John Tyndall was a mountaineer, prolific writer of science books, prominent physicist and professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He was also an original member of the X Club, an exclusive scientific dining club whose members were frequent contributors to the well-regarded journal Nature.

It is not surprising that Tyndall reached the heights of scientific achievement and recognition, given his doctorate, easy access to the Royal Institution’s laboratories, social and intellectual friendships and networks with some of the greatest minds of the Victorian period.

For more than 160 years, Irish-born Tyndall has been credited with the original discovery of the absorption of thermal radiation by carbon dioxide and water vapor — the very cornerstone of our current understanding of climate change, weather and meteorology. He was the first to clearly demonstrate and understand the physical basis of the greenhouse effect.

‘Originality and precision’

Another first originated with a hidden figure in the history of climate science, one who remained unacknowledged until brought to light in 2011 by independent researcher Raymond Sorenson.

Later researched by writer John Perlin and the main subject of a symposium held in May 2018 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, this previously unknown contributor to our current understanding of climate change was an American amateur scientist, a suffragette and a woman: Eunice Newton Foote, born 200 years ago.

Three years before Tyndall first published his broad findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London in 1859, Foote demonstrated the absorption of solar heat by carbon dioxide and water vapor and wrote up her findings in a paper entitled “Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun’s Rays.” While Foote did not differentiate between heat from the whole solar spectrum and long-wave infrared, which is actually responsible for the greenhouse effect, she does seem to be the first to suggest that changing amounts of carbon dioxide and water vapor could alter the climate.

Tyndall understood the difference, though he did not use the term “long-wave infrared” because it was not yet invented.

Certainly, Tyndall’s equipment, laboratory and experimental results were more sophisticated than Foote’s, and he is rightly credited with establishing the experimental basis for the greenhouse effect, first suggested by Swiss physicist Horace Bénédict de Saussure in the the 1760s and later developed by French mathematician Joseph Fourier in the 1820s and French physicist Claude Pouillet in 1836 And yet, while acknowledging these men’s work, Tyndall did not reference Foote’s. Why?

There is some debate about whether Tyndall even knew of Foote’s work, though there was some mention of her paper in various North American publications. For example, the September 13, 1856, issue of Scientific American, reported that her experiment on the effects of the sun’s rays on different gases afforded “abundant evidence of the ability of woman to investigate any subject with originality and precision.”

Prejudice 

According to Roland Jackson, Tyndall’s biographer, general editor of his correspondence and past chief executive of the British Science Association, it seems safe to assume that “if anyone had seen it and understood its significance, there would be some evidence of this, as they would have informed Tyndall and/or each other.” 

But to date, not a single reference to her work has been found in any letter, journal or publication of the major contemporary figures in this field. Therefore, it seems most likely that very little, if any, significant discussion or proper citations or summaries of her study reached England during the time Tyndall was working on and publishing his research.

Did Tyndall know about Foote’s work and simply ignore it because she was an amateur, an American or a woman? Perhaps.

During Victorian England, a prejudice against amateurs, Americans and women as not quite as capable or professional as British men certainly existed. And Tyndall was no democrat and no supporter of female emancipation.

Did he know about the significance of Foote’s study and actively plagiarized it? Maybe, although, as Jackson points out, this would be entirely out of character and extremely risky. Furthermore, both Jackson and Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading in England, feel that if Tyndall had actually known about Foote’s results, he would have started his experiments using CO2 and water vapor. He didn’t: Tyndall initially tried dry air, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen before experimenting on CO2and water vapor.

Lack of credit 

Is the lack of credit for Foote linked to insufficient information, prejudice or a deliberate omission on Tyndall’s part? 

Whatever the truth is, and we may never know, it is now clear that Foote’s experiment added to the understanding of climate science.

As Katharine Hayhoe, co-director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, has pointed out, while Foote’s research did not directly establish the physical basis of what we now call the greenhouse effect, she appears to have been the first person to notice the ability of carbon dioxide and water vapor to absorb heat and to make a direct link between the variability of these atmospheric constituents and climate change.

For this achievement, Foote clearly deserves a place on the pantheon of past and present climate scientists and those to come in the future.

