Although it purports to be based on solid science and the open flow of information on which science depends, the massive venture to reconfigure the genetic core of the world’s food supply has substantially relied on the propagation of falsehoods.

Its advancement and very survival have been crucially and chronically dependent on the misrepresentation of reality – to the extent that more than 30 years after the creation of the first genetically engineered plant, the vast majority of people the world-over (including most government officials, journalists, and even scientists) continue to be misled about the important facts.

Moreover, contrary to what people would expect, the biotechnology industry has not been the main source of the deceptions. Instead, the chief misrepresentations have been issued by respected government agencies and eminent scientists and scientific institutions.

The following paragraphs describe several of the key deceptions and delinquencies that have been essential in enabling the genetically engineered (GE) food venture to advance – all of which are more thoroughly documented in my book: Altered Genes, Twisted Truth.

Obfuscated: The disaster caused by GE’s first edible product

The genetic engineering venture had an alarming jolt when its first ingestible product caused an epidemic that killed dozens of Americans and seriously sickened thousands, permanently disabling many of them. The product was a food supplement of the essential amino acid L-tryptophan that had been derived from genetically altered bacteria.

Although it met the standards for pharmacological purity, like all other tryptophan supplements it contained minute amounts of impurities. However, unlike the conventionally produced supplements, one or more of its accidental additions was highly toxic, even at extremely low levels.

Because none of the tryptophan supplements produced via non-engineered bacteria had ever been linked to disease, and because genetic engineering can create unintended disruptions within the altered organisms, there were legitimate reasons to suspect that the process had induced the formation of the extraordinarily toxic substance that caused the calamity.

Consequently, the proponents of genetic engineering, including the United States Food and Drug Administration (the FDA), which admits it has a policy “to foster” biotechnology, strove to convince the public that the technology was blameless. [ii]But to do so, they had to issue a string of deceptive statements.

Those deceptions have been highly successful. Consequently, despite the fact the evidence points to genetic engineering as the most likely cause of the toxic contamination, most people who know of this tragedy are under the illusion that the technology has been exonerated. [iii]

Worse, because GE proponents routinely claim that none of its products has ever been linked to a health problem, most people aren’t even aware that such a catastrophe happened.

Cover-up #2: the problems linked to the first GE whole food

The first whole food produced via genetic engineering (Calgene’s ‘Flavr Savr’ tomato) was also problematic. Calgene voluntarily conducted feeding studies, and the FDA scientists who reviewed them expressed concern about a pattern of stomach lesions that raised a safety issue.

The Pathology Branch concluded that safety had not been demonstrated, and other FDA experts concurred. One wrote that the data “raise a question of safety” – and that they “fall short” of satisfactorily resolving it. [iv] Another agreed that ” … unresolved questions still remain.” [v]

Nevertheless, the FDA claimed that its scientists had determined that all safety questions had been resolved – and that the tomato had been demonstrated to be just as safe as other tomatoes. And because the FDA kept a lid on its scientists’ memos, no one outside the agency was aware of the fraud.

The memos only came to light four years later (in 1998) when my organization, the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, led a lawsuit that compelled the FDA to hand over more than 44,000 pages of its internal files. However, because the mainstream media has failed to adequately report what those documents reveal, most people are still unaware of the FDA’s misbehavior.

GE foods reached the market through government fraud

If the actual facts about the toxic tryptophan and the troubling tomato had been disclosed, the GE food venture might well have been brought to a halt – and at minimum would have been slowed and subjected to more rigorous testing. A similar effect would have resulted if concerns that other FDA experts had expressed about GE foods in general had been publicized.

Those concerns appeared in memos written a few years before the GE tomato entered the market, and they reveal that the agency’s scientists didn’t agree with the biotech proponents’ claims that GE is substantially the same as conventional breeding.

For example, an FDA microbiologist stated: “There is a profound difference between the types of unexpected effects from traditional breeding and genetic engineering.” He added that GE ” … may be more hazardous … “ [vi] A toxicologist warned that GE plants could contain unexpected new toxins. [vii]

The Director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) stated: ” … CVM believes that animal feeds derived from genetically modified plants present unique animal and food safety concerns.” [viii] He explained that residues of unexpected substances could make meat and milk products harmful to humans.

The pervasiveness of the concerns is attested by an FDA official who studied the expert input and declared: “The processes of genetic engineering and traditional breeding are different, and according to the technical experts in the agency, they lead to different risks.” [ix] In light of the unique risks, those experts called for GE foods to undergo careful testing capable of detecting unexpected side effects.

Moreover, the FDA’s Biotechnology Coordinator acknowledged there was not a consensus about safety in the scientific community at large. He also admitted that the allergenic potential of some GE foods “is particularly difficult to predict.” [x]

Nonetheless, in May 1992 the FDA claimed that “the agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way.” [xi] It also asserted that there is overwhelming consensus among scientists that GE foods are so safe they don’t require any testing. Accordingly, the agency doesn’t require a smidgen of testing and allows GE foods to enter the market without any.

If the FDA had told the truth and disclosed the extensive concerns of its own experts, the subsequent history of the GE venture would have surely been very different – and might well have been quite short. At the least, any GE foods that did reach market would have been subjected to much more rigorous testing than regulators anywhere have required.

Misrepresented: the state of the research and the degree of expert consensus

Like the FDA, other GE proponents habitually claim there’s an overwhelming expert consensus that GE foods are safe. And the American Association for the Advancement of Science has declared that “every respected organization” that examined the evidence has determined they’re “no riskier” than conventional ones.

But this is flat-out false. For instance, in 2001 the Royal Society of Canada issued a report concluding that (a) it is “scientifically unjustifiable” to presume that GE foods are safe and (b) the “default prediction” for each should be that the genetic alteration has induced unintended and potentially harmful side effects. [xii]

Moreover, the British Medical Association, the Public Health Association of Australia, and the editors of The Lancet (a premier medical journal) have all expressed concerns about the risks; [xiii] and in 2015 a peer-reviewed journal published a statement signed by more than 300 scientists asserting that there is not a consensus about the safety of GE foods and that their safety has not been adequately demonstrated. [xiv]

GE proponents also falsely profess that the safety of GE foods has been thoroughly demonstrated when in reality many well-conducted studies published in peer-reviewed journals have detected harm to the animals that ate GE food.

In fact, a systematic review of the toxicological studies on GE foods published in 2009 concluded that the results of “most” of them indicate that the products “may cause hepatic, pancreatic, renal, and reproductive effects and may alter hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters the significance of which remains unknown.” [xv]

It also noted that further studies were clearly needed. Another review that encompassed the additional studies that had been published up until August 2010 also provided cause for caution. It concluded that there was an “equilibrium” between the research groups “suggesting” that GE crops are as safe as their non-GE counterparts and “those raising still serious concerns.” [xvi]

Between 2008 and 2014 eight such research reviews were published, and although some interpreted the data in favor of GE crops, as a whole, they provide no grounds for unequivocally proclaiming safety. As Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University, observed in a comprehensive examination that itself was published in a peer-reviewed journal:

“One cannot read these systematic reviews and conclude that the science on health effects of GMOs has been resolved within the scientific community.” [xvii]

Yet GMO proponents routinely proclaim that it has been conclusively resolved – and that safety is a certitude.

Two compelling – and disturbing – conclusions

Thus, even from this brief summary, it’s clear that the GE food venture has been chronically dependent on twisting the truth; and this dependence can be readily detected in virtually every statement that’s been issued in support of its products.

A striking example is the guide to GE crops published by the UK’s Royal Society in May 2016. [xviii] Although it professes to provide accurate, science-based information, analysis reveals that its case for the safety of these crops is based on multiple misrepresentations. [xix]

So if the world’s oldest and most respected scientific institution cannot argue for the safety of GE foods without systematically distorting the facts, it indicates that such distortion is essential to the argument.

Moreover, when the multitude of distortions and deceptions that have been issued on behalf of these products over the last 35 years are compiled and irrefutably documented (as in my book), the conclusion that the GE food venture could not have survived without them becomes virtually inescapable.

And another conclusion is equally obvious. The incontestable fact that the evidence has been methodically misrepresented is in itself compelling evidence of how strongly the aggregate evidence raises reasonable doubts about the safety of these foods.

Because if it was as favorable as the proponents claim, there would have been no need to distort it.

Steven M. Druker is a public interest attorney and the executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity. He is the author of ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public‘, which was released in 2015 with a foreword by Jane Goodall hailing it as “without doubt one of the most important books of the last 50 years.”

This article was originally published on Independent Science News. (CC BY-NC-ND).

References

[i] Druker, Steven, Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public (Clear River Press 2015)

[ii] The agency’s promotional policy was acknowledged in ‘Genetically Engineered Foods’, FDA Consumer, Jan.-Feb. 1993, p.14.

[iii] The demonstrably false statements that have been issued in order to deflect suspicion from the GE process, as well as other deceptive tactics that have been employed, are described in Chapter 3 of Altered Genes, Twisted Truth. That chapter also comprehensively examines the evidence, including important evidence produced by researchers at the Mayo Clinic that had not been previously made public.

