It will soon be Landscapes for Life Week – when Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnerships across the nation come together to celebrate the UK’s protected landscapes and the nature, heritage and culture that make them so special.  

This year’s runs from 21 to 29 September and is an extra special one for us. We will be celebrating the pioneering and far-sighted vision enshrined in 1949’s National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act that paved the way for the designation of AONBs and National Parks.

Designated landscapes were seen then as a sister to the National Health Service and both were part of the post-World War II settlement, with AONBs and National Parks giving people access to the mental and physical health benefits of the countryside and the NHS helping people if they became ill.

Watershed moment

2019 looks like a watershed moment for the natural world in general and for designated landscapes in particular.

The Government published its 25 Year Environment Plan in January 2018 with the ambitious aim to be “the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it”, followed by the Welsh Government’s publication of the Valued and Resilient Paper in July 2018, after the Future Landscapes: Delivering for Wales Review reported in 2017. 

One of the earliest actions of the 25 Year Environment Plan was the setting up of the Review of Designated Landscapes, chaired by the journalist Julian Glover. We expect the final report to be released in the coming weeks and anticipate a robust challenge to us to make a significant step change, to reshape our aims and deliver in a world that would be almost unrecognisable to those post-war pioneers. 

Climate breakdown and the wildlife crisis that we are seeing across the UK are two sides of the same coin and we must take urgent steps to address them.   

Our native species and habitats are in decline like never before. The 2016 State of Nature Report showed that 15 percent of our native species are under threat of extinction and 53 percent are in decline. Over 1000 species are threatened with annihilation in the UK and the measure assessing how intact a country’s wildlife is suggests that we are among the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Colchester Declaration 

The depreciation of natural environments affects not only our native species but also our national finances, amplifying the effects of climate change as evidenced by the many recent extreme weather events, from flooding to grassland fires. The effects of climate change are now undeniable. 

Landscape-scale intervention to restore habitats, species and ecosystems is now widely recognised as the most effective way we can restore ecological functions and help wildlife and human communities adapt to the changes that are unfolding.

Indeed, there has never been a more important time to address landscape cohesion and resilience and designations such as AONBs have a vital part to play in co-ordinating the necessary work and helping everyone to lift their eyes to the landscape level.

In recognition of their unique responsibilities and strengths, AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards made a formal commitment at the Landscapes for Life Conference earlier this summer to increase the scale and pace of their delivery for nature in the form of the Colchester Declaration.

The declaration is a joint pledge to collectively protect what remains and recover what has been lost in our natural environment. This will build on the significant and often unpublicised work that AONB teams have been carrying out to restore nature. 

Habitat restoration 

Considering that AONBs make up some 15 percent of the land area in England, these commitments are not insignificant. 

The Colchester Declaration sets out specific ambitious stretching targets that join up the dots of climate breakdown and nature loss.

AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards have committed to Achieving net zero by 2050 by incorporating meaningful actions in AONB Management Plans in their next cycle (2024); embedding an ecosystems services approach – maximising the benefits that nature can provide through carbon sequestration and flood alleviation; and actively working to restore habitats and re-establish species on a landscape scale through strong connections with their local landowners. 

AONB Partnerships have a very strong proven track record of delivering on species recovery and habitat restoration: from Anglesey, where the Source to Sea project restored polluted waters to create habitats for fish and other wildlife, to Suffolk Coast and Heaths, where the precious saltmarsh habitat for fish fry and birds has been restored.

Valuable carbon capturing peatland restoration work has taken place across the country – in Cornwall, North Pennines and Forest of Bowland AONBs. There are many more examplesshowcased in our 70@70 project.

Knowledge and capability

It is important to note that while we have the proven knowledge and capability to deliver what is needed, AONBs are important landscapes that are, on the whole, in private ownership.

Much of the richness these places have to offer is the product of the stewardship of generations of farmers and landowners. While accessible to many, they are the working ‘factory floor’ of the UK’s food and timber production and support a growing and important domestic tourism industry. Having the tools and resources to support nature friendly farming is therefore key. 

Over the past year or so, representatives of AONB Partnerships and Conservation Boards have worked alongside Defra to develop the new Environmental Land Management Schemes (NELMS) which will incentivise more environmentally-friendly farming practices and simplify the current system of farm payments.

AONB teams are ideally placed to both develop the new schemes and support their delivery. They have the skills, knowledge and experience of delivering for nature. Embedded as they are in their local communities, they have detailed knowledge about the species and habitats in their localities and have the power to convene.

AONB teams work in established partnerships with their local landowners: farmers, large estates, charities, local authorities and other conservation organisations such as Natural England, the National Trust and the RSPB to effect positive landscape change.

The NELMS tests and trials will begin in the coming months and we look forward to working with Defra and our local partners to deliver for nature.

This Author

Howard Davies has been chief executive of the National Association of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 2010 and was previously director of Wildlife Trusts Wales. 

All eyes are on New York as Greta Thunberg prepares to speak at the UN’s Climate Action Summit next Monday.

With temperatures rising and young people the world over mobilising, the pressure on decision-makers to take action against climate change has never been higher.

Food production’s contribution to carbon emissions has been much reported. What’s less well recognised is agriculture’s role as a carbon sink. Judicious use of appropriate agricultural techniques can trap carbon, increase yields and build farmers’ resilience to changing weather patterns. 

Rural communities

It’s neither fair nor realistic to expect some of the world’s poorest people to factor CO2 emissions into decisions that will determine whether they are able to feed, clothe or educate their loved ones.

It’s therefore critical that rural communities are given appropriate support to identify and implement sustainable farming systems that pay out financially and environmentally for farmers. 

From cost-saving soil management techniques to growing world-class coffee underneath the canopy of forests, there are many climate-savvy techniques that Farm Africa promotes to farming communities across eastern Africa.  

These techniques are not one-size-fits-all approaches but are tailored to the environmental, economic and cultural realities in which farmers operate.

Soil management 

A third of the Earth’s soil is acutely degraded. Worst affected is Africa. Globally, soil stores an estimated 9.8 billion tonnes of carbon.While soil degradation releases carbon, soil conservation traps it. What’s more, the brown stuff beneath our feet is the basis for all food production.

Boosting the fertility of Africa’s soil presents multiple benefits for people and the planet alike, by decreasing the cost of production; increasing farms’ productivity; boosting microorganisms in the soil; and sequestering carbon.

With funding from Irish Aid, Farm Africa supported maize farmers in southern Ethiopia to adopt minimum tillage techniques, which don’t require oxen or tractors to plough the land.

Leaving soil alone can boost organic matter and, subsequently, carbon levels. The shift saw farmers improve their yields and profit margins. A win-win for farmers and the climate.

Cutting waste

Food waste contributes 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. On its own, food waste would be the third-largest emitter in the world, after the US and China.

In developing countries, food waste mainly happens at the start of the supply chain: 40 percent of developing country farmers’ losses occur at the post-harvest and processing levels. 

In Tanzania’s dry Dodoma region, farmers rely on the sorghum they grow to feed their families. An increasingly volatile climate endangers smallholders’ yields, and climate shocks regularly push people into poverty.

When Dodoma’s smallholders achieve a bountiful harvest, sub-standard warehouses and a lack of on-farm storage facilities see much of their harvest going to rot.

Farm Africa is connecting these farmers with businesses that sell simple but effective farm equipment, like tarpaulins and sacks, which can significantly reduce post-harvest losses. We’re also training warehouse staff to process farmers’ produce properly, to improve its shelf life, and store their products safely, reducing losses from pests and diseases.

These changes will allow farmers to eat and sell more of their hard-earned food. 

Agroforestry

Scientists have recently said that halting deforestation is ‘just as urgent’ as reducing emissions. Agriculture is one of the main drivers of deforestation.

In forest communities across the African continent, low incomes force people to convert forests into farmland and pastures for cattle.

We help communities set up profitable forest-friendly businesses, like wild coffee production, incense harvesting and beekeeping.

Unlike traditional farming, these businesses provide people with a secure income without damaging the forests. In fact, it does the opposite. It flips the script, making forests a vital economic resource that communities must protect.

Avoiding monocultures

Growing two or more crops next to each other or side-by-side – a method often described as intercropping– can transform agricultural systems.

This simple technique can be great for the environment and farmers’ wallets. A diverse mix of crops often provides a better habitat for bees and other pollinators.

Intercropping nitrogen-fixing crops, like peas or sesame, alongside other crops, means that farmers can spend less on nitrogen-based, usually carbon-intensive, fertilisers.

In Kenya, Farm Africa is training cashew farmersto plant sesame crops between cashew trees. Drought-tolerant sesame can withstand extreme weather, diversifies farmers’ incomes, maximises land use and sits happily with neighbouring cashew trees.

Politicians take note

Climate and agriculture are intertwined; one affects the other in so many ways.

Climate change is turning farmers’ lives upside down. Yet with the appropriate technical and financial support, farmers could emerge as climate change heroes.

Agriculture presents a vehicle for climate action. It’s time to take big steps towards supporting farmers all over the world to reduce the carbon footprint of food production. And it’s possible to do so in ways that yield financial as well as environmental benefits. 

This Author

Sam Viney is a communications and advocacy officer at Farm Africa. Sam’s interested in how farming can protect people and planet whilst continuing to produce food.

Connecting greenspace across the country and bringing about more transparent discussions about UK land ownership could improve biodiversity and significantly offset emissions, a new report from Common Wealth argues. 

Additionally, the plan outlines how new jobs could be created through the large-scale restoration of peatland, shifting ownership of grouse-hunting land, and greening decommissioned industrial areas. Farmers working on low-grade subsidised land would be incentivised to work on rewilding and maintaining that land.

Naomi Klein, global climate activist said: “This is exactly the kind of deep policy work we need if we are going to turn the Green New Deal from a slogan into a life-saving reality in the UK and around the world.”

Road map

The report is part of Common Wealth’s Road Map to a Green New Deal series, which calls for a transformation of the economy, outlining an increase in government investment to rapidly decarbonise the economy and create millions of well-paid jobs, a 100 percent renewable energy system, a public green transport network, and decent, affordable, zero-carbon housing for all.

The series includes reports by activist groups such as Greenpeace and Green New Deal for Europe, as well as think tanks like IPPR, NEF, and international policy thinkers.

