Many people who care about climate change often complain that although the issue may get discussed in the inside pages of serious news publications it rarely cuts through to popular culture. For something as momentous as humans threatening the habitability of the only planet suitable for human habitation, climate change hasn’t really had the airtime one would expect.

However, scratch under the surface and we can see that one of the biggest small screen blockbusters of the last few years, Game of Thrones, is an almost perfect metaphor for the politics of the climate crisis.  

The popular adaptation of author George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire has been showing its potential as a modern-day climate fable, but it really hit home last week.

In the seventh season’s third episode, The Queen’s Justice, hero Jon Snow, asks Tyrion Lannister: “How do I convince people who don’t know me that an enemy they don’t believe in is coming to kill them all?” Well quite Jon. We environmentalists feel your pain.

Winter Is Coming

Now this next bit contains a few spoilers (of the TV show, not the fate of the planet) so if you’re planning to catch up with the series you might want to stop reading here.

The threat to which Jon Snow refers are the White Walkers, the spectral horrors from beyond The Wall who command an insatiable army of the undead that are destroying all before them and are threatening the land of Westeros. 

Snow has during a foray north witnessed first-hand their destructive might and now seeks to warn his fellow humans of the danger they are in.  This peril from the icy reaches north of the wall even has a climactic warning: ‘Winter is coming’ caution the members of House Stark.

However, Snow’s desperate pleas and warnings of doom fail to move Dragon Queen Daenerys Targaryen, who has her sights set on conquering Westeros and taking the the Iron Throne from the cruel Cersei Lannister.

An allegorical climate change point

The endless infighting between the various factions of Westeros, at each other’s throats in a bid for power while ignoring the existential threat to the north, feels remarkably similar to the state of global climate politics. Some of the leaders of the great houses even deny the existence of White Walkers altogether.

This echoes the attitude to climate change we now hear from Donald Trump and the leaders in America’s House of Representatives .  As with the global climate fight, the question in Game of Thrones remains: will the Westerosi unite in time to tackle their real foe?

I don’t know if the series is deliberately making an allegorical climate change point but it raises the question about how we best communicate the problem.  

When Jon Snow asks what he can do to convince people of the danger they are in, Tyrion gives the following reply: “People’s minds aren’t made for problems that large. White walkers, the Night King, Army of the Dead, it’s almost a relief to confront a comfortable, familiar monster like my sister.”  

He says of Daenerys: “She’s not about to head north to fight an enemy she’s never seen on the word of a man she doesn’t know. After a single meeting, it’s not a reasonable thing to ask. So, do you have anything reasonable to ask?”

For many people, climate change is too big to fully grasp or feel like they can do anything about it. And like someone drowning in debt and unpaid bills, even if they did, it’s so horrible it’s simpler to try and ignore it and hope the problem goes away. 

The messenger and the message

The debate rages about the best way to communicate climate change, the latest wave most recently sparked by a striking but doom-laden article in New York Magazine.  I think there is a place for the ‘stark’ warning, but it’s important people retain a sense of agency and hope.

The two best things I’ve learned about communicating global warming were from George Marshall of Climate Outreach, who wrote the book Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change.  

First, the messenger is often as important as the message.  Jon Snow’s message might be clear (the White Walkers are coming to kill you all) but it’s not likely that he’s going to convince many people who don’t already believe him to be a trustworthy source.

Likewise, anti-capitalist climate activists are unlikely to be the best messengers to convince centre-right conservatives, however much they shout about climate justice (especially not if their message involves replacing markets with a socialist revolution). 

The second thing is to communicate that acting on climate change doesn’t mean you have to become a sandal wearing hippy. Instead, acting on climate change makes them more like the person they want to be, whether that is a better Muslim, capitalist or grandparent.  

Not everyone wants to identify as an environmentalist and they don’t have to. The Lannisters don’t need to become Starks in order to fight the White Walkers, but they do both need to act.

The fate of Westeros remains up for grabs, as does the human story of climate change.  There is all to play for if we can get the message right.

This Author 

Joe Ware is a journalist and writer at Christian Aid and a New Voices contributor for The Ecologist. Follow him on twitter @wareisjoe.

A crowd-funded project located in a shipping container in South London has ambitious plans to expand nation-wide and change the future of consumption. 

The first Library of Things was set up by three friends who spotted a ‘borrowing shop’ while on a trip to Berlin. Inspired by the idea, they set up a pilot in a library in West Norwood and when this proved a success, they moved to a permanent home in a shipping container. 

Membership is free, and potential borrowers can browse all the products and check availability on the library’s website before loaning them for a small fee, for example, typically between £1-£24 for a two-day loan, with discounts for low-income members.

