Roj Bash Kurdistan

30 Tons of Pangolin Parts
Seized in Historic Trafficking Bust

Malaysian authorities found two warehouses full of the most trafficked mammal in the world

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Thirty tons of pangolin parts were seized by Malaysian authorities on Thursday, becoming the largest pangolin trafficking bust the country has ever witnessed.

Police in the Malaysian state of Sabah were tipped off to facilities in the capital of Kota Kinabalu and the nearby town of Tamparuli, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic.

Both of the sites were raided on Thursday, revealing an astounding volume and variety of pangolin products being processed and stored—a cache worth an estimated 8.4 million ringgit or $2 million on the black market.

According to Traffic, the haul contained: 1,800 boxes full of frozen pangolins; 572 individual frozen pangolins; 61 live pangolins in cages and a car trunk; and nearly 800 pounds of pangolin scales.

Two paws from an unnamed bear species and the carcasses of four flying foxes were also seized.

Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world, according to an oft-cited metric, and it’s believed they account for 20 percent of the entire illegal wildlife trade. A 2014 estimate from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) claimed at least one million individuals had been poached this century, and that number is likely to be much higher.

Technically a scaly anteater, pangolin species are found across Asia and Africa; some classified by the IUCN as endangered and critically endangered, in the case of Malaysia’s Sunda pangolin.

Their keratin scales are used in traditional medicine, while their meat is consumed “to demonstrate status,” according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.

A 35-year-old Malaysian man has been detained and is believed to a factory manager, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Sabah police chief Omar Mammah said the man illegally bought pangolins from local hunters which he turned for a profit in Sabah and the neighboring state of Sarawak.

“Detecting large volumes of pangolin smuggling is no easy feat and Sabah authorities are congratulated for pursuing and taking down this smuggling operation,” Traffic’s Southeast Asia director Kanitha Krishnasamy said in a Monday statement.

Malaysia is no stranger to wildlife crime. In 2009, Sabah police discovered records belonging to a different pangolin trafficking ring. They revealed that “about 22,200 pangolins were killed and [1,839 pounds] of pangolin scales sourced throughout the state and supplied to the syndicate over 13 months,” reported the Associated Press.

In 2011, the Sabah Customs Marine Division recovered five tons of frozen pangolin from local waters, Traffic wrote. Last year, a pangolin scale shipping scheme from Sabah and Sarawak was intercepted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Traffic noted that Sabah’s “emerging role” as a transit hub for trafficked wildlife is only one part of an international criminal universe.

However, Sabah authorities have disputed claims that the state is a trafficking transit hub. Last year, Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga told Free Malaysia Today that the series of high-profile busts “proves our enforcement agencies here are much more efficient [than in other countries].”

Rampant poaching continues despite many countries enacting laws that protect pangolins. “The criminal networks are running circles around everybody,” Chris Shepherd, regional director of Traffic Southeast Asia, told National Geographic in 2016. “It’s a joke.”

Traffic hopes that Thursday’s bust will draw attention to Malaysia’s local pangolin poaching sphere. ““It is hoped that comprehensive investigations can lead to unmasking the syndicate and networks operating from the state and beyond,” Krishnasamy said.

According to Sabah’s wildlife laws, under which pangolins are a “totally protected” species, illegal possession holds the threat of $12,500 to $60,000 in fines, and up to five years in prison.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... =mbtwitter

Five years in prison is not enough, death is the only punishment for these evil people

Chocolate giant Cadbury ‘pushing
orangutans towards extinction

The maker of Cadbury chocolate bars, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers is accused of destroying tens of thousands of hectares of orangutan habitat in just two years for palm oil

Suppliers to food giant Mondelez have destroyed 70,000 hectares since 2016, analysis by Greenpeace International claims, pushing the primate further towards extinction.

The areas razed to the ground include 25,000 hectares of habitations in Indonesia that are home to the critically endangered orangutan.

Mondelez, which is one of the world’s biggest buyers of palm oil, uses it in many of its most popular products, including Cadbury and Roses chocolates, Oreos and Ritz crackers.

The new investigation, carried out through mapping Indonesia, discovered that between 2015 and 2017, 22 of the company’s palm oil suppliers cleared at least 70,000 hectares of rainforest – an area bigger than the City of Chicago, where Mondelez is based.

In a 31-page report detailing the supply chains of the main brands the charity says are responsible for destruction, Greenpeace points the finger largely at the producer of some of Britain’s favourite chocolates and snacks.

The report says that although Mondelez claims to have been purchasing entirely responsible palm oil since 2013, “in practice almost 95 per cent of the palm oil it buys is covered by ‘book-and-claim’ certificates – by far the weakest of the certification models offered by the main palm oil industry body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)”.

“This means that the plantations and producer groups from which the overwhelming majority of the palm oil that Mondelez purchases is sourced are not governed by any sustainability initiatives,” the study claims.

Greenpeace’s campaign against destructive palm oil hit the headlines over the weekend when a video that Iceland repurposed for a Christmas advert was banned from television for being “political”.

Campaigners have warned “it’s now or never” for Indonesia’s critically endangered orangutans, which are being killed at a rate of 25 a day as natural vegetation is bulldozed to make way for palm plantations.

In September this year Greenpeace International published Final Countdown, a report that showed Mondelez was sourcing palm oil from 22 of 25 destructive producer groups. “Alarmingly, these are just the cases that Greenpeace was able to identify – Mondelez sources from hundreds of palm oil companies and this destruction is likely just the tip of the iceberg,” it said.

Kiki Taufik, head of Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Indonesia forests campaign, said: “It’s outrageous that despite promising to clean up its palm oil almost 10 years ago, Mondelez is still trading with forest destroyers.

“Palm oil can be made without destroying forests, yet our investigation discovered that Mondelez suppliers are still trashing forests and wrecking orangutan habitat, pushing these beautiful and intelligent creatures to the brink of extinction.

“They’re literally dying for a biscuit.”

Bornean orangutan numbers have halved in 16 years, studies show, and both the Sumatran and newly discovered Tapanuli orangutan lost more than half their habitat between 1985 and 2007.

All three species are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered, along with the Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhino.

A spokeswoman for Mondelez International told The Independent the company was committed to eradicating deforestation in the palm oil supply and it was actively working with suppliers to ensure palm oil was fully traceable.

“We’re calling on our suppliers to further map and monitor the plantations where oil is grown so we can drive further traceability. We’re excluding 12 upstream suppliers from our supply chain who have not met our standards.

“For many years we have been calling for 100 per cent sustainable and we’re making good progress on our palm oil action plan.

“This includes actionable steps to ensure the palm oil we buy is produced on legally held land, does not lead to deforestation or loss of peat land, respects human rights and does not use forced or child labour.

“At the end of 2017, 96 per cent of our palm oil was traceable back to mill and 99 per cent was from suppliers with policies aligned to ours.”

She added that Mondelez was calling on suppliers to improve practices and to engage third-party suppliers to ensure production was fully sustainable and traceable.

“We will continue to prioritise suppliers that meet our principles, and exclude those that don’t,” she said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environme ... 30801.html

Link from Piling

Land management blind spots
make 1.5C goal highly unlikely

Dr Calum Brown is a scientist at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research – Atmospheric Environmental Research (IMK-IFU), part of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany

The Paris Agreement represents a rare high point in international climate negotiations, with 195 signatories pledging to limit global average temperatures to 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels.

However, despite initial optimism, progress towards meeting this ambition has been lacking. Of the “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) that describe each country’s plans for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, most are vague, underwhelming documents that are almost certainly insufficient and unlikely to be implemented in full.

This is particularly obvious in plans for cutting emissions from the way the land is used, managed and farmed.

In a new “perspective” paper, published in Nature Climate Change, my co-authors and I look at the “blind spots” that hinder strategies to cut land-based emissions. These include inconsistent policies, time lags that make rapid change difficult, and detrimental consequences of some mitigation options.

As things stand, these blind spots mean that achieving the 1.5C goal – and, perhaps, also even 2C – is highly unlikely.
Mitigation plans

The way humans manage land contributes approximately one-quarter of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement is, therefore, strongly dependent on cutting emissions from, among other things, deforestation and agricultural practices.

With CO2 emissions rising in both 2017 and 2018 – after previously levelling off – these mitigation needs are evermore pressing.

Of the more than 175 countries that had produced an NDC by November 2015, nearly 100 explicitly identified mitigation strategies involving land use. But many of the proposals contained in NDCs fall short of the “transformative” change required by the Paris Agreement. Instead, they represent or incorporate a continuation of established trends in national policy for managing land systems.

One important example is the increase in deforestation that has occurred since the Paris Agreement, immediately undermining the assumption enshrined in several NDCs that deforestation rates would continue to slow as they had in the preceding years. For instance, deforestation increased by 29% between 2015 and 2016 in Brazil and by 44% in Colombia.

Lack of time is also an issue. For example, the binding target for European Union member states to cut GHG emissions by 40% by 2030 relies on “net-zero” emissions from land-based sectors, but it leaves very little time for designing and implementing appropriate land-management strategies.

And, perhaps, the greatest single threat to achievement of the 1.5C goal today is the likelihood – if not inevitability – of changes in policy objectives in individual countries.

Examples are easy to find: the US government’s planned withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is one, as is the rapid increase in land clearing in Queensland, Australia – the rate of which rivalled that in Brazil – following the rejection of stronger regulations by the Queensland parliament.

Achieving change

Fortunately, land-use change is one of the most tangible aspects of climate change mitigation. It does not usually rely on uncertain new technologies, has causes and consequences that are well understood, and is at least partly amenable to political control.

Numerous scientific papers show how land use can contribute to mitigation targets, providing pathways not only for achieving the Paris targets, but also to food security and environmental sustainability.

Of course, things are not really so simple. Land use is not a physical system that can be predicted and prodded into shape, but a social system that is subject to the same “uncontrollable and disobedient psychology” that John Maynard Keynes saw in the business world. What’s more, so many human and natural processes meet on the land surface that any given change has effects that ripple inconveniently out into other areas.

Most political systems – focusing on particular geographic or policy areas – are poorly suited to handling this complexity. This is why some of the most stable and ambitious governments in the world have struggled to develop coherent land-based mitigation strategies.

For example, the EU’s bioenergy policy has caused counterproductive deforestation – and, therefore, carbon emissions – in Europe and the tropics, while the Scottish government has extended its financial support for fossil fuel extraction at the same time as promoting its ‘world-leading’ climate policies.

Governments that do not have the luxury of fully functioning regulatory and judicial systems inevitably find it harder still to reconcile climate mitigation and other objectives.

For example, Indonesia’s “forest moratorium” policy, intended to reverse the state-supported spread of oil palm plantations, produced only temporary slowing of deforestation in some areas and corresponding increases elsewhere. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) own moratorium on logging could not prevent deforestation caused by smallholder farmers escaping conflict zones. It has since been effectively abandoned.

Indeed, the rates of primary forest loss in the DRC and Indonesia are now 1.5 and three-times the rate in Brazil, respectively, and continue to include widespread clearance of carbon-rich peatland.

Time lags

Another issue that must be overcome for effective land use policy is that of “time lags”.

As the illustration below highlights, many steps are required to turn scientific advancements into policy. And each step – from communicating new science and developing appropriate policy to implementing and adopting it – can experience its own time lag (shown in red) along the way.

Illustration of time lags within the science–policy exchange cycle. Science-based policymaking is a cyclical process that involves potential time lags (shown in red) at each step that may also reduce the ultimate impact of the policies. Time lags highlighted in bold are those focused on here. Monitoring of policy impacts and feedbacks to new scientific research (shown as dashed lines) are particularly uncertain processes that might not only involve time lags, but might also effectively not take place. Source: Brown et al. (2019)

Even when policies are implemented and land-use change starts to occur, one further process introduces substantial further delays: the adoption of new practices by individual farmers and foresters.

This process is never immediate, smooth or even rational. Instead, land managers wait, hedge their bets, cleave to the known, and learn from their neighbours – even when this means that they may miss economic opportunities.

The uptake of bioenergy crops, soil conservation schemes and forest protection subsidies has consistently occurred over decades rather than months, and there exist no obvious mechanisms by which mitigation policies can escape this behavioural “sand trap”.

‘Win-win’ strategies

As things stand, we can envision the land system that we need, but not yet how to get there, while years are lost exploring dead ends and false hopes. Together, these issues make achieving the 1.5C goal highly unlikely.

Nevertheless, the blind spots, time lags and reversals of land-based mitigation are not impossible to navigate, given knowledge of their existence.

