Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? This question has been posed to the British public each year since 2011, after David Cameron decided to construct a National Happiness Index, mooted to replace GDP as a measure of the nation’s wellbeing.

This attempt to quantify the experience of happiness in the individual was the impetus of Lynne Segal’s wonderfully affirming book Radical Happiness.

The latest edition of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is out now!

“I began by looking into the promotion and measuring of happiness with the idea that it’s some quantifiable inner event,” Segal tells me. “I say, actually, no emotions are like that. All emotions are far more complex and mixed, far more contradictory. And what’s more, they have a public dynamic as well as a personal dynamic.”

Collective joy

This insight is central to the book’s subtitle, Moments of Collective Joy. For Segal, the idea that happiness can be individuated is a particularly pernicious aspect of neoliberalism.

On the contrary, she believes that joy is communal by nature, and that happiness in life can only come from recognition of our dependency on one another and on Nature.

“Everything I write is an argument for our need to recognise our ties to others, and that’s the only way to escape the gloomy ties to the self we’re pushed ever more into,” she tells me.

“Joy, it seems to me, is almost quintessentially collective,” she continues. “Even if it’s coming from something like the view from a mountaintop, we want to be able to share it. The more we can share something, the more it will stay and linger.”

This outlook explains Segal’s suspicion of what we might term as the ‘wellbeing industry’, in which unhappiness is to be treated as a personal defect that can be remedied through some combination of marketised medi­cine and mindfulness. In such an approach, structural issues that might have given rise to legitimate unhappiness are obscured. Segal sees things differently.

Socialist feminist

“With depression, like happiness, you have to look at it in a social context,” she says. “While there is always an individual dimension to individual suffering, the ways of dealing with it aren’t necessarily individual. We know it’s linked to unemployment, we know it’s linked to poverty.

“I’m not saying that we don’t personally suffer, because we certainly do. And we all have our own unique histories that are significant,” she concedes, careful not to dismiss the benefits of measures like cognitive behavioural therapy and antidepressants. “But this has to be seen in terms of the pressures that bear down on us, [and] we have to ask: why is it all so heavy?”

Despite her willingness to look into the gloom of our neoliberal society, you only need to spend an hour or so with Segal to know that you’re in the company of someone who knows something about happiness, punctuating almost every remark with a beaming, rolling chuckle as we sit in her lovingly tended garden.

A socialist feminist of age in the 1960s, she has retained a lifelong fondness for communal politics, a fondness that clearly gave rise to her views on collective joy today.

“My generation came of age criticising post-war consumerism, which seemed to go along with a lack of concern for anything other than status. This was the golden age of capitalism, in the 1960s, which was allowing young people more freedom, but at the same time already we were thinking: we don’t want our lives to be dictated by commodities.”

“We were anti-capitalist, because we wanted life to be meaningful and creative, and we wanted to care for others,” she says. “We wanted an egalitarian, caring, sharing politics.”

Radical acts

Today, it’s easy to feel like we’ve drifted some distance from these ideals. For Segal, however, even resistance in the face of despair can provide the conditions for radical acts of collective joy. Not only that, but it might even be key to a meaningful, lasting sense of happiness.

“The last decade or so has been a nightmare for so many, but it has also been a time of huge resistance, whether that’s Black Lives Matter or Sisters Uncut, or just people just taking to the streets like on the day after Trump’s election,” she explains.

“Rather than looking in at ourselves, and trying to make ourselves happy, we’re more likely to feel more alive and more engaged by looking out at the world and facing up to the calamities all around us, the calamities of the refugee crisis and the calamities of climate change.”

A sober engagement with the realities of our ties to one another is at the heart of Segal’s theory of happiness, especially in an age of atomisation like ours. That’s why she’s probably at her gloomiest when talking about austerity policies, which attack our ability to nurture those bonds through even the most primary acts of care.

This, she tells me, is the subject of her next book. “There’s a complete crisis in care at the moment,” she laments. “At its worst, with neoliberal policies and so-called welfare reform, young mothers are working longer and longer hours, which means you have to import care from elsewhere. This gives you a racialised dynamic, with people coming from poorer countries, leaving their own families and dependants behind, in order to take up the caring needs in the first world.”

Care crisis

For Segal, the conditions of contemporary capitalism that have so badly distorted our ideas of what it is to be happy are also a driving force for this crisis of care.

“In thinking about the way in which a productivist, corporate capital ethos denies all the unpaid labour of what goes into their profits,” she goes on, “I think of care work and women and social reproduction. And there’s also the transhuman, of course.

“That’s why there’s so much recent interest in the bees and the dying out of species, because we’re actually dependent on the work of other non-human creatures, and trees and flowers and so on, and that’s never factored in at all.”

Factoring this dependency back into our understanding of ourselves is what Segal sets out to achieve in Radical Happiness. In doing so, she helps us to rediscover the joy we can draw from our ties to one another and our environment, even in the face of despair.

“I feel all my writing is about that,” she says. “How we affirm life, how we connect to others, how we keep hope alive. That’s really what all my books are about.”

This Author

Russell Warfield is a freelance journalist. Radical Happiness is published by Verso (2017). This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine which is out now. 

I’ve just published a book, called A Film-Philosophy of Ecology and Enlightenment. In this book, I discuss films such as The Road, Melancholia, Gravity and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But what’s it all about? What does the title of my book mean?

