British Council hosts Green Week

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Thursday January 15, 2009 00:00

The global concentration of these gases is increasing, mainly due to human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide and deforestation because forests remove carbon from the atmosphere.

In an effort to educate the public about global change, The British Council has organised a workshop on 'Climate Change and Guerrilla Gardening'.

The event is scheduled for January 2009 27 - 30 in Gaborone. The British Council's climate change officer, Kabelo Simanyana, says that some of the climate change issues include natural disasters, water quality and quantity, food security, heat waves and milder winters, air pollution, social dislocation and infectious diseases.

A two-pronged approach will be helpful in responding to global change issues, she said. These are mitigation, whereby intervention or policies to reduce the emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse (for example acclimatisation in humans) and policies are employed to minimize the predicted impacts of climate change (e.g., building better coastal defences), she said.

It is important to create public awareness and engage oneself with climate security issues in Botswana. This, according to the climate change officer, creates the framework for success of the climate champions and policy development.

Seminars, case studies and exhibitions to demonstrate the opportunities, challenges and policy solutions for Botswana cities will also help in creating public awareness, she said.

She said that the British Council is committed to the issue of Climate Change; hence it invited Richard Reynolds, an environmentalist to give a series of talks for the British Council's Green Week.

'When Richard Reynolds began planting flowers secretly at night outside his tower block he had no idea he was part of a growing global movement committed to combating the force of neglect, land shortage and apathy towards public spaces.

Reynolds, Simanyana says, is a gardener from the United Kingdom, passionate about the environment. He fights the filth with forks and flowers, she said. He is the author of the book 'Richard Reynolds on Guerilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries.