Oaxaca’s Yaguar Xoo sanctuary is based in the area of Yagul, a UNESCO heritage site, rich with archaeological and environmental history. Victor Sosas and his team are developing the premise of the space, bringing in the local community and visiting academics to learn about their projects.

Key initiatives at the sanctuary are Jaguars en Selva with the Jaguars of the Light and Batagave; respectively focused on rehabilitating jaguars and raising awareness about bat populations through a bat-conscious mezcal certification.

Mezcal is a Mexican spirit distilled from agave, and bats are one of the major pollinators of this iconic plant. Batagave will work with mezcal producers, encouraging them to embrace the importance of bat conservation.

Rescue and rehabilitation

A significant element of this certification will be leaving a percentage of agave plants to flower, rather than harvesting it for use in mezcal production. Producers will be reimbursed with agave seed, grown on site at Yaguar Xoo. The site will also offer educational tours and mezcal tastings for visitors in a dedicated space in front of the sanctuary.

I first met the team when discussing a collaboration with the sanctuary and my project Rambling Spirits.

We work with mezcal producers in Oaxaca offering guided tours to understand the terroir of this complex drink. Our initial plan was to bring guests to explore the area of Yagul and learn about the Batagave project.

We were welcomed by Sosas and his team, and after finishing our business were shown around. My partner and I were blown away by the space and immediately committed to being involved with the sanctuary as a whole.

Sosas has taken over much of the running of the sanctuary from his father, who opened the space almost twenty years ago. The sanctuary rescues animals from all over Mexico. They receive exotic creatures from unfit environments, and when possible, work towards their rehabilitation into the wild.

Enriching environment 

The first big enclosure you see as you enter the sanctuary houses two bears. Sosas remembers when the bears were rescued in the late nineties, when he was just a boy. They show their age, but seem happy and mellow, running over to the sounds of Sosas’ voice. Beyond the bears are two tigers (one white), a lion and lioness and pair of pumas.

The main focus of the sanctuary are the jaguars. The sanctuary offers walking tours around some of the enclosures. Many jaguars are not visible, which is part of the rehabilitation for those that might be released into the wild. Animals you can see have been rescued from circuses or domestic situations. When they come to the sanctuary they are often in poor condition and have never developed their natural instincts.

Biologists at the sanctuary feel it is important that these animals do not just sit and sleep in their enclosures. They have developed an environment enrichment program, using meat and obstacles to build strength and agility, while having two jaguars attempt it at once encourages natural territorial behaviour. Through these activities it is possible, that some of these jaguars, if they are Mexican genus, may be introduced into the wild.

Under supervision from Sosas and his team, we got to enter one of the enclosures that they use for enrichment, and were shown how to set it up. It was explained to us that it is important for visitors to the sanctuary to witness these activities with the jaguars, to see their strength and understand their nature. These are not pets, but strong animals that need a huge habitat to survive.

Jaguars are the largest native cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. They are robust, with large heads that house one of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. Jaguars are part of the ‘panthera’ family, which also includes lions, tigers and leopards. Typically jaguars have bold rosette-like markings. Some appear completely black and are commonly known as ’black panthers,’ but if you look closely the markings are still visible.

Complex mythology 

Jaguars are imbedded in Mexico’s history and mythology. They are represented as sacred figures, belonging to another space and world, not that controlled by men. María del Carmen Valverde Valdés, Doctor of Mesoamerican Studies UNAM, said: “The jaguar represents what is outside, in another space. He is seen as the lord of the animals.” 

There are famous caves in Yagul with paintings showing jaguars dating back thousands of years. Jaguars sometimes make their dens in caves, which linked them to the earth and fertility. These majestic beasts became absorbed into a complex dual mythology, representing both light and darkness, heaven and earth. Embracing this idea, Jaguars of the Light is the name of the progressive rehabilitation project that is at the forefront of activity in the sanctuary right now.

There are a total of fifteen jaguars in the sanctuary and two are almost ready to be released back into the wild. In October 2016, these two females were discovered alone in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche. They were just a fortnight old. Yaguar Xoo was awarded the opportunity to raise them because of their experience with rehabilitating jaguars. They are called Celestun Peten and Nicte ha, they are theJaguars of the Light.

The objective of Jaguars of the Light is to demonstrate, over a two year period, that these jaguars are able to survive and be independent in the wild.

Luis Yescas is a published biologist working with Victor, he is in charge of monitoring the two cubs. On arrival they stayed with Yescas so he could keep them alive at such a fragile young age. They received a special milk formula, using a pillow and teats covered with a faux fur, rubbed with the scent of a female jaguar. Once stable, the cubs were put into a large space, enclosed so there is no human influence.

Specialised methodology

Sosas and the team have been working on this specialised methodology to stimulate natural behaviour and supply the learning and needs of Celestun and Nicte ha, which they would have received from their mother.

In the first few moths in their enclosure they were fed using a gilly suit, so that the cubs did not associate getting food from humans. Eventually they were weaned off the milk and were introduced to live prey. They are now fed by putting the prey into the area using a chamber, so that there is never any human interaction.

The jaguars are monitored to make sure they are away from this entrance at this time, so the prey enters without fear and the jaguars do not get used to one point of entry. There is also a large source of water where they have learnt to swim, dive and fish. This is essential for a wild jaguar.

Around the enclosure are towers (hides), where for a time Sosas and his team could watch the jaguars live. As they have matured the jaguars have become extremely alert. In minutes they are aware of movement in the towers, so this is now restricted. We were honoured to be invited into one of these hides to see the Jaguars of the Light ourselves.

Now the cubs are monitored using four cameras inside the space and each has a GPS collar. Yescas watches and documents 24 hours of footage, collecting notes on growth and behavioural development.

Fluctuating population 

The sanctuary must record every detail documented to show their progress to funders. Although jaguars are officially protected in Mexico, Sosas said there needs to be more active support to improve understanding of these animals and create a template to support the growth and rehabilitation of cubs like Celestun Peten and Nicte ha. Sosas and his team are part of a Mexican collective researching jaguars and raising awareness to protect them (Alianza Nacional para la conservation del jaguar).

