A new snowdrop discovered from holiday snaps on social media and a “miracle berry” that alters your taste buds are among the plant and fungi species discovered this year.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is highlighting the top 10 weird and wonderful discoveries from 102 species of plant and eight new fungi found by the institution and its partners in 2019.

The discoveries include species which could help develop new medicines, or become fresh favourites for plant lovers – but many are already at risk of extinction from deforestation, agriculture and energy developments, experts at Kew said.

Protection

Also among the top 10 new finds are an “orchid” found in a waterfall which could be wiped out by a hydroelectric dam, a medicinal fungus growing on bamboo, and an orange bloom named after the wife of the botanist who discovered it.

Dr Martin Cheek, Kew botanist and senior scientist at the Kew science identification and naming department, said: “Discovering and describing new species is a truly exciting and vital scientific endeavour so we can better protect new species before they become extinct.

“It also helps us to understand their potential uses, and how they might provide the solutions to help us tackle some of the critical challenges facing humanity today.

“This year’s selection represents a range of new-to-science plants and fungi that are unique and characterful, yet threatened by human interventions and at risk of becoming extinct soon; something that makes us both concerned and passionate about their protection.”

Zonozono

The top 10 highlights of the discoveries made in the world of plants and fungi this year are:

– A new snowdrop (Galanthus bursanus) from north west Turkey was discovered when a Turkish paediatrician uploaded her holiday photos to Facebook, where the plant was spotted by a Ukrainian snowdrop specialist, Dr Dimitri Zubov.

It has already been assessed as “critically endangered” due to threats from illegal collecting, marble quarrying, climate change and expansion of agricultural land.

– A new species of “miracle-berry” (Synsepalum chimanimani) was discovered in the lowland rainforests of the Chimanimani Mountains on the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, whose fruits are slightly sweet to taste, but contain a compound called miraculin that blocks taste buds, so when sour foods are eaten, such as limes, they taste sweet.

The new species has been assessed as “endangered” as it is only known in three locations, all of which are under threat from deforestation for agriculture.

– A species from the family known as the “orchids of the falls” (Inversodicraea koukoutamba) was discovered on a waterfall on the Bafing River in Guinea, West Africa.

It is a rubbery seaweed shrub which grows to 20cm tall, but Kew scientists expect it to become globally extinct when construction on a planned hydroelectric project in the area begins next year.

– A medicinal fungus known in China for more than 400 years, “Zhuhongjun”, has been discovered to be a genus as well as a species previously unknown to science, and has now been formally named Rubroshiraia bambusae.

It grows in Yunnan in south west China, forming pink, ball-like fruiting bodies on a species of bamboo.

It is used in traditional medicine for arthritis and infant seizures, but it is also of growing scientific interest due to the presence of hypocrellins, compounds with light-induced anti-tumour, anti-fungal and anti-viral activities and potential for antimicrobial use.

– There were 10 new species of bear’s breeches plants found in tropical Africa, including two showy blue-flowered species of barleria found in Angola: Barleria deserticola and Barleria namba – one of which was refound in 2017, 160 years after it was first collected by explorer Friedrich Welwitsch, and one which was discovered on the previously unexplored Mount Namba.

– A striking bright pink, candy-striped flower from the African violet family (Cyrtandra vittata) was discovered this year in northern New Guinea. The shrub grows in the rainforest and its white berries are thought likely to be dispersed by doves and pigeons. It was collected under permit and was discovered to be a new species when it bloomed in cultivation.

– There were 11 new species of trees and shrubs from the genus Freziera discovered in the Andean forests in South America this year, some of which could have medicinal value or could make conservatory plants because of their attractive glossy leaves, but all have been assessed as threatened with extinction.

– A perennial herb (Costularia cadetii) which grows on the rims of the volcanoes in Reunion in the Indian Ocean was first collected in 1965 but more material was needed and it was only officially named this year. The species is already classified as endangered as it is restricted to a high elevation habitat that puts it at risk from volcanic activity, fire and climate change.

– A vivid orange flower (Gladiolus mariae) was found growing on a table-stone mountain in Kounounkan, in Guinea, and is restricted to two mountains in the area which are among the last to remain unaffected by humans. The finder, Kew scientist Xander van der Burgt, decided to name it after his wife Maria.

– Zonozono, a 20m tall tree in the ylang-ylang family, has been discovered in Tanzania, but with just seven trees known on Earth, it is very rare and has been assessed as endangered due to the low number of individuals, and threats from pole-cutting and an invasive tree species.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Petrol and diesel cars will be banned from Barbican Estate’s Beech Street as it becomes Britain’s first zero-emission street, the City of London Corporation (CLC) said.

The city is working with Transport for London on plans for the street to just be used by zero-emission vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians by spring 2020.

The measure will be achieved with an 18-month experimental traffic order, CLC said in a statement, which will allow air quality and traffic to be monitored.

