The first in this three-part series looks at the cost of nuclear power and how vendors minimise their financial risk by maximising profits through power purchase agreements with governments.
Protected areas need not pit humans against nature
The ever-increasing capitalist onslaught on protected environments will be stopped only if we fundamentally change the way we conceptualise their value and purpose.
Insanitary tradition of fouling Cape Town’s seas
A look at the history of sewage outfalls in the bays around the city shows that residents have been complaining since the first one was completed in 1905. And as now, their concerns were ignored.
Budget reallocation puts the lie to ANC’s pro-poor claims
The government’s recent budget cuts have shown that it prioritises the punted nuclear build over connecting thousands of residents in impoverished communities to the electricity grid.
Mineral council denies mines are Covid-19 hotspots
Despite evidence that communities around mines are infection epicentres, the Mineral Council of South Africa is scrambling to ‘shape the message’ by fudging the numbers.
Mining communities bear the burden of disease
Despite a court order, residents near mines were ignored when Covid-19 guidelines were drawn up. Now the virus devastates the very people made vulnerable by their operations.
Freedom of expression at stake in judgment over mining company’s Slapp suit
Mineral Sands Resources pursues defamation cases seemingly to intimidate individuals into silence
Miners’ lives are cheap compared with rising metal prices
Before Covid-19 the mortality rate among former miners in SA was 20% higher than in the general population
What does it mean to ‘forge a new economy’?
We all need to participate in imagining how we mesh together, not just the economists
Big talk but little action on illicit financial flows
The political problem of illicit financial flows
Protecting our common resources
The limits of private ownership of ‘The Commons’
SA must act urgently to exit group of climate-change pariahs
Climate Change and Democracy
At one level, whites are indeed responsible for cyclone Idai
Who is responsible for Climate Change?
Eco-Anxiety and Hope – what to do instead of waiting for extinction
Are we doomed or is there hope?
St Lucia, Xolobeni and the problem of wilderness
The Xolobeni struggle and ideas of ‘Wilderness’
Education and health needs should trump coal in the budget
How to better spend the R20 billion being wasted on new coal
Mantashe needs to ask what kind of development Xolobeni wants
Xolobeni and ‘development’ – who gets to choose?
Pursuit of coal-fired stations raises the same questions as nuclear deal
Who stands to gain from new coal in South Africa?
Mining Charter unclear on benefits for mining-affected communities
The Mining Charter and Mining Communities
The lowest carbon emitter? No, it’s not, Mr Energy Minister
Is nuclear power the lowest carbon emitter?
Important questions of safety the pro-nuclear lobby dare not ignore
Is nuclear power safe?
Going green a drop in the ocean of change needed to fix climate crisis
This piece explores the problems with green consumerism
How SA’s nuclear plant build could fuel corruption
Megaprojects and corruption
Tegeta scandal report gives whiff of global rot in nuclear industry
A piece about how corruption and nuclear power plant construction go hand-in-hand
Pro-nuclear lobby still fired up on deal despite court’s refusal
Rosatom and nuclear power in South Africa
Why cutting meat from your diet could be a revolutionary act
Could cutting meat from your diet be revolutionary?
Job Growth promises are in Green Economy
Will nuclear power provide the new jobs that its proponets claim?
Eskom Seems Compromised in Nuclear Deal
Has the Eskom Board been captured?
Eskom Lacks Nuclear Wherewithal
Can Eskom really finance the nuclear procurement off its own balance sheet?
Where Will SA Put Lethal Nuclear Waste?
This piece explores the problem of nuclear waste in South Africa
The Nuclear Slippery Slope
An opinion piece that examines the financial costs of nuclear power
Keeping the Public in the Dark
An opinion piece about how secrecy and nuclear power go hand in hand
Gwede Mantashe’s answers over solar heaters highlights gross state incompetence
Taxpayers’ money recklessly wasted due to indifference, lack of planning and failed governance model
