Environmental protesters have targeted the cycling team sponsored by energy giant Ineos.

The cyclists formerly known as Team Sky are taking part in the Tour de Yorkshire and demonstrators gathered at the team bus at the start of the event in Doncaster.

The protest comes after Friends of the Earth issued an open letter to team principal Sir Dave Brailsford, accusing chemical multinational Ineos of using sport to “greenwash” its name given its interests in fracking and its status as a large-scale producer of plastic.

Villages

Questions about fracking and plastics dominated the Team Ineos launch press conference, which was held this week at a remote pub in North Yorkshire.

The British-registered squad are known as Team Ineos as of this week, after the team was sold to the UK’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is the Ineos chairman.

Anti-fracking groups were among the several dozen protesters who waved placards outside the team bus where the opening stage of the race to Selby was due to start on Thursday. One protester shouted “sell out” as riders emerged from the bus.

Another protester, Deborah Gibson, told the Press Association: “We’re here to raise the issue of Team Ineos basically being here to ‘green-sheen’ their brand. There is nothing green about what Ineos do.”

Ms Gibson, from Harthill in South Yorkshire, said several villages in her area are due to be fracked in the near future.

Renewable

Elizabeth Clifton, from Misson, near Doncaster, said she had been protesting for several months over planned projects in her area, and described the Tour de Yorkshire as a “gift” for protesters.

“This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” she said. “Our group is up at the start and there’s a lot of people from different groups. I don’t think there’ll be anything physical. There may be some shouting.”

Critics say the amount of water needed for fracking is bad for the environment and claim it releases dangerous chemicals. They also say governments should focus on renewable energy.

Breakthroughts

Fracking restarted in the UK last autumn in Lancashire after it was suspended in 2011 following two earthquakes in the Blackpool area.

After energy firm Cuadrilla began fracking at Preston New Road in October, work had to be halted on several occasions because tremors above regulated limits were detected.

Cuadrilla and Ineos have called for the regulations on tremors to be relaxed to allow them to exploit shale gas reserves.

Ineos chairman Sir Jim has dismissed many of the concerns around fracking, calling many protest groups “ignorant”, criticising the government for listening to a “noisy minuscule minority”, and insisting his company had made significant breakthroughs on expanding the recycling of plastic.

This Author

This story is from the Press Association. Photograph: DrillOrDrop. 

There exists a moment every year, around late April at about 10.45pm, where I find myself wrapped in overcoat and scarf, huddled in with 30 or so people somewhere in a woodland, waiting for folk song to be sung.

We will be in complete darkness, sitting on crisp, winter-worn leaves, when a familiar thought crosses my mind. We are gathered deep in a thicket somewhere in Sussex, or perhaps Kent, having met only hours earlier, to listen as many other audiences will be listening that very moment in concert halls around the country.

This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

But ours is a very special kind of concert. This musical collaboration is completely different from any other happening that night probably anywhere in the world. 

Sensuous mastersinger

I and one other ‘trained’ human musician sit silently, listening reverentially, and then, when the spirit calls, join in interpretive improvisation with a male nightingale perched maybe only 10 feet away as he sings his night song.

His ear-throbbingly loud cascade of over 200 phrases and sounds is a declarative, primal and utterly decorative pronouncement of his urge to connect to other nightingales and this landscape we are immersed in, and in doing so hopefully to find a mate.

But a returning thought teases my mind as we crouch entranced by the fluid and staccato notes of this sensuous mastersinger weaving decorations around the night’s silence. It’s impossible not to think upon the scarcity of this bird and the privilege of our respectful proximity and the acres of land that are sadly no longer bathed in ‘nightingaleness’ or any other red-list species’ springtime song as they once would have been.

The music bit of my brain also imagines the many ancient songs of Britain, Europe and the Near East that revere this bird’s exquisite vocal prowess and liquid-like lamentation.

But more than anything I wonder: why do we not experience music like this more often? Naked to the elements, free of physical boundaries, of hierarchies, of stages, of platforms, of red rope or red tape.

Nest collective

Music experienced intimately, in circles, knees overlapping one another, each person responsible for maintaining the silence, and architects of both concert hall and concerto, each a contributor to this experience.

Putting the environmental challenges aside – the cold, the possible wet, the lack of cushions – what we reap from taking this risk, of daring to experience music outside in Nature, is an exhilaration of all our senses simultaneously being fired off at once.

We realise that the context in which we have grown accustomed to hearing music nowadays denies us so much sensation that for millennia has been the forge in which our music, our language and our stories have evolved. 

This has become the philosophy and daring practice of Singing With Nightingales and many of the public events, campfire concerts, pilgrimages and musical experiences that we have developed at The Nest Collective, an organisation specialising in extraordinary music in unexpected places, in London and beyond.

The most pronounced of these are the Nightingale concerts, but also our Sussex Turtle Dove and Scottish Salmon pilgrimages – each one taking the songs born of the land back to the land.

Song repatriation

These radical ‘open to anyone’ experiences are all permission-granting interventions of communal song repatriation and Nature adoration.

Embedded in what we do in these events is the ‘broadcasting’ of sonic heirloom seeds in an attempt to restore and reinvigorate that ancient and intuitive coexistence with which our known (and long since forgotten) folk songs and the patterns of Nature have evolved. 

The reason is simple. We are Nature. And we need Nature as much as it needs us. Our collective repertoire of traditional Indigenous song has been inherited via a lineage of deeply connected ancestors whose attunement to the way of Nature is held within these songs.

As contour lines of OS maps can restore to a keen hiker’s memory a much-loved valley’s undulation, so too can folk songs. They suggest to those who carried and carry them an intergenerationally accumulated knowing of the significance of that particular bird or flower, that oak tree or meadow, that landscape and story, and how it’s hitched to every other tree, bird, field and indeed ‘pretty fair maid’ those old singers would have ever loved.

These songs of the land and about the land are declarations of our dependency on this Earth. 

Echosystem

Our own British tradition, though deeply secular, bears all the hallmarks of an atavistic and devotional practice that holds the land sacred.

Separate the song from both ‘echosystem’ and ecosystem, and the flame long tended within will turn to dull ash – ceasing to radiate that benevolent vitality held in the collective consciousness of its songful alumni.

Alas, many a folk song today can be seen curling like the dorsal fin of a captive orca destined for a life of mere entertainment. But, like the Nature-rewilding programmes The Nest Collective works with and emulates, another way is possible.

Take the example of Knepp Castle Estate, with its blossoming population of turtle doves (nationally in a freefall 95 percent rate of decline). Our annual pilgrimage charts the 20 miles to the estate from Rusper village, the original site of the ancient folk song ‘The Turtle Dove’, collected there in 1905 by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As we peregrinate through Sussex, we declaim this wild hymn to wells, churchyards, river sources, ancient boundary oaks and unsuspecting village shoppers, declaring its vitalness in playful irreverent worship.

Reclaim meaning

The same too with our river Dee blessing pilgrimage, rewilding the Scottish Highland ballads to the rapidly disappearing Cairngorm salmon and their vital symbiotic partner, the freshwater pearl mussel.

By taking song back to its source, an indescribable act of restoration occurs, both inward and outward. The songs reclaim meaning and help heal and enhance our often complicated relationship with the land.

The payoff is an enhanced sense of duty to care harder and deeper. Folk song, like Nature, is in the participation – we do it through our feet, our voices and our hearts.

Join us on our journeys, or better still make your own ones up, but do it fast, before the land and the songs fall forever silent. 

This Author 

Sam Lee and Nest Collective curate outdoor concerts between nightingales and selected musical artists. Performances of Singing With Nightingales continue until 26 May 2019. This article was first published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. 

Image: Kev Chapman, Flickr. 

Music history looks set to be made this week as the first ever release of pure birdsong soars into the UK charts.

Let Nature Sing by the RSPB features 25 of the UK’s most beloved and endangered birds, and is currently at number 11 in the midweek charts.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is calling on the public to download, stream and share the single so that birdsong is flying high in the charts on “Dawn Chorus Day” this Sunday 5 May – spreading the word that nature is in crisis and that people across the UK are passionate about its recovery.

Outpouring of support

Music and nature lovers across the UK have been buying and streaming the 2 ½ minute track in their 1000’s, with fans celebrating the calming and inspiring sounds of birdsong.

Whilst only half way through the chart week, the huge public outpouring of support for nature that this track has unleashed looks set to propel birdsong to the top of the official charts this Friday.

Over 40 million birds have vanished from UK skies in just 50 years, while 56 percent of species in the UK are in decline.

One in ten of our wildlife are critically endangered. Nature is in crisis, and new research from the RSPB has demonstrated that the UK is dangerously unaware of the impending danger.

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s director of conservation said: “Over the last few days, thousands of people have bought and streamed our track to hear nature’s finest singers and show that they love bird song. This has started a national conversation as millions will have heard, seen and read the facts showing that, shockingly, nature is in crisis in the UK.

Powerful message

Harper continued: “The response to Let Nature Sing sends a powerful message that yes, nature is amazing but it is also in trouble.  

“The good news is that it is not too late, we know what needs to be done and together we can take action to restore it for us and for future generations.”

Adrian Thomas, RSPB birdsong expert said: “The response to Let Nature Sing has been fantastic. We started with the simple idea of getting more people talking about how birds are vanishing from our skies and how nature is falling silent, and now beautiful birdsongs are sharing the charts with major international recording artists.

“If we all continue to listen, share and talk about what nature’s chorus means to each of us, that message becomes harder to ignore, so let’s climb the charts even further.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the RSPB. 

The world is not on track to meet targets set by government and business to eliminate deforestation by 2020, according to research by the University of Maryland and released on Global Forest Watch.

The data shows that deforestation has shifted geographically since the beginning of the century, when Brazil and Indonesia accounted for 71% of tropical primary forest loss.

These countries now contribute around 46% of deforestation loss, while that from countries including Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo rose considerably, the data shows.

Emissions

Primary, or “old growth” forest, is of particular value as it stores more carbon than other forests and is irreplaceable in terms of providing habitat to fauna and flora – with species living in such environments including orangutans and jaguars.

However, Indonesia massively reduced primary forest loss, with the rate of deforestation falling to its lowest rate since 2003, and 40% lower in 2018 than in the average annual rate of loss from 2002 to 2016.

The country’s government has protected some environments from development, a policy which seems to be working, the researchers noted. For example, in peatlands deeper than three meters, forest loss fell by 80%.

This has led to financial benefits for the country – in February, the Norwegian government announced that it would compensate Indonesia for reducing its deforestation-related emissions as part of a climate and forest partnership between the two countries.

This Author

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

The Scottish enlightenment philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) recognised that economic growth would eventually have limits, based on the nature of a nation’s soil and climate.  

In his day, Smith was considered a moral philosopher and his early thinking on economic matters dealt with political economy, a term used for studying issues of production, trade, laws, and customs of individual countries and how income and wealth was distributed.  The science of economics was closely related to politics from its beginnings.  

Smith predicted the world’s economy could grow for about two hundred more years (from 1776) before natural limits were reached.

Modern economics 

Smith believed that individuals and nations bettered themselves through industrious behavior, saving for the future, and leaving future generations better off than one’s own.  

Most modern economists seem to have no concept of limits with regard to growth.  Indeed, an economy that is not growing is considered unhealthy.  

Economic success is measured in gross terms (Gross Domestic Product) with little or no attempt made to determine net gain or loss to either the economy or the supporting ecosystems. In other words, there is no apparent way to tell whether economic growth is in fact economical.  

Economists and policy makers tend to ignore the free services, such as clean air and water that nature provides, and thus fail to fully assign costs to ecosystems when evaluating the impacts of industry.  

It has been common practice to allow private companies to pocket the profits from their businesses while ignoring the collateral costs that are eventually paid by the public.

Such things as air, soil and water pollution from toxic chemicals discharged by heavy industry degrade the quality of life for all and governments (citizens) are often stuck with the costs of cleanup – if cleanup is indeed possible.

Increased consumption

Today, economic growth is primarily driven by consumption. It seems that people are no longer human beings dependent upon the free ecological services that nature provides, but merely consumers bent on acquiring ever more commodities.  

Growth is driven by consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels, which are in finite supply, and underground aquifers, many of which are being depleted faster than they can be recharged.  

Virgin forests are rapidly being replaced by plantations of monocultured crops and livestock farms, with serious implications for biodiversity across the globe.

In much of the developed world, the modern version of capitalism has abandoned the whole idea of building wealth for future generations in favor of requiring future generations to pay for today’s largess.  

While the economy is driven by consumption, much of today’s consumption is fueled by ever-increasing debt. In reality, debt is a major instrument that keeps the economy growing like a cancer.  

Increasing debt 

In less than half a lifetime the United States has gone from the world’s largest creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor. The US national debt is now over $22 trillion and state and local debt amount to an additional $3 trillion plus.  

Personal debt, primarily in the form of home mortgages, credit cards and student loans, amounts to over $17 trillion.  Total government and personal debt is well over $120,000 per citizen. 

And yet, it is still common to hear prominent citizens and politicians refer to the US as the world’s richest nation.          

Economic growth has become an obsession in much of the developed world and is worshiped as if it were a religion.  Politicians promise to create jobs and grow the economy and the majority of their constituents blindly accept growth as though it were a commandment in a holy book and therefore not to be questioned.  

Viable alternative 

A growth-dependent economic system that depends on the consumption of ever-increasing amounts of finite resources, is unsustainable and therefore demands a serious search for a viable alternative.

Most people have little knowledge of or interest in ecosystems, and go about their lives as if they believe ecosystems (or the environment) are part of the economy, and believe that if they make a reasonable effort to control pollution and clean up wastes, all will be well.  

In reality, precisely the opposite is true; the economy is just a system devised by a single species that is a part of a larger ecosystem.  If the economy grows beyond the ecosystem’s ability to support it, humankind must ultimately face the consequences.  

In the long run, the ecosystem is likely to prove far more resilient than the economy, but mankind may not like how nature resolves the inherent conflict between the two. 

A business that measures success based on gross sales but makes no effort to determine net profits is likely to fail.  By the same logic economists need a measure of net economic well-being as opposed to depending on gross value of goods and services to gauge success.  

Future generations 

Measures of success could include such things as whether debt is increasing or decreasing, the status of infrastructure maintenance, whether aquifers are being replenished as fast as they are being drained and whether other natural resources and life support systems are being used in a sustainable manner.  

The current system of measuring economic success based on GDP growth is deceptive in that it falsely portrays a growing economy as healthy even though it is not sustainable for future generations.  

From an ecological standpoint, GDP might just as logically stand for gross deceptive product.

This Author

Russell England is a retired fisheries biologist living in Gainesville, Georgia, USA.  He has written numerous articles and opinion columns in various magazines and newspapers and is the author of Gross Deceptive Product: An Ecological Perspective on the Economy published by Covenant Books in 2018.  

Climate campaigners have hailed the UK Parliament’s declaration of a climate emergency – a key demand of recent protests by Extinction Rebellion – as historic.

The motion was put forward by Labour MPs, and also states that Parliament “recognises the devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on UK food production, water availability, public health and through flooding and wildfire damage”.

It also notes the UK is missing targets to protect fauna and flora, and that cuts to the funding of conservation body Natural England are a barrier to solving the problem.

Ambition

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg tweeted: “Historic and very hopeful news. Now other nations must follow. And words must turn into immediate action.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas added: “I’m pleased Parliament has declared a climate emergency But words are cheap – we need urgent action. So to be clear You can’t declare climate emergency AND continue business as usual – fracking, building new runways, industrialised farming etc.”

The motion also called for the government to raise the ambition of the UK’s climate change targets to achieve net zero emissions before 2050, it added.

Binding

This follows advice by the government’s official advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, which published its advice on how to achieve this target today.

The committee concluded that the targets are achievable with known technologies, alongside improvements in people’s lives, and should be put into law as soon as possible.

Falls in cost for some of the key zero-carbon technologies mean that achieving net-zero is now possible within the economic cost that Parliament originally accepted when it passed the Climate Change Act in 2008, it added.

The Scottish Government has already put forward amendments to its Climate Change Bill to set a legally binding target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 at the latest, with Scotland becoming carbon neutral by 2040, in line with the committee’s advice.  

This Author

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

The government-appointed shale gas commissioner – who resigned at the weekend after just six months in the role – has admitted that she routinely throws away notes and deletes emails, a habit the campaign groups says may put her in breach of transparency regulations.

Unearthed had requested all email communications with the UK’s two leading fracking firms – INEOS and Cuadrilla. In response, Natascha Engel provided a handful of emails, but no communications covering 5 October, when she first entered the role, and 30 December.

She said: “I tend to deal with everything on the day and delete was has been done to avoid any huge build-ups or risk of duplication. The same is true of the few notes I take in meetings which I review in the evenings, action and throw away.”

Heavily influenced

However, such activity could be in breach of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Unearthed said.

In her resignation letter, Engels cited the government’s refusal to review seismic activity standards, as called for by industry, after they had led to the frequent halting of fracking tests.

She wrote: “A perfectly viable and exciting new industry that could help meet our carbon reduction targets, make us energy secure, and provide jobs in parts of the country that really need them, is in danger of withering on the vine.”

She said the government was too heavily influenced by environmental and anti-fracking campaigners.

This Author

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

I can still remember the moment when my ecological fear awoke. A freshly-drowned harbour porpoise fell out of the gill net into my embrace with the weight and muscular fluidity of a deep-sleeping toddler.

I set about the science first – turning it over to measure its length, to fix a numbered tag to its flukes, to record its gender and guesstimate its age. I ticked off my tasks with the pretence of objectivity whilst its blowhole oozed with a yellow froth as its drowned lungs emptied onto my hands and across its shining skin.

I wiped the evidence away and looked up at the grief-stricken fisherman leaning out of the wheelhouse window above me. Science appeased, I lowered the porpoise over the stern and watched with growing sadness as this little spy-hopping corpse slipped out of the boat’s wake into the chopping waters of the Atlantic, and finally disappeared into the seascape.

Ecological rift 

Sadness was momentarily replaced by anger before that too was pushed to one side by a feeling of absolute, uncontrollable and questioning fear: what have we become? How did we become thus? And how do we get out of this mess?

Twenty-five years on my fear still remains, and my own nautical big reveal for what we’re now describing as the Anthropocene still haunts and drives me on.

Two main things have changed in that quarter century though. First, the situation has grown worse.

The ecological rift that I stared into on that traumatic day in the Celtic Sea has grown despite the valiant efforts of many of us – and we now find ourselves teetering on the brink of a Sixth Mass Extinction event.

Second, I have come to realise that the problem with my questions was my use of the word ‘we’.

Fear

Fear is, on the whole, a pretty healthy reaction to the scale and intensity of this ecocidal moment in history. It is the reaction to fear and its basis in knowledge or ignorance that is crucial.

Fear itself comes in two categories. There is motivational fear that is derived from knowledge, discovery or revealed truth – the kind that motives school children to march through the streets to highlight climate change.

Or there is the paralyzing kind of fear that comes from ignorance, naivety or falsehood – the kind that feeds self-loathing misanthropy and the Malthusian imagery of humanity-as-plague.

Fear of the Anthropocene contains elements of both and this contradiction needs to be worked out if we’re to feel any pride for (or even survive) this geological shift.

Deep time

The concept behind the Anthropocene – humanity carrying a geological footprint – is not new.

In the late nineteenth century, Friedrich Engels, in his strangely neglected and wonderfully unfinished book The Dialectics of Nature, pointed out that: 

“Man alone has succeeded in impressing his stamp on nature, not only by shifting plant and animal species from one place to another, but also by so altering the aspect and climate of his dwelling place, and even the animals and plants themselves, that the consequences of his activity can disappear only with the general extinction of the terrestrial globe” 

For all of the debates amongst geologists over the start date of the Anthropocene – the 1950s, 1750 or 1492 – it will appear in deep time as an episode that arises simultaneously with our speciation, a geological blink of a few million years.

The crucial question is not when it arose, but how it did so, and in what ways might it develop or end.

Social form

Identifying a geological shift by the collective actions of one species leads to a temptation to generalise from our evolved biology, from our apehood-ancestral origins.

But that road towards biological determinism is fraught with danger, cynicism and fatalism. Prisoners of our biology we may be to some degree but humanity requires a more nuanced critique if we are to understand and adapt our geological expression.

The biologist Richard Lewontin’s eloquence helps: “Biology is not physics, because organisms are such complex physical objects, and sociology is not biology, because human societies are made by self-conscious organisms”.

And the truism outlined by the neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran hammers the point home nicely: “Humanity transcends apehood to the same degree by which life transcends mundane physics or chemistry”.    

The character of our geological/ecological footprint, then, is set by our social form and the societal changes that have developed through human history.

Radical perspective

Societal formation – at every spatial level from the household to the global – is what nature wraps itself around without prejudice.

This is what human ecology entails with its history and potential for our positive or negative interrelationship with biodiversity.

This is why the character of the Anthropocene depends on whether we can reject and move on from this most ecologically dysfunctional phase of human history – neoliberal capitalism. 

Rephrasing the questions I asked myself on that trawler 25 years ago demanded a radical perspective on our ecological crisis, but the updated questions are fairer on humanity in the round and less paralysing: What has our social system made us become? How do those who shape our society produce environmental degradation, and fool us into blaming all humanity or even our biology for their ecological sins?

What future relationship can we strike with life on earth once we have found the courage and means to move on to a historically viable, post-capitalist, society?

Throttled Earth

Through the lens of biodiversity conservation – that vital field where we are knowingly or unknowingly striving to create a more convivial Anthropocene – I’ll be using these columns over the coming year to explore debates and options for the ecological road ahead.

The critical need to look forward into the Anthropocene, to embrace its positive potential, and to aim for meaningful sustainability, is highlighted by Barry Lopez in his first major work since the wonderful Arctic Dreams was published a generation ago:

“However it might be viewed, the throttled Earth – the scalped, the mined, the industrially farmed, the drilled, polluted and suctioned land, endlessly manipulated for development and profit – is now our home.

“We know its wounds. We have come to accept them. And we ask, many of us, what will the next step be?”

This Author 

Ian Rappel is a conservation ecologist. He is also a member of the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network.

BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has been the target of abuse after backing a legal challenge which resulted in restrictions on shooting “pest” birds.

Packham was part of an action which resulted in Natural England revoking three general licences which allowed the shooting of 16 species of bird, including crows, magpies, Canada geese and feral and wood pigeons.

He appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday to reveal he and his family had received “threats of a very serious nature” and shared a letter with the Daily Mirror which arrived at his home on Monday.

Bombarded with abuse

In block capitals, the letter says: “We know where you live Packham and we will get you some way or another. We want you dead and we will succeed.

“R.T.A? Poison there are numerous ways… as long as you f***ing die thats (sic) all what matters”.

Packham told GMB police had spent a “considerable amount of time” at his house over the last few days and he had been sent a package containing human excrement.

Packham said it is not just he and his family being targeted, but also businesses he works with.

Packham said: “I’m very resistant to this sort of thing. What worries me is that the charities that I’m affiliated with, the small businesses that I work for, these people aren’t set up to take this sort of abuse, and yet they’ve had to close their websites, their TripAdvisor accounts have had to be shut down, because they’ve been bombarded by these bullies who want to take aim at me.

“My message is clear. Please, take aim at me, but leave all of the charities, all of the other businesses that I work with, leave them out of it. They’re not necessarily sharing my views. They’re not a fair target.”

Licenses revoked

Packham said he can understand the argument from farmers because they have been “misinformed”.

Bodies including the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC), Countryside Alliance, and the National Gamekeepers Organisation have written an open letter to Environment Secretary Michael Gove calling on him to launch an investigation into Natural England’s decision.

They complained that the revocation of the licences which previously allowed them to freely shoot birds such as carrion crows, wood pigeons, magpies and Canada geese had left them in chaos.

Natural England, the body advising the Government on managing the natural environment, took the decision after it was threatened with legal action by environmentalists.

Wild Justice – whose directors include Packham – sought a judicial review of the licences, which Natural England ultimately decided not to fight, believing it would lose.

National attention

As a result, three general licences for controlling wild birds were revoked on April 23, to be replaced by individual licences.

By Friday, only a new licence allowing the killing of carrion crows had been issued.

The issue was catapulted to national attention after the bodies of two dead crows were hung from Packham’s gate two days after Natural England’s decision.

BASC condemned the attack on the presenter’s home but said the new licensing rules are causing havoc at one of the busiest times of the farming calendar.

This Author 

This article was provided by the Press Association. 

Image: Community Spaces Fund, Flickr. 

There was a rumble in the air. Yes, it’s a cliché, but we were all so excited. Finally, we would get the chance to have our voices heard. They’re finally beginning to listen! Or are they?

‘All-Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group’. What a mouthful. ‘APPCCG’ is a tad catchier, I guess. We wouldn’t have needed to go to Parliament had the powers that be heeded the warnings earlier.

As Greta repeatedly pointed out that Tuesday afternoon, the scientific proof’s there. The existence of climate change is undeniable. But, as is often said, ‘better late than never’.

Truth

And now’s the time we need to act. All of us. We can all add our voices to the movement. We must do it. But why?

Well, because we haven’t any other option. We only have one Earth, after all. If we ruin our world, that’s it. No second chances. No Plan B, no Planet B. No going back. Extinction is permanent.

Greta’s speech captivated the audience, and was perhaps the most compelling part of the meeting. It reminded us that we, as citizens of the world, must work together to stop climate catastrophe.