[iv] Document #15, p. 3 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents. NOTE: If the URL specified for this endnote (which is also the URL for numbers 5 through 10) is temporarily inactive, the documents can be accessed at:http://www.biointegrity.org/list.htm

[v] Document #16 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[vi] Document #4 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[vii] Document #2 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[viii] Document #10 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[ix] Document #1 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[x] Document #8 at: http://biointegrity.org/24-fda-documents.

[xi] Statement of Policy: Foods Derived From New Plant Varieties, May 29, 1992, Federal Register vol. 57, No. 104 at 22991

[xii] ‘Elements of Precaution: Recommendations for the Regulation of Food Biotechnology in Canada‘. The Royal Society of Canada, January 2001. This report has never been withdrawn or revised.

[xiii] The British Medical Association has clearly expressed reservations about the safety of these novel products. As described in the British Medical Journal, the Association released a 2004 report stating that “more research is needed to show that genetically modified (GM) food crops and ingredients are safe for people and the environment and that they offer real benefits over traditionally grown foods.” (Kmietowicz, Z. ‘GM Foods Should Be Submitted to Further Studies, says BMA’, British Medical Journal, 2004 March 13; 328(7440): 602)

The Public Health Association of Australia has likewise (and more recently) indicated its opinion that the safety of genetically modified foods has not been adequately demonstrated. Its policy statement on genetically modified (GM) foods adopted in 2013 states:

“Thorough, independent research into the effects of GM foods on agronomy, health, society, the environment and the economy should be undertaken, and until this work is completed, all governments in Australia should impose an immediate and indefinite freeze on: the growing of GM crops for commercial purposes; the importation of GM foods and food components; and the patenting of genetic resources for food.”

The Lancet criticized the presumption that genetically engineered foods entail no greater risks of unexpected effects than conventional foods, stating that there are “good reasons to believe that specific risks may exist” and that “governments should never have allowed these products into the food chain without insisting on rigorous testing for effects on health.” (The Lancet, Vol. 353, Issue 9167, p. 1811, 29 May 1999.)

[xiv] Hilbeck et al. Environmental Sciences Europe (2015) 27:4. http://www.enveurope.com/content/pdf/s12302-014-0034-1.pdf

[xv] Dona, A., and I. S. Arvanitouannis. 2009. ‘Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods.’ Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 49 (2): 164-75.

[xvi] Domingo, J. L., and J. G. Bordonaba. 2011. ‘A Literature Review on the Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Plants.’ Environment International 37 (4): 734-42

[xvii] Krimsky, S., ‘An Illusory Consensus Behind GMO Health Assessment’, Science, Technology & Human Values,November 2015; vol. 40, 6: pp. 883-914., first published on August 7, 2015.

[xviii] ‘GM plants: Questions and answers.’ The Royal Society, May 2016.

[xix] For a documentation of the major misrepresentations by the Royal Society, see my article published in The Ecologist.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Too big to fail. That expression could often be heard in 2008. The meltdown in the international banking system was choking off the supply of cash to finance and industry.

The US, the UK and other nations rushed through moves to shore up teetering corporations. General Motors was bailed out while the British bank Northern Rock was nationalised and brought under control by the government.

To not act would have been to risk large sections of our globalised economy going to the wall. We can think of these large corporations as ‘keystone species’ in an economic ecosystem. Remove them and the entire system can come crashing down.

This may support the view that the affairs of smaller corporations can be safely ignored. Businesses go bust every day. However, there may be vital information about the state of entire economies lurking in data about seemingly inconsequential businesses.

The natural world is subject to the same sort of process. If we are to avoid a collapse in ecosystems then we may be best served by monitoring the presence and absence of species great and small, as they all give important information as to the underlying health or resilience of a system.

This is the conclusion of new research we conducted as part of an international team, and published in Ecology.

Detecting trouble ahead

Given humanity’s continual assault on biodiversity, we risk producing rapid changes that can sweep through an entire ecosystem. Such changes are called critical transitions and have been observed in kelp forests, drylands, shallow lakes or even in the total ecosystem collapse of portions of the Great Barrier Reef. Very few ecosystems are not being affected in some way.

If we could get an early warning of critical transitions, then we may be able to put in place changes to avoid future collapse. Searching for these warning signals has become a hot research topic.

The theory underlying much of this work is that ecosystems can take multiple stable states. For example, a freshwater lake can have clear water, and an abundance of plants and fish species. It can also be a cloudy, dark green algal soup with very few plants and fish. Lakes can flip from clear to cloudy water state in a matter of weeks – a classic critical transition, which powerful feedback loops make very hard to reverse.

Phosphorus-rich fertiliser used in surrounding fields often drives such critical transitions in lakes by promoting plant growth. Up to a point. Very high phosphorus levels lead to an increase in algae which can suddenly erupt in large blooms that block out light.

This initiates a die back of plants which, along with a number of other chemical changes in the water and lake sediment, increases phosphorus even further. New feedback loops keep high concentrations of phosphorus, dense algae colonies and very little else.

This matters because lakes provide a wide range of ecosystem services that support surrounding communities. Lakes such as Erhai in China have witnessed very rapid increases in population around it, agriculture and farming. This produces algae blooms that can decimate fishing and so threaten livelihoods. Tourism can also be affected given that clear waters and a wide range of species bring many people to the region.

Early warning signals have been detected in lakes that have experienced critical transitions. As the system is being driven from the clear water to the cloudy water stable state, statistical analysis of variables such as the concentration of phosphorus in the water can show that the system is approaching a tipping point between the two states.

A recent study detected early warning signals in lake Erhai. The key challenge of course is to detect the earliest signal, so as to have the best chance of taking action to avoid a collapse, while also minimising the chance of false alarms.

Diving deeper into lake behaviour

We wanted to see if changes in algae and non-biting midges could predict a critical transition. Why these species? Because their remains are well persevered in sediment found on the bed of the lake. Along with traces of pollen and indicators of water chemistry, these remains allow us to read the history of the lake.

Using sediment cores from lake Erhai and other Chinese lakes, some of which have undergone critical transitions in the past 50 years, we were able to reconstruct algae and midge communities. From these data we identified three key types: strongly competitive but slowly reproducing ‘keystone’ species; weakly competitive but fast reproducing ‘weedy’ species; and slowly reproducing and weakly competitive ‘canary’ species.

Like canaries that coal miners used to check for poisonous gasses deep underground, ecosystem canaries are often the first to disappear. But we cannot rely on just looking for their removal from the population, because these canary species are continually appearing then disappearing. We need to link their presence or absence to changes in the competitive interactions between the three types of algae and midge communities.

Low phosphorus lakes have a healthy turnover of keystones, weedy and canary species. As phosphorus levels rise, strongly competitive algae keystone species proliferate at the expense of canary species until the keystones eventually collapse themselves. This is followed by a bloom of weedy species in the absence of competition: the critical transition is complete.

To wait for reductions in the keystones would be to miss the window of opportunity of avoiding the collapse. Our early warning signal was able to detect an impending critical transition much sooner than other techniques that monitor phosphorus levels in the lake water, because we are looking directly at some of the ecological mechanisms that are involved in the critical transition itself.

As fascinating as these ecological dynamics are, ultimately our study will have worth if it can produce useful early warning techniques that can be used to monitor ecosystems in real time. And that these warnings are heeded.

James Dyke is Lecturer in Sustainability Science, University of Southampton.

Patrick Doncaster is Professor of Ecology, University of Southampton.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

When in 1990 we were dreaming about establishing Schumacher College at Dartington in Devon, people told us: “Your vision is too idealistic. Who’s going to come to learn about ecology or spirituality or holistic philosophy and pay for it?”

Many believed that Schumacher College might last two or three years at most and then fold. So it is both heartening and gratifying to see that after 25 years not only is the college still here, but it is blossoming and flourishing.

The raison d’être behind Schumacher College was and remains very simple. Our modern industrial society is promoted and maintained by the mainstream educational system. And our universities – where young people are conditioned to continue to think in an economic and materialistic way – are the backbone of this society. Students are taught to think that Nature is there for us to use and exploit: that we humans are the ‘superior species’ and we can do to Nature what we like. Once students come out of universities they may be tempted to exploit Nature and other people in order to make their own lives rich, comfortable and successful. Thus, social injustice and ecological injustice merge.

We needed to challenge and change this way of thinking. We could do this in many ways – we could speak about it, we could write books about it. But that’s not enough. We have to start something that shows that another way is possible. We don’t have to condition our young people’s minds to exploit people or exploit Nature. We have to teach that we are Nature. We have to live in harmony with the rest of Nature. And so Schumacher College was established to do just that. It is not only an intellectual place to teach ecology, but also a place where students can experience an ecological lifestyle.

The word ‘eco’ means ‘home’ – ‘planet home’ as well as your ‘personal home’. So not only is Schumacher College a place to teach ecology, but it is also a home in itself. That’s the design of Schumacher College. People who come here should feel at home. This is their home. They cook here; they garden here; they clean their own rooms. The college is not an institution.

If you go to university, you have a blackboard on the wall, you have a screen on your desk and there’s a teacher by whom you are taught. Then you go back to your apartment or dormitory and you live there. There is no connection between learning and living. In our vision, living and learning should be an integral part of each other. What you are learning should be integral to your living. This is the vision of a holistic education and an eco-logical college.

