Sean Thomas Blog

Lewis Pugh’s speech about Fracking in the Karoo

seanthomas69 — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:09:43 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, thank for the opportunity to address you. My name is Lewis Pugh. This evening, I want to take you back to the early 1990’s in this country. You may remember them well. Nelson Mandela had been released. There was euphoria in the air. However, there was also widespread violence and deep fear. This country teetered on the brink of a civil war. But somehow, somehow, we averted it. It was a miracle! And it happened because we had incredible leaders. Leaders who sought calm. Leaders who had vision. So in spite of all the violence, they sat down and negotiated a New Constitution. I will never forget holding the Constitution in my hands for the first time. I was a young law student at the University of Cape Town. This was the cement that brought peace to our land. This was the document, which held our country together. The rights contained herein, made us one. I remember thinking to myself – never again will the Rights of South Africans be trampled upon. Now every one of us – every man and every women – black, white, coloured, Indian, believer and non believer – has the right to vote. We all have the Right to Life. And our children have the right to a basic education. These rights are enshrined in our Constitution. These rights were the dreams of Oliver Tambo. These rights were the dreams of Nelson Mandela. These rights were the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, of Desmond Tutu and of Molly Blackburn. These rights were our dreams. People fought – and died – so that we could enjoy these rights today. Also enshrined in our Constitution, is the Right to a Healthy Environment and the Right to Water. Our Constitution states that we have “the Right to have our environment protected for the benefit of our generation and for the benefit of future generations.” Fellow South Africans, let us not dishonour these rights. Let us not dishonour those men and women who fought and died for these rights. Let us not allow corporate greed to disrespect our Constitution and desecrate our environment. Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important – gas or water. We can survive without gas. We cannot live without water. If we damage our limited water supply – and fracking will do just that – we will have conflict again here in South Africa. Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment you have conflict. Fellow South Africans, we have had enough conflict in this land – now is the time for peace. A few months ago I gave a speech with former President of Costa Rica. Afterwards I asked him “Mr President, how do you balance the demands of development against the need to protect the environment?” He looked at me and said “It is not a balancing act. It is a simple business decision. If we cut down our forests in Costa Rica to satisfy a timber company, what will be left for our future?” But he pointed out “It is also a moral decision. It would be morally wrong to chop down our forests and leave nothing for my children and my grandchildren.” OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE Ladies and gentlemen, that is what is at stake here today: Our children’s future. And that of our children’s children. There may be gas beneath our ground in the Karoo. But are we prepared to destroy our environment for 5 to 10 years worth of fossil fuel and further damage our climate? Yes, people will be employed – but for a short while. And when the drilling is over, and Shell have packed their bags and disappeared, then what? Who will be there to clean up? And what jobs will our children be able to etch out? Now Shell will tell you that their intentions are honourable. That fracking in the Karoo will not damage our environment. That they will not contaminate our precious water. That they will bring jobs to South Africa. That gas is clean and green. And that they will help secure our energy supplies. When I hear this – I have one burning question. Why should we trust them? Africa is to Shell what the Gulf of Mexico is to BP. Shell, you have a shocking record here in Africa. Just look at your operations in Nigeria. You have spilt more than 9 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta. That’s twice the amount of oil that BP spilt into the Gulf of Mexico. You were found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials – and to make the case go away in America – you paid an admission of guilt fine of 48 million US Dollars. And to top it all, you stand accused of being complicit in the execution of Nigeria’s leading environmental campaigner – Ken Saro-Wira and 8 other activists. If you were innocent, why did you pay 15.5 million US Dollars to the widows and children to settle the case out of Court? Shell, the path you want us to take us down is not sustainable. I have visited the Arctic for 7 summers in a row. I have seen the tundra thawing. I have seen the retreating glaciers. And I have seen the melting sea ice. And I have seen the impact of global warming from the Himalayas all the way down to the low-lying Maldive Islands. Wherever I go – I see it. Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay! Shell, we look to the north of our continent and we see how people got tired of political tyranny. We have watched as despots, who have ruled ruthlessly year after year, have been toppled in a matter of weeks. We too are tired. Tired of corporate tyranny. Tired of your short term, unsustainable practices. We watched as Dr Ian Player, a game ranger from Natal, and his friends, took on Rio Tinto (one of the biggest mining companies in the world) and won. And we watched as young activists from across Europe, brought you down to your knees, when you tried to dump an enormous oilrig into the North Sea. Shell, we do not want our Karoo to become another Niger Delta. Do not underestimate us. Goliath can be brought down. We are proud of what we have achieved in this young democracy – and we are not about to let your company come in and destroy it. So let this be a Call to Arms to everyone across South Africa, who is sitting in the shadow of Goliath: Stand up and demand these fundamental human rights promised to you by our Constitution. Use your voices – tweet, blog, petition, rally the weight of your neighbours and of people in power. Let us speak out from every hilltop. Let us not go quietly into this bleak future. Let me end off by saying this: You have lit a fire in our bellies, which no man or woman can extinguish. And if we need to, we will take this fight all the way from your petrol pumps to the very highest Court in this land. We will take this fight from the farms and towns of the Karoo to the streets of London and Amsterdam. And we will take this fight to every one of your shareholders. And I have no doubt, that in the end, good will triumph over evil. Thank you.

