Several sources recently have reported that insect numbers are declining rapidly. For a long time, we have been concerned about bees, especially in their roll as pollinators of fruit and vegetable species of plants, but now it would seem that other insects are declining too. According to an exclusive report by Damian Carrington in The Guardian, at the current rate of decline, insects might be lost by the end of this century.
A global analysis of insect populations has found that 40% of insect special are in decline and a third are endangered. And the rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of birds, mammals and reptiles. The number of insects present on the earth is 17 times greater than that of humans but they are essential for the proper functioning of all ecosystems. Not only do they have a function as pollinators but they also serve as food for some species and have a role in recycling nutrients.
The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors. The main author of this report, Francisco Sánchez-Bayo said that, “The 2.5% rate of annual loss over the last 25-30 years is shocking. It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.” The report was a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, and systematically assessed the underlying drivers.
Habitat loss by conversion to intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines but other factors are present too, such as agro-chemical pollutants, invasive species and climate change. An abstract of the report mentioned that, in terrestrial ecosystems, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and dung beetles (Coleoptera) appear to be the taxa most affected, whereas four major aquatic taxa (Odonata, Plecoptera, Tricpotera and Ephemeroptera) have already lost a considerable proportion of species. Affected insect groups not only include specialists that occupy particular ecological niches, but also many common and generalist species.
A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide. In addition, effective remediation technologies should be applied to clean polluted waters in both agricultural and urban environments.
Here we build on the manifesto ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, issued by the Alliance of World Scientists. As a group of conservation biologists deeply concerned about the decline of insect populations, we here review what we know about the drivers of insect extinctions, their consequences, and how extinctions can negatively impact humanity.
We are causing insect extinctions by driving habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, use of polluting and harmful substances, the spread of invasive species, global climate change, direct overexploitation, and co-extinction of species dependent on other species.
With insect extinctions, we lose much more than species. We lose abundance and biomass of insects, diversity across space and time with consequent homogenization, large parts of the tree of life, unique ecological functions and traits, and fundamental parts of extensive networks of biotic interactions. Such losses lead to the decline of key ecosystem services on which humanity depends. From pollination and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality indication and many others, insects provide essential and irreplaceable services. We appeal for urgent action to close key knowledge gaps and curb insect extinctions. An investment in research programs that generate local, regional and global strategies that counter this trend is essential. Solutions are available and implementable, but urgent action is needed now to match our intentions.
Highlights
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We are pushing many ecosystems beyond recovery, resulting in insect extinctions.
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Causes are habitat loss, pollution, invasives, climate change, and overexploitation.
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We lose biomass, diversity, unique histories, functions, and interaction networks.
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Insect declines lead to loss of essential, irreplaceable services to humanity.
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Action to save insect species is urgent, for both ecosystems and human survival.
In an earlier blog, I have described the prolonged extreme heat that affected Australia in January. It was followed by devastating bush fires. In February, unprecedented floods hit Northern Queensland as double the annual rainfall fell in just 12 days, causing rivers and creeks to burst their banks. 500,000 cattle were drowned as well as much of the state’s native wildlife. Cattle that did survive were in a poor state after being stranded in deep water and mud for days.
Queensland cattle drowned by the flood waters
Following the floods, a massive plume of polluted floodwater has hit the Great Barrier Reef, sparking a fresh threat to its fragile ecosystem. The muddy plume, which likely included nitrogen and pesticide chemicals, spread 60 kms to the outer reefs and was so large it could be seen from space. The satellite image below from the recent Queensland floods shows how far polluted runoff can reach into Reef waters.
Satellite image showing river flood pollution along the Australian coast south of Townsville, Queensland
Sediment and fertiliser runoff from farms is a major threat to inshore coral reefs and seagrass meadows of the Great Barrier Reef. This pollution can lead to devastating impacts to corals and seagrass ecosystems, critical habitats for threatened dugongs, turtles and many juvenile commercial fish species.
The Reef life is also being weakened by sediment and chemical pollution – right when it needs to be strong in the face of rapidly heating oceans. Its corals are still recovering from the devastating back to back bleaching events that occurred from rising ocean temperatures in 2016 and 2017. Improving the quality of water flowing from the Reef coast into the sea is critical to reduce the pressure and support its recovery.
Nutrients from fertiliser runoff are driving massive outbreaks of coral-eating Crown-of-Thorns Starfish. These starfish devour vast amounts of coral on the Reef, threatening the recovery of bleached corals. So, the Great Barrier Reef is at risk from a number of sources.
One of the corollaries to climate change is extreme weather events and Australia has had its fair share of them this year (2019).
And, from the Times, 4th March 2019, the following:
“Residents in part of the outback have been ordered to limit their showers to three minutes a day and banned from using a washing machine more than twice a week amid the worst drought since 1900.
The seven-year lack of rain has prompted convoys of lorries to take bottled water to small towns across far-western New South Wales. Their water supply, from stagnant ponds in drying rivers, has become undrinkable.
“There’s an acute water shortage in a substantial amount of western New South Wales,” James McTavish, the state’s town water supply co-ordinator, said.”
Guardian 7th March 2019:
Ringtail possums in Victoria are dying of heat stress. Rescuers found 127 of them at Somers Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, dying or already dead. It is thought that the possums had become so dehydrated and desperate they had left an area of scrub and come down to the beach and attempted to drink salt water. Some had fallen out of trees.
A Nature study reported on CNN website found that successive ocean heat waves are not only damaging Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, they are compromising its ability to recover, raising the risk of “widespread ecological collapse”.
The 2,300-kilometer-long (1,500 mile) reef has endured multiple large-scale “bleaching” events caused by above-average water temperatures in the last two decades, including back-to-back occurrences in 2016 and 2017.
The new study, released in the journal Nature, examined the number of adult corals which survived these two events and how many new corals they created to replenish the reef in 2018.
The answer was as bleak as it was stark: “Dead corals don’t make babies,” the study’s lead author, Terry Hughes, said in a press release.
Scientists working on the study found the loss in adult corals caused a “crash in coral replenishment” on the reef, as heat stresses brought about by warming ocean temperatures impacted the ability of coral to heal.
“The number of new corals settling on the Great Barrier Reef declined by 89% following the unprecedented loss of adult corals from global warming in 2016 and 2017,” said Hughes.
Scientists have long warned of the impact on global warming on the reef, the world’s largest reef system and the only living organism that can be seen from space. The reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, supports thousands of species — fish, turtles, sharks and marine mammals.
In the introduction to the report, the authors note that environmental changes caused by climate change, “are increasingly challenging the capacity of ecosystems to absorb recurrent shocks and reassemble afterwards, escalating the risk of widespread ecological collapse of (the) current ecosystem.”
The study found that one of the most dominant species of coral, Acropora, which provides “most of the three-dimensional coral habitat that support thousands of other species,” according to co-author Andrew Baird, had suffered a 93% drop in replenishment following the back-to-back bleaching events of 2016 and 2017.
May 2019:
Australia re-elects the climate change denier, Scott Morrison.
Battered by extended droughts, damaging floods, and more bushfires, Australian voters had been expected to hand a mandate to the Labour party to pursue its ambitious targets for renewable energy and carbon emissions cuts.
Instead, they rejected the opposition’s plans for tax reform and climate action, re-electing a Liberal-led center-right coalition headed by Morrison. The same coalition government last year scrapped a bipartisan national energy plan and dumped then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull because he was viewed as anti-coal.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison once brandished a lump of coal in parliament, crying, “This is coal – don’t be afraid!”
It would appear that the Australian voting public were enticed to vote this way in order to reduce energy prices.
July 31st 2019:
Another report from Nature gives the alarming news that the climate crisis is already causing deaths and childhood stunting. The Nature report from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, is reviewed in The Guardian and msn.
The report “From Townsville to Tuvalu” pulled together scientific research from roughly 120 peer-reviewed journal articles to paint a picture of the health-related impacts of the climate emergency in Australia and the Pacific region. It stated, “Climate change is “absolutely” already causing deaths” and also predicts climate-related stunting, malnutrition and lower IQ in children within the coming decades.
It pointed to a 2018 report from the World Health Organisation, which predicted that between 2030 and 2050, global warming would cause an additional 250,000 deaths per year from heat stress, malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea. But Misha Coleman, one of the report’s authors, stressed that deaths were already occurring:
“During the Black Saturday fires (in Victoria in 2009) for example, we know that people were directly killed by the fires, but there were nearly 400 additional deaths in those hot days from heat stress and heatstroke.”