Warnings

Emergency vehicles, refuse collection and deliveries will be excepted from the order.

CLC Environment committee chair Jeremy Simons said: “Drastically reducing air pollution requires radical actions, and these plans will help us eliminate toxic air on our streets.”

Petrol and diesel cars will be rerouted using advance warnings and signage on approach to Beech St.

This Author

Benjamin Cooper is a reporter for PA.

Across the country large numbers of winter thrushes, fieldfares and redwings are turning up on lawns as the temperature plummets. These birds are often mistaken for the song thrush, which can be found in gardens all year round, as they look very similar.

Sadly the more familiar song thrush, together with winter visitors fieldfares and redwings are all on the conservation status red list and are globally under threat as numbers have declined dramatically.

Redwings are small thrushes with brown backs, streaked breasts and patches of red under their wings. Their larger cousins, fieldfares, have blue grey hoods, grey brown backs, streaked breasts and a pale grey rump.

Garden Birdwatch

These birds usually spend the winter roaming the countryside in search of berries and other fruit.

Redwings and fieldfares will remain in the UK until around the end of March when they return to Iceland and Scandinavia to nest.

The popular song thrush, is a songbird that can be spotted in our gardens throughout the year and has a brown back and spotted breast. It has a beautiful and loud song and likes to eat snails which it breaks into by smashing them against a stone with a flick of the head.

When the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch began in 1979, the song thrush was the tenth most seen bird in gardens across the country. But from the latest citizen survey results, numbers reveal they have declined by 77 percent over the last 40 years.

Food supply

RSPB Wildlife Advisor Charlotte Ambrose said: “At this point in winter much of the natural food supply will have been used up. So with the weather now turning dramatically for much of the UK, these hungry birds have moved into gardens for food, water and shelter.

“You can help these beautiful visitors get through this cold snap by putting out fruit like apples and pears and planting winter berry plants such as holly. Remember they’ll need water too, so keep your bird bath topped up and ice free.”

Up to half a million people are expected to watch and count their garden birds for this year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch over the last weekend in January 2020. To find out more, click here. 

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the RSPB. Image: Mike Pennington: Geograph. 

Indigenous youth activists demonstrated outside the COP25 on the first morning of the UN climate conference against Chilean state repression alongside their Mapuche compañeros.

The demonstrators gave speeches in Spanish and English wearing bandannas, patches and bandages over their faces to represent the 200 activists in Chile who have lost an eye because of police rubber bullets.

Read: “UN climate talks: ‘in moral terms… it’s evil!'”

Xicana Niria Alicia said: “We came out to stand in solidarity with our Chilean brothers and sisters, particularly our indigenous relatives out there who have been experiencing massive amounts of police brutality.”

Avoiding scrutiny

The COP25 was moved from Santiago de Chile to Madrid weeks before it was due to begin because of civil unrest, meaning Sebastián Piñera and the Chilean government have avoided scrutiny of their human rights abuses according to the demonstrators, who are determined to refocus the world’s attention on to what has been two centuries of extractivism, colonialism and combustion.

Kevin Brookland of the artivist network said: “This is not about the small metro rise that kicked off a mass social movement. This is about thirty years of a neo-liberal agenda that has devastated our planet and our communities and that same logic is being applied at this COP with proposing emissions trading schemes and market solutions as if they were an effective way to actually deal with the emergency that we are facing as a global community.”

The Mapuche people of Southern Chile make up 10 percent of the country’s populace and they have accused the Chilean government of genocide.

Ximena Painequeo of the Lafkenche territorial identity said: “[We] are being terribly suppressed these days. Even our young people are being left without one of their eyes, they are our brothers and sisters…

“We are here to tell the government and the whole world: Stop looting our ancestral lands. Stop looting all indigenous people in America and in the rest of the world … If you keep looting our planet it will only keep deteriorating.”

Corporate greenwashing

Extinction Rebellion followed with their own demonstration in the afternoon, blocking the road with banners in Russian and English to demand stronger action from world leaders.

They were joined by eight-year-old child activist Licypriya Kangujam as she left the conference building. She asked: “Why should I come here? Why should I speak here? I have to go to my school, I have to read my books, I have to play, I have to study.

“But our leaders have ruined our childhood life and our beautiful future … What I want is not about today or tomorrow but what needs to be done now.”

Demonstrations against government inaction have escalated since the conference began, culminating in a march of nearly half a million people on Friday night along Madrid’s central artery, Paseo de la Castellana, with Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future also targeting corporate greenwashing. 

Greta Thunberg joined her fellow youth strikers in the COP25, wading through a media swarm before giving a press conference: “We have been striking now for over a year and still nothing has happened. The climate crisis is still being ignored by those in power and we cannot go on like this. It is not a sustainable solution that children skip school. We don’t want to continue.”

Renewable resource

China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and India have caused anger amongst some delegates, who have accused them of blocking progress on the talks and ignoring the urgency of the crisis.

There was a strong, almost desperate hope from activists that these negotiations will finally yield some concrete results.

Speaking at the conference, Al Gore said: “We are not facing up to this challenge. The crisis is still getting worse at a rate that exceeds the rate at which we are mobilising solutions but we are gaining momentum and soon we will be gaining on the crisis. The will to act is itself a renewable resource.”

This Author 

Danny Halpin is a reporter for Extinction Rebellion’s Rebel Radio and is studying for his MA in journalism at Birkbeck, University of London. He is a regular contributor for TruePublica and his work has featured in the Journal of Popular Music Education, Lippy Magazine and his website. 

Image: Danny Halpin.

Our world changed forever when ancient civilizations discovered that water could be used as a source of power.

The Greeks and Romans drew water for irrigation, which improved their agricultural productivity. Now, water is a necessity in generating hydropower, extracting fuels and cooling thermal power plants. Water security and energy are essential to human and economic development worldwide.

As the world’s population increases, so too does the competition for these elements. By 2035, the consumption of water and energy resources will increase by nearly 35 percent. Rapid expenditure of water, paired with rising global temperatures, creates more uncertainty surrounding water security. Severe floods and droughts brought on by a lack of water will make it harder to generate electricity from water sources.

Ocean energy

Currently, hydraulic energy makes up 18 percent of the world’s electricity production, and engineers are now studying even more ways to use water to generate power.

If done correctly, these new techniques could drastically reduce emissions and save costs in operation. To keep using water’s natural currents in the future, energy choices made today must be smart and sustainable. 

The world’s energy systems are inseparably linked to water. That is why engineers are working on harnessing the power of ocean energies and undammed river currents. Examples of ocean energies include wave energy, tidal energy, thermal energy and underwater energy created by ocean currents. 

Although the process of capturing ocean energy has not yet reached maturity, it is extremely promising. Converters are able to capture the energy contained in waves by trapping air pockets to drive turbines, using wave motion and even generating energy from wave height differences.

Tides also produce energy captured through tidal-range technologies that use a type of barrage to harvest power created between high and low tide. 

Untapped energy

Ocean salinity also produces energy. Known as “salinity gradient energy,” this type of power arises from different salt concentrations when rivers empty into oceans.

Current demonstration projects utilize pressure retarded osmosis or reverse electrodialysis to experiment with this concept. In pressure osmosis, freshwater flows through a membrane into a tank of saltwater to increase its pressure.

Another promising power source is ocean thermal energy conversion. Temperature differences between cooler deep seawaters and warmer shallow seawaters have the potential to produce incredible amounts of electricity.

Studies estimate that simply harnessing two one-thousandths of the untapped energy of the ocean can provide enough power to satisfy the current worldwide demand. 

Ocean energy demonstrates an impressive amount of potential for energy creation. In reality, we have barely scraped the surface of what the world’s oceans have to offer since the deepest waters remain unexplored.

Although waves and tides are seasonal, they are more predictable and constant than current energy sources like wind and sunlight. Consistency is the key to generating power. 

Hydropower advancements

Pairing water with the power of technology can increase the consistency of this energy source even more. The hydropower industry is currently working on implementing the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to digitise hydropower efforts. This will reduce carbon emissions and save on operation costs.

IIoT technology is generally used to collect and analyze information in real time. These technologies allow machines to communicate autonomously with other instruments to identify trends and provide actionable insights for improvement.

Hydropower operators can use this technology to leverage data and further optimize their power plants.

While pure water is already powering our world, capitalizing on it can be expensive when building new plants. Modular hydropower systems aim to lower construction costs while reducing the impact on the environment. This type of hydropower uses separate components that are constructed off-site and later easily integrated into existing sites. 

Advancements in hydropower and the harnessing of other water resources are serious alternatives for the future of energy worldwide. While engineers and scientists are still developing some processes, proper planning and investment can ensure their full potential is met. 

Solutions for the future of energy depend on a variety of factors, including finances, environment and available technology.

What’s essential is that planners and decision-makers consider existing water constraints and stay informed on how to deal with those issues sustainably. 

This Author

Emily Folk is a conservation and sustainability writer and the editor of Conservation Folks.

North Karelia, located in Eastern Finland, has been the traditional homeland of the Sámi, Karelian and Savo-Karelian peoples. The people of North Karelia have enjoyed a deep and rich connection with nature through the ages.

Seasonal hunting, fishing, gathering activities and, in more recent times, small-scale agriculture, have formed the basis of life in a region rich in boreal forest, lakes, rivers and marsh-mires. 

Today, some natural resources continue to play a significant role in the local economy and society of North Karelia. Timber and forestry products have become, from a state perspective, the region’s most important resources.

