Urgent vision and strategy needed
Our world needs continuity beyond Parliamentary 5 year terms
A report by Sally Campbell
Recent politics in the UK lack a long-term plan for the 4 nations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Whilst the world goes to pot, we watch, grumble and feel frustrated. From ferries to health, from Ukraine to the Amazon rainforests, from melting ice sheets to puffins dying of bird flu, we worry, and feel increasingly impotent. But some organisations have the energy and people committed to continue to fight for all our futures, and indeed the very world in which we all, animals, plants, live. Be that in cities, islands, oceans, forests and deserts.
Greenpeace has a vision and strategy in 2023 focussing their energy into these key areas:
?️ Spearheading a global campaign to stop fossil fuel extraction and make polluting fossil fuel companies pay for the damage they cause.
? Championing big climate solutions from home insulation to offshore wind, so the UK becomes a model for climate action globally.
? Demanding governments protect 30% of our oceans by 2030, safeguarding wildlife, coastal communities and our climate.
? Saving forests from destruction, to protect wildlife, fight the climate crisis and stand with Indigenous Peoples.
? Winning a strong, global treaty that limits single-use plastic production for good.
The history of Greenpeace shows what can be achieved with longer term goals. They have shown what can be done: It is important we all understand big changes can take time, energy and commitment.
• Since Greenpeace first took to the seas and the streets over forty years ago, it has achieved breakthrough after breakthrough. Many of these successes are thanks to the inspirational gifts that people and foundations have donated, and the continued support of Greenpeace by many not necessarily directly involved
• No nukes and no whaling. In 1971, the first ever campaign challenged nuclear weapon testing on Amchitka Island, leading to a complete ban on all nuclear testing in the area. That same decade Greenpeace launched a very successful campaign to end all commercial whaling.
• Safer sea life and a global sanctuary. In 1989, Greenpeace’s exposure of the devastation caused to sea life by driftnets resulted in a UN ban on all driftnet fishing. By 1992, it had persuaded the world to create the Antarctic World Park protected by a 50-year ban on mineral mining.
• A cleaner, greener planet. In 1996, after a 25-year campaign, Greenpeace celebrated the signing of a nuclear test-ban treaty. Their efforts to promote cleaner, greener energy were gathering pace too. By 2003, Greenpeace had teamed up with one of the UK’s biggest energy companies to create the country’s first offshore wind farm.
• Protecting our forests and oceans. In 2016, intensive campaigning resulted in a historic agreement with the fishing industry and seafood retailers to stop industrial fishing in a vast area of the North Barents Sea. And in 2019, following a campaign lasting two decades, Russia agreed to establish the Dvinsko-Pinezhsky nature reserve, comprising 300,000 hectares of boreal forest wilderness.
But the work continues, and some inspirational stories illustrate the continued needs in 2023:
Two stories from Brazil that show change is coming with the country’s new President.
The Power of Office and the election of Lula da Silva
Tragedy in the Amazon
In the Yanomami indigenous tribal territory in the northern Amazon, a humanitarian disaster has unfolded on such a scale that justice minister Flavio Dino has said there is strong evidence of “genocide”. Dino requested police open an investigation into “failure to provide emergency assistance, environmental crimes and other crimes”, adding that there are reports of officials “syphoning off public funds meant for Indigenous health care.” The Lula, newly elected, administration declared a health emergency recently after visiting the territory, which has been hit hard by illegal gold miners.
Lula da Silva’s visit followed the publication of photographs of visibly emaciated children by the publication Sumaúma. In an exclusive report, Sumaúma revealed that the Bolsonaro administration cut health checks for Yanomami children despite reports that half were malnourished. In the four years after Bolsonaro’s election, 570 Yanomami children died of preventable diseases, mainly from malnutrition, and from diseases aggravated by being underweight, such as pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea.
“More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering,” Lula said on Twitter. The fate of the Yanomamis is one legacy of the Bolsonaro administration, which gave tacit permission to a range of illegal activities in the Amazon, from logging to mining, to large cattle farms and fishing, displacing indigenous people without consultation or compensation.
Also this week, in a reminder of the lawlessness fostered during Bolsonaro’s time in office, Brazilian police named the alleged mastermind behind the murders of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.
The federal police chief for Amazonas State said investigators had concluded that Rubens Villar Coelho, whose nickname is Colômbia, had ordered the murders. Villar Coelho has been accused of running an illegal fishing racket in the remote Javari Valley in the far West of the Brazilian Amazon, where Phillips and Pereira were killed last year. Phillips was carrying out research for a book project, and was travelling with Pereira, who had been helping Indigenous communities in the Javari valley set up monitoring teams to defend their territory from illegal mining, poaching and fishing gangs with links to organised crime.
