Climate activists Extinction Rebellion need to think global, act local to meet its ambitious aim of reducing the country’s carbon emissions to zero by 2025 through direct action. This means taking on capitalism and big business by building support in local communities.

This is the advice from more than 50 subscribers to The Ecologist newsletter who responded to the question ‘what should XR do next?’ on Friday, and ahead of today’s announcement that Michael Gove, the environment minister, will meet representatives from the group.

The question was posed after a poll showed that 90 percent of newsletter subscribers fully supported XR following its shutdown of central London, and its direct actions across towns and cities in the UK and the rest of Europe.

Big business

“Call out the real beast which is the economic system of neoliberal capitalism,” proposed John Otvos, 71, a retired loudspeaker manufacturer from Woodville, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was among 15 respondents (or 29 percent) who wanted capitalism or big business to be the target of XR actions.

Martin Davies, 59, retired from Milton Keynes was among those arrested during the actions in London. He said XR should “widen and scale up civil disobedience as much as possible including a general strike.”

Gerður Pálmadottir, a lifelong entrepreneur from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, wants the group to “demand a return to the origin and purpose of economics, which was to make a system enabling all members of society to thrive together on the gifts of earth and the returns of hard work.

He added: “The soft measure to reach that is to demand a Unconditional Basic Income on earth. It will free a lot of people from useless work and steer them into purpose fulfillment, such as re-greening the earth. Teaming up with Earth in order to avoid our own extinction is a purpose worth striving for.”

Felicity Radford, 71, a retired librarian from Bristol, was arrested at the XR protests and was also among the respondents who wanted to target big business. “They should target ecocidal companies to warn them that their time is up unless they change their policies,” she said, adding: “Then, after a pause to see how the government responds, do another massive occupation of London if necessary.”

Ecocides

Margarette Green, 69, from Devizes, wants to “lobby the banks to divest fossils and regenerate forests” while Jill Bruce, 68, the Women’s Institute Climate Ambassador, wants to “avoid disrupting public transport” and instead “target businesses that are adding to the climate change problem”.

Lesley Grahame, 59, a nurse from Norwich, spoke for many when he said XR should “build capacity, target guilty corporations – fossil fuels, finance, big armaments.” Liz Jensen, a writer from Copenhagen, told The Ecologist: XR could invite the corporations causing the worst damage to imagine featuring in future school exam questions about Eco Criminals of History.”

Jim, a land manager from Co Clare in Ireland, said: “Focus on retail, polluting industries and intensive agricultural activities. The highlighting of the high nutrient and energy use by these sectors feeds into the wasteful consumption model of capitalism.

“The retail and online retailers should also be disrupted by protest. The high consumption model of wasteful resource use facilitated by and encouraged by advertising and branding of goods often created in states with poor labour and environmental safeguards, cannot often be highlighted in the countries of manufacture, they can however be highlighted at point of retail.”

Conor Mcdonald, 46, a property owner and manager from Liverpool, concluded: “Let’s start hitting companies and businesses that are committing ecocide. Name and shame. Hit their pockets. If we educate people and they in turn stop using these services, companies will have to change.”

Local action

There was also strong support for XR lobbying politicians to bring about change. The second key demand of the group is that the government should declare a climate emergency and introduce the radical target of reducing carbon emissions down to zero by 2025. They have secured meetings with Gove, while Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has ensured there will be a vote in the House of Commons.

Marion Winslow, 64, a psychotherapist from Reading, said: “Ask for a commitment from governments to do everything humanly possible to get a worldwide commitment to act in concert in directly reducing and then eliminating fossil fuel extraction as Mike Berners-Lee argues in his book There is No Planet B.

“Probably through effective use of carbon pricing combined with the ‘human technology’ of effective communication/Nonviolent Communication and the existing experts in global governance and its challenges. The proposals in the book could also be introduced into citizenship education in schools on a rapid timescale.”

Micheal Shea, 63, retired and living in Sydney, Australia, said that XR should “become more involved in the political process and in more political decision making, politics is responsible for the state the world is in [today].”