This Author

Dawn Starin is an anthropologist. Her articles have appeared in both peer-reviewed journals and in popular publications as varied as Al Jazeera, the Ecologist, The Humanist, New Internationalist, New Statesman, The New York Times, Philosophy Now, and Scientific American amongst others.

This article was first published in Scientific American. 

Image: Dawn Starin. 

Ramba, a female elephant, arrived at Santuário de Elefantes do Brasil (Brazil Elephants Sanctuary) after a 73 hour trip all the way from Chile. The groundbreaking decision of a Brazilian judge was the icing on the cake, as if the news of Ramba’ freedom from decades of captivity and mistreatment was not good enough.

A few days before Ramba’s transfer began, Judge Leonísio Salles de Abreu Junior, from the first Civil Court at Chapada dos Guimarães prohibited the local government to charge the sanctuary R$ 50,000 (approximately US$13,000) – a tax on the movement of goods known as ICMS. The reason presented was as simple as this: Ramba is not a thing to be imported.

The judge argued that, in practical terms, Ramba was not acquired by the sanctuary nor does she belong to it in patrimonial terms, so she cannot be considered as a commodity nor good purchased for importation purposes.

Non-human rights

The judge pointed out that Ramba’s position, far from being a commodity, is now that of a guest who seeks a new home far from the harm that human evil has already caused her.

Usually the taxation on goods is charged on any kind of animal transfer from one place to another within the country, which makes Abreu Junior’s decision an important pivot and a huge contribution to the efforts of lawyers who work on the recognition of non-human rights all over the world.

The Judge also added an animal cruelty perspective to the unprecedented decision: “It cannot be forgotten that the collection of the tax would cause too much suffering for Ramba, enhanced by the immense physical and emotional stress caused by air transport.”

Ramba is 52 years old and had been living in a small barn at Rancágua Park Safari in Chile since 2012. In fact, the move to the safari itself was a Judicial conquest. Ramba had been being exploited in circuses for more than 30 years in Chile and Argentina.

The conditions at the barn were obviously not good enough – she was alone in a small area, left to deal with the harsh Chilean winter. After a few years of negotiation and group effort of local NGO Ecópolis, Global Sanctuary for Elephants (GSE) and the Brazilian sanctuary, Ramba’s transfer to a peaceful life in an adequate space alongside other elephants was made possible.

The news from the sanctuary could not be better. “Rambita” is already sharing her living space with Rana and Maia, another guest of the sanctuary, and has approached the new friend with a warm welcome. She is also enjoying deserved mud and sand baths and her skin is with a healthy reddish tone.

Stay tuned for more information on Ramba by following the SEB Facebook page. 

This Author 

Jaqueline B. Ramos is the communication manager at GAP Project International and journalist at Ambiente-se Comunicação. 

Looking for someone to blame for climate change was “unhelpful”, and users of fossil fuels were part of the problem as well as producers, according to senior executives at BP.

Speaking at the One Young World summit in London this week, the company’s chief executive Bob Dudley said: “We’ve had generations of using energy… so we’re all part of the problem.”

“We [BP] want to be part of leading this transition but we also work in places that have no energy so it’s going to take a little longer than people would like.”

Blame unhelpful

BP’s chief economist Spencer Dale added: “I think the concept of looking for somebody to blame is not really the right way of thinking about this. It’s unhelpful.”

The provision of energy had done more than any single thing in terms of raising human welfare. Now the type of energy society uses needs to be changed rapidly, so blame was not “the right thing,” he said.

“If you’re sat in Europe right now, I can understand why you’re worried about carbon emissions. Go to Delhi – in Delhi they really worry about access to energy,” he said. Both of those issues needed to be solved, and that would take many types of energy, he said.

Disgraceful deflection

But Areeba Hamid, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said that it was a disgrace that BP was trying to deflect the blame onto the public.

BP had spent more than £18 million since 2010 lobbying the EU in attempts to undermine action on the climate emergency, she said, pointing to research on lobbying by oil and gas majors conducted by Greenpeace EU along with Corporate Europe Observatory, Food & Water Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe.