I’ll briefly explain, by way of an example. Which constitutes a kind of ‘trailer’ for the book…

Incendiary themes 

The final chapter of my book is about the biggest blockbuster of all time, Avatar. Consider the following important fact about Avatar: this was a film so potentially incendiary, eco-politically, that the authoritarian Chinese Government felt compelled quietly to ban it, for fear that it would ignite rural land-revolts. 

Or rather they tried to ban it in a way that didn’t look as if they were banning it. Only the 2D version of Avatar was banned in China, while the 3D version continued to be shown. The explanation for the withdrawal of the 2D version must have had a lot to do with the kind of people who only had access to 2D cinemas (i.e. poor and rural or provincial folk, the ones who might rebel over land-grabs and the like). The Chinese government was apparently quite confident that well-off urban people wouldn’t cause any trouble. 

That story alone tells us much of what we need to know about the potential power of films to change our world, a reason for giving them the serious attention that I do. 

What I claim in my book, about Avatar, is that Avatar ‘literalises’ what is metaphorically true of our world:

• The trees are a global network, sustaining life and consciousness 

• We can link our consciousness with other language-using creatures and with other non-language-using animals (with or without technology)

• Ey’wa is Gaia, Mother Earth

• The atmosphere, the air we breathe, is potentially becoming lethal for us

• The real wealth of the world lies not in shiny minerals, but in life. (Recall Ruskin’s great remark: “There is no wealth but life”.)

• The world is stunningly beautiful when we open our eyes to see it and attune ourselves to living harmoniously within it.
• The Tree of Souls is a metaphor for the fact that imagination and dreaming need not be private experiences. Creative forces can be harnessed and utilized collectively.

‘I see you’

Like many of the films considered in my book, Avatar ends by making a kind of call to the viewer. The call, in this case, is manifested powerfully as the main protagonist opens his eyes and gazes directly into yours, at the end of the film.

This call, I argue, is a call upon you to complete the film. How? The call is a call to replenish and restore the ecosystems of our fragile world, not merely of a fictional world, ‘Pandora’. The call is to save our world. The only world we have.

What we must first do is say (and mean) “I see you”, then we must wake up and appreciate the fact that we live in a paradise. As Jay Michaelson put it: “In the Na’Vi cosmology, what’s really happening is the [Ey]’Wa in me is connecting with the [Ey]’Wa in you. This is echoed in their greeting, “I see you”, a direct translation of the Sanskrit Namaste, which means the same thing.

“‘Avatar’ is also from the Sanskrit, though the film plays on the word’s two meanings, of an image used in a role-playing game, and a deity appearing on Earth). As the Na’Vi explain in the film, though, “I see you” doesn’t mean ordinary seeing – it, like Namaste, really means “the God in me sees the God in you.”” 

Transformative encounters

At one key point in the film, Norm – one of the film’s hero-human-scientists, and a fellow inhabitor of an avatarian-body – teaches our hero, Jake, what the true meaning of “I see you” is: “I see you, I see into you, I see who you really are.”

The story of the film is the story of Jake struggling with this. Early on in the film, for instance, he says “I sure hope this tree-hugging stuff isn’t on the final”. Eventually, after terrible setbacks, he learns to realise a deep sense of honouring himself and The Other.

The story of the film as a transformative ‘therapeutic’ encounter for we viewers is the story of us struggling with this and learning to realise it.

How do we get to the point of being able to do this, to truly say “I see you” to everyone and everything? Well, first, as I have already implied, by really seeing the film. By, as it were, saying “I see you” to Avatar…

The argument that I make in my book, with regard to this film and a dozen more, requires some courage. It requires courage for viewers to enter into it and accept, and make their own, and not to condescend or express contempt, as many critics of Avatar have done.

Willingness and determination 

I am taking a risk in saying this, and you are taking a risk if you believe it. It is ‘safer’ to remain on the barren heights of intellectual superiority, to mock the pretensions of a massive, commercial success.

It is particularly tempting to look down on a popular film, to ‘prove’ yourself superior to it – because then you are by implication ‘superior’ to the tens or hundreds of millions of people who love it.

I think that the risk of opening oneself to Avatar and to hope is well worth taking. The sterility and (in the end) systematic unsafety of the alternative – of trusting to business as usual, hoping only for techno-fixes, getting stuck in denial and distancing oneself from nature – is something we know is not the answer.

We know when we dare to feel the Earth beneath our feet, as we experience Jake doing when his avatar runs for the first time. 

Like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, and Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy, Lord of the Rings and Avatar teach and express a love of the physical, and of the biological. I predict that this theme will only become stronger in the sequels to Avatar that will appear in the next few years: a willingness to embrace our animal nature, and to love life, and a determination to enable future generations to do the same – this kind of willingness and determination manifest across the output of The Ecologist, from its beginnings to today.

Dare to dream

It is relatively easy for academics and critics to feel secure in the citadels of the cognitive mind. But it won’t stay easy for long.

It is time to come down into the green fields and forests and jungles of physicality and of spirit: to play, to imagine, to dare to dream. Collectively surely, we must take the risk of daring to hope. 

Daring to hope means that we may yet have the courage to save ourselves and our planet. To share a common will to prevent ecocide, and to fully achieve the glorious potential of life.

That, and nothing less, is what my book is about. How films and/as philosophy can enlighten us. And, maybe, help us to live eco-logically again before it’s too late.

 This Author 

Rupert Read is a reader in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia.

The Environment Agency and Natural England have put Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) in place in England’s sensitive catchments – including protected Natura 2000 sites

Producing NMPs for Natura 2000 sites helps to provide evidence for Habitats Regulations Assessments which might be required in relation to development plans and reviews of discharge consents. NMP’s also provide evidence that underpins the strategy to achieve the targets arising from the Habitats Directive, Birds Directive and Water Framework Directive.

An Improvement Programme for Natura 2000 sites (IPENS) has been developed by Natural England which includes a Site Improvement Plan (SIP) for each Natura 2000 site. Eight of these site improvement plans include an NMP. These provide a mechanism for tackling water pollution where excessive phosphorus and or nitrogen loading requires a combined approach that addresses point discharges and diffuse sources. 

Special conservation

The River Avon Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is a Natura 2000 site with an NMP, where phosphorus is preventing favourable conservation status being achieved across the catchment. 

The River Wye SAC has reaches where the levels of phosphate exceed the target level in the conservation objectives. Other examples of sites with an NMP include the River Clun and River Mease SACs and Poole Harbour Special Protection Area (SPA).

The River Mease SAC’s excessive levels of phosphate are preventing the achievement of favourable condition, and at Poole Harbour SPA, increasing nitrogen levels from sewage and agriculture are contributing to the growth of algal mats in the harbour,restricting food for wading birds and smothering estuarine habitats. 

Meanwhile, the River Clun is designated as a SAC for freshwater pearl mussel. Since 1995, surveys have shown that the population of freshwater pearl mussel is non-functioning due to pollution issues from phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment. 

Pollution control

Pollution control for the above NMPs includes measures for both point sources and diffuse sources. 

For diffuse sources, there are various measures such as integrated soil, water and nutrient management plans for farms; encouraging the use of winter storage reservoirs within the horticultural sector; rectifying sewer misconnections and reverting to semi natural vegetation.

At point sources, examples of measures include upgrading sewage treatment works to strip out nutrients; reducing phosphorus emissions from fish farms and cress farms; preventing infiltration to the sewer network; reducing discharges from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and examining the potential to retrofit Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS).

New development

An NMP is a potential barrier to the construction of housing and other infrastructure in these catchments, particularly where the development could increase nutrient loads in sewage. 

Given the urgent need for new housing in the UK, this is a real concern. However, if the resulting nutrients can be removed at the sewage treatment works or be offset through measures to reduce diffuse pollution, developments can still proceed. 

Potential restrictions vary. For example, at the River Mease, new development can only take place if it contributes to the Developer Contribution Scheme so as to be phosphate neutral. Developer Contribution Scheme contributions from residential development coming forward in the first development window are calculated by the size of the dwelling and how sustainable it is. 

At Poole Harbour, new development can only take place if it mitigates 25 percent of the additional nitrogen it produces (Wessex Water is expected to remove the other 75 percent at sewage treatment works). 

A supplementary planning document (SPD) lays out the process for councils to secure mitigation from Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 agreements.

Increased clarity 

The SPD provides examples of nitrate loads for different development types and mitigation options. The developer has up to four choices for the Section 106 agreement, including to provide alternative technologies to remove the remaining nitrogen, increase the size of Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspaces (SANGs) on agricultural land, agree with the council a change to the management of agricultural land in the wider landholding in perpetuity, and/or purchase agricultural land elsewhere within the catchment and use it for mitigation.

The River Avon NMP originally allowed development within the existing headroom of sewage treatment works. However, the Environment Agency and Natural England subsequently advised that development must be phosphate neutral as targets in the NMP were unlikely to be met by 2021. 

Post 2025, it is assumed that upgraded sewage treatment works will remove additional phosphorus. A joint Memorandum of Understanding provides for interim mitigation which will be funded primarily through CIL paid by developers, 

Specific schemes to facilitate development in a controlled manner, such as those for the River Mease, the River Avon and Poole Harbour, are important because they provide clarity to developers on what measures they need to adopt to comply with the NMP.

However, experience suggests that there are still areas of uncertainty for developers, for example around the level of reliance that can be placed on water companies to upgrade sewage treatment works beyond the current Asset Management Plan (AMP) and on the level of nutrients that can be assumed to be removed by different offsetting measures. 

Increased clarity on these issues is required so that the urgent need for new housing can be met, while fully protecting these important aquatic habitats. 

This Author 

Dr Steve Mustow is director and head of environmental planning at WYG.

Malaysian firm Top Glove, the world’s largest glovemaker, has vowed to clean up its labour supply chain and workplace practices after cases were uncovered of migrants toiling for long hours to pay off huge debts. 

The firm, a major supplier of medical and rubber gloves to 195 countries including Britain and the United States, employs more than 11,000 migrant workers, from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India. 

At some of its factories outside the Malaysian capital, workers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they often work long hours to earn overtime pay, and in some cases exceed the limit of overtime hours stipulated under local labour laws. 

Unethical recruitment

Workers interviewed said they hoped to quickly repay loans of at least 5,000 Malaysian ringgit ($1,200) they took out to pay recruitment agents in their home countries. They said others were charged up to 20,000 Malaysian ringgit. 

Top Glove is not alone in hiring migrants who pay agents to secure a job. The practice is common across all Malaysian sectors which hire workers from overseas. 

Top Glove said it was not aware of its labour suppliers charging exorbitant fees to migrant workers but vowed to investigate and severe ties with unethical recruitment agents. 

Lee Kim Meow, the company’s managing director, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: “We will want to stop dealing with such suppliers if we know they are very unscrupulous. It’s our duty to do that, we will never condone it.

“We need workers, no doubt, but we will not stoop so low to support people who exploit workers.” He was speaking in an interview at the company’s office in Klang, an industrial area outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Working overtime 

High recruitment fees are a common plight faced by the nearly two million registered migrant workers in Malaysia, which relies heavily on foreign labour in industries from plantations and construction to manufacturing. 