Also, those of us at Schumacher College are members of a community: a human community as well as an Earth community. If we live in harmony with Nature, with people, with all of our surroundings, then we develop a sense of true community. We learn to respect each other, help each other and support each other. So home and community are the practical models that underpin the ethos for this college.

As well as ecology, we teach holistic science, holistic economics, holistic philosophy and how all these subjects are interrelated and interconnected. Ecology is connected with anthropology, anthropology is connected with psychology, and psychology is connected with gardening and agriculture.

Here at Schumacher College, even if you are studying a particular subject you are doing so in the context of a bigger picture. Thus integrated learning and living is the essence of Schumacher College. Here the students are transformed because they have gone through a first-hand experience of holistic living. Having transformed themselves, they go out in the world and find a way of transforming the world. They help the world to become a better place – a place where we minimise the exploitation of people and Nature.

What characterises learning here is that teacher and student are in partnership. Students are not just ‘consuming’ knowledge: they are exploring and developing together with their teachers.

They’re partners in exploring and learning together. It’s a kind of journey. The students are here to  discover more about themselves. And our teachers will help our students discover what’s already there. It’s knowledge from the inside out, not from the outside in. Teachers are here to inspire, to ignite, to light the students’ inner candle. The light of the candle is inside the candle. That’s a unique quality of Schumacher College.

Nature is also our teacher, as much as human teachers like respected environmentalists James Lovelock or Stephan Harding or Vandana Shiva or anybody else. Every week, at least once a week, students go out onto Dartmoor, go to the sea, or go to be among the trees in the forest to learn and to experience Nature.

Schumacher College has accomplished more than I expected. In 25 years, thousands of students have come. We have 17,000 on our alumni list. They learn, transform, go out in the world and become themselves agents of change.

A dream has really come true. I see students blossoming, flourishing, enjoying, celebrating and learning. I go to many universities around the world. I find students there feel that they have to study because they have to pass the exams in order to get a good job. But they are not so happy with their lives. At Schumacher College, students enjoy every day of learning, every day of being, because exam results do not dominate here.

So what of the future? Schumacher College should remain small. But more Schumacher College-type centres should emerge in other countries: Australia, New Zealand, India, America, European and African countries… They don’t have to be called Schumacher College. It’s not a franchise. We want people to take their own initiative, based in the culture and ethos of their own country and language, but incorporate the spirit of Schumacher College.

How that spirit is manifested doesn’t matter. Whatever the name, as long as it’s holistic and people are learning to serve the community, serve the society and serve the Earth, then it is Schumacher College replicated. I want to see new centres of education starting around the world and forming an informal network to support each other.

I often say to Schumacher students who go out into the world with confidence, don’t look for a job but create a livelihood. There’s a difference between having a job and having a livelihood. A job is something we do for money, whether we like it or not. Livelihood is where we find something we really want to do and we find fulfilment in doing it. Being paid for it is a by-product.

Of course we need money, but we are not working for money. I want Schumacher College students to go out into the world and work for something greater: work with imagination, work in the service of the Earth, and work for the values and ideals they hold dear in their hearts, thus bringing their profession and their vocation together.

At the moment, many people have a vocation for the weekends, when they write poetry or create art or enjoy gardening but during the week they work in a profession. Their work is something they do just to earn money. I want this separation of vocation and profession to be healed. Students must do what is their vocation and do it professionally. By combining the two, you transform your job into a livelihood.

Satish Kumar is the founding director and a visiting Fellow of Schumacher College. The college celebrates its 25th anniversary on 27 September in Totnes. For further information about the event and a course programme visit schumachercollege.org.uk

Now that humanity has used up those resources that are easily available, the frontlines of extraction move towards places where extraction is more difficult and more sensitive. It moves to places that were previously considered too sensitive to touch: from the Arctic to regions in the Amazon rainforest with the highest biodiversity on earth. This shifting frontier is affecting ever more people who depend on the renewable resources that are in danger due to extraction of non-renewable resources. All over the world communities are trying to resist the assault on their water, air, land and forests.

The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) created by an international team of scholars and activists has gathered so far 1,840 conflicts with ecological roots. This interview with Joan Martinez Alier and Federico Demaria, from the research team of the Environmental Science and Technology Institute (ICTA) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) explains how a global movement for environmental justice has risen. They also make the connection with the global economy and the need for degrowth. Both of them will speak about the need to strengthen the alliance between environmental justice and degrowth at the upcoming 5^th international degrowth conference in Budapest.

What is the Atlas of Environmental Justice?