Professor Simon Lewis, author of the report, said: “What is unique about this UK Restoration Plan is by focusing on connection, it combines helping wildlife and helping people adapt to climate change. This Green New Deal for Nature is about modest investments resulting in a big increases in the quality of all our lives.”

The report emphasises the benefit to rural communities, as well as giving urban, working-class communities more access to nature. It comes in the wake of recent calls from the National Audit Office that the government is not prepared for a new system of agricultural subsidies after the UK leaves the EU, leaving farmers exposed to risk.

Others have reported that UK farmers are scrambling to export surplus produce in the lead up to Brexit. Meanwhile, rewilding projects have taken off in recent years, with recent news that rewilding has caused white storks to spread across England for the first time in 600 years.

Practical and thoughtful

Lily Cole, actor and environmentalist said: “While technologists design fancy carbon-capture machines, nature offers us the simplest, most cost-effective and profound way to solve our environmental crisis.

“Re-thinking land use in the UK (and globally), offers us the opportunity to capture huge quantities of carbon, enhance biodiversity, and also improve our own human relationship to the land.

“There can be no doubt that re-wilding will be critical in the drive towards increased environmental sustainability: the question is how to do it.

This report offers practical and thoughtful ideas on how re-wilding might happen in the UK, for example by diverting agricultural subsidies to reward people for providing environmental services instead, or creating land corridors for wildlife between hedgerows.

“I hope the report is the beginning of a positive conversation on how we might turn this crisis into an opportunity.”

Vital contribution

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion said: “A UK Green New Deal is vital to our future, and to the future of the 1.4 million young people who have joined inspiring school climate strikes across the globe.

The Green New Deal is a pluralistic, justice-focused economic plan for a rapid transition, and I welcome Common Wealth’s exciting and vital contribution, drawing on talents and energy from across the climate movement.

“Ten years on from the original UK Green New Deal I was proud to be a part of, a transformation of our economy toward sustainability and justice is more urgent than ever.

We must reject the false dichotomy of economics and climate change mitigation. A UK Green New Deal – powered by social movements and a pluralistic, radical politics – can provide a future with good jobs and clean energy for all. Common Wealth’s roadmap is a vital contribution to that debate.”

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist‘s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Common Wealth.

The UK public faces the prospect of watered-down food regulations after Brexit with Parliament having little say, the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UK TPO) is warning.

New analysis by legal experts at the University of Sussex-based UK TPO warns that stringent regulation, which currently restricts some of the more controversial US food produce from UK supermarket shelves, could be stripped away with minimal Parliamentary scrutiny through Statutory Instruments (SIs).

The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 allowed the creation of over 10,000 pages of new legislation to retain EU rules, including on food safety.

Risk

Some of these provide extensive scope for ministers to make future changes to food safety legislation, notably potentially significant concessions to the US over GM crops and pesticides, in the pursuit of a headline-grabbing trade deal, without the level of scrutiny that primary legislation would provide.

The use of SIs would give a UK prime minister determined to overcome opposition to loosening UK food safety legislation a relatively clear path to ratifying a US-UK FTA – particularly as the UK Parliament has a much weaker influence on treaty negotiation in comparison to both the US or EU.

Such a move could prove extremely unpopular with the UK public, 82 per cent of the UK public favour retaining high food standards over a US trade agreement, and could damage future food trade with the EU, which accounts for around 70 per cent of UK food exports.

This risk is most applicable in the event of no deal or in a scenario of a basic free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU. Parliament would have only limited means of opposition through blocking ratification of an FTA or specific SIs.

Revoke

Dr Emily Lydgate, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Sussex and Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory, said: “In the event of no deal, or a basic EU-UK Free Trade Agreement, the UK Government will be under pressure to make a success of Brexit through new trade agreements.

“The concern is that ministers have extensive scope to make significant food safety concessions in order to reach an agreement with the US potentially in the face of opposition from consumers or food producers who would worry about losing access to the EU market.

“The US has long complained about the EU’s hazard-based approach to banning some pesticides categorically, rather than permitting their residues, and also over the lengthy EU process for approving new genetically modified crops, which the US Trade Representative (USTR) estimates costs US agriculture $2 billion/year.”

Chloe Anthony, a LLM student at the University of Sussex, said: “The real risk is that there are SIs giving ministers a lot of power on controversial policy areas which the US will be pushing very hard to reform.

“Through SIs, UK ministers have the ability to amend, revoke and make regulations on how active ingredients in pesticides are authorised, the maximum residue levels permitted in food and to the GMO application and authorisation process.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist.

The UK will host key United Nations climate talks in Glasgow in late 2020, the Government has said.

The meeting is the most important round of UN talks since the global Paris Agreement to tackle climate change was secured in two weeks of negotiations in the French capital in 2015.

News that the UK had won formal international backing to host the “Cop26” meeting has been welcomed by campaigners, who urged the Government to take a lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Confidence

As joint hosts with Italy, the UK will host the “Cop26” meeting, which is due to be in Europe next November, while Italy will host a “pre-Cop” event in the run-up to the talks.

The UK has been officially backed by the group of countries responsible for nominating the 2020 host, and the nomination is set to be formally accepted at December’s Cop25 summit in Chile, the Government said.

Next year’s talks mark the full adoption of the Paris Agreement and the date by which countries are expected to come forward with stronger emissions cuts to meet the goals of the deal.