The United Nations’ International Labour Organization has said these debts could trap workers in bondage, and businesses have come under pressure in recent years to clean up their labour supply chains. 

Migrant workers at Top Glove said they were paid at least 1,000 Malaysian ringgit a month, Malaysia’s minimum wage, and given access to their passport under a locker system that had been advocated by local rights groups. 

But they work a lot of overtime to earn enough to pay off their debts. Workers at the factory clock 90 to 120 hours of overtime work a month, according to documents seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

Under Malaysian laws, workers should be given a rest day each week and work not more than 104 hours of overtime a month. 

Huge loans

A Nepali, who declined to use his name out of fear for his job, said: “If I don’t work these extra hours, how could I possibly earn enough?” 

He borrowed a $1,100 loan from a moneylender with a three percent interest rate every month to pay his agent in Nepal. 

Top Glove said it has rolled out a “shift pattern change” since March across its 40 factories to ensure workers get adequate rest. 

Top Glove’s deputy human resources head Loke Kean Mun said: “Definitely this is an area where we will have to pay attention,” and added that the measures are in place to “overcome all this excessive overtime. 

“This is where we definitely have to enforce and tighten up (across all factories).” 

Glove capital

Malaysia has become the world’s glove capital, and produces three out of every five pairs used in the world, according to the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association. 

Top Glove, which produces 60.5 billion gloves each year, is the world’s leading glove manufacturer followed by other Malaysia-based firms like Hartalega, Kossan and Supermax. 

Malaysia’s new government, which came to power in May on promises to reform – ousting a long-ruling, corruption-mired coalition – has vowed to improve conditions for migrant workers. 

Without referring to any specific firms, Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran told the Thomson Reuters Foundation this week that major companies in the country must take the lead to ensure there are no labour abuses. 

Kulasegaran, a veteran lawyer who grew up on a rubber estate and has championed worker’s rights prior to his appointment, said: “The big companies must take it upon themselves to be more strict in enforcing these rules. We will prosecute if there are any wrongdoings.”

This Author 

Beh Lih Yi is is a reporter at the Thomson Reuters Foundation focussing on slavery, human trafficking, gender equality & environment in Asia.@behlihyi. 

This article was first published by Thomson Reuters.

This is the story of Mark Constantine, the founder of Lush, a company committed to cruelty-free cosmetics.

It is a remarkable biography of a man who grew up without a father, failed in school exams, did not go to university, and as a young man was homeless and penniless. All these difficulties proved to be a blessing in disguise, and made him strong.

The latest edition of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is out now!

The turning point came when Constantine met Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop. They were kindred spirits and hit it off immediately. They collaborated in their businesses and shared their passion to produce perfumes and cosmetics that embodied social and environmental values.

Political issues 

After The Body Shop was sold and Roddick met her premature death, Constantine established his own business, Lush, in a similar spirit.

It could almost be said that in many ways Lush is the heir to The Body Shop. All Lush products are 100 percent vegetarian and largely unpackaged. Minimum waste and maximum recycling are the principles and practices Constantine has established at Lush.

Moreover, the campaigning zeal of Lush shows that a business can also be a champion of good causes.

In recent times, we have seen Lush’s campaign to highlight sexual abuse by undercover police officers. Lush produced a poster depicting a man as half police officer and half civilian spy; the caption read “PAID TO LIE #SPYCOPS”. This caused much controversy, but it showed that a business has the ability to stand up for social integrity and take direct action.

Lush has run a number of other campaigns to create awareness about social, environmental and political issues.

Moving story 

In addition to being a perfume dealer and a social activist, Constantine is a keen birdwatcher. His books and CDs of bird life and birdsong are a heartfelt celebration of Nature.

He has devoted a great deal of time, money and love to creating the Birds of Poole Harbour website, which has become a wonderful source of information and inspiration for people who are interested in the rich life of birds in one of England’s most beautiful locations.

Dear John was written in the context of Constantine’s not knowing where his father, John, was, or whether he was dead or alive. The author, Jeff Osment, a friend of Mark’s from childhood, took it upon himself to search for John.

Thanks to Osment, there was an emotional reunion of father and son after 58 years of separation; John Constantine had migrated to a town called Pelindaba, in South Africa.

This is a moving story told in a sympathetic and mostly non-judgemental manner. Mark Constantine’s story shows that success can come from struggle and that through persistence and resilience you can even reconnect with your lost father.

This Author

Satish Kumar is editor emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. His autobiography, No Destination, is published by Green Books. Dear John: The Road To Pelindaba: The Unexpected Life Story of Mark Constantine OBE Co-Founder of Lush is available from all good bookstores.

The latest edition of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is out now.

When I talk to other people about climate anxiety our experiences are often the same. First, there’s a heavy feeling of powerlessness, which can be overwhelming, but often this is followed by a sense of grim determination. Perhaps this is where courage comes from.

In the words of Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch, “real courage” is when “you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what”. Now, more than ever, we need to muster our courage to make a change.

The latest edition of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is out now!

From Heathrow airport in the UK to Germany’s Hambach Forest and the Zone to Defend in France – as well as the growing non-violent movement Extinction Rebellion – the actions of peaceful activists across the world featured in the following pages show that feelings of dread can be transformed into optimism and hope.