Joan Martínez Alier (JMA): A global inventory of cases of socio-environmental conflicts, which we also call “ecological distribution conflicts”. These are disputes between those who take advantage of natural resources and those who suffer the consequences of that use, such as those who produce and suffer from pollution and decide to protest. Each EJAtlas conflict case has about 5 pages of information and we already have over 1800 cases. We need to add many more of China, Southeast Asia, some countries in Africa, Brazil, Mexico, some European countries and Russia. The co-directors are Leah Temper and myself since we began in 2012. Currently, the EJAtlas is coordinated by Daniela Del Bene, while other experts are also engaged to work on it for the next 5 years.

Federico Demaria (FD): The Atlas creates a map with environmental conflicts around the world related to the extraction, processing, transport and disposal of materials and energy that are fundamental to sustain the economy. The economy is material, and this causes conflicts due to the unequal distribution of benefits and impacts. There can hardly be a green or circular economy, unless production and consumption would be at much lower levels than today (meaning degrowth). Those who struggle for environmental justice promote a more sustainable economy. This is what we teach with the map and what anyone can see on the web at ejatlas.org.

Why an Atlas of Environmental Justice?

JMA: First, we want to make these conflicts visible. These are not NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) cases; they happen across the board, everywhere. There are many injustices and many environmental protests. You can present these facts to journalists. The EJAtlas has had very good reports based on it in Colombia, India and other countries, also in The Guardian. Second, we want to facilitate the task of studying these conflicts and ourselves make the analysis of these conflicts, in order to advance in the field of study called Political Ecology. It is also used for secondary and university education and for doctoral theses and articles and academic books. The EJAtlas, which is the result of academic-activist collaboration, is popular with environmental justice organizations in many parts of the world. We have received European funds and also from the International Social Sciences Council (in two different projects, one led by Joan Martinez Alier, and another one led by Leah Temper focusing on successful alternatives). Both projects together will double the number of cases in EJAtlas by 2021 and also update them if necessary. Third, the Atlas also serves to encourage participants in the great global movement for environmental justice. The idea of making a map of environmental conflicts was anticipated by OCMAL in Latin America (Observatory of mining conflicts) and there were other similar initiatives by other environmental groups, which have been our source of inspiration and information.

FD: The EJAtlas is a means of communication, to make the conflicts visible, but it is also a study tool to investigate the causes, responsibilities, actors and strategies. It promotes democratic and informed debate about the relationship between the economy and environment. The EJAtlas shows that thousands of similar conflicts are not simply derived from a culture of saying ‘no’, but are rather legitimate claims to justice. In the same way that the workers’ struggles achieved a reduction in working hours and improved working conditions, wages and the welfare state, organizations for environmental justice struggle in favor of the environment because people depend on it to live. They fight for water or clean air, in defense of their land and territory because their existence and their livelihood depend on it, and they also fight for the general interest and future generations.

What causes these environmental conflicts?

JMA: For some it is neoliberal capitalism, but we think that a social democratic Keynesian capitalism would not have a very different social metabolism and therefore also reach the current level extraction of oil, coal, gas, metals and oil palm. The ultimate cause of these environmental conflicts is the increased social metabolism, meaning flows of energy and materials. The industrial economy is not circular but entropic, like happens with the burning of fossil fuels the energy of which is dissipated. Only a very small part of the materials can be recycled. Therefore, we have to go back for more each day. Today, we get 90 million barrels of oil from the earth and tomorrow again. Thus, in the Amazon of Peru and Ecuador the pollution is killing humans and animals and destroying biodiversity. There are many protests.

FD: The Atlas organizes almost two thousands cases in different categories, such as mining, waste disposal, tourism, biodiversity, water use, or public or private built infrastructure. Biologists study the metabolism of organisms, but we study the metabolism of the economy. The economy depends on the flows of materials and energy. If it grows, it needs more oil, minerals or cement. But even when it does not grow, you always need new flows because the materials can be recycled only to a minor extent, while the energy cannot be recycled. This is thermodynamics, very basic undisputable physics. Companies want to maximize their profits and are forced to compete or die. So many times the environmental costs (like pollution) do not enter in their accounts, they are ‘externalized’. In other words, companies (sometimes with the complicity of states) shift these costs to other social actors (often weaker, such as immigrants or indigenous). These actors sometimes react to injustice, when the companies attempt to save costs at the expense of the health of people and the environment (which is the same). It’s like I was at a bar, I drink a beer and I go out without settling the bill and shouting, “that guy over there will pay for the beer”. Or it’s as if I walk my dogs down the street and do not pick up their droppings. These costs are displaced. But of course, there is a difference between dropping dog shit and dropping cyanide or mercury onto land or rivers, or spreading glyphosate on the fields (and on top of people) or spilling barrels and barrels of oil in the Amazon.

Do these protests compose a global environmental justice movement?

