south africa

<strong>South Africa Suffers Energy Crisis as Aging Coal Plants Fail</strong>

South Africa Suffers Energy Crisis as Aging Coal Plants Fail

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a National State of Disaster over the country’s worst-ever rolling blackouts. Many customers have been without power for as much as 12 hours per day to keep aging coal-fired power plants — the backbone of the country’s electricity network — running. Ramaphosa called the power crisis “an existential […]

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    Big Game Hunter Criticized for Posing With Dead Giraffe

    Big Game Hunter Criticized for Posing With Dead Giraffe

    Tess Thompson Talley of Kentucky has sparked public outcry after photos of her proudly posing with a black giraffe she killed in South Africa last year went viral. The big game hunter posted images of the June 2017 hunt onto her social media page. Then last month, the South Africa-based news outlet Africland tweeted out […]

    Black Rhinos Return to Chad 50 Years After Being Wiped Out

    Black Rhinos Return to Chad 50 Years After Being Wiped Out

    The black rhino will return to the Central African nation of Chad after five decades of poaching drove the species to local extinction. Six black rhinos were airlifted Thursday from South Africa to Zakouma National Park in Chad, a journey of more than 3,000 miles. According to the WWF, black rhino numbers dramatically dropped 98 […]

    Cape Town Pushes Back ‘Day Zero’

    Cape Town Pushes Back ‘Day Zero’

    “Day Zero,” the day drought-stricken Cape Town, South Africa is projected to run out of municipal water, has been moved to mid-May 2018 following a decline in agricultural usage, according to a statement from Alderman Ian Neilson, the city’s executive deputy mayor. Day Zero was previously projected to fall on April 16. Capetonians, however, were […]

    Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ Looms as Dam Levels Drop

    Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ Looms as Dam Levels Drop

    After three years of unprecedented drought, the South African metropolis of Cape Town is at risk of becoming the first major city in the world to run out of water. Dam levels fell to 26 percent capacity on Wednesday, compared to 26.3 percent on Monday and 26.6 percent last week. Once the dams reach 13.5 […]

    Water Scarcity Threat to India and South Africa

    Water Scarcity Threat to India and South Africa

    By Alex Kirby Water scarcity is now a real threat in two developing countries at the forefront of efforts to reduce climate change, India and South Africa. This is not the tragically familiar story of extreme weather, stunted crops and foreshortened lives. It is a different sort of threat: to urban life, to industrial development […]

    Will Cape Town Become the First Major City to Run Out of Water?

    Will Cape Town Become the First Major City to Run Out of Water?

    Cape Town is on track to become the first major city in the world to run out of water. The world-renowned tourist destination—and the second-most populous urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg—could approach “Day Zero,” when most taps run dry, by April 21, Mayor Patricia de Lille said Tuesday. “Day Zero” may sound ominous, […]

    World’s Last Remaining Tigers Live Under Severe Threat of Extinction

    World’s Last Remaining Tigers Live Under Severe Threat of Extinction

    The world’s last remaining tigers are living under severe threat of extinction, having lost 93 percent of their historical range and suffered a population crash of 95 percent during the past century. The major threat to their continued existence on Earth is poaching to meet the high demand in Asia for their parts and derivatives. […]

    World Leaders to Trump: You’re on Your Own

    World Leaders to Trump: You’re on Your Own

    The overwhelming global response to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement was essentially, “Go jump in a lake”—or as one Germany tabloid succinctly phrased it in a widely circulated headline: Very much enjoying the German press at the moment. "Earth to Trump…" pic.twitter.com/sPqkUPYVlw — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) […]