At least 22 UN staff died in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday, along with many delegates travelling to a major environment summit, according to officials.

The acting head of UN Environment Joyce Msuya confirmed the loss of colleagues, although full passenger lists of the flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi are yet to be publicly released.

She participated in the opening ceremony of the UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital on Monday, and said: “The environmental community is in mourning today.”

“Many of those that lost their lives were en route to provide support and participate in the UN Environment Assembly. We lost UN staff, youth delegates travelling to the assembly, seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners.” 

Grounded fleet

All 149 passengers and 8 cabin staff died in the accident, the airline said. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined. The airline has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737 8 Max aircraft – the same model involved in a recent disaster in Indonesia. Ethiopian Airlines said that it had contacted the families of the dead.

At the opening of the assembly, head of UN Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif said 22 UN personnel were known to have died. UN offices lowered the organisation’s flag to half mast on Monday.

The Associated Press reported that 32 Kenyans were killed in the accident, nine Ethiopians, eighteen Canadians as well as multiple citizens from China, the US, Italy, France, the UK, Egypt, the Netherlands, India and Slovakia.

Msuya said: “The entire UN Environment Assembly will honour them in our efforts this week.” 

The assembly aims to generate a sharper political focus on biodiversity, climate change and the natural systems that support human civilisation.

This Author

Karl Mathiesen is Climate Home News’ editor. He has written for national newspapers, newswires and magazines in Australia and the UK. Before joining Climate Home News in 2016, he worked mostly with the Guardian’s environment desk. This article first appeared on Climate Home.    

Scientists have unearthed and pieced together evidence on more than 1,000 ancient wetland sites from across the globe that are presently covered by fields, forests and lakes.

Cliffs, quarries, road construction, and scientific sampling have revealed carbon-rich wetland deposits buried under other kinds of soils and sediments. Many wetlands are characterized by thick deposits of undecomposed plant material (or peat), which is often preserved, resulting in a record of wetland presence.

The buried wetlands frequently included coastal marshes that had been flooded by sea level rise, and wetlands that had been buried by glaciers, flooding, or wind-deposited sediments.

Global data

The researchers compiled the information about these buried wetland deposits, including where they were found, when they formed, and why they were buried.

The study was led by Dr Treat at the University of Eastern Finland and by Dr Thomas Kleinen at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany.

Dr Claire Treat, from the University of Eastern Finland, said: “We were really surprised when we started to combine our data from different sites around the world. What we thought would be only a few sites turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

“When we started to look for more examples from previous studies, we identified more than 1,000 buried wetland sites across the globe.”

Buried wetland sites were found from high Arctic islands of Canada and Siberia to tropical Africa and Indonesia, to Southern South America and New Zealand. Some formed less than 1,000 years ago, while others formed during the warm climate period between the two latest glaciations more than 100,000 years ago.

New findings

Using these records of wetland presence since the beginning of the last interglacial, 130,000 years ago, the researchers found that wetlands in northern latitudes responded to changes in climate.

Wetlands formed when the climate was warmer, and many wetlands were buried during periods of glacial advance and cooling temperatures. When it was cold, few new wetlands formed until the climate warmed again.

Some of these buried peat sediments remain until today. These new findings of widespread buried peats suggest that, on the whole, peat burial can result in the slow transfer of carbon from the atmosphere to land, ultimately offsetting a small part of climate warming in the past.

Dr Treat continued: “The fact that these peats are buried and stay on land is  basically like a leak in what we usually consider a closed system of how carbon moves around the earth, from the atmosphere to the land and oceans.

“This new finding isn’t represented in our models of the global carbon cycle, and may help to explain some behaviour that differs between models and observations.” 

The results also suggest that present-day wetlands may continue to offset rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations as the climate warms if they remain undisturbed by drainage and wildfires.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from the University of Eastern Finland. 

People are being encouraged to “put in a pond” for this year’s Wild About Gardens challenge, from The Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Even mini container ponds can make the biggest difference to wildlife.

Wild About Gardens sees the two charities join forces to raise awareness of the importance of gardens in supporting wildlife and offer tips and advice on how to make them more wildlife-friendly.

The UK has lost ponds, rivers and streams at a rapid rate and only a small amount of our natural ponds and wetlands remain. Many of these are in poor condition and 13 percent of freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction from Great Britain.

Damselflies

The loss of these important places – to development, drainage and intensive farming – is linked to a huge decline in wildlife, including frogs and toads, water voles and insects.

Adding a pond – by digging one in your back garden or simply by filling a waterproof container outside your front door – is one of the best ways you can help wildlife and enjoy the benefits of seeing water plants, birds and bees close to home.

Digging a pond is great for hedgehogs to have somewhere to drink and for frogs, newts and other amphibians to feed and breed. All ponds – large, small, dug or container – are good news for bats, damselflies, dragonflies, other insects.

Ellie Brodie, senior policy manager at The Wildlife Trusts said: “It’s such fun to help wildlife with a pocket pond – it needn’t be big. All you need to do is fill an old sink or washing-up bowl with rainwater, plant it up and make sure that wildlife can get in and out – it’s easy!

“I love watching bright blue damselflies landing on the irises in my pond – they’re so beautiful and it’s great knowing I’m helping local wildlife.”

Attractive

Helen Bostock, senior horticultural Aadvisor at the RHS, said: “Ponds and other water features are an attractive focal point in any garden and are a real haven for wildlife.

“Even cheap container ponds made from upcycled materials will quickly be colonised by a whole host of creatures and help form a living chain of aquatic habitats across the neighbourhood.”

The Wild About Gardens team are providing pond-tastic inspiration to get gardeners started:

Enjoy our fabulous Big or Small, Ponds for All booklet – a step-by-step guide to creating the perfect pond, large or small! Download the booklet here, available on the Wild About Gardens website from 12 March 2019.

Follow us from 7am on our Ponds for All launch day, Tuesday 12th March! We’ll be cheering on Walthamstow Village in Bloom as they create a series of ponds at the heart of their local community. Follow their progress here or search for #WildAboutPonds.

Every pond counts! We want to know about every new pond! Each pond contributes towards the network of wild places that nature needs to survive. Please put your pond on the map here!

Watch wildlife expert Jules Howard create a pond here.

Wonderful wildlife

Join in a Thursday pond social! This will run from the 17th April to the 27th of June at 6pm each and every Thursday on social media helping people identify things in their pond and creating conversation. Visit twitter.com/WildlifeTrusts or www.facebook.com/groups/WildAboutGardens/ to join in the conversation.

Download Jules Howard’s pond podcast! Jules will be interviewing ecologists and talking ponds for 8 weeks from April 18th. Download the podcast from www.juleshoward.co.uk.

Download your free pond toolkit and find more inspiration for making your garden a wildlife haven at www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk. See our events page for wetland or wildlife gardening events. Subscribe to the Wild About Gardens e-newsletter for updates and wonderful wildlife gardening ideas!

This Article

This article is based on a press release from The Wildlife Trusts. Image: Mark Hamblin (c) The Wildlife Trusts. 

The University of Sheffield has failed to make good on its promise to divest all fossil fuels, research by student activist network People & Planet has revealed.

This was reported by student newspaper Forge Press, exposing the university’s continued investments in oil & gas companies Shell. As of June 2018, those investments were worth over £610,000 in total.

Speaking to Forge Press, I accused the University of betraying the thousands of staff and students who supported for divestment as part of People & Planet Sheffield’s campaign between 2013 and 2015.

Clear betrayal

The University has responded, claiming that their Ethical Investment Advisory Group’s guidelines include cutting ties only with companies with more than “10 percent of their turnover from the extraction of thermal coal and oil from tar sands,” instead of all fossil fuel companies.

I coordinated People & Planet Sheffield’s divestment campaign from Spring 2015 through to the University’s commitment in November 2015. Their narrowing of the pledge to thermal coal and tar sands is a gross re-writing of history.

It is true that both the vice-chancellor and chief financial officer have changed personnel since the divestment commitment in 2015. This is just a message lost in translation over time. But I find that hard to believe.

The university was proud of its commitment when it made it and has played it up as an example of its commitment to climate action ever since. This appears to be a more cynical attempt to dine out on the reputational benefits of divestment without paying the bill.

As experienced student campaigners, we understand that this country’s higher education institutions are hardly democratic.

Political space

However, this is an era where the likes of University of Sheffield are cultivating brands of social responsibility and sustainability. In this context, Sheffield’s failure to follow through on their divestment commitment leaves a particularly sour taste.

During the campaign, student campaigners’ relationship with university management felt healthy and productive. We kept up the pressure while collaborating to build consensus around our call for divestment across all constituencies of staff and students on campus.

This culminated in a public debate and vote where 91 percent of attendees supported divestment. Sheffield’s continued investment in oil and gas companies is certainly betrayal.

The UK’s Fossil Free campaign for universities to divest was launched six years ago in 2013. In that time 72 UK universities, four Oxbridge colleges and two Irish universities have made some kind of divestment commitment – representing over £12 billion of investments. These constitute over seven percent of all divestments by institutions globally.

Higher education in the UK and Ireland has led the global Fossil Free movement. They have created the political space for much larger divestments like the country of Ireland. But they fall behind in implementing their own.

Divestment movement

Like Sheffield, many UK universities continue to invest in fossil fuel companies despite promises to divest. One such is University of Glasgow which became the first university to divest in Europe in October 2014.

These universities are taking advantage of the transience of student politics: a group who started and won a campaign in 2013-14 are unlikely to be on campus to hold management to account for their decision five years later.

That’s why national organisations like People & Planet which stick around and hold institutional memory are so important for our movement.

Why does this failure to follow through on divestment matter though? The primary purpose of divestment is to revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license to operate through prominent acts of disassociation by reputable public institutions. The aim was never to bankrupt fossil capital through divestment.

This is true, but we should certainly still push for institutions to make good on their divestment pledges. As the climate movement strengthens its political ambitions and escalates its tactics, its essential that a strong divestment movement continues to wage an ideological war against the fossil fuel industry.

Betray students

We need divestments to keep rolling to maintain the pressure on the fossil fuel industry’s historically low popularity.

If we let nominally divested institutions off the hook then others may be discouraged to make the commitment at all. If we slip into complacency then the vast wealth of fossil capital will inevitably be deployed to rehabilitate the perceived legitimacy of this faltering industry.

This Spring People & Planet will release in full its research exposing universities which have betrayed their divestment commitments.

When this information is public, staff and students must challenge the management of their institutions to follow through. This will begin in Sheffield in the coming weeks. Universities thought they could betray students and get away with it. They were sorely wrong.

This Author

Chris Saltmarsh manages People & Planet’s university divestment campaigns as co-director: climate change. He tweets at @chris_saltmarsh.

Right of Reply 

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, said: “I know that there has been confusion and uncertainty around the our position on ethical investments. Let me be clear straight away and tell you that the University of Sheffield has already been divesting from fossil fuel companies and is committed to completing this.

We now only hold one investment in a company related to fossil fuels, Royal Dutch Shell. This company has stated a commitment to developing cleaner energy sources, but we are still continuing work to remove this investment from our portfolio. The work to do this is underway, and our Students’ Union officers are working closely with our Finance Committee to move it forward. I will be keeping students updated about the progress of this work.  

It is also important for me to say that, since I joined the University of Sheffield in November, I have seen a lot of positive work around ethical investments and sustainability more generally.  We now have an endowment investment policy that has responded to a number of student concerns around areas such as human rights, animal testing, arms, tobacco and environmental damage. The University is also developing an ambitious strategy around sustainability, which is due to be launched in the Autumn. Our new Sustainability Strategy will cover areas such as climate action, quality education, clean and affordable energy and responsible consumption and production. This strategy will be the result of long standing contributions from our active student and staff groups, who are also key to making it work.

The University of Sheffield is full of passionate people, both students and staff, who are dedicated to making evidence based change – on and off campus. I am pleased that we have such an active student and alumni group that, and I look forward to working for and with them as we take this work forward.”​​​​​​​

The University of Sheffield has failed to make good on its promise to divest all fossil fuels, research by student activist network People & Planet has revealed.

This was reported by student newspaper Forge Press, exposing the university’s continued investments in oil & gas companies Shell. As of June 2018, those investments were worth over £610,000 in total.

Speaking to Forge Press, I accused the University of betraying the thousands of staff and students who supported for divestment as part of People & Planet Sheffield’s campaign between 2013 and 2015.

Clear betrayal

The University has responded, claiming that their Ethical Investment Advisory Group’s guidelines include cutting ties only with companies with more than “10 percent of their turnover from the extraction of thermal coal and oil from tar sands,” instead of all fossil fuel companies.

I coordinated People & Planet Sheffield’s divestment campaign from Spring 2015 through to the University’s commitment in November 2015. Their narrowing of the pledge to thermal coal and tar sands is a gross re-writing of history.

It is true that both the vice-chancellor and chief financial officer have changed personnel since the divestment commitment in 2015. This is just a message lost in translation over time. But I find that hard to believe.

The university was proud of its commitment when it made it and has played it up as an example of its commitment to climate action ever since. This appears to be a more cynical attempt to dine out on the reputational benefits of divestment without paying the bill.

As experienced student campaigners, we understand that this country’s higher education institutions are hardly democratic.

Political space

However, this is an era where the likes of University of Sheffield are cultivating brands of social responsibility and sustainability. In this context, Sheffield’s failure to follow through on their divestment commitment leaves a particularly sour taste.

During the campaign, student campaigners’ relationship with university management felt healthy and productive. We kept up the pressure while collaborating to build consensus around our call for divestment across all constituencies of staff and students on campus.

This culminated in a public debate and vote where 91 percent of attendees supported divestment. Sheffield’s continued investment in oil and gas companies is certainly betrayal.

The UK’s Fossil Free campaign for universities to divest was launched six years ago in 2013. In that time 72 UK universities, four Oxbridge colleges and two Irish universities have made some kind of divestment commitment – representing over £12 billion of investments. These constitute over seven percent of all divestments by institutions globally.

