert the ecological collapse that we face, one brought about by both a careless and a callous disregard for the health of the ecosystems on Earth that sustain all life. We need to act on multiple levels to avert this crisis and to bring about the (re)emergence of human value systems that prioritise people and planet, not profits.

Science has a clear role to play – see Mapping South Africa’s marine protected areas and Litter4Token’s work to clean Durban’s beaches of nurdles. Cape Town’s adoption of the ‘No Mow’ Movement is a step in the right direction at the city governance level, although much more needs to be done by governments – national, provincial and local. As individuals, it may seem an insurmountable challenge to shift the status quo towards something that has soul, that has meaning, that sustains healthy and happy societies. But every small action counts to build momentum that will force larger forces like governments and corporates to change. Creative communicators (across all mediums) have a key role to play in helping us imagine this different future. The increasing number of film festival opportunities focused on sustainability are testament to the need for creative expression about the state of the world, and our role in ensuring that we have a future to look forward to.

All of us doing our one small thing to build a beautiful future equates over time to millions and then billions of people doing the same one small thing – and bringing about large-scale change. Over winter, every Friday, I listened to meditations led by Satish Kumar and organised by the Oxford Real Farming Conference. Satish is an Indian/British activist who holds profoundly deep and spiritual wisdom of the world. I would like to leave you with a few paraphrased lines from his meditation: Bring your hands together in prayer in front of your chest, breathe in, breath out, smile… Think of the soil that sustains all life without discrimination, without judgement, without pride, envy or hatred. It sustains all life equally. Be like soil… Think of water that sustains all life without discrimination, without judgement, without pride, envy or hatred. It sustains all life equally. Be like water… Think of air that sustains all life without discrimination, without judgement, without pride, envy or hatred. It sustains all life equally. Be like air…

News
 
Why the creative industry must stop enabling companies driving the climate crisis
 
Clean Creatives is a project for public relations (PR) and advertising professionals who want a safe climate future. It recently launched in South Africa supported by fossil fuel divestment campaigners, Fossil Free South Africa. More than 27 local agencies and creatives have already signed up.

Even as the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent and the alarm bells ring louder, energy companies and politicians continue to plan new fossil fuel projects. The science is unambiguous – if we want the planet to remain habitable, we cannot afford any new investments in coal, oil and gas. To do so would be “moral and economic madness”, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres. That major concern aside, it doesn’t even make economic sense to expand the fossil fuel industry – given the comparative cost benefits of modern alternatives.

With this in mind, fossil fuel companies – which are facing an existential crisis of their own – are putting serious money into campaigns that seek to legitimise their actions and win over politicians and the public at large. This provides a windfall for marketing, advertising and public relations firms, many of whom are benefiting financially from the big ‘greenwashing’ drive – just as they did when tobacco companies sought to paint their harmful products in a positive light.

In both cases, the creative industry is employed to make destructive corporate actions look neutral or even positive. This, of course, leads to significant negative outcomes for society, and delayed action. But some in the creative industry have had enough, and they’re starting to push back. Many are pushing their firms to join movements such as Clean Creatives, a global coalition of roughly 300 advertisers and public relations agencies who are cutting ties with fossil fuel clients.

These agencies have pledged to decline future contracts with the fossil fuel industry. In giving up short-term opportunities to boost profits, they are ensuring their own long-term sustainability as pressure mounts on companies fanning the flames of climate change. Those who continue to do the fossil fuel industry’s bidding will face ever-increasing scrutiny. Lawsuits are already piling up against fossil fuel companies, and their creative partners in greenwashing will soon become targets themselves.

With this in mind, Clean Creatives has launched an annual F-List Awards programme, which highlights public relations firms that are the biggest enablers of fossil fuel companies’ transgressions. The awards, which include categories such as “Excellence in Science Fiction”, recognise the “most egregious campaigns on behalf of fossil fuel companies”.

At this year’s Cannes Lions event in June – the largest gathering in the creative marketing community – a former winner of the Cannes Lions award interrupted the ceremony to return his award and demand a ban on fossil fuel advertising, while activists held protests outside the Palais des Festivals. After the event, the Creatives for Climate non-profit foundation held a “Greenwash Watch” forum to hold the industry to account for its failures to act with integrity on the climate crisis.

The creative industry must play its part by refusing to assist fossil fuel companies in deceiving the public about the biggest crisis facing all life on earth. Besides downplaying the magnitude of the crisis, fossil fuel groups are telling consumers that they’re embracing sustainability – even though almost all of their spending is still directed at coal, oil and gas projects. “For decades, many in the fossil fuel industry have invested heavily in pseudo-science and public relations – with a false narrative to minimise their responsibility for climate change and undermine ambitious climate policies,” Guterres said recently.

It’s time for our industry to step up and be a force for good. This is particularly important in a country such as South Africa, which is warming at twice the global average rate – putting food security and livelihoods at risk as droughts and floods become the new norm. The only path to energy security and a liveable planet is through cheap, clean energy. Thankfully, the creative industry is beginning to wake up to this fact.

Africa getting just 12% of financing needed to adapt to climate change

Africa is getting just 12% of the finance it needs to manage the impact of climate change, a report on Thursday, 11 August, said, raising pressure on rich nations to do more in the run-up to global climate talks in November. Around $250bn is needed annually to help African countries move to greener technologies and adapt to the effects of climate change, yet funding in 2020 was just $29.5bn, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI).

Wealthy countries have faced growing criticism for failing to meet a pledge made in 2009 to provide $100bn annually to help poorer countries and the issue is likely to be central to discussions at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt. Africa has about a fifth of the world’s population, but produces less than 3% of its carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.

“Harnessing climate investment opportunities in Africa will require innovation in financing structures and strategic deployment of public capital to ‘crowd-in’ private investment at levels not yet seen,” the CPI report said. It cited a lack of skills, infrastructure, data and financial markets depth, governance issues and currency risks as holding back climate investment to varying degrees in African countries.

The barriers were most numerous in central African countries where infrastructure and access to credit are lacking and there are high risks of political and regulatory issues hampering investment, the report said. “While these barriers are real, the perception of risk linked to investments in the African continent is often aggravated by a limited understanding of national contexts by private investors,” it said. “(This) may end up steering their capital toward other markets – perceived as safer – hence missing potentially profitable investments opportunities.”

African penguins endangered by shipping noise in Algoa Bay

The already endangered African penguin is being driven away from its natural habitat off the east coast of South Africa due to noise from ship refuelling, a scientific study has found.The number of African penguins on St Croix island in Algoa Bay, once the world’s largest breeding colony of the birds, has plummeted since South Africa started to allow ships in the area to refuel at sea, a process known as bunkering, six years ago, the study found.

Situated in a busy shipping lane along South Africa’s east coast, Algoa Bay is rich in marine and bird life and southern right whales roam in its sheltered waters. “We found the noise levels, which were already high, to have doubled since bunkering began”, Lorien Pichegru, acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study, told Reuters. Elevated noise levels affect marine animals’ ability to find and corral prey, communicate or navigate properly, scientists have previously found.

“This year we are at 1,200 breeding pairs at St Croix from 8,500 pairs in 2016, an almost 85% decrease since bunkering started in South Africa,” Pichegru said. “I was counting the dead birds every month on the beach of the bay.” The new study, published on 10 August in the peer-reviewed Science of the Total Environment journal, is the first to explore the impact of maritime traffic noise pollution on a seabird, and the consequence of offshore bunkering activities on underwater noise levels, researchers said.

South Africa’s Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) in 2016 awarded the country’s first offshore bunkering operator’s license to Aegean Marine in a controversial closed tender, and then awarded two subsequent licenses to SA Marine Fuels and Heron Marine in 2018 and 2019 respectively. A moratorium on new licenses, in place since August 2019, will only be lifted once an environmental impact assessment is completed by port authorities. The assessment is expected next year, a SAMSA official said.

Nelson Mandela University’s study used vessel-identification tool data to estimate underwater noise from ships as a proxy for underwater ambient noise in the area. In 2019 oiled penguins were found in Algoa Bay after an oil spill from ship-to-ship bunkering and conservationists have called for bunkering to be banned in the bay.

Pichegru said penguins in the St Croix islands were already struggling to breed due to a variety of challenges, including industrial fishing of scarce prey. “Bunkering did not kill all the penguins, it was just the thing that made the whole ecology tip over and then the penguins couldn’t cope with that,” she said.

New WWF report makes case for circular plastics economy in Africa

A circular plastics economy by 2050 will lead to positive cumulative effects for Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and South Africa in the form of additional GDP growth and an overall improvement in public welfare and household income. This is according to a new report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

This requires a shift away from the current linear (‘take, make, waste’) model which sees the bulk of plastics finding its way into non-compliant landfills and open dumps with resultant leakage into the natural environment. A circular economy endeavours to keep materials within the economic system for as long as possible, reducing the need for continued resource extraction and trying to cope with the ever-increasing volumes of waste.

Three core requirements to represent the circular plastics economy scenario in the macro-economic model from 2019 to 2050 were as follows:

1. A reduction in overall consumption of single-use plastic packaging by 30%, including a phase out of problematic polymers and formats,
2. 50% of virgin plastic to be substituted by post-consumer recycled plastic,
3. Wide adoption of packaging reuse and refill models to keep plastic packaging in the economy for longer periods.

