Enviroteach
Energy in Johannesburg

2 a Degree is a book that will be issued to all delegates at COP17 Durban 2011, covering the response of the South African government and corporations to climate change.

to provide useful, well-written background information on the selected topic for the educators\. to cover all aspects of the selected topic according to the curriculum requirements for the selected Subject and Grade or Phase using creative and innovative methods. Local Case Stories and educator profiles are featured. According to the topic of each edition, the composition of the Editorial Team varies to ensure that relevant expertise is drawn into the development process. of Education is always included in the Editorial Team to guarantee that the requirements and principles of the National Curriculum Statement is reflected appropriately. Sustainability has become a wide-ranging term that can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth, from local to a global scale and over various time periods. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. Invisible chemical cycles redistribute water, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon through the world's living and non-living systems, and have sustained life for millions of years. As the earth’s human population has increased, natural ecosystems have declined and changes in the balance of natural cycles has had a negative impact on both humans and other living systems. In this issue of EnviroTeach, we explore the environment in some of its complexity. Most people accept that climate change is happening and we need to do something about it. When you were a child, could you, your teachers, or your parents imagine your current job? Plenty of people go to work every day in careers that didn’t exist when we were in high school. As Life Orientation teachers we have to confront the question of how do we prepare learners for jobs we can’t imagine yet? This is a central question when one considers environmental careers. South Africa has a number of natural resources, including coal, gold, platinum, iron and many more. Water is a very important, but scarce resource in our country. The weather is also hot and dry, thus water evaporates very quickly. It is also not evenly distributed over the country. Ecotourism is a growing sector of the Tourism industry and we are grateful to the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) for funding the development, printing and distribution of 50 000 copies of this EnviroTeach to schools, nationwide. The NLDTF's commitment to, and support of, environmental education in South Africa, through the provision of a curriculum-linked resource for educators, is much appreciated. Over millions of years, the weather, ocean currents and other processes have shaped the South African coast to look like it does now. South Africa is privileged to have two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean on the western coast and the Indian Ocean on the eastern coast. The Indian Ocean is the smallest of the earth’s oceans and is generally much warmer than the Atlantic Ocean because of the warm Agulhas current. This current flows southward from Mozambique and Madagascar. The Atlantic Ocean is much colder because of the cold Benguela current which flows north along the west coast. This edition of EnviroTeach is, once again, specifically based on the theme of water. Water is not only important to us because we cannot live without it, but because it also gives us pleasure and is an important part of our spiritual practices.