Twenty seven rebels planted 52 trees this week, to replace trees cut down by developer Queensberry Properties earlier this year. The trees were all different types, having been donated to the cause from various sources.

Some of the trees bear signs saying “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our treedom”; “Harm to us = Harm to humans”, and “Tha mi beò, cum mi an seo!” among other statements.

The trees felled by Queensberry were part of the important wildlife corridor between the Botanic Gardens and Kelvingrove Park that’s used by herons, bats, foxes, and otters. 

Environmental community

David Carruth, 26, conservationist stated “These trees have been transplanted from locations all over Glasgow and beyond from areas where they would have been cleared anyway.

“As they come together in this place so do the extended environmental community here in Glasgow with a clear message written in green that enough is enough.”

For more than ten years local residents and activists have been opposing the development of 45 flats and four townhouses in the lane. Previous direct action by Extinction Rebellion Glasgow caused delays to the tree cutting. 

Cheyenne Loana, 23, psychology student, said “Otago Lane is such a tranquil oasis in the middle of a busy city, and the community vibe is being robbed from these people by a greedy company. It broke my heart when they took down those trees, there are wood chippers in my nightmares. Planting these trees will help the healing process.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Extinction Rebellion. 

Image: Jane Duckett. 

Professor Katharine Hayhoe is visiting the UK and delivering a lecture as part of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series on the 15th may at 3pm. The lecture is open to the public and can also be watched live online. Nick Breeze caught up with her before the event. 

Nick Breeze (NB): Here in the UK, in the last month or two, hundreds of people have been arrested and climate change is in the news. In some ways that is good but it also creates another polarity because some people don’t agree with the methods. 

How do we get past this impasse of what is a social system of high carbon consumption, that people are protesting against, and the overwhelming desire to just stop making climate change worse?

Katharine Hayhoe (KH): Yes, the level of concern and urgency is growing with the Extinction Rebellion and the children’s climate strikes. It is because the urgency is growing to the point where we scientists are standing up and saying we need to do something about it. 

And then, there was the 1.5-degree report where it is shown that even a 0.5 degree of change carries quantifiable impacts that should be avoided. The scientific urgency has increased and our personal experience of the impacts has changed rapidly in the last decade, and I think that is even more important.

The vast majority of people surveyed in the US agree that climate is changing, plants and animals will be affected, future generations will be affected, even people in the developing countries will be affected. But then you say, ‘do you think climate change will affect you personally?’ And the majority still answer ‘no’. 

It is up to 41 per cent saying yes though, and it has gone up from 30 per cent to 40 per cent in the last 10 years. And this year we saw the biggest jump in that number. And that is because we are experiencing impacts in the places where we live, and we are recognising that it really does affect us and we do need to fix it. 

NB: Ok, and you think it is the tangible impacts that are really contributing now to the dialogue?

KH: I think so, I think it is the tangible impacts coupled with the increasing clarity of the scientific messaging and also, the involvement of so many different voices. So, in the UK as well as around the world we see voices from the business sector, we see voices talking about divestment from the fossil fuel sector. 

You know, the Rockefeller Foundation divested for climate change reasons away from fossil fuels. We see countries like Norway taking tremendous steps forward. We see faith leaders of all kinds from the Anglican Church across the spectrum speaking about climate change. 

We are starting to see these discussions happening in almost every sphere, so climate change is no longer considered to be an environmental issue that only environmentalists care about. And of course, climate change is a human issue. We already have all the values we need to care about it. 

So we are starting to see these discussions in many different places where we didn’t see it before and that is also contributing to this growing awareness and groundswell of demand for meaningful action.

NB: You mentioned earlier that you have quite a big background in communicating to faith groups and communities. Can you talk a little bit about how politics, faith, and climate science are interconnected in your experience?

KH: Yes, so, the science tells us that climate is changing, humans are responsible, the impacts are serious and our choices matter. Specifically, I look at the difference between a future where we continue to depend on fossil fuels as a primary source of energy, versus if we wean ourselves off fossil fuels as soon as possible. There is a very significant difference. In some cases, the difference is between the continued success or failure of an entire economic sector or region. 

That is what science can tell us but what do we do with that information? That is where we need our values to tell us what the right choices are. There is no silver bullet that is going to fix everything. All our choices, even clean energy like wind or tidal or solar have some drawbacks, like how do you recycle all those wind turbines when they reach their end of their life? 