The sanctuary have supported surveys into jaguar populations that has seen a rise of 20 percent from from recorded 4000 two years ago.

Despite this positive data, Victor expressed a concern at the lack of data in general. There are similar projects in Brazil and Argentina, but there is little official information about the process of rehabilitating jaguars. There is hardly any literature covering the kind of work they are doing in the sanctuary, and experts in the field are not all in agreement on the best way to follow through with a study such as this, where the end goal is liberating the jaguars.

The team have to write their own guide and build a clearer picture of how jaguar populations fluctuate in the wild and how they can be reintroduced safely.

Next month Celestun and Nicte ha will be taken back to Campeche where they will enter the final stage of their rehabilitation. An enclosure will be set up allowing the team to monitor the jaguars as they get used to their environment. They anticipate a two month period to allow for this adjustment.

Finally the jaguars will be back where they belong – the youngest to ever have ben raised and released back into the wild.

This Author

Anna Bruce is a photojournalist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is a founding partner of Rambling Spirits, a project offering tailored experiences in Oaxaca with a focus on learning about mezcal and the region where it is produced.

You can donate to the sanctuary here. 

Students have taken to the streets across the globe in the hundreds of thousands for a second wave of worldwide protests demanding swift action on climate change.

The protests were inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who spoke to world leaders this week at a United Nations summit in New York.

Friday’s rallies kicked off in New Zealand, where young people marched on parliament in Wellington, holding one of the largest protests ever held there.

Schoolchildren

Organisers in the capital were forced to change their security plans to accommodate the crowds, while thousands more marched in Auckland and other parts of the country.

On the other side of the planet, more than 100,000 rallied in Italy’s capital Rome, where protesters held up signs with slogans such as “Change the system, not the climate” or just the word “Future”.

Marches took place in about 180 locations across Italy, including the financial hub of Milan where one banner read “How dare you!” – the accusation Greta, 16, levelled at world leaders during her UN speech in New York on Monday.

The Italian Education Ministry said students attending the event would not be penalised for missing school.

Fears about the impact of global warming on the younger generation were expressed by schoolchildren in Dharmsala, India. South Asia depends heavily on water from the Himalayan glaciers that are under threat from climate change.

Movement

In Berlin, activists from the Fridays for Future group braved persistent rain to protest against a package the German government recently agreed for cutting the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts say the proposal falls far short of what is needed if the world’s sixth biggest emitter is to meet the goal of the Paris climate accord.

Actor Javier Bardem joined dozens of young people in San Sebastian in one of several early demonstrations and rallies held across Spain on Friday morning, ahead of evening demonstrations in major towns and cities. They are expected to draw big crowds, especially in Madrid and Barcelona.

Bardem was in San Sebastian to promote a documentary he worked on with Greenpeace.

The youth climate movement has drawn criticism from some who accuse the students of overreacting and say they would be better off going to school, but the 16-year-old suggested people like her should take it as a compliment.

Leaders

In an apparent sarcastic jibe at Greta this week following her haranguing of world leaders, US President Donald Trump tweeted: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

On Friday, she told a rally in Montreal: “I don’t understand why grown-ups would choose to mock children and teenagers for just communicating and acting on the science when they could do something good instead.

“But I guess they feel like their world view or interests is threatened by us. That we should take as compliment, that we are having so much impact that people want to silence us. We’ve become too loud for people to handle so people want to silence us.”

She earlier met Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who praised her activism on climate change. “She is the voice of a generation, of young people who are calling on their leaders to do more and do better,” he said. “And I am listening.”

Greta indicated that she expects more, even of leaders who welcome the movement.

Listened

“He (Trudeau) is of course obviously not doing enough, but this is just a huge problem, this is a system that is wrong. My message to all the politicians is the same: just listen and act on the science.”

In Wellington, 18-year-old university student Katherine Rivers said it was great to see young people taking action and personal responsibility by marching.

“We need to stop pandering to some of the people who are making money off climate change. The big oil companies, the dairy industry etc,” she said. “And make a change for the future of these kids that are here.”

While thousands of high school students elected to take time off school to protest, many adults also joined the marches. One of them was 83-year-old grandmother-of-three Violet McIntosh, who said: “It’s not my future we’re thinking about, adding that it was time politicians listened to young people like Greta.

Emissions

In the Netherlands, where thousands joined a protest in The Hague, some participants acknowledged that getting politicians to take action against global warming is only part of the story.

“It’s also about then leading sustainable lives and making changes to make your life more sustainable,” said Utrecht University student Beth Meadows.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said part of the government’s plan is to encourage citizens to shift their behaviour.

“People, and businesses too, know that over the coming years, step by step, behaviour that harms the climate (and) causes a lot of emissions will have a higher price than before,” he told reporters in Berlin.

This Author

Frank Jordans and Giada Zampano are reporters with Associated Press. 

Labour Conference 2019 has overwhelmingly voted to support a socialist Green New Deal with an ambitious target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.

The motion also includes nationalising the Big 6 energy companies, transferring finance and resources to the Global South, instituting universal basic services, massively expand public transport, repealing all anti-trade union laws, implementing a program of ecological restoration, and measuring and tackling consumption emissions (to avoid offshoring emissions reduction).

Taking as a whole, the Labour Party now has the most radical and ambitious climate policy of any major party in the G20. 

The motion also won widespread support among the trade union movement. Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), moved the motion with a scintillating speech.

The motion also received the support of Unite, UNISON, Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU).

Passing such a radical Green New Deal motion weeks before an imminent general election is a historic moment. Doing so with strong support across the labour movement is incredible. 

Labour for a Green New Deal was founded just six months before our victory at Labour Conference. The campaign has been run on an entirely voluntary basis and our income has been just £5,000 – all raised from a crowdfunder in September.

It’s hard not to compare our achievements in that limited time with such tight resources to what the environmental NGO has failed to achieve with millions collectively spent over decades. 

Big organising 

Labour for a Green New Deals’ victory could not have been possible without the hard work of hundreds of talented activists committed to united the climate and labour movements around a bold plan for our shared future. 

The campaign has recruited openly to quickly bring activists with skill and dedication into positions of leadership or responsibility. At the same time, we have been careful to set an organisational DNA by prioritising activists who share the campaign’s vision, principles and subscribe to the plan. 

The campaign was inspired by lessons from the Bernie Sanders for President Campaign, shared by Becky Bond & Zak Exley in their book Rules for Revolutionaries. It taught us to “ask big to get big”.

This is true of what you ask of people who want to help and the goals you want to achieve. Six months ago few would have even conceived of Labour Conference voting for such a radical climate policy with the support of seven unions. Few would have conceived of the labour movement taking charge of climate action in the UK. But we knew it needed to happen. So we made it happen. 

Labour movement 

During my time in the environmental movement I’ve heard despicable things said about trade unions over their positions on climate breakdown. This is never a majority, but the movement’s lack of class politics has allowed such hostility to breed and excluded those on the front lines of climate injustice from its ranks. 

Labour for a Green New Deal is explicitly socialist. Our analysis is that climate change is fundamentally a class issue with capitalist exploitation and appropriation at the root.

We understand that UK unions have been under sustained attack by decades of neoliberal government. Our solidarity with trade unions and workers is not conditional on alignment regarding specific policy issues.

Our solidarity is unconditional because we are comrades in the same struggle against the immiseration of the working class, and towards public luxury and climate justice.

The FBU moved Labour’s Socialist Green New Deal because firefighters are on the front lines of climate change in the UK now.

Unite’s Assistant General Secretary, Steve Turner, spoke in favour of the motion including calling for “environmental reparations including the free transfer of green technology to the developing world” because the trade union movement is an internationalist one.

It is by celebrating and working from these shared commitments that has allowed us to come together around a radical climate program at this Labour Conference. 

Standing firm 

It has been widely reported that Labour’s socialist Green New Deal, and specifically its net-zero by 2030 target, received opposition from the GMB union.

This is true and divergent perspectives on whether to include a decarbonisation target proved irreconcilable. This led to two Green New Deal motions being heard – and overwhelmingly supported – on conference floor. 

The spirit of debate in the compositing meeting – where all the motions on a topic are synthesised into one, by consensus – was comradely.

Delegates and activists understand and respect the competing perspective of comrades on the other side of the discussion. CLP and union delegates supporting the 2030 target did come under considerable pressure from GMB and the Labour leadership to compromise on the decarbonisation target. 

A weaker group may have folded under that pressure from experienced negotiators and powerful figures. Had elected delegates not had the confidence to stand firm, and assert the necessity of such an ambitious target on the grounds of global justice, the successful motion may never have been heard.

Labour and union members have serious power. By standing together we can achieve incredible things. 

Keep organising

Celebrate though we must, Labour for a Green New Deal’s organising will not stop here. Labour Conference 2019 is just the beginning. There remains a democratic deficit in the Labour Party.

Although conference has backed our motion, it must still be approved by the party’s ‘Clause V meeting’ which decides the next manifesto. The meeting is composed of the shadow cabinet, national executive committee and trade union representatives. We need to make sure that meeting adopts the socialist Green New Deal in full. 

Going forward, Labour for a Green New Deal will build continue to build our power by supporting local groups to form, grow and take action. They will play a crucial role in holding decision-makers in Labour to account and developing plans to deliver the motion’s ambitions. 

As Laurie MacFarlane writes, the landmark policies of Labour Conference 2019 came from “the blood, sweat and tears of thousands of thinkers, doers and campaigners” rather than PR lobbyists and special advisors.

There’s plenty more work to do to flesh out the details of Labour’s socialist Green New Deal. If you want to be part of making history, get involved. 

This author

Chris Saltmarsh is co-founder and co-director of Labour for a Green New Deal. He tweets at @chris_saltmarsh.

We must change the way we manage land, a recent report by the world’s leading climate scientists at the IPCC leaves no doubt. 

Agriculture, the very industry that sustains us, also threatens our continued existence as a species. This sector produces at least 23 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (second only to the energy sector), according to the report.

To solve the climate crisis it is not enough to transform industrial sectors like energy and manufacturing – we need a fundamental change in agriculture and forestry practices.

Global ramifications 

The devastating fires in the Amazon that captured the world’s attention in August illustrate how land misuse has global ramifications. These fires, set to clear land for crops, sent vast swaths of the Amazon up in smoke – not only harming local people and wildlife, but destroying critical carbon sinks that the world needs to help slow climate change.

It’s an all-too-common pattern seen across the tropics: to make room for crops, forests come down. In fact, according to recent satellite data in 2019, clearing land for agriculture causes rainforest deforestation at the rate of forty football pitches a minute. 

Meanwhile the farmers working to meet the ever-increasing global demand for products like coffee, tea, and cocoa, struggleto feed their own families.

But the second and equally important message of the IPCC report is this: solutions exist. There are ways to produce food that protect forests, reduce emissions, and provide co-benefits for livelihoods, biodiversity, and local climatic conditions.

How do these two main takeaways – that countries must change how food is produced, and that there are workable solutions – translate into actions? As governments, policy makers and legislators work to address the grand challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2030 while maintaining a habitable and biodiversity-rich planet, we must seek strategies tailored to different commodities and contexts.

Production and certification 

Recognizing the role that commodity production—palm oil, soy, timber, and beef, but also cocoa and coffee – plays in deforestation, companies and producers must identify and eliminate deforestation from supply chains. That means working with companies and farmers to adopt better practices and increase productivity, thus preventing further deforestation. 

Certification offers just that, a system whereby producers are encouraged to use more sustainable methods. It may not be a perfect system but it includes various key tools, such as farmer training, access to digital tools, online resources, benchmarking and climate smart agricultural advice; it also allows products to be traced back to origin, helping ensure that crops are not grown on recently deforested land. Certification also integrates social safeguards with environmental objectives.

Global food producers, corporates and multinationals purchasing key commodities must commit to stop deforestation with fixed and accountable targets. Companies that have made no-deforestation commitments must be pressured to adhere to global standards and penalized if they do not comply.

In the past ten years, multiple commitments to drive deforestation out of the global supply chain by 2020 have been made by the Consumer Goods Forum, the New York Declaration on Forests in 2014, as well as many individual companies. But there has been remarkably little progress on the ground.

To change this, a group of international environmental NGOs has recently joined forces to launch the Accountability Framework, providing necessary guidance to companies to make rigorous commitments—and to keep them. 

Land rights 

Deforestation has long been fueled by poor governance. This manifests as illegal activity, corruption, unclear or inequitable land tenure, and conflicting authority over forest resources particularly evident now in the Amazon crisis where indigenous land custodians are having their land rights eroded.

By contrast, solidifying or re-instating forest ownership by legitimate rights holders, including local and indigenous communities, can support forest conservation, reduce conflict, and enhance equitable social development.

With clear rights, communities are better able to manage standing forests as economic assets and realize multiple benefits from activities such as sustainable logging, sale of non-timber forest products (like honey, spices, and nuts), and payment for ecosystem services, such as watershed protection.

The EU has rightly identified good governance partnerships with producer countries’ governments as a priority in its action plan on deforestation. 

Powerful solution 

Finally, we need to transform the way food is produced on existing farms. Agroforestry, the practice of growing trees with crops, is a solution particularly relevant for multi-year tropical crops like coffee, cocoa, and tea.

Importantly, and also recognized by the IPCC report, agroforestry can work to address many climate change challenges: mitigation, adaptation, reducing desertification and land degradation, and food security. 

Coffee, for example, requires, to thrive, a temperature range from 15–30 deg C, rainfall averages between 1,500 to 2,500 mm per year, and relative humidity in the 70–90 percent range. In agroforestry systems, shade trees have been shown to reduce temperatures on the coffee plants by up to 4-6 degrees, thereby limiting the effect of climate change on the plant.

Shade trees can increase the water and nutrient holding-potential of the soil, and their fallen leaves create organic matter in the soil. When fruit or timber trees are used, these can provide additional income to farmers that can complement the income from the cash crop.

Agroforestry is a powerful solution, even though it is not appropriate everywhere. And there are a lot of examples where it is benefitting the landscape compared to traditional forms of agriculture for example, in cocoa-growing Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana where shade trees are now promoted.

Marching orders

It is important to remember that the IPCC is not only a group of scientists. It is an intergovernmental panel and its reports are approved by 195 governments. The recommendations in its reports are, in essence, internationally agreed-upon marching orders. And the order is clear: it is time to take action. 

We have the solutions at hand and little time left to enact them.

This Author 

Henriette Walz is the global theme lead for deforestation at the Rainforest Alliance. 

Education is our most effective tool when it comes to shaping our future.  Take schools during the industrial revolution, they gave children approximately standardised skills in reading, writing and arithmetic that would help to drive a rapidly growing economy and ultimately raise living standards.

The challenges we face today are not simply supplying an industrialising economy with labour, they are environmental – climate change, biodiversity collapse, plastic pollution. 

There have been a number of recent calls to introduce the teaching of climate change into the mainstream curriculum. Currently only secondary geography and chemistry touch upon the issue, but campaigners would like to see it become a core subject, possibly even constituting part of the primary curriculum. 

New system

Children care about what is happening to our planet. Earlier this year, the YouthStrike4Climate protests saw over 15,000 children march in more than 60 towns and cities across the UK.

But just like climate change has caught the attention of children, so has plastic pollution. Schools up and down the country have engaged in the issues by writing letters to politicians and business urging them to take action. 

The images from David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series made the whole world sit up and take notice, but the biggest impact has been on young people. Children feel strongly about this issue and we should help them to tackle this problem.

However, taking on the issue of plastic pollution in schools should not merely be limited to extolling the virtues of recycling. We need to be more dynamic, and this is where circular economics comes in. 

A circular economy is one that seeks to establish a system of consumption where materials continuously flow, being used and then reused, with as little waste and negative environmental impact as possible. Biological materials are returned to the environment and technological materials are utilised in a ‘make – use – repair/upgrade’ cycle.

Circular economics is seen as a breakaway from our current linear economic system, whereby resources are used in a ‘make-consume-dispose’ model, with high waste and significant negative environmental impact. It seeks to make our societies less wasteful and more resourceful.  

Understanding impact

So, how would this theory be used in the curriculum? The teaching would begin by looking at our current linear system of consumption, and dealing with the first objective of circular economics, making us less wasteful.

This is not as complicated as it first sounds: it means giving children an understanding of the true cost of making things. For example, the typical pair of jeans requires over 15,000 liters of water in their manufacturing process; plastic bottles take at least 450 years to biodegrade; and, many multi-material objects, such as coffee cups (which are made of both cardboard and plastic) are never recycled.

Properly understanding the impact our consumption has upon the world will help our young people make more sustainable choices when they are older. 

Secondly, the teaching would look at how circular economics can help us to be more resourceful. Children would be taught how to better recycle things they have used themselves, or to upcycle things for others to use.

An interesting example of this came earlier this year: the North London Waste Authority has held a series of ‘Repair Cafes’, where people took along worn and damaged items, such as clothes and bikes, and had them repaired by trained specialists.

The participants were then given tutorials on how to undertake future repairs themselves. If we could transfer workshops such as these into schools, children could learn valuable skills whilst doing their bit for the environment. 

Creative and collaborative

Teaching circular economics in schools could encompass projects that would lend themselves to the design curriculum. For instance, in Scotland circular economics research and advocacy body, Ostrero, has been running the ‘Making Circles’ initiative, which has sought to get children thinking about reusing waste materials.

The project saw children taking part in a ‘Circular Economy Design Challenge’, where participants submitted designs for items made from disposed objects.

