Earthlife Africa
Encyclopedia
Earthlife Africa is a South African environmental
and anti-nuclear organization founded in August 1988, in Johannesburg
. Initially conceived of as a South African version of Greenpeace
, the group began by playing a radical, anti-apartheid, activist role. ELA is arguably now more of a reformist lobby or pressure group. Considered by some to be a key voice in the emerging environmental justice
movement, Earthlife Africa has been criticised for being too radical, and by others for "working with traditional conservation movements" in furthering the environmental struggle.
The Earthlife Africa constitution (and name) was formally adopted at the first national conference at Dal Josophat, near Paarl
(outside of Cape Town
) during 1989. Earthlife Africa was chosen as a conscious attempt to avoid the split affecting two factions in GreenPeace
who were vying for control of the organisation. ELA therefore took a different approach to the environmental struggle.
The ELA constitution was initially loosely based upon the Four Pillars of the Green Party
and other movement documents. In attendance at this historical inauguration of South Africa's green movement were various members of related environmental organisations and ecology groups including:
According to Jacklyn Cock, "the concept of environmental justice was first introduced in South Africa at the
Earthlife 1992 conference." Environmental Justice "was articulated as a black concept and a poor concept and it took root very well’ More accurately, it was the Environmental Justice Network Forum (EJNF) which was initiated at the 1992 conference hosted by Earthlife Africa on the theme "What does it mean to be green in South Africa.’ At this conference 325 civil society delegates resolved to redefine the environmental agenda in South Africa in broad terms and to move beyond the loose anarchist constitution which had bound members with 'values' as opposed to 'rights'. The South African National Conference on Environment and Development
had already set the agenda of the green movement in 1991 and thus the 1992 ELA conference was merely a sequel and precursor of later development within the broader movement.
The exposure of pollution by Thor Chemicals, a corporation which imported toxic waste into South Africa, by Earthlife and EJNF working closely with the Legal Resources Centre, the Chemical Workers Industrial Union, affected workers and local communities was the crucial turning point in the re-framing and ‘browning’ of environmentalism in South Africa.
Earthlife launched the People’s Environmental Centre, the Greenhouse in 2002.
2007 ELA participates in a parliamentary portfolio committee hearing into the nuclear industry, delivering submissions and hearing from widows and workers affected by the Pelindaba accident
September 2010, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan announces the ANC government decision to mothball the PBMR project. The cost to the taxpayer is in the region of between R7bn and R9.5Bn wasted on an unproven technology which could not produce a working reactor after more than 11 years of research.
Earthlife Africa (Cape Town) v Director General Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and Another (7653/03) [2005] ZAWCHC 7; 2005 (3) SA 156 (C) [2006] 2 All SA 44 (C) (26 January 2005)
Environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation or lobby for these goals....
and anti-nuclear organization founded in August 1988, in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
. Initially conceived of as a South African version of Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, the group began by playing a radical, anti-apartheid, activist role. ELA is arguably now more of a reformist lobby or pressure group. Considered by some to be a key voice in the emerging environmental justice
Environmental justice
Environmental justice is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." In the words of Bunyan Bryant,...
movement, Earthlife Africa has been criticised for being too radical, and by others for "working with traditional conservation movements" in furthering the environmental struggle.
History
The first branch of Earthlife Africa was established in 1988 at Wits University, in Johannesburg. A second branch was formed a month later in Cape Town.The Earthlife Africa constitution (and name) was formally adopted at the first national conference at Dal Josophat, near Paarl
Paarl
Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...
(outside of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
) during 1989. Earthlife Africa was chosen as a conscious attempt to avoid the split affecting two factions in GreenPeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
who were vying for control of the organisation. ELA therefore took a different approach to the environmental struggle.
The ELA constitution was initially loosely based upon the Four Pillars of the Green Party
Four Pillars of the Green Party
The Four Pillars of the Green Party are a foundational statement of Green politics and form the basis of many worldwide Green parties. The Four Pillars are:* Ecological wisdom* Social justice* Grassroots democracy* Nonviolence...
and other movement documents. In attendance at this historical inauguration of South Africa's green movement were various members of related environmental organisations and ecology groups including:
- Peter Lukey
- Chris Albertyn
- Mike Kantey
- Elfrieda Strauss
- David Robert Lewis
- Rachel Brown
According to Jacklyn Cock, "the concept of environmental justice was first introduced in South Africa at the
Earthlife 1992 conference." Environmental Justice "was articulated as a black concept and a poor concept and it took root very well’ More accurately, it was the Environmental Justice Network Forum (EJNF) which was initiated at the 1992 conference hosted by Earthlife Africa on the theme "What does it mean to be green in South Africa.’ At this conference 325 civil society delegates resolved to redefine the environmental agenda in South Africa in broad terms and to move beyond the loose anarchist constitution which had bound members with 'values' as opposed to 'rights'. The South African National Conference on Environment and Development
South African National Conference on Environment and Development
The first National Conference on Environment and Development in South Africa was held at the University of the Western Cape during June/July 1991 . It saw at least 231 representatives from a wide range of organisations discussing the links between environmental degradation and the political...
had already set the agenda of the green movement in 1991 and thus the 1992 ELA conference was merely a sequel and precursor of later development within the broader movement.