Plans submitted so far by countries are putting the world on a pathway towards more than 3C of warming, though the Paris Agreement commits them to curb temperatures to 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said: “The UK has just received a huge vote of confidence from our international partners.

Leadership

“We’re poised to host the next major global climate negotiations, in partnership with Italy.

“Over 30,000 delegates from around the world will come together to commit to ambitious action to tackle climate change.

“We’re ready to bring the world together to make sure we leave our precious environment in a better state for our children.”

Claire Perry, UK nominated president for Cop26, said: “In 2020, world leaders will come together to discuss how to tackle climate change on a global scale – and where better to do so than Glasgow, one of the UK’s most sustainable cities with a great track record for hosting high-profile international events.”

Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish Government climate change secretary, said: “It is right that this conference should come to Scotland given our leadership in climate action.

Targets

“Scotland was one of the first countries in the world to acknowledge the global climate emergency and the Scottish Government has introduced the toughest targets in the UK to ensure our action matches the scale of our climate ambitions.”

The backing to host the event comes after the UK strengthened its legal goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with a new target to reach “net zero” emissions by mid-century becoming law in the summer.

But concerns have been raised, including by the Government’s own advisory Climate Change Committee, that the UK is off track to meet its targets and significantly more action is needed to cut emissions from homes, power generation, transport and agriculture.

Dr Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s global climate lead, backed the news that the “historic” meeting was taking place in the UK.

She said: “For it to be a success, the UK needs to walk the talk and increase its own near-term targets reducing its emissions rapidly and radically.

Strikes

“The UK further needs to develop a holistic plan to achieve its own legally-binding goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.”

And she said: “Internationally, the UK needs to make sure that it is doing its fair share to support developing countries through finance and providing them with sustainable technologies like wind and solar.”

Clara Goldsmith, director of The Climate Coalition, which consists of groups ranging from the National Trust to WWF and Islamic Relief, said: “Over the next 18 months, the world’s eyes will be on us just as widespread public pressure to act on climate change grows – this is the perfect opportunity for the UK Government to put its money where its mouth is.”

The announcement comes ahead of a summit in New York when UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres will urge leaders to boost ambition and speed up action to curb the emissions driving rising global temperatures.

Global climate “strikes” will be held on Friday September 20, ahead of the summit, with workers and protesters supporting young people walking out of lessons and lectures to call for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Why are we here? Who are we? What is our place in the world? People have been asking questions such as these for centuries.

Looking outside, we see trees in summer foliage moving in the breeze. Behind them, buildings and a soft grey sky. The harsh hum of traffic, the cries of birds.

The world is a patchwork – of grassland, of concrete, of vast oceans, of uncountable and tiny things, of huge masses. Everything is interconnected through flows of materials, creation and decay, and now, the symptoms of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change.

Struggles

The climate crisis is recognised by the majority of citizens and scientists worldwide to be the result of human activity. The rampant extraction and burning of fossil fuels is center stage, triggering protests and public dialogue.

Meanwhile, headlines on atmospheric CO2 stand alongside those on socio-political unrest, human rights, ecosystem destruction or conservation, healthcare, international politics and market dynamics.

It is no coincidence that the most prominent narratives feature hierarchy and exertion of power in some form.

We will only make lasting headway in tackling climate change if, alongside the need for decarbonisation, we acknowledge that the climate emergency is an issue of wider socio-ecological injustice and violence.

The triggers and impacts of climate change are related to or the same as those in other struggles where domination is exerted over an ‘other’. To face up to one, we must face up to them all.

Extraction

Whether or not you think you’re impacted (you are), we are all living in what bell hooks calls a “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”.

This system is in direct opposition to human freedoms, and to the Earth, which is borderless, interwoven and finite; it can only ‘give’ so much. Yet the system demands more.

Colonial European nations, institutions and men took land, other cultures and women as things to be conquered and ‘tamed’. In many cases, they still do.

Patriarchy, racism, heteronormativity and other interlocking structures of oppression are experienced and present today in numerous ways, for instance through the gender pay gap, the objectification of female bodies, disregard of migrants’ rights, exploitative working conditions, persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, and by silencing certain voices.

Narrow views towards the ‘other’ are often closely correlated with contempt for the environment. We are now seeing relentless extraction of resources, and the annexing of land for building, for monoculture agriculture and plantations, for industry, consumerism and ‘growth’.

Catastrophic

The lack of care and empathy in the socio-political system extends to the appropriation of the environment.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes: “I look east and the hills before me are a ragged range of clear-cut forests.

“To the south I see an estuary dammed and diked so that salmon may no longer pass. On the western horizon, a bottom-dragging trawler scrapes up the ocean floor. And far away to the north, the earth is torn open for oil.”

This story has long been familiar the world over. The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm acknowledged that a capitalist, consumerist society is working directly against the ecological needs of the planet.

More recently, the IPCC Report on 1.5 degrees warned that we have only twelve years in which to prevent catastrophic warming and ecosystem collapse.

Re(turn)

The IPCC’s Land report, to be released in August, will demonstrate the stress already being placed on the very soil beneath our feet. The growth so valued by the capitalist system is not compatible with tackling climate change or caring for the planet that feeds us.

We have come so far from where we should be; from the root of everything.

Yet there are still many places where people honour our deep connection to the Earth and to each other. Kimmerer asks, “what happens…when allegiance lies with winds and waters that know no boundaries, that cannot be bought or sold?

The boundaries of what I honor are bigger than the republic. Let us pledge reciprocity with the living world.”

These teachings chime with those honoured by indigenous peoples the world over, and it is to such thinking that we must [re]turn.

Madness

The historically marginalised are among the most skilled environmental protectors. Long before white Europeans colonized and appropriated land around the world, indigenous peoples were living in harmony with nature.

As much as 40 percent of the world’s ecologically-intact ecosystems are under indigenous stewardship, and indigenous communities protect over 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

Learning from those who respect natural limits and who practice sustainable, regenerative agriculture must be a key tenet of the system going forwards.

Many civil society organisations are already acting to ensure that indigenous and community rights are strengthened and protected, enabling them to continue with their crucial work as stewards of biodiverse, carbon-rich ecosystems.

However, in nothing short of madness given the challenges that we face, countless projects focussed on economic growth still ride roughshod over those rights and nature.

Knowledge

There is also a lack of critical media conversation. Recent Extinction Rebellion and ‘Fridays for Future’ protests have achieved airtime, but talk is not going far enough.

Our institutions, including those that produce or fund the media, are stuck in the stagnant status quo. New ways of seeing society are critiqued as unrealistic, and people are dissuaded by an apparent lack of alternatives. Anyone who challenges “the norm” is labelled ‘extreme’, when challenging the status quo should be the status quo.

So what do we need for transformative change?

Number one, it will take abandoning competition and ‘growth’ as the aim, in favour of collective governance and renewal.

It will take re-prioritising indigenous knowledge and ways of understanding the world.

Interwoven

It will take understanding and acting-upon the message that every human being has the right to freedom (of movement, of speech, of choice, of protest), and the right to be protected from visible and invisible violence.

It will take the empowerment and election of women, people of colour, indigenous and other politically underrepresented groups, including into climate decision-making bodies. Enabling these groups to share their deep knowledge and disproportionate experience of climate impacts will protect all of us.

It will take shifting from a position where humans ‘possess’ nature, to a mutually beneficial relationship with the natural world.

The wellbeing of ecosystems must be respected, and defended where necessary through law, as is already taking place in some countries. When we respect nature, we are more likely to be acting in ways that are sustainable, equitable and just.

We must work to dismantle all structures of oppression, and to heal the assumed division between people and nature. All of us depend on this planet, and we can only save ourselves if we also save our neighbours, our waters, our soils and biodiversity. We must break down the barriers and see ourselves as part of one interwoven whole.

This Article

This article has been written by members of the UK Youth Climate Coalition.

Workers are being urged to support school climate change strikes later this month by taking 30 minutes of action.

The TUC Congress voted to call for “workday campaign action” to coincide with the global action on September 20.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner told the conference in Brighton: “As trade unionists we’re at the centre of the debate on just transitioning energy generation, our auto industry from the combustion engine to hybrid, full battery and hydrogen, and our ceramics, steel and construction industries from heavy pollutants to sustainable long-term low-carbon producers.

Proud

“How proud can we be of our children, knowing it’s their future at stake, taking to the streets, just as they did in 2010 in the fight against austerity, to demand the urgent action that is desperately needed.

“As trade unionists, as socialists seeking that better, fairer world, it’s our duty to stand proudly alongside them in this fight.

“If we don’t, we’ll be seen as irrelevant – not as allies in their fight and not an integral part of their future.”

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: “The trade union movement is sending a clear message today that it is up to the challenge of fighting the climate crisis and building a stronger and greener economy.

Prosperous

“Climate change is a trade union issue and our planet’s future is at risk. The work done by Greta Thunberg and school students around the world has been inspirational and now it’s time for the rest of us to catch up.”

Jake Woodier from the UK Student Climate Network said: “We’re delighted to see the trade union movement making big strides forward in its response to the climate crisis.

“We’re calling for ambitious and bold solutions to the crisis like a Green New Deal to create millions of well-paid, secure and unionised jobs, massive investment in marginalised communities and a just transition for those in today’s high emissions sectors.

“Working together, we can secure a just and prosperous world for all.”

This Author

Alan Jones is a reporter with PA.

Historic gardens fighting against an invasive caterpillar that destroys formal box planting may have a new ally in the form of jackdaws, the National Trust has said.

The box tree moth is a destructive pest of the plant.

The insect is a native of East Asia and first turned up in the UK in 2008, with its larvae reported in private gardens in the home counties by 2011.

Patrolling

Its caterpillars feed voraciously on box plants under a blanket of pale, fine webbing that can cover infected plants.

Historic gardens such as Ham House in Richmond, London, where box forms a key part of the formal planting, have been badly hit by the bug, as have domestic back gardens, particularly in the south-east of England.

But the National Trust, which looks after the 17th century Ham estate, said jackdaws have been feasting on the caterpillars, alleviating fears that the insects are unpalatable to native predators.

Ham House’s kitchen garden was badly damaged during the first life cycle of the caterpillars – which can strip hedge of its leaves before attacking the wood and causing the plant to die – in the spring.

But with the help of around 10 jackdaws – a type of small black crow – regularly patrolling the hedges and picking off the insects, the box has partly rejuvenated, the Trust said.