The report found that, as well as deaths caused directly by severe weather events such as hurricanes, flooding and fires, the “more deep and insidious impact” came from the secondary impacts of climate change.
The report warned that rising global temperatures would expand the habitat of mosquitos, exposing more people to diseases including dengue, chikungunya and zika, and would cause other diseases to spread into Australia, including Nipah virus, which is spread by bats, and Q fever, which is already prevalent around Townsville.
John Thwaites, Chair of the Sustainable Development Institute of Monash University. said:
“Q fever is something that is carried by a lot of wild and domesticated animals. “As climate change degrades their habitat through fires and drought, these animals go looking for green grass and fresh water [and] they find themselves on golf courses and on retirees’ two-acre blocks.”
Coleman said the problem comes when infected animals defecate on lawns and the poo is then run over by humans with lawnmowers. “It becomes airborne and a highly transmissible toxin, that’s why it’s being described, even by the Lancet medical journal, as a bioweapon in our own backyard.”
Climate change is expected to pose particularly stark issues for childhood development, with the report citing research that shows children born to women who were pregnant while they experienced floods in Brisbane in 2011 had lower cognitive capacity (equivalent to at least 14 points on an IQ scale), smaller vocabularies and less imaginative play at the age of two.
The decreased nutritional value of staple crops as a result of higher CO2 concentration was also expected to cause stunting, anaemia and malnutrition in children, within 10 to 20 years.
The final article in the link above describes specifically the reality of climate change effects for Australia. It is worth reading. It shows, by means of a graph, the consequences of an upward shift in average temperature for the region:
December 2019:
Extensive bush fires have hit Australia earlier this year, affecting much of Queensland and especially New South Wales, where the fires have been burning out of control, destroying property, as well as wildlife. Smoke pollution has also hung over Sydney for days on end.
One big concern in all of this is the loss of many of the native koalas, killed in the fires. Concern was already being expressed about the future viability of this species, due to habitat loss. Now, heartbreaking film of burnt and dying koalas is being shared globally.
Reports state that:
“Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing Australia’s iconic marsupial, while the fire danger accelerated on Saturday in the country’s east as temperatures soared.
The mid-north coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000 koalas, but wildfires in the area in recent months have significantly reduced their population.
Koalas are native to Australia and are one of the country’s most beloved animals, but they have been under threat due to a loss of habitat.
Environment minister Sussan Ley said: “Up to 30% of their habitat has been destroyed.
“We’ll know more when the fires are calmed down and a proper assessment can be made.”
Images shared of koalas drinking water after being rescued from the wildfires have gone viral on social media in recent days.
Ms Ley said: “I get mail from all around the world from people absolutely moved and amazed by our wildlife volunteer response and also by the habits of these curious creatures.”
About 12.35 million acres of land have burned nationwide during the current wildfire crisis, with nine people killed and more than 1,000 homes destroyed.
Fire danger in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory was upgraded to severe on Saturday, as high temperatures built up over the region.
Sydney’s western suburbs reached 41C, while the inner city is expected to hit 31C on Sunday before reaching 35C on Tuesday.”
CERE’s Urban Afforestation Project (UAP) is increasing the green cover in Indian cities by helping companies, organisations, and individuals to reduce their carbon footprint.
CERE calculates the amount of carbon sequestered at each plantation site, taking into consideration species type, age of saplings and projected growth rates. Sequestration values are calculated as projections over 5, 10, or 15 years. Carbon Sequestration Certification is an integral part of the program and clients are provided with a CERE Offset Certificate at the end of the plantation and assessment.
See the locations at which plantation drives have been held and added information on this new website.
CERE’s Rain Water Harvesting programme has proved to control floods and our Carbon Map and Cap project is also growing from strength to strength, helping major companies to go green by mapping their carbon emissions and determining their carbon footprint and thereafter, helping achieve reduction targets to cap their carbon emissions.
Their Schools for Solar programme started this year with three institutions being solarised and the project will expand further next year to cover many more schools and colleges. CERE’s educational books, posters and e-learning courses are being used by various stakeholders.
As they say, most parts of India receive a high amount of solar radiation for 250 to 300 days in a year which-eventually adds up to a potential of producing 6,000 million GWh of energy per year. All will hope that – as soon as possible – the country will tap this resource to generate electricity on a large scale.
This is a report, published by the European Green Foundation, of case studies from the UK, Hungary and the Republic of Ireland, carried out on a transnational basis. One of the writers is a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility.
This report is the result of the Green European Foundation transnational project “Strengthening Climate Targets, Creating Local Climate Jobs”, conducted with its partners Green House Think Tank (United Kingdom), Ecopolis (Hungary) and Green Foundation Ireland.
Meeting the challenge of climate change requires structural changes to the economy so that it is no longer dependent on fossil fuels: we need to reduce overall energy use and ensure that all the energy that we do use is from renewable sources. This will require the creation of a large number of new jobs.
The Green European Foundation, with the support of Green House Think Tank, has developed a model to estimate the number of jobs that would be created in key sectors of the economy, to not only demonstrate that a transition is achievable but to also show where those jobs will be.
This model has been applied to the United Kingdom, as well as to Ireland (with the support of Green Foundation Ireland) and Hungary (with the support of Ökopolisz Alaptivány). The methodology used in that work and its results are presented in this report.
This is an article written by Prof Bill McGuire of University College, London and published by Scientists for Global Responsibility, as well as in: Responsible Science journal, no.1; Advance online publication: 14 February 2019.
“Have you noticed how the term ‘alarmist’ has been hijacked? In the context of climate breakdown, habitat and wildlife loss and other environmental issues, it has become synonymous with scaremongering; with the voice of doom. In certain circles it is frowned upon and judged to be a hindrance to getting the global warming message across. Iconic broadcaster David Attenborough is the latest to express the view that ‘alarmism’ in the context of the environment can be a ‘turn-off’ rather than a call to action. But are such viewpoints justified, especially when our world and our society teeter on the edge of catastrophe? After all, the simplest, most straightforward, meaning of an ‘alarmist’ is someone who raises the alarm. Is this not what we need now more than ever; to be told the whole story – warts and all? The alternative, it seems to me, is to play down the seriousness of our predicament; to send a message that is incomplete, and to conveniently avoid or marginalise predictions and forecasts that paint a picture regarded as too bleak for general consumption. Surely, this is the last thing we need at this critical time?
No-one could ever accuse the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of being alarmist. Because every sentence of IPCC report drafts is pored over by representatives of national governments – some of whom are lukewarm or even antagonistic to the whole idea of climate change – the final versions are inevitably conservative. The closest the IPCC has come to sounding an alarm bell can be found in its latest report Global Warming of 1.5ºC, published in October. Here it warns that emissions must be slashed within 12 years (by 2030) if there is to be any chance whatsoever of keeping the global average temperature rise (since pre-industrial times) below 1.5ºC, and fall to zero by 2050.
Notwithstanding the unlikelihood of achieving net zero global emissions in a little more than three decades, the pace and degree of climate change are about more than just anthropogenic emissions. They are also influenced by tipping points and positive feedback loops; sudden changes in the behaviour of ice sheets, carbon sources and sinks, and ocean currents, which can accelerate warming and its consequences way beyond the expected. Depressingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the latest IPCC report’s Summary for Policymakers[1] – let’s face it, the only bit likely to be read by the movers and shakers – includes just one brief mention of feedbacks and has nothing at all to say about tipping points. The justification for this appears to be that because it is not possible to assign levels of confidence to such known unknowns, they cannot be included. But it is difficult not to conclude that the real reason is to tone down the threat in order to appease those governments that view climate change as a nuisance that they would like to go away.
The decision to bury concerns over tipping points and feedbacks in the depths of the full report rather than flagging them in the Summary is nonsensical. Touting the critical importance of drastic action while at the same time soft peddling the threat has the potential to backfire, providing the obvious get out: well, if the situation is not so bad, maybe the response doesn’t need to be that urgent. If drastic, life-changing, action is being mooted, people need to know – have a right to know – why. They need to be presented with a complete picture showing how bad things might get – however scary or poorly constrained.
Bringing the potential consequences of tipping points and feedbacks into the equation inevitably transforms perceptions of the dangers we face. Suddenly, climate change ceases to be something vaguely inconvenient that we can leave future generations to deal with. Instead, it becomes far more of an immediate threat capable of tearing our world apart. Take sea level, for example. The IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report, [2] published in 2013 and 2014, predicts – for a worst-case scenario – that global mean sea level could be about a metre higher by the end of the century. Bad enough for millions of coastal dwellers, but nothing compared to what our descendants might experience if a tipping point is crossed that sees the Greenland and/or West Antarctic ice sheets start to disintegrate in earnest. Models that do incorporate this, point to sea level rising far more rapidly. One suggests that the ice loss in Antarctica could occur at a much faster rate than expected, leading to global average sea level being more than 3m higher at the end of the century. [3] Another, based upon correlations between temperature and sea levels during the last interglacial, which ended around 115,000 years ago, proposes that sea level – in theory at least – could climb by as much as 5m by 2100. [4]
Worrying evidence that we might be at a tipping point in Antarctica comes from a very recent study on the rate of ice loss from 2012 to 2017. During this five-year period, Antarctic ice loss shot up threefold, from 76 billion tonnes annually, to a colossal 219 billion tonnes. [5] In total, more than 2.7 trillion tonnes of Antarctic ice has melted in the last quarter century, adding three quarters of a centimetre to global sea level. At the new rate, the contribution over the next 25 years would be 1.5cm. Not enough to worry about in its own right. If, however, the rate of increase is maintained over this period, then the annual rise by 2043 would be close to a catastrophic five centimetres a year. And this is without the growing contribution from Greenland and from the increasing expansion of sea water as the oceans warm.
And there are other causes for serious concern too. None more so than the behaviour of the Gulf Stream and associated currents (together making up the AMOC – Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) that warm north-west Europe and also have a big influence on global weather patterns. In the distant past, surges of meltwater from shrinking ice sheets have caused the Gulf Stream to shut down. Now, it looks as if it might be in danger of doing so again as huge volumes of freshwater from the crumbling Greenland Ice Sheet pour into the North Atlantic, forming a so-called ‘cold blob’.
The IPCC’s official line is that another complete shutdown is ‘very unlikely’, but this is not the same as ruling it out. And there are certainly some worrying signs. The Gulf Stream has slowed by 15 – 20 percent since the middle of the 20th century and is now at its weakest for at least 1600 years. [6] The Gulf Stream has a tipping point, and – evidence from the past shows – can shut down in just a few years when this is crossed. The problem is that no-one knows when – or even if – this will happen. If it does, the ramifications will be sudden and widespread. The North Atlantic region will cool dramatically, particularly across the UK, Iceland and North West Europe, while sea ice will expand southwards (without, it should be emphasised, counteracting the trajectory of climate change). Sea-levels along the eastern seaboard of North America could rise at three to four times the global average rate. Further afield, changes to weather patterns are forecast to include a weakening of Indian and East Asian monsoons, which could have devastating consequences for crop yields. No-one is saying that the Gulf Stream is in imminent danger of collapse. Nonetheless, the threat is not insignificant, and as such should be soberly touted, not wilfully ignored.
Of the many and varied feedback loops and tipping points linked with rapid anthropogenic warming, perhaps the most disquieting involves the vast tracts of permafrost at high latitudes – both on land and beneath the sea. Trapped beneath this frozen crust are colossal quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect 86 times greater than carbon dioxide. Fortunately, methane has a relatively short residence time in the atmosphere and breaks down to carbon dioxide within a few decades. Nonetheless, major outbursts of methane from the rapidly thawing permafrost are capable of causing climate mayhem with little or no warning. The geographic region of most concern is probably the submarine permafrost that floors the East Siberian Continental Shelf, where an estimated 1400 billion tonnes of carbon, in the form of methane, is lurking beneath a frozen carapace that is thawing rapidly.
According to Natalia Shakhova and colleagues, [7] as much as 50 billion tonnes of this is available for sudden release at any time, which would – at a stroke – hike the methane content of the atmosphere 12 times. According to a study published in 2013, [8] a discrete methane ‘burp’ on this scale, could advance global warming by 30 years and cost the global economy US$60 trillion – a figure close to four times the US national debt. Once again, the occurrence of such an outburst is far from a certainty and there are other issues to consider, including how much methane is absorbed by the ocean as it bubbles upwards. Notwithstanding this, there is a potential danger here that needs to be promulgated rather than hidden away, so that the scale of the climate change threat is clear to everyone.
So – to conclude – be alarmed; be very alarmed. But don’t let alarm feed inertia. Use it instead to galvanise action. For your children’s and their children’s sake, stand up and do something about it. Drastically change your lifestyle; become an activist; vote into power a government that will walk the walk on climate change, not just talk the talk. Or – preferably – all three.” Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London and a co-director of the New Weather Institute. His current book is Waking the Giant: how a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. He is a signatory of an academics’ letter in support of the School Climate Strike. References
3. Le Bars D. et al (2017). A high-end sea-level rise probabilistic projection including rapid Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss. Environmental Research Letters, vol.12.
4. Hansen J. et al (2016). Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous. Atmos. Chem. Phys., vol.16, pp.3761-3812.
5. The IMBIE Team (2018). Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet 1992 – 2017. Nature, vol.558, pp.219-222.
6. Caesar L. et al (2018). Observed fingerprint of a weakening Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation. Nature, vol.556, pp.191-196.
7. Shakhova N.E. (2008). Anomalies of methane in the atmosphere over the East Siberian shelf. Geophysical Research Abstracts, vol.10, EGU2008-A-01526. Abstract.
8. Whiteman G., Hope C., Wadhams P. (2013). Vast costs of Arctic change. Nature, vol.499, pp.401–403.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who absented herself from school last year in order to demonstrate about climate change outside the Swedish parliament, is seeing her idea take off across the world.
According to Jonathan Watts of MSN news:
“Around the world, so many student strikes are now taking place or planned. A supporter on Twitter has compiled a Google map sowing all the announced locations, stretching from Abuja and Boogolubi to Sacramento and Medellin. The most recent version shows recent clusters of activity in the UK and northern Europe.
In reply, people on Twitter have written, “I’ve been dreaming of this”, “Power to the children,”beautiful” and simply “hope”.
Australia was one of the first countries to mobilise. Last November an estimated 15,000 students went on strike. Last Friday, students lobbied out side the offices of the opposition party; on March 1st, they plan to lobby outside the Federal Treasurer’s office, joining the global strike two weeks’ later. They are demanding immediate political action to stop the Adani coalmine in Queensland and a switch from fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy. Three students aged 11, 14 and 14 spoke to the leader of the opposition in the federal parliament. “It’s a good sign he is willing to meet,” they said. “The Prime Minister condemned the strike”.
In Belgium, there have been strikes by thousands of students for four consecutive weeks, with one now famous placard: “I’ll do my homework when you do yours!” More than 3,000 scientists in Belgium are giving their backing to the strike.
Switzerland has seen some of the greatest action. 23,000 joined the strike on 21 January, followed by 65,000 on 2nd February. All are preparing for a global demonstration on 15th March. They want the government to declare an immediate climate state of emergency, implement policies for zero carbon by 2030, without geo-engineering, and to move away from the current economic system.
In Germany, activists said that there are mobilisations every week, with 20,000 students striking in 50 cities last week.
The planned global strike on 15th March is expected to be the biggest yet, with mobilisations in 150 cities. Some university students have joined the schoolchildren in Germany and one of them, 22-year old Luisa Neubauer, said “What we need our politicians and our government to understand is that everything they do today comes at a price for future generations. We are not doing this for fun but because we don’t have a choice.”
There has, of course, been a backlash to all of this. I had an email from somebody in Australia who suggested that children were being “used” to “progress an argument”, though the writer did acknowledge that weather in Australia this year has been “heat, fires and floods – very devastating for the country – making the point about climate change very graphically.”
The UK Tory party has not been without its opposition to the childrens’ action, Andrea Leadsom amongst them tweeting “It’s called truancy, not a strike.” See also,
It has been heartening, therefore to read George Monbiot’s straight-talking piece in The Guardian and also on his website:
“Why older people must stand in solidarity with the youth climate strikes.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th February 2019
The Youth Strike 4 Climate gives me more hope than I have felt in 30 years of campaigning. Before this week, I believed it was all over. I thought, given the indifference and hostility of those who govern us, and the passivity of most of my generation, that climate breakdown and ecological collapse were inevitable. Now, for the first time in years, I think we can turn them around.
My generation and the generations that went before have failed you. We failed to grasp the basic premise of intergenerational justice: that you cannot apply discount rates to human life. In other words, the life of someone who has not been born will be of no less value than the life of someone who already exists. We have lived as if your lives had no importance, as if any resource we encountered was ours and ours alone to use as we wished, regardless of the impact on future generations. In doing so, we created a cannibal economy: we ate your future to satisfy our greed.
It is true that the people of my generation are not equally to blame. Broadly speaking, ours is a society of altruists governed by psychopaths. We have allowed a tiny number of phenomenally rich people, and the destructive politicians they fund, to trash our life support systems. While some carry more blame than others, our failure to challenge the oligarchs who are sacking the Earth and to overthrow their illegitimate power, is a collective failure. Together, we have bequeathed you a world that – without drastic and decisive action – may soon become uninhabitable.
Every day at home, we tell you that if you make a mess you should clear it up. We tell you that you should take responsibility for your own lives. But we have failed to apply these principles to ourselves. We walk away from the mess we have made, in the hope that you might clear it up.
Some of us did try. We sought to inspire our own generations to do what you are doing. But on the whole we were met with frowns and shrugs. For years, many people of my age denied there was a problem. They denied that climate breakdown was happening. They denied that extinction was happening. They denied that the world’s living systems were collapsing.
They denied all this because accepting it meant questioning everything they believed to be good. If the science was right, their car could not be right. If the science was right, their foreign holiday could not be right. Economic growth, rising consumption, the entire system they had been brought up to believe was right had to be wrong. It was easier to pretend that the science was wrong and their lives were right than to accept that the science was right and their lives were wrong.
A few years ago, something shifted. Instead of denying the science, I heard the same people say “OK, it’s real. But now it’s too late to do anything about it.” Between their denial and their despair, there was not one moment at which they said “It is real, so we must act.” Their despair was another form of denial; another way of persuading themselves that they could carry on as before. If there was no point in acting, they had no need to challenge their deepest beliefs. Because of the denial, the selfishness, the short-termism of my generation, this is now the last chance we have.
The disasters I feared my grandchildren would see in their old age are happening already: insect populations collapsing, mass extinction, wildfires, droughts, heat waves, floods. This is the world we have bequeathed to you. Yours is among the first of the unborn generations we failed to consider as our consumption rocketed.
But those of us who have long been engaged in this struggle will not abandon you. You have issued a challenge to which we must rise, and we will stand in solidarity with you. Though we are old and you are young, we will be led by you. We owe you that, at least.
By combining your determination and our experience, we can build a movement big enough to overthrow the life-denying system that has brought us to the brink of disaster – and beyond. Together, we must demand a different way, a life-giving system that defends the natural world on which we all depend. A system that honours you, our children, and values equally the lives of those who are not born. Together, we will build a movement that must – and will – become irresistible.”
Sad in a way – and ageist – that the Guardian editor changed his title to
“My generation trashed the planet. So I salute the children striking back”
And now the European Union is responding to Greta Thunberg’s campaign. The EC President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has announced that the EU should spend hundreds of billions of euros combating climate change during the next decade.
“In the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change,” Juncker said of his proposal for the EU budget, which is typically 1 percent of the bloc’s economic output, or 1 trillion euros ($1.13 trillion) over seven years.”
Thunberg was in Brussels to join a seventh week of demonstrations by Belgian children skipping school to protest against global warming.
More than 10,000 students, some holding up banners saying “stop denying the earth is dying”, protested across Belgium on Thursday, including in Brussels and the western city of Ghent.
Story from Reuters.
May 2019:
Time magazine writes a piece about Greta Thunberg, calling her a “Next Generation Leader”;
224 academics have written a letter to The Guardian in support of the children’s proposed non-attendance at school on Friday 15th February 2015. This is in response to a growing movement across the world by teenagers and children to draw attention of their governments to the need for emergency actions against climate change. Greta Thunberg from Sweden was the first to take such action (see an earlier blog).
Here is the letter in its entirety (of which I am one of the signatories):
“School climate strike children’s brave stand has our support
We are inspired that our children, spurred on by the noble actions of Greta Thunberg and other striking students, are making their voices heard, say 224 academics.
We, the undersigned academics, stand in solidarity with the children going on school climate strike on 15 February, and with all those taking a stand for the future of the planet.
Nelson Mandela once said: “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future. Those who abuse them tear at the fabric of our society and weaken our nation.” Human planetary abuse is, in a very real sense, child neglect.