There was also a clear call for XR to focus on local action, and for its members and supporters to build vibrant, inclusive and creative groups in their own communities. Schools were also seen as an important space for winning hearts and minds.

Escalate

Rita Bouchard, 54, from Los Angeles, works in education and said: “Since most educators in some way, shape, or form know and care about climate change, the next thing XR should move on is creating discussion starters.

“The discussion / dialogue starters could be used to gauge student feelings about the climate and set into place inquiry projects where kids can think of solutions. The younger the kids the better, because most kids love the earth and all the organisms that share it. And they have not been so stifled [that they cannot] have creative solutions.

If climate change [action has a] sense of urgency for them, they won’t stop talking about the ideas they have. Teachers willing to implement a participatory curriculum will allow those ideas (however crazy) to be heard and give voice to those kids. This will set into action a praxis leading to self-generating self-motivating community that feels power to change “what is”…Who doesn’t love a youngster who wants to affect change!”

Jacquie Mercer, 59, a technical writer from Cambridge, said: “Could XR block the traffic in a different city each week, going around the country? Could XR be active with the school children who miss school on Fridays? Could campaigners offer to go into schools – on Fridays – to take part in lessons or hold meetings in breaks?”

Mark Keir, 59, a gardener from West Drayton, took part in the London actions and was among those who were arrested suggested that XR activists “take a breather from national actions to regenerate and to consider successes and failings, what to do better and how to escalate.

Marvellous

“Autumn might seem a good time for the next national action though we live in very fluid times. In the meantime, local actions should serve to keep us in the news and public awareness. Personally, I would like to see a revival of the Earth Marches but with direct interaction with communities on the way – such as the Extinction Speech, or engagement with local environmental and social care campaigns.”

The style and ethics of XR was also important to those who responded. There was a call for XR to “keep upping the ante in creative ways, stay loving, demonstrate a better way of being with others,” and also to “become more radical – in a good way.” Other respondents said the actions should be “peaceful” and “cause no harm”

More than 50 readers of The Ecologist gave their views to participate in this article. A total of 23 described themselves as members of XR, while 16 took place in the London direct actions. Three were arrested (and made clear they were happy to have this reported).

Carl Blumanthal, 58, a vet from South Africa, who took part in the London protests, captured the mood when he said XR must “not let up! I think what has been achieved is marvellous. It represents the beginning of the Great Turning. I hear the first creakings of the machine and feel hope… I feel the same glimmers of hope as when the end of Apartheid was nigh.”  

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist.

Three protesters have glued themselves to City Hall in London to raise awareness of climate change ahead of the EU elections.

Andrew Medhurst, an ex-banker, Larch Maxey, a teacher, and Roger Hallam, a PhD student, are all running as independent candidates in the EU elections as part of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Independents group.

Mothiur Rahman, a lawyer who is standing for the group, said outside of City Hall: “Not enough is being done. We are taking the practice … of non-violent civil disobedience into the European elections, because the status quo isn’t working.

Inspired

“Would you put your child on a bus if there were a 50/50 chance of it crashing? We need to act now, it’s an emergency.

“We’ve chosen City Hall because (Mayor) Sadiq Khan has made some steps – the London Assembly has declared a Climate Emergency – that’s just a declaration, it’s just words.

“It’s not enough – we can’t let this be a greenwashing. The dangers are quite clear.”

The group, which is fielding nine candidates in the European elections, said it has been inspired by youth climate protesters.

Citizens

Its manifesto involves three aims, similar to that of the protest group Extinction Rebellion:

– The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament must tell the truth and take action to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency.

– The Declaration on a Climate and Ecological Emergency must demand a zero carbon Europe by a date no later than 2030.

– National Citizen Assemblies on Climate & Ecological Justice must be instituted and have a leading role in shaping a zero carbon Europe

This Author

Mason Boycott-Owen is a reporter with the Press Association.

Environmental protesters have targeted the cycling team sponsored by energy giant Ineos.

The cyclists formerly known as Team Sky are taking part in the Tour de Yorkshire and demonstrators gathered at the team bus at the start of the event in Doncaster.

The protest comes after Friends of the Earth issued an open letter to team principal Sir Dave Brailsford, accusing chemical multinational Ineos of using sport to “greenwash” its name given its interests in fracking and its status as a large-scale producer of plastic.

Villages

Questions about fracking and plastics dominated the Team Ineos launch press conference, which was held this week at a remote pub in North Yorkshire.

The British-registered squad are known as Team Ineos as of this week, after the team was sold to the UK’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is the Ineos chairman.

Anti-fracking groups were among the several dozen protesters who waved placards outside the team bus where the opening stage of the race to Selby was due to start on Thursday. One protester shouted “sell out” as riders emerged from the bus.

Another protester, Deborah Gibson, told the Press Association: “We’re here to raise the issue of Team Ineos basically being here to ‘green-sheen’ their brand. There is nothing green about what Ineos do.”

Ms Gibson, from Harthill in South Yorkshire, said several villages in her area are due to be fracked in the near future.

Renewable

Elizabeth Clifton, from Misson, near Doncaster, said she had been protesting for several months over planned projects in her area, and described the Tour de Yorkshire as a “gift” for protesters.

“This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” she said. “Our group is up at the start and there’s a lot of people from different groups. I don’t think there’ll be anything physical. There may be some shouting.”

Critics say the amount of water needed for fracking is bad for the environment and claim it releases dangerous chemicals. They also say governments should focus on renewable energy.

Breakthroughts

Fracking restarted in the UK last autumn in Lancashire after it was suspended in 2011 following two earthquakes in the Blackpool area.

After energy firm Cuadrilla began fracking at Preston New Road in October, work had to be halted on several occasions because tremors above regulated limits were detected.

Cuadrilla and Ineos have called for the regulations on tremors to be relaxed to allow them to exploit shale gas reserves.

Ineos chairman Sir Jim has dismissed many of the concerns around fracking, calling many protest groups “ignorant”, criticising the government for listening to a “noisy minuscule minority”, and insisting his company had made significant breakthroughs on expanding the recycling of plastic.

This Author

This story is from the Press Association. Photograph: DrillOrDrop. 

Environmental protesters have targeted the cycling team sponsored by energy giant Ineos.

The cyclists formerly known as Team Sky are taking part in the Tour de Yorkshire and demonstrators gathered at the team bus at the start of the event in Doncaster.

The protest comes after Friends of the Earth issued an open letter to team principal Sir Dave Brailsford, accusing chemical multinational Ineos of using sport to “greenwash” its name given its interests in fracking and its status as a large-scale producer of plastic.

Villages

Questions about fracking and plastics dominated the Team Ineos launch press conference, which was held this week at a remote pub in North Yorkshire.

The British-registered squad are known as Team Ineos as of this week, after the team was sold to the UK’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is the Ineos chairman.

Anti-fracking groups were among the several dozen protesters who waved placards outside the team bus where the opening stage of the race to Selby was due to start on Thursday. One protester shouted “sell out” as riders emerged from the bus.

Another protester, Deborah Gibson, told the Press Association: “We’re here to raise the issue of Team Ineos basically being here to ‘green-sheen’ their brand. There is nothing green about what Ineos do.”

Ms Gibson, from Harthill in South Yorkshire, said several villages in her area are due to be fracked in the near future.

Renewable

Elizabeth Clifton, from Misson, near Doncaster, said she had been protesting for several months over planned projects in her area, and described the Tour de Yorkshire as a “gift” for protesters.

“This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” she said. “Our group is up at the start and there’s a lot of people from different groups. I don’t think there’ll be anything physical. There may be some shouting.”

Critics say the amount of water needed for fracking is bad for the environment and claim it releases dangerous chemicals. They also say governments should focus on renewable energy.

Breakthroughts

Fracking restarted in the UK last autumn in Lancashire after it was suspended in 2011 following two earthquakes in the Blackpool area.

After energy firm Cuadrilla began fracking at Preston New Road in October, work had to be halted on several occasions because tremors above regulated limits were detected.

Cuadrilla and Ineos have called for the regulations on tremors to be relaxed to allow them to exploit shale gas reserves.

Ineos chairman Sir Jim has dismissed many of the concerns around fracking, calling many protest groups “ignorant”, criticising the government for listening to a “noisy minuscule minority”, and insisting his company had made significant breakthroughs on expanding the recycling of plastic.

This Author

This story is from the Press Association. Photograph: DrillOrDrop. 

There exists a moment every year, around late April at about 10.45pm, where I find myself wrapped in overcoat and scarf, huddled in with 30 or so people somewhere in a woodland, waiting for folk song to be sung.

We will be in complete darkness, sitting on crisp, winter-worn leaves, when a familiar thought crosses my mind. We are gathered deep in a thicket somewhere in Sussex, or perhaps Kent, having met only hours earlier, to listen as many other audiences will be listening that very moment in concert halls around the country.

This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

But ours is a very special kind of concert. This musical collaboration is completely different from any other happening that night probably anywhere in the world. 

Sensuous mastersinger

I and one other ‘trained’ human musician sit silently, listening reverentially, and then, when the spirit calls, join in interpretive improvisation with a male nightingale perched maybe only 10 feet away as he sings his night song.

His ear-throbbingly loud cascade of over 200 phrases and sounds is a declarative, primal and utterly decorative pronouncement of his urge to connect to other nightingales and this landscape we are immersed in, and in doing so hopefully to find a mate.

But a returning thought teases my mind as we crouch entranced by the fluid and staccato notes of this sensuous mastersinger weaving decorations around the night’s silence. It’s impossible not to think upon the scarcity of this bird and the privilege of our respectful proximity and the acres of land that are sadly no longer bathed in ‘nightingaleness’ or any other red-list species’ springtime song as they once would have been.

The music bit of my brain also imagines the many ancient songs of Britain, Europe and the Near East that revere this bird’s exquisite vocal prowess and liquid-like lamentation.

But more than anything I wonder: why do we not experience music like this more often? Naked to the elements, free of physical boundaries, of hierarchies, of stages, of platforms, of red rope or red tape.

Nest collective

Music experienced intimately, in circles, knees overlapping one another, each person responsible for maintaining the silence, and architects of both concert hall and concerto, each a contributor to this experience.

Putting the environmental challenges aside – the cold, the possible wet, the lack of cushions – what we reap from taking this risk, of daring to experience music outside in Nature, is an exhilaration of all our senses simultaneously being fired off at once.

We realise that the context in which we have grown accustomed to hearing music nowadays denies us so much sensation that for millennia has been the forge in which our music, our language and our stories have evolved. 

This has become the philosophy and daring practice of Singing With Nightingales and many of the public events, campfire concerts, pilgrimages and musical experiences that we have developed at The Nest Collective, an organisation specialising in extraordinary music in unexpected places, in London and beyond.

The most pronounced of these are the Nightingale concerts, but also our Sussex Turtle Dove and Scottish Salmon pilgrimages – each one taking the songs born of the land back to the land.

Song repatriation

These radical ‘open to anyone’ experiences are all permission-granting interventions of communal song repatriation and Nature adoration.

Embedded in what we do in these events is the ‘broadcasting’ of sonic heirloom seeds in an attempt to restore and reinvigorate that ancient and intuitive coexistence with which our known (and long since forgotten) folk songs and the patterns of Nature have evolved. 

The reason is simple. We are Nature. And we need Nature as much as it needs us. Our collective repertoire of traditional Indigenous song has been inherited via a lineage of deeply connected ancestors whose attunement to the way of Nature is held within these songs.

As contour lines of OS maps can restore to a keen hiker’s memory a much-loved valley’s undulation, so too can folk songs. They suggest to those who carried and carry them an intergenerationally accumulated knowing of the significance of that particular bird or flower, that oak tree or meadow, that landscape and story, and how it’s hitched to every other tree, bird, field and indeed ‘pretty fair maid’ those old singers would have ever loved.

These songs of the land and about the land are declarations of our dependency on this Earth. 

Echosystem

Our own British tradition, though deeply secular, bears all the hallmarks of an atavistic and devotional practice that holds the land sacred.

Separate the song from both ‘echosystem’ and ecosystem, and the flame long tended within will turn to dull ash – ceasing to radiate that benevolent vitality held in the collective consciousness of its songful alumni.

Alas, many a folk song today can be seen curling like the dorsal fin of a captive orca destined for a life of mere entertainment. But, like the Nature-rewilding programmes The Nest Collective works with and emulates, another way is possible.

Take the example of Knepp Castle Estate, with its blossoming population of turtle doves (nationally in a freefall 95 percent rate of decline). Our annual pilgrimage charts the 20 miles to the estate from Rusper village, the original site of the ancient folk song ‘The Turtle Dove’, collected there in 1905 by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As we peregrinate through Sussex, we declaim this wild hymn to wells, churchyards, river sources, ancient boundary oaks and unsuspecting village shoppers, declaring its vitalness in playful irreverent worship.

Reclaim meaning

The same too with our river Dee blessing pilgrimage, rewilding the Scottish Highland ballads to the rapidly disappearing Cairngorm salmon and their vital symbiotic partner, the freshwater pearl mussel.

By taking song back to its source, an indescribable act of restoration occurs, both inward and outward. The songs reclaim meaning and help heal and enhance our often complicated relationship with the land.

The payoff is an enhanced sense of duty to care harder and deeper. Folk song, like Nature, is in the participation – we do it through our feet, our voices and our hearts.

Join us on our journeys, or better still make your own ones up, but do it fast, before the land and the songs fall forever silent. 

This Author 

Sam Lee and Nest Collective curate outdoor concerts between nightingales and selected musical artists. Performances of Singing With Nightingales continue until 26 May 2019. This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

Image: Kev Chapman, Flickr. 

Music history looks set to be made this week as the first ever release of pure birdsong soars into the UK charts.

Let Nature Sing by the RSPB features 25 of the UK’s most beloved and endangered birds, and is currently at number 11 in the midweek charts.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is calling on the public to download, stream and share the single so that birdsong is flying high in the charts on “Dawn Chorus Day” this Sunday 5 May – spreading the word that nature is in crisis and that people across the UK are passionate about its recovery.

Outpouring of support

Music and nature lovers across the UK have been buying and streaming the 2 ½ minute track in their 1000’s, with fans celebrating the calming and inspiring sounds of birdsong.

Whilst only half way through the chart week, the huge public outpouring of support for nature that this track has unleashed looks set to propel birdsong to the top of the official charts this Friday.

Over 40 million birds have vanished from UK skies in just 50 years, while 56 percent of species in the UK are in decline.

One in ten of our wildlife are critically endangered. Nature is in crisis, and new research from the RSPB has demonstrated that the UK is dangerously unaware of the impending danger.

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s director of conservation said: “Over the last few days, thousands of people have bought and streamed our track to hear nature’s finest singers and show that they love bird song. This has started a national conversation as millions will have heard, seen and read the facts showing that, shockingly, nature is in crisis in the UK.

Powerful message

Harper continued: “The response to Let Nature Sing sends a powerful message that yes, nature is amazing but it is also in trouble.  

“The good news is that it is not too late, we know what needs to be done and together we can take action to restore it for us and for future generations.”

Adrian Thomas, RSPB birdsong expert said: “The response to Let Nature Sing has been fantastic. We started with the simple idea of getting more people talking about how birds are vanishing from our skies and how nature is falling silent, and now beautiful birdsongs are sharing the charts with major international recording artists.

“If we all continue to listen, share and talk about what nature’s chorus means to each of us, that message becomes harder to ignore, so let’s climb the charts even further.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the RSPB. 

The world is not on track to meet targets set by government and business to eliminate deforestation by 2020, according to research by the University of Maryland and released on Global Forest Watch.

The data shows that deforestation has shifted geographically since the beginning of the century, when Brazil and Indonesia accounted for 71% of tropical primary forest loss.

These countries now contribute around 46% of deforestation loss, while that from countries including Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo rose considerably, the data shows.

Emissions

Primary, or “old growth” forest, is of particular value as it stores more carbon than other forests and is irreplaceable in terms of providing habitat to fauna and flora – with species living in such environments including orangutans and jaguars.

However, Indonesia massively reduced primary forest loss, with the rate of deforestation falling to its lowest rate since 2003, and 40% lower in 2018 than in the average annual rate of loss from 2002 to 2016.

The country’s government has protected some environments from development, a policy which seems to be working, the researchers noted. For example, in peatlands deeper than three meters, forest loss fell by 80%.

This has led to financial benefits for the country – in February, the Norwegian government announced that it would compensate Indonesia for reducing its deforestation-related emissions as part of a climate and forest partnership between the two countries.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

The Scottish enlightenment philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) recognised that economic growth would eventually have limits, based on the nature of a nation’s soil and climate.  

In his day, Smith was considered a moral philosopher and his early thinking on economic matters dealt with political economy, a term used for studying issues of production, trade, laws, and customs of individual countries and how income and wealth was distributed.  The science of economics was closely related to politics from its beginnings.  

Smith predicted the world’s economy could grow for about two hundred more years (from 1776) before natural limits were reached.

Modern economics 

Smith believed that individuals and nations bettered themselves through industrious behavior, saving for the future, and leaving future generations better off than one’s own.  

Most modern economists seem to have no concept of limits with regard to growth.  Indeed, an economy that is not growing is considered unhealthy.  

Economic success is measured in gross terms (Gross Domestic Product) with little or no attempt made to determine net gain or loss to either the economy or the supporting ecosystems. In other words, there is no apparent way to tell whether economic growth is in fact economical.  

Economists and policy makers tend to ignore the free services, such as clean air and water that nature provides, and thus fail to fully assign costs to ecosystems when evaluating the impacts of industry.  

It has been common practice to allow private companies to pocket the profits from their businesses while ignoring the collateral costs that are eventually paid by the public.

Such things as air, soil and water pollution from toxic chemicals discharged by heavy industry degrade the quality of life for all and governments (citizens) are often stuck with the costs of cleanup – if cleanup is indeed possible.

Increased consumption

Today, economic growth is primarily driven by consumption. It seems that people are no longer human beings dependent upon the free ecological services that nature provides, but merely consumers bent on acquiring ever more commodities.  

Growth is driven by consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels, which are in finite supply, and underground aquifers, many of which are being depleted faster than they can be recharged.  

Virgin forests are rapidly being replaced by plantations of monocultured crops and livestock farms, with serious implications for biodiversity across the globe.

In much of the developed world, the modern version of capitalism has abandoned the whole idea of building wealth for future generations in favor of requiring future generations to pay for today’s largess.  

While the economy is driven by consumption, much of today’s consumption is fueled by ever-increasing debt. In reality, debt is a major instrument that keeps the economy growing like a cancer.  

Increasing debt 

In less than half a lifetime the United States has gone from the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor. The US national debt is now over $22 trillion and state and local debt amount to an additional $3 trillion plus.  

Personal debt, primarily in the form of home mortgages, credit cards and student loans, amounts to over $17 trillion.  Total government and personal debt is well over $120,000 per citizen. 

And yet, it is still common to hear prominent citizens and politicians refer to the US as the world’s richest nation.          

Economic growth has become an obsession in much of the developed world and is worshiped as if it were a religion.  Politicians promise to create jobs and grow the economy and the majority of their constituents blindly accept growth as though it were a commandment in a holy book and therefore not to be questioned.  

Viable alternative 

A growth-dependent economic system that depends on the consumption of ever-increasing amounts of finite resources, is unsustainable and therefore demands a serious search for a viable alternative.