Mail & Guardian article on illegal fishing activities in South Africa

seanthomas69 — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 09:33:49 +0000

Written by Fiona Macleod

Industry experts warn that lobsters will soon disappear from the nation’s menus if over-fishing is allowed to continue to push South African stocks towards extinction.

The recent extension of rights to subsistence fishers has created an “open season” on West Coast rock lobsters, also known as crayfish, which is being exploited by Chinese triads and has reduced the shellfish stocks to a level lower than those of abalone, they said.

The collapse of the lobster fishing industry would mean the end of an industry that supports more than 4 300 jobs and is worth an estimated R347-million.

“Lobster stock is about 3% of pristine, which is the level needed to sustain fishing. They are biologically worse off than abalone, which is at 8%,” said Shaheen Moolla, the former head of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM).

The devastation started in 2007, he said, after former environmental affairs minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced “interim measures” to grant subsistence fishing rights for lobsters, which are easily accessible inside the 200m-depth shallows along the West Coast to East London.

Quotas for lobsters and linefish were given to 1 500 subsistence fishers, who became known as “interim relief” fishers. A challenge to the allocation by the West Coast Rock Lobster Association was rejected by the Supreme Court of Appeal in September last year.

Moolla said this week that the interim relief fishers were allocated 200 tonnes of lobsters for the 2010-11 season. “In the Elandsbaai area alone they have already harvested at least 500 tonnes, with more than half the season left. In Paternoster they are removing 30 000 lobster tails a day. If poaching levels are even half that in other zones, we are probably looking at the interim relief sector taking about 1 500 to 2 000 tonnes,” he said.

Open season
A recreational fisher who did not want to be named said he had witnessed interim relief fishers taking out “crayfish tails by the sackful and throwing the rest of the carcasses away. It’s tragic to see what’s happening. It’s open season on crayfish.”

With virtually no intervention by fishery control officers, organised gangs such as the Chinese triads were buying up interim relief quotas and paying a pittance for their catches, he said.

Private investigators have linked some interim relief lobster fishers to organised syndicates poaching abalone. The commercial abalone fishery was conditionally reopened in June last year after a closure of almost two-and-a-half years.

Environmentalist Sean Thomas, who is documenting the huge illegal reptile trade on the West Coast, said it was “in some instances connected to the illegal sourcing of abalone and lobster. Wild tortoise populations are being targeted as well.”

The lobster free-for-all was having a serious impact on domestic and international markets because they were being dumped at rock-bottom prices, said Moolla, now a director of Feike Natural Resource Management Advisers and consultant for the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union, IUCN. “The last two months of 2010 witnessed the collapse in the price of South African lobsters on the international market from about $50/kg to less than $30/kg,” he said.

Carol Moses, the spokesperson for the fisheries department, which replaced MCM last November, said it was managing lobster stocks under a recovery plan that aims to return them to 20% above the 2006 levels by 2016.

“The 2010 status of the South African marine fisheries report indicates the recovery plans are bearing fruit,” she said. It was not true interim relief fishers were not monitored, she said, but the department was reviewing the poaching estimate of 500 tonnes built into its annual total allowable catch for lobsters.

Since the opening of the lobster season in November, it had conducted 11 special operations that resulted in more than 335 fines worth R420 200 and the arrests of 13 suspects. “A total of 7 866 West Coast rock lobsters were confiscated, 5 000 units from roadblocks, 1 600 from commercial boats and 1 100 from an airport,” Moses said.

Our governments stance on Rhino Poaching

seanthomas69 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 10:17:29 +0000

After working very hard on the anti poaching of rhinos for their horns, in Limpopo Province, the DEAT ( Dept of Environmental Affairs and Tourism ), in SA, have NO interest in even getting information from me regarding this… Makes one think doesn’t it?

Even the mere suggestion of a short documentary highlighting all of this, meets with zero interest.

This smacks of the same stance the DAFF ( Dept. of Agriculture, Foresty and Fisheries) has toward protecting our abalone and lobster stocks, which has now become a ‘wild-west’ free-for-all in some areas like the West Coast. ( Read above post )

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Welcome

seanthomas69 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 09:48:41 +0000

Welcome to my blog , will be posting more and more, but in the meantime , enjoy the website, will be adding more video, and you can also join our reptile forum at www.capesnakes.org.za/forum