We already have some of that happening, so we have to make choices that are informed by the science but they are based on our values. And for the majority of us around the world who belong to one or more major faith traditions or religion, often our values are informed by our faith.  

So, how does that play into politics? 

Well, politics is informed by the politicians’ values and I am sorry to say that often politicians values are centred on ‘will I be re-elected?’. And there we have an enormous problem because climate change is a slow moving train wreck. 

When we make choices around climate change today, we will not see the benefits or the drawbacks of those choices for some time. Now, there are obviously co-benefits to the choices that we make today and those can often be seen in short-term but we won’t see the impact of our carbon reduction for a couple of decades, which is well below a political term of office. 

And then we also have a fundamental problem where money rules the world, including our politics. And when you look at Wikipedia’s list of the richest corporations in the world, the majority of those corporations made their money either extracting, or processing, or selling, or building things that use fossil fuels.

So, when we talk about climate solutions we are talking about a fundamental shift in the balance power and wealth in this world.

NB: And that is obviously quite a contentious message in itself really. Because it challenges the fabric of our existing society.

What was very well publicised in Europe was Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si. Did you find that it had any impact at all in the US, and was it at all resilient against the politicisation of climate science?

KH: I actually know what happened because I have a colleague, Asheley Landrum, who researched it. And what she found was sadly no surprise. It is the fact that if people already agreed with the Pope on climate change, whether they were Catholic or Protestant, then the encyclical increased their opinion of the Pope.

If they did not agree with the Pope on the climate change before the encyclical was published then it did not change their mind about climate change. It changed their mind about the Pope. 

This is really important because it has long been assumed that for those people who use religiously sounding arguments to reject climate change, or who wear their religion on their sleeve, that it is their values that dictate their opinions and their reactions to issues like climate change. 

But what I had already learned, and what the Pope’s encyclical demonstrated, is that for many people, and this is just as true in the UK as it is in the US and Canada, their opinions are written first and foremost by their political ideology.

NB:  One last question, how do you personally feel we are doing in this struggle to tackle the threat of climate change? 

KH: ‘What gives you hope?’ is probably the most frequent question I get. I do not get hope from the science. When I look at what we are doing to this planet, it seems like every new study I read shows that climate is changing faster and leading to a greater extinction than we previously thought. 

I also do not get a lot of hope from the politics. The politics are more contentious and divided and tribal today, not just in the US and the UK, but in places like Brazil and around the world. It is like a virus! It’s more polarised today than it has been in decades. So I don’t see a lot of hope there, either. 

But where I do see hope is in people. When I talk to people about the things I hear they are doing, and again, the kids strikes, the unexpected conversations that you have with people who are making changes in incredible places. 

For example, I grew up in a public school system and I went to a big public university. Now I work at a public university but I often get invitations to speak at big Christian colleges. When I first was invited, I thought ‘they probably don’t think climate change is real, they probably are all very unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly’. Some of them are very small with 1,200 students and others are a little bit bigger with 5,000 or 10,000 students and yet they put the big public schools to shame! 

They have solar panels, wind farms, sustainable agriculture programmes, food waste reduction, and green buildings and you know programmes that integrate students across the campus into caring about the planet and caring about the poor. 

I get so much hope from talking to people, you know, there are so many people in this world who understand the problem and that are working to fix it. I think it is really just our politics, this rhetoric that is holding us back.

This Author

Nick Breeze is a climate change journalist and can be followed on Twitter here: @NickGBreeze.

Current stockpiles of coal in the UK are more than twice what the government anticipates coal-fired power stations will need ahead of the 2025 deadline for ending coal-fired power for electricity, latest government figures show.

At the end of 2018, 4.1 million tonnes of coal was stockpiled at UK power stations. Analysis by Friends of the Earth indicates that this is more than double the 1.6 million tonnes of coal that the government predicts the UK will need for UK coal-fired electricity generation, which is due to end by 2025.

Findings by Coal Action Network suggested that this excess in coal in the UK is triggering increased exports of the fossil fuel onto the global market. Exports of coal from the UK are at an eight year high, increasing 28 percent in 2018, and sourced from the UK’s opencast coal mines.

Climate impacts

Dr Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at the The Australia Institute, commented on the findings: “Economics 101 tells us that when you increase the supply of something you push down the price.

“By mining more coal in the UK than is burned in the UK there is no doubt that the UK coal industry is putting downward pressure on world coal prices and, in turn, leading to an increase in consumption of coal globally.

