Vermiculture or earthworm farming has been practised for centuries - a thriving local industry exists to breed earthworms for fishing. Apart from being used to bait these versatile creatures can also:

• Process vegetable waste into compost and rich potting soil. As the worm ingests solid and organic matter its worm casts return nutrients to the soil including phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium in soluble forms for plants.
• Create good drainage in soil with the tunnels they build, making it easier for roots to spread in the ground.

• Be used by farmers to convert manure into good soil and compost to be used else where on the farm, and can be fed to cattle and pigs as protein supplement.

Where to find the worms?

Earthworms occur naturally in most gardens and compost heaps, or in moist soil near rivers. There are some 300 species of earthworms in South Africa, one of the common worms used for fishing being the Tiger Worm. They can also be obtained from fishing and bait shops

Reproducing Earthworms.

Each earthworm carries both male and female productive organs. Two earthworms lie next to each other and are temporarily fused together by a muciod substance which is secreted by glands of the individual worms. Each worm then deposits a quantity of sperm cells into the other.

The body of the earthworm has a collar called the clitellum, usually situated along a third of the length of the worm away from the head. Once copulation is completed, this collar slides off the body of the worm. The fertilised eggs are deposited inside this collar and as the collar becomes detached from the body of the worm the two ends are sealed so it becomes a capsule.
Three weeks after the formation of the capsule, the worms eat their way out and start feeding. On emerging they are about 2mm in length and white in colour but after a few days they assume the typical reddish colour.

What we throw away doesn't just disappear...

Reduce

Yearly, Durban Solid Waste (DSW) collects 380 000 tonnes of rubbish which is landfilled at the Bisasar Road sanitary landfill site.

The best way to deal with waste is not to produce so much.  We can all take responsibility for the waste we produce by following some guidelines:

• reduce at source...reuse or restore, and as a last option incinerate or landfill.

Practical ways to help the environment

• Reduce at Source
• Cut down on waste when out shopping:
• Use your own shopping bag or reuse plastic bags rather than take yet another plastic bag from the supermarket.
• Avoid buying over-packaged goods.
• Buy products made from recycled materials, or packaged in them.
• Choose products in packages that can be recycled - it usually takes less energy to create recycled products than like ones from raw materials.
• Think twice about using one-use disposable items like paper plates and plastic cutlery.

"South Africans have been asked to participate in debates about the country's plans to deal with climate change. Victor Munnik and David Hallowes look at some of the issues in the debate."

The world has already overshot the safe target for the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere according to US climate scientist James Hansen. The latest news confirms the warning. Arctic sea ice is melting much faster than expected and methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is now bubbling up through the sea north of Russia as the permafrost melts and releases trapped gasses. Scientists have long warned that such developments could "flip" the earth into much faster, catastrophic climate change.

In these circumstances, it is tempting to rejoice in the news that the South African cabinet has decided to take climate change seriously. In July, cabinet adopted a vision that by 2030 the country would start reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms. If the vision holds true, the economy will be transformed from the second most energy intensive economy in the world (after Venezuela), to a climate-friendly one. This would be an incredible achievement for South Africa, the biggest greenhouse gas emitter on the African continent, with 73% of African emissions. However, South Africa is already engaged in doubling its electricity generation capacity from coal fired power stations by 2025. So how does cabinet plan to square the circle?

Click here to read the full article on NGO Pulse ...