MUMBAI: CNN’s Going Green returns this November with inspiring stories of everyday heroes working within their communities to improve the environment. These individuals take it upon themselves to improve the ecology and lead by example. Six stories from across the world will come together in a half-hour show hosted by Nicki Shields.
The environmental champions featured in Going Green include:
Litter king – Bandung, Indonesia:
Every morning 74-year-old Sariban gets dressed in his bright yellow overalls and takes to the streets of Bandung, Indonesia. For over 30 years he has been picking up litter voluntarily, and cleaning up his neighbourhood. His mission is to make the world more beautiful.
Rhino ranger – South Africa:
In 2016 1,054 rhinos were killed in South Africa. Driven by organised crime and demand for rhino horn--rhino poaching reportedly increased 9,000 per cent from 2007 to 2014. Anton Mzimba, the field ranger of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve anti-poaching unit, has spent the last 19 years patrolling and investigating animal crimes. Anton stands between the rhinos and their poachers’ guns and believes that each day a rhino is not killed is a success for him.
E-waste – London:
The Restart Project is a London-based social enterprise which extends the lifespan of gadgets by bringing people together to share repair and maintenance skills. Co-founder Janet Gunter is hoping that repairing broken mobiles, laptops and other devices will help to save the planet’s precious resources and prevent hazardous waste. ‘Restart Parties’ have been held across the world with people bringing along broken tech to fix it with help from engineers and electricians known as ‘Restarters’.
EV Mongol Rally – Aberdeen, Scotland:
Chris and Julie are charging their electric car for the very last time following a three-month car race from the UK to Mongolia and back again. 100 kilometres away from Aberdeen they prepare to drive the final stretch back home after piloting the first and only electric vehicle to date in the Mongol Rally. Going Green speaks to the couple about the unique challenges they faced on the road far from home, charging in remote places, and their thoughts on the electric vehicle revolution around the globe.
Floating forest farm – New York:
The South Bronx is an area without fresh fruit or vegetables, in the US. New Yorker Mary Mattingly is hoping to change a long-standing law which prevents park land from being used to grow food, or for foraging. The Swale, Mary’s floating food forest which sails up and down the Hudson in summer months, docks at Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx in November and will invite locals on board to learn about the benefits of perm culture and how it could change public spaces. Visitors will also participate in the creation of a new ‘food way’, a project the Parks Authority are experimenting with after Mary’s success in the community.
Fatberg, London and Ellesmere Port:
A monster fatberg weighing more than ten double decker buses is clogging up London’s sewer system. Wet wipes, nappies and hardened cooking fat have congealed into a solid mass which greater in length than two football pitches. While part of the fatberg has been put on display in a museum as a curiosity of modern life, the rest could be on its way to a biofuel plant in the north of England. The fatberg could potentially provide 10,000 litres of fuel, which would return to the streets of London – above ground this time – in the engines of the capital’s famous red buses.