This new report comes against the backdrop of a decision at the most recent United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi to work towards a legally binding international agreement on how to manage plastics across its life cycle from resin production to end of life.

The report argues that this proposed treaty is an opportunity to “harmonise, coordinate and provide regulatory measures to address plastic pollution holistically and comprehensively”. It further suggests that African governments should actively participate in negotiations towards such a treaty to offer perspectives and priorities from the African context.

The research looks at the economic benefits of the transition to a circular plastics economy by taking into account not only the market and indirect costs or externalities of the linear plastics economy, but also the net material savings, mitigation of price volatility and sectoral shifts that would result in job creation and improved livelihoods in the selected African countries. In terms of the country scenarios, the report found that only for the packaging sector (or value chain):

1. An immediate implementation option enables Côte d’Ivoire to benefit from additional GDP growth of $1.1bn over a business-as-usual outcome and savings of over $200m by 2050 by avoiding the costs arising from the externalities of the linear plastic packaging model.
2. Kenya could also immediately implement structural changes towards a circular plastics economy to benefit from additional GDP growth of $2.53bn and savings of over $425m by 2050 by avoiding the costs of externalities that would accumulate in the business-as usual scenario.
3. In South Africa, delaying implementation would lead to an accumulation of costs of over $475m by 2050 associated with the business-as-usual scenario. Incremental implementation of the transition to a circular plastics economy would enable the country to implement the necessary measures to minimise any negative impacts on the current value chain and still benefit from additional GDP growth of $7.2bn.

The report says that a shift towards a circular plastics economy will lead to an overall increase in the demand for both skilled and unskilled labour, which suggests that there is strong potential for an inclusive circular plastics transition. The results also show that a significant number of informal waste sector workers and waste sector dependents stand to benefit from a transition to a circular plastics economy.

Download the full report here.

Extinction Rebellion’s Creative Hub

There is now an opportunity to get your creative writing published in a highly pertinent venue (Extinction Rebellion’s Creative Hub) and also do something good for the planet (by highlighting the vital issue of climate change and getting readers to think about it). Send in your poetry, songs, flash fiction, short stories, prose poems and scripts for plays or films addressing climate justice, the current climate crisis and possible aftermaths and future worlds here on earth.

In an era of soaring temperatures, melting glaciers and raging wildfires climate change has to be the single most pressing topic of this decade, and we have posted lots of powerful, eloquent and provocative pieces on it. To see prose, poetry and song already published and for submission guidelines go to xrcreative.org and then create something of your own from your ruminations, speculations, hopes, fears, doubts, dreams and nightmares.

To Diarise

Cape Town Joins “No Mow” Movement

The City of Cape Town is implementing a “no mow” period to let indigenous flowers and grasses bloom and go to seed. The “no mow” movement was started in the United Kingdom during the pandemic and is known as “no mow May”. The movement was thought up by Plantlife UK. They urged people to let the local grasses and weeds grow so that bees and other wildlife could have a good food source after a hard winter. The city issued a statement to notify residents of this intention and has opened a line of communication for neighbourhoods to reach out and join the movement. “The City of Cape Town’s Recreation and Parks Department will commence its mowing schedule at parks and public open spaces at the end of November 2022, to allow for spring flowers and a variety of indigenous plants to bloom – not just for aesthetic appeal, but also in aid of conservation”.

Residents can apply for their community park or portions of green spaces in their area to be added to the list. Email RP.Enquiries@capetown.gov.za with the location, some evidence of the flowers and support from neighbours living in close proximity to the area.

Creative Exchange: Finding common ground

Be sure to diarise the The Craft and Design Institute Creative Exchange on 7 September: Finding common ground. Please save the date for the final edition in the Creative Exchange (CX) series for 2022, which are co-hosted with the Kingdom of the Netherlands in South Africa ( #cocreateSANL). In September the topic is “Finding common ground” – the conversation will engage with community-based organisations and explore the vital role that civil society plays in the design of water-sensitive solutions. In the last three live-streamed events the diverse panel of inspiring speakers discussed the topic of Designing African blue-green cities for all. https://bit.ly/3Sjxadn

World Water Monitoring Day

This September, WaterCAN invites you to join us to take part in World Water Monitoring Day on 18 September – a global initiative desired to inspire people around the world to test their local water quality and encourage action to protect water. WaterCAN is organising people across the country to test their drinking water from taps, rivers, dams, from 14-18 September 2022. There’s an easy to follow training video which teaches you how to do this and you can order a test kit here. Please contact Ferrial Adam for more info: info@watercan.org.za

Applications are now open for The Ocean Impact Pitchfest 2022

Are you a startup or entrepreneur working to transform ocean health? Apply today to OIO’s global initiative to discover, support and accelerate startups working on transformative solutions to improve ocean health. Pitchfest 2022 returns with new awards, features and partners to help take your idea to the world and accelerate your ocean impact. Applications close on Tuesday 20 September 2022, meaning both your written form and pitch video entries will need to be submitted by this time. Finalists will be announced on 25 October 2022 and the Winners and Runners Up will be announced 24 November 2022.

Film Festivals and Competitions

International Earth Film Festival, Iran

The International Earth (zamin) Film Festival (IEFF) was founded in 2020 with the goals of promoting the culture, lifestyle and management schemes based on “sustainable development”, and of supporting artists and filmmakers active in relevant fields by broadcasting and publicizing their products for the general Iranian audience. The second IEFF edition’s main theme is “Sustainable Economy” and therefore movies that deal with issues such as economic sustainability, green economy, fair and green trade, local and indigenous economy, green industries, social corporate responsibility, green and conscious consumerism, economic resilience, green energies, sustainable livelihoods and employment, etc. will have more chance to get selected and to win the competition.

Climate Change Film Festival, Greece

The Climate Change Film Festival (CCFF) aspires to be the first competitive short film festival in Greece with a focus on the phenomenon of climate change. The objective of the CCFF is to disseminate scientifically reliable information and raise awareness related to all active citizens, (with the aim of providing them with the appropriate scientific knowledge, in order to artistically express their concern about climate change).

Nature Festival, Australia

Environmental films are a means of showcasing the happenings of the natural world. It allows the storyteller to articulate their interpretation of nature and share their point of view to educate and inspire others to live more sustainably. The Film Competition is organized by the City of Adelaide and Green Adelaide. Deadline: Sept 1, 2022  https://www.naturefestival.org.au/film-competition

Houston Underwater Film Festival, USA

HUFF aims to promote underwater film making and appreciation of the beauty and diversity of all things underwater as well as encouraging the art of underwater videography. Underwater videographers from around the world are invited to submit entries for consideration for screening. 

Interesting Reads

South Africa’s proposed fracking regulations should do more to protect groundwater

South Africa is extremely water scarce, and water supply will become more challenging in the future. The population and economy are growing, increasing demand. Rainfall is variable and more extreme and prolonged droughts are expected because of climate change. More than 80% of South Africa’s available surface water resources are already allocated for use. Groundwater resources will therefore become more important in South Africa. The Conversation
 

The right to food: activism and litigation are shifting the dial in South Africa

In South Africa, everyone should be able to access their basic needs, like food, in a dignified manner (without shame and unreasonable obstacles). The right to food is enshrined in South Africa’s constitution. Section 27(1)(b) states that “everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water”. Section 28 recognises the right to food for children. The Conversation

A meat tax is probably inevitable – here’s how it could work

The world cannot meet climate goals and keep ecosystems intact without rich countries reducing their consumption of beef, pork and chicken. The Conversation considers how an environmental tax on meat could work.

What are your thoughts?

We Are Loving …

… these initiatives which support our aim of living in a more sustainable world.

Mapping South Africa’s marine protected areas

Since 2019 the South African Marine Protected Area (MPA) network of 41 MPAs encompassies 5.4% of our mainland waters. The hope is that South Africa will shift its MPA footprint to 10%. A key tool in this process will be the Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBA) Map. This is the first National Coastal and Marine Spatial Biodiversity Plan for the coast and ocean around the South African mainland. The overall goal is to safeguard a sufficient, representative sample of coastal and marine biodiversity that can persist into the future, in support of sustainable economic development.

How to Catch Mermaid Tears

Litter4Tokens was founded by former Ballito resident Clare Swithenbank-Bowman in 2015 as a way to divert litter from ending up in the ocean and using it to feed families in need. PETCO partnered with Litter4Tokens NPC for another year of keeping plastic out of the environment during this year’s Ballito Pro surfing competition. Litter4Tokens created the Mermaid Tears Catcher as a way for the general public to easily help collect tiny nurdles lost amongst the sand.

Nurdles are small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil. Countless billions of them are used each year to make nearly all our plastic products. These pellets must be collected as our coastal wildlife are confusing them with food and ingesting the toxic nurdles.

This year the participants who collected the most nurdles over the course of the event stood the chance to earn themselves a PETCO-branded surfboard or paddle board made from recycled planks and resin from recycled glass.You can purchase a Mermaid Tear Catcher via the Litter4Tokens website here.