Higher education in the UK and Ireland has led the global Fossil Free movement. They have created the political space for much larger divestments like the country of Ireland. But they fall behind in implementing their own.

Divestment movement

Like Sheffield, many UK universities continue to invest in fossil fuel companies despite promises to divest. One such is University of Glasgow which became the first university to divest in Europe in October 2014.

These universities are taking advantage of the transience of student politics: a group who started and won a campaign in 2013-14 are unlikely to be on campus to hold management to account for their decision five years later.

That’s why national organisations like People & Planet which stick around and hold institutional memory are so important for our movement.

Why does this failure to follow through on divestment matter though? The primary purpose of divestment is to revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license to operate through prominent acts of disassociation by reputable public institutions. The aim was never to bankrupt fossil capital through divestment.

This is true, but we should certainly still push for institutions to make good on their divestment pledges. As the climate movement strengthens its political ambitions and escalates its tactics, its essential that a strong divestment movement continues to wage an ideological war against the fossil fuel industry.

Betray students

We need divestments to keep rolling to maintain the pressure on the fossil fuel industry’s historically low popularity.

If we let nominally divested institutions off the hook then others may be discouraged to make the commitment at all. If we slip into complacency then the vast wealth of fossil capital will inevitably be deployed to rehabilitate the perceived legitimacy of this faltering industry.

This Spring People & Planet will release in full its research exposing universities which have betrayed their divestment commitments.

When this information is public, staff and students must challenge the management of their institutions to follow through. This will begin in Sheffield in the coming weeks. Universities thought they could betray students and get away with it. They were sorely wrong.

This Author

Chris Saltmarsh manages People & Planet’s university divestment campaigns as co-director: climate change. He tweets at @chris_saltmarsh.

Right of Reply 

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, said: “I know that there has been confusion and uncertainty around the our position on ethical investments. Let me be clear straight away and tell you that the University of Sheffield has already been divesting from fossil fuel companies and is committed to completing this.

We now only hold one investment in a company related to fossil fuels, Royal Dutch Shell. This company has stated a commitment to developing cleaner energy sources, but we are still continuing work to remove this investment from our portfolio. The work to do this is underway, and our Students’ Union officers are working closely with our Finance Committee to move it forward. I will be keeping students updated about the progress of this work.  

It is also important for me to say that, since I joined the University of Sheffield in November, I have seen a lot of positive work around ethical investments and sustainability more generally.  We now have an endowment investment policy that has responded to a number of student concerns around areas such as human rights, animal testing, arms, tobacco and environmental damage. The University is also developing an ambitious strategy around sustainability, which is due to be launched in the Autumn. Our new Sustainability Strategy will cover areas such as climate action, quality education, clean and affordable energy and responsible consumption and production. This strategy will be the result of long standing contributions from our active student and staff groups, who are also key to making it work.

The University of Sheffield is full of passionate people, both students and staff, who are dedicated to making evidence based change – on and off campus. I am pleased that we have such an active student and alumni group that, and I look forward to working for and with them as we take this work forward.”​​​​​​​

The University of Sheffield has failed to make good on its promise to divest all fossil fuels, research by student activist network People & Planet has revealed.

This was reported by student newspaper Forge Press, exposing the university’s continued investments in oil & gas companies Shell. As of June 2018, those investments were worth over £610,000 in total.

Speaking to Forge Press, I accused the University of betraying the thousands of staff and students who supported for divestment as part of People & Planet Sheffield’s campaign between 2013 and 2015.

Clear betrayal

The University has responded, claiming that their Ethical Investment Advisory Group’s guidelines include cutting ties only with companies with more than “10 percent of their turnover from the extraction of thermal coal and oil from tar sands,” instead of all fossil fuel companies.

I coordinated People & Planet Sheffield’s divestment campaign from Spring 2015 through to the University’s commitment in November 2015. Their narrowing of the pledge to thermal coal and tar sands is a gross re-writing of history.

It is true that both the vice-chancellor and chief financial officer have changed personnel since the divestment commitment in 2015. This is just a message lost in translation over time. But I find that hard to believe.

The university was proud of its commitment when it made it and has played it up as an example of its commitment to climate action ever since. This appears to be a more cynical attempt to dine out on the reputational benefits of divestment without paying the bill.

As experienced student campaigners, we understand that this country’s higher education institutions are hardly democratic.

Political space

However, this is an era where the likes of University of Sheffield are cultivating brands of social responsibility and sustainability. In this context, Sheffield’s failure to follow through on their divestment commitment leaves a particularly sour taste.

During the campaign, student campaigners’ relationship with university management felt healthy and productive. We kept up the pressure while collaborating to build consensus around our call for divestment across all constituencies of staff and students on campus.

