‘PROFOUNDY BEAUTIFUL’

Annie Lennox, singer-songwriter

20TWENTIES: EVE OF DESTRUCTION

Launched at the end of 2022, my 3min 40sec co-adaptation of the PF Sloan and Barry McQuire 1960s protest song seeks to move hearts and minds through a novel concept: climate music journalism. A Daily Maverick flagship project performed by Xhosa chanteuse Anneli Kamfer, this anthem for the climate era is the result of a vast team effort stretching from LA to Cape Town. Daily Maverick founding editor Branko Brkić and I co-produced the adapted song concept and lyrics. The video was produced by Bernard Kotze and some of South Africa’s most celebrated musicians, including Springbok Nude Girls guitarist Theo Crous. It was mastered by Reuben Cohen at the Grammy-winning Lurrsen Mastering. The singer Annie Lennox described it as “a profoundly beautiful, thought-provoking track”, while former BBC New Editor James Harding noted: “A totally different kind of storytelling. I have to confess, when I watched it, I was in tears.”

‘ALL’ ANTARCTIC GOVERNMENTS KNOW RUSSIA IS ‘VIOLATING’ ICONIC MINING BAN

A senior figure long active within Antarctic diplomacy, the American lawyer James Barnes explains why he believes a Kremlin oil and gas seismic vessel is in breach of the mining ban he fought to introduce.

ICE WIDE SHUT: INSIDE THE SECRETIVE WORLD OF THE ANTARCTIC TREATY

Antarctica – a climate-threatened wilderness five times bigger than Australia – is ruled by an elite club that meets behind closed doors. Is the treaty still fit for purpose six decades after entering into force, or is it time to treat the melting continent like a real person with rights? With French geopolitician Mikaa Mered (author of Les Mondes Polaires) and leading rights-of-nature lawyer Cormac Cullinan.

USING CAPE TOWN AS LAUNCHPAD, RUSSIA BOASTS OF SUPERGIANT OIL FIELDS IN ANTARCTIC WILDERNESS

As revealed by my investigative series, the Antarctic Treaty churns out top climate science — while also letting the rich and powerful probe Earth’s last unmined frontier for Southern Ocean fossil fuels. In conversation with Professor Alan Hemmings, an Antarctic governance expert.

RECIPE FOR DISASTER: HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT PANDEMIC

Colleague Don Pinnock and I broke the global news of potential links between pangolins and Covid-19. Here I speak to Professor Wolfgang Preiser and wildlife investigator Karl Ammann about how pandemics start.

Television field reporter/producer, 50/50

On assignment at Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana. Photo: Roger de la Harpe

My 2006 and 2007 field reports for 50/50, South Africa’s longest-running environmental television show, ranged from swimming with Wild Coast dolphins in a shark-infested sardine baitball to chasing abalone poachers (not simultaneously).

From 2001 to 2006 I also presented and syndicated my weekly science/environment show, EnviroWorld, throughout Africa, the Caribbean and the UK via satellite and community radio.