This will undermine international commitments to keep global temperature rise under 1.5 degrees to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The only reason the UK should approve new coal mines, when it already has more coal than it can burn, is if it hopes to increase coal consumption in other countries.”

Increasingly low coal generation could be one reason why stockpiles have continued to grow; Drax power station has not burnt coal since March 23rd, Aberthaw since 14th March and  West Burton since January.

It’s not clear why coal-fired power stations are continuing to buy coal in excess of their projected life span.

Opencast mines

Opencast coal extraction involves stripping large areas of topsoil and subsoil to extract vast quantities of coal using heavy machinery and dynamite.

In the UK it has been is far more destructive to the local environment than traditional mining which it came to replace, hosting a very small number of jobs compared to the pre-Thatcher deep mining industry. It comes primarily from mines in the North-East of England and Wales.

A new opencast coal mine ‘Bradley’ in Pont Valley, County Durham was allowed to go ahead in June 2018, amid fierce local opposition.

June Davison, a local campaigner reacted to the news that Bradley coal was going into inflated stockpiles: “Every tonne of thermal coal that has come out of the ground at Bradley over the past 10 months has been surplus to the UK’s requirements.

“Banks Group’s justification for destroying our valley and seeking to open new mines is based on the lie that they are providing for UK household energy needs.”

Despite the figures, the UK is still importing coal from opencast mines, adding to the surplus in stockpiles. In the first two months alone of 2019, 1.2 million tonnes of coal have been imported from Russia, North America and Colombia.

Violent displacement 

In Russia and Colombia, two of the sources of the coal that is still being imported, opencast coal mining happens on a vast scale and has come with land-grabs, violent displacement, poisoning of river and watercourses, and cultural genocide of indigenous peoples. 

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Russian environmental group Ecodefense, said: “The news that the UK power stations continue to buy Russian coal despite having too much already adds insult to injury to those on the frontline of opencast coal destruction.

“Coal mining in Russia means environmental destruction and human rights violations. The more coal tainted with blood the UK buys from Russia, the more damage caused.” 

Samuel Arragoces, displaced from the community of Tobacco by the Colombian mine Cerrejon, said: “We are worried about what is happening in the UK, where the government promised to phase out coal.

“Coal mining here in La Guajira, Colombia, is causing more suffering every day. Our question for the UK government is, will it keep letting power stations buy this coal now that it will not be needed? Because here the coal mine is seeking to expand, polluting more water sources, stealing more land.

“Our community leaders are threatened with death for trying to stop this. So will the UK carry on being a marketplace for this coal?’

What next 

On 13 June 2019 the Secretary of State for housing, communities and local government is due to make a decision on whether or not to allow the Highthorn Mine at Druridge Bay, Northumberland, to go ahead, and whether or not to stop the Bradley mine at Pont Valley in County Durham. 

On 14 June 2019, another proposed opencast coal mine is due to be considered by Newcastle City Council, (Dewley Hill at Throckley, near Newcastle), which is expected to be influenced by the outcome of the decisions on Bradley and Highthorn.

A clue to what might happen lies in the Planning Inspectors’ report on the Highthorn application: “If the Secretary of State were to conclude, on the basis of the available evidence, that no such ‘window’ exists for coal-fired generation, then the need for, and benefits of, Highthorn coal would be much diminished.

“The planning balance then would be fundamentally altered, and in those circumstances, I consider that there would be a strong case for refusing the planning application.’

Local communities are mobilising against all the plans in what could be a crucial moment for the future of coal mining. You can follow their campaigns here: Campaign to Protect Pont Valley; Save Druridge; Defend Dewley Hill. 

This Author

Isobel Tarr is a campaigner at Coal Action Network.

Plastic pollution is an “unfolding catastrophe” that we “ignore at our peril”, Sir David Attenborough has warned as it emerged a bag and sweet wrappers were found on a record-breaking ocean dive.

The naturalist and wildlife campaigner said plastic in the sea is a “global problem” that demands a response on a global scale.

It has been revealed that plastic waste was recently found during the deepest ocean dive on record, which saw explorer Victor Vescovo descend nearly 11km down into the Pacific Ocean.

Extinction

The journey to extreme depths of the Mariana Trench encountered new species of sea creatures, as well as a plastic bag and sweet wrappers.

Writing in the i newspaper, Sir David said it was “high time” for the world’s leaders to take action on plastic pollution.

“I have seen for myself the effects of plastic pollution on some of our planet’s most precious species and natural places – an unfolding catastrophe that has been overlooked for too long,” he said. “But we ignore it at our peril.”

Sir David’s comments come after a major report warned wildlife and habitats are declining at an “unprecedented” rate worldwide.

Up to a million species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction, a greater number than ever before in human history, the UN-backed global assessment revealed.

Industrial scale

The study said plastic pollution has increased 10-fold in the seas since 1980, harming turtles, seabirds and mammals. However, the report also warned that a decline in wildlife will cause harm to humans too.

A report by the Tearfund released on Tuesday warned of the impact on human health caused by plastic pollution.

The research suggested one person dies every 30 seconds in developing countries from diseases caused by plastic pollution and rubbish.

“This report is one of the first to highlight the impacts of plastic pollution not just on wildlife but also on the world’s poorest people,” Sir David said.

“Humankind’s ability to produce this material on an industrial scale far outstrips our ability to manage it, and as a consequence plastic is choking our rivers and seas.”

This Article

This article was provided by the Press Association. 

London-based wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and Royal Holloway University of London have joined forces to launch a new national beetle survey, in order to conserve the beautiful but threatened noble chafer beetle.

PTES and Royal Holloway are looking for volunteers to look for noble chafers over a two-week period in June, to find out where they are still living in the UK, allowing conservationists to help save them from extinction.

Volunteers will be asked to set up a (harmless!) trap and fit it with a chemical lure – specially developed to attract noble chafer beetles, meaning it shouldn’t attract many other insects.

Keeping track

The trap will need checking daily and any beetles need to be photographed then released. Full instructions and equipment will be given to all volunteers. Noble chafers don’t bite, so it is safe to handle them.

This survey is being coordinated by Dr Deborah Harvey, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, at Royal Holloway and is funded by PTES. To find out more information and to take part in the survey, email Deborah.

Harvey said: “Noble chafers are fascinating  beetles – adults are typically only seen for a few weeks in a year, which is why this two-week survey period is essential in order to see how their populations are faring.

“It’s incredibly important for us to know where noble chafers are living and where they’re not, so we can work to ensure the survival of this native species.”

Noble chafers are beautiful beetles with iridescent, shiny green bodies (although also copper and gold) speckled with white. They are small, with adults being about 2cm long, and are believed to live in traditional orchard habitats where they depend on old, decaying wood for food and shelter.

Population range

As with many native species, noble chafers are threatened with the loss of their primary habitat – the deadwood at the heart of old, decaying trees.

Laura Bower, Conservation Officer at PTES added: “We know noble chafers have populations in the New Forest and in traditional orchards in Kent and the Three Counties, as well as some isolated records in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. 

“We want to build on this and expand our knowledge of the noble chafer’s population range.

“Anyone in the UK can take part, so we hope that volunteers can help us by checking traditional orchards, gardens and wood pasture sites in areas where they are currently known to exist but also where we don’t yet have records, to see if they are there or not.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Royal Holloway. To find out more about noble chafer, visit the campaign’s website. 

Image: Gailhampshire, Flickr. 

The African National Congress (ANC) has maintained its position as the country’s governing party, preliminary Election 2019 results show.

This is despite the party’s lack of focus on the critical issues of our time – namely climate change and environmental degradation – in their manifesto.

According to the environmental and social justice coalition SAFCEI – Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute – the ‘new’ government has the unique opportunity – through innovative new policies and industries – to shift the country away from polluting fossil fuels, nuclear and a carbon-intensive development model, towards a clean and just energy future driven by renewables.

Public demand

SAFCEI calls on the new legislature to be responsive to the growing public demand for stronger climate action and environmental justice, and trusts that the country’s newly elected representatives will demonstrate leadership in that regard.

Bishop Geoff Davies, Founder and Patron of the SAFCEI said: “Unfortunately, the environment and climate change has not featured on any political party’s agenda for this election.

“There seems to be some promise at provincial level, but it is clear that the benefits of transitioning to renewable energy – such as the obvious decreased carbon emissions, an increase in job and business opportunities and improved and more equitable access to energy – is not evident on a national level.

“And yet, by developing our renewable energy industry, the government would inevitably be addressing many of the issues that are current priorities, such as growing inequality, poverty, unemployment and homelessness.”

Just transition 

Climate Justice Campaigner at 350 Africa South Africa, Alex Lenferna said: “The ANC’s head of economic transformation Enoch Godongwana released a statement a few days ago about the government’s intention to force banks to invest in more coal, undermining all the ANC’s intentions to go renewable. 

