We want Climate Justice Now!
The Climate Justice Now! KZN week of Climate Change Action to highlight the need for immediate and honest greenhouse gas reduction emission plans from Copenhagen will start on Monday, 7th December 2009. CJN! KZN is campaigning to highlight the need for a just and equitable solution to be delivered at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change which is being held in Copenhagen, Denmark from the 7th to 16th December 2009. CJN! KZN demands immediate Emissions Reductions; Climate Debt Payment; and no carbon trading. Read more ...
National Waste Management Strategy
The development of the National Waste Management Strategy is mandated
by the National Environmental Management: Waste Act of 2008, and must
be developed by 2011. It will lay the ground rules for how governance
occurs relation to those entities that produce waste and those that
dispose of waste.
It is groundWork’s contention that if this document is agreed upon as
is, government will effectively abdicate its responsibility to govern
waste in South Africa, and handover the governance of waste via
self-regulation, voluntarism and exemptions to polluting industry.
We call on government and the process to reconsider the approach that this document recommends.
See the Summary of key strategic issues to inform the NWMSand
groundWork’s response'
South African Waste Pickers to Visit Egypt
South African citizens are joining the ever growing global movement of waste pickers. Seven waste pickers will be joining groundWork in a visit to Egypt to attend a conference titled: ‘Towards and Culture of Sustainable Communities, Economies and Environment’ from the 27th of November to the 29th of November in Cairo.
Recycling Revolution: South Africa’s First Waste Pickers Recycling Gathering
Waste pickers from more than 50 waste landfill sites from all 9 provinces met in Johannesburg on the 2nd to the 3rd of July 2009. Read:
Making the Health Care Sector healthier
groundWork in partnership with Health Care Without Harm and the Democratic Nursing Organisation in South Africa hosted a workshop titled: ‘Nurses Building Healthier Environments’ in Durban on Monday 29 June 2009.
Memorandum to Minister van Schalkwyk
At the recent climate change meetings held at Gallagher Estate
a memorandum was handed to Joanne Yarwitch to pass on to the Minister
of Environmental Affairs.
Why Climate Change is a Human Rights issue
Read the article by Desmond Tutu, published in the Sunday Weekly Argus on
6 March 2009.
Press Release - People’s Summit and Protest March at National Climate Change Summit
On the 5th of March 2009, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg [1] and groundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa [2] will be hosting a People’s Summit on Climate Change at the Midrand Convention Centre. The People’s Summit parallels the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism National Climate Change Summit.
Survey of generation rates, treatment capacities
and costs of Health Care Waste
The DEAT's Survey of
Generation Rates, Treatment Capacities and
Minimal Costs of Health Care Waste in the 9
provinces of RSA can be downloaded here.
Stunning Victory in Nairobi
On Thursday 19th February world environment ministers finally agreed the
process to establish a global, legally binding international treaty to tackle
mercury pollution in Nairobi at the United Nations
Environment Program 25th Session of Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum.
Click to read more.
Press Release - Obama Administration changes position on Mercury
The Obama administration has
reversed the former U.S. position on limiting mercury pollution worldwide. Before
astonished environment ministers attending the United Nations Environment
Programme Governing Council opening session in Nairobi today, the U.S. delegation
endorsed negotiations for a new global treaty to control mercury pollution, to begin
this year.
Click to read more.
Press Release - UNEP's Achim Steiner on Mercury
No one alive today is free from some level of mercury contamination and the World Health
Organization argues there is in the end no safe limit. Thus prevarication and inaction over the
global mercury challenge is no longer an option —we owe it to pregnant women and unborn
children everywhere and to artisanal miners and their families. We owe it to anyone who has an
interest in a healthier, less polluted world.
Click to read more.
Press Release - Mercury in Fish
As the world’s governments convene next week to
discuss developing a legally binding treaty on
mercury, citizens’ groups from around the world
have released a new report calling attention to
the significant global human health hazards caused
by mercury in fish and fish-eating marine mammals.
Click to read Press Release.
Press Release - Wasting the Nation
On Tuesday 10th February groundWork releases its
7th Annual review of the State of Environmental
Justice in South Africa. This review focuses
on waste in South Africa at a time when President
Kgalema Motlanthe is about to sign the National
Environmental Management: Waste Bill into force.
Click to read Press Invitation.
Action Alert: Tell Uranium One To Respect Human Rights in South Africa!
The Dominion Reefs uranium mine in South Africa, owned and operated by the
Canadian company Uranium One, has continuously been exposed for systematic
violations of workers' rights and basic environmental regulations.
Click to find out more and take action.
On 15 January 2009, Bobby Peek
will open an exciting photographic exhibition
- Breathing Spaces: Environmental Portraits of Durban's Industrial South
- at the Castle in Cape Town. Find out more...
Read Bobby's address
The little video that could change the world
The Story of Stuff
has been watched by over four million viewers, and tells,
in simple and effective terms, the story of waste from
from generation to disposal, suggesting viable alternatives
to the world's waste problems.
The World
Medical Association unanimously passed a
resolution calling for the phase-out of mercury
use in the health care sector. Delegates said
hospitals and medical facilities should switch to
non-mercury alternatives.
- 28 October 2008
Spain: Huge protest against plasma incinerator and mega landfill
- 20 October 2008
Mercury in health care devices to be banned in Philippines
- 17 June 2008
Dead
workers, stinking pollution and forced evictions:
New report highlights ArcelorMittal’s global
trail of destruction - 13 May 2008
View the Report
Ban
the Burn! Government Ignoring Advice - 02
March 2008
groundWork
asks for public protection against the DEAT
- 27 Feb 2008
Letter
to the Editor - Community and NGOs tired of Environmental
Department: Fossil fuels cost nation R4bn a year
in healthcare! - February 2008
Solidarity
for Environmental Justice in South Africa
- Report by Victor Munnik - Nov 2007
See Pambazuka
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