Win-win and nature-based mitigation strategies really do exist and have great potential. For instance, when tropical forests protect indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, sequester carbon and maintain biological diversity (potentially supported by schemes such as the United Nations REDD+ programme), or where agricultural technology increases yields while reducing environmental impacts (as is to some extent apparent in the recent “greening” of China and India, in particular).

Mitigation policies can also be designed to fit into a broad spectrum of policy objectives, provided they take account of the social and economic origins of those objectives. China’s major “Grain for Green” programme provides examples for both sides here, having substantial successes that were, nevertheless, sometimes at the cost of the programme’s social acceptability.

And land-use changes can have huge impacts over short periods of time if they are perceived to provide clear benefits to the people – often smallholder farmers – who have to implement them. One example of rapid, albeit controversial, change is the rapid spread of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world.

In each case, a crucial step towards desired changes in the land system is to recognise its cross-sectoral and fundamentally social nature.

Policies that treat land use as a distinct problem to be optimised have failed time and again. To achieve a goal as ambitious as that agreed in Paris, we need to get to grips with the messy, human nature of land-based mitigation. In that regard, the real negotiations may have only just begun.

Link to Important Graphs:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post- ... y-unlikely

Greta Thunberg tells EU:
your climate targets need doubling

Swede 16 says EU cannot just wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge

The EU should double its climate change reduction targets to do its fair share in keeping the planet below a dangerous level of global warming, the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has told political and business leaders in Brussels.

Flanked by students from the Belgian and German school strike movements, the Swedish teenager said it was not enough to hope that young people were going to save the world.

“There is simply not enough time to wait for us to grow up and become the ones in charge,” she said, citing the fall in greenhouse gas emissions that was needed by 2020.

The EU wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

“Some people say that is good, that is ambitious; but this new target is still not enough to keep global warming below 1.5C,” Thunberg said, referring to what scientists regard as the preferable upper limit if the planet is to avoid extreme droughts, floods and the bleaching of corals.

“This target is not sufficient to protect the future for children growing up today. If the EU is to make its fair contribution to stay within the carbon budget for the 2C limit then it needs a minimum of 80% reduction by 2030, and that includes aviation and shipping.”

Thunberg, whose lone school strike last September became the catalyst for a global movement, was applauded by the audience of political, business and civil society leaders, despite her uncompromising message that the older generation was failing those of the future.

She also responded to criticism from political leaders, who included Theresa May, over skipping lessons. “If you still say that we are wasting valuable lesson time, then let me remind you that our political leaders have wasted decades through denial and inaction.”

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, followed her address with a sprawling speech across a variety of green topics including EU climate policy, his love of Europe’s varied landscapes and opposition to the harmonisation of toilet flushes. Juncker said he had rejected his civil servants’ proposal for an energy-saving measure on toilets because the EU needed to focus on economic problems and external threats.

Speaking to journalists after the event, Thunberg said it was sad Juncker had not said much about the climate crisis, while revealing her own frustration about the reaction to the school strike movement.

“When people talk about the climate strikes … they talk about almost anything except for the climate crisis: they talk about whether we are promoting truancy, or whether we are puppets, or it’s great that the young people are taking action. They don’t want to talk about the climate crisis … they just want to change the subject.”

She said she planned to continue her strike every Friday until Sweden meets its Paris climate targets.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... re-too-low

UK has warmest February day on record

The UK is experiencing its warmest February day on record, with the Met Office reporting a temperature of 20.3C (68.54F) at Trawsgoed, Ceredigion.

Most of South East England is now over 20c but last night temp went down to between minus 5c and minus 10c with a thick frost

It is the first time a temperature of over 20C has been recorded in winter.

It breaks the UK's record for February, when the temperature reached 19.7C (67.46F) in Greenwich in 1998.

The Welsh record was broken on Sunday, when temperatures reached 19.1C - the previous record, of 18.6C (65.48F), had stood for 29 years.

Over the weekend Hampton Water Works, in south-west London, was the hottest spot in England at 19C.

Why is it so warm?
By Nick Miller BBC Weather

It's hard to believe that a year ago Britain was about to endure the worst of the so-called Beast from the East, with widespread snow and sub-zero temperatures.

Fast forward 12 months and this record February warmth shows just how varied the UK weather can be.

The reason temperatures have been so high is the direction our air is coming from.

High pressure parked to the south east of the British Isles has been dragging warm air from Africa and the Canary Islands our way.

Temperatures are further boosted by something known as the foehn effect, when air warms as it flows down the lee side of mountains.

All of this combined with the sunshine has produced something quite remarkable for February.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47360952

How we can tackle insectarmageddon:
Ditch the pesticides and grow herbs to encourage bugs and insects into your garden as numbers dwindle

Reports of a steep decline in world insect numbers are worrying. London gardeners can help to save lives

This is insectarmageddon! Bugs face catastrophic collapse! So declared the headlines above reports of a worrying decline in the number of insects worldwide.

Researchers predict that if this decline, recorded over 30 years, is allowed to continue, insects will be extinct in 100 years. Pesticide use, intensive agriculture and urbanisation are all blamed.

Londoners are partial to the lazy hum of the bee and the sight of a pretty butterfly. Our urban back gardens, balconies and windowsills might seem small fry in the fight to stop a global decline, but we can all help.

Here are some simple ways to encourage insects into your outdoor space and do your bit for the bugs.

Ditch the pesticides

You don’t need pesticides. If you plant the right flowers you will encourage the “good” bugs — hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds — that will eat the troublesome ones: greenfly and aphids.

Instead of getting out the spray bottle, plant penstemons to attract ladybirds and draw in hoverflies and lacewings by sowing dill, fennel or the delightful, uplifting daisy-like cosmos from mid-spring.

For a windowbox or pot, a dwarf cosmos variety such as Sonata or Antiquity (Sarah Raven, £4.25 per packet) will provide months of exuberant colour.

For borders Cosmos Sensation Mixed (thompson-morgan.com, £2.69) will give you a stunning chest-high cloud of pink, purple and white flowers for months if you keep deadheading.

Bring on the butterflies and moths

"Good bugs": butterflies, ladybirds and lacewings eat greenfly and aphids. Attract them and other insects by piling up dead logs, leaves or prunings. (Alamy Stock Photo)

“Butterflies and moths are particularly vulnerable to extinction because their caterpillars are at the bottom of the food chain,” says Kate Bradbury, author of The Bumblebee Flies Anyway and Wildlife Gardening For Everyone and Everything (available for pre-order).

Attract moths with scented honeysuckle or London’s favourite climber, the smart, evergreen star jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides) with its white scented flowers.

