People underestimate how hot the world has become and how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, research suggests.

Misconceptions about the impact humans are having on the planet are widespread, according to the study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

Only a quarter of people quizzed by Ipsos Mori for the research correctly identified that all 20 of the world’s hottest years on record had occurred in the last 22 years.

Wildlife

On average, people guessed that 12 of the hottest years had occurred in that time, the figures show.

Members of the public also underestimate how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, suggesting on average that just under half (49 percent) of the 6.3 billion tonnes of the material created globally has ended up in landfill or as litter – when the true figure is 79 percent.

Just nine percent has been recycled, far lower than the average estimate of 26 percent by people polled.

Only a third of the public correctly think that the population sizes of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles in the world has fallen by 60% since 1970, which is the estimate made by conservation organisations WWF and ZSL.

Half of people thought wildlife populations had fallen by 25 percent in that time.

Mis-perceptions

There were also misconceptions about where greenhouse gases are coming from, with those polled suggesting that 20% of pollution came from flying – compared to the real figure of two percent.

People also overestimated the role of recycling in reducing their carbon footprint, and underestimated the impact of avoiding one transatlantic flight.

And just 21 percent selected having one fewer child as a top way of cutting an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions, although it is the most significant thing that can be done, the research said.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything which is being published in paperback, said: “It is vital to understand public mis-perceptions about climate change and the natural environment – but not just so that we can bombard people with more information.”

Widespread

He said his book showed “we can’t just provide facts and expect people to hear them and act, regardless of how extraordinary those facts are”.

Prof Duffy also warned that there was not enough understanding about how fear, hope and a sense of the effectiveness of actions interacted in motivating people.

“But it’s just as naive to believe we know the right emotional buttons to push: we don’t understand enough about how fear, hope and a sense of efficacy interact in motivating action in different individuals.”

He added: “A little more understanding of the scale of the issues, the most effective actions we can take and just how normal and widespread concern has become couldn’t hurt.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

People underestimate how hot the world has become and how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, research suggests.

Misconceptions about the impact humans are having on the planet are widespread, according to the study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

Only a quarter of people quizzed by Ipsos Mori for the research correctly identified that all 20 of the world’s hottest years on record had occurred in the last 22 years.

Wildlife

On average, people guessed that 12 of the hottest years had occurred in that time, the figures show.

Members of the public also underestimate how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, suggesting on average that just under half (49 percent) of the 6.3 billion tonnes of the material created globally has ended up in landfill or as litter – when the true figure is 79 percent.

Just nine percent has been recycled, far lower than the average estimate of 26 percent by people polled.

Only a third of the public correctly think that the population sizes of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles in the world has fallen by 60% since 1970, which is the estimate made by conservation organisations WWF and ZSL.

Half of people thought wildlife populations had fallen by 25 percent in that time.

Mis-perceptions

There were also misconceptions about where greenhouse gases are coming from, with those polled suggesting that 20% of pollution came from flying – compared to the real figure of two percent.

People also overestimated the role of recycling in reducing their carbon footprint, and underestimated the impact of avoiding one transatlantic flight.

And just 21 percent selected having one fewer child as a top way of cutting an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions, although it is the most significant thing that can be done, the research said.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything which is being published in paperback, said: “It is vital to understand public mis-perceptions about climate change and the natural environment – but not just so that we can bombard people with more information.”

Widespread

He said his book showed “we can’t just provide facts and expect people to hear them and act, regardless of how extraordinary those facts are”.

Prof Duffy also warned that there was not enough understanding about how fear, hope and a sense of the effectiveness of actions interacted in motivating people.

“But it’s just as naive to believe we know the right emotional buttons to push: we don’t understand enough about how fear, hope and a sense of efficacy interact in motivating action in different individuals.”

He added: “A little more understanding of the scale of the issues, the most effective actions we can take and just how normal and widespread concern has become couldn’t hurt.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

People underestimate how hot the world has become and how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, research suggests.