Crucially, the Library of Things does not stop at lending a product, the organisers can also train borrowers on how to use it. “If you haven’t used tools before then it can boost your confidence in having someone to ask questions from and demonstrate how you use it. You don’t get that with Amazon!” said co-founder Rebecca Trevalyan.

In this way, the library is also performing a social function by saving people money they would otherwise spend on a handyman. The sense of achievement people feel once they’ve learned how to do something themselves is palpable, Trevalyan said, describing a lady who had never used a drill before as “beaming” when she returned it, having put her curtain rail up by herself.

Developing technology

One of the main challenges Trevalyan found in setting up the library was the tendency for many practical products of the type it loans to not be designed for regular use and prone to breakage.

“We’re starting to fill an internal database of go-to products,” she said, mentioning tools manufacturer Bosch, cleaning equipment manufacturer Kärcher, and outdoors companies Berghaus and Patagonia as good examples. 

After a year in operation, the library has 650 members who borrowed more than 1,000 items, with a 35% month-on-month increase in borrowing. A new Library of Things is due to open in nearby Crystal Palace, which has raised more than £8,000 of the £9,000 it needs including donations from the Mayor of London, B&Q and local businesses. Other projects are under development at the Westway in West London and in a community hub in a housing estate in Peterborough. 

Having had hundreds of requests from around the country and abroad for help setting up Libraries of Things, the West Norwood team is also developing technology to help people learn from their experience of setting up the first one, which Trevalyan admits was a “year-long slog”. 

Their ambition is for a network of libraries around the country, with products available 24-7 via lockers using smart technology that people can access on their phones.

“If we get it right, you could borrow a drill where you live, but if you visit your grandmother in another city you can borrow one there too, so it’s all linked up through one platform, you just join the library of things as you would join car share club Zipcar,” she said.  

Allowing people to borrow products in such a way will not only be more convenient for them, but will also free up limited resources of library organisers for other activities such skills sharing events, she added.

“That’s increasingly become our mission, to make borrowing better than buying – more affordable, more convenient and more socially rewarding,” she said.

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and the former deputy editor of the environmentalist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

International support is today pouring in for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) movement defending the interests of the people affected by several big dams in India’s Narmada valley. 

A letter signed by civil society organisations from 29 countries has been sent to Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, asking him to order the reopening of floodgates closed last month. If he doesn’t act, another 192 villages inhabited by some 40,000 families will be deluged between now and the end of this month. 

The NBA movement’s earlier actions resulted in the first ever withdrawal from a dam project by the World Bank – and a sense of some justice served for around 14,000 families. But things have taken a sour turn this summer. 

Local authorities not only decided to unlawfully close the dam’s floodgates in order to store more water, they also arrested hundreds of peacefully demonstrating people under what the protesters claim are false charges. 

The authorities issued a 31 July deadline for locals to move – thus adding around 200,000 to India’s long list of internally displaced people. 

Shoddy tin sheds

In response, twelve people began an indefinite hunger strike on July 27. On Thursday last week they were joined by hundreds of others. 

The vast majority of the 40,000 families who are witnessing the drowning of their homes and communities simply have nowhere to go. The few rehabilitation projects that do exist consist of shoddy tin sheds with no drinking water. 

Sneha Gutgutia, an activist from Kalpavriksh, and supporter of the NBA movement, wrote: “The government claims to respect the traditional and customary practices of the people but it doesn’t even have a plan for resettling the 385 religious sites that will be submerged. ‘If they cannot provide a block for our gods, what resettlement will they do for us?’ is the question villagers are asking.”

Medha Patkar (62), who spearheaded the NBA movement and has won several international awards for her efforts, is on hunger strike. Yesterday was her eleventh day without food and her health was clearly deteriorating. 

Displaced by force

Patkar is just one of many hunger strikers. Yogendra Yadav, Sandeep Pandey, Dr. Sunilam and Alok Agarwal are other participants who have a high profile across India. The hope of the movement is that the Indian government doesn’t want to risk a national – and maybe even international – embarrassment.

To understand the motivation and risk-taking of the Indian hunger strikers, it’s important to look beyond the hundreds of thousands who have been, or are about to be, displaced by force. It’s more about the lack of real rehabilitation, compensation and the massive corruption. 

The Supreme Court of India clearly stated that resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected families has to be complete before any forcible displacement is directed. 

Closing the floodgates is a de facto method of forcible eviction and therefore in contradiction with the court’s order. 

To make things worse, a report from the Justice Shravan Shankar Jha Commission concluded in 2016 that at least 130 to 200 million euro meant for rehabilitation ended up in the pockets of fraudulent middle-men.

It’s about more than a dam

History has shown that this struggle is about a lot more than compensation. It was the NBA movement that eventually led to the formation of the World Commission on Dams. 

The NBA has raised the issues of the rights of indigenous people, advocated for environmental conservation and for the protection of centuries’ old archaeological monuments from submergence.

The NBA has also significantly contributed to the debate around ‘development’: what kind of development do people in India want – and for whom? 

Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning Indian economist, famously said that “development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.” Forced evictions only add to the list of ‘unfreedoms’.

Ashish Kothari, the chairman of Greenpeace India and a long-time NBA ally, explained that the movement is not just against dams.

He told The Ecologist: “What the NBA stands for is an economy that ensures dignified livelihoods, social justice, and ecological sustainability, and in particular an economy that benefits the hundreds of millions of people who have been left behind or displaced by the kind of ‘development’ that the Sardar Sarovar Dam represents.” 

Ashish is also part of the European research project EnvJustice, which expressed its support to the hunger strikers and demands of the NBA movement.

The way forward

The NBA has led the immediate demand to re-open the floodgates. But it has also called for a comprehensive investigation so that villagers made homeless by the dam project are rehoused and compensated before the project begins. This merely implements the orders of the Supreme Court. 

The NBA also demands benefits be paid to farmers, in line with the Supreme Court orders. The movement has also called for the formation of a committee to assess the impact on the environment, rivers and forests by submergence, and also the impacts further downriver.

Noam Chomsky, the philosopher and activist, has expressed support for the NBA petition to Modi, saying action was “essential to ensure the faith of people in non-violent, democratic and constitutional governance and struggle for their rights”. 

Will Modi respond? With hundreds of his citizens in a nationally – and now also globally – publicised hunger strike, we will probably soon find out.

The Ecologist contacted the Indian High Commission in London yesterday but as yet there has been no response.

This Author

Nick Meynen is the Project Officer for Global Policies and Sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau. 

International support is today pouring in for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) movement defending the interests of the people affected by several big dams in India’s Narmada valley. 

A letter signed by civil society organisations from 29 countries has been sent to Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, asking him to order the reopening of floodgates closed last month. If he doesn’t act, another 192 villages inhabited by some 40,000 families will be deluged between now and the end of this month. 

The NBA movement’s earlier actions resulted in the first ever withdrawal from a dam project by the World Bank – and a sense of some justice served for around 14,000 families. But things have taken a sour turn this summer. 

Local authorities not only decided to unlawfully close the dam’s floodgates in order to store more water, they also arrested hundreds of peacefully demonstrating people under what the protesters claim are false charges. 

The authorities issued a 31 July deadline for locals to move – thus adding around 200,000 to India’s long list of internally displaced people. 

Shoddy tin sheds

In response, twelve people began an indefinite hunger strike on July 27. On Thursday last week they were joined by hundreds of others. 

The vast majority of the 40,000 families who are witnessing the drowning of their homes and communities simply have nowhere to go. The few rehabilitation projects that do exist consist of shoddy tin sheds with no drinking water. 

Sneha Gutgutia, an activist from Kalpavriksh, and supporter of the NBA movement, wrote: “The government claims to respect the traditional and customary practices of the people but it doesn’t even have a plan for resettling the 385 religious sites that will be submerged. ‘If they cannot provide a block for our gods, what resettlement will they do for us?’ is the question villagers are asking.”

Medha Patkar (62), who spearheaded the NBA movement and has won several international awards for her efforts, is on hunger strike. Yesterday was her eleventh day without food and her health was clearly deteriorating. 

Displaced by force

Patkar is just one of many hunger strikers. Yogendra Yadav, Sandeep Pandey, Dr. Sunilam and Alok Agarwal are other participants who have a high profile across India. The hope of the movement is that the Indian government doesn’t want to risk a national – and maybe even international – embarrassment.

To understand the motivation and risk-taking of the Indian hunger strikers, it’s important to look beyond the hundreds of thousands who have been, or are about to be, displaced by force. It’s more about the lack of real rehabilitation, compensation and the massive corruption. 

The Supreme Court of India clearly stated that resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected families has to be complete before any forcible displacement is directed. 

Closing the floodgates is a de facto method of forcible eviction and therefore in contradiction with the court’s order. 

To make things worse, a report from the Justice Shravan Shankar Jha Commission concluded in 2016 that at least 130 to 200 million euro meant for rehabilitation ended up in the pockets of fraudulent middle-men.

It’s about more than a dam

History has shown that this struggle is about a lot more than compensation. It was the NBA movement that eventually led to the formation of the World Commission on Dams. 

The NBA has raised the issues of the rights of indigenous people, advocated for environmental conservation and for the protection of centuries’ old archaeological monuments from submergence.