Sneak peak

Non-violent protest isn’t the only way to do this, of course. Natalie Bennett writes in the Ecologist section: “Everyone has a role, from promoting actions on social media and answering questions from family and colleagues… to baking quiches and cakes for the protesters…”

In our Arts section, Alice Kettle writes about a project bringing together refugees, asylum seekers and concerned people across the world to create incredible textile landscapes and stitched ‘forests’ to form a “unique kind of activism”. “I’m just an artist. I can’t resolve these issues,” she writes, “but I can show that I care.”

The future doesn’t have to be worst-case scenario, and if we work together it can be something to celebrate.

In our Keynotes feature, Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson lay out ways we can do this by addressing the inequality that is currently crippling society. “Change on the scale needed can only be achieved if large numbers of people commit themselves to achieving it,” they write.

“We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it,” WWF UK chief executive Tanya Steele said on the launch of their Living Planet report in October. The end of 2018 may be remembered as the moment the realities of climate breakdown hit the mainstream. There’s still a chance 2019 will be known as the year we began to change things for the better. 

This Author 

Marianne Brown is editor of Resurgence & Ecologist. The latest edition of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine is out now.

The future landscape of the energy industry is set to be transformed by technological innovations that drive towards a more convenient, efficient and ecological infrastructure.

Energy systems of the future will be vastly different to what we know and use today. The scale of change over the next couple of decades will be considerable.

It’s common knowledge that burning fossil fuels as a way to harbour energy is both dirty and bad for the environment. Technological advancements in the energy sector will look to leave this approach in the past.

Decentralised production

As we stand, the burning of fossil fuels takes place in a small number of large-scale plants. These currently work at about 50 percent efficiency and waste a significant amount of heat. Future energy plants will be smaller in scale and far more commonplace.

These producers of low-cost renewables will bring energy to a local level, allowing the everyday person to generate and trade energy.

A significant benefit of bringing energy production to a local level is the reduction is waste. Surplus heat from localised producers will be passed on to nearby homes and businesses. By taking a local approach, we are also likely to see a reduction in waste as energy has less distance to cover.

This shift towards a new greener way of producing and consuming energy will only be possible if major consumers are on board.

For instance, the cold chain in the UK is believed to currently consume around 14 percent of all electricity, with food retailers operating large networks of machines distributed throughout the UK.

Internet of energy

The Internet of Things is an emerging tech industry which is already receiving a significant amount of press and attention. This type of technology is starting to be utilised to deliver a greener approach to energy use.

The ‘internet of energy’ will make use of connected digital systems to control how we use and store energy. Modern appliances are being designed with a level of interconnectivity. This means we can programme each item to use or not use energy when we choose. 

An example of this will be the flexibility to allow for power surges or lulls. For instance, at half time of major football matches, there’s usually a surge of energy demand when people make drinks or food. To meet this demand, we can either utilise the power from a local power station or alternatively, power down other appliances for as little as ten minutes to satisfy the excess needs in an eco-friendly way. 

This goes a step further. If you have a surplus of energy (such as an electric vehicle), it will be notified of the demand and, if programmed to do so, sell some of its stored energy back to the grid to make you money. 

Energy as a service

It’s important for energy to become part of the circular economy. This is where resources are kept in use for as long as possible, recovered, regenerated and re-used wherever possible.

For this to be a reality, there will need to be a shift away from buying energy in kWh and towards buying energy as a service.

Buying energy as a service means that consumers won’t purchase energy from a supplier. They’ll instead pay a company for energy at the best price, get the best value from the energy they generate and will actively improve the efficiency of their homes so they use less.

Free energy

Energy doesn’t have to be a drain on the environment – or people’s wallets.

It has become easier than ever for us to generate green energy. The cost of renewable equipment is falling while the amount of energy on the grid is increasing.

The UK is now home to so many renewables that on particularly sunny or windy days, there’s actually a surplus of energy on the grid. 

This can have a negative effect on wholesale prices, meaning you could actually be paid to use or store the energy. Essentially allowing consumers to enjoy free green energy.

Focus on consumers

One of the largest changes that will take place is that consumers will find themselves at the very core of the energy industry.

The control will be placed in their hands and it’s important for users to be educated on how to be as eco-friendly with this as possible. An active user of energy in the future will be able to play a vital role in ensuring our energy isn’t having a detrimental impact on the Earth.

If you’d like to see more videos like this, you can subscribe to Innovate UK’s YouTube channel here.

Additionally, you can follow @InnovateUK on Twitter here.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Innovate UK. 

Veganism is vogue. Democracy is de rigueur. So was it just the feeling that being pescatarian was simply not cutting edge enough that prompted me to let readers of The Ecologist vote on whether I should go vegan for January?

The fact that there is no substantive difference between animals that live in the sea and those that live on the land had, after all, not been enough to get me over the line. I gave up squid immediately on seeing the extraordinary intelligence and playfulness of the sea creature that appeared on Blue Planet II. My empathy for salmon took longer to finally manifest itself in a full-on fish-fast.

I became pescatarian when I was 14 years old, and vegetarian some six months later. More recently, I realised I was both lactose and gluten intolerant and decided to add fish and seafood back to my diet. Giving up cheese was so much easier than I expected, but North Devon haddock and chips, and Whitstable oysters had seemed impossible to forgo.

Increasing commitment 

Until now. The Ecologist has been publishing more and more stories about veganism since I have been editor.

Louise Davies and her colleagues at the Vegan Society publish articles regularly, and we’ve also been promoting Veganuary – 14,000 signed up to the vegan pledge on Saturday alone. I read every word with interest and compassion. I started to feel that to publish such powerful arguments, but then essentially to ignore them was inconsistent at best.