Mining history

North Karelia has also been a central location in recent Finnish mining history for both peat and minerals, suffering major impacts as a result.

For example, one North Karelian community, Kuusjärvi, underwent a transformation after World War Two (and at some scale since 1910s), becoming ‘Outokumpu’ (meaning Strange Mound) – a state-led mining town which has a severe pollution record that impacts the nearby Lake Sysmäjärvi.

Finland emerged as a ‘land of opportunity’ for international and domestic mining in the 2010s, due to the legal reforms encouraging mining company access and investment, the downscaling of independent environmental authorities and a lack of existing social and legal rights of local communities.

It was only in the 1980s that Finland established its own Ministry of Environment. But in recent times right-wing powers in Finland, especially the Centre Party, have consistently undermined and eroded the power of NGOs and environmental authorities as part of a wider neoliberal agenda.

The Centre Party, which was in power between 2003-2011, regards environmental legislation and regulation as an economic obstacle to be removed. In recent years the Finnish Coalition Party has compounded these problems by pushing through administrative reforms under the Ministry of the Economy that require all sectors, including the state environmental authorities, to produce tangible profits, thereby undermining the possibilities for environmentally sound decision-making.

Double movement

Ironically, Finland has moved to establish a reputation as a world leader in clean and responsible mining in this same period.

The establishment of the Network for Sustainable Mining and the Finnish Geological Survey’s Green Mining concept, are key achievements in a ‘double-movement’.

On the one-hand, regulation is reduced and extraction and its impacts are expanded in practice. On the other, pro-mining corporate and state PR create the impression of an industry holding itself to higher standards than ever before, justifying deregulation.

The trend of increasing ease of access to mineral resources is expected to intensify in future as geopolitical interest in the boreal and Arctic peripheries grows. These regions contain much of the planet’s untapped mineral wealth.

New sea routes to get these minerals out of the Arctic at lower cost are opening up due to climate-change-induced losses in sea ice.

Resistance 

In response to these new realities, Finland and North Karelia have seen the emergence of local and global actions challenging this new wave of extractivism. This resistance has yielded early victories, for example in the village of Selkie, where the community has succeeded in restoring a whole river catchment area to health after it was damaged by peat mining and ditching for industrial forestry.

The Jukajoki River catchment and Linnunsuo Marsh-mire, a former peat mining site, are located in the village of Selkie.

Selkie is home to around 300 people and is located at the intersection of the middle and southern boreal taiga forests. The Vuoksi and Lake Ladoga catchment areas divide on top of the Selkie hills, flowing on to feed into the two major catchment areas of NE Europe.

Selkie is the second oldest recorded village in North Karelia and one of the western-most of the Karelian villages where Kalevala-style epic songs and incantations have been recorded. In pre-historic times, Selkie’s first inhabitants were the Indigenous Sámi people.

Later, and up until the 1640s, the village was occupied by Karelians. Due to the Swedish-Russian Rupture Wars and subsequent transfer of territories, most Karelians left for Tver, Russia. The village population was replaced with an ethnically Savo-Karelian population who still live in the village today.

The traditional ways of life in Selkie have, and to some extent continue to, revolve around fisheries, hunting and traditional small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture, which transformed into modern, small-scale farming post-World War Two.

Today, the village also contains a mix of modern occupancies, services, small-scale forestry and farming. This is a village that has been able to preserve its soul by adapting to the times whilst maintaining traditional livelihoods and connection with the land.

Contamination

Following the Second World War, Finland was forced to pay a 300-million-dollar war-debt to Russia. A period of rapid industrialisation to fund the repayments followed, including the draining of over half the country’s marshlands for timber plantations, agriculture, and peat mining – a massive contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

From the 1980s onwards, Finnish peat production company VAPO utilised the post-glacial marsh-mire of Linnunsuo (Marsh of the Birds) in Selkie for industrial peat mining to provide domestic energy in Finland.

Peat-rich soils are filled with iron sulphates and are very acidic. Changes to the water table caused by VAPO’s mining operations at Linnunsuo created conditions for discharges of very acidic waste water into Jukajoki river.

Leaks of acidic waste water documented in 2010 and 2011 were so bad that they killed all the fish in the river. Discharges like this had happened in the past, too.

After the first fish-death event in 2010, the village council of Selkie requested the withdrawal of VAPO’s mining permits, compensation for the damages caused by the 2010 fish deaths, and mitigation of river damages.

However, peat production continued. Unlike local fishermen, the company and state’s formal monitoring systems failed to detect contamination issues.

Pollution

Then, after a prolonged dry period and high temperatures in June 2011, a series of heavy rains led to another rapid discharge of highly acidic waters from the mine. After this second major pollution event, the people of Selkie came together to successfully close down the mine for good and pressure VAPO into financing the restoration of the Linnunsuo marsh-mire.

