by pennyurquhart | Nov 23, 2015 | Africa, environment
Nola, a 41-year old northern white rhino, died yesterday in a zoo in San Diego. Why should we care, in this time of terror and violence, and just a week away from COP21 in Paris – the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework...
by pennyurquhart | Jul 16, 2014 | Africa, climate governance, environment
Headlines on deforestation, particularly those that link the problem with climate change, usually focus on changes in the Amazon forest system. Sometimes we read about the ravages on Indonesia’s forests from expansion of oil palm plantations. But we almost never...
by pennyurquhart | Jun 28, 2012 | climate change, environment, green economy, Rio+20
These are dark days, these days post-Rio+20. You only have to read George Monbiot’s recent column in The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/25/rio-governments-will-not-save-planet) for an excellent – and deeply distressing –...
by pennyurquhart | Dec 3, 2011 | environment
“Climate change kills me”. This was the stark statement on a banner held aloft by one of the marchers in the Global Day of Action protest that filled the streets of Durban today. On the banner, a photo of a child with large, haunting eyes. Marshalls kept...
by pennyurquhart | Dec 1, 2011 | environment
“In the negotiations, people are reading the same old statements that we have heard for two years” said Saleemul Huq, Senior Fellow at IIED, at a SADC networking dinner in Durban last night. As he spoke, my heart sank – it was back, that wave of...
by pennyurquhart | Nov 28, 2011 | Africa, climate justice, environment
The annual United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP17 this time around – starts today, and Durban is already bursting at the seams. Mainstream accommodation is long since claimed, and one small guest house has had over 200 enquiries for two days in...