But I also felt that my edginess was blunt, I was behind the times. That younger versions of me had come to expect a higher level of commitment to animal welfare and climate change action. Claiming the moral high ground of a non-meat diet while contributing to the dramatic decline in sea populations just didn’t cut it any more. I believe completely that Simon Amstell’s Carnage is the future.

So I wanted to reach out and speak to the readers of The Ecologist directly. I gave the subscribers to our newsletter the chance to vote on my diet, on what is for many a solely personal choice. Hundreds of people voted. Democracy in action, on a one-human scale. The results were quite close, but decisive nonetheless. 62.8 percent have so far voted in favour of my going 100 percent vegan.

That’s me committed for Veganuary. If my health and happiness is maintained, I will carry on from there. I feel well prepared. I have a cupboard stuffed with tins of various types of beans, and another brimming with fresh spices. The challenge is to make sure you get enough protein and nutrients, and some nice treats of course.

Over to you 

To help me on this culinary journey I turned again to readers of The Ecologist and asked them for their advice on how best to change my diet in a way which was conscious and also fulfilling. I have been overwhelmed by the response and now share the very best advice with you all.

Focus on gradual reduction in animal products first rather than going completely vegan. It’s more sustainable, gentler on the body and has more overall benefit for animals and the environment than lots of people trying a crash course in veganism and quickly abandoning it because it’s too hard. – Kirsten Campbell, 40, a Pesca-vegan who works in education in Southend.

Get into the habit of viewing every product as the impact it has, not just as the food you see in front of you. For example, I can’t see anything beef-related without seeing images of deforestation. – Benjamin Wragg, 19, a vegan student from York.

For lazy / treat nights –  the most delicious ready made frozen meals (especially their amazing macaroni cheese) from a vegan company called allplants.com. – Louise Lumb, 49, a ‘very happy vegan’ from Hertford who works in mental health.

Cook everything you eat yourself from scratch – as much as possible. You will notice how much more time and money it consumes to actually prepare meat dishes that can at all be considered healthy enough to eat. Or the other way around, you will notice how easy it is to cook vegan (and how much money you have left over!) if you set your minimum requirement to fair and healthy already before going vegan. – Suule Soo, 30, a freegan student.

‘Fry everything’

I always tell people I’m 90 percent vegan. This usually gets a question: what does that mean? I’m vegan, but not puritanically so. If I can’t find anything else to eat, or if someone gives me a meal and there’s fish or dairy in it, I’ll eat it because they gave it to me. Oh, and I don’t preach about being vegan, because it’s so tedious to be preached to… – Lucy Weir, 52, a residential support worker and writer from Enniskerry.

Find a good source of omega-3 fatty acids: chia seeds, brussels sprouts, algal oil, hemp seeds, walnuts, flaxseeds, perilla oil. Spend the money you save on eating meat on good quality chocolate. – Angie Burke, 51, a vegan and the trust manager at Resurgence Trust, owner and publisher of The Ecologist.

Fry everything possible in homemade vegan butter before adding to soup, stew, pudding, etc – or eat straight from frying-pan!  Fried mashed potato superb delicacy – from Humberside. – Edith Crowther, 64, a secretary from Carlton-on-Trent.

Shopping, a chore at the best of times, is so much easier and quicker when you get to leave out the meat, fish and dairy isles in the supermarket.– Mark Bevis, 55, a writer and doomosphere walker from Burnley.

I tend to like health shop vegan food better than supermarket versions – although I’ve found some products I really enjoy like Tesco veggie bacon, which surprised me. Good old fashioned TVP is my veggie mince of choice, rehydrated with stock or passata. A bag from the local health food shop for about £1 lasts ages. Wild mushrooms have high vitamin D if you are confident in picking them. I’ve found thinly sliced mushrooms that are really well-fried, almost to the point of over-frying, taste very bacony. The best vegan cheese spread I’ve found is Sheese by Bute Island. I shop around and have even found vegan products in Poundstretcher recently at a fraction of the price of health-food stores. Good flavoured firm tofu can be found in Chinese supermarkets. – Lauren Foster, 44, a recent MA graduate from Loughborough.

Addicted to cheese?

Be gentle with yourself and adventurous with your new food discoveries. – Diana van Eyk, 61, a self-employed vegan from Nelson.

Stop looking at meat as chop/burger/nugget and think instead of the innocent lamb, cow, pig, chicken herbivore flesh/body part that once served the same functions as your own but was then  slaughtered to feed you: we are all animals. – Stella Lee, a vegetarian.

Like many people, I was addicted to cheese, and giving it up was my biggest worry. When I found myself craving it or being offered it I focused my mind on the mother/child bond being violently broken, and how much emotional and physical pain it causes both cows and calves. Within a couple of weeks of not eating dairy I wasn’t craving cheese any more. – Michelle Waters, an artist and vegan from Santa Cruz Mountains, California.

Spend a week or three watching Youtube vegan video travelogues – especially of London vegan cooks. As for The Ecologist editor’s love for fish – why not visit some of the best vegan Vish and Chip places in London recommended by Youtubers. By Chloe looks very tasty and Hackney Downs vegan market/eateries have real street cred and fairly low prices. – Paul Govan, 43, an electric vehicle campaigner from Gloucester.

Always keep in mind the reason you are doing it. For me it was to contribute to creating a world free as far as possible of intentional harm committed by humans to other animal species. I found it helpful to remember veganism is not about perfection but about living more kindly and mindfully. Be patient with yourself while transitioning, be prepared for trial and error in finding new animal free substitutes that you like. Joining local online vegan communities can help give feedback about decent vegan food and products in your area. The free-from aisles and vegetarian freezer sections in your local supermarkets have an increasing number of good options. Be prepared to shop around if you do not like cooking from scratch. The food can be both expensive and inexpensive – depending on if you purchase ready made meals or cook from scratch. There are low budget options.  It is getting easier all the time. Fiona Farrell, who works in purchasing in Edinburgh.