There were several factors and strategies behind this success: First, villagers had already been undertaking their own endemic monitoring of aquatic ecosystems using fish traps, oral histories, photography and other tools. They had baseline evidence of ecosystem health and knew the difference between healthy and unhealthy waters.

Second, a handful of local fishermen constantly out on the water were able to draw attention to the fish kill events, and to determine the source of pollution – the VAPO peat mine- from the characteristics of the water. Their endemic knowledge and speed of response was critical.

Third, the local fishermen were able to report their observations to the active and united Selkie Village Council and the local NGO the Snowchange Cooperative, having already developed close relationships through the endemic monitoring projects.

Following the 2011 pollution event, these allies responded immediately, called in the authorities, filed a criminal complaint against VAPO and pushed hard to successfully gain national media coverage of the mine spill.

Building pressure

Feeling pressured and with its public profile at risk, these tactics forced VAPO to immediately suspend production at Linnunsuo site 2.

Subsequently, villagers used the pressure they had built to demand that VAPO permanently discontinue its mining operations and finance the restoration of the former marsh-mire.

Under public scrutiny, the company agreed to pay financial compensation to the fishing association of Selkie. VAPO also agreed to finance the largest human-made wetland in Eastern Finland, over 120 hectares, on the site of the former mine.

Selkie shows how one small community can not only stop destructive mining, but also begin to restore the living ecosystems that sustain life on Earth, and the knowledge that can enable us to live well within our planet’s limits.

The villagers of Selkie have actively taken their place in the revival of Linnunsuo and other damaged areas in the Jukajoki River catchment. In 2013, a co-management council was established to manage the restoration of Linnunsuo. The council’s function is to collectively manage the use and restoration of the site, and community organizations have established a central role for themselves.

Traditional knowledge

Through a restoration programme bringing together traditional knowledge and science, Linnunsuo has enjoyed a dramatic and rapid return to health. It has quickly become a highly regarded wetland habitat for rare birds and mammals, including sandpipers, northern pintails and wolverines.

193 bird species have been recorded in the area, and over 20,000 geese at a time have flocked to the wetland, resting on their migrations to and from Siberia.

Improvements in water quality and reductions in iron sulfide contamination from the site are substantial. Local people have discovered aquatic species such as brook lamprey- an indicator species for good water quality – in the wider catchment, affirming the dramatic recovery of freshwater habitats.

Linnunsuo is now recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention, an Important Bird Area and Finland’s second ever Community Conserved Area.

Co-management

The benefits of co-management go far beyond these measurable environmental outcomes. The development of the co-management council has changed how local-traditional knowledge is recognised and valued.

This knowledge is now recognised as equally valid to science-based and institutional knowledge by all actors in the council and the local community are valued partners. Since the Linnunsuo wetland was re-wetted in 2013, Selkie and the Snowchange Cooperative (which has since purchased the Linnunsuo site from VAPO) have built on their success, initiating an effort to revive and re-wild the entire Jukajoki River catchment.

In the short term, the goal is to restore the entire Jukajoki catchment area using traditional knowledge and science as equally valued forms of knowledge production.

By 2025, the aim is to have restored Lake Jukajärvi and inflowing river bodies, allowing the return of lake trout, grayling and salmon.

In the longer term, the vision is to establish a ranger program providing economic opportunities to local communities, establish a stable governance and co-management system for the entire watershed, including a monitoring program that incorporates traditional knowledge and science.

Restoration

Beyond North Karelia, the successes of the Linnunsuo and Jukajoki restorations to-date has stimulated a national program of landscape rewilding in Finland to alleviate the damage caused to Finnish marsh-mires and wetlands by extractive activities.

As of February 2019, the areas under restoration totalled more than 600 hectares in area – that is 4 Linnunsuo’s, or 600 football pitches. As in the case of Linnunsuo, in time these sites will emerge as Indigenous and local community conserved areas, managed and cared for by communities like Selkie.

These Authors 

Tero Mustonen is a passionate defender of the traditional worldview and cosmology of his people. He is a Finn and head of the village of Selkie in North Karelia, Finland. He works for the award-winning Snowchange Cooperative, a non-profit organisation based in Finland with members across the Arctic, including the communities of Eastern Sámi, Chukchi, Yukaghir, Sakha, Evenk, Even, Inuit, Inuvialuit, Gwitchin and many more.

Hannibal Rhoades is the Yes to Life, No to Mining Regional Coordinator for Northern Europe and Head of Communications at The Gaia Foundation. 

This article was originally published by Radical Ecological Democracy as part of a six-part series exploring the stories of the communities mentioned in this article. The Ecologist will be collaborating with Radical Ecological Democracy to share these articles in the months to come.