The NBA has also significantly contributed to the debate around ‘development’: what kind of development do people in India want – and for whom? 

Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning Indian economist, famously said that “development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.” Forced evictions only add to the list of ‘unfreedoms’.

Ashish Kothari, the chairman of Greenpeace India and a long-time NBA ally, explained that the movement is not just against dams.

He told The Ecologist: “What the NBA stands for is an economy that ensures dignified livelihoods, social justice, and ecological sustainability, and in particular an economy that benefits the hundreds of millions of people who have been left behind or displaced by the kind of ‘development’ that the Sardar Sarovar Dam represents.” 

Ashish is also part of the European research project EnvJustice, which expressed its support to the hunger strikers and demands of the NBA movement.

The way forward

The NBA has led the immediate demand to re-open the floodgates. But it has also called for a comprehensive investigation so that villagers made homeless by the dam project are rehoused and compensated before the project begins. This merely implements the orders of the Supreme Court. 

The NBA also demands benefits be paid to farmers, in line with the Supreme Court orders. The movement has also called for the formation of a committee to assess the impact on the environment, rivers and forests by submergence, and also the impacts further downriver.

Noam Chomsky, the philosopher and activist, has expressed support for the NBA petition to Modi, saying action was “essential to ensure the faith of people in non-violent, democratic and constitutional governance and struggle for their rights”. 

Will Modi respond? With hundreds of his citizens in a nationally – and now also globally – publicised hunger strike, we will probably soon find out.

The Ecologist contacted the Indian High Commission in London yesterday but as yet there has been no response.

This Author

Nick Meynen is the Project Officer for Global Policies and Sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau. 

International support is today pouring in for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) movement defending the interests of the people affected by several big dams in India’s Narmada valley. 

A letter signed by civil society organisations from 29 countries has been sent to Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, asking him to order the reopening of floodgates closed last month. If he doesn’t act, another 192 villages inhabited by some 40,000 families will be deluged between now and the end of this month. 

The NBA movement’s earlier actions resulted in the first ever withdrawal from a dam project by the World Bank – and a sense of some justice served for around 14,000 families. But things have taken a sour turn this summer. 

Local authorities not only decided to unlawfully close the dam’s floodgates in order to store more water, they also arrested hundreds of peacefully demonstrating people under what the protesters claim are false charges. 

The authorities issued a 31 July deadline for locals to move – thus adding around 200,000 to India’s long list of internally displaced people. 

Shoddy tin sheds

In response, twelve people began an indefinite hunger strike on July 27. On Thursday last week they were joined by hundreds of others. 

The vast majority of the 40,000 families who are witnessing the drowning of their homes and communities simply have nowhere to go. The few rehabilitation projects that do exist consist of shoddy tin sheds with no drinking water. 

Sneha Gutgutia, an activist from Kalpavriksh, and supporter of the NBA movement, wrote: “The government claims to respect the traditional and customary practices of the people but it doesn’t even have a plan for resettling the 385 religious sites that will be submerged. ‘If they cannot provide a block for our gods, what resettlement will they do for us?’ is the question villagers are asking.”

Medha Patkar (62), who spearheaded the NBA movement and has won several international awards for her efforts, is on hunger strike. Yesterday was her eleventh day without food and her health was clearly deteriorating. 

Displaced by force

Patkar is just one of many hunger strikers. Yogendra Yadav, Sandeep Pandey, Dr. Sunilam and Alok Agarwal are other participants who have a high profile across India. The hope of the movement is that the Indian government doesn’t want to risk a national – and maybe even international – embarrassment.

To understand the motivation and risk-taking of the Indian hunger strikers, it’s important to look beyond the hundreds of thousands who have been, or are about to be, displaced by force. It’s more about the lack of real rehabilitation, compensation and the massive corruption. 

The Supreme Court of India clearly stated that resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected families has to be complete before any forcible displacement is directed. 

Closing the floodgates is a de facto method of forcible eviction and therefore in contradiction with the court’s order. 

To make things worse, a report from the Justice Shravan Shankar Jha Commission concluded in 2016 that at least 130 to 200 million euro meant for rehabilitation ended up in the pockets of fraudulent middle-men.

It’s about more than a dam

History has shown that this struggle is about a lot more than compensation. It was the NBA movement that eventually led to the formation of the World Commission on Dams. 

The NBA has raised the issues of the rights of indigenous people, advocated for environmental conservation and for the protection of centuries’ old archaeological monuments from submergence.

The NBA has also significantly contributed to the debate around ‘development’: what kind of development do people in India want – and for whom? 

Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning Indian economist, famously said that “development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.” Forced evictions only add to the list of ‘unfreedoms’.