Eliesio Marubo, a representative of Univaja, the Indigenous NGO for which Pereira had worked, told the Guardian that many questions remained, and called for a “far-reaching” investigation. “Who is bankrolling these people so they are able to continue their criminal activities? … Why is this criminal organisation still operating in the region?”
What about the UK in 2023? Much closer to home, in a row, the government of the UK has once again approved a banned bee-killing insecticide Neonicotinoids (neonics), for use on sugar beet. This latest decision goes directly against their own expert scientific advisors who have consistently said the government should not lift the ban on this pesticide because the harm it does to bees. A single teaspoon of the pesticide is enough to kill 1.25million bees. Bees play a vital role in our food chain and about a third of the food we eat relies on their pollination. It is depressing that the government has caved into lobbying by the sugar industry who want to use the pesticide against a virus in the sugar beet crop. But these pesticides are not the answer as they are also linked to huge declines in bird populations, and pollute rivers. Make your voice heard by telling the secretary of State for Environment Therese Coffey to enforce a ban on Neonicotinoids that apply in a more enlightened continental Europe.
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But there is some better news. Changes of POWER at the top reaping good rewards! The President of the USA Joe Biden is pro- environment, albeit with a bias in favour of directing public money exclusively to domestic projects. He has announced two major changes and shown the power to change direction. This is better news; US President Joe Biden banned mining for 20 years in a giant wilderness in the State of Minnesota. The Trump administration had tried to greenlight copper, nickel and other hard-rock mining in the region, near the Canadian border. But officials said the potential toxic materials from mining would threaten nature, local Native American communities and the tourist economy based around the area. This decision came a day after Biden banned logging roads in much of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, restoring protections that were stripped away by Trump. Tongass is one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests, but state leaders had persuaded the Trump administration in 2020 to open it up to new roads and logging in a bid to boost economic development.
CARBON OFFSETS
A new row is beginning over carbon offsets. The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading certifier and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation.
The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions.
The analysis raises questions over the credits bought by a number of internationally renowned companies – some of them have labelled their products “carbon neutral”, or have told their consumers they can fly, buy new clothes or eat certain foods without making the climate crisis worse. (The Guardian 18th Jan Patrick Greenfield).
The investigation found that:
• Only a handful of Verra’s rainforest projects showed evidence of deforestation reductions, according to two studies, with further analysis indicating that 94% of the credits had no benefit to the climate.
• The threat to forests had been overstated by about 400% of stored CO2 on average for Verra projects, according to analysis of a 2022 University of Cambridge study.
• Gucci, Salesforce, BHP, Shell, easyJet, Leon and the band Pearl Jam were among dozens of companies and organisations that have bought rainforest offsets approved by Verra for environmental claims.
• Human rights issues are a serious concern in at least one of the offsetting projects. The Guardian visited a flagship project in Peru, and was shown videos that residents said showed their homes being cut down with chainsaws and ropes by park guards and police. They spoke of forced evictions and tensions with park authorities. A new phrase is entering the carbon offsets language: carbon credits; towards net zero or zero chance?
Based on a new analysis at least 90% of Verra’s rainforest carbon credits do not represent real emission reductions
Each credit is equal to one metric tonne of CO2 equivalent
94.9m carbon credits claimed
5.5m real emission reductions
The Guardian analysis based on a significant percentage of the projects as looked by West et al studies and Verra registry (accessed in August 2022). All figures are estimates. West et al 2023 is a pre-print. Note: Verra’s claims versus analysis of independent scientific studies
There is huge value in directing money to genuine protection of existing forests, both tropical and temperate, and more work needs to be directed at tightening up offsetting agreements. Flawed carbon markets must be fixed.
Governments appear largely impotent in protecting nature and saving our environments. Multinationals have the power, we cannot vote them in or out as we can the government and these multinationals, be they oil producers, soya and palm oil producers, and even sugar beet farmers in England and salmon farmers in the west of Scotland use the environment in non-sustainable ways and pull all the economic strings to get their way, including lobbying with huge PR budgets. Communities fight these plans, and demand proper legal consultations. Ticking the boxes and ignoring community wishes as well, is all part of the games played by multinationals to get their way. Short term profit versus long term sustainable nature, less climate change and sustainable communities.
All of those of us with our planet at the heart of our concerns for the future are trying to turn around the juggernaut that is consumerism, entitlement and these powerful economic forces. Many individuals and institutions have made the decision to act and now need the tenacity to continue, stay positive and change the direction of travel for the climate and the world’s environment. Greenpeace gives me personally hope as their aspiration, vision and reality have changed things over the past 40 years, if we judge on progress achieved. It will continue to be a rocky ride, but get on board, start to change and support those NGOs with clout and the power of people behind them. Even Davos this year concentrated on sustainability and renewable energy to head off global warming.
Happy New Year!
Thanks to Greenpeace.
Sally Campbell
January 2023
Featured image credit: Greenpeace.org