JMA: Indeed, this movement was born out of these protests. In the EJAtlas files you can find what we call the vocabulary of the Global Environmental Justice Movement. For example, in Brazil they complain against “green deserts” that tells us of a protest against eucalyptus monoculture for paper pulp, they explain that “plantations are not true forests”. In Argentina the banner “stop fumigating” expresses protests against planes spraying glyphosate for soybean cultivation in populated areas. Or if a newspaper in India announces a new victim of the “sand mafia”, we know that there is another deadly conflict around the extraction of sand and gravel from rivers or beaches. Each conflict and each country contribute their own words and slogans to the global environmental justice movement. It is the same as in former years when labor disputes contributed words to social history like “boycott”, “scab” or “lockout”. Or like the expression “the double shift” in the feminist movement. We are merely philologists of that global movement for environmental justice. This is what I’ve been interested in since my 2002 book titled “The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation“.

FD: The hypothesis is that there is a global movement for environmental justice, and that it can be an important political actor to promote the sustainability of the economy. With the Paris conference on climate change in December 2015, we saw that states are not able to bring up the courage needed to face the environmental crisis. There is no acknowledgement for “liability” for climate change in the Paris agreement between states. So, which actors could play a key role? We believe it is the global movement for environmental justice, which consists of an informal and horizontal network of all organizations involved in environmental conflicts and the networks they form across borders. Specific cases are different, but the EJAtlas shows that there is a potential to further articulate their struggles and demands, and develop proposals for joint solutions. From below and with courage. Resistance is important, but not enough. We need our own narratives, imaginaries and alternatives.

What are now the most serious environmental conflicts?

JMA: There are many conflicts in the EJAtlas featuring hydropower, mining companies, oil and gas. We have special maps on issues like fracking. We also have a map with all claims against a single company: Chevron. But there are not only conflicts around mining and biomass, also in the export of waste, such as the breaking of huge ships on beaches in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, where steel is recycled at the cost of huge local pollution, including asbestos and heavy metals. All these cases are in the EJAtlas. And the main residue is perhaps carbon dioxide that produces excess climate changes. In the EJAtlas we have protests from the Kuna from Panama, who perceive the light sea level rise already. We also have cases of good alternatives, such as the proposals and actions to leave coal, oil or gas in the ground to avoid local damage but also to avoid global CO2 emissions. There is for example a case in Fuleni (KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) against coal mining, a case that we have put on the Atlas just a few weeks ago, or also the Sompeta case (Andhra Pradesh in India) against coal mining.

FD: The most serious conflicts occur where people die. People die by pollution or they are killed because they are a key character of the struggle, such as Berta Caceres in Honduras. According to Global Witness, Honduras is “the world’s deadliest country” for environmentalists in proportion to population, because in the last 5 years more than 100 defenders of nature have been killed and the vast majority of these crimes remain unpunished. Conflicts are also severe when they leave permanent damage to the environment and compromise the livelihoods of local people who are forced to migrate to cities and to other countries in search of opportunities. These are also called environmental refugees.

What solutions are proposed?

JMA: The environmentalism of the poor and the indigenous, the environmentalism of the people, is growing in the world, despite a sequel of assassinations, such as Berta Cáceres in Honduras and many others. In the EJAtlas, murder of socio-environmental activists appears in 12% of all cases. But environmental protests sometimes succeed (in the EJAtlas there are almost 20% of cases with success for environmental justice). These successes contribute to a transition to an economy and a society that is less unsustainable.

FD: The solutions are first to understand the causes and responsibilities, the complexity of the conflict. The simple strategies of silence and oppression don’t help us. Too often we find denial from companies and public authorities, as has happened for a long time with climate change. The resistance against environmental justice comes from those who benefit from the status quo. In each conflict, the organizations for environmental justice propose alternatives. They ask that the project be done differently, or that, if it is intrinsically unsustainable, be not carried out at all. Sometimes they ask for repairing the damage, such as removal of pollutants. In some cases, they just want respect for existing laws, while in other cases or at other times in the same case they question the legal framework and propose legislative changes. For every conflict, there are different ‘solutions’ and one always has to ask: ‘for whom’? There are always winners and losers, this is the essence of political ecology. We wish there were only win-win options, but that is not always possible, not to say almost never. Each conflict resolution goes to the benefit of some and harms others, and this depends on the power relations. Conflicts arise when those affected by a project (for example, a mine or a road), who are often the weakest, raise their voice. It is a question of democracy.

What is the relationship between environmental justice and  degrowth movement?