Last year a large number of schools in the Netherlands took part in the Clean2Antarctica project, which saw children collecting and sorting plastics that would be used to make a vehicle that will eventually travel to the South Pole.

What’s more, projects such as these also develop children’s creative and collaborative skills – two of the 4Cs of twenty-first xentury learning (areas identified as being essential to the future of education).

Empower

The potential impact that circular economic thinking could have on our education system is profound. It could help us to nurture future generations with more sustainable mindsets, and the tools with which to help our planet. But its potential will not be unlocked unless we want it to be. 

We should not omit key world challenges from our curriculum, and merely hope that some children find a vocation in tackling them sometime later in their life. We should actively engage young people in the problems our planet faces. 

Children care greatly about the problems facing our environment, as we have seen this year with the schoolchildren’s climate protests across the UK and Europe, and with their thousands and thousands of letters campaigning against plastic pollution. 

They want to do something; they certainly have the passion; and, they undoubtedly have the potential to make a real difference.

As teachers it is our job to empower them to take on the great challenges of their day.  

This Author 

Matthew Murray is a teacher from the UK and the creator of the primary teacher blog 2 Stars and a Wish.

If you would like to learn more about Circular Economics please visit The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s website where you can also find lesson resources that you could use with your class. 

Some of Britain’s most loved historical landscapes such as the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Orkney Islands are at risk of being severely damaged and changed forever by the effects of climate change, according to an archaeologist from the University of Sheffield.

Research by Isabel Cook, a PhD student from the University’s Department of Archaeology, is adding to the growing evidence that historic landscapes across the UK have already been affected by climate change impacts, such as sea-level rise, coastal erosion and flooding.

Among the historic landscapes affected is the Dysynni Valley in Wales, which is home to military remains dating back to the Second World War. Isabel’s research has found that the area is at risk from sea-level rise and flooding, with the remains under severe threat of erosion.

Cultural identity 

Previous studies have shown that historic sites such as the Forts of the Saxon Shore, a collection of Roman coastal fortresses that stretch along the South East coast of England and include features at Dover Castle, Pevensey Castle and Burgh Castle, have been affected to varying degrees by coastal processes such as erosion and landslides. Some of the Saxon Shore Forts have been lost completely to erosion, such as those at Walton Castle in Suffolk.

The small town of Dunwich, which was a large centre for medieval shipbuilding and trade on the Suffolk coastline in the 14th century, has seen its coastline retreat by 600 metres – something which has completely destroyed the cultural heritage and historic character of the town. Ten churches and a friary have been lost there so far, with erosion continuing to threaten the rest of the area.

Isabel’s research reveals how the loss experienced at Dunwich doesn’t just relate to the disappearance of individual buildings and sites in isolation, but also to the loss of the town’s heritage and the historic character of the urban landscape.

With the threat to Dysynni Valley, the losses experienced on the South East coast and the recent news that rising seas and increased rainfall is threatening the world heritage status of the Orkney Islands, the University of Sheffield archaeologist is now calling for more action to protect the UK’s historic landscapes, which she stresses are “living museums.”

Isabel said: “Landscapes are hugely important to cultural heritage not just in the UK but in every country around the world. They are dynamic spaces that hold the heritage and history of the nation while functioning as tourist attractions and supporting farming industries.

“They are places that we interact with, and live within, forming the context of our lives, livelihoods and memories. This makes landscapes extremely important for cultural identity, so we need to be aware of the very real threat they are facing from the effects of climate change.”

Historical monuments 

Isobel continued: “Action is already being taken to try and protect important historical monuments, but we need to realise that significant landscapes are at risk from climate change too.

“Imagine a UK where the historic streets and promenades of Victorian seaside towns like Brighton, Bournemouth and Aberystwyth become obscured by hard coastal defences built to protect homes and businesses from erosion, rising sea-levels and extreme flooding events.

“Imagine a UK where the ornamental gardens of historic estates, like Chatsworth in Derbyshire and Cragside in Northumberland, are blighted by new invasive species, pests, and diseases, and ravaged by drought. We need to ensure our grandchildren and their grandchildren can experience and learn from these places as we have done.”

While heritage agencies are beginning to acknowledge and take steps towards addressing the threat posed by climate change to historic buildings, monuments and sites, research by the University of Sheffield archaeologist reveals how little is being done to protect the landscape itself.

English Heritage has published a risk assessment on the threat of coastal erosion to its estate and the Shifting Shores report looks at the potential impact of climate change on National Trust properties. Although these reports mention the landscape setting of heritage sites, Isabel’s research highlights how they do not specifically mention the threat to the historic landscape.

Adaptation and mitigation

Research by the Sheffield PhD student also reveals how most previous academic studies into the impact of climate change on archaeological remains omit any mention of historic landscapes.

In response, Isabel has developed a framework for including historic landscapes in climate change impact, adaptation and mitigation research. This includes assessing how vulnerable historic landscapes are to the effects of climate change.

The framework also establishes a sustainability assessment methodology for coastal and flood-risk management that includes historic landscapes as a consideration – something which could be used by policy-makers to include the historic character of the landscape in climate change adaptation decisions.

This could change the way that coastal erosion and flood-risk management is carried out in the future, with more consideration of the historic landscape alongside environmental, social and economic factors.

The Sheffield PhD student’s research also highlights how changes in temperatures and rainfall caused by climate change are likely to affect the distribution and behaviour of plants and animals on important historical landscapes. Examples include the expansion of insect species towards higher latitudes and increased over-winter survival, which poses a greater risk of insect attack or bioturbation on important archaeological landscapes and remains.

Coastal defences 

Changing climatic conditions may also lengthen crop growing seasons and force people to grow food in different places, such as areas of important historical and cultural interest. For instance, arable crop farming may become an option in areas once only suitable for extensive sheep farming.

As well as affecting local economies and traditional ways of life, this change could affect the visual character of historically important landscapes, according to the study.

Historic woodland, parks and gardens, which characterise many historic landscapes, are also likely to be affected by changing temperatures and invasive species. This may affect the plants that can be grown in parks and gardens, and alter the ecosystems structure of ancient woodlands.