“Until the fossil fuel giants bring an end to their destructive business models by either shifting efforts to renewable energy or shutting up shop, the blame lies solely at their door,” she said.

This Author

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

More than 100 seal pups have been welcomed on a Scottish island as birthing season approaches its peak.

More than 2,500 pups are born annually on the Isle of May, with the first arriving from mid-September.

The number of births usually peaks in early November before the last pup is born in mid-December.

Pups

It transforms the island in the Firth of Forth each year into one of the UK’s most important grey seal colonies.

The Isle of May is owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) as a national nature reserve.

It is closed to the public during seal season.

David Steel from SNH said: “Autumn is a fantastic time of year on the island, when areas once dominated by seabirds are completely taken over by seals and their pups.

Peace

“It’s a sight that not many get to witness as the island is closed to visitors, but watching those first interactions between pup and mum is just wonderful.

“This is a key time of year for breeding grey seals not just on the Isle of May but at haul-out sites around the shores of Scotland.

“While we all love the opportunity to see wildlife spectacles like this, it’s important that seals are not approached or disturbed and the pups are allowed to grow and explore in peace.”

This Author

Lucy Christie is a reporter with PA Scotland.

Crabs can navigate their way around a complex maze and remember the route to find food, research has found.

Researchers at Swansea University tested 12 common shore crabs over four weeks, placing food at the end of the maze each time.

The route to the end of the maze required five changes in direction and included three dead ends.

Crustaceans

Over the four-week period, the crabs improved both the time they took to find the food and reduced the number of wrong turns they made.

When they returned to the maze two weeks later – without any food on offer – they all reached the end within eight minutes.

Crabs that had not been in the maze before took far longer to reach the end, with some not making it during the one-hour study period.

Dr Ed Pope, a marine biologist, said the study aimed to gain a better understanding of spatial learning in crustaceans.

Adapt

“This study is important because we know that insects, especially ants and bees, have some impressive mental abilities but we haven’t really looked for them in their aquatic counterparts,” Dr Pope, of Swansea University, said.

“The fact that crabs show a similar ability to insects is, in some ways, not that surprising but it is great to be able to show it so clearly.

“This work opens the door to more sophisticated experiments looking at how changing ocean conditions might affect crabs’ ability to learn and adapt to find food in future.”

The research is published in the journal Biology Letters.

This Author

Claire Hayhurst is a reporter with PA.

Boris Johnson was defeated in the House of Commons yet again this week.

Register to vote

Even those of us who are politically obsessed enough to watch the parliament channel or cling to minute-by-minute updates on digital news platforms will have lost count of how many votes have been lost by the government.

A general election was threatened if the Programme Bill failed to pass through the House – in what many have interpreted as an act of petulance – and yet the official statement in its wake failed to mention any such event.

Radar

However, we’re now at a point that the oft talked about and ever-looming election now seems inevitable. This will quite possibly be the most important in British history – but not because of Brexit.

Register to vote

We’re probably at our most aware that our political system is in a state of crisis. Inept, stale and suffering from ever-lasting inertia. After more than three years of going in circles, while shamefully neglecting all that isn’t directly a part of the withdrawal process, many are likely in shock that we’re about to enter the year 2020, three years on the referendum.

After enduring those three gruelling, tiresome and repetitive years of Brexit driven political drivel from those elected to parliament and outside of it, we’re on the cusp of an opportunity to replace those elected to represent us.

On the surface, it feels as if almost every other political consideration has been an afterthought at best.

However, perhaps a little under the radar, the Labour Party and activists within it have been pushing for and developing a raft of new and ambitious policy proposals.

Bold

Standing out among them, due to its scope and ambition, is a Green New Deal motion passed at the Autumn conference by the young activist campaign group Labour for a Green New Deal.

Designed as a national action plan with the purpose of rapidly tackling the climate crisis while also addressing social inequality, the motion sets Labour apart from the rest as having one of the most ambitious climate policies of a major political party anywhere in the world.

That being said, in a political and media landscape dominated by Brexit and character assassinations, the party lags behind in polls. Though the last few years should have taught us by now that we pay too much attention to polling at our own peril.