Misconceptions about the impact humans are having on the planet are widespread, according to the study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

Only a quarter of people quizzed by Ipsos Mori for the research correctly identified that all 20 of the world’s hottest years on record had occurred in the last 22 years.

Wildlife

On average, people guessed that 12 of the hottest years had occurred in that time, the figures show.

Members of the public also underestimate how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, suggesting on average that just under half (49 percent) of the 6.3 billion tonnes of the material created globally has ended up in landfill or as litter – when the true figure is 79 percent.

Just nine percent has been recycled, far lower than the average estimate of 26 percent by people polled.

Only a third of the public correctly think that the population sizes of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles in the world has fallen by 60% since 1970, which is the estimate made by conservation organisations WWF and ZSL.

Half of people thought wildlife populations had fallen by 25 percent in that time.

Mis-perceptions

There were also misconceptions about where greenhouse gases are coming from, with those polled suggesting that 20% of pollution came from flying – compared to the real figure of two percent.

People also overestimated the role of recycling in reducing their carbon footprint, and underestimated the impact of avoiding one transatlantic flight.

And just 21 percent selected having one fewer child as a top way of cutting an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions, although it is the most significant thing that can be done, the research said.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything which is being published in paperback, said: “It is vital to understand public mis-perceptions about climate change and the natural environment – but not just so that we can bombard people with more information.”

Widespread

He said his book showed “we can’t just provide facts and expect people to hear them and act, regardless of how extraordinary those facts are”.

Prof Duffy also warned that there was not enough understanding about how fear, hope and a sense of the effectiveness of actions interacted in motivating people.

“But it’s just as naive to believe we know the right emotional buttons to push: we don’t understand enough about how fear, hope and a sense of efficacy interact in motivating action in different individuals.”

He added: “A little more understanding of the scale of the issues, the most effective actions we can take and just how normal and widespread concern has become couldn’t hurt.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

People underestimate how hot the world has become and how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, research suggests.

Misconceptions about the impact humans are having on the planet are widespread, according to the study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

Only a quarter of people quizzed by Ipsos Mori for the research correctly identified that all 20 of the world’s hottest years on record had occurred in the last 22 years.

Wildlife

On average, people guessed that 12 of the hottest years had occurred in that time, the figures show.

Members of the public also underestimate how much plastic waste has ended up in the environment, suggesting on average that just under half (49 percent) of the 6.3 billion tonnes of the material created globally has ended up in landfill or as litter – when the true figure is 79 percent.

Just nine percent has been recycled, far lower than the average estimate of 26 percent by people polled.

Only a third of the public correctly think that the population sizes of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles in the world has fallen by 60% since 1970, which is the estimate made by conservation organisations WWF and ZSL.

Half of people thought wildlife populations had fallen by 25 percent in that time.

Mis-perceptions

There were also misconceptions about where greenhouse gases are coming from, with those polled suggesting that 20% of pollution came from flying – compared to the real figure of two percent.

People also overestimated the role of recycling in reducing their carbon footprint, and underestimated the impact of avoiding one transatlantic flight.

And just 21 percent selected having one fewer child as a top way of cutting an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions, although it is the most significant thing that can be done, the research said.

Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything which is being published in paperback, said: “It is vital to understand public mis-perceptions about climate change and the natural environment – but not just so that we can bombard people with more information.”

Widespread

He said his book showed “we can’t just provide facts and expect people to hear them and act, regardless of how extraordinary those facts are”.

Prof Duffy also warned that there was not enough understanding about how fear, hope and a sense of the effectiveness of actions interacted in motivating people.

“But it’s just as naive to believe we know the right emotional buttons to push: we don’t understand enough about how fear, hope and a sense of efficacy interact in motivating action in different individuals.”

He added: “A little more understanding of the scale of the issues, the most effective actions we can take and just how normal and widespread concern has become couldn’t hurt.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Acres of lush underwater seagrass meadows are to be restored off the coast of Wales to help wildlife and tackle climate change, conservationists have said.

Sky Ocean Rescue, conservation organisation WWF and Swansea University are launching what they say is the biggest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK to help the habitat thrive again.