Moths are also attracted to the tobacco plant nicotiana alata (the only nicotiana with flower tubes short enough for native moths).

The elegantly acid “Lime Green” variety (Chiltern Seeds, £1.95) makes a smart choice for city pots.

Buddleia is a well-known magnet for butterflies, but too big for many urban spaces.

Try verbena bonariensis instead, or the perennial wallflower erysimum “Bowles Mauve” which can flower year round in London’s sheltered spots.

Clothe with climbers

Any London garden needs climbers to soften the boundaries and provide scent and shelter. And insects rather like them too.

“Ivy is the best option as you don’t need to train it,” says Bradbury, “but honeysuckle and clematis work well too.”

Pile it up

Dead logs are a favourite refuge for beetles, wood lice and other insects. “Simply pile them up in a corner,” says Bradbury.

“If you can, partially bury the logs in the soil as this will provide a habitat for stag beetles.”

If no logs are at hand, just leave dead leaves and twiggy prunings in a pile.

On balconies or roof terraces, you can provide refuges for solitary bees by stuffing bundles of dead hollow stems such as alliums or bamboo into empty pots or crevices in the wall.

Bring in the bees

Bees particularly like umbel flowers (those that look like umbrellas) such as ammi majus (Chiltern Seeds, £1.86), orlaya grandiflora and fennel all of which bring grace and delicacy to urban gardens.

They are also highly partial to daisy-like blooms like rudbeckias, ox-eye daisy, asters, helenium and echinaceas, with their joyful dollops of colour.

If you have only a windowsill or balcony, grow Mediterranean herbs in pots, says Bradbury.

Thyme, oregano, rosemary, lavender, dill and sweet cicely are “easy, low-maintenance, provide flowers for pollinators and we get to use them too”.

Even small spaces could include an apple tree in a pot to provide blossom, bark for insects to shelter in and fruit for you too.

Choose a M27 rootstock, and a self-fertile variety to ensure pollination such as Sunset, Red Windsor or Fiesta (Blackmoor Nurseries, Fiesta, 3 year old bare root bush, £23.80, blackmoor.co.uk).

Hedge your bets

If you have the space for a hedge, even a small one, to break up different areas of the garden then plant one.

Hedges make excellent habitats for wildlife, including insects.

The poet Pam Ayres recently tweeted pictures of her newly planted mixed native hedge to encourage bees and butterflies.

From Hedges Direct, the Bee and Butterfly selection includes hawthorn, crab apple, hazel, dog rose, viburnum and rowan and will cost you £155.99 for around 14 metres.

https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/home ... 28376.html

The $32 Trillion Pushing Fossil Fuel
CEOs to Act on Climate Change

Behind Glencore Plc’s decision to limit coal investment is a little-known, but powerful group of investors

Glencore made its decision after facing pressure from a shareholder network known as Climate Action 100+, which has the backing of more than 300 investors managing $32 trillion. The group was founded a little over a year ago, but has already extracted reforms from oil heavyweights, like BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

While skeptics may regard Glencore’s changes as minimal (the company still stands to reap billions from its huge coal business), the announcement still shows the influence that investors hold at being able to push even the most reticent companies to respond to their demands.

“If Glencore says that it doesn’t see coal having a growing future than other people will stand up and take notice,” said Edward Mason, the head of responsible investment at the Church Commissioners for England. “This is not a easy position for Glencore.”

He was part of the discussions with the company, calling the talks "an intensive engagement process."

Business forces are now aligning on climate change in ways that will reshape energy and mining for years to come, even with U.S. President Donald Trump steadfast in his commitment to expanding the coal industry. Other mining companies have exited the coal business or pledged not to invest, and oil producers have vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Action 100+ says its goal is to drive change at the companies contributing the most greenhouse gas emissions. Its roster includes the biggest names in the industry, including California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Allianz SE and HSBC Global Asset Management.

The group pushes companies to take action to reduce greenhouses gases and disclose more information about how the business will be affected by a hotter climate.

Changes targeted by Climate Action 100+ include:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will set carbon-output targets for the following three or five years as it works to halve its “net carbon footprint” by 2050. The goals will be tied to executive pay.

BP Plc is supporting a shareholder resolution to prove its business plans align with Paris climate targets. It intends to provide clarity around emissions at its annual meeting in May.

Steelmakers are also coming under scrutiny. Climate Action 100+ recently published a report with their expectations for large steel companies, saying it wants the industry to lower emissions in line with the Paris climate accord.

While investors are cheering the move, it’s still a open question whether the companies are doing enough on climate change. Coal remains Glencore’s chief money maker among its industrial assets. In recent years, as other companies retreated from coal, Glencore ramped up the business by picking up mines in Australia.

Glencore’s executives “probably weren’t going to expand in coal anyway, but now they’ve got a message out there that sounds like supply reduction, which gives them ESG kudos, in an world where investors are increasingly taking these aspects into consideration as part of their process”,” said Richard Knights, an analyst at Liberum Capital Markets in London, referring to funds that have environmental, social and governance criteria.

In contrast, Anglo American Plc has cut its thermal coal output in half in the last three years, with CEO Mark Cutifani saying today that he expects the footprint will continue to fall over time. Rio Tinto Group has sold all its coal mines, including to Glencore.

Still, the fact that companies are yielding to investor demands shows that times are changing. In the past, big oil and mining companies were able to fight off pressure from environmental activists who demanded sweeping business changes.

“Investors who continue to finance new coal projects need to be asking themselves an important question; which is going to end up being burnt first – their coal, or their money?" said Nick Stansbury, head of commodities research at Legal & General Investment Management Ltd., which is part of Climate Action 100+.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... on-climate

Land Use - Forest Protection

Malaysia’s tropical hardwoods have been in demand for centuries, intensively so in the last twenty years. During that time, timber companies have not only profited from the sale of timber, they compounded their gains by installing palm oil plantations.

Much of the logging was illegal, as was the appropriation of the land. The effects have been devastating. Logging has degraded or destroyed the vast majority of Malaysian rainforests, and the deforestation rate is faster there than in any other tropical country. Home to one of the most intelligent primates, the critically endangered orangutan, it is estimated that only 20 percent of Borneo’s rainforests remain.

This photo shows the silt-laden waters of the Miri River, colored orange by runoff from upstream logging, and the herringbone tethering of smaller-diameter trees, which indicate that forests are not being allowed to recover before being logged again.

The most critical of all forest types is primary forest, known as old-growth or virgin forest. Examples include the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia and those of the Amazon and the Congo. With mature canopy trees and complex understories, these forests contain 300 billion tons of carbon and are the greatest repositories of biodiversity on the planet.

In 2015, there were an estimated three trillion trees in the world. That count is substantially higher than previously thought, but more than 15 billion are cut down each year. Since humans began farming, the number of trees on earth has fallen by 46 percent. Carbon emissions from deforestation and associated land use change are estimated to be 10 to 15 percent of the world’s total.

Strategies to stop deforestation and protect forests include:

public policy and the enforcement of existing anti-logging laws;

market-driven mechanisms, primarily eco-certification programs that inform consumers and affect purchasing decisions;

programs that enable wealthy nations and corporations to make payments to countries and communities for maintaining their forests.

The benefits of forest conservation include biodiversity protection, non-timber products, erosion control, pollination, ecotourism, and other ecosystem services.

Impact:
For each acre of forest protected, the threat of deforestation and degradation is removed. By protecting an additional 687 million acres of forest, this solution could avoid carbon dioxide emissions totaling 6.2 gigatons by 2050.

Perhaps more importantly, this solution could bring the total protected forest area to almost 2.3 billion acres, securing an estimated protected stock of 245 gigatons of carbon, roughly equivalent to over 895 gigatons of carbon dioxide if released into the atmosphere. Financials are not projected, as they are not incurred at the landholder level.

Link to Article - Photos:

https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/land ... protection

New NASA Study Solves Climate Mystery
Confirms Methane Spike Tied to Oil and Gas

Over the past few years, natural gas has become the primary fuel that America uses to generate electricity, displacing the long-time king of fossil fuels, coal. In 2019, more than a third of America's electrical supply will come from natural gas, with coal falling to a second-ranked 28 percent, the Energy Information Administration predicted this month, marking the growing ascendency of gas in the American power market.

But new peer-reviewed research adds to the growing evidence that the shift from coal to gas isn't necessarily good news for the climate.

A team led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed that the oil and gas industry is responsible for the largest share of the world's rising methane emissions—which are a major factor in climate change—and in the process the researchers resolved one of the mysteries that has plagued climate scientists over the past several years.

Missing Methane

That mystery? Since 2006, methane emissions have been rising by about 25 teragrams (a unit of weight so large that NASA notes you'd need more than 200,000 elephants to equal one teragram) every year. But when different researchers sought to pinpoint the sources of that methane, they ran into a problem.

If you added the growing amounts of methane pollution from oil and gas to the rising amount of methane measured from other sources, like microbes in wetlands and marshes, the totals came out too high—exceeding the levels actually measured in the atmosphere. The numbers didn't add up.

It turns out, there was a third factor at play, one whose role was underestimated, NASA's new paper concludes, after reviewing satellite data, ground-level measurements and chemical analyses of the emissions from different sources.

A drop in the acreage burned in fires worldwide between 2006 and 2014 meant that methane from those fires went down far more than scientists had realized. Fire-related methane pollution dropped twice as much as previously believed, the new paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, reports.

Link to Full Article:

https://www.ecowatch.com/nasa-study-met ... 89909.html

Climate change: Rain melting
Greenland ice sheet even in winter

Rain is becoming more frequent in Greenland and accelerating the melting of its ice, a new study has found

Scientists say they're "surprised" to discover rain falling even during the long Arctic winter.

The massive Greenland ice-sheet is being watched closely because it holds a huge store of frozen water.

And if all of that ice melted, the sea level would rise by seven metres, threatening coastal population centres around the world.

Precipitation usually falls as snow in winter - rather than as rain - which can balance out any melting of the ice in the summer.

What did the scientists find?

The scientists studied satellite pictures of the ice-sheet which reveal the areas where melting is taking place.

And they combined those images with data gathered from 20 automated weather stations that recorded when rainfall occurred.

The findings, published in the journal The Cryosphere, show that while there were about two spells of winter rain every year in the early phase of the study period, that had risen to 12 spells by 2012.

On more than 300 occasions between 1979-2012, the analysis found that rainfall events were triggering a melting of the ice.

Most of these were in summertime, when the air often gets above zero.

But a growing number happened in winter months when the permanent dark of the polar winter would be expected to keep temperatures well below freezing.

What happens when it rains?

The lead author of the study, Dr Marilena Oltmanns of the GEOMAR ocean research centre in Germany, told BBC News: "We were surprised that there was rain in the winter.

"It does make sense because we're seeing flows of warm air coming up from the South, but it's still surprising to see that associated with rainfall."

Another scientist on the study, Prof Marco Tedesco of Columbia University in New York, said that the increase in rain had important implications.

Even if it falls during winter, and then quickly refreezes, the rain changes the characteristics of the surface, leaving it smoother and darker, and "pre-conditioned" to melt more rapidly when summer arrives.

The darker the ice is, the more heat it absorbs from the Sun - causing it to melt more quickly.

"This opens a door to a world that is extremely important to explore," Prof Tedesco said.

"The potential impact of changes taking place in the winter and spring on what happens in summer needs to be understood."

A smoother surface, particularly a "lens" of ice, will allow meltwater to flow over it much faster and being darker means that more of the Sun's rays are absorbed, further speeding-up the warming process.

Pictures taken by a British research team, caught in a rainstorm on the ice-sheet last year, show how a bright highly reflective landscape of snow and ice was turned into a much darker scene.

Why does this matter?

Although Greenland is extremely remote, a vast island lying at the northern end of the Atlantic Ocean, the sheer volume of ice covering it means its fate could have global repercussions.

In stable times, snowfall in winter will balance any ice melted or breaking off into the ocean in summer. But research has shown how in recent decades the ice-sheet has been losing vast amounts of mass.

Although this contributes only a relatively small amount to the rise in the sea-level - with much of the rest coming from thermal expansion as the oceans warm - the fear is that the flow of meltwater could accelerate as temperatures rise.

Two years ago, the BBC reported from Greenland on the risks of faster melting, because of the growth of algae which makes the ice darker and more likely to warm.

This effect of algae is, in addition to darkening, caused by soot and other forms of pollution carried by winds to the Arctic.

This comes amid growing concern that the region as a whole is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, which may be influencing the flow of the high-altitude jet stream.

That could disturb weather patterns in Europe and other regions, and may also explain how the flows of warm, moist air from the Atlantic are reaching Greenland, even in winter.

What do other scientists make of this?

Prof Jason Box, a glaciologist not involved in the new study, says the research builds on earlier work by him and colleagues published in 2015 that found that summer rainfall could increase the rate of melting.

Their analysis found that because water has a high heat content, it takes only 14mm of rain to melt 15cm of snow, even if that snow is at a temperature of minus 15C.

"There's a simple threshold, the melting point, and when the temperature goes above that you get rain instead of snow," he said.

"So, in a warming climate it's not rocket science that you're going to have more rain than snow, and it's one more reason why the ice sheet can go into deficit instead of being in surplus."

Prof Box has himself experienced sudden rainstorms while camped on the ice-sheet.

"After weeks of sunshine, it started raining on us and it completely transformed the surface - it got darker.

"And I became convinced - only by being there and seeing it with my own eyes - that rain is just as important as strong sunny days in melting the Greenland ice sheet."

Link to Article - Photos:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47485847

Endangered orangutans 'doomed to extinction' as Chinese-built hydro dam set to rip through habitat

The Tapanuli orangutan was discovered in 2017 and fewer than 800 are believed to exist

A critically endangered species of orangutan which lives in one forest in Indonesia is in danger of rapid extinction after a court ruled construction of a new hydro-electric dam can go ahead, despite a legal challenge by environmental groups.

The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) was discovered by scientists in 2017, and just 800 individuals are believed to exist, making it the rarest great ape species on the planet.

But the construction of the Batang Toru Dam in North Sumatra, backed by the Bank of China, as part of the country’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure project, will rip through the orangutan’s habitat.

The state administrative court in North Sumatra’s capital, Medan, ruled construction can continue despite critics of the hydro dam providing evidence that its environmental impact assessment was deeply flawed.

Campaigners said the construction of the dam is also devastating for the Sumatran orangutan which is also critically endangered, threatened by deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations.

A key step towards ensuring the species survives is reconnecting the fragmented forests the primates are spread across.

Announcing the decision of a three-judge panel, presiding judge Jimmy C Pardede said the witnesses and facts presented by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, the country’s largest environmental group, in its case against the North Sumatra provincial government were irrelevant.

The group, known by its Indonesian acronym Walhi, said it would appeal.

“We will take all available legal channels,” said Dana Prima Tarigan, the group’s executive director for North Sumatra.

“The dam will essentially doom the Tapanuli orangutan species to extinction,” the group said on a petition calling on the Bank of China to end its support for the construction work.

China’s state-owned Sinohydro is building the dam, which is reportedly financed by Chinese loans.

China’s “Belt and Road” project aims to build massive amounts of transport and trade infrastructure across Asia extending the country’s economic and political influence.

The Tapanuli orangutan was found to be a new species in November 2017 after DNA analysis and a field study revealed unique characteristics.

The population, with frizzier hair, significantly different teeth and distinctively long calls for the males, was previously thought to be their close relative, the Sumatran orangutan.

Their diet is also unique, containing unusual items like caterpillars and conifer cones. They have never been observed on the ground, which scientists suggest may be due to the presence of Sumatran tigers in the area, which are also critically endangered.

Follow Link to See Photo:

https://www.independent.co.uk/environme ... fZhHE7ADiU

That's is humans for you - we discover magnificent animals just in time to exterminate them

Youth Climate Strike US

Video re March 15 International Strikes:

https://youtu.be/fhE6YAIqCuk

Our Demands

Green New Deal

An equitable transition for marginalized communities that will be most impacted by climate change

An equitable transition for fossil-fuel reliant communities to a renewable economy

100% renewable energy by 2030

Upgrading the current electric grid

No creation of additional fossil fuel infrastructure (pipelines, coal plants, fracking etc.)

The creation of a committee to oversee the implementation of a Green New Deal

That has subpoena power

Committee members can’t take fossil fuel industry donations

Accepts climate science

A halt in any and all fossil fuel infrastructure projects

Fossil fuel infrastructure disproportionately impacts indigenous communities and communities of color in a negative way

Creating new fossil fuel infrastructure would create new reliance on fossil fuels at a time of urgency

All decisions made by the government be tied in scientific research, including the 2018 IPCC report

The world needs to reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030, and 100% by 2050

We need to incorporate this fact into all policymaking

Declaring a National Emergency on Climate Change

This calls for a national emergency because we have 11 years to avoid catastrophic climate change

Since the US has empirically been a global leader, we should be a leader on climate action

Since the US largely contributes to global GHG emissions, we should be leading the fight in GHG reduction

Compulsory comprehensive education on climate change and its impacts throughout grades K-8

K-8 is the ideal age range for compulsory climate change education because:

Impressionability is high during that developmental stage, therefore it’s easier for children and young adults to learn about climate change in a more in-depth manner, and retain that information

Climate change becomes a nonpartisan issue, as it truly is because it’s based solely on science from the beginning

Preserving our public lands and wildlife

Diverse ecosystems and national parks will be very impacted by climate change, therefore it’s important that we work to the best of our abilities to preserve their existence

Keeping our water supply clean

Clean water is essential for all living beings, when we pollute our water supply, or the water supply of someone else, it’s simply a violation of an essential human right

Our Solutions

The extraction of Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere

Reforestation-- replenishing our forests by planting trees and allowing them to thrive, sustainable forestry

Reduced food waste-- methane emissions from rotting food in landfills contributes immensely to overall Greenhouse Gases emissions

Emission standards and benchmarks

We need to create standards and benchmarks for reducing Greenhouse Gases that align with those expressed by the science community to avoid 1.5° Celsius warming

Changing the agriculture industry

Less carbon-intensive farming

More plant-based farming

Using renewable energy and building renewable energy infrastructure

Stopping the unsustainable and dangerous process of fracking

Stop mountaintop removal/mining

It is very harmful to our environment and people working in these fields

*These are not the sole solutions, these are just some solutions that we approve of

*To be effective, these solutions need to be implemented at a large scale by the United States government

https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/platform

Young climate activists around
the world: why I’m striking today

Lovina, 15, and Delema Janvier, 17, Alberta, Canada: As indigenous youths we have a close connection to the Earth

We strike for the Earth, to protect and save it from what the human race has done. As indigenous youths we have a close connection to the Earth. We know that without it we have nothing, we are nothing. Our community is directly affected by the Cold Lake oil sands, which is a large deposit of tar sands. Some of the tar sands can be extracted through drilling, which is incredibly dangerous to land, animals and people, and affects the water and air quality in negative ways.

