Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 2 June 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# CapeNature’s HeliHack team removed over 15-thousand invasive pine trees from the steep slopes of Boosmansbos Wilderness area last month. The record-breaking conservation effort, which took three-days restored one-thousand-and-80 hectares of land, enhancing water security for approximately 15-thousand residents in the Southern Cape. The mission also led to the rediscovery of the Boosmansbos long-tailed forest shrew, unseen for 46 years. CapeNature CEO Ashley Naidoo hailed the initiative as a model for collaborative conservation.

# A groundbreaking study, led by researchers from the University of Cape Town and the University of Copenhagen, has delivered some of the oldest human genetic data ever recovered from Africa. The researchers used ancient proteins to uncover biological sex and hidden genetic variation in Paranthropus robustus – a close, extinct cousin of modern humans. Two-million-year-old protein traces extracted from fossilised teeth unearthed in South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind were analysed. University of Copenhagen’s Ioannis Patramanis says this revelation forces a rethink of how ancient hominin species are identified.

# And finally: The long-term climate cost of destroying, clearing and rebuilding Gaza could top 31-million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, more than the combined 2023 annual greenhouse gases emitted by Costa Rica and Estonia. This is according to a new study by the Social Science Research Network. The study shows that almost 30-percent of greenhouse gases generated, between the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack and the temporary ceasefire in January 2025, came from the US sending 50-thousand tonnes of weapons and other military supplies to Israel.

Stay tuned for more news………….