Plucking

The birds returned to the box hedges in August as the next cycle of caterpillars emerged.

Gardeners at the estate, which has been managed organically for more than a decade, are now exploring ways to encourage jackdaws and other birds into the garden, such as looking at the way they prune the hedges.

There is almost two-thirds of a mile of box running through the Ham estate, including in the walled kitchen garden and the cherry garden, with its formal box parterre filled with lavender, box cones and dwarf hedging.

Rosie Fyles, head gardener at the National Trust’s Ham House, said: “We first noticed jackdaws plucking caterpillars from the box hedges in May, which was fantastic to see, but I thought it might be a one-off.

Hedges

“Box hedging is an iconic part of the garden at Ham, and with so much of it, the threat of damage from the caterpillar was huge. So we were thrilled when the birds returned in August for the next life cycle.

“We had wondered if the caterpillars would be unpleasant or even poisonous to native birds – but the jackdaws have clearly developed a taste for them. It’s early days, but it’s a really encouraging sign that there may be a homegrown solution yet.”

She added that the jackdaws were most effective on hedges which had been partially stripped of leaves by the caterpillars and contain bigger holes.

“We’re now looking at ways to prune the hedges in a more open style, that allows increased air flow and gives the birds easier access to the caterpillars.”

Insecticides

Elsewhere, the Royal Horticultural Society says there have been reports of birds such as tits feeding on the caterpillars in some locations, but it is not yet clear if the predators will be able to reduce box tree moth numbers.

Starlings have also been witnessed targeting infected box hedges.

If birds do have a taste for the caterpillars, it could help reduce the work load for professional and amateur gardeners, who have been advised, where practical, to remove the caterpillars by hand.

Other options include pheromone traps, nematodes or insecticides – but these require forceful spraying and should not be done when plants are in flower due to the threat to pollinating insects, the Royal Horticultural Society said.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

A documentary called New Fire was released promoting ‘advanced’ nuclear power concepts last year. The heroes of the film were young entrepreneurs Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie, founders of a start-up called Transatomic Power that was developing a ‘Waste-Annihilating Molten-Salt Reactor’.

Problems arose during the long gestation of New Fire. Transatomic Power gave up on its plan to use nuclear waste as reactor fuel after its theoretical calculations were proven to be false, and the waste-annihilating reactor was reinvented as a waste-producing, uranium-fuelled reactor.

Worse was to come: just before the release of New Fire, Transatomic Power went broke and collapsed altogether. An epic fail.

Reactor

The Australian parliament’s ‘inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy‘ is shaping up to be another epic fail. The conservative chair of the inquiry claims that “new technologies in the field are leading to cleaner, safer and more efficient energy production.”

But the ‘advanced’ nuclear power sector isn’t advanced and it isn’t advancing.

The next ‘advanced’ reactor to commence operation will be Russia’s floating nuclear power plant, designed to help exploit fossil fuel reserves in the Arctic ‒ fossil fuel reserves that are more accessible because of climate change. That isn’t ‘advanced’ ‒ it is dystopian.

Russia’s enthusiastic pursuit of nuclear-powered icebreaker ships (nine such ships are planned by 2035) is closely connected to its agenda of establishing military and economic control of the Northern Sea Route ‒ a route that owes its existence to climate change.

China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) says the purpose of its partly-built ACPR50S demonstration reactor is to develop floating nuclear power plants for oilfield exploitation in the Bohai Sea and deep-water oil and gas development in the South China Sea.

God-awful

‘Advanced’ nuclear reactors are advancing climate change. Another example comes from Canada, where one potential application of small reactors is providing power and heat for the extraction of hydrocarbons from tar sands.

Some ‘advanced’ reactors could theoretically consume more nuclear waste than they produce. That sounds great ‒ until you dig into the detail.

An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ‒ co-authored by Allison Macfarlane, a former chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission ‒ states that “molten salt reactors and sodium-cooled fast reactors – due to the unusual chemical compositions of their fuels – will actually exacerbate spent fuel storage and disposal issues.”

The subclass of sodium-cooled fast reactors called ‘integral fast reactors’ (IFRs) could theoretically gobble up nuclear waste and convert it into low-carbon electricity, using a process called pyroprocessing.

But an IFR R&D program in Idaho has left a god-awful mess that the Department of Energy (DOE) is struggling to deal with. This saga is detailed in a 2017 article and a longer report by the Union of Concerned Scientists’ senior scientist Dr. Edwin Lyman, drawing on documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation.

Breeder

Dr. Lyman writes: “Pyroprocessing has taken one potentially difficult form of nuclear waste and converted it into multiple challenging forms of nuclear waste. DOE has spent hundreds of millions of dollars only to magnify, rather than simplify, the waste problem. … 

The FOIA documents we obtained have revealed yet another DOE tale of vast sums of public money being wasted on an unproven technology that has fallen far short of the unrealistic projections that DOE used to sell the project”.

Some ‘advanced’ reactors could theoretically consume more fissile (explosive) nuclear material than they produce. Instead of contributing to weapons proliferation risks and problems, they could contribute to the resolution of those problems.

That sounds great ‒ until you dig into the detail. After Russia’s floating nuclear plant, the next ‘advanced’ reactor to commence operation may be the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) in India.

