Experiencing Global Warming in Cape Town

I just watched the last half of a TV program on global warming this evening. Mention was made how animals are breeding out of season and therefore not synchronously with their food supply.

At home, in Cape Town, we were feeding the birds brown bread and apples in addition to the normal birdseed. The reason for us doing this was that so many of the trees in our road became too big and people were chopping them down. Another reason was that someone, in the area, decided to supplement his income by buying a chain saw and offered to chop people’s trees down for them. To compound this problem, the government decided to remove all the alien vegetation. Nearly all the trees planted in Cape Town over the last three hundred years, can be considered as alien. In fact since a large part of the city has been reclaimed from the sea, all the trees in that part can be considered alien.

When I was a child we did not have to spray our trees for fruit fly. Today if one does not spray a layer of poison over our fruit trees, we will not have any to pick.

Cockroaches were unheard of in Cape Town, but over the last few years they are becoming regular visitors in our homes. This year is the first year that I noticed small ones. That means that weather conditions are warm enough for them to breed in Cape homes.

I never heard of water pollution. I never considered algae as a problem. I used to think of it as fish food. A few years ago we filled our fishpond because the water became poisoned. The fish died and recovered when we changed the water. We needed to replenish the fishpond water more and more often until we decided to fill the pond with sand.

Last year tons of fish died at Rietvlei, Cape because of water pollution and algae growth. The warming of the ground around the dams due to the removal of all the trees may also have something to do with it. The birds that used to breed there had to move to domestic gardens and other unsafe breeding places.

We are replacing more and more nature areas with urban development.

Wild animals clash with townships that spring up on the borders of game parks. It is always the animals that have to go.

We have seen so many more deadly diseases among animals and people in the last years. In fact since about 1985 the number of deadly diseases affecting humanity has escalated at an alarming rate. That is in the last 12 years.

I can talk about this forever. We have other problems that feed global warming in Africa. Poverty, job shortages, wars and political instability are just a few.

Are we in a global crisis situation in Africa?

The only ones, who answer no to that question, are illiterates and skeptics who are too young to have experienced global change.

Lion killers plead to the South African government

Lion hunters in Africa should change their guns for cameras. Rather put a beautiful photograph of a lion shot, in the wild, by camera on your wall than the stuffed head of one that was bread in captivity and lived in over crowded conditions all it's life.

It is a pity that government decisions crumble under psychological attack.

Rich tourists want to come and kill our lions for a hunting experience and now South African game farmers are putting pressure on the government to allow them to do so.

The government wants lions to have a life of two years in freedom in the wild before allowing them to be killed. Some heartless game farmers want to breed lions and rear lions in captivity, in mostly overcrowded and cruel conditions for one reason only, and that is to be shot by tourists who like killing animals for sport.

The type of tourist who wants to visit South Africa to kill our lions, the symbol for Africa, is the type that we can do without. They are rich individuals who have their greedy eyes on destroying our heritage. Animals have rights too, and we need to protect them, not exploit the few who are left.

Job losses' are always an emotional argument. It is used every time someone wants to destroy or exploit our natural heritage for profit.

Before any farmer comes to the table to argument their case for lion hunting, they should bring their taxation documents to prove how much South Africa benefits from the killing of lions. And also have their BEE status in order.

If they feel that they do not have enough money to change their concerns to that of one where tourists can come and view the African big five, then perhaps they can approach some of our BEE partners to help them financially. There must be BEE millionaires out there who would like to partner a concern who want to preserve our wildlife. I am sure running a game farm where education and service is the main element, is just as much job friendly.

People who kill animals for pleasure deserve to go bankrupt. They are scum.

Overseas visitors who visit game farms should insist that the farms they visit does not partake in canned lion hunting.