By Richard Heinberg, originally published by Resilience.org Our species’ origin and destiny are entangled with the roots and branches of trees. We evolved in and around trees, and we’ve learned to breed and plant them for their fruit, nuts, wood, and blossoms, taking their seeds with us as we migrated-hence the English walnut, native to […]
Continue readingApril 2026
Don’t just plant trees, plant forests to restore biodiversity for the future
By John Parker, Senior Scientist in Community Ecology, Smithsonian Institution; Justin Nowakowski, Senior Scientist in Spatial Ecology and Conservation, Smithsonian Institution. First published in The Conversation on 20 April 2026 Around the world, people plan to plant more than 1 trillion trees this decade in an ambitious effort to slow climate change and reduce biodiversity […]
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From D’Olijvenboom to Boutique Elegance: A Paarl Story Worth Discovering
By Mark van Eyssen, GST Assessor Along the oak-lined Main Road of Paarl, directly opposite the historic Paarl Gymnasium, stands a building that quietly tells a story spanning more than three centuries. At first glance, it is a beautifully restored Cape Dutch property. But step closer and it becomes something more, a living piece of […]
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World Tourism in Geo-Political Chains?
By Selwyn Roup, GST Contributor Location, location, location… and never before has Southern Africa stood astride the Indo-Atlantic straits of East to West and North to South as in the past nine months. The good news is that in 2025 South Africa welcomed 10.5 million tourists, topping pre-Covid numbers. The ebb and flow of power […]
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Energy: A Reader
by GST Staff This solar farm lets cattle roam under moving panels SILICON RANCH HAS BROUGHT something online commercially that you don’t see every day: a utility-scale solar farm where cattle graze under moving panels. The Nashville-based developer has launched its new “CattleTracker” system at the Christiana Solar Ranch in Tennessee. It’s the first commercial […]
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A water solution for drought-prone South Africa: systems to replenish aquifers in five towns
By Surina Esterhuyse, Associate Professor in the Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State; Danita Hohne, PhD Candidate in the Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State; Fanus Fourie, PhD Candidate in the Institute for Groundwater Studies, University of the Free State. First published in The Conversation on 19 March 2026 […]
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Madagascar’s ancient baobabs store 700 years of climate secrets
By Estelle Razanatsoa, Junior Research Fellow, University of Cape Town;Lindsey Gillson, Associate Professor Plant conservation unit, University of Cape Town; Malika Virah-Sawmy, Visiting Scientist, Humboldt University of Berlin – First published in The Conversation on 19 April 2026 MADAGASCAR IS HOME TO seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on […]
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Let the earth speak to the visitor: GST concept for sustainable tourism
by Niël du Toit, CEO of Go Sustainable Tourism (GST) Using Cape Town – the Fairest Cape – as gateway, travel South Africa by Kontrei (Region). This refers to using Kontrei glasses when looking at South Africa as it shows itself via the brittle outer layer at the Earth’s surface. South Africa’s amazing geographic diversity […]
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