Weapons

The PFBR has a blanket with thorium and uranium to breed fissile uranium-233 and plutonium respectively ‒ in other words, it will be ideal for weapons production.

India plans to use fast breeder reactors (a.k.a. fast neutron reactors) to produce weapon-grade plutonium for use as the initial ‘driver’ fuel in thorium reactors.

As John Carlson, the former Director-General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office, has repeatedly noted, those plans are highly problematic with respect to weapons proliferation and security.

There’s nothing “cleaner, safer and more efficient” about India’s ‘advanced’ reactor program. On the contrary, it is dangerous and it fans regional tensions and proliferation concerns in South Asia ‒ all the more so since India refuses to allow International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards inspections of its ‘advanced’ nuclear power program.

And if those regional tensions boil over into nuclear warfare, catastrophic climate change will likely result. Fossil fuels provide the surest route to catastrophic climate change; nuclear warfare provides the quickest route.

Reactors

The ‘advanced’ nuclear power sector isn’t advanced ‒ it is dystopian. And it isn’t advancing ‒ it is regressing.

The Russian government recently clawed back US$4 billion from Rosatom’s budget by postponing its fast neutron reactor program; specifically, by putting on hold plans for what would have been the only gigawatt-scale fast neutron reactor anywhere in the world.

France recently abandoned plans for a demonstration fast reactor. Pursuit of fast reactor technology is no longer a priority in France according to the World Nuclear Association.

And funding is tight because of yet another failing project: a 100-megawatt materials testing reactor that is 500 percent over-budget (and counting) and eight years behind schedule (and counting).

Other fast reactor projects have collapsed in recent years. TerraPower abandoned its plan for a prototype fast reactor in China last year due to restrictions placed on nuclear trade with China by the Trump administration, and requests for US government funding have reportedly received a negative reception.

The US and UK governments have both considered using GE Hitachi’s ‘PRISM’ fast reactor technology to process surplus plutonium stocks ‒ but both governments have rejected the proposal.

Failed

Fast reactors and other ‘advanced’ concepts are sometimes called Generation IV concepts.

But fast reactors have been around since the dawn of the nuclear age. They are best described as failed Generation I technology ‒ “demonstrably failed technology” in the words of Allison Macfarlane.

The number of operating fast reactors reached double figures in the 1980s but has steadily fallen and will remain in single figures for the foreseeable future.

Currently, just five fast reactors are operating ‒ all of them described by the World Nuclear Association as experimental or demonstration reactors.

Modular

As discussed previously in The Ecologist, most of the handful of small modular reactors (SMRs) under construction are over-budget and behind schedule; there are disturbing connections between SMRs, weapons proliferation and militarism more generally; and about half of the SMRs under construction are intended to be used to facilitate the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves.

SMRs aren’t leading to “cleaner, safer and more efficient energy production”. And SMRs aren’t advancing ‒ projects are falling over left, right and centre:

• Babcock & Wilcox abandoned its mPower SMR project in the US despite receiving government funding of US$111 million.
• Westinghouse sharply reduced its investment in SMRs after failing to secure US government funding.
• China is building a demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) but it is behind schedule and over-budget and plans for additional HTGRs at the same site have been “dropped” according to the World Nuclear Association.
• MidAmerican Energy gave up on its plans for SMRs in Iowa after failing to secure legislation that would force rate-payers to part-pay construction costs.
• Rolls-Royce sharply reduced its SMR investment in the UK to “a handful of salaries” and is threatening to abandon its R&D altogether unless massive subsidies are provided by the British government.

 

Zombie reactors

Fast reactors are demonstrably failed technology. SMRs have failed previously and are in the process of failing yet again. What else is there in the ‘advanced’ nuclear sector?

Fusion? At best, it is decades away and most likely it will forever remain decades away. Two articles in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by Dr. Daniel Jassby ‒ a fusion scientist ‒ comprehensively debunk all of the rhetoric spouted by fusion enthusiasts.

Thorium? There are no fundamental differences between thorium and uranium, so building a thorium fuel cycle from scratch to replace the uranium fuel cycle would be absurd ‒ and it won’t happen.

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) including the pebble-bed modular reactor sub-type? This zombie concept refuses to die even as  one after another country embarks on R&D, fails, and gives up. As mentioned, China is building a prototype but has dropped plans for further HTGRs.

Paper reactors

Claims that new nuclear technologies are leading to “cleaner, safer and more efficient energy production” could only be justified with reference to concepts that exist only as designs on paper.

As a nuclear industry insider quipped: “We know that the paper-moderated, ink-cooled reactor is the safest of all. All kinds of unexpected problems may occur after a project has been launched.”

There’s nothing that can be said about ‘advanced’ reactor rhetoric that wasn’t said by Admiral Hyman Rickover ‒ a pioneer of the US nuclear program ‒ all the way back in 1953.

“An academic reactor or reactor plant almost always has the following basic characteristics: (1) It is simple. (2) It is small. (3) It is cheap (4) It is light. (5) It can be built very quickly. (6) It is very flexible in purpose (‘omnibus reactor’). (7) Very little development is required. It will use mostly off-the-shelf components. (8) The reactor is in the study phase. It is not being built now.

