50|50 Episode 27 Season 7: 18 August 2016

In die Spervuur: frogs

If you have you ever stood beside a pool of water in nature after a good summer downpour you may have heard a deafening chorus, as every type of frog imaginable croaks out its own version of a love serenade. We may not see frogs everywhere but the volume of their breeding calls is testament to their presence in many landscapes. The question is, for how much longer? And if frogs disappear, is it more than just background noise that we’ll be losing?

Better Cotton initiative:

It can take more than 20 000 litres of water to produce the amount of cotton needed to make a single T-shirt and a pair of jeans? 50|50 ventures into the cotton fields of Mozambique to find out if it’s actually possible to grow this important crop in a manner that is kind to nature through the Woolworths Better Cotton Initiative.

Endocrine disruptors:

Hormones are special chemical messengers in the body that are created by glands – part of a system called the endocrine system. In balance, hormones help the human body to thrive but when these are even just a little out of kilter, the symptoms can be seriously life-changing. There are many chemicals in the immediate environments to which we are exposed daily, that behave as endocrine or hormone disrupters. As is the case with so many harmful substances, these are often carried in our water systems and people’s lives can be negatively affected without them even realising it.

VeldFokus:

The animal characters seem to have a few bees in their bonnets in this week’s VeldFokus. An ostrich picks an unprovoked fight with an unsuspecting giraffe, a pair of geckos battle it out for the title of best gecko ever, and a precocious hyena cub refuses to behave.