A million seeds of the “wonder plant” have been gathered from existing meadows in shallow, sheltered areas along the UK coasts, reached by volunteers snorkelling, diving and wading in to get them.

Crucial

They will be planted this winter over 4.9 acres (20,000 square metres) of Dale Bay in Pembrokeshire, which has lost its seagrass but is suitable for the plant’s return.

The organisations say the “cutting-edge” pilot could create a model which could pave the way for large-scale seagrass restoration throughout the UK, if it is supported by governments around the country.

The move follows the disappearance of up to 92% of the UK’s seagrass in the last century, caused by pollution, runoff from the land, coast development, and damage from boat propellers and chain moorings.

Seagrass meadows act as a nursery for a wide variety of marine life, from endangered seahorses to sea snails, and 2.5 acres (10,000 square metres) of seagrass can support 80,000 fish and 100 million invertebrates, the experts said.

It protects the coasts from erosion by absorbing wave energy, is a crucial habitat for many of important fish such as cod, plaice and pollock, produces oxygen, and helps clean the ocean by absorbing polluting nutrients.

Model

It also captures carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, making it an important part of tackling climate change.

Globally it accounts for 10 percent of annual ocean carbon storage despite only taking up 0.2% of the seafloor, the conservationists said.

Alec Taylor, WWF head of marine policy, said: “Seagrass is a wonder plant that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, so its steep decline is extremely concerning.

“Without seagrass the myriad of amazing species that depend on it could disappear, the food we eat will be affected, and the amount of carbon in the environment will increase.

“Along with Sky Ocean Rescue and Swansea University, we are urgently calling on governments to use the model our project is creating to bring back these lush underwater meadows.

Livelihoods

“Governments also need to work with local communities to ensure that these vital areas are well-managed.”

Dr Richard Unsworth, of Swansea University, who is also director of the conservation charity Project Seagrass, said: “If we want to provide our fisheries and our coastlines with the potential to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, we need to restore the habitats and biodiversity that support their productivity.

“Providing a demonstration of the potential for restoration of our marine environment to be meaningful will hopefully act as a catalyst for further recovery of our UK seas.”

The seeds for the restoration scheme were collected from around the coasts by volunteers who snapped off the blades containing the seeds, which does not harm the plant, and taken to laboratories to be sorted and prepared.

They will be put in hessian bags to secure them when they are planted on the seabed this winter at the site, which has the right features in terms of the water depth and light levels to thrive there again.

The experts are working with local communities to design the project and choose the exact site so it does not affect local livelihoods and lifestyles.

It also aims to increase the understanding of the importance of seagrass and the benefits it can bring to the area, the organisations said.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Acres of lush underwater seagrass meadows are to be restored off the coast of Wales to help wildlife and tackle climate change, conservationists have said.

Sky Ocean Rescue, conservation organisation WWF and Swansea University are launching what they say is the biggest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK to help the habitat thrive again.

A million seeds of the “wonder plant” have been gathered from existing meadows in shallow, sheltered areas along the UK coasts, reached by volunteers snorkelling, diving and wading in to get them.

Crucial

They will be planted this winter over 4.9 acres (20,000 square metres) of Dale Bay in Pembrokeshire, which has lost its seagrass but is suitable for the plant’s return.

The organisations say the “cutting-edge” pilot could create a model which could pave the way for large-scale seagrass restoration throughout the UK, if it is supported by governments around the country.

The move follows the disappearance of up to 92% of the UK’s seagrass in the last century, caused by pollution, runoff from the land, coast development, and damage from boat propellers and chain moorings.

Seagrass meadows act as a nursery for a wide variety of marine life, from endangered seahorses to sea snails, and 2.5 acres (10,000 square metres) of seagrass can support 80,000 fish and 100 million invertebrates, the experts said.

It protects the coasts from erosion by absorbing wave energy, is a crucial habitat for many of important fish such as cod, plaice and pollock, produces oxygen, and helps clean the ocean by absorbing polluting nutrients.

Model

It also captures carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, making it an important part of tackling climate change.

