With South Africa celebrating “Mandela Month” and his birthday having just passed, my thoughts turn to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the incredible man who helped shape a New South Africa, and the incomparable legacy of the lessons he left us with.

To today’s recreational day-tripper it may seem that Robben Island has few resources to offer prisoners for self-improvement. Separated from South Africa’s mainland, isolated and windswept, it has poignant reminders of previous periods when it was used as a leper colony and lunatic asylum. However, it was on this lonely, forsaken island that Nelson Mandela and his fellow political prisoners used dialogue to create a “culture of comradeship, co-operation and learning, of fierce debate coupled with political tolerance,” turning the blinding bowl of the limestone quarry in which they worked with pick and shovel into a debating club and campus.

With his candid pronouncement that “I’m no angel”, Mandela’s transformation from defiant and contemptuous agitator to endearing and pragmatic statesman was all the more remarkable because it was accomplished in the grim austerity of Cell 5 in the B-Section of the prison on Robben Island.

He found that “the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the processes of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors, such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education … but internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being.”

Eddie Daniels, a fellow prisoner on Robben Island, said in an interview: “He (Mandela) gave us hope when everything was rock bottom and we saw no future. But character, not religion, was his strength.” Mandela learnt moral authority and ideological depth through reading voraciously, studying extensively and reflecting deeply on past actions, relationships, principles, beliefs and ideas – through his brains and not his blood, as he later put it.

Character or moral strength is interpreted differently by different cultures, but, for many people around the world, it represents the outward manifestation of a soul which is in alignment with itself, despite having been sorely tested. Having more to do with what is right than with what is expedient, character is not the exclusive preserve of the world’s highest and mightiest, being as likely to wind its way among the humble huts of a peaceful rural village as it is to find a path through the loftiest global corridors of power.

Character cannot be inherited or conferred by influence or position. It cannot be taken by force or won by popularity. It cannot be sold, bartered or bought. Its value, therefore, lies in the fact that it has to be earned by transcending the trials of life and, although in the frenetic pace of the early 21st century character has become a somewhat outmoded concept, its attributes are still highly prized by the global community.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, buffeted for much of his life by hurricane-force winds has become a universal symbol of the transcendent power of character. Thank you for the lessons Madiba. May we learn them well.

From < 1950 to 1990 there was an unprecedented pace and scale of global economic growth with a quintupling of global economic output - two-and-a-half month's global production in 1990 equaled that of the entire decade of the 1950s, and there was a 12-times increase in international trade. This period, known as the Economic Era, was powered by an unparalleled consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources. The Economic Era was defined by the production and consumption of a greater and more diverse range of goods than the world had ever seen before. Disposable, throw-away, time-reducing and labor-saving became powerful marketing bywords across a wide array of products, and a Western value system devoted to materialism rated these conveniences as having greater importance than the raw materials required to produce them - deforestation, soil erosion and aquifer depletion had yet to become the global issues they are now. In response to widespread global resource depletion, and as a way of guarding against an ecologically impoverished future, the period beginning in the 1990s, known as the Environmental Era, has been characterized by a shift in focus from economic growth to resource safeguarding and sustainability – conservation and thriftiness as defined by the big Rs: Rethink, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. This has brought many changes:

– We are increasingly scrutinizing, evaluating and judging governments, institutions, corporations and individual people and acting on those judgments.
– With social media bringing an instant awareness of issues in many parts of the globe, the problems of others have become our own and solutions for a broader range of social and environmental issues are occupying our time and attention.
– Many of us are experiencing an increased desire for value-defending work and socially-responsible contribution.
– Many of us are no longer buying into the concept of unconstrained consumerism, choosing instead to live small.
– With increased awareness about pollution, many of us are managing our waste more responsibility.
– With increased awareness about climate change, many of us are reducing our carbon footprint in every way we can.

In many fundamental and important ways our global focus is changing. As massive changes being wrought in the 21st Century intensify this process, we can expect a further recalibration of our values, ethics, belief patterns, and ways of relating to the world in the time ahead. Who says we don’t live in interesting times?