Animal cruelty

Go vegan for a while, and then notice how it feels and how your body reacts to it! I tried vegan myself but discovered that I feel much better on a “vegan-ish” diet – meaning that I eat mostly veggies but incorporate good fats, some eggs and a little bit of organic meat. Going vegan gave me brain-fog and fatigue, and it made me realise that what works for some might not work for everybody. There are tons of ways of supporting a healthier planet and animal welfare while still having a bit of animal protein. And if we can make everybody cut their animal protein consumption and choose organic and C02 friendly products when they do eat animal protein, then it will have a huge impact. But most of all, it’s up to each of us individually to take some responsibility for what we eat and look at how our food was produced. The great thing about going vegan is that it forces you to reconsider what you eat. So trying it is a great thing. But if a 100 percent vegan diet doesn’t work for you, tweak it until it does. – Hannah Geismar, 47, an independent Krusaa and a ‘vegan-ish paleo flexitarian with a twist of LCHF’.

Find an experience or image of farmed animal cruelty that appals you, and keep this to hand for every time you start to waiver. The first time I went vegan – in the mid 80s to the mid 90s – it was the experience of waiting for a herd of Devon dairy cows to pass me that were being driven by one man and his bad temper and a stick. He frequently hit the cows at the back of the queue who couldn’t move forward fast enough because of the crush of bodies in front, and one cow in particular who was rolling her eyes in fear, and kicking herself in the udder when she tried to run, causing even more pain. She had been bred to produce so much milk that her teats were nearly scraping the ground. She was trapped by her man made biology and trapped by a man and his beatings of her. I thought of her every time I wanted a Snickers bar, and thought, ‘not in my name’. – Ama Menec, 53, a vegan and sculptor from Totnes.

Eating dhal. Pulses generally are healthy, filling and a good source of protein, and there are so many ways of preparing them, eastern and western. Dhal is pretty easy to whip up, and with rice and salad or other vegetable makes a tasty meal. For minimal prep try the Spice Sailor brand.- Shehana Gomez, a flexitarian law tutor from Bath.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist, founder of Request Initiative and co-author of Impact of Market Forces on Addictive Substances and Behaviours: The web of influence of addictive industries (Oxford University Press). He tweets at @EcoMontague. The photograph above is of an art installation at the Unity Diner in Hoxton by @tallys_art.
 

Dolphins are picky about who they are friends with and shun rival groups. However, groups still managed to cooperate by sharing the sea, taking turns to inhabit particular areas. 

A new study by an international team of researchers, led by the University of St Andrews, and published in Marine Biology, investigated the social network of dolphins in the northern Adriatic Sea.

It showed that dolphins living in the Gulf of Trieste form distinct social groups, and some don’t like each other.

Best friends

It is widely known that dolphins usually live in groups, and in the case of the common bottlenose dolphin the composition of these groups changes often, with members often joining or leaving.

However, these groups are not random. Rather, it is individual dolphins preferring to spend time with other individuals who could be described as their “best friends”.

The researchers, from the Morigenos Slovenian Marine Mammals Society and the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of St Andrews, studied the dolphins in the region for more than 16 years.

They found that the dolphin society in the Gulf of Trieste comprised three distinct groups: two large social groups with stable membership and long-lasting friendships, and a smaller third social group, nicknamed “freelancers”, with much weaker bonds and no long-lasting friendships.

Although the two large groups tended to avoid each other, they did manage to share particular areas of the sea, with each group using them at different times of the day. Such temporal partitioning based on time of day has not previously been documented in whales and dolphins, nor in other mammals.

Animal behaviour 

Tilen Genov, of SMRU at St Andrews, said: “We were quite surprised by this. It is not uncommon for dolphins to segregate into different parts of the sea, but to have certain times of the day in which they gather is unusual.

“We would sometimes see one social group in the morning and then the group in the same area in the late afternoon.”

The study demonstrates how different segments of the same animal population may behave very differently. In turn they may react differently to human behaviour.

This article 

This article is based on a press release from the University of St Andrews.

The operators of industrial-scale livestock farms have received millions of pounds of public funds in the last two years, The Guardian has revealed, despite concerns over the spread of US-style factory farming across the British countryside.

Farms supplying some of the largest and most influential food companies that now dominate the UK’s meat and dairy sectors are amongst those receiving support.

A data analysis by the Guardian and Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found that recipients of almost £70 million in subsidies in 2016 and 2017 include individuals and companies running feedlot-style beef units, rearing thousands of cattle in outdoor yards; so-called megadairies, with herds of up to 1,800 cows; intensive egg producers using cage housing systems; poultry megafarms and pig units which keep thousands of animals permanently indoors; livestock units that have been found guilty of pollution and animal health breaches. 

Financial support

As revealed by the Bureau, the number of intensive pig and poultry farms in the UK has increased by more than a quarter in recent years. Coupled with a rise of intensive production in the dairy and beef sectors this has raised concerns over water pollution with livestock faeces, disease and animal welfare.

Opponents claim that smaller farms could be pushed out of business by the trend, leading to the takeover of the countryside by large agribusinesses, with a loss of traditional family-run units.