This culminated in a public debate and vote where 91 percent of attendees supported divestment. Sheffield’s continued investment in oil and gas companies is certainly betrayal.

The UK’s Fossil Free campaign for universities to divest was launched six years ago in 2013. In that time 72 UK universities, four Oxbridge colleges and two Irish universities have made some kind of divestment commitment – representing over £12 billion of investments. These constitute over seven percent of all divestments by institutions globally.

Higher education in the UK and Ireland has led the global Fossil Free movement. They have created the political space for much larger divestments like the country of Ireland. But they fall behind in implementing their own.

Divestment movement

Like Sheffield, many UK universities continue to invest in fossil fuel companies despite promises to divest. One such is University of Glasgow which became the first university to divest in Europe in October 2014.

These universities are taking advantage of the transience of student politics: a group who started and won a campaign in 2013-14 are unlikely to be on campus to hold management to account for their decision five years later.

That’s why national organisations like People & Planet which stick around and hold institutional memory are so important for our movement.

Why does this failure to follow through on divestment matter though? The primary purpose of divestment is to revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license to operate through prominent acts of disassociation by reputable public institutions. The aim was never to bankrupt fossil capital through divestment.

This is true, but we should certainly still push for institutions to make good on their divestment pledges. As the climate movement strengthens its political ambitions and escalates its tactics, its essential that a strong divestment movement continues to wage an ideological war against the fossil fuel industry.

Betray students

We need divestments to keep rolling to maintain the pressure on the fossil fuel industry’s historically low popularity.

If we let nominally divested institutions off the hook then others may be discouraged to make the commitment at all. If we slip into complacency then the vast wealth of fossil capital will inevitably be deployed to rehabilitate the perceived legitimacy of this faltering industry.

This Spring People & Planet will release in full its research exposing universities which have betrayed their divestment commitments.

When this information is public, staff and students must challenge the management of their institutions to follow through. This will begin in Sheffield in the coming weeks. Universities thought they could betray students and get away with it. They were sorely wrong.

This Author

Chris Saltmarsh manages People & Planet’s university divestment campaigns as co-director: climate change. He tweets at @chris_saltmarsh.

Right of Reply 

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield, said: “I know that there has been confusion and uncertainty around the our position on ethical investments. Let me be clear straight away and tell you that the University of Sheffield has already been divesting from fossil fuel companies and is committed to completing this.

We now only hold one investment in a company related to fossil fuels, Royal Dutch Shell. This company has stated a commitment to developing cleaner energy sources, but we are still continuing work to remove this investment from our portfolio. The work to do this is underway, and our Students’ Union officers are working closely with our Finance Committee to move it forward. I will be keeping students updated about the progress of this work.  

It is also important for me to say that, since I joined the University of Sheffield in November, I have seen a lot of positive work around ethical investments and sustainability more generally.  We now have an endowment investment policy that has responded to a number of student concerns around areas such as human rights, animal testing, arms, tobacco and environmental damage. The University is also developing an ambitious strategy around sustainability, which is due to be launched in the Autumn. Our new Sustainability Strategy will cover areas such as climate action, quality education, clean and affordable energy and responsible consumption and production. This strategy will be the result of long standing contributions from our active student and staff groups, who are also key to making it work.

The University of Sheffield is full of passionate people, both students and staff, who are dedicated to making evidence based change – on and off campus. I am pleased that we have such an active student and alumni group that, and I look forward to working for and with them as we take this work forward.”​​​​​​​

The UK’s failure to comply with its international legal obligations in allowing the public to bring legal cases to protect the environment has been criticised in a damning United Nations report.

ClientEarth lawyers are calling on the UK to take its international legal obligations seriously after the UN’s committee that enforces the Aarhus Convention delivered a harsh reprimand to the UK government.

The UK has been in breach of the Aarhus Convention, an international agreement that gives the public certain rights with regard to the environment, since it came into force eight years ago.

Dirty air

This has made it harder for people to bring cases over pollution and endangered biodiversity – with prohibitive costs being a major factor.

The committee’s latest progress report stated that the government was failing to engage with the process, noting that much of the UK’s response had been copied “often word for word” from previous reports, and contains incorrect or one-line answers.

All of this “significantly hampers” the committee’s ability to assess the UK’s progress.

Karla Hill, ClientEarth global programmes counsel,  said: “It’s deeply concerning that the UK continues to fail in its international responsibilities by allowing prohibitive costs to deter people from bringing environmental cases over issues like dirty air, polluting factories or endangered wildlife.

Marked shortcomings

“The environment cannot protect itself and those that choose to take legal action should not have to worry about risking their financial security for standing up for the common good.

“This stinging rebuke from the United Nations shows that the UK must take seriously its international legal obligations to enable people to rely on the legal system to protect our shared environment.”