The case studies upon which this series is based have been developed by YLNM member communities and organisations with the support of YLNM’s Regional Coordinators. The network’s deepest thanks go to: Snowchange Cooperative and the village of Selkie (Finland), Froxán Commoning Community and ContraMINAccíon (Galicia), Karen Environmental and Social Action Network and Kalikasan PNE (Myanmar and Philippines), Comité Ambiental en Defensa de la Vida and COSAJUCA (Colombia), Alliance of Solwara Warriors (Papua New Guinea).

The UN climate negotiations in Madrid, COP25, have amounted to precious little. The extended talks have provided the opportunity for petrol states and developed countries to excise the red lines of developing countries from the text of the agreement.

As Dr Saleemul Huq from Bangladesh tweeted earlier: “Adding an extra day of negotiations is a tactic of the rich and powerful countries who know that the poor and vulnerable countries negotiators will not be able to stay the extra day to defend their red lines.”

After a quarter of a century of negotiations, it should come as no surprise that vested interests remain hellbent of destroying what is left of our only planet Earth.

Climate breakdown

The clues have been there all along. For instance, the original individual national pledges for emissions reductions were meant to be called ‘Nationally Determined Commitments’, but, of course, that is too, well, committing.

So instead they changed it to ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’, which sounds more like a whip-round for a restaurant tip than a serious pledge to limit the number of lives lost to ever-worsening climate impacts.

The areas of the world that are in the front lines of serious and extreme climate change are Africa, South-East Asia and the global south. This is where the majority of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people live.

Floods, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes are already occurring here. In places such as the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), the impacts are critical, with tidal surges destroying homes, agriculture and taking lives.

This is all set to worsen with some islands on track for complete destruction in terms of human and natural habitats.

Water rights

Representatives from these countries attend the COP in search of equity and justice. The poorest are also the world’s least emitting nations and are not responsible for the catastrophe that developing nations are bestowing on them. 

Attending a side event at the COP, hosted by the Institute for Environmental Security, I was able to record an interview with General Ghazi, a former Defence Secretary in the Government of Pakistan.

Ghazi sees the growing constraints of a resource-strapped region where cross-border disputes move from the ideological to the climatically tangible, with the potential to escalate rapidly into something far more serious.

When I asked him what concerned him most about the future he replied: “I think my biggest concern, especially in the area in which I live, is water. It is the reduction in the flows of the river Indus,  on which, in my country, the people depend on.

“Through human activities they are damming or diverting water, they are making the lower riparian suffer.”

Ghazi continued: “This would be the trigger for a catastrophic conflict if the intention is to make the lower riparian suffer for geopolitical or political reasons. You know, when you have no security or livelihood left then the eventual option is to resort to arms to actually retake it! This last resort is something I see happening in terms of water threat.”

Dying ocean

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) delivered their severe climate report in the first week of the negotiations and this was quickly followed by IUCN’s report on the deoxygenation of the world’s oceans.

When I interviewed one of the lead authors, Professor Dan Laffoley, I asked him whether he was describing a dying ocean. He said: “We are in dead trouble. We are in dead trouble because when we look back in 30 years time, we might actually realise that the source of our woes was not the tale of one gas, it was the tale of two gases.

“At the moment we are talking about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, quite rightly, and cutting drastically our emissions, because they are a driver of this. 

We also need to worry about oxygen in the ocean. There is much less oxygen in the ocean per unit of area because it is simply the physics of a gas dissolved in a liquid compared to being dissolved in the air but that small amount of oxygen is required for so many things.

“It is not just required to support biodiversity and the benefits we derive from it. If you don’t have enough oxygen in the ocean, you start to disrupt some of the basic cycling of elements that are necessary for life on earth, like nitrogen, like phosphorous, and phosphates. So this is a real, real problem.

The goodness if there is good news out of this is that we know what to do. We know we must cut emissions of carbon dioxide, we know we must stop enriching the ocean, and we need to protect the pieces of ecosystems that are still intact, grow that estate and take the pressure off the whole marine environment.” 

Destruction

I also interviewed Dr Peter Carter, an IPCC climate science reviewer. Carter said: “What is happening to prevent these forest fires, droughts, severe storms, powerful hurricanes, floods? What is happening to lessen them at least? Absolutely nothing! 

“Nothing is going to come out of this COP with regards to doing anything. That was decided on the first day. I heard, that the parties, under the control of the big emitters, made the decision that they are not going to look at any improvement of their national emissions targets.

“What do you call this? This is a terrible, terrible crime! It is unbelievable what these high-emitting fossil fuel companies are doing. Pope Francis who wrote an Encyclical on ecology a few years ago said that it is a sin against God, and very recently he said it was a crime. That means in moral terms it is evil, right?

“The countries that are blocking any progress on emissions are acting in the most evil way that anybody could imagine. 

We are looking at the destruction of Earth, of oceans, and land!”

Another brick

I saw the same busker in Madrid, once outside the Prado and another time next to the metro station Sol. On both occasions, he was playing Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ but with Spanish lyrics.