Whichever < way you look at it, ours is an increasingly plasticized world. With 290 million tonnes of plastic produced annually on a global basis, and plastic products being used in almost every aspect of human life from food packaging to reusable shopping bags; cellphones; ceiling insulation and geyser blankets; fibres for geo-textiles; the lining of train tunnels; and in the construction of roads and power stations, plastic is the most ubiquitous material on the planet. Happily, plastic is also recyclable, with recycling showing a year on year increase in the total tonnage being converted. Here are some interesting recycling facts: 11 recycled cool drink bottles = 1 pair of trousers 35 recycled water bottles = 1 polar fleece jacket 41 recycled polystyrene hamburger clamshells = 1 plastic picture frame 4000 recycled 2 liter milk bottles = 1 park bench Recycling 1 plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for 6 hours, or run a television set for 3 hours Recycling 1 tonne of PET bottles can save 1.5 tonnes of carbon emissions. Recycling not only keeps our environment clean, it also turns waste into something useful, reduces pollution in the ocean and on land, and extends the life of our landfill sites. Recycled materials that go back into production streams save huge amounts of energy and raw materials. In terms of reuse, plastic bags can be reused as bin liners, plastic food containers as seed trays, plastic ice-cream containers as freezer and/or storage containers and soft drink bottles as portable water bottles for the car or at the beach.

Plastic products can also be used in other wonderfully innovative ways to directly benefit the planet, such as the cattle water trough and shopping baskets, which are being used by the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, to temporarily house baby turtles that are being rehabilitated prior to eventual release.

If we view plastic as a valuable recyclable material, don’t litter, and are responsible about recycling, perhaps we can limit the plasticizing of our world. Is this an unrealistic pipe-dream? I really hope not.

Returning < home after a visit to friends on a dark and rainy night recently, it was amazing to see hundreds of little frogs jumping in the road, seeming to enjoy the downpour that was washing the tarmac. In the UNESCO-registered biosphere reserve where I live and work, after an overnight downpour it is possible to hear the croaking of myriad frog species in the marshes and bogs and amongst the fynbos of this unique area. This cacophony of calls is music to my ears because nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are now on the verge of extinction. Despite having survived the gargantuan forces of asteroid crashes and massive geological upheavals, frogs and other amphibians are now vulnerable to factors ranging from widespread pollution, infectious diseases, invasive species, and habitat loss, to the effects of climate change. Found in fynbos, riparian and wetland vegetation, frog species like the Cape river frog provide an enormous service as they consume large quantities of mosquitoes, moths, ants, beetles and other insects, while tadpoles keep our waterways clean by feeding on algae. Frogs and tadpoles are also an important link in the food chain, serving as food for birds, fish, mongooses and baboons.

Frogs require suitable habitats in both terrestrial and aquatic environments and because they are especially susceptible to environmental disturbances, they are considered to be accurate indicators of environmental stress – they absorb toxins through their permeable skin and if their habitat is polluted they begin to die. As an indicator species, frogs therefore provide an alarm call when something is drastically wrong in an environment and, as such, may be considered “canaries in the cage”.

Frogs will not give us warts if we touch them, nor will they turn into handsome princes if we kiss them. They will, however, thank us for doing everything possible to keep their habitats pristine.

This century will be dramatically reshaped by, among myriad factors, the realities of carbon constraint, scientific and technological innovation which has almost reached singularity, global interdependence, virtual cross-cultural encounters and changes in the balance of economic and political power.

In < our post-industrial world where knowledge is power and technology the means of achieving it, people are valued more for their intellect and ability to think, plan and make decisions, than for the pre-industrial attributes of strength, endurance and "practical wisdom." Human capital, that is people with the education, training, skills, knowledge, abilities, experience, potential and capacity for continued learning, are considered a core resource of value creation and technologies that enable this are commensurately valued. Does this mean that there is no place for pre-industrial societies with their ages-old technologies and practical wisdom in our post-industrial world? I argue that there is. Pre-industrial societies have much to teach us. Practical wisdom is a master virtue essential to decision-making and problem-solving, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to nurture and display in modern society. It is, however, a characteristic of pre-industrial societies, many of whom have evolved a way to live in some of the planet's most remote and inaccessible areas. One example of the synergy between a global company and a deeply rural community, is the partnership forged between The Body Shop and its remotest suppliers, CADO (Consorcio Agro-Artesanal Dulce Organico), a cooperative of over 150 families from Moraspungo in Cotopaxi province, Ecuador, who farm sugarcane high in the foothills of the Andes, producing organic alcohol for The Body Shop’s range of fragrances.

In line with The Body Shop’s policy of reducing environmental impact, no pesticides or chemicals are used in the growing of the sugarcane and weeding is done by hand. Cane leaves are harvested and used as organic mulch on the fields or as fuel for the small distilleries, so nothing goes to waste. The sugarcane plants are also spaced further apart which results in larger, healthier plants and the extra space means that the farmers of Moraspungo can grow beans and corn and raise chickens between the sugarcane in a more sustainable form of agriculture.