Ashish Kothari, the chairman of Greenpeace India and a long-time NBA ally, explained that the movement is not just against dams.

He told The Ecologist: “What the NBA stands for is an economy that ensures dignified livelihoods, social justice, and ecological sustainability, and in particular an economy that benefits the hundreds of millions of people who have been left behind or displaced by the kind of ‘development’ that the Sardar Sarovar Dam represents.” 

Ashish is also part of the European research project EnvJustice, which expressed its support to the hunger strikers and demands of the NBA movement.

The way forward

The NBA has led the immediate demand to re-open the floodgates. But it has also called for a comprehensive investigation so that villagers made homeless by the dam project are rehoused and compensated before the project begins. This merely implements the orders of the Supreme Court. 

The NBA also demands benefits be paid to farmers, in line with the Supreme Court orders. The movement has also called for the formation of a committee to assess the impact on the environment, rivers and forests by submergence, and also the impacts further downriver.

Noam Chomsky, the philosopher and activist, has expressed support for the NBA petition to Modi, saying action was “essential to ensure the faith of people in non-violent, democratic and constitutional governance and struggle for their rights”. 

Will Modi respond? With hundreds of his citizens in a nationally – and now also globally – publicised hunger strike, we will probably soon find out.

The Ecologist contacted the Indian High Commission in London yesterday but as yet there has been no response.

This Author

Nick Meynen is the Project Officer for Global Policies and Sustainability at the European Environmental Bureau. 

Climate entrepreneurship is a rapidly growing branch of contemporary business. Environmental and climate change issues are increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives. The global population is predicted to reach 11 billion by 2100. We can also expect an average global temperature increase of more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels.  

People around the world are dealing with extreme weather events, food and water shortages, waste management, urbanisation and overpopulation – from Cameroon to Thailand and from the US to Australia.

“The science of climate change is indisputable, but the problem often seems so removed from everyday reality that organisations have for many years struggled to engage citizens,” said Ebrahim Mohamed, director of education at Climate-Knowledge and Innovation Community.

The largest climate action innovation event

But living in environmentally challenging times can also be a motivational stimulus for climate friendly change and innovation. For younger people in our societies, a clean environment is not taken for granted, and neither is a static climate.

Change is predicted, expected, and it is with the increasing awareness of modern youth that climate friendly alternatives are being nurtured.

This summer, seven groups of 40 young people from all over Europe, with very different backgrounds and interests, have been brought together to participate in the largest climate action innovation event on the continent – the Climate-KIC summer school. 

Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private innovation network. It is empowering its youth to come up with new and creative ideas to challenge and change the way we all consume, use transport, and live.

During a five-week journey, these young groups receive intensive coaching from innovation and business experts and travel to different innovation capitals in Europe to discover emerging sustainable practices.

Knowledge and innovation community

One group will be traveling from the fruit-orchards in Bologna, Italy, to a business innovation hub in Munich, Germany, and finally to Helsinki, Finland, where they will pitch the project they have developed during the course of their journey to a jury of entrepreneurs and businessmen.

The six other groups that are being guided through Europe undergo a similar process, travelling from city to city and cultivating an out-of-the-box idea into a concrete business-plan.

This is the seventh year Climate-KIC has organised innovation journeys. The aim is to create an ever-growing “knowledge and innovation community”.

After the completion of the project the groups that came up with the best innovations are guided through a ‘start-up accelerator’, cultivating their initial breakthrough idea into a commercially viable start-up that tackles a climate change issue.

Climate-KIC has already grown more than 300 of these initial projects into full-grown start-ups. Among the successful Climate-KIC offspring are Aponix, a company providing urban micro farming units, Aeropowder, an initiative that transforms poultry feather waste into sustainable additives, and Ecoligo, a financing platform for solar projects in developing countries.

Public stimulation of government action

The Climate-KIC concept is founded on the idea that everybody can contribute to creating the necessary transformation towards a decarbonised and more sustainable society,” says Julia Rawlins, the education lead at Climate-KIC.

“There are already many positive stories out there of initiatives making important changes, and they deserve to be shown. There is such a high need for positive stories nowadays.

“Even more than producing pragmatic solutions to current issues, we’re trying to capture the imagination:  how do we want our future to look like and what are the necessary steps to be taken to get there.”

There is a long understood problem of “issue attention cycles” when working to enhance public consciousness. A rather famous formulation of this cycle by Anthony Downs in 1972 made it a five-step process that can last from days to months to years.

This involves public stimulation of government action, the eventual change to the understanding of an issue, and the founding of permanent structures that continue to promote solutions long after the problem itself has left the earlier, more dramatic stages of the issue attention cycle.

A permanent fixture

Since the 1970s the issue of climate change has become one of the more pressing problems on the global agenda.

It is encouraging that climate awareness is tangling its roots into the fabric of business innovation and development, establishing itself as a permanent fixture in private, political, and business relationships.

For the youth of today the idea of climate change is not a fleeting issue in the public consciousness – but more and more a challenging reality to be solved. If the work at Climate-KIC is any indication, they are more than up to the task.

This Author

Arthur Wyns is a tropical biologist passionate about biodiversity and climate change action. He’s been involved in research teams all over the world, and recently joined the Climate Tracker team as a campaign manager.

One of the biggest recipients of direct farm subsidies in the UK is discreetly controlled by a Malaysian tycoon who acted as a middleman in one of this country’s biggest aid controversies.

The South Pickenham Estate Company, which farms some 6,500 acres around South Pickenham Hall, in Norfolk, received £439,739 through the Common Agricultural Policy’s controversial “basic payment scheme” last year, placing it among the UK’s top 50 claimants of basic payments.

Since the company was formed in the early 90s, it has been owned through offshore companies based in the Cayman Islands and latterly Jersey that do not disclose its beneficial owners.

But an Energydesk and Private Eye investigation has found that the company is controlled by the Malaysian businessman Tan Sri Dato’ Seri AP Arumugam. Tan Sri Arumugam is best known in this country as the man who acted as go between for the British and Malaysian governments in a deal that became known as the Pergau Dam affair.

Energydesk’s investigation has also found that the first directors of the company after it was formed – in 1993, the same year that the Pergau dam affair came to light – were David and Jim Prior. David Prior – now Lord Prior of Brampton – is a junior minister in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

His father Jim Prior – who was also a Lord – was a former minister in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, who went on to become chairman of GEC, one of the British companies closely involved in the Pergau affair.

The news comes after Energydesk revealed that Billionaires and aristocrats last year scooped up an even greater proportion of the UK’s biggest farm subsidy payouts.The farm business owned by Brexit-backing billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson is now the biggest for-profit recipient of direct EU farm subsidies in the UK.

Pergau dam affair

The Pergau dam affair has been described as Britain’s biggest aid scandal. It came about after the Thatcher government in the late eighties made a secret agreement to provide aid funding to Malaysia in exchange for a commitment to spend £1bn on British arms.

This agreement put pressure on civil servants to approve aid funding for the Pergau hydroelectric dam, despite concerns that the project was hopelessly uneconomic. In 1994 the aid agreed for the project was declared unlawful in a landmark high court case.

AP Arumugam’s role in the Pergau dam affair is documented in a 2012 book by Tim Lankester, who was himself the senior civil servant in charge of UK aid when the affair broke.

Lankester writes of Arumugam: “He was a close confidant of Dr Mahathir [Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister] and his unofficial adviser on defence procurement. He was therefore a key player on the Malaysian side in respect of both the £1bn defence deal and the Pergau project. He was also well known and had easy access to Mrs Thatcher’s office. In effect, he was the go-between for Dr Mahathir via Charles Powell with Mrs Thatcher.”

On top of this, he was the Malaysian representative of GEC – a British company that was a principal subcontractor in the Pergau project, and which also had an interest in the defence deal – and a minority shareholder in its Malaysian subsidiary.

Cayman islands

The South Pickenham Estate Company was formed in 1993 to manage the estate after it was bought by Cayman Islands company Parmar Ltd. Lord (David) Prior and his father were the first directors of the company. He remained on the board until 1996, before becoming Conservative MP for North Norfolk from 1997 to 2001. He entered government after being made a lord in 2015.

Last year Lord Prior was made a junior business minister by Theresa May, and his responsibilities now include Companies House, the Land Registry, and industrial policy as it relates to the infrastructure and defence industries.

South Pickenham has always been owned through offshore companies that obscure its beneficial ownership, albeit its current directors include two of Tan Sri Arumugam’s children. However, earlier this year it filed a document at Companies House identifying its “persons of significant control” as a family office in Jersey and “Aru Packiri”. Aru Packiri is a contraction of AP Arumugam’s full name – Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Arumugam a/l A Packiri – under Malaysian Indian conventions.

Subsidies

The company first emerged as one of the UK’s biggest recipients of direct farm subsidies in an Energydesk investigation last year, which found that it was paid £486,363 in 2015 under the name of its now defunct sister firm Palgrave Farming Company. The EU’s “direct” subsidy system – which is now known as the “basic payment scheme” – has attracted criticism because it largely rewards landowners for simply owning land, rather than paying farmers to invest in environmental or other “public good” measures.