The song seems like the perfect analogy for the UN climate negotiations. With an estimated 500,000 people marching through the city crying out for change and the likes of climate youth superstar Greta Thunberg, calling out the adults running our society for behaving like children, it begs the question, who are these faceless, anonymous negotiators who year on year sanction the deaths of so much of the natural world, including human beings?

The developed countries are accused widely of pursuing climate policies that are an extension of colonial powers, subjugating the poorest and excusing the evilest acts so that a fraction of the worlds richest people can carry on killing everything that sustains us.

With 25 years of failure it should be about time that the bureaucrats running this heinous show be unmasked, and that the consequences of their failures be borne back onto them. 

Rotten system

The whole UN climate negotiating system is rotten to the core. Even at face value it barely bothers to codify the injustice that it perpetuates.

This was best illustrated by a member of the action group Fridays For Future, Angela Valenzuela, herself from the original host country, Chile.

Valenzuela points out that it is not just climate systems that are breaking down but unsustainable social systems too. Systems of inequality where the privileged few have been, for decades, hoarding the wealth resources that allow nations to prosper.

Valenzuela explains how her government in Chile declared a state of emergency and introduced curfews to repress the protests. The protests have continued long passed the decision to move the UN talks to Madrid.

Valenzuela says there has been violence and human rights violations. In many cases, the protestors are flying the indigenous peoples flag more than the national Chilean flag. She describes this as a deeper reflection of the national identity.

Losing faith

Chilean people are losing faith in the systems of governance that are not equal and certainly are not able to see them through the multi-year drought and increased climate impacts that are now ubiquitous in the northern and central parts of the country. 

All of this contrasts with the national government’s presence at the COP. I asked Valenzuela whether she had engaged at all with the Chilean delegation at the COP: “For me, it has been very shocking to arrive at COP and see all the greenwashing.

“All the beautiful pictures of landscapes and the names of our cities. I was aware that COP was a place for greenwashing. It has been in Poland over the last few years, one of the European countries that has the most coal plants.

“So I know about the greenwashing but what has been shocking is that I know human violations are going on in my country and it is being overseen by the government and they are really trying to stand out very well and pretend that nothing is happening.

“So, of course, I cannot really relate or have a proper conversation. Fo me they have lost legitimacy.”

Populism 

These sentiments are now being seen in many countries around the world where protests are increasing and populism is on the rise.

The backdrop of climate change is an existential threat to civilisation and will challenge us in many ways.

The failure of the UN COP’s is setting the stage for more civil protest as the tide of impacts crashes the shores of all regions around the world. 

With hope of international progress and adequate intergovernmental policy and cooperation fading, COP26 is doubtless going to be another greenwashing expedition, this time enacted by the UK’s newly elected Conservative party who have a terrible environmental record.

If you are experiencing anxiety arising from the climate crisis, rest assured, it is the correct emotional response.

This Author

Nick Breeze is a climate change writer and interviewer and also writes a great deal about wine. He is an organiser of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series and Secret Sommelier. 

Christmas is often a time of excess. An overindulgence of giving, getting and gorging.

Many of us will now being stocking up and filling our cupboards for the festive holiday, but we all know someone who starts stocking up on snacks in September or sherry in the summer.

Each year, these dates hold significance for many reasons. But with excess comes a price. Environmental damage caused by an already inefficient food system in undeniable.

Farmyard

Farmed animals are often described as ‘protein factories in reverse’. This means they consume a far greater number of calories than can be retained in animal-based products such as meat, milk and eggs.

Combine this with the sheer numbers of animals who are farmed to fuel this demand, and the lead-up to Christmas transforms into something very different.

Let’s start in the summer, the season that begins the six-month process resulting in ‘pigs in blankets’.

While some shoppers will already be stocking their kitchen cupboards to capacity, pig farms will also be reaching stocking capacity following the births of piglets.

But this is no farmyard fairy tale, the UK rears 10.6 million pigs annually.

Lifespan

To fuel this demand, mother pigs often have three large litters a year in farrowing crates too small for her to turn around, denying natural mothering instincts. Most of these pigs are reared within intensive inside units, with devastating effects for the animals and environment.

After a few months of life, just a fraction of their natural 15-20 year life span, the young pigs are sent to be slaughtered before arriving on the supermarket shelves in a marketable, yet blanketed disguise.

Whilst September may end the British summer, it also begins the lives of millions of British turkeys.  In 2018, approximately 14 million turkeys were slaughtered in the UK, two million of these in December.

Commonly housed with thousands of others, farmed turkeys are given little opportunity to express natural behaviours such as foraging, perching and even mating.

As with all farmed animals, their lives are cut drastically short, with turkeys in the wild known to live up to 10 years, but turkeys in captivity reaching an average lifespan of three months.

Unnatural

Approximately 90 percent of turkeys are reared intensively with no access to the outside, meaning their first – and last – glimpse of sunlight they will ever see is on their way to be slaughtered.

