groundWork is a non-profit environmental justice service and developmental organisation in South Africa
News
- Polluting Brazilian Mining Giant Vale Exposed
DAVOS (SWITZERLAND) / PORTO ALEGRE (BRAZIL), 25 JANUARY 2012 - -- With more than 21,000 votes, the Brazilian mining giant Vale is highly likely to be crowned the 'world's worst corporation of the year' at the January 27 'Public Eye Awards' in Davos, Switzerland. Read the media advisory from: Friends of the Earth International ...
- Civil Society and Community Organisations Challenge Draconian South African Weather Service Amendment Bill
- Taking time out from COP…
- Community people could face criminal charges for reporting on air pollution
- Bonga Spill: Discountenance Shell, Independently Verify Spill Volumes, ERA/FoEN urges Nigerian Government
22 December 2011 - The Nigerian government must, as a duty to communities of the Niger Delta that suffer endless spills in their environment, ensure independent ways of verifying the amounts of spewed crude disclosed by the oil companies, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has demanded. The call comes on the heels of Shell's forced shut down of its 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga field after an alleged leak during a tanker loading caused what may be Nigeria’s worst offshore spill in more than a decade. Read more...
See Blog by Nnimmo Bassey covering the oil spill. - Call on SA Government not to Remove the Fracking Moratorium
This is an urgent call to sign a petition to call on the South African government NOT to remove the 'fracking' Moratorium. Go to the Petition site and spread the call.
- Climate: Disastrous “Durban Package” accelerates onset of Climate Catastrophe
DURBAN, 14 December 2011 – The UN climate talks in Durban were a failure and take the world a significant step back by further undermining an already flawed, inadequate multilateral system that is supposed to address the climate crisis, according to Friends of the Earth International. Developed countries engaged in a smoke and mirrors trick of delivering rhetoric but no action, failed to commit to urgently needed deep emissions cuts, and even backtracked on past commitments to address the climate crisis, said Friends of the Earth International. Read more...
Monday, 23rd January 2012- Tomorrow, 24 January 2012, and 25 January 2012, Parliament will hold public hearings on the South African Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011.
Many civil society and community organisations – groundWork, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), and the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) - are particularly concerned about the offence the Amendment Bill proposes if an air pollution-related warning (which is not defined in the Bill) is issued without written permission from the South African Weather Service. Read more...
Whilst climate change negotiators were caught up inside the COP17 in Durban, members from US-based civil society groups put on their hard-hats and paid a visit to the new 4 800 MW coal-fired Kusile power station and a coal-mine in the Highveld region of Gauteng. Environmental activists Karen Orenstein (Friends of the Earth) and Nicole Ghio (Sierra Club), journalist Kate Sheppard (MotherJones), and Tom Kruse (Rockefeller Brother Foundation) were taken on a tour by Bobby Peek, Director of groundWork where they discovered the reality of coal on the ground in South Africa.
See Motherjones blog
See Friends of the Earth US blog
See Sierra Club blog
12 January 2012 -
Amendments to the South African Weather Services Act, 2001 (“the Act”), proposed by means of the South African Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011 (“the Bill”), make it a criminal offence if community people or academics report on air pollution events in South Africa. See submission by groundWork, the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance and the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance to the Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs, prepared by the Centre for Environmental Rights.
Read the submission...
See Daily News article on SAWS Bill Amendment...
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