MEET THE AUTHOR

Big Pharma, Dirty Lies, Busy Bees and Eco Activists: 20 Environmental Stories from South Africa is the third book in David Bristow’s Stories from the Veld series. In this book, he turns his attention to local green challenges big and small, from microplastics and dying bees to large-scale farming and climate change.

What sparked your interest in the natural world?

I grew up on the Braamfontein Spruit, surrounded by Highveld, in an area then known as Witkoppen-Bryanston, now Sandton. I felt like a South African Huck Finn and the little river was my Mississippi. The thought that it led into the Jukskei River, then the Crocodile, to the Olifants and finally the Limpopo, was thrilling.

Later, I spent time in the Magaliesberg as an aspiring rock climber. That place is a natural wonderland. I was lucky to have a circle of friends who drew me into a deeper understanding of nature than would otherwise have been the case.

What is your book about?

Put simply, it’s about the pitiful state of our natural environment, but it’s also about a whole lot more.

It starts with a reflective discussion about the origins of ecology and conservation, internationally and in South Africa; thereafter I get stuck into the dirty business of big corporates and the roles they play in the fouling of our surrounds: cigarettes, big oil, big pharma, big farma…

There are also chapters on things like energy production and the importance of bees – even a “how to” chapter for living off the grid.

What inspired you to write the Stories from the Veld series?

By circuitous and serendipitous circumstances, I became a writer of books almost from the get-go – but often on subjects the publishers wanted me to write about. Once I had paid off the kids and the mortgage, I mulled over what I wanted to write about. Stories about the bushveld had been piling up in notebooks and on hard drives for years, so it was just a matter of dusting them off and filling in the blanks.

My academic background in environmental science had also been tugging my conscience for a while.

How did you do your research?

Although Doctor Google and Professor Wikipedia are wonderfully powerful research tools – especially when you trouble to dig deep – I prefer to get down to first principles. I have a substantial book collection and it expands with every new project.

I also spend a lot of time in libraries. My favourite place is the rare books section in the National Library in Cape Town. Sitting beneath original oil paintings by Thomas Baines while saintly librarians bring up dusty manuscripts from the vaults never ceases to thrill me.

What was the most exciting part of writing this book?

Probably the buzz of waking at 3 am with my synapses sparking. I’d sneak off to my study and fire up the old banger to get it down before the swirling ideas could vaporise.

And the biggest challenge?

Writing. To produce 60 000 or 80 000 good words, you need to write at least double that. That’s around 1 500 words a day, every working day, for six months. Someone once remarked that it’s easy – you simply sit down at your keyboard, coffee steaming, soft cushion, maybe soft music, and open a fresh page, then slit a wrist and let it all bleed out.

What lessons have you learnt from the eco activists in the book?

Never give up.

It’s not over until it’s over. I’m always amazed at the energy, optimism and enthusiasm of environmental crusaders. Take Gift of the Givers, for example: These people work tirelessly, raising millions, to bring water to the people of South Africa who have been left in the dust by their political representatives.

The anti-poaching rangers, the schoolchildren who start their own environmental groups to organise clean-ups… We all can, and should, do our little bit.

What can we do to help?

As David Attenborough says, an easy way to reduce our human footprint on the earth is use a bit less and waste a bit less. Use less water and less electricity, eat less food that comes by way of destructive farming practices, eat less red meat…

Taking things a step or two further, install a grey-water recycling system in your home, along with rain-collection tanks; create a filtering wetland garden if you have a pool; install solar electrical panels and a solar geyser, or at least put a timing device on your existing electric geyser. And pick up some litter every day. It makes you a better person.

Any other projects in the pipeline?

I’m working on a Stories from the Veld collection of animal tales ( Bush Kakstories) and another autobiographical project based around unusual words like serendipity, synecdoche, thalassic, eardstapper and triskaidekaphobia – words that all have resonance in my life. The provisional title is It’s Only Words, Damn Words.

This book is published by Jacana Media and costs R260 in bookstores.