This brings us to December. Millions of us will be out shopping for presents, whilst simultaneously millions of chicks will be hatching in artificial incubators across the UK.

In 2018, over a billion chickens were slaughtered in the UK. Approximately 95 percent of these are housed in intensive indoor system with 20,000 others – or more.

With groups this large, it’s impossible to provide the care that these sentient animals need.

Through unnatural breeding processes, chickens grow around 50 times faster than what they naturally should, often rendering then unable to walk properly as their young bones struggle with the weight.

Planet

For this reason, they have the shortest lives of all commonly farmed animals and can reach full slaughter weight in just 21 short but painful days.

‘Babe’, the 1995 festive family film, depicts a young pig who is almost fated for Christmas dinner, but justifies their existence by demonstrating both personality and intelligence.

This film has stood the test of time because the message is evident – viewers want Babe to live. Veganism is simply putting your natural, affectionate thoughts towards animals into action.

In the UK, more and more individuals are eschewing animal products. Not just at Christmas, but every day of the year. The number of vegans in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2019 and this is set to rise as younger generations propel the movement forward.

Living a vegan life is easier than ever before – every major British retailer now stocks its own range of vegan foods including luxurious Christmas treats, a far cry from the stereotyped dry nut roast.

But it’s not just about the food. Fashion houses, cosmetics companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers are all taking notice, too.  

Whether it’s a treat for a loved one or a treat for yourself, there’s also a vegan friendly present for everyone. For you, the animals and the planet – make this one a truly compassionate Christmas.

This Author

Louisianna Waring is the insight and commercial policy officer at The Vegan Society. She has an educational background in both food policy and animal science and is passionate about animal rights.  If you would like to find out more about veganism, vegan nutrition and our new campaign Vegan and Thriving, please check out our website here. 

A mountaintop forest is to be created near Loch Ness to reverse the loss of high-altitude woodlands across Scotland.

Trees for Life, a conservation charity, is establishing a 700-acre site of 100,000 trees at its Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston, Highlands.

It is hoped the initiative will lead to the return of waist-high species known as montane plants, which would support mammals, birds and pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies.

Sweeping

Doug Gilbert, Trees for Life’s Dundreggan manager, said: “Montane woodlands are a vital part of Scotland’s precious Caledonian Forest but are often restored over only small areas if at all.

“To bring these special ‘wee trees’ back from the brink, and create habitats for the wildlife that depends on them, we need something bigger – and that’s what we’re setting out to achieve at Carn na Caorach.”

Montane species grow near mountain summits despite harsh conditions but have suffered from centuries of overgrazing from animals such as sheep and deer.

The site – Carn na Caorach, meaning sheep cairn – lies at 450 to 600 metres above sea level on Dundreggan’s north-eastern edge, with sweeping views over Glenmoriston and Glen Affric.

High-altitude

It is thought to have been an important place for grazing livestock for hundreds of years and is now home to wildlife such as golden eagles, ring ouzels and mountain hares.

Volunteers will begin the first phase of planting next spring – with trees including downy willow and dwarf birch on the higher ground, as well as Scots pine and juniper on the lower slopes.

Further planting will continue over the next few years and self-seeded saplings will also be able to thrive in the grazing-free site. High woodlands take longer to establish than those in sheltered locations, meaning the project has to be long-term.

It could take between 50 and 100 years before the forest is fully established – if grazing levels are kept low. Once complete, the charity believes the project will be the country’s largest planted area of rare high-altitude woodland.

This Author

Conor Riordan is a reporter with PA Scotland.

The UK government has added its voice to the widespread disappointment over the United Nations discussions on the climate crisis which ended in compromise and frustration.

Lengthy talks in Madrid ended on Sunday with polluters resisting calls to increase efforts to minimise global heating and negotiators delaying debate about rules for international carbon markets for another year.

The UK expressed its determination to “drive even more ambitious” pledges by the next conference – COP26 – which will be held in Glasgow in November.

Frustration

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “disappointed” by the final declaration, which cited an “urgent need” to cut greenhouses gases in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.

But the outcome fell short of explicitly demanding countries to propose bolder emissions plans next year, in accordance with environmentalists and developing countries’ demands.

The UK thanked Chile’s efforts in the Cop25 talks but expressed its frustration at the result.

Ambitious

“Tackling climate change is one of the most urgent issues we face and we are extremely grateful for the tireless efforts of the Chilean Cop presidency to reach an agreement, in challenging circumstances in Madrid,” a UK Government spokesman said.

“It is disappointing talks did not move as far or as fast at the UK had hoped.

“There is still much more to do and we are determined to increase the momentum and drive even more ambitious climate action at next year’s talks in Glasgow.”

This Author

Sam Blewett is the political correspondent for PA. Image: John Englart.