Indaba to discuss climate change in South Africa
“Any which way we look at the scenario, water, or rather the lack thereof, is the biggest threat to South Africa’s present and future well-being, and that threat is in many ways dependent on the way in which we manage and conserve the environment, how we plan to cope with climate change and changing rainfall patterns.”
“The recent severe wildfire disaster that caused incalculable damage to Cape Town’s Rhodes Memorial, the historical Mostert’s Mill and the University of Cape Town and surrounding properties could hardly be ascribed to climate change as the cause thereof was clearly due to human negligence, deliberate or not. It must be said, however, the ferocity of the fire was exponentially increased by the presence of invasive alien mature pine trees that are the remnants of pine forests that historically lined the slopes of Table Mountain,” says Cobus Meiring, chairperson of the Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF).