A new undercover investigation released by animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming has exposed some incidents of EU law infringement in Poland, such as calves completely unable to see and touch each other and calves around three to four months old being kept in pens that were too small for them.

The investigation from five Polish dairy farms also reveals the barbarity of current EU standards for young dairy calves. EU farmers can legally raise calves in small, individual pens, where they are isolated and severely restricted of expressing natural behaviours, including play and exercise, and deprived of social contact which is necessary for their mental and emotional well-being.

The investigations’ film includes footage from Poland (2019), Germany (2018), the Netherlands (2018), Denmark (2015), Italy (2017), and Czechia (2018).

Cages

Compassion in World Farming’s Head of EU Office Olga Kikou said: “This investigation confirms what has often been documented in the last few years: caged systems used in many EU countries are equally cruel.

“Worse still, EU law allows this, despite evidence that group housing from birth can provide welfare and health benefits.” 

Across Europe, around 20 million calves are born to dairy cows each year. Of these, research suggests that 60 percent are confined and spend part or all of the first eight weeks of their lives isolated. This amounts to over 12 million dairy calves across the EU, each year.

Together with over 170 organisations and more than one million EU citizens who support the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative, Compassion in World Farming calls for a Europe-wide ban of all cages in animal farming, including the pens used so unnaturally to isolate young calves.

Olga, who is also a substitute Member of the Citizens’ Committee of the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative, continued: “The footage released today reminds us that the fight to get farm animals out of cages is far from over. We need to ensure the EU institutions realise that EU citizens are repulsed by bad and outdated agricultural practices that the EU endorses.”  

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This article is based on a press release from Compassion in World Farming. Image: Animal Equality UK

Less than two thirds of garden space in Britain’s towns and cities is covered with greenery such as plants, lawns and trees, analysis suggests.

The Office for National Statistics’ Data Science Campus and Ordnance Survey combined techniques to classify images with aerial imagery to test ways to identify the amount of green space in urban residential gardens.

Initial results estimate that 62 percent of garden spaces are covered with vegetation in Great Britain, a finding the Royal Horticultural Society described as “disappointing” as greenery cools cities, curbs flooding and helps wildlife.

Improve

The work aims to give a more accurate report of green spaces than previous estimates which have assumed 100 percent of their area is covered by vegetation rather than factoring in features such as patios and paths.

As part of the project, the team focused on Cardiff and Bristol and found that around 54 percent of Cardiff’s urban residential gardens were covered by greenery, compared to around 45 percent of Bristol’s.

Tom Smith, managing director at the ONS Data Science Campus, said: “Through our work with Ordnance Survey we’ve developed a new tool to provide more accurate estimates of how much of our gardens are covered with vegetation than has previously been suggested.

“This tool is intended to be useful to policy makers when planning a wide range of different measures from flood risk through to estimating the country’s carbon footprint.

“Through our Data Science Campus we are looking at how new cutting edge techniques can help improve the way we look at data. These techniques will help with our mission to mobilise the power of data to help Britain make better decisions and improve lives.”

Control

Hayley Monckton, from the RHS, said: “It’s disappointing that less than two-thirds of gardens are covered by vegetation, when green gardens are so beneficial for our health, for wildlife and for the environment. Plants and gardens can help cool towns and cities and mitigate flooding – things we will see more of as our climate changes.”

The RHS has a “greening Great Britain” campaign which calls on people to plant and grow more plants in their own outside spaces and community areas.

“The trend to pave increases chances of flooding and means you miss out on all the benefits of plants, such as helping to reduce pollution and providing food for our pollinators. We can all make a positive difference one plant at a time,” she said.

Paul de Zylva, nature campaigner at Friends Of The Earth, said: “People’s gardens can be brilliant for wildlife but there is increasingly less space for nature than we might think.

“Covering gardens in artificial grass, concrete, and paving for parking and patios is bad news for nature, for soaking up flood water and for absorbing carbon. Fortunately, gardens also present a clear opportunity for people to help the planet as they are one of the few places where people have direct control.”

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Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent. Image: home thods. 

Groundbreaking new research into the soil beneath our feet transforms our understanding of life on land. A study published today in Nature reveals that the world’s largest animal populations are found in high-latitude sub-arctic soils.

The Crowther Lab study is the first to map the global distribution of soil nematodes, tiny creatures also known as roundworms. They make up an estimated four fifths of all terrestrial animals and play a critical role in soil nutrient cycling, plant growth and the climate.

The study provides conclusive evidence that the majority of the world’s animals live in high latitudes: 38.7 percent of soil nematodes exist in boreal forests and tundra across North America, Scandinavia and Russia; 24.5 percent in temperate regions; and only 20.5 percent in the tropics and sub-tropics.

Soil organisms 

The study also calculates that the world’s population of soil nematodes is far greater than previously estimated, with 57 billion for every single human. They have a total biomass of around 300 million tonnes – approximately 80 percent of the combined weight of Earth’s human population of 7.7 billion people.

Dr. Johan Van den Hoogen, lead author of the study, said: “There’s an immense world hidden just beneath our feet that we barely understand. This study fundamentally changes our understanding of the distribution of life on land.

“We were amazed to find that nematodes are so abundant and that there are more animals in the arctic and sub-arctic than in the tropics – the opposite of what we see above ground.

“Soil organisms are the most important but least understood part of the Earth’s biosphere. Protecting biodiversity and developing effective climate change strategies will require us to model biological activity across the world’s soils and plan how best to manage ecosystems.”

Nematodes play a critical role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients and are essential to understanding biological activity in the soil. They feed on bacteria, fungi, plants and other soil organisms, fulfilling key roles in the food web.

They play a significant role in influencing CO2 emissions from soils, determining whether carbon is locked up in soil organisms or released into the soil and the atmosphere. Their activity helps create healthy soils and conditions for plants to grow and capture carbon.

Biodiversity loss

Nematodes are generally more active at higher temperatures, so the large nematode populations in the arctic and sub-arctic make these regions very sensitive to warming.

The study states: “These regions compose a major reservoir of soil carbon stocks, and may release much more carbon as a result of increased soil animal activity and a prolongation of the plant-growing season due to human-induced climate change.” 

Professor Tom Crowther, senior author of the study, said: “Predicting climate change requires that we understand global carbon and nutrient cycles. We currently have a great understanding of the physics and chemistry of our planet, but we know far less about the biological organisms that drive these cycles.

“Improving our understanding of these organisms at a global level is critical if we are going to understand and address climate change.

“Healthy soil communities are essential for the stability of ecosystems and the storage of carbon on land. Our research will help scientists to make better predictions about carbon cycling by developing models that reflect the impact of soil organisms. It will also enable land managers to make the right decisions in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change by identifying soils which need to be restored to health.”

Machine learning

The Crowther Lab is a group of multi-disciplinary scientists studying the ecological processes that influence climate change, based at ETH Zürich, the world’s leading University in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The study focused on the top 15cm of soil – the most biologically active zone – and calculated that around the world it is home to 4.4 x 10 to the power of 20 nematodes, or 57 billion for each human on the planet.

They took 6,759 soil samples representing every continent, and every environment from arctic tundra to tropical rainforest, and used microscopes to analyse the density of each type of nematode to generate a representative global dataset.

They used machine learning to determine how the abundance of each type of nematodes related to the climate, soil and vegetation at each sample site, identifying 73 different variables. 

They used this information to build models which predict nematode populations for each square kilometer and create the first global high-resolution maps of soil nematode density and functional group composition.

This Author

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from the Crowther Lab. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

Boris Johnson must act swiftly to reduce emissions and put the climate emergency at the centre of his premiership says Friends of the Earth, as he is announced as the UK’s new Prime Minister today (23 July).

The announcement comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal over the expansion of Heathrow airport on climate grounds.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: “Boris Johnson said he’d ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’ to prevent a third runway at Heathrow. Now he has the power to cancel this polluting project along with other climate disasters like fracking.

Wildfires

“And he must. The country is united in wanting an urgent response to the climate crisis.”

He added: “Swift government action will decide whether we are a nation with warm homes, clean air, and a thriving renewable industry or whether worsening extreme weather, wildfires and floods cause misery for millions. Prime Minister Johnson, the choice is yours.”

Friends of the Earth is calling for decisive action to address the climate emergency in the first 100 days of the new Johnson administration including passing an emergency climate budget in the Autumn which must allocate billions of pounds of investment in areas like public transport, creating warm homes and planting millions of trees.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth. 

The campaign against the expansion of Heathrow airport has been given a new lease of life. 

Friends of the Earth has been granted a hearing at the Court of Appeal for an application for permission to appeal a ruling by the High Court in relation to the expansion.

In October this year, the court will hear the application to appeal the decision that the government had not breached its sustainable development duties by allowing the expansion of Heathrow. If the Court of Appeal grants permission, it will proceed immediately to a substantive appeal hearing.

Legal challenges 

The High Court ruled on 1 May 2019 that the government’s decision to allow the building of a third runway at Heathrow airport was lawful.

This followed legal challenges brought by a number of environmental NGOs, pressure groups and local councils which were heard collectively by the court in March 2019.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth, represented by law firm Leigh Day, brought one of the legal challenges, focusing on the climate change impact of a third runway. They argued that the government’s decision to allow expansion was unlawful as it failed to explain how such expansion fitted with the UK’s climate change policy.

Friends of the Earth also claimed that the decision breached the Department for Transport’s sustainable development duties in failing to have regard to the desirability of mitigating climate change for future generations. This was specifically due to: not considering the UN’s Paris Agreement, the lack of any climate policy beyond the 2050 target under the Climate Change Act, and the failure to factor in any impact from the non-CO2 contribution of aviation to climate breakdown.

Damaging decision 

Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth, said: “This case is about saving the planet from catastrophic climate change. We need to leave the world in a better state for our children and their children, not a worse one.

“This means ditching the expansion of high carbon infrastructure projects like the third runway at Heathrow. Expanding Heathrow will only benefit a minority of people, while leaving us all to suffer the awful impact on the environment.

“We are pleased the Court of Appeal has agreed to hear our case for appeal against the damaging decision to increase the UK’s single biggest source of climate pollution at Heathrow.”

Rowan Smith, solicitor in the environmental law team at law firm Leigh Day, said: “We are delighted that our client has been given a hearing at the Court of Appeal to argue why they feel an appeal should be granted.

“This news comes in the wake of the UK government’s new net zero target under the Climate Change Act and heavily critical advice from the Committee on Climate Change that more must be done, and faster, if we are to avoid climate catastrophe.”

Significantly damaging

Smith continued: “Friends of the Earth strongly believes that a third runway at Heathrow would have a significantly damaging impact on the UK’s climate change goals.

“On top of the issues already raised by our client, we hope that our defeat of the government’s primary argument, that the Secretary of State could simply ignore the global heating reduction targets of the Paris Agreement, will add further weight to the appeal if granted and cause the Court of Appeal to rule that the government’s decision on Heathrow expansion is unlawful.”

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release by Friends of the Earth. 

Grassroots campaign Labour for a Green New Deal officially launched in Parliament yesterday afternoon alongside shadow ministers. The event at a packed House of Commons was attended by dozens of Labour MPs and activists.

The launch, hosted by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, saw Labour’s Shadow Minister for Climate Justice and Green Jobs, Danielle Rowley, and Shadow Treasury Minister for Sustainable Economics Clive Lewis, speak alongside activists. They welcomed Labour for a Green New Deal’s ambition to decarbonise Britain as quickly as possible through a just transition.

Ed MIliband MP said: “The fundamental insight of the Green New Deal is not to see the climate crisis and inequality crisis as separate. Green and red together is the way we tackle the climate emergency, and that is why this is such an important initiative.”

International leadership 

Danielle Rowley MP said: “Our action on climate change must be inclusive”, and commended “fantastic grassroots campaigns” like Labour for a Green New Deal for recognising that climate change is a class issue.

Clive Lewis MP said that the Green New Deal can’t just be about “tinkering” and instead called for “emergency socialism”, which he described as a “whole new political economy”.

Lewis urged for the UK to show international leadership as one of the first countries to industrialise, adding that trade and foreign policy “need to be part of the Green New Deal.” 

Lauren Townsend, a trade unionist, councillor and Labour for a Green New Deal spokesperson, said: “As has been evidenced from the climate justice school strikes we’ve seen up and down the country, there is an entire generation of young people growing up now who are already politically engaged, who know what they want their futures to look like and who aren’t afraid to stand up and speak out.

“These young people need to know that the Labour Party has their backs and their best interests at heart.”

Transformative deal

Commenting on the event, Labour for a Green New Deal co-founder, Clare Hymer said: “Today’s launch demonstrated the huge appetite for a transformative Green New Deal across the Labour movement, not just among the half a million members who make up our party’s grassroots, but also among MPs.

“We hope to see MPs continuing to work together alongside their local parties to make a radical Green New Deal programme a reality at party conference in September.”

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press released from Labour for a Green New Deal. 

The YouthStrike4Climate day of action in July saw over 50 demonstrations take place around the UK – but that’s not the end. 

A new wave of global climate strikes is coming to the UK this September. Thousands of demonstrations will take place around the world on 20 September, supporting the world’s largest ever youth-led global climate strike. 

Read ‘Strike before the planet gets hot’ here.

As the United Nations Climate Summit in New York (23  September) approaches, the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN) has called the strike to support the global movement, generating hundreds of demonstrations which will take place across the country. 

Immediate action

The UK mobilisation, called by the UK Student Climate Network and Earth Strike UK already has the support of a number of organisations including Greenpeace UK, The Climate Coalition and Friends of the Earth England, Wales & Northern Ireland. 

Plans include additional actions in the following seven days after the strike, making up the “Week for Future and Climate Justice”.

The Week for Future and Climate Justice will be punctuated by a variety of climate-related direct actions and activities around the world, highlighting the devastating impacts of climate and ecological breakdown that are being felt the world-over.

We’ve seen devastation from record-breaking heat waves in the Arctic and India; wildfires, floods, famine and drought; massive inequality and continued repression of community voices.

The state of global climate emergency is now undeniable. Immediate action is desperately needed by political and business leaders. Ian Hodson, National President of the Bakers’, Food & Allied Workers Union, warned: “There are no jobs on a dead planet”

Pivotal moment

Craig Bennett, CEO of Friends of the Earth (England, Wales & Northern Ireland), said: “Jobs that don’t wreck the planet, clean air, even having a future to look forward to at all are not big things for young people to ask. But this generation is fighting for these basic things because they have been failed so far by government.

“We won’t be able to look younger people in the eye if we don’t join them now. Government can just about make up for lost time if it rapidly legislates to start fixing things, and solutions to the climate crisis are for the good of everyone.

“Let’s not forget that some younger people in other parts of the word are already facing climate breakdown so for these reasons, we’re proud to support the week of climate action.”

Noga Levy-Rapoport, from the UK Student Climate Network, said: “We need meaningful action, underpinned by social, economic and climate justice that recognises the UKs historical responsibility in the unfolding crisis.

“We’re calling for a Green New Deal to meet the scale of the problem with the speed and ambition it requires. We’re demanding change, and we’re demanding it now.”

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from UKCN.