Lawyers noted the committee abandoned its usually diplomatic language, expressing its “disappointment” and “surprise” with the government’s “marked shortcomings”.

This Article

This article is based on a press release from ClientEarth.

One November Monday, I was listlessly scrolling through Twitter on my lunch break when a photo caught my eye. It showed a group of activists blocking a bridge in central London.

They carried a banner reading “Tell the Truth. We’re F*****d.” and placards with more slogans: “climate breakdown kills” and “rebel for life”. A line of cars was waiting impatiently to pass and some police were visible, but the activists looked cheerful and determined.

I stopped eating my disappointing sandwich and looked closer at the picture. This was a very different group of environmental activists than those clichés I was used to seeing on the news.

Deeply concerned

For a start, there were children on the street too, and having fun by the look of it. And the adults themselves were such a mixed group – as well as some who looked every inch the activist, there were others who looked just like my mum and dad.

After some digging, I discovered who this group were. These ‘Extinction Rebellion’ people were responsible for a wave of peaceful civil disobedience across the country.

This had culminated, a few days previously, with 6,000 people blocking major bridges in the centre of London and dozens willingly putting themselves forward to be arrested for their peaceful resistance.

They were demanding that the government and media tell the truth about the climate emergency and ecological collapse.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been deeply concerned about climate change, climate crisis, climate catastrophe – every year a new and more horrifying noun is attached to the phrase!

End-of-the-world

As a teenager, I’d read obsessively about the looming threats of biodiversity loss and mass extinction, keeping myself up at night worrying. As an ostensibly “wiser” adult, I’d learnt to push these things to the back of my mind and get on with my life.

Now it all came rushing back. That one picture – the devastating truthfulness of the messages, the willingness of these people to go to such lengths to get those messages across – brought it home to me once again: climate breakdown is not something for future generations to worry about. This is an emergency right now.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the tone and content of scientific reports on these issues.

When I was at school we were told that it was important to move towards green energy, that people had to drive less, take fewer flights, have their homes insulated properly – but what would happen if we failed to make these adjustments was always a little vague.

Sure, you had some scientists making end-of-the-world predictions, and yes, some polar bears might lose their habitats, but overall we were given the impression that the truly dire consequences were due “by the end of the century” and that we still had time to avert them.

Democratic contract

But following my chance encounter with that powerful photograph, I browsed through newspaper pieces and the odd accessible journal article with increasing horror.

Clearly, the situation – or our understanding of it – had changed quite a lot since I’d last properly looked into the science. This isn’t a distant threat – we are already in the first stages of total ecological collapse. It’s not only the polar bears we should be concerned about, but a global mass extinction event that could spell the end of our civilisation.

For a few weeks, I was overcome by depression and, if I’m honest, a healthy dose of apathy. All the most powerful companies and governments in the world are invested in the status quo, so what can possibly be done to change our path?

But slowly this apathy evolved into a feeling of injustice, and then rage. Ecological collapse is threatening the extinction of our species and our elected politicians have failed us completely.

They have broken the democratic contract to protect us and fight for our interests, instead looking after themselves and the interests of a tiny, wealthy fraction of our species. Now I truly understood what motivated those protesters on the bridge.

Civil disobedience

My first Extinction Rebellion meeting was held in a room packed with new members like me. It was comforting and exciting just to be with so many other people who felt the same as I did and who were willing to do something to fight back.

As I looked around the faces gathered there, I was struck by the same thing I had noticed in the photo: these were people of all ages, from all walks of life, all cultures. Now, we were all activists.

Each of us found a role that suited. I mainly help with the XR podcast and talking to journalists about what we are doing; others have launched themselves into planning nonviolent direct actions, or helping with fundraising, or making Extinction Rebellion artworks – all sorts.

But the big thing we are building up to at the moment is an event called the Spring Uprising: a two-day festival with music industry supporters like Boomtown and Ninja Tune records.

It will be happening on the weekend of March 15-16 in Bristol in a huge space called Motion. Lots of top artists who support what we do will be playing, alongside a programme of talks and mass training in civil disobedience.

Spring Uprising

This is the first time Extinction Rebellion has organised a major event that doesn’t involve any civil disobedience – it’s all totally legal.

But with further investigation, I found that the Spring Uprising is part of our Regenerative Culture, which aims to build a progressive and sustainable movement involving training, community building, idea-sharing and celebration.

There’s only so far you can go through the continuous push for action. You burn out. This Spring Uprising festival is about embodying the future we all need to adapt to.

It’s a post-capitalist, co-creative gathering that prepares us to engage with the crisis, as well as discover all the things we gain when we look to the world we know is possible… oh, and have a damn good time doing it.

This is all in preparation for the International Rebellion beginning April 15, when we will directly challenge the government’s criminal inaction on the swiftly changing climate, ecological breakdown and species extinction by taking to the streets, and staying there.

This Author

David Anderson works in the media industry and works with the press team of Extinction Rebellion. Image: Ruth Davey.

One November Monday, I was listlessly scrolling through Twitter on my lunch break when a photo caught my eye. It showed a group of activists blocking a bridge in central London.

They carried a banner reading “Tell the Truth. We’re F*****d.” and placards with more slogans: “climate breakdown kills” and “rebel for life”. A line of cars was waiting impatiently to pass and some police were visible, but the activists looked cheerful and determined.

I stopped eating my disappointing sandwich and looked closer at the picture. This was a very different group of environmental activists than those clichés I was used to seeing on the news.

Deeply concerned

For a start, there were children on the street too, and having fun by the look of it. And the adults themselves were such a mixed group – as well as some who looked every inch the activist, there were others who looked just like my mum and dad.

After some digging, I discovered who this group were. These ‘Extinction Rebellion’ people were responsible for a wave of peaceful civil disobedience across the country.

This had culminated, a few days previously, with 6,000 people blocking major bridges in the centre of London and dozens willingly putting themselves forward to be arrested for their peaceful resistance.

They were demanding that the government and media tell the truth about the climate emergency and ecological collapse.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been deeply concerned about climate change, climate crisis, climate catastrophe – every year a new and more horrifying noun is attached to the phrase!

End-of-the-world

As a teenager, I’d read obsessively about the looming threats of biodiversity loss and mass extinction, keeping myself up at night worrying. As an ostensibly “wiser” adult, I’d learnt to push these things to the back of my mind and get on with my life.

Now it all came rushing back. That one picture – the devastating truthfulness of the messages, the willingness of these people to go to such lengths to get those messages across – brought it home to me once again: climate breakdown is not something for future generations to worry about. This is an emergency right now.

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the tone and content of scientific reports on these issues.

When I was at school we were told that it was important to move towards green energy, that people had to drive less, take fewer flights, have their homes insulated properly – but what would happen if we failed to make these adjustments was always a little vague.

Sure, you had some scientists making end-of-the-world predictions, and yes, some polar bears might lose their habitats, but overall we were given the impression that the truly dire consequences were due “by the end of the century” and that we still had time to avert them.

Democratic contract

But following my chance encounter with that powerful photograph, I browsed through newspaper pieces and the odd accessible journal article with increasing horror.

Clearly, the situation – or our understanding of it – had changed quite a lot since I’d last properly looked into the science. This isn’t a distant threat – we are already in the first stages of total ecological collapse. It’s not only the polar bears we should be concerned about, but a global mass extinction event that could spell the end of our civilisation.

For a few weeks, I was overcome by depression and, if I’m honest, a healthy dose of apathy. All the most powerful companies and governments in the world are invested in the status quo, so what can possibly be done to change our path?

But slowly this apathy evolved into a feeling of injustice, and then rage. Ecological collapse is threatening the extinction of our species and our elected politicians have failed us completely.

They have broken the democratic contract to protect us and fight for our interests, instead looking after themselves and the interests of a tiny, wealthy fraction of our species. Now I truly understood what motivated those protesters on the bridge.

Civil disobedience

My first Extinction Rebellion meeting was held in a room packed with new members like me. It was comforting and exciting just to be with so many other people who felt the same as I did and who were willing to do something to fight back.

As I looked around the faces gathered there, I was struck by the same thing I had noticed in the photo: these were people of all ages, from all walks of life, all cultures. Now, we were all activists.

Each of us found a role that suited. I mainly help with the XR podcast and talking to journalists about what we are doing; others have launched themselves into planning nonviolent direct actions, or helping with fundraising, or making Extinction Rebellion artworks – all sorts.

But the big thing we are building up to at the moment is an event called the Spring Uprising: a two-day festival with music industry supporters like Boomtown and Ninja Tune records.

It will be happening on the weekend of March 15-16 in Bristol in a huge space called Motion. Lots of top artists who support what we do will be playing, alongside a programme of talks and mass training in civil disobedience.

Criminal inaction

This is the first time Extinction Rebellion has organised a major event that doesn’t involve any civil disobedience – it’s all totally legal.

But with further investigation, I found that the Spring Uprising is part of our Regenerative Culture, which aims to build a progressive and sustainable movement involving training, community building, idea-sharing and celebration.

There’s only so far you can go through the continuous push for action. You burn out. This Spring Uprising festival is about embodying the future we all need to adapt to.

It’s a post-capitalist, co-creative gathering that prepares us to engage with the crisis, as well as discover all the things we gain when we look to the world we know is possible… oh, and have a damn good time doing it.

This is all in preparation for the International Rebellion beginning April 15, when we will directly challenge the government’s criminal inaction on the swiftly changing climate, ecological breakdown and species extinction by taking to the streets, and staying there.

This Author

David Anderson works in the media industry and works with the press team of Extinction Rebellion. Image: Ruth Davey.

It is not easy to be hopeful about the future. Every day it seems a new publication is released about ongoing ecological violence, worrying economic instability, growing geopolitical tensions, and deepening cultural malaise.

While we may still have the capacity avert ‘worst case’ scenarios, it is becoming increasingly plausible that deepening crises lie ahead. This raises questions about how we might best manage crisis situations, if or when they emerge or intensify. 

How, for example, would an ordinary middleclass consumer – you or me, perhaps – cope in crisis conditions that radically reduced material living standards and enforced a ‘simpler way’ of living? 

Reduced consumption 

I want to explore the possibility that radically reduced but sufficient consumption could be both manageable and consistent with a high quality of life, provided we are prepared for such circumstances, both as households and communities.

For those who find deepening crisis a plausible future, I contend that embracing a simpler life in material terms should be strategy to take seriously as a means of increasing resilience in turbulent times.

To be clear, I am certainly not seeking to romanticise genuine material destitution, which everyone recognises as inconsistent with human flourishing. Even in affluent nations like Australia many people still struggle to make ends meet, so counselling such households to ‘simplify’ is neither fair nor useful.   

Furthermore, if radical simplicity were to be imposed upon people suddenly and without anticipation and preparation, most people would doubtless find such dramatic change existentially confronting and distressing – and understandably so. Life satisfaction would likely decline, perhaps significantly.  

But what if, in advance of collapse conditions, households and communities began voluntarily downshifting their material living standards, increasing home-based production and self-sufficiency,sharing more, cutting out superfluous consumption and waste, and preparing for far more austere material futures? 

Affluent culture

In order to thrive in these more austere futures – whether voluntarily embraced or externally imposed – it seems clear that a deep re-evaluation of affluent material culture is required.

High-consumption nations, including Australia, throw out disturbing amounts of food, casually jump on planes as the climate heats up, get deeper into debt buying our favourite consumer gadgets and some of the world’s largest homes, only to store our superfluous stuff in over-crowded garages or support the growing storage industry.  

In a crisis or collapse situation, this form of life could be taken from us in a flash. To increase resilience in the face of this plausible future, we would do well to reimagine the good life beyond consumer culture and explore ways to live well on less – much less.  

Imagine, for example, a life with little discretionary income beyond basic needs, only buying second-hand clothes, never wasting food, and having significant financial pressure to maximise frugality and self-sufficiency in the household. Imagine, that is, having to apply the Depression era slogan: ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.’ Would this necessarily be so bad? 

Or perhaps we have to put a woolen jumper on rather than turning on the heater, or resist the temptation to turn on the air-conditioner in the summer. Perhaps we might find ourselves having to bike to work or take public transport as the price of petrol becomes unaffordable, or to dig up the lawn and maximise food production because the two-income household becomes a one-income household as economic times worsen.

Frugal hedonists 

The interesting thing is that a growing subculture of ‘voluntary simplifiers’ and ‘frugal hedonists’ are choosing these material practices not because they have to, but because they want to.

In other words, they are exchanging superfluous stuff for more time to do things other than consume… and they are finding that it is a good trade. 

Could these people have something necessary to teach broader culture about managing or even thriving in conditions of reduced material abundance? 

It seems a low but sufficient material standard is enough to live a good life, but this requires post-consumerist attitudes to material culture that recognise the limited role of material things in producing human wellbeing. 

As the pioneering environmentalist Henry David Thoreau once wrote: ‘Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only.’ He is one amongst many throughout history who have advocated enlightened material restraint as the pathway to genuine happiness and freedom. 

A prosperous descent? 

The same material living standard can be experienced very differently depending on the ideas and values one brings to experience. Mindfulness matters. Getting those ideas and values right is therefore of critical importance, especially in an age when crisis and collapse are plausible futures.

There are, of course, even more fundamental reasons to embrace the values of frugality and material sufficiency – justice and sustainability. According to the ‘ecological footprint’ analysis, the world would need more than four planets worth of biocapacity if the global population had the same material demands and impacts per capita as Australians. 

This means that moving toward a fair share ‘one planet’ way of life implies significant degrowth in rich nations – that is, planned economic contraction. Embracing a ‘simpler way’, therefore, seems part of any transition to a just, sustainable, and flourishing world. 

From various angles – social, ecological, personal – embracing more frugal ways in advance of recession or collapse seems to be very coherent strategy for building resilience and ensuring that any descent ahead is prosperous.

This Author 

Dr Samuel Alexander is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also co-director of the Simplicity Institute and a research fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute.