The Cape Town Ecology Group was a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

-based radical environmental group, founded in 1987, as a "child of Koeberg Alert", and active until the early 1990s. It espoused a more political-oriented

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

ideology as opposed to the apartheid-based conservation groups of the time. According to founder Mike Cope: "We felt the need to view ecological issues on a broader level and recognised the connection between politics and ecology. Ecology is definitely a political issue because environmental issues are about where we live." It co-hosted South Africa's first conference on the environment,Lewis, D, "Differences set aside at Ecology Conference", South, 18–24 July 1991. p. 10 in conjunction with the Western Cape Branch of the

World Conference on Religion and Peace The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

and the

Call of Islam Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call (poker), a bet matching an opponent's * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from L ...

in 1991. The National Conference on Environment and Development was held at the University of the Western Cape and some 231 representatives from a wide range of organisations discussed the links between

environmental degradation Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

and the political situation in Southern Africa. The three-day conference aimed to "Ecologise Politics, Politicise Ecology" and was considered a breakthrough for its time. According to conference organiser, Phakamile Tshazibane: "For the first time groups such as the

Congress of South African Trade Unions The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU or Cosatu) is a trade union federation in South Africa. It was founded in 1985 and is the largest of the country's three main trade union federations, with 21 affiliated trade unions.One Union ...

(Cosatu), the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), the

Pan Africanist Congress The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, often shortened to the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), is a South African pan-Africanist national liberation movement that is now a political party. It was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert So ...

(PAC) and the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC), found common ground around the issue of the environment."

Founders

*Michael Cope (author, anarchist and son of

Jack Cope Robert Knox "Jack" Cope (3 June 1913 – 1 May 1991) was a South African novelist, short story writer, poet and editor. Life Jack Cope was born in Natal, South Africa, and home-schooled by tutors. From the age of 12, he boarded at Durban High Sc ...

) *Julia Martin (author, academic, active member of the Steering Committee for seven years) *Karen Rolfes (tobacco heiress) *Henri Laurie (mathematician) *Donna Metzlar (activist) *George Petros (activist)

References

{{Political history of South Africa Environmental organisations based in South Africa Organisations based in Cape Town Defunct civic and political organisations in South Africa Environmental organizations established in 1987 1987 establishments in South Africa

Founders

See also

References