Hello, and a very warm welcome to the new issue of the Voice for Arran. As I type, on a sunny May Day afternoon, a vote of no confidence in the Scottish government is being debated at Holyrood. After a fast moving couple of weeks in Scottish Politics, which resulted in the First Minister stepping down on Monday, it is hard to say if the current situation holds promise or promise of more pitfalls.
Certainly from an environmental perspective the party political state of affairs can only add to more delays and setbacks to climate action, delays that seemingly started off the recent ill-fated chain of events. For in March, the Climate Change Committee – the advisory committee on climate matters – delivered their latest report on the government’s (lack of) progress in reducing emissions in line with their legal targets. In their report The CCC concluded: The Scottish Government is failing to achieve Scotland’s ambitious climate goals. Annual emissions targets have repeatedly been missed and the publication of Scotland’s draft Climate Change Plan has been delayed. As such, there is still no comprehensive delivery strategy for meeting future emissions targets and actions continue to fall far short of what is legally required.
The report does not make for encouraging reading. Yet in this issue I am reminded of life’s perennial mix of hope and pessimism, as several of the pieces reveal the bright light of individuals and groups determined to speak truth in the face of power. So also last week news came of a legal victory for the marine environment. In a case brought about by Open Seas, who challenged the government’s approach to licensing scallop dredging, “Scotland’s most senior judges confirmed that Scottish Ministers’ are legally required to consider the impacts of harmful fishing on the environment.”
Meanwhile in Switzerland, a group of over 2000 older women, known as Klimt Seniorinnen, have won an historic climate ruling. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agreed that inaction by the Swiss government on the climate crisis and its failure to meet emission reduction targets put them at greater risk of death from heatwaves and “violated the right to respect for private and family life.” Sally Campbell who reports on this case concludes that “Climate protection is now a human right – and lawsuits will follow.”
Along with several examples of individual conscientious protest in the following pages, cases like these bring to life long traditions of peaceful dissent. Traditions that can be traced back in the UK to moments such as the ‘Bushel’s case’, a landmark case in 1670 that ensured the independence of juries, to the Peterloo massacre in 1819, when the right to assemble together was granted (see Scotland, the Climate and UK Law). And then also to lives of such political luminaries as Keir Hardie (see May Day for Keir Hardie). At a time when nonviolent protest is becoming increasingly threatened and restricted, when a sense of integrity is not forthcoming from our leaders, when the wider state of things may even appear to be coming apart at the seams, it can serve us well to remember these historical and contemporary struggles for justice.
On May 15th, on Arran and around the world, people will gather for International Conscientious Objectors Day, to commemorate those who opposed and refused to fight in wars, and to stand in solidarity with conscientious objectors today. Undoubtedly the political landscape will have shifted once more by then, but in marking these actions we also honour the human spirit which in its strength remains unchanged…. We hope you enjoy the issue and look forward to all that the month may bring! Elsa