Additionally, the University of Sheffield study highlights how the impact of climate change on historic landscapes is not limited to direct impacts – there may be impacts caused by the mitigation and adaptive approaches that are taken in response to climate change. For example, the construction of coastal defences in response to rising sea levels could result in a coastal squeeze, causing the loss of saltmarsh and beach.

Coastal defences can also significantly alter the character of the coastline, affecting visual amenity. The Sheffield archaeologist is calling for the impact of coastal defences on the historic landscape as a whole to be considered, rather than just the impact on individual archaeological sites.

Archaeological material

Isabel added: “A great wealth of archaeological material can be found on the British coastline and is now vulnerable to changing coastal processes that are being triggered by climate change.

“We’ve already seen coastal erosion and landslides – which are projected to worsen due to sea-level rise and increasing storminess – destroy many historic and prehistoric coastal fortifications and settlements on the south east coast of England.

“The loss of these features threatens the historic character of these coastal landscapes, be it a military and defensive landscape, a religious and early Christian landscape, or a landscape characterised by post-medieval trade and industry. We need to ensure that the historic landscape is factored into all climate change impact and adaptation research and management in the UK, at all stages of policy development and planning, rather than being considered only by heritage agencies.

“The framework developed through my research provides a simple method for establishing the different ways in which the character of each historic landscape is vulnerable to climate change. It also gives planners and policy-makers a useful tool for assessing the various ways in which different coastal and flood-risk management approaches will impact the historic landscape.”

This Author 

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

Image: Forts of the Saxon Shore. Marathon, Geograph. 

Model and activist Lily Cole has joined the call for the banking sector to respond to the climate emergency, alongside ethical bank Triodos. 

Following the global climate strike and with Extinction Rebellion’s next uprising fast approaching, pressure is building for the banking sector to live up to its climate commitments.

According to NGO BankTrack, the top UK banks have poured nearly £150 billion into financing fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2016, including £45bn for the expansion of fossil fuels, of which £13bn was invested in fracking. Change from the sector is required, especially if we are to meet the UK government’s target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Confusing information 

New research by insight agency Kingfisher, which assessed more than 800 web pages, has found that UK banks are presenting a confusing and conflicting account of their sustainability initiatives to customers, despite public concern for climate change reaching a record high in recent months.

The report, commissioned by Triodos Bank UK, found that the biggest UK high street banks share very little information on sustainability ambitions on their customer-facing websites and only present generalised statements, claims and commitments.

UN Sustainable Development Goals are not mentioned once by the UK’s biggest banks, while the term ‘sustainability’ occurs only four times.

The report also found that, collectively, the biggest UK banks only mention the term ‘planet’ three times on their websites. One high street bank references its sustainability commitments repeatedly, while at the same time continuing to finance fossil fuels to the tune of £47 billion since 2016.

Two high street banks do not mention any of the key terms analysed – green, sustainability, SDG, planet or carbon – on their UK retail banking websites. By contrast, leading UK banks prioritise the terms ‘rewards’, ‘fees’, ‘risks’ and ‘services’, over words like ‘sustainability’ and ‘impact’.

Switching banks

Actress and social entrepreneur Lily Cole commented: “I’ve long believed in voting with your wallet for the change you want to see in the world, for example supporting Fairtrade and organic food and fashion, yet there are other subtle and powerful ways that our money shapes the world – such as the investments made by our banks, pensions and the institutions we work with.

“When Triodos launched a current account in the UK, I immediately joined the bank, as I didn’t want to be accidentally investing in the arms trade and fossil fuel industry, and instead enjoy knowing that Triodos is mindful about investing in a positive vision for our planet.”

CEO of Triodos Bank UK, Bevis Watts, adds: “We are in a state of climate emergency and the banking industry needs to radically transform to be part of the solution. Banks should be using the money deposited with them in their customers’ long term interests – yet many have continued to prioritise funding the fossil fuel industry, despite its devastating impact on the planet and our future wellbeing.

“Although we’re aware that the change cannot happen overnight, we’d like to see greater transparency from all banks in where they are investing their money, so that customers can make informed choices.

“We want more people to know that switching banks is one of the most powerful environmental changes you can make as an individual – by changing your bank you really can make a difference in the world. You can choose to prevent your money from financing arms, pesticides, plastic packaging or fossil fuels.”

Climate emergency 

CEO of Friends of the Earth, Craig Bennett said: “Too many UK banks are failing to take the climate emergency seriously. How can they talk about wanting to serve society while investing in planet-wrecking projects such as fossil fuel extraction? Funding the destruction of our planet is certainly not in the best interest of customers.

“It’s great to see Triodos continuing to shine a light on the unethical finance models of many UK banks, and we’re proud as an organisation to be partnered with them. By empowering people to do good with their finances, we can create positive environmental outcomes, and put pressure on other banks to change their practices.”

Triodos Bank, which has been operating in the UK for over 24 years, only invests in projects creating positive social and environmental outcomes. Its UK current account launched in 2017 and customers can instantly see details of all the ethical and sustainable businesses and projects Triodos finances across the UK via its ‘Know where your money goes’ platform.

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from Triodos Bank. 

School strikers have threatened to boycott the Royal Shakespeare Company over “sickening” links to oil giant BP.

The theatre company is sponsored by BP, an arrangement which has drawn criticism from environmentalists including Oscar-winner Sir Mark Rylance (pictured).

Young students have penned a letter claiming that BP is “destroying our futures by wrecking the climate”, and urged the cultural institution to break ties with the fossil fuel industry.

Lobbying

The missive criticises BP for its environmental impact, lobbying and human rights record.

Students have criticised the association of William Shakespeare with the policies of BP, which they believe is destroying the planet and ruining the reputation of the RSC.

Strikers from the birthplace of the Bard, Stratford-upon-Avon, have signed the letter calling for an end to the current sponsorship, which provides young people with subsidised £5 tickets.

The letter states: “If we, as young people, wish to see an affordable play at your theatre we have to help to promote a company that is actively destroying our futures by wrecking the climate.

“BP is jeopardising the futures of these young people they apparently care so much about, by continuing to extract huge quantities of oil and gas, and actively lobbying against the climate change policies that we school strikers are pushing so hard for.

Destruction

“Furthermore, BP’s human rights record is an embarrassment. Their close relationship with repressive governments and regimes such as Egypt, Mexico and Russia has led to horrendous human rights violations.

“It is sickening that the works of Shakespeare are being associated with these events.”

The letter concludes: “BP’s influence is nothing but a stain on the RSC.”

More than 60,000 people signed a recent petition for cultural institutions – the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House – to end their financial ties to the multinational, and climate activists To BP Or Not BP have campaigned against fossil fuel funding going into the arts.

Students have now called for a boycott unless what they believe is environmental destruction is divorced from the world of theatre, and have asked to meet with RSC bosses.

Objections

Chloe Hawryluk, 16, is a key organiser of the Stratford-upon-Avon school strikes.

A signatory of the letter, she said: “As a pupil of the school that Shakespeare attended himself, I cannot begin to explain my displeasure in learning about BP’s recent sponsorship of the RSC’s 16-25 tickets.

“If I want to attend the theatre, I want to attend the theatre without supporting a company that is continuing to extract fossil fuels.

“I don’t want to support a company that is one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, I don’t want to support a company that is only doing this to distract us from the fact that they are ruining our planet.”

Sir Mark, star of Wolf Hall and Bridge Of Spies, quit the RSC in June this year, citing his objections to the RSC’s receipt of funding from BP.

Feedback

He has accused the oil company of obscuring its environmental impact by supporting arts organisations.

Catherine Mallyon, RSC executive director, and Gregory Doran, RSC artistic director, said: “We welcome the conversation around this issue and will respond once we receive the letter.

“We recognise the importance for a continuing, robust and engaged debate, we acknowledge the climate emergency and recognise the strength of feeling, especially amongst our young people.

“Our work with over 500,000 students annually means their feedback and opinions are very important to us.”

BP has been contacted for comment.

This Author

Craig Simpson is a reporter for PA.

Jonathan Franzen asked an important question in his recent New Yorker article: what if we stopped pretending?

Franzen argues that the climate crisis has already reached a catastrophic level and that in order for us to prepare for it, we need to admit as much. Pretending that the world could still be “saved”, according to Franzen, is a kind of denialism no better than that of the US Republican Party.

Only a few hours after the article was published, it became clear that Franzen’s essay touched a raw nerve among scientists and activists, many of whom took to Twitter to condemn Franzen’s piece – accusing him of spreading “dangerous lies”, of having written the “worst piece on climate change yet published this decade”, and delivering “a slap in the face to young climate justice advocates”. 

Human impacts

Indeed, Franzen conveys his message in a confusing and often detached manner. He comes across as the what Mary Heglar has called the “doomer dude” – tall, White men with remarkable sunburns, dishevelled hair and cargo pants, who walk around saying things like “There’s really no point anymore. Humans are done for!”.

Yet looking beyond this arrogance in delivery, Franzen’s essay might have struck a chord because it is actually based on a reasonable premise.

The world is already facing catastrophic, irreversible climate change and ignoring this fact will not help us. The amount of earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, floods, cyclones, and sea level surges has doubled in the last forty years. This has caused extraordinary hardships for the people affected and produced millions of climate refugees, even if they are still not recognized as such by international law.

In 2018 alone, more than 17 million people were displaced due to “natural” disasters in 148 countries. Other aspects of the global ecological crisis are equally concerning: Humanity has wiped out an average of 60 percent of the world’s animal population since 1970, ensuring that the sixth historical planetary mass extinction is well underway.

Desertification – the irreversible degradation of land – is putting unprecedented pressure on our planet’s resources.  Over 75 percent of the earth’s land area is already degraded, and over 90 percent could be degraded by 2050, which could displace up to 700 million people in the next 30 years.

And almost all of the world’s oceans are already damaged by human impact, by overfishing, ocean acidification, and pollution. Climate scientist John Schellnhuber concluded: “In the deep ocean, the chemical echo of this century’s CO2 pollution will reverberate for thousands of years.”.

Climate inertia

The crux is that our planet would continue to heat up in the coming decades even if humanity stopped emitting carbon dioxide right now. This is due to what climate scientists call “climate inertia”.

In the words of a NASA: “If we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, global warming would continue to occur for at least several more decades, if not centuries. […] There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it.”

A finding that is backed-up by a study of prominent climate scientist Susan Solomon that shows that global warming is already irreversible for at least 1000 years.

Moreover, Franzen is right to point out that not only the global climatic system is inert – so is our economic and political system. Unfortunately, he does not explicate what should by now be common sense: that capitalist modernity and colonialism are at the core of the climate crisis.

In any case, this realisation only cements the thesis that a fundamentally unsustainable system is not going to reform itself and nation states, international organizations, tech companies, or Saudi Arabian oil money are not going to solve the climate issue.

Climate saviorism

But paradoxically, the large-scale social-ecological transformations we need to tackle the problem at its root would require large amounts of energy, time, and labor themselves – not only from a meteorological point of view, but also from a socio-political standpoint. It is therefore important to realise that the point in time at which we could have mitigated a catastrophic climate crisis has long passed.

In fact, for many peoples around the world, the apocalypse that Franzen is describing has long taken place already.  In a recently published interview with author Nick Estes in Dissent Magazine, Estes points out: “Indigenous people are post-apocalyptic. In some cases, we have undergone several apocalypses.

“For my community alone, it was the destruction of the buffalo herds, the destruction of our animal relatives on the land, the destruction of our animal nations in the nineteenth century, of our river homelands in the twentieth century. I don’t want to universalize that experience; it was very unique to us as nations. But if there is something you can learn from Indigenous people, it’s what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic society.”

So perhaps the reason why Franzen’s essay evoked such strong reactions is a different one. Perhaps it is because much of the recently reinvigorated Western climate movement relies on a rhetoric of an almost colonial-sounding short-term climate saviorism. It has rallied around headlines like “We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN” – “Only 11 years left to Prevent Irreversible Damage from Climate Change” and “Climate Change: 12 year to save the planet? Make that 18 months”.

Movements like Extinction Rebellion and the supporters of the Green New Deal have adopted such point of no return rhetoric in their campaigning with surprising success. But apart from the fact that such rhetoric does not accurately represent the mess in which the planet already is, it also constitutes a rather suboptimal long-term messaging strategy.

What will happen in 12 years? Would the climate movement give up in resignation and watch the catastrophe unfold? Would we have to set out new points of no return to avoid even more “catastrophic” scenarios? Instead of stretching the semantics of what truly constitutes “catastrophic”, why don’t we accept and acknowledge the truly astonishing toll that this crisis is already taking?

Progressive vision 

Of course, acknowledging the already catastrophic scope of the climate crisis should not lead us to adapting a fatalist attitude. And here Franzen, who thinks that “in the long run, it probably makes no difference how badly we overshoot two degrees” is absolutely wrong.

The climate movement must continue to press for climate justice, for the reduction of carbon emissions and for the mitigation of the catastrophic effects of global warming. It must continue to call out polluters, to push for regulations, and to advocate for a Green New Deal.

Solomon puts it the following way: “I guess if it’s irreversible, to me it seems all the more reason you might want to do something about it, because committing to something that you can’t back out of seems to me like a step that you’d want to take even more carefully than something you thought you could reverse.”

Importantly, however, acknowledging the already deadly and irreversible nature of climate change – including the inherent inertia of the planetary climate and the global political system – will allow us to start focusing on developing a progressive vision in times of a planetary ecological crisis.

This is important because ironically, the right already has a vision. In the words of Christian Parenti, it is the vision of nation states as “armed lifeboats”, navigating through an unstable and conflict-prone world. We see this ideology manifesting itself in the increasing criminalization of migration, in rhetoric of the “fortress Europe”, in the surveillance of environmental activists and in the desperate search for quick technological fixes to complex global problems.

To the right, climate change is a security challenge and can be solved through military intervention and technological innovation. It is needless to say that such societal vision is just a continuation of the colonial, capitalist and social Darwinist thinking that has gotten us into this mess in the first place.

Catalyse imagination 

What will the left have to offer? How do we revive ideas of mutual aid, cooperation and solidarity in circumstances of scarcity and trauma? What is our vision for justice? How do we hold those accountable who bear the bulk of responsibility for the crimes that have been committed? How do we make spaces for collective mourning for what has been lost on this planet, which is quite literally turning into a large hospice full of dying species? How do we overcome the coloniality and the anthropocentrism that are enshrined in most of (Western) emancipatory thought?

These are, characteristically, questions that Franzen does not pose. It is the task precisely of philosophers, of designers, and of writers and essayists like him to start thinking about those issues rather than to bemoan their own paralysis.

After all, the climate crisis, as Franzen’s fellow novelist Amitav Ghosh put it, is “also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination”. So yes – we have to acknowledge that the climate apocalypse is real, but this realisation must catalyse rather than stifle our imagination. 

This Author 

Elias Koenig is a philosophy student based in Berlin, currently working on a DAAD-funded research project on non-Western philosophy and climate change. 

Image: Resforestation in Kalimantan, Indonesia. James Anderson, Climate Visuals. 

A coalition of river and coastal defenders have won a major victory against the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board), securing an order that requires the Water Board to meet the statutory deadlines for its list of impaired waterways in California.

The lawsuit focused on the Water Board’s violations of the Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the latter being California’s guiding clean water law that protects the health of the state’s inland and coastal waters.

Grant Wilson, Directing Attorney of Earth Law Center, said: “This victory will ensure that the State Water Board upholds its basic legal duty to identify and restore impaired waterways in a timely manner. This is an important step towards reversing the historic decline of aquatic ecosystems across California.”

Late submissions

Earth Law Center, Los Angeles Waterkeeper (LAW), and San Diego Coastkeeper filed suit in November 2017, challenging the Water Board’s Integrated Report process. The Integrated Report contains the previously mentioned list of impaired waterways, along with a broader report on overall water quality.

For nearly two decades, California has submitted its biennial Integrated Report years late, resulting in water quality decisions that are based on severely outdated information. For example, California’s 2014 Integrated Report was submitted to the US EPA more than three years and six months late. As a result of this ruling, the Water Board must submit reports on time.

Arthur Pugsley, senior attorney at LAW, said: “It was clear that the State Water Board was not taking the impaired waters lists as seriously as they should be or allocating the staff resources necessary for such an important program. 

“The Integrated Reports are foundational. Considering the necessity of these reports to inform the public of possible health threats and to trigger the adoption of restoration plans, this ruling is a victory not only for our waterways, but for the people and wildlife of California.”

Matt O’Malley, executive director and managing attorney at San Diego Coastkeeper, said: “This victory should result in a more up-to-date and complete understanding of the challenges our waterways are facing, ensuring increased efficacy of restoration and recovery plans.”

Healthy ecosystems

Bruce Reznik, executive director of LAW, said: “We are pleased with the ruling, but it is unfortunate that watchdog groups have to bring suit in order to get the Water Board to abide by what the Clean Water Act requires of it.”

Grant Wilson, directing attorney at Earth Law Center, said: “While we prevailed in ensuring the Water Board fulfils its obligations under the Clean Water Act, we are disappointed by the dismissal of our plea to consider hydromodification (i.e., channelization) as an impairment itself when compiling its list of impaired waterways. 

“Drained and fragmented waterways challenge species that are critical to our ecosystem, and those challenges will only intensify with the impacts of climate change.

“Our groups will continue working to ensure that the concretization that has devastated so many of our river systems in California is recognized for the negative impact it has on our environment and our communities and will work to restore them to healthy ecosystems.“

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist’s content editor. This article is based on a press release from the Earth Law Centre.