However, the appetite for concise action on the climate is glaringly evident and it’s vital that this is seen at polling stations across the country.

In just the last nine months, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets month after month demanding bold and ambitious action on the climate and ecological crisis, culminating with the record-shattering Global Climate Strike in September.

Action

It feels apparent that young people will have a decisive say in the appointment of the next government amidst widespread political activation. Furthermore, thousands have been rallying their communities and thousands more have been arrested across the UK with the emergence of Extinction Rebellion.

The timeframes for action are stark. We need an entire reimagining of our societies and economies, requiring massive economic mobilisation in the immediate years, not seen since the last World War.

A period of unprecedented transition is required to rapidly wean our fossil drenched industrial systems away from the death sentences of hydrocarbon extraction, industrial animal agriculture and perpetual growth and consumption.

It’s increasingly apparent that we cannot afford to have a government in place that isn’t committed to the necessary action, with five years until the next elected an unconscionable prospect.

Ambitious

With every passing moment and year of inaction, the potential to stave off warming above 1.5 degrees diminishes even further, precisely why this election needs to be beyond Brexit.

Just two years on from the IPCC 1.5 degree report which articulated the devastating position humankind finds itself in, we’re coming into an election after three years of climate mitigation stagnation.

The result? A clear and unequivocal need to elect a government with a strong mandate for equitable climate action, ambitious in scale and internationalist in essence.

If we proceed to elect a government that isn’t prepared to lead us towards a rapid transition away from the fossil fuel economy, we’re locked in to a further five years of inaction, ensuring we lose nearly half the time available to embark on this necessarily ambitious task to secure our futures. There is no time to delay.

The Author

Jake Woodier works for the UK Student Climate Network and is an organiser with Green New Deal UK. You can register to vote online.

The future of trade policy in the UK has come under renewed scrutiny as Brexit dominates the headlines. Boris Johnson is clearly treating the UK’s exit from the European Union as an opportunity to form a new trade pact with the United States.

But civil society groups fear that such an agreement would undermine food standards, push the NHS further towards privatisation, and prevent the UK from taking necessary steps to combat the climate crisis – all without requiring approval from Parliament.

Meanwhile, Parliament’s International Trade Committee recently launched an inquiry into how trade policy can support “positive environmental outcomes” – an admirable goal, to be sure, but one which would require a drastic change of attitudes towards trade among politicians of all parties.

Global economy 

As of yet, that change of attitudes has yet to occur. The connection between trade and the climate crisis runs deeper than practically any prominent politician has been willing to acknowledge.

Imagine a world where food routinely gets shipped thousands of miles away to be processed, then shipped back to be sold right where it started.

Imagine cows from Mexico being fed corn imported from the United States, then being exported to the United States for butchering, and the resulting meat being shipped back to Mexico, one last time, to be sold.

Imagine a world in which, in most years since 2005, China has somehow managed to import more goods from itself than from the USA, one of its largest trading partners.

This may sound like the premise of some darkly comic, faintly dystopian film, but it’s no joke – in fact, it is the daily reality of international trade in our global economy.

‘Re-importation’

The above examples are all instances of ‘re-importation’ – that is, countries shipping their own goods overseas only to ship them back again at a later stage in the production chain. And these are far from the only instances of this head-scratching phenomenon.

In the waters off the coast of Norway, cod arrive every year after an impressive migratory journey, having swum thousands of miles around the Arctic Circle in search of spawning grounds.

Yet this migration pales in comparison to the one the fish undertake after being caught: they’re sent to China to be fileted before returning to supermarkets in Scandinavia to be sold.

This globalisation of the seafood supply chain extends to the US as well; more than half of the seafood caught in Alaska is processed in China, and much of it gets sent right back to American grocery store shelves.

Compounding the insanity of re-importation is the equally baffling phenomenon of redundant trade. This is a common practice whereby countries both import and export huge quantities of identical products in a given year.

To take a particularly striking example, in 2007, Britain imported 15,000 tons of chocolate-covered waffles, while exporting 14,000 tons. In 2017, the US both imported and exported nearly 1.5 million tons of beef, and nearly half a million tons of potatoes. In 2016, 213,000 tons of liquid milk arrived in the UK – a windfall, had not 545,000 tons of milk also left the UK over the course of that same year.