The exposure of pollution by Thor Chemicals, a corporation which imported toxic waste into South Africa, by Earthlife and EJNF working closely with the Legal Resources Centre, the Chemical Workers Industrial Union, affected workers and local communities was the crucial turning point in the re-framing and ‘browning’ of environmentalism in South Africa.
Earthlife launched the People’s Environmental Centre, the Greenhouse in 2002.
2007 ELA participates in a parliamentary portfolio committee hearing into the nuclear industry, delivering submissions and hearing from widows and workers affected by the Pelindaba accident
September 2010, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan announces the ANC government decision to mothball the PBMR project. The cost to the taxpayer is in the region of between R7bn and R9.5Bn wasted on an unproven technology which could not produce a working reactor after more than 11 years of research.
Conveners
- Maya Aberman (Cape Town branch) 2006
- Nosiphiwo Msithweni (Cape Town branch) 2007
- Muna Lakhani (Cape Town branch current)
Campaigns
- Apartheid is an Ecology issue
- Nuclear EnergyNuclear energyNuclear energy usually means the part of the energy of an atomic nucleus, which can be released by fusion or fission or radioactive decay.Nuclear energy also may refer to:*Nuclear binding energy, the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom....
Costs the Earth Campaign (NECTEC) - Toxics Campaign focuses mainly on the prevention of proposed incinerators, through input into EIAs
- Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Partnership (SECCP)
Demonstrations
- 1998: picket at Durban harbour against a nuclear waste ship
- 2008: picket against the arrival of the USS Theodore Roosevelt
Publicity
- 1998: campaign against air pollution in Johannesburg, three prominent sculptures were decorated with gas masks. They disseminate information on issues such as climate change, genetic engineering and nuclear energy
Conferences
- 1991 South African National Conference on Environment and DevelopmentSouth African National Conference on Environment and DevelopmentThe first National Conference on Environment and Development in South Africa was held at the University of the Western Cape during June/July 1991 . It saw at least 231 representatives from a wide range of organisations discussing the links between environmental degradation and the political...
- 1992 What does it mean to be green in South Africa.
Legal Cases
- 15 September 2003 Earthlife Africa - Cape Town launched a High Court application in Cape Town, seeking to review and set aside the environmental impact assessment (EIA) authorization granted to Eskom to build a demonstration module Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) at Koeberg, Cape Town.
- 2005 Earthlife Africa (Cape Town Branch) v Eskom Holdings Ltd, Access to Information
Earthlife Africa (Cape Town) v Director General Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and Another (7653/03) [2005] ZAWCHC 7; 2005 (3) SA 156 (C) [2006] 2 All SA 44 (C) (26 January 2005)
See also
- Cape Town Ecology GroupCape Town Ecology GroupThe Cape Town Ecology Group is a South African based radical environmental group, founded in 1987, as a "child of Koeberg Alert", and active until the early 1990s. It espoused a more political-orientated green ideology as opposed to the apartheid-based conservation groups of the time...
- Conservation movementConservation movementThe conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
- EcologyEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
- Ecology movementEcology movementThe global ecology movement is based upon environmental protection, and is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the 1960s. As a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology....
- EnvironmentalismEnvironmentalismEnvironmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
- Environmental movementEnvironmental movementThe environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
- Environmental protectionEnvironmental protectionEnvironmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...
- Green movement in South AfricaGreen movement in South AfricaThe environmental movement in South Africa traces its history from the early beginnings of conservation, to the rise of radicalism and activism amongst local ecologists. Before the Chernobyl disaster and the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were very few green activist groups in the country...
- Koeberg AlertKoeberg AlertKoeberg Alert formed in 1983 and started out as a local campaign against South Africa's nuclear programme, in particular the construction of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Koeberg Alert is possibly the country's first activist green movement, apart from Nan Rice's Dolphin Action and Protection...
- List of environmental organizations
- Natural resourceNatural resourceNatural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....
- Renewable resourceRenewable resourceA renewable resource is a natural resource with the ability of being replaced through biological or other natural processes and replenished with the passage of time...
- Sustainable developmentSustainable developmentSustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
External links
- Earthlife Africa - Johannesburg branch
- Earthlife Africa - Cape Town branch