“With the ANC set to hold onto power, South Africans must be vigilant and hold them to their manifesto’s promise of renewal and a just transition away from fossil fuels.” 

“Under 25 years of ANC leadership, we are now ranked as one of the worst countries in the world in terms of action on climate change and progress to a sustainable and secure energy system.

“The ANC promised to change course and with elections over, it is up to citizens and civil society to ensure their electoral promises turn into ambitious action on climate change and a just transition to an affordable 100% renewable energy future for all.”

Participation in governance

Noelle Garcin from Action 24 – a European Union co-funded, collaborative initiative – said: “We urge the 6th legislature to make climate change and environmental sustainability a priority within our developmental agenda, and treat it with the urgency and ambition it demands.

“The political parties that win the most seats in Parliament and in the provinces have a big responsibility in that regard. But the ones who get fewer seats can also play a critical role, by using their voice to champion environmental and climate issues across the board, particularly through active involvement in portfolio committees.”

“Citizens should also remember that elections are not everything, and hold their representatives to account on their electoral promises in the course of the next five years.

“A healthy democracy requires active and constructive participation in governance. Legislatures and our elected representatives must create the conditions for meaningful public involvement, particularly on issues that concern us all, such as climate change.” 

Fossil fuels

According to Vainola Makan, SAFCEI’s Energy Justice Coordinator: “If the integrity of the elections is ruled intact by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) tomorrow, then it appears the country’s status quo is confirmed.

“The ANC remains the national governing party, and has gained back Gauteng, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) continues to hold the Western Cape.

“These are two parties that do not hesitate to champion fossil fuels – including fracking – as plausible energy sources and both are known to ignore public concerns when projects present devastating consequences for the environment and their health and wellbeing.”

“One of our government’s main goals now should be to progress the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), without delay. The IRP should provide the blueprint for a smooth transition away from these harmful and outdated energy options – including nuclear – to more sustainable solutions.

“Furthermore, to ensure a just energy transition that benefits all South Africans, there should be sufficient consultation between the country’s labour force (particularly the mining sector), society at large, industry and government.”

Dire consequences

Thembeka Majali from AIDC-One Million Climate Jobs Campaign highlighted Eskom’s role in the just energy transition required: “As a public utility, Eskom should be serving the energy needs of our people and a core aspect of its role should be focused towards advancing renewable energy.

“To ensure a fair and just energy transition to a low carbon economy in South Africa, Eskom should replace internal coal jobs with internal renewable energy jobs. These need to be decent and permanent jobs and would require re-skilling and re-training of the workers.” 

Lorna Fuller, Director of Project 90 by 2030 said: “The country must transition to renewable energy, if we have any hope of reducing our carbon emissions by two-thirds by 2030. We need a government that recognises the reality of the situation and is prepared to take decisive action.”

SAFCEI – which includes the above-mentioned organisations and the Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) – said: “We resolve to continue monitoring the governing parties and how they respond to the threat of climate change and a degrading environment.

“Politicians need to be held accountable concerning the environmental component of their manifestos. We will engage with the ruling parties after 100 days to assess how far they have come with these promises and to what extent they are addressing the dire consequences of climate change and attempting to create a just energy future for all South Africans.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI).

Image: GovernmentZA, Flickr. 

“Large hydro is a very big part of the solution. I fundamentally believe we have to be involved,” Rachel Kyte of the World Bank has stated. 

Big dams are back, riding the so-called low-carbon economic development riddle once more. The World Bank, pension and climate funds, Chinese capital. Cash is flowing to dams like a wild-water river. Close to 4,000 hydropower dams of 1MW+ are planned or under way.

The 2000 World Commission on Dams exposed the massive social and environmental impacts plus greenhouse gas emissions from large dam reservoirs. The results were so ‘damning’ that the whole sector froze for some years.

Rights

But at least since 2011, the sector is again in full swing. Not only big dams, but also smaller projects are planned along entire river valleys, such as in the Indian Himalayas, the Balkans, Anatolia, Central America, the Alps, etc. These latter can also cause severe cumulative impacts and be highly conflictive.

Hydroelectricity is generally considered a form of renewable energy and dams are therefore legitimised by governments, companies, funding agancies, etc to pursue an alledged energy transition.

However, when studying the detailed data of 220 dam related environmental conflicts in the Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas) we see a similar pattern of violence as in other extractive sectors like the oil industry.

Our study highlights how collective non-violent resistance is met with repression, criminalisation, violent targeting of activists and assassinations.

The UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, called the pattern of killings “an epidemic”. And this is sadly the reality in many countries.

Slow violence

Some cases were covered in media across the globe, like the murder on Berta Caceres. But the silenced massive repression goes much broader.

Also, there is little recognition of the fact that the communities who resist are often not just saying no to a dam but are rejecting the narrow techno-economic rationalisation of cost-benefit or of technicalities for energy efficiency or ‘cleanness’ that is used to justify the dam.

There is also the usual ‘project reductionism’ that turns limited and flawed environmental impact studies into legal weapons in the hands of the dam builders.

Big dams are generally more disruptive, but smaller projects are often promoted under the same capitalist and corporate-led logic in large scale. Under these conditions, they constitute again a problem rather than a sustainable option.

There is finally many forms of ‘slow violence’, for example where effects of climate change and desertification are exacerbated by dam construction but poorly taken into account and yet they gradually make territories not able to sustain life anymore.

Resistance

The first large anti-dam movements saw the light in the 1980s and has vastly denounced impacts of such projects. The First International Meeting of People Affected by Dams took place later in 1997.

Ever since, resistance has grown stronger, wider, deeper, wide alliances have been created across movements and with the academy. Studying the 220 conflicts in the EJAtlas we found that:

• Out of 10 categories covering the main economic-industrial activities, water management conflicts such as dams are among the most intense and conflictive (Along with mining, nuclear energy and fossil fuel projects).
• Indigenous communities are among the most mobilized social groups globally, and at the same time they often are the most impacted group.
• Resistance is largely non-violent and in the public domain: street marches, petitions, artistic performances, standing in rising dam waters, hunger and thirst strike, etc…
• Alliances against extractivist plans are on the rise, for example with trade unions of the energy companies, agroecology movements, pedagogists, etc. The opposition is increasingly propositional and proactive towards systemic changes.
• Spaces for alternative knowledge production are on the rise. This includes reports and community-based participatory studies, for example to detect specific impacts or to plan truly sustainable and community-controlled energy systems.
• Companies are largely responsible for intimidating and criminalising the opposition, and in many cases even for allowing assassinations to happen. In almost one fifth of the cases, protesters have been violently targeted and in almost one tenth at least one activist was assassinated. Rates are higher in indigenous territories.
• Displacement, loss of landscape and sense of place, land dispossession, loss of livelihood and loss of grounded traditional knowledge are the most common socio-economic impacts.
• Dam regions have mental health impacts too, such as in the case of the Pehuenche peoples in the Alto Bío Bío region in Chile, sadly affected by very high suicide rates.

How to move forward

Repression, criminalization, violent targeting and assassinations employed against activists are common features of dams. The data suggests that repression and violence in dam projects cannot be considered as rare cases of bad management but are a systemic practice to curb opposition and to legitimize different visions and proposals.

The violence usually occurs in an atmosphere of impunity, amidst a general mainstream acceptance of dams by governments and companies as necessary for sustainable energy.

However, it all begs the question what sustainability actually means, what it is supposed to actually sustain. Capitalist investments or life cycles? Violent repression that targets resistance undermines the emergence of alternative visions, cultures that are not only sustainable but actually regenerative, what some have also called ‘pluriverse’.

Communities opposing dams should not be called protestors but protectors of other life sources and other ways of life. Moreover, it is often in those same impacted territories that claims for an energy autonomy, sovereignty and democracy materialize in concrete proposals and small scale initiatives.

The broader path of socio-economic transformations that many communities and organizations have already undertaken is operating a profound epistemic, ontological and anti-colonial shift. The sooner we recognize it, the greater a justice can be paid.

Data

At the EJAtlas project, we are currently expanding the database of conflictive hydroelectric dams in order to create a representative sample of impacts, resistances, bottom-up proposals, etc.

We particularly aim at collecting data from (but not exclusively) countries with high numbers of dams (built or projected) but only few cases mapped yet (for example from Congo DC, Pakistan, Russia, China, Brazil, USA, etc).

Please contact us at d.delbene@gmail.com if you have information to share or for any other query (feel free to write us also in Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese).

This Author

Daniela Del Bene recently obtained her PhD at ICTA-UAB with a dissertation on Hydropower and ecological conflicts. She is also the main coordinator of the EJAtlas.

Members of the public are being urged to nominate stunning trees with fascinating stories to compete in the Tree of the Year contest.

Organisers of the annual competition, now in its sixth year, are looking for special trees ranging from national landmarks or markers of significant events, to a village’s oldest inhabitant.

The Woodland Trust, which runs the Tree of the Year contest with support from the People’s Postcode Lottery, said entries will be shortlisted by a panel of experts before facing a public vote.

Amazing trees

One winning tree will go on to compete in the European Tree of the Year competition in early 2020.

Shortlisted trees could be eligible for up to £1,000 of tree care products and services to help secure their future and celebrate them.

Last year’s English winner, Nellie’s Tree – three beech trees grafted together into the shape of the letter N to woo a sweetheart named Nellie – represented the UK in the European contest.

But no UK tree has managed to scoop the top European prize, with Wales’ Brimmon Oak, which was saved from being felled for a bypass, coming closest with second place in 2017.

Lead campaigner at the Woodland Trust, Kaye Brennan, said: “Tree of the Year has helped discover lots of amazing trees – but nothing so far that could beat the best in the European contest.

National monuments

“We know that we have some of the most incredible trees in the world – but we need the public’s support to find them, and vote for a winner.

“Tell us your tree’s stories. What do trees mean to you? Why are they important to you? What is the best known, most loved, tree in your city, town or village and why?”

She added: “You can also share your special trees on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #TreeOfTheYear.”

The Woodland Trust said the Tree of the Year contest helps highlight the importance of trees in the landscape.

In many countries old trees are listed as natural monuments and can have the same protection as listed buildings, but this is not the case in the UK.

Nominate

But campaigning has helped shift English planning policy to ensure that planning permission that could result in loss or damage to ancient woods or trees should be refused except in “wholly exceptional” circumstances, the Trust said.

Sanjay Singh, senior programmes manager with People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “We’d like to encourage the public to get involved with the annual Tree of the Year competition and we are certain that once again they will help to highlight some amazing trees with wonderful stories.”

Any individual, group or organisation can nominate a tree and share its story at online from May 7 2019 until July 19 2019.

This Author

Emily Beament is the environment correspondent for the Press Association.

Animal welfare campaigners have welcomed a new law aimed at cracking down on so-called puppy farms run by unscrupulous breeders and dealers.

The legislation, known as Lucy’s Law, will ban the sale of puppies and kittens by a third parties and ensure that anyone buying or adopting one under six months old deals directly with the breeder or an animal rehoming centre, rather than a pet shop or commercial dealer.

The new rules, which are being laid in Parliament today (Monday) and need a debate in both houses to pass into law, would require animals to be born and reared in a safe environment, with their mother, and to be sold from their place of birth.

Bred

Named after Lucy, a cavalier king charles spaniel who died in 2016 after being poorly treated on a puppy farm, the ban is scheduled to come into force on April 6 next year, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said.

Bitches like Lucy are used by unscrupulous puppy farmers to produce litters which are separated from their mothers within weeks and either advertised online or sold to pet shops.

The ban, which will apply to England, is also designed to deter smugglers who abuse the Pet Travel Scheme to bring young animals into the UK to be sold.

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, said: “This is about giving our animals the best possible start in life and making sure that no other animal suffers the same fate as Lucy.

“It will put an end to the early separation of puppies and kittens from their mothers, as well as the terrible conditions in which some of these animals are bred.”

Welfare

Marc Abraham, Lucy’s Law campaigner and founder of Pup Aid, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Lucy’s Law is now being laid in Parliament and will come into effect from April 2020.

“Lucy’s Law is named after one of the sweetest, bravest dogs I’ve ever known, and is a fitting tribute to all the victims of the cruel third party puppy trade, both past and present.”

RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said he was “absolutely thrilled” with the legislation but it required enforcement, adding that 2018 was the “busiest year yet” with 4,397 complaints about the puppy trade in England alone.

He said: “We hope this ban, alongside the tougher licensing regulations that were introduced in October, will help to stamp out the underground trade that exploits these wonderful animals simply to make a quick buck.”

But Paula Boyden, veterinary director at Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, urged the government to go further.

Puzzle

She said: “We’re pleased at today’s news that a ban on third party sales is to be introduced in England.

“We would like to see additional measures introduced to ensure the ban is as robust as possible.

“There is time before April 2020 for the government to consider regulation of rehoming organisations and sanctuaries, ensure full traceability of all puppies sold, and strengthening of the pet travel scheme.

“We urge the government to ensure the additional pieces of the puzzle in tackling the puppy trade are put in place as soon as possible to make the ban a success.”

