At the recent world climate change conference in Bali one of the topics on the table was high energy demand and how it is affecting global warming. As a British businessman said: ”Businesses would be foolish to ignore the signs of what climate change will do to your business. You have to adapt now.”

President Thabo Mbeki’s reference to land reform in his State of the Nation address has provoked cautious optimism among lobbyists, who are hoping South Africa’s policy in this regard might finally be on track. Ben Cousins, director of the University of the Western Cape’s Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, expressed some disappointment, saying Mbeki said “nothing new”.

Despite a national energy crisis in South Africa, the country’s energy-saving strategies remain fractured and lacklustre, several analysts told the Mail & Guardian this week. At a time when South Africans, both in industry and in the private sector, should be working together to save power, there seems to be a fractured response to what needs to be done.

Racial tension was on a knife-edge recently in the North West dorpie of Swartruggens, as the shocked community came to terms with Monday’s shoot out which left four people dead. A teenager, Johan Nel (18), was arrested. He is alleged to have gone on a shooting rampage in an informal settlement, Skielik, about 5km outside the town on Monday afternoon.

The prominent conservation group, WWF International, predicts that we will need five planets to sustain the eco-unfriendly way middle-class people live today. The implication is that Mail & Guardian readers should try to reduce their carbon footprint. I adapted my lifestyle to South African conditions, using universally accepted “living green” principles, and drew up 15 green house rules.