Simon Gear is a South African environmental scientist, broadcaster, and writer with over two decades of experience in climate change, air quality, and green business. Known to many as a former SABC meteorologist and presenter of 50/50 on SABC 2, he combines scientific expertise with media savvy to communicate urgent environmental issues in an accessible way.
Simon contributes as a columnist for Runner’s World SA and Khuluma, and authored Going Green, a practical guide offering 365 simple steps toward a more sustainable lifestyle. His keynotes blend science, humor, and actionable advice, helping audiences understand sustainability as both a pressing challenge and a daily opportunity.
Simon Gear is the environmental and science correspondent for Primedia Broadcasting and the anchor presenter for 50/50 on SABC 2.
He was a senior broadcasting meteorologist with the SABC from 1999 to 2011. He is an air quality and climate change specialist and has worked on a wide range of private and government projects in South Africa.
Simon Gear works as a professional speaker and MC, focusing on various environmental and climate change related topics, and thoroughly enjoys bringing his passion for science and the environment to the fore at functions.
Simon Gear is also an accomplished writer. You can currently read him in his monthly columns in Runners World SA and in Khuluma, the Kulula.com in-flight mag. His first book, ‘Going Green‘, contains simple environmental advice for day to day living and is currently on its first re-print.
He also enjoys speaking about his running transformation and the ability of all 40-somethings to recapture their former glories.
Our air is polluted, our temperatures are rising and resources are dwindling.
Everyone is talking about the dire state of the planet, global warming and greening their lives, but where do you start?
South Africa’s favourite weatherman Simon Gear has a solution: 365 easy-to implement tips to help you make your world a greener place, one day at a time.
This tried and tested advice is a perfect beginner’s guide to help you decrease your carbon footprint and make your environment more sustainable.
From the incredibly easy: brew coffee from home (saves you time, money and a couple of trees); take the stairs (and cut your chance of dying young by 15%); to the intrepid and exciting: make your own wine (any sugary liquid that has been left to go off then strained to get rid of the floaty bits); ride a motorbike (to get that debonair aura of bikers everywhere).
Going Green is THE book to set you on a greener path.
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Simon Gear opens with an off-the-cuff, conversational tone — a mix of self-deprecating humor and blunt impatience — then moves into why the fantasy of escaping Earth is dangerous distraction. He explains how climate science (ice cores, isotope analysis) underpins our knowledge of past climates, shows how humans can adapt to wide extremes but still require the planet’s basic supports (rain, breathable atmosphere, livable temperature range), and demolishes ideas that Mars or Venus are realistic refuges.
Gear walks through examples of Earth’s hottest and coldest places and the physics behind climate records, briefly notes the limits of current space ambitions and the extreme distances to potentially habitable exoplanets, and reminds the audience that only this planet is practically available to us.
He closes with a rousing call to action: direct a fraction of our adventurous energy toward fixing Earth rather than fantasizing about leaving it, because the markets alone won’t save us and the planet is all we’ve got. (Source video: FEAT Jo’burg talk featuring Simon Gear.)
00:00 – 00:40: Opening banter, self-deprecating jokes, setting a relaxed tone.
00:40 – 02:10: Statement of intent — pivoting from prepared remarks to speak from the heart about climate frustration.
02:10 – 04:00: Quick tour of extreme human habitats (Lake Assal, Siberia) and human adaptability.
04:00 – 06:00: Explanation of ice-core science (air bubbles, isotope analysis) as the basis for paleoclimate data.
06:00 – 07:30: Examples of hottest/coldest places on Earth and why habitability depends on key environmental variables.
07:30 – 09:00: Debunking the “we’ll go to Mars” fantasy — Mars’ temperature, dryness and distance make it a non-viable refuge.
09:00 – 10:30: Venus and other planetary examples; why other planets are worse.
10:30 – 12:00: SETI, the Wow! signal and exoplanet discovery (Kepler results) — notes on distance and impracticality of migration.
12:00 – 13:30: Practical conclusion: markets alone drive change; we must act locally and use our energy to fix Earth now.
13:30 – 14:00: Call to action and closing remarks.
Sustainability, climate change, green business, science communication.
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Yes, he adapts his material to corporate, educational, and community contexts.
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