This Author

Ted Hennessey is a reporter for the Press Association.

Humanity faces an unprecedented crisis in the conditions for its long-term survival. The planet has warmed before, but never this fast.

Mass extinction is a regular geological event, but it is now happening faster than at any time since the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction: a megaphase crisis in microphase time. And humanity has never before faced the comprehensive exhaustion of top-soil fecundity.

The emerging forms of authoritarian reaction are characteristically denialist about this catastrophe, from Trump’s Sinophobic conspiracism to Bolsonaro’s efforts to extirpate the landless workers’ movement.

Social transformation

But the dominant response of fossil fuel giants is that of the majority of capitalist sectors and liberal states: to embrace ‘green’ capitalism, carbon markets, carbon taxes, and green technologies, whose total effect is to lock in carbon emissions.

The Pentagon positions itself as an ally against climate change while securing the conditions for the efficient exploitation of oil and gas concealed under thawing Arctic ice.

Environmental movements have coalesced and dispersed since the Seventies, but have hitherto lacked the structural, disruptive capacity, and perhaps also the strategy, to achieve the depth and scale of social transformation necessary to slam on the brakes of the crisis.

The roots of this ongoing disaster are social. The very evolution of fossil fuel use is linked a growth paradigm based upon the imperatives of capitalist accumulation ever since the beginning of the ‘industrial revolution.’

Advocates of ‘green capitalism’ have failed to offer a plausible solution to a catastrophe that is more imminent than ever.

Strategy and vision 

Any attempt to avert climate change requires a mobilisation of resources and a profound change in production and consumption forms that are incompatible with capitalist social relations of production.

But even if such an attempt is launched tomorrow, we are likely to face a long-lasting legacy of damages to the earth system.

How does communism fare in a world thus despoiled? What alternatives to the various miserable endgames mapped out for us by capital can Marxists envision? What new configurations of agency, strategy and vision are necessary for human emancipation and survival?

Beyond denialism, how do we avert the potential for new climate-driven security regimes, eco-Malthusian crackdowns on the poor, and murderous eco-fascism?

Suggested themes

This is the overarching theme for this year’s Historical Materialism Conference. The conference welcomes papers on:

– Relationships between climate change, mass extinction and capitalism, and the consequences of ecological deterioration for the long-term reproduction of capitalism, the organisation of capitalist states, the viability of capitalist democracy, and new axes of imperialism.

– Potential for new modalities of racial capitalism, or a new form of ‘climate sovereign’ or ‘climate Leviathan’, to emerge around the militarisation of climate policy under the rubric of ‘natural security’.

– Commodification of climate change, as for example with the pursuit of carbon markets, ‘green capitalist’ technologies, and the opening of the Transpolar Sea Route and the military struggles for control over it.

– History of environmental struggles, from Bhopal to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the sometimes ambiguous role of the organised working-class therein, the salience of anti-racist and anti-colonial movements, and the ideological contest between various registers of ecological thought including eco-socialism, eco-Malthusianism, Deep Ecology, black ecology, the environmentalism of the poor, and eco-fascism.

– Popular militancy, denial, apathy, anger and ‘melancholia’ in the face of climate crisis, and the ideological or psychoanalytic bases thereof.

– Emerging forms of climate reaction, from libertarian strategies of denial/affirmation, to eco-fascist Arcadias based on racist genocide.

– Ecological and political viability of strategies of mitigation — from Green New Deals to geoengineering to ‘half-earth’ strategies — and the meaning of any plausible scenario of communist plenty in a de-carbonised future.

– The recent ecological reformulations of historical materialism, the relevance of Marxist categories for analysing the geological scales of ‘Deep Time’ on which the climate crisis is predicated, and the relationship between Marxism and the ‘hard sciences’.

The conference will also include the following usual streams which will run through the conference (see below for full details):

– Marxist-Feminism

– Race and Capital

– Workers’ Inquiry

– Sexuality and Political Economy

The conference also has open calls for paper and panel proposals on the following themes, around which we would like to particularly emphasise our desire for submissions (see below for full details):

– Rethinking Sovereignty

– A luta continua: Contemporary Radical Politics confronts Disaster Capitalism in the Middle East and North Africa

– Utopia & Post-Capitalism

– Marxism and World Literatures

Submit a proposal

Conference submission website here.

Start here to submit a paper to this conference.

This Article 

This article is drawn from the call for papers from Historical Materialism.