Free trade

On the face of it, this kind of trade makes no economic sense. Why would it be worth the immense cost – in money as well as fuel – of sending perfectly good food abroad only to bring it right back again? The answer lies in the way the global economy is structured.

‘Free trade’ agreements allow transnational corporations to access labour and resources almost anywhere, enabling them to take advantage of tax loopholes and national differences in labour and environmental standards.

Meanwhile, direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels, on the order of $5 trillion per year worldwide, allow the costs of shipping to be largely borne by taxpayers and the environment instead of the businesses that actually engage in it. In combination, these structural forces lead to insane levels of international transport that serve no purpose other than boosting corporate profits.

The consequences of this bad behavior are already severe, and set to become worse in the coming decades. Small farmers around the world have seen their livelihoods undermined by influxes of cheap imported food, or forced to export their food instead of selling locally. Meanwhile, their climate-resilient agricultural practices are actively discouraged by the WTO and ‘free trade’ agreements.

Food processing and packaging – both critical for food that’s going to be shipped a long way from where it was produced – account for a significant proportion of the global food system’s greenhouse gas emissions.

And even after that packaging has been thrown into the nearest recycling bin, it typically undergoes yet another long-distance journey before being processed. Before China stopped allowing foreign waste imports in 2018, British companies alone had shipped more than 2.7m tons of plastic wasteto China and Hong Kong since 2012 – two-thirds of the UK’s total waste plastic exports. With the ban now in place, most of Britain’s plastic waste is simply being shipped elsewhere. 

International transport

Accruing unnecessary miles of shipping is not a feature unique to food or plastic waste. The components of a typical smartphone, for example, have traveled a collective half-million miles – touching down on three continents – before landing in your pocket.

This sprawling globalisation of the supply chain has grown alongside trade liberalization, to the point where now roughly 30 percent of the value of global exports comes from foreign inputs – up from 25 percent in 1990.

This kind of excessive trade in materials is why carbon emissions from international transport are growing nearly three times faster than emissions from other sources. At current rates of growth, international trade by sea and air will, by 2050, emit about as much CO2 as the entire European Union does today.

The link between liberalised trade policies and carbon emissions is clear and straightforward. A recent study from Japan’s Kyushu University found that when countries reduce or eliminate their tariffs – particularly on resource-intensive industries like mining and manufacturing – they see corresponding increases in the amount of carbon emissions associated with imported goods.

This is due in large part to the carbon cost of global transport, but there are other factors at play as well, tied to the trade and investment treaties that have been a prominent feature of the global economy since the mid-20thcentury.

Future profits

These treaties often include Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions, which give corporations the right to sue national governments for, among other things, introducing environmental regulations that might curb future expected profits.

For example, the UK-based fossil fuel company Rockhopper is currently suing Italy for US$350 million in damages and “lost future profits”, because Italy banned new offshore drilling operations in 2015 due to sustained public pressure.

This is just one among many instances of the ISDS system leading to corporate abuses of power at the expense of planetary health. Indeed, environmental regulations are the fastest-growing trigger for ISDS cases being filed, and mining and energy companies are now the most frequent users of ISDS mechanisms.

Essentially, ISDS clauses in trade treaties have created a parallel court system in which conflicts of interest are rife, arbitrators are heavily incentivised to side with corporations (including fossil fuel companies) over the public interest, and decision-making happens largely outside the public view.

But in addition to producing corporate-friendly rulings, the ISDS system contributes to climate chaos in an even more sinister way, through what’s called ‘regulatory chill’. Countries that have signed treaties containing ISDS clauses often feel pressured not to implement new environmental laws and regulations, simply because of the threat of being sued in an ISDS tribunal.

For example, a proposed law that would have phased out oil and gas extraction in France was watered down beyond recognition after a Canadian fossil fuel company threatened to sue France in an ISDS court. And in a story that broke during the writing of this piece, German company Uniper threatened to bring an ISDS case against the Netherlands for deciding to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2030.