The data showed that individuals and companies linked to intensive poultry farms across the UK received the most money in subsidies, at 32 million pounds. The operators of pig and dairy factory farms were given 18 million and 16 million pounds respectively, while the figure for intensive beef farms was two million. The total sum received could be higher.

In many cases, subsidies are indirect, with a farmer receiving financial support for one aspect of their business – crop growing, for example – rather than the factory farm itself.

Environmental standards

The shadow environment secretary, Sue Hayman MP, said the subsidy payments “were encouraging more, and larger, intensive livestock farms”.

She continued: “This is not the way to build a thriving and sustainable food sector.”

Dr Taro Takahashi, a researcher at the University of Bristol and Rothamsted Research, said the payment of subsidies to intensive farms may be justifiable if they were found to be improving environmental standards. 

He said: “It is unreasonable to preclude megafarms from the public payment system purely because they are already large-scale. The question, though, is whether these funds are indeed improving the environment and ecology of our countryside to sufficiently justify the investment – and research to date has been inconclusive either way. There is definitely an urgent need to examine this issue further.”

Labour has pledged to investigate the effects of megafarms on animal welfare and the environment, and to design post-Brexit farm subsidies that “move away from intensive factory farming and bad environmental practices”.

Animal welfare

Dr Nick Palmer, head of Compassion in World Farming UK, said: “These astonishing findings fly in the face of the attempt to establish Britain as a world leader in welfare standards and to maintain a sustainable British farming industry in the uncertain years after Brexit.”

The industry says that strict controls on industrial-scale farms mean that disease, pollution and the carbon footprint can be kept to a minimum. They also point out that such farms can produce for consumers at a lower cost than small-scale farms.

The National Pig Association (NPA), which represents pig farmers, says only farmers operating mixed farms – for example, keeping livestock and growing crops – receive subsidies. Defra confirmed that farmers who only farm pig or poultry are not eligible subsidies where the animals are always kept indoors. 

Dr Zoe Davies of the NPA said: “We continue to disagree with the sentiment that ‘intensive’ production automatically equals poor welfare. High quality well trained stock people and sufficient resource and vet support are the most important attributes which determine an animals welfare, not the number of animals present or the system within which they are reared.

“British pig welfare standards are some of the highest in the world and farmers take pride in providing affordable, quality food for all consumers.”

Researching subsidies 

The British Poultry Council said that “indoor poultry production does not attract subsidies under CAP or its proposed replacement.”

The sum of subsidies payments paid to those running intensive farms was calculated by cross-referencing registers of intensive UK farming operations for pig and poultry, and other databases of intensively-reared UK beef and dairy cattle, with the Defra register of Common Agricultural Payments payments made to farmers in 2016 and 2017.

Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) maintain a public register of all permit-requiring “intensive” pig and poultry farms, which are classified as such if they can house indoors at least 40,000 poultry birds, 2,000 pigs grown for meat, or 750 breeding pigs.

The database of intensive beef and dairy operations was compiled through earlier research by the Bureau.

The actual amount of subsidies is likely to be higher, principally because large numbers of pig farms in the UK are believed to fall below the size threshold for requiring a Defra/EA permit. Many such farms house their pigs indoors and would therefore be considered intensive by most experts, but are absent from the data.

Direct payments 

The march of American-style “megafarms” or CAFOs – defined in the US as facilities housing 125,000 chickens for meat, 82,000 laying hens, 2,500 pigs, 1,000 beef or 700 dairy cattle – has previously been revealed in an investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau.

Most of these farms have gone unnoticed, despite their size and the controversy surrounding them, in part because many farmers have expanded existing facilities rather than seeking new sites. 

Defra responded to the findings by pointing to the government’s plans for subsidies post-Brexit. “At the moment, Direct Payments are allocated according to the size of individual land holdings, not the way in which that land is farmed. Our proposed new system will move away from this, rewarding farmers for delivering public goods such as environmental protection and the health and welfare of livestock,” said a Defra spokesperson.

“This will help farmers to grow food in a more sustainable way and it will ensure public money is spent more efficiently and effectively.”

Vicki Hird of the food system campaign group Sustain warned: “The Agriculture Bill, as currently drafted, is an empty vessel as it contains powers not duties and no budget. So unless it is amended, Michael Gove is really not obliged to deliver much – the opportunity to either encourage sustainable, high welfare farming or to discourage the most polluting, intensive forms of megafarms.”

Subsidies explained

The European Common Agricultural Policy – or CAP – began in 1962 with guaranteed prices for farmers, the aim being to guarantee the security of Europe’s food supply.

In the 1970s and 1980s the policy resulted in overproduction, resulting in “milk lakes” and “butter mountains”. This led to an eventual shift from market support to direct subsidies for producers in the early 1990s, in an attempt to decouple support for farmers from the amount of food they produced.

The CAP has been controversial in the UK partly because the country receives much less from the budget than it contributes. The EU-wide mechanism for distributing subsidies also means large landowners get more money just for owning more land. 

In September 2018, the environment secretary Michael Gove launched his proposed Agriculture Bill, setting out future support for UK farmers after Brexit.

The bill sets out a seven year transition period from 2021, during which farmers will potentially be rewarded for public goods such as high environmental standards, ending direct payments after 2027. 

These Authors

Andrew Wasley is  an award-winning investigative journalist specialising in food and farming issues. He is the co-founder of the ethical investigative agency Ecostorm and was editor of The Ecologist magazine between 2010 and 2012. Alexandra Heal is a reporter with the Food and Farming project. She has freelanced for BBC News in Paris and London and has written for The Guardian and The Ecologist. Additional reporting by Emma Snaith.