JMA: The new research project called “EnvJustice” in ICTA (with funding from the European Research Council) will precisely study the links between environmental justice struggles around the globe and the small European degrowth or postgrowth movement (or “prosperity without growth”, as Tim Jackson says), which is promoted by a group of researchers at ICTA UAB called Research & Degrowth. Federico Demaria is in charge of studying this relationship. Many of the movements in the South want to stop the extraction of raw materials. They are against looting and robbery or, put in a more polite way, they are against “ecologically unequal trade”, and also against biopiracy. They also demand that the ecological debt from climate change is paid for at least acknowledged. There are common purposes between the two movements, Degrowth and Environmental Justice.

FD: Our research shows that environmental conflicts are related to the social metabolism, to the increasing flows of materials and energy in the economy. We must recognize that a development model based on increasing production and consumption necessarily has impacts on the environment and generates environmental injustices. Therefore, we must question a socio-economic model based on economic growth and truly bet on sustainability, which implies a decrease of flows of energy and materials. There are alternatives to development. Degrowth, one of these, is not the same as recession. The movement is based on the assumption that we can live well with less, and we need to do it differently. The question is how to manage the economy without growth so that it can meet the goals of ecological sustainability, social equity and well-being of people. The questions has become even more pressing now that undoubtedly mature economies are not growing as they used to do. This is the issue that we discuss in our book: Degrowth. A Vocabulary for a New Era (Routledge, 2015), and that will be at the center of the 5^th international degrowth conference in Budapest (30^th August – 3^rd September, 2016). As ecological economists Tim Jackson and Peter Victor wrote recently in the The New York Times: “Imagining a world without growth is among the most vital and urgent tasks for society to engage in”.

The project: Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (http://ejatlas.org/)

Joan Martinez Alier is Emeritus Professor and Federico Demaria is a researcher, both at the Environmental Science and Technology Institute (ICTA) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain.

This double interview, translated and edited by Ecologist New Voices contributor, Nick Meynen, was first published in La Vanguardia, Barcelona (Spain)

The French ban goes far beyond the current EU wildlife trade regulations, and comes just weeks ahead of the next meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 

Humane Society International/Europe’s executive director Joanna Swabe has just issued the following statement: “We warmly salute the French Government for taking decisive action to halt the cruel trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn.

“The demand for these wildlife products has led to a poaching epidemic that has not only decimated elephant and rhino populations across Africa and Asia, but which also helps to fund organised crime and terrorism.

“We strongly applaud Minister Royal’s commitment to stamping out poaching and wildlife trafficking and urge other EU Member States to follow suit.”

The French stance is particularly important since the measures adopted go far beyond the current EU wildlife trade regulations that permit the trade in ivory procured before 1947. The French decree includes provisions to ban the trade and commercial use of raw ivory, plus the production of artefacts using ivory, irrespective of its age. It also prohibits both the restoration and sale of ivory products bought after July 1975, even if they were purchased legally.   

The adoption of these new measures comes just a few weeks before the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meet in Johannesburg where the African Elephant Coalition, representing 70 per cent of the African elephant range states, has put forward a proposal to list all African elephant populations under Appendix I, thereby prohibiting all international commercial trade in ivory.

The Coalition has also tabled additional proposals calling for closure of domestic ivory markets and restricting the trade in live elephants to in situ conservation programmes only.

HSI/Europe has urged the European Commission and EU Member States to support the African Elephant Coalition’s proposals, but have thus far been met with surprising reticence.

 Ivory Trade & Poaching – The Facts

• The EU is the world’s largest exporter of pre convention ivory – ivory acquired before the entry into force of CITES in 1975.

• Between 2011 and 2014, member states reported seizures of around 4,500 ivory items reported as specimens and an additional 780 kg as reported by weight. Between 2003 and 2014, 92 per cent of EU exports of pre-convention tusks went to China or Hong Kong.

• The European Commission has voiced opposition to the African Elephant Coalition’s elephant protection proposals and relevant documents. The European Union has the largest voting block at the CITES Conference of Parties and holds the key to the success or the failure of these elephant protection documents.

• All five rhino species are threatened with extinction. In 2015, more than 1,300 rhinos were killed in South Africa alone, out of a remaining 28,000 left in the wild.

• From 2010 to 2012, 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory. In Central Africa, between 2002 and 2013, 65 per cent of the forest elephants were killed. According to the Great Elephant Census, poachers killed half of Mozambique’s elephants in five years while Tanzania lost a catastrophic 60 per cent of its elephants during the same period.

• The majority of ivory trafficking is destined for China or Southeast Asia. However, once smuggled ivory leaves Africa, trafficking routes could be passing through Europe or the Middle East to reach Asia. Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates are among the numerous airports that have seized or intercepted smuggled ivory from Africa to Asia.

For more on this story see www.hsi.org