Energydesk has repeatedly contacted South Pickenham director Charles Whitaker about our findings, but he has declined to give any comment about the company’s ownership. In 2016, he did provide this statement about the farm, noting that it operated over 6,500 acres of arable and grassland in addition to a large forsestry area which produces firewood and woodchip for biomass heating systems.

He added: “In addition and importantly, the farm has a large environmental stewardship scheme which encompasses the whole estate and in particular the grassland water meadows, field margins, hedgerows, and delivers habitat management across the organic and conventional production areas of the farm to promote and protect wildlife habitats in keeping with Natural England’s Stewardship objectives, while at the same time seeking to allow necessary commercial crop production.”

This Author

Crispin Dowler is an investigations reporter for Greenpeace, and former bureau chief at Heath Service Journal. He Tweets at @ChrispinDowler

One of the biggest recipients of direct farm subsidies in the UK is discreetly controlled by a Malaysian tycoon who acted as a middleman in one of this country’s biggest aid controversies.

The South Pickenham Estate Company, which farms some 6,500 acres around South Pickenham Hall, in Norfolk, received £439,739 through the Common Agricultural Policy’s controversial “basic payment scheme” last year, placing it among the UK’s top 50 claimants of basic payments.

Since the company was formed in the early 90s, it has been owned through offshore companies based in the Cayman Islands and latterly Jersey that do not disclose its beneficial owners.

But an Energydesk and Private Eye investigation has found that the company is controlled by the Malaysian businessman Tan Sri Dato’ Seri AP Arumugam. Tan Sri Arumugam is best known in this country as the man who acted as go between for the British and Malaysian governments in a deal that became known as the Pergau Dam affair.

Energydesk’s investigation has also found that the first directors of the company after it was formed – in 1993, the same year that the Pergau dam affair came to light – were David and Jim Prior. David Prior – now Lord Prior of Brampton – is a junior minister in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

His father Jim Prior – who was also a Lord – was a former minister in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, who went on to become chairman of GEC, one of the British companies closely involved in the Pergau affair.

The news comes after Energydesk revealed that Billionaires and aristocrats last year scooped up an even greater proportion of the UK’s biggest farm subsidy payouts.The farm business owned by Brexit-backing billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson is now the biggest for-profit recipient of direct EU farm subsidies in the UK.

Pergau dam affair

The Pergau dam affair has been described as Britain’s biggest aid scandal. It came about after the Thatcher government in the late eighties made a secret agreement to provide aid funding to Malaysia in exchange for a commitment to spend £1bn on British arms.

This agreement put pressure on civil servants to approve aid funding for the Pergau hydroelectric dam, despite concerns that the project was hopelessly uneconomic. In 1994 the aid agreed for the project was declared unlawful in a landmark high court case.

AP Arumugam’s role in the Pergau dam affair is documented in a 2012 book by Tim Lankester, who was himself the senior civil servant in charge of UK aid when the affair broke.

Lankester writes of Arumugam: “He was a close confidant of Dr Mahathir [Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister] and his unofficial adviser on defence procurement. He was therefore a key player on the Malaysian side in respect of both the £1bn defence deal and the Pergau project. He was also well known and had easy access to Mrs Thatcher’s office. In effect, he was the go-between for Dr Mahathir via Charles Powell with Mrs Thatcher.”

On top of this, he was the Malaysian representative of GEC – a British company that was a principal subcontractor in the Pergau project, and which also had an interest in the defence deal – and a minority shareholder in its Malaysian subsidiary.

Cayman islands

The South Pickenham Estate Company was formed in 1993 to manage the estate after it was bought by Cayman Islands company Parmar Ltd. Lord (David) Prior and his father were the first directors of the company. He remained on the board until 1996, before becoming Conservative MP for North Norfolk from 1997 to 2001. He entered government after being made a lord in 2015.

Last year Lord Prior was made a junior business minister by Theresa May, and his responsibilities now include Companies House, the Land Registry, and industrial policy as it relates to the infrastructure and defence industries.

South Pickenham has always been owned through offshore companies that obscure its beneficial ownership, albeit its current directors include two of Tan Sri Arumugam’s children. However, earlier this year it filed a document at Companies House identifying its “persons of significant control” as a family office in Jersey and “Aru Packiri”. Aru Packiri is a contraction of AP Arumugam’s full name – Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Arumugam a/l A Packiri – under Malaysian Indian conventions.

Subsidies

The company first emerged as one of the UK’s biggest recipients of direct farm subsidies in an Energydesk investigation last year, which found that it was paid £486,363 in 2015 under the name of its now defunct sister firm Palgrave Farming Company. The EU’s “direct” subsidy system – which is now known as the “basic payment scheme” – has attracted criticism because it largely rewards landowners for simply owning land, rather than paying farmers to invest in environmental or other “public good” measures.