We must think of the future generations: what we do today, tomorrow and the next day will impact the next seven generations. We must change our ways from burning natural resources, from releasing so much carbon, from poisoning what we need to live. We cannot survive by drinking oil.

Kaisanan Ahuan, Puli City, Taiwan: Our traditional culture is deeply rooted in harmony with the spirit of nature

I am from the Central Taiwan Plains Indigenous People. As the indigenous people of Taiwan, we have a particular vulnerability to climate change. Our traditional culture is deeply rooted in the harmony we have with the spirit of nature. We face heartbreaking loss due to increasingly extreme weather events.

We urge the Taiwanese government to implement mitigation measures and face up to the vulnerability of indigenous people, halt construction projects in the indigenous traditional realm, and recognise the legal status of Plains Indigenous People, in order to implement environmental protection as a bottom-up approach.

Brianna Fruean, 20, Samoa: In the south Pacific, we’re already having cyclones, floods and droughts

I started my activism quite young – at 11. That was when I first heard about this thing called climate change. As a young girl in Samoa, a small island in the south Pacific, hearing the implications it had for my island scared me and jump started my passion to do something about it.

I feel like the young people of the Pacific are now experiencing what young people around the world will experience tomorrow. Right now, along with a lot of other vulnerable communities around the world, we’re having cyclones, floods and droughts. And it’s going to be that – and worse – for future generations.

It’s great to see young people being passionate and not backing down to older people saying: “You should be in school.” Real education sometimes happens outside the classroom. I think the school climate strikes have proved that. I learned about hope and solidarity outside the classroom.

All my friends know about Greta Thunberg, who has stayed strong and hasn’t backed down. I really think that she is going to do great things for this generation. It’s that solidarity that keeps you optimistic. And feeling that you have a team, that you’re not alone, that we’re all in this together. It’s not just one person yelling from outside the UN building or our parliament. And where there are mass numbers, there’s power. Our slogan is: “We’re not drowning. We’re fighting.”

Harshini Dhara, 15, Hyderabad, India: There were no rains on our farm, so we couldn’t cultivate any crops

For as long as I can remember, I have heard climate change talked about at home. The phenomenon scares me and leaves my future uncertain. Many of our country’s rivers are snow-fed. Due to the melting of glaciers, the rivers of northern India will initially carry flood waters, but as their source of water continuously depletes, they will carry less water, and shortages may lead to conflict between people.

On a personal level, there were no rains on our farm last year so we couldn’t cultivate any crops. A few things can be done by children of my age to hopefully secure our future. We can encourage the planting of more trees and use public transport as far as possible to reduce our emissions.

I feel that a subject so serious should be introduced to children at school, and teachers and children should openly talk about it – and the adverse effects of climate change should be shown to children by taking them on field trips.

Eyal Weintraub, 18, and Bruno Rodriguez, 18, Argentina: We organised a protest in front of the national congress in Buenos Aires

We saw a call to action circulating on social media, encouraging youth to stand up and fight against the indifference of governments and the criminal behaviour of contaminating corporations. What we needed to do was clear. We decided to organise a protest in front of our national congress in Buenos Aires.

The most extraordinary aspect of this movement is realising the unlimited potential of our generation. We have reached a point in history when we have the technical capacities to solve poverty, malnutrition, inequality and of course global warming.

The deciding factors for whether we take advantage of our potential will be our activism, our international unity and our ability to develop the art of making the impossible possible. Whether we succeed or not depends on our political will.

Vidit Baya, 17, Udaipur, India: We want global leaders to declare a climate emergency

In the winter of 2018 I went to march on the streets of Melbourne with a group of amazing, diverse people of all ages to urge the Australian government to take action against climate change. When I came back to India, I started an organisation called No Borders and wrote an article regarding climate change here in India that was quite popular among my schoolmates and teachers. Then there was no stopping us.

Today, young people from all over India will strike for a sustainable future. We will tell our politicians that our lives are more important than the economy. You talk about jobs and better living conditions when you yourself are not ready to change for a sustainable future.

We want global leaders to declare a climate emergency. If we don’t act today, then we will have no tomorrow. Adults have given us an ailing planet – and it is now up to us to understand that, and to turn the ailing planet into heaven again.

Zel Whiting, 13, Australia: I don’t blame all adults: the truth has been kept from them

In October 2018, I helped organise a strike in my hometown. Initially my goal was to help bring attention to the plight of our living planet. But after the climate strike got public attention, politicians began attempting to discredit us, rather than addressing the reason for our protest.

It then became clear to me that our leaders are too corrupted by the corporate world to address the most threatening issue to humanity. They are incapable of accepting that clever accounting is not a solution.

The school strike is merely the final alarm for people to wake up and have a good hard look at what has been happening. Sure, listen – but listen critically. Listen to the language our leaders are using to downplay what is happening and then go and read the science, and look at things. Take a good hard look.

I don’t blame all adults: the truth has been kept from them. But we now know what’s happening and the next logical step is for governments at every level to declare a state of climate emergency so that immediate action can be taken to prevent catastrophic outcomes.

Anastasia Martynenko, 20, Kiev, Ukraine: When our children ask ‘What have you done for our future?’ we will have an answer

My friends and I heard for the first time about Greta Thunberg and her climate strike in the autumn of 2018. Then we had the idea to hold a similar action in Ukraine: we invited other youth and students to join us in Kyiv and all together demand from our politicians a new future without climate change. We also got adult supporters. After two weeks, five other Ukrainian cities joined us in organising actions and will also be coming out to protest today.

I and like-minded people are happy to be the driving force of change among young people, because when our children ask us, “What have you done for our future?”, we will have an answer

Arya Dhar Gupta, 13, Gurugram, India: I don’t want to wear a face mask for the rest of my life

My country lives with the shame of having 14 of the 15 most polluted cities in the world. How can I not host the strike in Gurugram, labelled the city with the worst air quality in the world in a recent report?

I am 13 years oldand I have seen things get really bad, really quickly over the past five years. My school forces us to wear face masks and regularly calls off our sports activities and playtime due to air pollution. My parents don’t allow me to play outside on most days, for my safety.

While I am asthmatic,two years ago, I had a near-death experience from an asthma attack. I don’t want to live in a mask for the rest of my life. I don’t want to have a family or children in a place where I have to constantly worry about my health and the health of my loved ones. The writing is on the wall and the time to act is now.

Dona Van Eeden, 21, Cape Town, South Africa: Difficult choices have to be made

I think we all feel the pressure, the uncertainty and the complexities of the reality we live in. I understand that difficult choices have to be made without any certainty of the outcomes. But the time to hesitate, to experiment and to deny is long gone.

I want to be certain that our government is committed to investing in a just transition to a more sustainable country, that we will lower carbon emissions and curb climate change. I am joining this strike to demand that decisions are more future-focused and that policy will reflect our environmental rights as written in our constitution.

Isao Sakai, 17, Japan: When climate change becomes ‘our issue’, it may be too late

Two years ago, I was just a high-school student in Tokyo, ignorant and uninterested in climate change. I knew that global warming showed up in the textbooks , but I had no idea that it would affect my life in any form.

It was eye-opening to discover how severe the current climate situation is when I took an environmental science class. I realised that the cycle of global warming accelerates between rising greenhouse gas emissions and rising global average temperatures. This very simple fact made me think that if someone does nothing about it, global warming would become unstoppable. Then I thought, if someone has to deal with it, why don’t I just do it myself?

In Tokyo, people still lack awareness about the urgency of climate change. I fear that when climate change becomes “our issue” for us city dwellers, it might be too late to address.

I want students in Japan to know that our future is under threat from climate change. Opening the eyes of people who are blind toreality is what I need to work on in Japan.

Veshalin Naidoo, 22, Cape Town, South Africa: We demand a South African version of the Green New Deal

As a student I am no stranger to strikes, I have witnessed the changes they can bring about. There is a dire need for change in South Africa’s governance from an environmental standpoint. We as citizens need to demand that our politicians prioritise our country’s environmental wellbeing.

We want our leaders to value reducing our massive carbon footprint over economic gains. We are calling for a moratorium on all new coal, oil and gas mining licenses. We want our leaders to develop and implement a plan of action that will see all fossil fuel harvesting and usage in South Africa to cease and renewable energy sources be implemented as our primary and eventually only energy supply.

We demand this plan be part of a South African version of the Green New Deal. We want schools and other centres of education to implement a climate adaption education programme and be spaces of environmental concern and awareness as these spaces shape what values are instilled in our future leaders and society.

We cannot save our world, continent or country alone. Thus we stand with school strikers across the globe and inspire everyday people to care,

Hsiang-Wen Yueh, Taiwan: If a student with a disability can start a climate movement in Europe, so can we in Taiwan

I am from the National Taichung Special Education school and I thought that if a student with a disability can start a climate movement in Europe, so can we in Taiwan. We are sitting outside the campus front door today to echo the global school climate strike movement. With the support of the teachers, we want to inspire others in Taiwan as we call for action from adults.

This can range over a wide spectrum of areas such as energy, food, biodiversity, plastics and more. TFrom just one person, we are seeing the number of participants rising all the time.

Mone Fousseny, 22, Mali: I have seen the balance of nature change here

My awareness about climate change goes back a long way: my uncle was a farmer and taught me about the beauty and fragility of nature. Over time, as the torrential rains became more and more frequent, and led to floods, I saw the balance of nature change, and it is quite natural that I wanted to engage.

The damage done by multinationals is enormous: the lack of transparency, dubious contracts, the weakening of the soil, the destruction of flora and fauna, the lack of respect for mining codes, the contamination of groundwater. In Mali, the state exercises insufficient control over the practices of the multinationals, and it is us, the citizens, who suffer the consequences.

I want to tell the people of planet Earth, regardless of race, colour or religion, that we are all concerned and responsible for global warming. The climate alarm has sounded, and the time has come for us all to realise that there is still time to act locally, in our homes, our villages, our cities.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ampaigners

THERE IS NO PLANET 'B'

Climate strike – we've had enough of politely asking governments to save our future - the young don’t need a fantasy of techno-fixes and “studying hard” to solve climate change. We demand action before it’s too late

When my family taught me about climate change as a child, I remember being absolutely terrified. My fears heightened when I learned in my biology and geography lessons the full extent of our climate and ecological crisis.

I am not alone in this fear. My millennial generation’s sense of impending doom guides many of our decisions, from deciding not to bring children into this world, to seeking hedonistic excesses because “what’s the point anymore?”

And today’s children are faced with an even harsher reality. By the time they are my age (28) it will be too late. The twelve years we have to turn this ship around to mitigate extreme climate breakdown will have passed.

Theresa May told kids during the last Climate Strike that they should instead attend their lessons and study hard “so that they can develop into the top scientists, engineers and advocates we need to help tackle this problem”.

But by then it will be too late. The window of opportunity will have closed and these children will be faced with a much more terrible reality than if we were tomorrow to strongly mitigate against a higher than 1.5 degrees warming scenario.

May’s statement is typical of right-wing and centrist responses to climate change. It involves the notion that we can continue our capitalist economic system’s ‘business as usual’ so long as we invent techno fixes to deal with the impending climate breakdown. It is impossible for them to see that capitalism cannot continue endless economic growth on a planet of finite resources.

Of course we need a huge investment in technology to mitigate against extreme climate disaster – but it will involve an investment in technology driven by social and ecological good, not the interests of capitalism in seeking increased profits.

And May’s statement ignores the fact that we already have the vast majority of technology and knowledge to transition to a low-carbon economy. What we don’t have is the political will do so because a fossil fuel-based capitalist economy benefits the political elite.

The children out on strike today know this all too well. They, like me, have been taught from a young age about the severity of the ecological crises we are living in. They have been taught about the capacity for renewables we are not effectively transitioning towards. They recognise that we do not have the political will, which is why they are using one of the most effective political tools we have at our disposal, the strike.

Some of the biggest societal shifts have come about as a result of strikes and workers movements, including the creation of the welfare state. This old tactic is a tried and tested way of gaining leverage against the political elite. It’s a tactic we saw again last week, with the annual International Women’s Day Women’s Strike shining a light on the often invisible work of women to continue to reproduce ourselves and the next generation.

Our children are sending us a very clear message with the power they have gained collectively – “do something now, we will be the ones to deal with the mess you have left.”

The likes of Greta Thurnburg have been very clear that – unlike much liberal environmentalist lobbying – her generation are not politely requesting that governments act when they strike. Instead they are building a movement to force action on climate change whether the climate denying hard-right or capitalist liberals like it or not.

As she has said, “you say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opende ... ur-future/