Gardening for migrating birds

By Staff Writer EVERY YEAR, billions of birds representing more than 100 species complete an epic journey to spend the southern summer in South Africa. They escape freezing winters in Europe and Asia, or fly from other parts of Africa to chase the seasonal rains and warm weather. These incredible long-distance travelers start arriving in […]

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Biodiversity: A Reader

by GST Staff Krill fishing in Antarctica and the fight to protect the Southern Ocean WITHOUT THIS HUMBLE crustacean, which swarms in vast numbers in the polar seas, the entire Antarctic ecosystem as we know it wouldn’t exist. Krill eat the phytoplankton that blooms in Antarctic waters, helping capture and store atmospheric carbon, and providing […]

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Tourism: A Reader

by GST Staff 3 pillars shaping Africa’s next hospitality chapter THE CONVERSATION AROUND African hospitality has shifted. For years, the continent was framed in terms of “untapped potential”; today, that potential is translating into sustained, undeniable growth. The industry has moved beyond recovery and into a phase of sophisticated expansion that is reshaping the global […]

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Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa: how they stack up on reusing waste

By Aifani Confidence Tahulela – Researcher, Durban University of Technology; Fulufhelo Netswera – Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Postgraduate Studies, University of Venda. First published in The Conversation on 13 May 2026 THE GLOBAL ECONOMY STILL largely follows a simple pattern: extract natural resources, manufacture products, use them and then throw them away. This […]

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The Future of Forests

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 […]

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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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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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