Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 19 June 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# The City of Cape Town has approved the release of its sixth inner-city property for social housing, yielding 375 social housing units and over 350 open-market residential units in Woodstock. The nine-thousand-square-metre New Market Street property is part of a broader initiative to provide more than four-thousand-900 affordable housing units city-wide. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis emphasised maximising yield, with units cross-subsidised by retail space. The city has over six-thousand-500 social housing units in planning, aimed at residents earning less than 22-thousand-rand monthly.

# New Mexico’s governor has declared a state of emergency as two wildfires sweep through a mountain range, forcing thousands to evacuate and leaving one person dead. The fires have scorched nearly 20-thousand acres and were zero percent contained. In California, firefighters are battling another wildfire north of Los Angeles, where more than 15-thousand acres of land has burned, and hundreds of people evacuated. The wildfires come after the first heatwave of the season. Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change.

# And, a new report backed by climate scientists and athletes warns about the dangers of extreme high temperatures at this year’s Paris Olympics. It could lead to competitors collapsing and in worst cases even dying.  More than five-thousand people died in France as a result of searing summer heat last year when new local highs of over 40 degrees Celsius were recorded. Rather than high temperatures, incessant rain is currently the bigger weather-related concern for organisers, with regular downpours in May and June leading to strong currents in the Seine and poor water quality.

Stay tuned for more news………….