Climate policy

In this way, the number of cases brought before ISDS tribunals actually understates the impact of trade treaties on climate policy. Who knows how many potential regulations have never seen the light of day due to the threat of Big Oil taking countries to court?

With climate policy still largely in its infancy – with many necessary regulations not yet ‘on the books’ worldwide – the chilling effect of ISDS is a serious obstacle.

The upshot of all this is that if countries are going to effectively combat the climate crisis, they will have to pay close attention to trade policy. Specifically, they’ll need to change it so that unrestricted, unlimited ‘free trade’ is no longer an option.

But policymakers currently have little incentive to reduce international trade because, bizarrely, emissions from global trade do not appear in any nation’s carbon accounting. There are plenty of ways to fix this – for example, emissions from trade could be assigned to countries on the basis of where goods start out, where they end up, or where the ships and planes transporting them are registered.

All that countries would have to do is agree on a standard. But at the moment no country is assigned responsibility for these floating emissions. The result is a situation in which policymakers promise to reduce carbon emissions while simultaneously working to expand global trade through treaties and liberalisation – even though these two goals are wholly incompatible.

Peoples’ movements

With policymakers continuing to drag their feet, the impetus for real change in the way we conduct global trade will have to come from peoples’ movements working together to make their voices heard. We must call for an end to the deregulatory ‘free trade’ and tax policies that make practices like re-importation and redundant trade profitable.

One of the most critical steps towards sanity would be the removal of subsidies for fossil fuels. When taxpayers stop paying part of the cost of global transport, transnational corporations will have to radically reconsider the way they operate.

These changes will be vigorously opposed by big global businesses, which means that generating momentum for trade policies that promote community health and ecological stability won’t happen overnight.

But the first step is raising awareness of trade as a climate issue, and overcoming the unwillingness of most major media outlets, politicians, and think-tanks to discuss it critically.

To that end, Local Futures has released a new factsheet and tongue-in-cheek short film on ‘insane trade’ and its consequences.

We hope they can help draw attention to the absurdity of the current system, point to healthier alternatives, and make the issue of global trade approachable and understandable for a wide audience. So please, share them with people you know, and start a conversation around this critical topic.

This Author 

Sean Keller is a member of the Local Futures core team.

Three hundred MPs are calling on the trustees of the £700m Parliamentary Pension Fund to take the financial risks of the climate crisis seriously and end investments in fossil fuel companies.

The cross-party initiative, backed by the leaders of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP as well as senior Conservatives, follows Parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency in May earlier this year and puts pressure on the trustees of the fund as they prepare to announce a new “Climate Change Investment Policy” in November.

The fund’s largest single holding is £11.6 million of shares in BP Plc, and it also holds £10.9 million in Royal Dutch Shell. If the trustees agree to the MPs’ demands it will be a powerful symbolic boost for the global movement to divest from fossil fuels, which has now been backed by more than 1000 funds worth over $11 trillion. 

Showing leadership

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, who has championed the initiative, said: “The climate emergency requires that we keep fossil fuels in the ground.

“I’ve been calling for fossil fuel divestment for well over five years and am encouraged by the huge number of MPs who now agree that we must move our investments away from the polluting industries of the past, and instead support policies that will bring about a clean energy future”. 

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams of Oystermouth, said: “Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is probably the single most urgent challenge we face if we are to avoid a really unmanageable climate crisis in the next few decades, with all the human cost this will entail.

“Parliamentarians of all parties have the opportunity to show real leadership on this question and to make our existing national commitments more of a reality. Divestment will send a positive and hopeful message to the people of this country – and to those in vulnerable communities across the globe who will be most immediately affected by climate-related disasters.’ 

The Divest Parliament Pledge has been signed by 300 current MPs, including Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn; Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson; SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford and Conservative Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan. It has also been backed by 30 former MPs including Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change, and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Responsibility

The pledge states: “Unmitigated climate change threatens to undermine our economy, shared environment and global security. Under the UK’s Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement, the UK is committed to limiting warming to well below 2C and to aim for no more than 1.5C.

“This requires leaving the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves unburnt, creating the real possibility of fossil fuel assets becoming stranded – with profound implications for the global economy.