Adaptation to our rapidly changing world is emerging as one of the biggest global agenda items of this century. In this respect every advantage needs to be employed whether it comes from a highly-sophisticated, first-world source, or a remote society employing ages-old technology and wisdom.

< According to the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are now at 400 parts per million (ppm) and scientists have estimated that keeping the mean temperature rise between 2 degrees centigrade and 2.8 degrees centigrade will require the stabilisation of atmospheric carbon dioxide at between 445 ppm and 490 ppm. Although still catastrophic for vast numbers of people, fauna and flora species and marine and terrestrial ecosystems around the world, it is hoped that this limit will keep the global climate from crossing a dangerous threshold. In terms of warming, margins are very small – the difference between a warm temperate interglacial such as we are living in now and an Ice Age is only about three degrees centigrade. And an average of just nine degrees centigrade separates the mean temperature of today from the very coldest points of both the last Ice Age and the penultimate Ice Age.

What would a seemingly small increase of “degree days” mean for us, keeping in mind that the danger lies not in a 2°C increase but in the cumulative effect of 365 days at an increase of 2°C?

At 1°C of warming there will be changes in global ecology and changed weather patterns, with droughts in some parts of the world and severe winter blizzards in others. There will be changed agricultural zones and changes in vector ecologies with a recombination of microbes.

At 2°C of warming (which we are committed to regardless of current mitigation measures) we will have reached the point at which some of the larger human impacts and critical positive feedback loops are expected to begin with the crossing of thresholds or tipping points.

At 3°C of warming which is five times the warming of today climatic zones will move rapidly with species’ dislocations of connection and catastrophic weather extremes as the global weather machine adjusts to “boundary conditions”.

4 or more degrees centigrade of warming is beyond imagining …

If < we are to use what the Earth is able to provide in terms of resources, more efficiently. If we are to distribute these resources in a fairer way so that everyone has their fair share, without some having too much and others too little. If we are to reduce our consumption of these resources to levels that the Earth is able to sustain now and into the future. If we are to prevent waste generated by a throwaway mentality from choking us. If we are to slow population growth to numbers that will not tip us into an overpopulated abyss - then it is vitally important that certain fundamental shifts take place in our collective thinking. These five paradigms are some of the most erroneous of our time: There’s always more where that came from – This paradigm takes the viewpoint that nature is infinite; that nature is there to serve us; that disposability and planned obsolescence equal profitably; that constant growth and demand are positive forces; and that environmentally damaging practices are justified in order to drive the world economy. On our people-abundant but resource-scarce planet this is patently no longer the case as there is simply no longer “more where that came from!”

I’m all right, Jack – This paradigm takes the emphasis from the good of the collective and replaces it with that of the individual, a perspective which has meant that greed, corruption and short-sighted self-interest have virtually guaranteed ecological and social bankruptcy in many parts of the globe. As we progress further into the 21st Century, with inequality and ecological bankruptcy as powerful destabilizing forces, it is glaringly obvious that unless we change this thinking, none of us will be all right Jack.

Might is Right – This paradigm maintains that power, affluence and position, once cast-iron protectors, provide entitlement for the powerful, wealthy and high-born or highly-positioned. But how will power buy clean air once the planet’s atmosphere has become too poisoned to breathe? How will wealth purchase water if all the rivers have run dry? How will position restore forests, wetlands and polar ice-sheets that have disappeared forever? How will status bring back species that have become extinct? How will might guarantee a safe future with a catastrophically changed global climate? We are part of a massively changing population on a massively changing planet, and might can never again be right.

Don’t worry we’re in control – This mindset maintains the illusion that we have control over our environment, when, in fact, planetary forces have control over us. Powerful magnetic storms that knock out global communication systems; earthquakes that crack open the Earth destroying roads, bridges and buildings; mudslides that slice off sides of mountains; avalanches that envelop everything in their downhill rush; tsunami waves that race along the surface of the ocean to crash onto the shore – these are dramatic reminders that we are but travelers in time and space, guests of the planet Earth and not its masters.

If it doesn’t work out we can always leave – This paradigm presupposes that there is somewhere else to go if things on the planet don’t work out. Well, until we have learnt how to inhabit other terrestrial bodies, the truth is that there is nowhere else to go. This is it. This is all we have for now. Earth is home. For good or bad we are all on this Earth together.

Our challenge this century will be to replace these erroneous paradigms with thinking that is appropriate to our current circumstances and burgeoning numbers on an increasingly constrained planet. Are we up to this challenge? I believe we are.

Living as I do in South Africa with its horrendous daily statistics of rhino, elephant and other wildlife slaughter, it has become very clear to me that there is a mighty tussle going on for the planet’s last remaining wildlife.

On the one hand there are those with no compunction about slaughtering different species, and I am not necessarily referring to hungry villagers or shady gangs of poachers here, but (dammit!!) educated people who should know better. And on the other hand there are those who are trying their utmost to conserve the little wildlife there still is. This, for me, represents both the worst and best of the human race. So why should a turtle release be a victory for us all?

Life < on land is dependent on life in the ocean, yet only in our time have we begun to understand its importance or to extrapolate that what happens in the ocean directly affects us on land. This awareness, however, has done little to prevent “sea blindness” which has meant that submerged, out-of-sight marine habitats have largely been out of the public’s mind. Also, a “charisma gap” has meant that many marine creatures, lacking the appeal of their terrestrial counterparts, have been overexploited to the point of extinction - extinction having reached an unprecedented rate with barely a whisper of public outrage. Rehabilitating a tiny sea turtle hatchling, a sub-adult like Bob, or an adult turtle found stranded or washed up on a Cape Town beach, weak, cold, hurt and dehydrated, represents months of intensive care and careful monitoring.

Their release at the end of this lengthy process also represents a major commitment as the turtles have to be transported and released in the warm Indian Ocean on the other side of South Africa, which requires a coordinated effort between the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town and the uShaka Marine World in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

That so much care and effort is expended on taking care of and releasing a shy, gentle marine species verging on the edge of extinction, speaks volumes about the tussle that is consuming our planet. As a demonstration of hope and the best of humankind, it represents a victory for us all!!

(Photographs by courtesy of the Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town)

I < had never seen a sea turtle up close before as they swim in warm, temperate waters like the Indian Ocean off the eastern seaboard of South Africa and I live in the Western Cape with its cold, stormy Atlantic Ocean. Sea turtles are also not a showy marine species like the mighty whales that visit our area, so my experience of them was nil and my understanding limited at best. However, when I met gentle Bob, a green turtle being rehabilitated at the Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, I felt an instant empathy for him and others of his species. His plight touched me deeply as his story seemed symbolic of so much of the world's marine and terrestrial life. Bob was found washed up on a Cape beach, cold, weak and dehydrated. He had been badly hurt on his bottom shell. He seemed to be blind. And he had ingested a quantity of deflated balloons and other bits of plastic. In fact Bob was on the point of being euthanased. He has required months of intensive care from the Two Oceans' dedicated team of aquarists and veterinary surgeon in the form of tube feeding, antibiotics, daily wound care and fluid intake and his recovery has been an up and down process. But he has now gained weight and has been moved into a pool permanently. Things are looking up for Bob and the day I met him he seemed to have almost fully recovered. As living dinosaurs, sea turtles have been swimming in the planet’s ocean for some 100 million years, having survived at least one mass extinction. Now, however, all seven sea turtle species are threatened with extinction. How unbelievably wonderful it would be if through a massive worldwide conservation effort we could once again have turtles swimming freely and numerously in the global ocean?

Did < you know that 5.25 trillion pieces of trash, 269 000 tonnes, are distributed across the global ocean? Much of this marine debris is composed of everyday items like flip-flops, bottles, caps, cigarette lighters, yogurt cups, food trays, cling foil, plastic bags, tin foil, bits of beach ball, deflated balloons, fruit and veg carrier bags, strapping and old fishing gear - unfortunately a lot of what makes up beach litter is also what makes a picnic, day at the beach or fishing trip so enjoyable. However, a day's garbage needn't stay on the beach after we have left it! With just a little bit of thought and a whole LOT of caring we can leave the beach as clean as we hopefully found it!! So what can we do to turn the tide on ocean trash? For starters after spending a day at the beach we can use refuse bins to deposit our litter or take every single piece of garbage home with us, no matter how small. This includes bits of deflated balloon; broken fishing line or fishing reels; bits of food containers; cigarette butts etc. Remember to leave only footprints and take only photographs!! A great idea is to start an Adopt-a-Beach programme at a local school or in your community with regular beach clean-ups. Organise educational programmes that involve school children so they can learn the importance of not littering and create or support art initiatives that use recycled plastic items. These are just some ideas to start with. I’m sure you have others. The ocean and wonderful sea creatures like sea turtle, Bob, will thank you! I will too!!