The heart-breaking moment a pangolin is brutally killed for its body parts to be sold on the black market, in Assam, north-eastern India is captured in footage released by World Animal Protection and  Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford (WildCRU).

The footage was captured by an undercover researcher on their mobile phone, and shows a terrified pangolin hiding from hunters in a hollowed-out tree clinging for life, as its tail is tugged. 

Pangolins are often referred to as the world’s most trafficked mammal and this footage demonstrates the huge cruelty the animals endure when hunted.

International trafficking

The hunters use axes to cut the tree, but failing to remove the desperate animal, they light a fire to smoke it out. As the pangolin starts to suffocate and lose consciousness it makes a bolt for freedom but is captured, bagged and taken to a hut where the next stage of the ordeal takes place. 

The pangolin is repeatedly bludgeoned with a machete until it can barely move. While bleeding and possibly still alive, it is then thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, where its tragic struggle comes to an end.  

The harrowing clip is part of a two-year study by researchers from World Animal Protection and the University of Oxford, into traditional hunting practices in the state of Assam, that borders Bhutan.

Interviews conducted by researchers with over 140 local hunters found that pangolins were largely targeted for their scales that are sold for a premium, with hunters earning the equivalent of four months’ salary for a single pangolin. 

The hunters from these communities were clearly unaware of the part they are playing in the international trafficking trade. Yet the illegal traders that then sell the animal products across the borders on the black market go on to make a large profit.  

High risk

Pangolin scales are used in traditional Asian medicine particularly in China and Vietnam. The scales are made of keratin, the same material that makes human fingernails and hair, and they have no proven medicinal value. 

Pangolin meat is also considered to be a delicacy in some countries, and the scales are also used as decorations for rituals and jewellery. They are considered to be at high risk of extinction primarily as a result of illegal1 poaching.  

Dr. Neil D’Cruze, Global Wildlife Advisor at World Animal Protection and lead researcher said:  “Suffocated with smoke, beaten and boiled alive – this is a terrifying ordeal and Pangolins clearly suffer immensely.  

“This footage shines a spotlight on how shocking the practice of hunting pangolins truly is. Not only is this a major conservation issue it’s a devastating animal welfare concern. If we want to protect pangolins from pain and suffering in the countries they come from, we need to tackle the illegal poaching trade” 

Lucrative catch

Professor David Macdonald, WildCRU, Department of Zoology, Oxford University said “Increasing demand driven by traditional Asian medicine is making pangolins a lucrative catch.   It’s easy to see why they are being commercially exploited, as scales from just one pangolin can offer a life changing sum of money for people in these communities, but it’s in no way sustainable. Wild pangolin numbers are beginning to plummet.”  

Reliable estimates of how many pangolins remain in the wild are lacking, although it is thought that over a million individual pangolins were taken from the wild between 2000, and 2013. There are eight species of pangolin, all of which are considered threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.  

World Animal Protection works tirelessly to prevent cruelty to animals around the world. Although it is well documented that pangolins are being hunted and trafficked, until now, the immense suffering and cruelty that these animals endure when they are hunted has remained relatively overlooked.  

To combat the global trade in their bodies and scales, and to protect pangolins from the unimaginable suffering they endure we are calling for:  

– Strong enforcement of national and international laws  

– Removal of pangolins from the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China – the traditional medicine handbook for the industry  

– Investment in and promotion of herbal and synthetic alternatives   

– Combined and coordinated efforts by governments, NGOs and the traditional Asian medicine community to eliminate consumer demand for pangolin-based traditional Asian medicines, particularly in China and Vietnam   

– Support for alternative livelihoods, alleviation of poverty and education programmes within rural communities wherever pangolins are found globally, to stop the slaughter.  

This Author 

Marianne Brooker is a commissioning editor for The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from World Animal Protection. 

The 10 countries along the River Nile are set to bring in a shared water and weather monitoring system next year, to promote efficient water use and inform water-sharing negotiations.

An idea first mooted in 2010, the “hydromet” system has been slow to materialize, due to funding shortfalls and political tensions.

Officials at the Nile Basin Initiative told Climate Home News they are ready to start installing equipment in late 2019, subject to resolving legal issues.

Riparian states

“The system will help us to know how much water is available and where, to enable us have a water accountability system,” NB river basin management specialist Mohsen Alarabawy said. “This will help to enrich the dialogue we are having on cooperation.”

The plan, according to a draft work programme, is to establish 53 hydrological stations in select areas in the 10 countries, plus a central database for capturing and storing the observations.

This information will be shared with all the governments, to help them monitor changes in rainfall and water consumption, improve climate change adaptation plans, and prepare for climate-linked hazards like floods and droughts.

The longest river in the world, the Nile drains around 10% of the African continent. Its catchment area is shared by Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, and DR Congo.

That makes the river a theme for political interaction and more than once has jolted relations of riparian states that share the river with distinct variations, uses and interests.

Environmental degradation

Egypt and Ethiopia, and sometimes Sudan are the usual warring parties over the river’s waters; they have been at loggerheads since 2011, when Ethiopia started building the 6.5-gigawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, set to be the largest dam in Africa.

While each country along the river has some hydromet capacity, NBI studies have found substantial gaps in the monitoring infrastructure.

“There are hydrologically important areas of the basin that are poorly monitored due to inadequate monitoring network; many monitoring stations are poorly equipped – some not operational for quite substantial periods of their history since establishment; many stations are not equipped with modern instruments that ensure more precise data collection and continuous and timely transmission of data,” one NBI brief reads.

Alarabawy said the system installation is expected to start later next year after officials from all countries have met to thrash out issues like how the regional database will communicate with national systems. A summit was planned in Kampala late last month but was indefinitely deferred due to organisational hiccups.

The pressures over the river are rising every day, with high population growth, climate change, infrastructure development, and environmental degradation.

Water quotas

The World Bank and European Union are funding establishment of the hydromet system.

The two development partners have also been pushing the riparian countries to strike a middle ground on the new Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) that espouses equitable utilisation of the river, and seeks to replace the colonial agreements that granted Egypt and Sudan veto powers on how other countries use the river’s waters. The CFA was adopted in Entebbe in 2010.

The CFA was signed by Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi and Kenya to work towards attaining a greater share of the Nile shares, but Egypt and Sudan declined, insisting on the colonial-era agreements which grants them bigger shares of the Nile water.

In 1929 Britain (then colonizing, and on behalf of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) negotiated an agreement granting Egypt 75% share (55.5 billion cubic meters), and in 1959 negotiated another agreement granting Sudan 25% (18.5 billion cubic meters) of the river’s total flow, on the assumption that the upstream countries can rely on other sources like rain or underground aquifers.

According to these older deals, upstream countries cannot undertake any activities, say irrigation or dam construction, which could significantly affect Egypt’s or Sudan’s allocated water quotas without first notifying and presenting detailed impact studies to Cairo.

Booming population

Uganda’s permanent secretary in the ministry of water and environment, Alfred Okot Okidi, described the hydromet as “a step in the right direction”. It will help to build on the ongoing discussions for a better water-sharing regime and better prepare of climatic variations like floods and drought, which are prevalent in the basin, he said.

According to the last published State of the Nile Basin report, the Nile Basin is highly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming owing to a multiplicity of factors, and the basin communities have limited ability to cope with the negative impacts of climate variability.

“Nile flows are very sensitive to small changes in average basin rainfall, but the Nile Basin consists of a number of distinct sub-basins that each respond quite differently to possible climatic variations,” the 2012 report says.

The senior regional climate changer advisor on trans-boundary water cooperation in the Nile basin at the German development agency, Michael Menker Girma told CHN: “You can look at the hydromet in two aspects: one, the climate change variability, and two we don’t have a regional/African model for climate change projects so having such data can help us to have a starting point, like in this case specifically on the Nile.”

While climate variability is an issue of concern, Girma said the basin’s main problem is the booming population in all countries, which means pressure on available water means in the not-so-distant future, and the decline in water quality due to increased pollution and urbanisation.

“The system will help in knowing how much water is available: if countries work together towards how it is used, they can use it efficiently,” Girma said.

This Article

This Article first appeared on Climate Home News. It was produced as part of an African reporting fellowship supported by Future Climate for Africa.

There are the rumblings of rebellion across the world. From the bridges of London where ordinary people want to be arrested to the schools of Australia where pupils are striking. The shared aim of these groups is averting climate catastrophe.

The ‘green revolution’ with its utopian ideal of a transition to a low carbon economy – where all are winners with a cleaner economy and green pounds in our pocket – has been joined by the far from utopian ‘Extinction Rebellion’ – demanding immediate action. 

Aside from traffic delays causing comedian Jim Davidson extreme frustration, can the call for rebellion be justified?

Social justice 

The debate about climate has moved on from the false balance of ‘science’ and ‘denial’ to one about rights and power – the essence of a rebellion. The democratic process has failed to deliver real solutions to the issues. This necessitates more direct political engagement – the right to protest and rebel.

The rights of younger people – and future citizens – are being eroded and oppressed by the current political and economic masters of our planet. This is typified by the rise of populist politicians, such as President Trump, who makes a virtue of feeling secure financially in the short term at the expense of long-term environmental insecurity. 

We stand at an interesting crossroads in the way we talk about climate. My friends and colleagues are returning from holidays with their children boiling with anger about the immediacy of the risks of climate change and the costs their offspring will have to pay for our lack of action.

Adair Turner (a former guardian of financial stability as head of the Financial Services Authority) can say on BBC radio that he ‘shares the aims’ of the Extinction Rebellion, whilst also promoting the benefits of the transition to a low-carbon economy.  

At Abundance we also promote the positive opportunity of investment in clean energy technologies and the idea that green economic growth can boost social justice. But is that enough to produce the change we need?

Fiduciary duty

Arguably the human right that is most constrained and eroded has been our right to control our money. Democracy is not only about exercising political will and rights, it is also about access to and control of financial capital.

In the case of climate change, financial capital is a claim on the future and how we exercise those claims has a direct impact on the rights of future generations.

Conventional wisdom is that ‘fiduciary duty’ is to protect our pensions and our investments no matter what the long-term cost to the planet.

We have become a society that promotes stability above all else, especially financial stability. The oxymoron is that it creates runaway climate change, resulting in the destruction of the environment and natural resources upon which we depend as a species. 

Our system of money is far from democratic. Institutions like pension funds are accountable to governments and officials rather than directly to the electorate, despite the fact that their decisions impact our economic future.

Although, they are sensitive to their reputations for looking after the financial interests of ‘the people’ and we are starting to see some movement in the right direction.

Evaluating risk 

Financial rebellion is no longer a simple case of ‘moving your money’, it is about campaigning for reform of the financial system, which must also include what the wealth accountants refer to as ‘natural capital’ and what we call our shared home. 

We need to shift our focus from counting our trillions in the present – using clever accounting tricks to justify asset valuations – to evaluating the risk of those assets to and from climate change. 

So yes, we need to resist and rebel. While humans are betting on the future of the planet, you might want to check whether you are betting against yourself and the health and wellbeing of future generations. 

This Author 

Bruce Davis is managing director of Abundance Investment, which advertises with The Ecologist.

Jade is the diamond of the East. A fast-growing, high-income class in China – who often cherish mystical values associated with jade – are causing a booming demand for jade. In the shadows of this jade-rush, hellish stories emerge from the depths of the jade mines in Myanmar.

Just this year, a landslide caused by the jade mining activity in Myanmar killed 17 people. At least 113 – and maybe as many as 200 – workers died in another accident in 2015.

Working conditions in the mines are so dire that in order to endure the harsh conditions, most miners become heroin addicts. Rivers are polluted and vast swaths of pristine jungle are levelled through illegal land grabs, using intimidation and violence.

Blood jade

Myanmar produces around 70 percent of the world’s jadeite, a variety of jade. Jadeite deposits found in Myanmar’s northern regions are considered to be the highest quality jadeite in the world.

The main production site is located in Kachin state, where an ethnic conflict between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Myanmar army has been running for decades. A brutal war is paid for by both sides almost entirely through glamorous jade.

According to a damning Global Witness report released by in 2015, the jade industry is mostly controlled by “[old junta] military elite, US-sanctioned drug lords and crony companies” while “very few revenues reach the people of Kachin State […] or the population of Myanmar as a whole”.

Global Witness names and shames the families of former dictator Than Shwe and two generals. They also estimate that the value of the industry was about USD 31 billion in 2014, or nearly half of Myanmar’s official GDP.

The largest importer is China. Global Witness asks: is this the biggest natural resources heist in modern history?

Did the report have any impact on the ground? Maybe it had. In 2016, the government announced a suspension of the mining until a new law on gemstones is passed. In 2017, a draft was published. But people in Kachin state say it still doesn’t take local interests into account.

The bigger picture

Arnim Scheidel, an ecological economist from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has been studying social and environmental conflicts in Myanmar as part of a European research project that studies and contributes to the global environmental justice movement.

He says that the conflict for jade is a big one, but at the same time only one of many struggles for environmental justice in Myanmar:

Mining, agribusiness, logging and so forth finances the interests of Myanmar’s powerful elites. Pressure on the country’s resources increased with the recent opening to foreign investment. Locals tend to lose access to land and to a healthy environment to live in. Civil society argues that aggressive resource extraction in historic conflict zones threatens ceasefire agreements and the country’s fragile peace. They demand to return resource control to local groups and call for a moratorium on large-scale extraction projects until the country achieves stability.

The almost exclusive availability of valuable stones in the middle of a minority ethnic area in a not that democratic country seems to be a very potent mix for violent conflict.

According to Global Witness, jade is the main source of income for the Kachin Independence Organization – aside from being almost half of Myanmar’s economy.

After 17 years of ceasefire, fighting re-erupted in June 2011, displacing an estimated 90,000 people by September 2012 and killing hundreds.

From artisanal to industrial mining

Until not so long ago, finding jade was a relatively low impact artisanal mining activity. Looking for surface coloration, checking the sound by tapping with metal tools and feeling subtle rock differences while rocks are submerged in water were common methods to find jade.

Now, the Myanmar Gems Enterprise simply uses heavy machinery to cut through big boulders to reveal pockets of jade. The heavy-handed approach has taken over, both towards the stones and towards the communities who happen to live in the area where jade is found.

The story of jade from the mines of Myanmar is one of fulfilling the fantasies of rich consumers who don’t care about human rights or the environment.

It is also an example of how an officially communist state, China, is now making the same “consumer-is-king” mistake that has been cherished and created since capitalism took root in the West.

But whether the consumer comes from China, The West or elsewhere: the slogan that the consumer is not king is in urgent need of a graphic warning message that the consumer also kills.

This Author

Nick Meynen is a geographer, author of Frontlines. Stories of Global Environmental Justice (now in Dutch, English forthcoming) and policy officer at the European Environmental Bureau. He’s also a regular contributor to The Ecologist.

The author benefited from a case study in the Environmental Justice Atlas written by Laura Villadiego.

On an unseasonably hot mid-September Friday afternoon, more than 100 pastoralists drive their cattle to Kobebe dam to drink, jostling for space.

The dam in Moroto district, northeastern Uganda, attracts herders with cows, goats, sheep, donkeys and camels from far and wide. Up to 5 million animals a day drink and graze nearby.

Simon Lomonyang trekked 50 kilometres here with his cattle from neighbouring Amudat district, and plans on staying for a week as he and his sons pondered their next move.

Aid workers

“I don’t think I will go back home soon,” the father of five says, in between barking orders to his sons as they herd their 40 head of cattle. “I came here for water, but there is not enough pasture so I have to go to another area but we don’t know where.”

With conditions getting worse, Lomonyang foresees his sons and grandsons traveling even longer distances in search of good grazing land.

This is part of Karamoja, a hotspot for climate change impacts bordering on Kenya and South Sudan.

For decades, the sub-region has been stereotyped, marginalised, and ostracized, seen by the rest of the country as a no-go zone. Although that is changing, thanks in part to a steady flow of donor-funded recovery programmes, the journey to walk remains long.

Far from the urban centres, bustling with aid workers, out here the people face a double tragedy: extreme climate variations and chronic poverty.

Carelessly implemented

During rainy seasons rivers flood, gardens are submerged and roads are cut off for days.

When the sun shines shines, pastoral communities roam – sometimes across the border to Kenya – in search of water for their animals. Competition for grazing land has often sparked conflict between rival tribes.

Since the 1960s, average temperatures in the region have risen by 1.3C, while the number of extreme hot days increased 20-28 percent.

In the last twenty years, a plethora of development programmes have aimed to boost Karamoja’s prospects, variously focusing on health, education, infrastructure, livelihood restoration, food security and climate change.

But they are not always well received. “Most have been carelessly implemented,” complains Francis Kiyonga, a local councillor in Amudat district.

Dynamics

“We cannot talk about policies while structures for implementation of the projects are lacking,” Kiyonga says.  

“Most of the activities, including sensitisation of people about what needs to be done, are thriving in district towns/urban centres but you go down [in Amudat] and talk about climate change, the majority of the people are clueless, and yet they are the most at risk.”

During the recent 2017-18 drought, Kiyonga said the entire Karamoja sub-region lost 2,000 head of cattle “and if pastoralists had not moved to areas with water, more heads would have died”.

The government promotes valley dams as a way of conserving water. They are a partial solution, but their long-term viability is doubtful.

Kobebe’s construction in 2011 certainly changed the dynamics of the area.

Valley tanks

Pastoralists who previously migrated downriver to Teso sub-region in times of drought, clashing with its regular inhabitants, can instead camp out by the reservoir.

But there is another source of tension: the water source attracts herders from Turkana, across the border in Kenya. The Ugandan military is usually on standby.

While the dam offers a buffer against variable rainfall, its usefulness still depends on the weather. Already in the extreme droughts of 2014 and 2015, the 2.3 billion-litre capacity Kobebe reservoir dried up completely and the dam started cracking. As temperatures rise, water stored in this way will evaporate more quickly.

The Ugandan government has secured €20 million ($23m) from the German government, through the seven-member Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), to build three large valley dams in Moroto, Kotido, and Kaabong.

Separately the €150m ($170m) multi-sectoral Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (Dinu), funded by the EU, German, British and Ugandan governments, will bring smaller ‘valley tanks’ to each parish in Amudat and Moroto.

Pastoralists

District officials questioned whether this was the most appropriate intervention, grumbling to CHN about a lack of consultation on the ground. Researchers from Nairobi and Makerere universities found in a 2014 studymost valley dams had little community buy-in and as a result were poorly managed.

European Union officials in Kampala referred the matter to the Uganda authorities for comment. Ugandan officials insisted wide-ranging consultations were carried out in all areas set to benefit from the project.

Those complaining are “selfish individuals,” they said, who want specifically tailored programmes for their areas that resources don’t permit.

Officials also indicated that consultations on the Igad-funded project are ongoing.

Climate change impacts are compounded by other environmental problems. Trees are being cut down for fuel faster than they regrow. Pastoralists periodically burn the bush as a method of pest control. Lately, there has been a surge in mining activity.

Chebet Maikut, head of climate change in the ministry of water and environment, said government and development partners were pursuing measures like tree-planting too. As temperatures continue to rise, though, it is a race against time.

“Karamoja and the entire cattle corridor (from south western Uganda to the north east) are already on the brink,” Maikut said. “Any increase in temperatures, as it is expected, however minor it gets, will just shatter livelihoods.”

This Article

This Article first appeared on Climate Home News.

You can tell when it is winter in Hanoi – the country’s Northern capital – because everyone is wrapped up in puffer jackets, hats and scarves; hands are pushed deeply into pockets, elbows are kept straight and chins are tucked firmly into chests. 

The only conversations seem to be: “It’s cold; so cold!” This means temperatures have dropped below 20⁰C. 

Meanwhile, I browse pictures from home (England) – no doubt at some point there will be widespread snow across the country. My social media feeds will fill with pictures of snowmen and wooded landscapes wonderfully buried under a few inches of the white stuff. 

Cool humidity 

In the UK — and I’m sure in any cold or colder countries — we keep warm. A brisk venture out into the freeze before rushing back inside to an open log fire, mulled wine, hot whisky, carpet, slippers and so on. It’s the cool humidity of a Hanoi winter that penetrates you. Tiled floors, lofty rooms, no heating. All abodes are built with the intention of keeping out the searing summer’s heat, but no consideration for keeping in the warmth during the winter months.  

I get a call: “Do you want to come on a mission?” I am asked, “…up to the mountains in the north, to Sin Ho?”

“Well yes, but I’m busy complaining about the winter in Hanoi – surely it’s going to be bitterly cold up there?” 

Never one to turn an adventure down, I pack my warmest clothing and not before long we catch the night train north. The task in hand turns out to be shooting videos and taking photographs of some trees, my favouritekind of job.

My good friend sells produce in Hanoi from the ethnic minorities that reside in and around Sa Pa, she also sells walnuts from Sin Ho province (Two of Vietnam’s most northern provinces).

Splendor and spoil 

A rather bizarre scenario had emerged, in which an ugly social media activity had led to a slander of the walnut harvesters in the north. We sought to redress some balance in a very negative situation.

We set off on our motorbikes from Sa Pa: an Englishman, a Kinh Vietnamese and two Red Dao women – all wrapped up under many layers of warm clothing and head out into the near freezing fog. 

It’s approximately a 120km drive and will probably take most of the day. Visibility is down to just a few meters, my sight is instantly impaired by thick droplets of water on my eyelashes, and the temperature is so low it immediately breaches every item of protection. I wonder if we will make it there by the end of the day. 

Riding out of Sa Pa we pass the contrastingsplendor and spoil, one moment a glorious waterfall, the next a mountain munching cement factory or limestone quarry. 

We pass Mount Fansipan, Indochina’s highest peak at 3.143 meters, and ride out onto Tram Ton Pass, Vietnam highest road at 1900 meters. This pass is known as Heaven’s Gate, and we are soon to discover why.

Stunning peaks 

As we rise out of the murk — in bright sunlight above the clouds and fog — the views of the unfolding hills ahead enthral majestically. 

Unlike the valleys of Sa Pa, with their quintessential rice terraces, these lands are much more desolate. The sheer scarps and steep blankets of forest remain uninhabited by man. I ponder what might live up there, high above these roads.

Towards lunchtime we descend down a corkscrew road to catch the first glimpses of the mountain city of Lai Chau, nestled amidst stunning limestone peaks. We pause to refuel both our motorbikes and ourselves and soon press on. 

By chance we seem to have taken the old road to Sin Ho and are treated to further glorious ascents and consequent descents; at times the route deteriorates into mere muddy tracks. Just before sunset we eventually arrive at our destination.

We are greeted by our Black Dao hostesses and are quickly taken out to be shown some walnut trees before the sun fully sets. Somehow I had imagined orchards of the aforementioned trees, but contrary to my preconceptions we are taken to various farmsteads and small holdings where clusters of the walnut trees remain. 

In the recent past these trees were presumed to have little or no value, and many were felled. As new markets have opened up in Hanoi and even as far south as Ho Chi Minh City, their worthiness has been revaluated. 

New saplings are being planted, fresh grafts are being made. The Black and Yellow Walnut trees of Sin Ho live on.

Fairy tales

The following morning we rise early and are taken to a magical site in the middle of one of the villages. We climb a small hill and I am surprised to find three large stone tablets, one written in Vietnamese, one in Hmong-Dao and one in pigeon English. 

The story tells of an earth fairy that flew in the sky and visited this village. It left behind an umbrella that became encased in stone. It has become a spiritual alter for the local people and is a wonderful start to the day.

Soon we are back on our bikes and off to another neighbouring village. These tiny settlements host a curious assemblage of ethnic minorities: the Flower Hmong, Blue Hmong, Black Hmong, Lu, Black Dao and Red Dao. 

For me, with fairy tales in my mind, it as if I’m in some wonderland – truly magical landscapes reveal themselves. This is some of the most unspoilt and original Vietnam I think I have encountered. 

Glorious fanfare

We reach our final destination and boldly ascend a rocky track through an idyllic community; dogs are barking, cockerels crowing, piglets squealing – a glorious fanfare for our parade. 

At the highest point and at the very end of the village and here proudly stands a magnificent walnut tree; coated in mosses, lichens, ferns and bromeliads – as if to quantify its age.

My colleagues make their videos; I take my photos. All is overseen by an elderly couple peering over their fence. 

Come, come and tell us your tale – the elders are invited. The old man disappears briefly and returns wearing a black beret and a loosely knotted tie – smartened for his camera appearance. He relates how this very tree has always generously given great yields of black walnuts, since his birth – in 1933. 

I stand, lost in my own thoughts, and deliberate what it must be like to have lived with and known a single tree for 84 years.

This Author 

Grant J Riley is a writer, photographer and freelance ecologist from the south-west of England.  He is the author of A Journal from the End of Times and Marginal. 

Young activists of the UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) sent a letter to the UK Government calling for a meeting with the Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry, to vocalise their concerns over plans for fracking.

Unsurprisingly, they were met with diplomatic silence, with Claire declining a meeting or subsequent engagement, due to a ‘busy schedule’.

Yet in a twist or irony this very same ‘busy schedule’ allowed Claire to meet with INEOS, Shell and Caudrilla among others in April this year, prior to key fracking proposals being pushed through.

Undeterred, UKYCC has today re-launched its campaign to amplify its volume. They are calling on those concerned about fracking and impending climate chaos to sign their petition.

In doing this simple ask, they will send the same letter that fell on deaf ears on your behalf individually signed.

The effect will be to send hundreds of letters (on recycled paper, ofcourse) to Claire Perry, to physically demonstrate the power of small action, and the widespread resistance to Goverment’s aversion to honouring its climate commitments. 

The campaign, already signed by Young Friends of the Earth Europe and Climate Action Network, has already gained significant traction, most recently endorsed by the Incredible Hulk, Mark Ruffalo. 

However, the campaign seems to have eluded the one place it was physically signed, sealed and delivered: Westminster.

In this strange Westminster world where ‘time’ and ‘priority’ become conflated – with both in equal shortage – the UK Youth call again for their voices to be heard.

Chirsty McFadyen, a campaigner in the UKYCC gas campaign said: “When you push fracking through, you frack OUR futures. Fracking is not compatible with our needs.

“Climate change is the most important issue for young people today. Far from being the minority you claim, we are many.”

And with the campaign growing in size and recognition, she’s not wrong.  

This Author

Katie Hodgetts coordinates the UK Youth Climate Coalition’s 2018 campaign against gas. More information can be found at @ukycc and Katie tweets personally at @katiehodgettssx 

If you feel passionate about a clean, fair, future, then sign the petition send your own photo with the hashtag #DoYouEvenCareClaire to hello@ukycc.org.

Until recently, standing in a road and risking arrest seemed a strange and frightening proposition.

A week of training with Extinction Rebellion (XR) gave me the trust and reassurance I needed to participate in my first direct action: the  blockade of Blackfriars Bridge. 

The bridge protests taught me that – taken bravely and honorably – climate change has the power to bring us together in a united purpose that might just be enough to mitigate catastrophe. 

Euphoric disbelief 

The police are standing at the pedestrian crossing on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge, waiting for us. It’s 11:01, 2 minutes to go. Janie, our group leader, is pretending to read the bus timetable on a nearby lamppost. Nicola and Paul are chatting on a bench.

Tim and I loiter at the corner of some stone steps, our eyes flicking from the pedestrian crossing to each other’s frightened faces. It’s too late to go back. We have to go through with it now. 

Some passersby are approaching the crossing. The green man flashes. Now Janie is moving, she’s standing in the middle of the lane alone, both arms out.

We’re hurrying in to join her in a confused huddle that morphs in to a sheepish line. Most of us sit down behind the line and link arms. The police calmly surround us, but make no move to disrupt the roadblock. 

Down here on the tarmac our fear has dissipated and we are in a moment of euphoric disbelief, as though flying. We feel a rush of joy at the absurdity of it all. We turn to each other grinning. More are coming and we have a crowd of 30, 40 people. A man is playing the harmonica, a young boy is sitting in a camping chair, we’re chanting: “Whose future? Our future! Whose children? Our children! Whose bridge? OUR BRIDGE!”

Training day

I have never been a rebel. Never skived school, done drugs or faked an ID. As an eco-firebrand at college I worked hard to improve the recycling policy and organise lectures on hot environmental issues. I certainly never imagined breaking the law.

On the morning of the Extinction Rebellion training I was somewhat cagey. At the door a bearded man greeted me with a jovial “Here to rebel?” to which I replied, “Yes well, maybe.”

Who was I associating with here? What manner of radicals might have flocked from the edges of society to revolt against the British government?  

Inside however, I found to my relief that most people had, like me, stepped out of fairly conventional lives. My first conversation was with an ice-cream seller from Southbourne, then with a gardener from Cambridge, and a planner from a London borough council. We all felt compelled to act, but unsure of what that might mean.

After an introduction we were organized for the coming week’s protests. First we were put in to ‘affinity groups’ of twelve people. Then we did some role-play exercises for roadblocks such as confronting angry motorists, being interviewed by reporters, and dragging each other round the floor in mock-arrest. Later we had a legal briefing. 

Building trust 

Despite, or perhaps because of the cringy role-play, a rare sense of comradeship developed in that room. Many of us, like me, felt vulnerable in taking direct action, and we bonded as I can only imagine a squadron would before combat.  

Besides comradeship, there was also a mounting consciousness of impending catastrophe that was almost too much to bear. Several people spontaneously broke in to tears throughout the day.

It seemed a surreal dream in which we had to accept the end of human civilization, or get ourselves locked up in police cells. How had it come to this?

On the day, Blackfriars Bridge lay before us, empty and glinting in the sunshine. Our group left the pedestrian crossing and strode out on the empty road. On the horizon we saw our mirror image approaching us from where they had blockaded the north side and great cheers erupted. 

Encamped in the middle of the bridge we felt like an island of hope, basking in the sunshine, surrounded by the hazy silhouettes of London’s towers and cathedrals. It felt as though we had already won. Climate change was sorted. We could go home.  

Dire trajectory 

As a child of the 90s, I’ve long had ecological crisis looming at the back of my mind. I remember one night, aged about 8, watching a news story about the disappearance of the Aral Sea. I lay awake for many hours seeing the dry lake bottom on the inside of my eyelids. Aged about 14 we were shown ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in biology class. I spent the rest of the day in numb horror. 

At university I took a class on climate modelling with an IPCC scientist. What was alarming was not what was known about climate change, but what wasn’t.

There was an awareness of tipping points such as rainforest dieback, but none of the models were accurate enough to predict all of the feedbacks from all of the components like clouds, oceans, forests, and soils. They were still a work in progress. It felt that climate change would outstrip our understanding. 

After graduating I became disillusioned that academia was going to solve the climate crisis, and moved home to Scotland where I worked on farms and eventually set up my own veg box scheme. 

But there is no hiding from climate change. For three years we had bizarrely cold summers and mild winters. Each chilly July afternoon, or warm November breeze substantiated to me what I learned about our dire trajectory. 

In contrast to the growing despair inside my head, the conversation about the unusual weather was still small talk. I felt burdened by the unspoken truth. It made me terse when friends announced long distance flights and incredulous when they spoke about long term plans. 

Surging energy

As nothing proportionate was being done about climate change, I started to accept that the ecosystem would collapse, and vaguely hoped that there would still be time for life to restore its complexity before the sun exploded in 5 billion years.

In my own life planning I found myself veering away from centres of population and considering which remote corners of Scotland might be the last to descend in to anarchy when food supplies ran out. I was slipping in to an attitude of hopeless, miserable survivalism.  

Then came Extinction Rebellion. It felt to me as George Monbiot said on Blackfriars Bridge that day: “Something I have been waiting for, for a very long time is happening”. 

After some hours of moving speeches and jubilant dancing we saw, coming along the north side of the Thames, an army of flag-waving protestors fronted with a green banner. It was the Southwark blockaders.

The thrill of seeing these reinforcements coming over the bridge was electric. On we all marched to the Waterloo blockade, where the great surge of fresh energy was repeated and then repeated again at Westminster Bridge, and in Parliament Square where Lambeth contingent joined us. Life was at that moment was full of a real sense of purpose, heroism, and love for everyone there. 

Honest conversations

I was worried about the idea of going back to the frustration and paranoia of facing climate change alone. But Extinction Rebellion has already given me a talking point to open up more honest conversations about climate change.

Through posting about the protests on Facebook several friends back in Scotland are now interested in creating a local group. The fear I had been carrying has been converted in to community energy.

This is a frightening time we live in, as sentient beings aware of our own potential extinction. Yet on that bridge, I had never been so fully aware of this precarious point in human history, and yet so joyful.

This Author 

Megan Albon is is a market gardener from Aberdeenshire. She studied geography at Cambridge University and was a Hechel Smith Scholar at Harvard University, before making a quick U-turn away from academia to take up growing vegetables. She lives in Aberdeenshire, with far too many pets. 

The names given in this article have been changed. 

British trophy hunters brought home two tonnes of elephant tusks from Africa over the past decade, new figures show.

Nearly 400 ‘trophies’ from the world’s most endangered animals have been brought into Britain by hunters in recent years.

A motion calling for an urgent ban on trophy imports has now won the support of MPs from the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dem, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Green Party, and Democratic Unionist Party.

Risk of extinction 

The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting said UN figures showed that the most popular trophies for UK hunters included elephants, lions, leopards and rhinoceroses – all of which are included in Appendix I of CITES, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. Appendix I animals are considered to be at greatest risk of extinction.

Other Appendix I animals killed by British trophy hunters include cheetahs, Nile crocodiles, zebras and caracals.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, criticised the loophole in CITES which currently allows trophy hunters to kill the world’s most endangered animals.

“I’m totally opposed to trophy hunting and to the importing of animals that have been killed for trophy hunting. CITES needs to include trophy hunting because we have to protect animals that are facing extinction,“ he said.

Bill Oddie, the Conservationist and broadcaster, said trophy hunting was putting increasing pressure on vulnerable wildlife.

He added: “When you’ve got a scattered, dwindling population, the loss of a handful of animals doesn’t just cause a ripple effect – it can be like a tsunami wave.

“Trophy hunting has always been senseless cruelty. Letting people kill them because they think it’s entertaining is just insane, especially when you’re talking about wildlife with such a vulnerable status”.

International action

Zac Goldsmith is one of a number of leading Conservatives calling for a ban, and has now tabled a motion in Parliament which has won cross-party support.

He said: “I find it amazing that anyone would take any kind of pleasure from shooting one of these magnificent creatures – elephants, lions, even rhinos. It makes no sense to me at all at any level.“

Sir Ed Davey MP, the former Lib Dem minister, called for new laws to be introduced.

He said claims by trophy hunters that the ‘sport’ helped fund wildlife conservation and poverty eradication programmes were deliberately misleading. “Trophy hunting should be banned across the world, and that ban should be enforced very strongly,” he argued.

“It’s completely wrong that we’re allowing people to kill animals, particularly endangered species. The argument that it’s good for local communities is completely bogus. The money goes to the rich people, and we could actually help communities far better by promoting nature tourism.”

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP,  said the government had failed to follow through on a 2015 promise to ban lion trophy imports.

She pointed to the examples of Australia, France and the Netherlands where trophy imports have been banned: “Our government is supposed to be doing something about this. They pledged to make a start by banning the imports of lion trophies.

“But even on this they haven’t implemented it. Every year there’s an average of 242 animal trophies coming back into the UK We’re calling on the government to step up to follow the lead from other countries who have banned all trophy hunting imports.”

Hunting expeditions

Eduardo Gonçalves, from the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said the public would be shocked to learn both that British trophy hunters were deliberately killing endangered animals and bringing in elephant tusks, and that the law allowed them to do it.

He said: “Over the last decade, UK hunters have brought home over 2500 trophies, of which nearly 400 were from some of the most endangered species on the planet.

“UK hunters have killed literally hundreds of elephants, hippos, leopards, zebras and lions – and then brought home their trophies and body parts for show.

“As well as tusks and mounted trophies, U.K. hunters bring home ‘souvenirs’ from their elephant-hunting expeditions that include trunks, feet, ears and tails.”

Uncontrolled slaughter 

Gonçalves accused the trophy hunting industry of deliberately encouraging the large-scale killing of rare wildlife. 

“The Safari Club International ‘Global Hunting Award’ challenges hunters to kill a minimum of 12 species in Africa. Their ‘Cats of the World’ prize is handed to those who kill a lion, leopard, cheetah, jaguar, cougar and several other big cats.

“Its other awards include the infamous ‘Africa 29’ which is given to hunters who kill no fewer than 29 different wildlife species. This is grotesque, uncontrolled slaughter on a massive scale, and it’s pushing threatened species to the brink of extinction”.

He added that the loopholes in wildlife protection laws were being exploited by poachers posing as trophy hunters. 

“Many people think the hunting of endangered wildlife is banned. In fact trophy hunters are exempted from CITES. It’s an extraordinary loophole that poachers are taking advantage of. Around 300 rhino horns are known to have been exported by phoney trophy hunters between 2009-2014 alone.

“The government wants to be seen as a global leader on wildlife and animal welfare. If it’s serious about this, it should commit to an immediate ban on imports. This is an area where Michael Gove will find there is strong public support for decisive action.”

For the SNP, Tommy Sheppard MP said: “It’s disgraceful in the modern age that we allow people to indulge in the slaughter of wild animals purely for entertainment.”

Ben Lake MP (Plaid Cymru) added: “I find it abhorrent that anyone would consider killing animals for sport and then to mount them above their mantelpieces as some sort of trophy. I want to see it completely banned. The U.K. as a leading nation can make an important contribution to bringing a global ban

This Author 

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. 

The first study to investigate microplastics around Ascension Island and the Falkland Islands – two of the most remote locations in the South Atlantic Ocean – has found levels of contamination comparable with the waters around the UK.

The research, led by Dr Dannielle Green of Anglia Ruskin University, involved sampling at 11 sites on the Falkland Islands and six sites on Ascension Island, as well as locations in Northern Ireland (Strangford Lough) and South West England (Plymouth Sound).

The study, the results of which have been published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, found high levels of microplastic litter at every site sampled around Ascension Island and the Falklands, with the results including microfibres such as nylon and polyester.

Fishing industry 

Dr Green, Senior Lecturer in Biology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Identifying the source of microplastics is difficult, but some of the fibres found in this study had the appearance of weathered fragments of ropes or fishing nets. 

“The Falklands have a relatively sizeable fishing industry, with an annual catch of around 270,000 tonnes per year, but the same cannot be said of Ascension.

“Ascension Island has a population of less than 1,000 people and is incredibly remote, located 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa and 1,400 miles from South America.  However, we found levels of microplastics comparable, and in some cases greater, than levels found in the waters around mainland UK. 

“Recent studies have found microplastics trapped in Arctic Sea ice and in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.  Our research adds to the evidence implying that ocean currents are carrying microplastics to some of the remotest and least populated parts of the world.”

The study also compared different methods of monitoring microplastics, and found that using a one litre container combined with a fine filter was a more effective method for capturing smaller microplastics.

Research methods

Scientists currently use a variety of nets, such as plankton, bongo and manta nets, but Dr Green believes that the size of the mesh is leading to an underestimation of the concentrations of microplastics in seawater. 

Dr Green added: “We believe that using a standard one litre bottle and a fine filter is an appropriate and effective way to monitor microplastic contamination, and could be coupled with net methods in order to capture the smaller and larger items. 

“It can be added to existing environmental surveys with relatively little effort, and also helps to promote more standardised monitoring in the future.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from Anglia Ruskin University.