“We believe Members of Parliament have a responsibility to act on climate change, and a unique opportunity to show leadership on climate action, responsible investment and the management of climate risk through addressing the practices of our own pension fund.

“As MPs past and present, and members of the Parliamentary Pension Fund, we call on the Trustees to uphold their fiduciary duty and take the financial risks of climate change seriously. We ask they quantify, disclose and review the fund’s investments in carbon-intensive industries, engage in a dialogue with fund members and managers on responsible investment, and commit to phasing out fossil fuel investments over an appropriate time-scale.”

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, the Environmental Audit Committee, and major global fund managers have warned that ordinary people’s pensions are now at risk because they are exposed to overvalued carbon assets as the world moves quickly towards cheaper, greener renewables, and governments legislate for net-zero emissions. 

Climate crisis

As the global climate crisis worsens, pressure is mounting on leaders at international, national and local levels to take tangible action. If the trustees of the Parliamentary Pension Fund follow the call for divestment, the fund would join the Irish National Infrastructure Fund, the Greater London Authority’s Pension Fund, the New York City Pension fund, local authorities including Southwark and Islington, and two thirds of UK universities, who have all ended investment in fossil fuel companies.

David Warburton, Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome said: “Parliament is fully committed to our net zero emission target and to get there we must invest billions into renewable infrastructure, energy efficiency and zero carbon technology.

“Pension funds have an exciting role to play in financing the transition to a net zero future, and it is really positive to see such a large group of cross party MPs coming together to pressure our pension fund trustees to phase out carbon intensive investments, and to ramp up positive investments into a green and prosperous future.” 

Helen Hayes, Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood said: “Local authorities like Southwark and Lambeth, and the Mayor of London are showing the political leadership required to tackle the climate crisis by divesting their pension funds from fossil fuels.

“Parliament must now follow suit, and bring forward policies that are compliant with net zero emissions and the scale of the climate crisis. This requires keeping fossil fuels in the ground, and introducing long term policies that ensure clean energy can flourish.”

Patrick Killoran, UK Organiser at 350.org, said: “While our climate begins to unravel with fatal heatwaves and devastating floods, BP and Shell continue to invest billions in fuelling this crisis. At a time of climate breakdown, it is unacceptable for political leaders to be investing in or supporting policies that promote the fossil fuel industry.

“We are encouraged that MPs from across the political spectrum are backing up the ‘Climate Emergency’ rhetoric with action to divest from fossil fuels. We hope the pension fund Trustees hear these loud calls for fossil fuel divestment and produce a new investment strategy that will help bring about a fossil free future”.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is content editor of The Ecologist. This article based on a press release from Divest Parliament. 

The districts of Surguja and Surajpur in northern Chhattisgarh, India, are rich in bio-diversity. They are home and migratory corridor for several species of wildlife, including elephants.

The catchment area of the Hasdeo Bango barrage irrigates four lakh hectares of prime agricultural land. The region is also home to Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers, and sustains and supports their livelihoods and cultural exchange.

Due to the essential features of this rich area, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change declared the entire region as a ‘no-go area’ for mining in the year 2009. 

State machinery 

In 23 June 2011, the then Union Minister for the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Shri Jairam Ramesh granted forest clearances to three coal blocks – in Tara, Parsa East and Kante Basan – but promised that no further clearance would be given to any other coal mining projects in this region.

Even this forest clearance was later set aside by the National Green Tribunal following Section two of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 for diversion of 1898.328 hectares of forest land at Parsa East and Kante-Basan captive coal blocks, in favour of Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.  

On 30 June 2011, Jairam Ramesh wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) regarding proposed clearances to the Morga II coal block allotment and strongly objected to any further mining activity in the proposed region.

The Union government in 2014 neglected the earlier position and started giving clearances to mining projects, thereby paving the way for the destruction of one of most important forest regions of the state. 

The auction/allotment of coal blocks is to be done by the Union government, but the state government is mandated to determine the procedures and lays down rules for forest and environment clearance and land acquisition.

The assessment and analysis for the loss of forest life, water sources, flora and fauna, environment changes and impact of these projects on the culture and livelihoods is to be done by the state government.

The state machinery is also responsible and empowered to raise any objections in this matter. It is also imperative to ensure implementation for PESA, 1996 and FRA, 2006 before initiating processes for land acquisition and giving forest clearances. and record the (lack of) consent from Gram Sabhas. 

Industrial lobby

The experiences of the last fifteen years have shown us that these processes are not only ignored, but also violated at the behest of corporate groups. The ill-impacts of these decisions has put the interests of the state at stake and today we are facing cathartic consequences. 

Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti hopes that the state government led by Shri Bhupesh Baghel will address the constant terror created by the industrial lobby and address the needs of the communities living in the state who are solely dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, culture and dignity.

We also hope that the state government would work further to conserve the environment and address the problems faced by the communities in the Hasdeo region. 

Demands

We urge the state government to consider the following demands, submitted to the Chief Minister on 21 October, 2019: 

Scrap the land acquisition process undertaken in the villages of Salhi, Hariharpur and Fathepur in the Parsa coal block: Surguja and Surajpur districts fall as under the Schedule V region. It is mandatory to secure written consent letters from Gram Sabhas for land acquisition for any project – as per the rules of the PESA, 1996. In the three villages of the proposed coal block, the acquisition process was carried out without securing the consent of concerned gram sabhas, which is a clear violation of PESA, 1996 and Section 41(3) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Hence, the land acquisition process should be readily cancelled. 

Cancel the Stage-I Forest Clearance given to Parsa Coal block: As per the provisions of Section 4(5) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the letter dated 30th July, 2009 from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, any diversion of forest land is to precede with announcing the settlement of all claims as the FRA mandates, and with the written consent letter of the concerned Gram Sabhas. In the  affected villages of Salhi, Hariharpur, Fatehpur and Ghatbarra, the settlement of individual and community resource rights is still pending. There has also been no consent taken from the gram sabhas as per constitutional provisions. Hence, the Stage-1 clearance should be cancelled.  

Cancel the environment and forest clearance and land acquisition process in the Paturia, Gidhmuri and Madanpur South coal blocks: The 20 gram sabhas of Hasdeo Aranya passed a unanimous resolution in 2015 to oppose all future auction/allotment of coal blocks and mining, and submitted those to the then Chief Minister and the Prime Minister. In violation of the rights of Gram Sabhas recognized under Schedule V of the constitution and PESA rules, the allotments of 5 coal blocks were made. Hence, we demand that the environment, forest clearance and land acquisition process in Paturia, Girmudi and Madanpur South coal blocks.  

In addition, the MDO (Mines Developer cum Operator) agreement between Adani group and Chhattisgarh Power Generation Company (which was allotted the Paturia and Gidhmuri coal block) should be cancelled. 

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Let India Breathe. 

Singer Ellie Goulding said her young fans come to her for answers about the climate crisis, at an international environment summit on Wednesday.

The chart-topping British songwriter said her fans are “struggling to find answers (on climate change) from parents and school” at One Young World conference.

Ms Goulding, who has been an environmental ambassador for the UN since 2017, said: “previous generations have failed to act” and commended younger people for taking action against climate change.

Obsessed

The 32-year-old said: “Over the last 12 months the clear-eyed focus of young people has created an unstoppable force of change.

“When I first met Greta Thunberg at Davos last year, the school climate strikes were a relatively recent phenomenon.

“Climate crisis is the era that we inhabit. It forms the backdrop to our lives, a constant soundtrack which will only get louder.”

Speaking about her own childhood, she said: “From a very early age I have been motivated by anger about injustice.”

She said growing up in rural Herefordshire instilled in her a love of nature, and since becoming a climate ambassador has become “obsessed” with combating climate change through “communication”.

Emergency

The singer told the audience: “I am acutely aware of the power of songs to communicate messages.

“And it is important to remember when we communicate our message about the Earth that it is just as important to connect with people on a human level as it is to communicate the facts.”

“They give us an emotional workout. This type of connection is the point, the power of music.”

The singer added: “When I am not doing something which directly addresses the climate emergency or homelessness I feel really guilty.”

These Authors

Mike Bedigan and Laura Parnaby are reporters with PA. Image: Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV.