Slavery in South Africa: Captive Labor on the Dutch Frontier: Elizabeth A. Eldredge, Fred Morton

As they advanced into the South Africa interior, white settlers and black Dutch-speakers enslaved local Africans rather than import slave laborers. Boers conducted slave raids with armed African auxiliaries, and turned the captives (mostly children) into domestics, herders, hunters, agricultural laborers, porters, drivers, personal servants, and artisans. Boer republics legalized slavery as “apprenticeship” and labeled thousands of captive children (whose parents they had killed) as “orphans”.

Slavery in South Africa shows that slavery was widespread in South Africa until the late nineteenth century and that thousands of slaves were taken from African communities, profoundly affecting Boer-African relations.

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Slavery in Dutch South Africa: Nigel Worden

This was the first comprehensive analysis of slavery in early colonial South Africa under the Dutch East India Company (1652-1795) when it was published in 1985. Based on archival research in Britain, the Netherlands and South Africa, it examines the nature of Cape slavery with reference to the literature on other slave societies.

Dr Worden shows how the slave economy developed in town and countryside, and discusses the dynamics of the slave market, the growth of land concentration, the harsh life on the farm, and the developing polarisation of rural race relations. He analyses the relation of fear and brutality in small farming communities and demonstrates that, contrary to previous assumptions, small-scale slavery produced conditions as severe as those experienced in the large-scale slave-holding systems of the Deep South. This important study contributes to an understanding of the development of South African colonial society and to comparative slave studies.

Global Climate Change
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Dr. Michael Mann – Are We In Runaway Climate Change?

The Big Picture RT

Published on Mar 28, 2016

Dr. Michael Mann, Earth System Science Center-Penn State University/Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change (2nd edition) joins Thom. We had all better hope these scientists are wrong about the planet’s future. Scientists now say that ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica could speed up faster than we previously thought. But that’s not just going to raise sea levels – it could drive storms stronger than anything humans have ever seen.

See specifically:

• Report: Sea Levels Could Rise Several Meters This Century, Drowning Cities

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Climate change may be a burning issue – but election campaign tells another story

Tons of snow are brought into Anchorage by train earlier this month to provide a backdrop for the start of the Iditarod dog sled race. The city has experienced record high winter temperatures. Photograph: Rachel D’Oro/AP

Oliver Milman @olliemilman

Saturday 26 March 2016 07.30 EDT Last modified on Saturday 26 March 2016 08.11 EDT

As Alaskans go to the polls in the Democratic caucuses on Saturday, one of the most pressing issues should be what is staring them in the face – or, rather, what isn’t: snow and ice.

‘There was just no snow’: climate change puts Iditarod future in doubt

“I’m looking out of the window here in Anchorage and I can just see grass instead of snow,” said Andy Moderow, state director of not-for-profit group Alaska Wilderness Action.

Moderow grew up dog-sledding but said record temperatures have effectively wiped out Alaska’s winter, meaning a miserable time for those who enjoy snow sports.

“There has basically been no snow on the ground all winter in Anchorage. When I was younger, the Iditarod sled race went from Anchorage to Wasilla but there’s no snow there now.

“The changes are all around us. It’s very rare to have multiple winters like this in a row. When you see ski races not take place, grass instead of snow, villages falling into the oceans, you realise the impacts are real.”

But while Alaska is clearly on the melting edge of climate change, this fundamental shift barely registered in the Republican caucus held earlier in March and won by Ted Cruz. Even though Democratic candidates have been more willing to discuss climate change, the topic hasn’t been front and centre ahead of Saturday’s caucus.

It is an absence that has been felt in presidential primaries and caucuses across the US, including states that have been ravaged by drought or sea level rise. In a desperate attempt to reverse the lack of environmental focus, a group of Florida mayors begged CNN to quiz Republicans about sea level rise at a debate held in Miami.

….(read more).

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Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture

It has been more than ninety years since Rudolf Steiner offered his Agriculture Course, seventy-five since Sir Albert Howard published An Agricultural Testament, and almost forty since Wendell Berry published The Unsettling of America.

Concepts such as agroecology, biodynamics, permaculture, food miles, food deserts, food justice, and local food have all proliferated in both popular and scholarly venues over the past ten to fifteen years. Such a sustainable agriculture gestalt is vibrant and worthy of more sustained discussion and critical attention. In this spirit, “The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture” aims to bring together farmers, religious and spiritual leaders, and academics, respectively, to join in a robust and stimulating discussion about the spirit of sustainable agriculture, delineating its past, celebrating and investigating its present, and theorizing its future.

Nigel Savage of Hazon will offer the keynote address.

Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture
Engaging farmers, religious and spiritual leaders, and academics

Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
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‘Small nuclear’ reactors explained using bags of rice – BBC News

23 March 2016 Last updated at 09:43 GMT

The future of nuclear power is not with huge plants like Hinkley Point in Somerset, but with mini nuclear reactors, the UK’s top energy experts say.

The small reactors can be built in a factory and delivered to site on the back of a lorry.

It is argued that the so-called “plug and play” modular reactors will provide value for money.

But environmentalists are warning that small reactors are not yet built – and won’t help in the short term to hit carbon emissions targets.

The BBC’s Roger Harrabin Environment and Energy Analyst explains

Global Climate Change
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Nuclear