Most people have little knowledge of or interest in ecosystems, and go about their lives as if they believe ecosystems (or the environment) are part of the economy, and believe that if they make a reasonable effort to control pollution and clean up wastes, all will be well.  

In reality, precisely the opposite is true; the economy is just a system devised by a single species that is a part of a larger ecosystem.  If the economy grows beyond the ecosystem’s ability to support it, humankind must ultimately face the consequences.  

In the long run, the ecosystem is likely to prove far more resilient than the economy, but mankind may not like how nature resolves the inherent conflict between the two. 

A business that measures success based on gross sales but makes no effort to determine net profits is likely to fail.  By the same logic economists need a measure of net economic well-being as opposed to depending on gross value of goods and services to gauge success.  

Future generations 

Measures of success could include such things as whether debt is increasing or decreasing, the status of infrastructure maintenance, whether aquifers are being replenished as fast as they are being drained and whether other natural resources and life support systems are being used in a sustainable manner.  

The current system of measuring economic success based on GDP growth is deceptive in that it falsely portrays a growing economy as healthy even though it is not sustainable for future generations.  

From an ecological standpoint, GDP might just as logically stand for gross deceptive product.

This Author

Russell England is a retired fisheries biologist living in Gainesville, Georgia, USA.  He has written numerous articles and opinion columns in various magazines and newspapers and is the author of Gross Deceptive Product: An Ecological Perspective on the Economy published by Covenant Books in 2018.  

Climate campaigners have hailed the UK Parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency – a key demand of recent protests by Extinction Rebellion – as historic.

The motion was put forward by Labour MPs, and also states that Parliament “recognises the devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on UK food production, water availability, public health and through flooding and wildfire damage”.

It also notes the UK is missing targets to protect fauna and flora, and that cuts to the funding of conservation body Natural England are a barrier to solving the problem.

Ambition

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg tweeted: “Historic and very hopeful news. Now other nations must follow. And words must turn into immediate action.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas added: “I’m pleased Parliament has declared a climate emergency But words are cheap – we need urgent action. So to be clear You can’t declare climate emergency AND continue business as usual – fracking, building new runways, industrialised farming etc.”

The motion also called for the government to raise the ambition of the UK’s climate change targets to achieve net zero emissions before 2050, it added.

Binding

This follows advice by the government’s official advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, which published its advice on how to achieve this target today.

The committee concluded that the targets are achievable with known technologies, alongside improvements in people’s lives, and should be put into law as soon as possible.

Falls in cost for some of the key zero-carbon technologies mean that achieving net-zero is now possible within the economic cost that Parliament originally accepted when it passed the Climate Change Act in 2008, it added.

The Scottish Government has already put forward amendments to its Climate Change Bill to set a legally binding target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 at the latest, with Scotland becoming carbon neutral by 2040, in line with the committee’s advice.  

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

The government-appointed shale gas commissioner – who resigned at the weekend after just six months in the role – has admitted that she routinely throws away notes and deletes emails, a habit the campaign groups says may put her in breach of transparency regulations.

Unearthed had requested all email communications with the UK’s two leading fracking firms – INEOS and Cuadrilla. In response, Natascha Engel provided a handful of emails, but no communications covering 5 October, when she first entered the role, and 30 December.

She said: “I tend to deal with everything on the day and delete was has been done to avoid any huge build-ups or risk of duplication. The same is true of the few notes I take in meetings which I review in the evenings, action and throw away.”

Heavily influenced

However, such activity could be in breach of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Unearthed said.

In her resignation letter, Engels cited the government’s refusal to review seismic activity standards, as called for by industry, after they had led to the frequent halting of fracking tests.

She wrote: “A perfectly viable and exciting new industry that could help meet our carbon reduction targets, make us energy secure, and provide jobs in parts of the country that really need them, is in danger of withering on the vine.”

She said the government was too heavily influenced by environmental and anti-fracking campaigners.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.