Globally it accounts for 10 percent of annual ocean carbon storage despite only taking up 0.2% of the seafloor, the conservationists said.

Alec Taylor, WWF head of marine policy, said: “Seagrass is a wonder plant that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, so its steep decline is extremely concerning.

“Without seagrass the myriad of amazing species that depend on it could disappear, the food we eat will be affected, and the amount of carbon in the environment will increase.

“Along with Sky Ocean Rescue and Swansea University, we are urgently calling on governments to use the model our project is creating to bring back these lush underwater meadows.

Livelihoods

“Governments also need to work with local communities to ensure that these vital areas are well-managed.”

Dr Richard Unsworth, of Swansea University, who is also director of the conservation charity Project Seagrass, said: “If we want to provide our fisheries and our coastlines with the potential to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, we need to restore the habitats and biodiversity that support their productivity.

“Providing a demonstration of the potential for restoration of our marine environment to be meaningful will hopefully act as a catalyst for further recovery of our UK seas.”

The seeds for the restoration scheme were collected from around the coasts by volunteers who snapped off the blades containing the seeds, which does not harm the plant, and taken to laboratories to be sorted and prepared.

They will be put in hessian bags to secure them when they are planted on the seabed this winter at the site, which has the right features in terms of the water depth and light levels to thrive there again.

The experts are working with local communities to design the project and choose the exact site so it does not affect local livelihoods and lifestyles.

It also aims to increase the understanding of the importance of seagrass and the benefits it can bring to the area, the organisations said.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

Acres of lush underwater seagrass meadows are to be restored off the coast of Wales to help wildlife and tackle climate change, conservationists have said.

Sky Ocean Rescue, conservation organisation WWF and Swansea University are launching what they say is the biggest seagrass restoration project ever undertaken in the UK to help the habitat thrive again.

A million seeds of the “wonder plant” have been gathered from existing meadows in shallow, sheltered areas along the UK coasts, reached by volunteers snorkelling, diving and wading in to get them.

Crucial

They will be planted this winter over 4.9 acres (20,000 square metres) of Dale Bay in Pembrokeshire, which has lost its seagrass but is suitable for the plant’s return.

The organisations say the “cutting-edge” pilot could create a model which could pave the way for large-scale seagrass restoration throughout the UK, if it is supported by governments around the country.

The move follows the disappearance of up to 92% of the UK’s seagrass in the last century, caused by pollution, runoff from the land, coast development, and damage from boat propellers and chain moorings.

Seagrass meadows act as a nursery for a wide variety of marine life, from endangered seahorses to sea snails, and 2.5 acres (10,000 square metres) of seagrass can support 80,000 fish and 100 million invertebrates, the experts said.

It protects the coasts from erosion by absorbing wave energy, is a crucial habitat for many of important fish such as cod, plaice and pollock, produces oxygen, and helps clean the ocean by absorbing polluting nutrients.

Model

It also captures carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, making it an important part of tackling climate change.

Globally it accounts for 10 percent of annual ocean carbon storage despite only taking up 0.2% of the seafloor, the conservationists said.

Alec Taylor, WWF head of marine policy, said: “Seagrass is a wonder plant that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, so its steep decline is extremely concerning.

“Without seagrass the myriad of amazing species that depend on it could disappear, the food we eat will be affected, and the amount of carbon in the environment will increase.

“Along with Sky Ocean Rescue and Swansea University, we are urgently calling on governments to use the model our project is creating to bring back these lush underwater meadows.

Livelihoods

“Governments also need to work with local communities to ensure that these vital areas are well-managed.”

Dr Richard Unsworth, of Swansea University, who is also director of the conservation charity Project Seagrass, said: “If we want to provide our fisheries and our coastlines with the potential to adapt to a rapidly changing climate, we need to restore the habitats and biodiversity that support their productivity.

“Providing a demonstration of the potential for restoration of our marine environment to be meaningful will hopefully act as a catalyst for further recovery of our UK seas.”

The seeds for the restoration scheme were collected from around the coasts by volunteers who snapped off the blades containing the seeds, which does not harm the plant, and taken to laboratories to be sorted and prepared.

They will be put in hessian bags to secure them when they are planted on the seabed this winter at the site, which has the right features in terms of the water depth and light levels to thrive there again.

The experts are working with local communities to design the project and choose the exact site so it does not affect local livelihoods and lifestyles.

It also aims to increase the understanding of the importance of seagrass and the benefits it can bring to the area, the organisations said.

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

As has now been widely reported, the Amazon rainforest is on fire due to a mixture of fires started for land clearance and the effects of climate change.

People start fires to clear out rainforest so as to use the land for other purposes, such as cattle ranching and farming. It’s a crime against the rainforest, but also against the indigenous people who live there and whose land it arguably is.

Destruction of the Amazon is not new – it’s been happening for decades. But this time the scale is different, with the fires are being furthered by a fascist government. However, it’s important to understand that the burning of the Amazon is not actually exceptional; it’s just a spectacular example of the normal way that humans dominate, plunder and destroy Nature all around the world.

Interconnection

As Capra and Mattei set out in their book The Ecology of Law, our politics, economics, law and culture have long been based on the idea that humans are the only thing that matter.

We see ourselves as separate from the rest of Nature, defining it as our environment instead of anything in its own right. Humans are the near-exclusive focus of our politics and economics, and when we measure success, we focus on reductionist metrics like GDP while ignoring anything like sustainability.

In our legal systems, the fundamental unit is the individual rights-bearer, based on an understanding of our society as made up of atomised individuals.

We do not recognise that in reality, human life and freedom is that of individual humans who are interconnected with each other and the world around us. Instead of atomised individuals, our law and general worldview should instead include the network of relationships within which we live.

Our environment provides us with the conditions to live, such as clean air and water, arable soil and temperatures suitable for human life. Even leaving aside the idea that Nature has moral value and is worthy of respect, our legal and economic systems fail to protect the conditions which we need to survive.

Natural capital

We view aspects of Nature as ‘natural resources’ or ‘natural capital’. Legally, they are just things which are ours for the taking, save for the occasional exception of a protected species or national park.

Land, ecosystems and animals all fall within the scope of property law, the starting point of which is finders keepers. Anything in existence is a res nullius, unowned until the first person claims it.

This finders keepers approach to owning Nature it isn’t just about humans dominating Nature; it’s also humans dominating other humans. Indigenous people, many of whom have long lived in harmony with Nature, have been and continue to be forced off their land in the Amazon and the world over.

Ownership is near-absolute. The object, whether it’s your bike or a forest, has no rights of its own, and the owner can essentially treat it however they see fit. Rainforests do not have any right to exist, any right to be left alone to simply be rainforests. Landowners do not have any significant responsibilities to the land, to the rest of Nature, or to other people: the land is yours to do as you wish with.

When our international legal system developed during the colonial period, it distinguished between civilised nations and barbarians. Civilised nations arrived in places where ‘uncivilised’ people lived and claimed the land of indigenous people who lived there, justifying that it was for their benefit, that they weren’t fit to own things, and that they didn’t even have a system of ownership anyway, and therefore it was unowned property ready to be claimed by a coloniser.

Ownership

Our legal systems and approach to ownership were forced upon indigenous people as we colonised the world, and these land grabs continue to happen.

Ownership, the idea that a rich individual, a corporation or even a nation state can own land, is never really justified. It’s just treated as a fact of life, something which liberal philosophers deduced as being morally justified and a fundamental human right simply because they saw people do it. While there are some limitations, such as environmental regulations and the need for planning permission, these still come from the starting point of humans owning Nature and take little account of safe ecological limits; legally, Nature does not have rights to protect itself.

As the Supreme Court recognised in allowing an individual person to challenge a Government decision out of concern for the natural environment, ‘the osprey has no means of taking this step itself’, ruling that an individual person could bring a judicial review out of concern for the natural environment.

The burning of the Amazon is not exceptional; humans have been plundering, subjecting and abusing land throughout the whole modern period, with activities like deforestation, mining and repurposing huge swathes of land for human agriculture entirely normal.

This is killing us.

Ecological destruction 

The notion that we share this planet with the rest of Nature, or even that we ought, perhaps, to limit the scale of ecological destruction such that human life on this planet can be sustained, is entirely absent. The relationship between humans and the rest of Nature is one of subjugation, domination and plunder, when we need it to be one of harmony and regeneration.

Over the last century there has been paradigm shift in many scientific domains, described by Capra and Mattei as “from seeing the world as a machine to understanding it as a network… from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological worldview.”

While the body is now understood as a whole system, and we recognise that ecosystems are interconnected and that there are planetary systems which sustain life, our law, economics and politics lag far behind.

For human life to survive, this needs urgently addressing; our law, economics and politics should protect the conditions for continued human life on this planet.

There are emerging movements which have recognised this. Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics is an approach to economics which places human activity within planetary boundaries, and the UN’s Harmony with Nature programme recognises ‘a need to devise a more sustainable model for production, consumption and the economy as a whole’ which is ‘based on a non-anthropocentric relationship with Nature’.

Earth jurisprudence

In legal thinking, Earth Jurisprudence and the Rights for Nature movement, which this article is based on, have long recognised the need to change our legal systems to ensure a harmonious relationship with Nature. It argues that Nature should be given legal protection with rights, spoken for via human representatives, to be able to exist, persist and regenerate their vital cycles.

This would include a new form of “ownership” which we don’t yet have the language for, in which Nature would effectively own itself, and law would ensure that the relationship between humans and the rest of Nature is just.

This thinking has received some traction around the world, with some rivers (and their ecosystems) being given legal status, and a handful of Latin American countries giving recognition to rights of nature, such as in Ecuador’s constitution or the Bolivian legal system.

Yet there’s a long way to go with raising awareness of these ideas, overcoming the inertia of persuading people of the need for a radically different approach, and then transitioning to legal systems which are based on interconnection and ecological principles.

Our response to the burning of the Amazon cannot simply be about protecting the Amazon from being torched under a fascist regime. Instead, we must recognise that it is just the norm within our legal and economic systems, and that these need addressing urgently.

Humans should be legally required to live sustainably, in the same way that States, Governments and public bodies (though not corporations) are required to respect human rights in all they do. We should do this not because of some hippy idea of loving nature, much as I do, but because our survival depends on it.

This Author 

Alex May is a writer, activist and legal theorist who works in politics. He has undergraduate and master’s law degrees, researching what our legal system should look like and the shift to a relational approach to law. This article was first published on OpenDemocracy.

Campaign group Moving Animals say the beef industry is destroying our rainforests, and is urging universities to lead the way by banning beef.

The Amazon Rainforest is burning at a record rate, with environmental organisations and researchers claiming that the fires were likely started by people in an attempt to clear land for cattle ranching. 

Raising cattle to produce beef is the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for 80 percent of the current deforestation. 

#BanBeef

Campaign group, Moving Animals, are now calling on universities across the UK to lead the way and #BanBeef in order to fight climate catastrophe and the deforestation of our planet.

The group has written to over 100 universities in the UK, to ask that they consider implementing a ban on the sale of beef products in a move to tackle the climate crisis.

Moving Animals’ co-founder Paul Healey, said: “Beef is one of the most destructive foods for our planet – and claims the lives of millions of cows every year.

“Just this month the UN declared that we must move away from consuming beef and instead adopt more plant-based diets if we are to fight climate catastrophe.” 

“It’s clear more than ever that institutions must act now. Universities continue to have a major role in implementing policies and influencing public thought, and so to demand change, we’re calling on them to lead the way and #BanBeef in order to fight this horrific deforestation of our planet.” 

The group has also launched a petition urging people to add their name to support the ban, and are asking the public, students, and alumni to contact their university reps to call for the ban.

Global supply

Moving Animals’ call for change comes after Goldsmiths University stopped selling beef on campus as part of its bid to tackle climate change.

Ane Alencar, the scientific director of Brazilian NGO IPAM (Institute of Environmental Research in Amazonia) claims that: “These are not wildfires, but rather fires set by people seeking to create cattle ranches, intentionally ignited during the dry season each year. They cut the trees, leave the wood to dry and later put fire to it, so that the ashes can fertilize the soil.” 

A significant portion of the global beef supply, including much of the UK’s corned beef supply, originates on land that was once Amazon rainforest and is now denuded.⁣

This Article

This article is based on a press release from Moving Animals. 

Image: Moving Animals. 

With the sun rising fast as we approach midmorning, our car moves cautiously up a dusty track surrounded on all sides by an abundant spread of thousands of Cork Oak trees.

These are noble forests where the Cork Oak itself is the keystone species that support a whole web of life both above and below ground. Amazingly, the largest store of subterranean water in the Iberian Peninsula is in the cork forests.

Although nearly all Cork Oak forests are in southern Europe and North Africa, the majority, around 34%, grow in Portugal. In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, the cork forests literally face down the Sahara that, to date, has pushed further north as the temperatures around the midlatitudes rise as a response to climate change. 

Drought and fire

The long roots of the Cork Oak stretch outwards in the topsoil and several metres downwards to drink as the heat rises in the summer months. However, it is the bark of the tree, the cork bark, that acts as a thermal barrier to heat stress and protects the trunk. 

Even with the succession of forest fires that have become more frequent and extreme in recent years, the Cork Oak can withstand partial burning and even protect buds that stay pocketed within the bark.

Much of the really extreme fires we see in the news are not Cork Oak but rather Pine and Eucalyptus trees that ignite when densely planted forests catch fire and whip up into blazing infernos. 

This is put into perspective by Amorim Director of Marketing, Carlos de Jesus, when he explains that many people who inherit land often have other careers and are less able or interested in maintaining large tracts of forest. Planting Pine or Eucalyptus can offer quick and often easier returns with less hassle. 

Harvest cycle

There are 732,000 hectares of cork forest in Portugal. These forests have been protected by decrees dating back to the 12th century. Respect for the forests is immense and the workers who harvest the trees are well rewarded for their expertise, being among the most highly paid agricultural workers in the world.

We join a team of contract workers who are moving through the forest performing the delicate ritual of stripping bark. Sun-drenched but focussed, the workman approaches the tree with his axe raised, swinging it with an essential force to pierce the cork exterior without causing any damage to the tree. 

He then proceeds to carefully pull back the bark to reveal a blushingly almost iron-red trunk that will be marked with the number 9 denoting this year. It will then be left for 9 years to regenerate itself for another harvest. This process is as healthy for the Cork Oak tree as it is bountiful for those who make use of the cork itself.

Building materials

We are taken by Carlos de Jesus high up to a restaurant with a sweeping view overlooking the city of Lisbon. The vast River Tagus sweeps down from the East to meet the Atlantic, while the rest of Lisbon undulates in and out of sight. On the way up here, we pass the Lisbon Cruise Terminal, designed by esteemed architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça. 

Carlos explains that during the construction of the Cruise Terminal it transpired that the original designs would have to be modified to incorporate a lighter material. That material turned out to be granulated recycled cork mixed with concrete. This composite formed a creamier textured material, that lost none of its former attributes of strength but reduced the weight load by 40 percent.

With cement used for construction being a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions, finding new more eco-friendly construction materials is one of the challenges for an industry that is must expand in order to meet the demands of our species.

The cork solution greatly impressed architect Carrilho da Graça, who noticed not only that the weight saving was huge, there is “also great insulating capacity and structural capacity of resistance.” 

He also noticed that concrete mixed with cork had the potential to be softer in texture than normal paint or plaster, meaning it meets the aesthetic needs of internal spaces, including those designed for living.

Wine

Retreating a short way from the balcony over the city to the inside dining area, Carlos picks up the cork that has been set aside from the wine we are drinking, holding it up pinched between his fingers. He explains how ten years of R&D at Amorim have developed processes that eradicate trichloroanisole (TCA), also often referred to as cork taint, using a process called NDTech. It was the high rate of TCA that drove so many wine producers to switch to aluminium screw-caps and plastic stoppers instead. 

Globally, this switch has embedded a hugely unnecessary environmental cost onto recycling a bottle of wine.

In the UK alone we consume around 33million bottles of wine per week. Many of those bottles will use screw-cap or plastic closures. There has been a misconception that screw-caps are better for the environment than corks because no trees are harmed in the production process. 

Having witnessed the careful cork harvesting process and visited the Amorim factories, where last year 5.4 billion cork closures were produced, the idea that a non-recyclable aluminium and plastic-lined screw-cap can be better for the environment is laughable. In addition, plastic closures (often called plastic corks) are also the worst kind of solution for closing wine as they are both ineffectual and environmentally unfriendly.

It is estimated that a glass bottle of wine has a carbon footprint of around 300-400 grammes of CO2. When I spoke to Amorim CEO, Antonio Amorim he said, “We can identify that one single cork that has a weight of 5 or 6 grammes can retain 392 grammes of CO2.”

In seeking to quantify the real environmental differences between the plastic, screw cap and cork closures, Amorim commissioned PriceWaterhouseCoopers to conduct a verified audit of all three. Taking greenhouse gases alone, natural cork displayed a massive twenty-four fold advantage over aluminium and a nine-fold one over plastic.

Antonio Amorim puts it this way, “It is not comparable because we have done a product life assessment in between, cork, plastic and screw caps and it is like 25-nil in soccer terms because we are carbon negative and plastics and screw-caps are clearly carbon positive.”

Unrecycled

While digesting the experience of visiting the cork forests and listening to what are the various applications of natural cork, whether newly harvested or recycled, it seemed that chucking our cork closures away is a horrible waste of a valuable resource.

Natural cork may well prove to be one of many ingredients in the future of architecture in the west. It has already been labelled by NASA as Nature’s own polymer and has been used in countless launches into space due to its extraordinary thermal properties. 

Could a willing public conspire with retailers to upcycle corks for increased utility after the wine has long since been recycled? Is there room for this ingredient to be reprocessed to help improve the UK’s building standards of affordable homes in a more circular economy approach we so badly need?

Strengthening defences

Antonio Amorim expressed a growing concern in Portugal that desertification is spreading from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula: “In a country like Tunisia the desert stops where the cork forest starts. Portugal has a programme to replant a bunch of cork trees in the south part of the country because we are afraid that this desertification movement can ramp up from North Africa to the south of the Iberian Peninsula.” 

The life expectancy of the Cork Oak is 150 years but the harvest cycles produce ongoing retention of carbon. Antonio points out that “one tonne of cork produced retains 73 more times of weight in CO2 in retention.”

One of the drawbacks that has slowed cork planting is the period of 25 years before a cork tree reaches maturation and can be harvested. Amorim has started to plant their own forests in the south conducting tests with drip irrigation techniques that demonstrate that the 25-year gap can be closed to 10 years. Another side effect of this is the increase in the survival rate of young plantations. After the first harvest, the irrigation must then be stopped so that the integrity of the cork is not compromised.

Earth stewardship

In recent months we have witnessed from both satellite and land-based footage, the Amazon Rainforest ablaze in what has been rightly categorised a catastrophe for all life on Earth. The task of locking up greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is moving too rapidly in the wrong direction. 

The Cork Oak forests that line the Mediterranean shores, holding back the Sahara desert, offer a glimpse of how the natural world has developed its own materials for withstanding higher temperatures. 

It is speculated that the Cork Oak trees developed their thermal protecting bark at a time when fires were much more prevalent than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years. But we know that temperatures are going up and that fires and deserts are spreading. If we are to take a more custodial approach in respect of our planet, then embracing nature’s gifts is likely the safest route to the future.

This Author

Nick Breeze writes about wine and climate change.  He posts regularly on Secret Sommelier  is an organiser of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series. He is on Twitter at @NickGBreeze.