Energydesk has repeatedly contacted South Pickenham director Charles Whitaker about our findings, but he has declined to give any comment about the company’s ownership. In 2016, he did provide this statement about the farm, noting that it operated over 6,500 acres of arable and grassland in addition to a large forsestry area which produces firewood and woodchip for biomass heating systems.

He added: “In addition and importantly, the farm has a large environmental stewardship scheme which encompasses the whole estate and in particular the grassland water meadows, field margins, hedgerows, and delivers habitat management across the organic and conventional production areas of the farm to promote and protect wildlife habitats in keeping with Natural England’s Stewardship objectives, while at the same time seeking to allow necessary commercial crop production.”

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Crispin Dowler is an investigations reporter for Greenpeace, and former bureau chief at Heath Service Journal. He Tweets at @ChrispinDowler

Climate change is already pushing Indian farmers and agricultural labourers over the edge. Temperature increases during crop-growing season could be the cause of 60,000 farm suicides throughout India over the last three decades, according to a new analysis published Monday in the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“When temperatures rise to levels that damage crops, suicide rates also go up. It appears that crop losses are the key culprits linking self-harm to hot temperatures,” says Tamma Carleton, the study’s author and researcher at agriculture and resource economics, University of California, Berkeley. “These are deaths that would not have occurred, had the warming we’ve observed in the historical climate record not taken place.”

Linking climate change, particularly temperature, and agricultural income with farmers’ suicides, Carleton’s study says that “for days above 20 ◦C, a 1 ◦C increase in a single day’s temperature during the growing season increases annual suicides by 0.008 per 100,000 people, causing an additional 67 deaths, on average across India.”

That means, an increase of 3 degrees Celsius on any day causes 201 deaths; an increase of 4 degrees Celsius on any day causes 268 deaths; and an increase of 5 degrees Celsius on any day causes 335 deaths. It further states that “annual crop yields fall by 1.3% per standard deviation in growing season temperatures.”

All in all, Carleton estimates that Global Warming is responsible for 59,300 suicides in India over the last 30 years, showing agriculture’s extreme vulnerability to temperature changes, rainfall, and farm suicides. Non-farmers too face distress, as crop losses ripple though economy, spiking up food prices and bringing down demand for agricultural labour.

“These are consequences of climate change that are already being felt today, underscoring the urgency of developing sound climate change policy. These devastating impacts of climate change are a problem faced by our generation, not a problem that we can afford to defer to future years,” says Carleton, who studies the many ways that the climate affects global economic and social stability.

Suicide, she continues, is a heartbreaking indicator of human hardship. Carleton says  she was struck by reports that indicated many suicides in India occur through ingestion of pesticides.

“This fact demonstrates that many of those in distress have livelihoods that are closely tied to agriculture, and encouraged me to investigate whether climatic effects on suicide rates were occurring because of damages to agricultural incomes.”

The finding that suicide phenomenon is affected by a changing climate implies that it is essential to quantify its effect and consider this relationship as we build climate policy for the future, Carleton notes.

While high temperatures and low rainfall during the growing season substantially impact annual suicide rates, Carleton’s study finds that similar climate events have no effect on suicide rates during the off-season, when few crops are grown, “implicating agriculture as the critical link.”

Going forward in times of global warming

Even as India gradually warmed while experiencing economic growth, Carleton finds no evidence that people in India have been able to come to terms with a warming climate. The relationship between temperature and suicide is the same across different populations within India, and at different points in time.

“Without substantial investments in adaptive technologies and behaviours, this finding means that it’s likely we will see a sustained rise in suicide rates as climate change continues to unfold in India, she warns.

To mitigate that, India must needs to implement immediate measures at farmers’, communities’, and policy levels.

First is the realization that changing climate is driving farm suicides.  Second, Carleton suggests, are policies that ” seek to reduce suicides by weakening the link between a risky climate and agricultural incomes.” 

Although Carleton’s study doesn’t fully go into what measures work, she suggests a range of options: crop insurance, which protect farm incomes from the vagaries of the climate, could be successful in reducing suicides. Access to low-interest loans through well-functioning rural credit markets may also help limit the damage caused by warming temperatures, as farmers can access quality seed without incurring debt burdens that become insurmountable.

Other possible adaptive responses could include farm-based solutions to protect yields against warming temperatures, such as crop switching to increase heat tolerance, or investment in irrigation technologies to combat rainfall variability. “I hope that future research will help to fill this important gap in our understanding of how we can work to slow the tragic rise in suicide in India,” the author adds.

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G.B.S.N.P Varma is a freelance journalist based in India, with an interest in climate science, environment, and ecology.