“On the other hand, a practical reactor plant can be distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) It is being built now. (2) It is behind schedule. (3) It is requiring an immense amount of development on apparently trivial items. Corrosion, in particular, is a problem. (4) It is very expensive. (5) It takes a long time to build because of the engineering development problems. (6) It is large. (7) It is heavy. (8) It is complicated.”

This Author

Dr. Jim Green is the national nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia and editor of the Nuclear Monitor newsletter.

A new short film follows the journey of Juvenal Huari Castilla who travelled to the Amazon to log the rainforest. It’s a personal story of growth and transformation. 

This three-minute mini-doc shows that, despite the challenges, it is possible to reverse the damaging impact that people are having on the planet.

The film was named a finalist in the Conservation Optimism Film Festival last week, as part of their 2019 summit to share ideas and solutions for more empowering conservation.

Root causes

The short film is set in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Peruvian Amazon and one of the world’s most important protected areas. It’s a biodiversity hotspot and home to uncontacted indigenous people, yet the destruction of the rainforest through illegal logging is widespread and uncontrolled.

Juvenal tells his story while sitting in a lush tropical forest, an area he’d once been hired to destroy. Despite having been logged to create farmland, scientists have proven that today the biodiversity value of the forest has, in some areas, reached 87 percent of what you would expect to find in primary forest.

Thanks to long-term protection and natural regeneration, biodiversity has bounced back and nature has been given a second chance to thrive. 

For the past twelve years, Juvenal has been working with researchers from the Crees Foundation to conserve this forest and its wild creatures. Through his reconnection with nature, the film suggests people are hardwired to love the natural world, even though they are responsible for its destruction. 

By subtly drawing attention to the root causes of destructive practices in Manu, namely the lack of alternative job opportunities, it challenges simple definitions of what’s good or bad, right or wrong. Given the right circumstances – a second chance – we all have the capacity to care for our natural world. In fact, the film suggests, we all innately do.

We interviewed filmmaker, Eilidh Munro, to discover what inspired her to create the documentary:

Q: What’s it like to work in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth? 

As a wildlife or conservation filmmaker I don’t think there is a more incredible place to work. Every day brings new opportunities to experience the natural world, whether that’s waking up to the booms and crashes of a tropical thunderstorm, walking underneath a troop of monkeys or spotting the sci-fi-esque victim of the cordyceps fungus.

It’s also an incredibly challenging place to work and live, with a daily battle to keep lenses dry and mould-free. However, despite being the most biodiverse place in the world, the rainforest certainly doesn’t give away its secrets easily. You need patience, resilience – and a bit of good luck doesn’t go amiss! 

Q: What are the threats facing this region of the Amazon? 

Manu is home to a number of indigenous communities and endemic wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. However, this area is increasingly being opened up to the outside world, with a lack of control methods being put in place to limit the impacts that people are having on this globally important area.

Slash and burn agriculture, illegal logging, gold mining and cocaine trafficking are existing industries in Madre de Dios – and the emergence of new roads which connect this rainforest region to cities, such as Cusco and Puerto Maldonado, are quickly increasing the pressure on natural resources, ecology and indigenous cultures. 

Q: What motivated you to create a film that highlights a positive story? 

The forest this short is filmed in, the Crees Reserve, was once cleared for agriculture – a story which is being repeated across the Amazon at an alarming rate.

The fact that 87 percent of all biodiversity has returned to this place is such an incredibly hopeful case study and shows that there is potential for other damaged rainforests to recover, given the chance.

In a time when it can be easy to feel defeated by environmental issues, this is something I don’t think the majority of people realise is possible. 

It’s also very easy to demonise the people who are directly involved with deforestation: loggers, hunters, miners… However, the majority of people working on the ground in these industries are most likely escaping poverty elsewhere.

Juvenal’s story is personal to his own experience and testament to his openness to different world views, however it also inspired me to challenge people’s preconceptions of what makes a ‘Conservationist’, and to show how increased opportunities can change a person’s – and the environment’s – fate. 

Q: What role do films have in making an impact to help conservation? 

Stories have the power to speak to people on an emotional level – and that is what inspires change, not logic or information, so I think film has an incredibly powerful role to play in conservation.

There are huge opportunities for researchers and filmmakers to collaborate to better communicate the threats and opportunities surrounding climate change and environmental issues.

Arguably, the majority of these films are talking to a similar audience who are, on the whole, already engaged with these issues. Perhaps, to achieve greater impact, more could be done to communicate with hard-to-reach, cynical audiences who have a different world view to the one broadly targeted. 

Q: How have you been establishing a career as an independent filmmaker? 

After building up my filming and photography portfolio whilst working in marketing, I started working as Digital Content Creator in the Peruvian Amazon for the Crees Foundation, based in the Manu Biosphere Reserve.

During this time, I made a short documentary for Crees about spider monkey feeding behaviour that’s rarely caught on camera. 

I later applied for funding through the Scientific Exploration Society to return to Manu to create an independent documentary about a road which is being built through the Reserve.

This gave me the opportunity to create a 25 minute film, Voices on the Road, after running a successful crowdfunder campaign that was generously match funded through IUCN NL. The documentary will be released very soon and I can’t wait to see how audiences respond to it.  

This Author

Bethan John is a freelance multimedia journalist specialising in biodiversity conservation and social justice.