She travelled by rail and road to deliver her important message to British politicians. “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to”, she said.

It’s a sombre truth. “You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before.”

Storms

For the most part, they did lie. And not just in our country, mind you. Such untruths are being perpetuated by politicians in other nations, too. This needs to stop.

We must hold our representatives to account. No longer should we accept their excuses for not doing enough to combat climate change. Greta didn’t claim to have all the answers – “not even a scientist could”, she said.

To put it quite simply, some of the technology that could help us eliminate carbon dioxide just hasn’t been invented yet.

So the notion of waiting for it to be invented before doing anything substantial is, quite frankly, absurd. Especially when you consider the fact that new, highly polluting coal, oil and gas plants are being planned.

Countries in the rich ‘Global North’ contribute most to the problem of global warming, while those in the ‘Global South’ bear the brunt of its consequences, with the results of climate change including increased flooding, drought and storms, which can and all too often do lead to famine, problems with infrastructure and economic loss in such nations.

Responsibility

The United Kingdom, in particular, has a special role to play in leading the fight against climate change, as Greta quite rightly pointed out.

Our country is the birthplace of industrialisation, and through the subjugation of nations beyond the seas and exploitation of the world’s natural resources, our ancestors have unknowingly laid the foundations for environmental instability.

To be proud to be British, those of us who do identity as British should be proud to take responsibility for repairing our share of the damage us humans now collectively realise we have done to our planet.

Leaders of wealthy nations like ours are privileged to have such influence on the world stage. We, the people, should put pressure on them to tackle the climate crisis. And a percentage reduction of greenhouse gas emissions just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

One of the things the political leaders of our country need to do is to ensure that major polluters such as the United States and China are also on board. This isn’t going to be easy, but we mustn’t bury our heads in the sand. The fate of our world is at stake.

Contamination

The homes and livelihoods of our friends in the developing world are already in peril.

At the meeting, sat in the front row opposite Michael Gove, Yusif asked why MPs decided to vote for Heathrow expansion even though they knew how climate change is already having a detrimental effect on the lives of so many people around the world right now.

For instance, in some parts of Ghana, the country where Yusif was born and lived in until moving to the UK three years ago, the impact of climate change is projected to have a serious effect on food security.

Drought and flooding are common occurrences in the country, leading to poor crop harvests, impacting upon farmers and their families, and at the same time reduces the amount of safe, clean water for drinking, leading to dehydration.

Flooding can lead to the contamination of drinking water sources, so that water is unusable until repurified. Flooding has also lead to an influx of pests and increases in the incidence of waterborne diseases.

Havoc

Yusif never got an answer to his question from the Environment Secretary, but Greta replied pointedly with “I don’t know” when asked how MPs can vote through airport expansion when so many countries are suffering the impact of climate change now.

Our friend and fellow activist, Ummi Hoque, attended the meeting with us. Sadly, Bangladesh, where her family is from, is now a textbook example of a land seriously affected by climate change.

Much of the country is low-lying and prone to flooding, a problem that will only get worse should sea levels continue to rise due to our failure to reverse global warming.

As weather conditions become more extreme, there will be a severe loss of arable land, and an increased risk of damage to crops and livestock through natural disasters such as cyclones. The potential for loss of life around the world due to climate change is unimaginable.

If, around the world, we carry on polluting the atmosphere, and if we fail to reverse our carbon footprint, we will allow this destructive phenomenon to worsen. Climate change will not hesitate to wreak havoc on not just faraway countries but also our own.

Act now

Regardless of the current administration’s reluctance to declare it as such, this is a climate emergency. And it should be treated as such.

The time has come for all politicians around the world to put their party affiliations and other differences aside for the issue of climate change, which has often been described as the most pressing issue ever faced by the human race.

Those who have chosen to represent us in legislative bodies of government around the world need to speak the truth about the calamity of climate change and the threat it poses to everybody as a global crisis.

As Ummi said: “Climate change does not favour a specific race, class, age, gender or any other group”. It doesn’t discriminate on any grounds; it poses a threat to all.

We can’t wait until it’s too late. Climate change is something that we all have a responsibility to reverse. The time for us to act is now.

The Authors

Tom Jayamaha and Yusif Ibrahim became campaigners with Friends of the Earth after graduating from the ‘My World My Home’ leadership programme offered in their colleges.