EU fishermen being paid to catch plastic: A trial project aims to provide fisherman with an alternative income whilst cleaning up marine plastic pollution and reducing pressures on dwindling fish stocks. Find out more from the Guardian.

Green Plastics on the Rise: Global bioplastic production capacity is predicted to double between 2010 and 2015, says a recent study presented by the European Bioplastic association. More from Plastics Today here.

More News from the EU. The European commission is considering an EU wide plastic bag ban and stricter controls on eco packaging claims. Find out more from Green Flavour.

The fight against Shell and its plans to ‘frack’ for gas in the Karoo is far from over. Earthlife Africa has called for a national boycott of all Shell services stations and products. 

“Tens of thousands of square kilometres of the ecologically fragile, water-scarce Karoo are under threat from being devastated by a dirty, water- and energy intensive gas exploration technique called hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking'. If they are successful, we can soon expect to see thousands of gas drilling rigs dotting the pristine Karoo landscape with potentially devastating social, economic and environmental impacts on our people and their livelihoods”

Read the full press release here.
Watch this short clip, I Will Die for Water. Oom Johannes and Antoinette Pienaar are the “Shamans” of the Karoo and believe that the healing spirit of the Karoo will be damaged by mining.
Not sure what exactly fracking is? Watch this short explainer music video:  My Water's on Fire Tonight (The Fracking Song.)
If you haven’t already, do try and get hold of a copy of the award winning and shocking documentary about Hydraulic Fracturing, GasLand.
Check out the Karoo Anti Hydraulic Fracturing Action Network website for the latest Fracking News and Info.

HOME is a not-for-profit film project, that approaches the current debate about climate change from an entirely new perspective, giving viewers the opportunity to see for themselves how the Earth is changing. Spanning 54 countries and 120 locations, Home is a visually stunning journey of epic proportions, all seen from the air. The film captures the Earth’s spectacular beauty as well as its vulnerability.

In the words of Director Yann Arthus Bertrand, “The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet.”

This brilliant article which is the content of a speech delivered by renowned author, philosopher & linguist, Noam Chomsky, discusses an old argument made by American Biologist, Ernst Mayr, which says that intelligence is a form of lethal mutation.  

“…He also added, a little bit ominously, that the average life span of a species, of the billions that have existed, is about 100,000 years, which is roughly the length of time that modern humans have existed.

With the environmental crisis, we’re now in a situation where we can decide whether Mayr was right or not. If nothing significant is done about it, and pretty quickly, then he will have been correct: human intelligence is indeed a lethal mutation…”