As many of us and other fellow academics have indicated previously in this newspaper (Letters, 27 October 2018), the scientific evidence of climate change is clear. For example, the summer of 2018 has been confirmed by the Meteorological Office as the hottest on record for England. The heatwave adversely affected crops across Europe, with wheat and potato harvests reduced by one quarter, which in turn impacted upon food prices. Australia is similarly experiencing “hottest on record” weather events. As citizens across the globe will know and testify, many comparably disturbing examples could be given. We cannot nurture our children without Nature.
It is with these tragic and desperate events in mind that we offer our full support to the students – some of whom may well aspire to be the academics of the future – who bravely plan to strike on 15 February to demand that the UK government takes climate action. They have every right to be angry about the future that we shall bequeath to them, if proportionate and urgent action is not taken. We are inspired that our children, spurred on by the noble actions of Greta Thunberg and many other striking students all around the world, are making their voices heard.
Alison Green, PhD (Psychology), National Director (UK) ScientistsWarning.org Sir Tim Smit Co-Founder, Eden Project & Exec Chair Eden Project International
Professor Kevin Anderson, Joint chair of Energy and Climate Change at Manchester and Uppsala Universities Professor Tony Watts OBE Molly Scott Cato MEP, Professor of Green Economics, University of Roehampton Chris Rapley CBE, Professor of Climate Science, UCL Professor T. R. Birkhead, FRS Department of Animal & Plant Sciences,
University of Sheffield Professor Joy Carter Vice-Chancellor, University of Winchester Professor Danny Dorling, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (UK) Professor Diane Reay, University of Cambridge Professor Guy Claxton, King’s College London Professor Rosalind Gill, UK Professor Jem Bendell, PhD, University of Cumbria Professor Marilyn Strathern, DBE Cambridge University Dr Anne Alexander, University of Cambridge Dr Miklós Antal, Research Fellow, University of Leeds Francisco Ascui (PhD, MBA, MSc), Centre for Business and Climate Change, University of Edinburgh Dr Hugues Azérad, Fellow and College Lecturer,Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge Dr Keith Baker, co-founder, Energy Poverty Research initiative, Scotland Stephen J. Ball, distinguished service Professor of Sociology of Education, University College London Dr Meg-John Barker, Psychology in Social Sciences, The Open University Rocio Perez Barrales, School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth Emeritus Professor Michael Bassey
Professor Margaret Bates, University of Northampton Manu Bazzano, Lecturer, University of Roehampton Professor David Beerling, Dept. Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield Peter Belton, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, University of East Anglia Dr Teresa Belton visiting fellow, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia Dr Nicholas Beuret, University of Essex Dr Simon Boxley, Centre for Climate Change Education & Communication, University of Winchester Dr Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Beth Breeze, Director, Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent Delny Britton Ph.D. (env. Sci.), Stroud, Gloucestershire Dr Onel Brooks, Senior Lecturer in Psychotherapy, Counselling and Counselling Psychology Annemarieke de Bruin, Researcher, Stockholm Environment Institute, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York Erik Buitenhuis Ph.D., Ocean Biogeochemist Dr Catherine Burke, Reader in History of Education and Childhood, University of Cambridge Professor Erica Burman,Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester Dr Jonathan Busch, Research & Teaching Fellow, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds Dr Rose Capdevila, School of Psychology, The Open University Dr Stuart Capstick, Research Fellow, Cardiff University Professor Andrew Challinor, Faculty of Environment, University of Leeds Professor Alec Charles, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, UoW Paul Chatterton, Professor of Urban Futures,School of Geography, University of Leeds Christopher Clarke, Emeritus Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of Southampton Isabel Clarke, consultant Clinical Psychologist, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust Professor Linda Clarke, Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE), Westminster Business School, University of Westminster Richard Clarke, Visiting Scholar, University of Westminster Dr Christopher D. Coath, University of Bristol Frank Coffield, Emeritus Professor of Education, UCL Institute of Education, London University Dr Philip Connell, University of Cambridge Andrew Cooper, Professor of Social Work, Tavistock Centre and UEL Dr Mick Cooper, Counselling Psychologist Dr Alice Courvoisier, Ph.D.(Mathematics), lecturer, York University Nick Cowern, Emeritus Professor, Newcastle University Ed Craig, Executive Director Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, University of Edinburgh Gareth Dale, Politics/History, Brunel University Professor Colin Davis University of Bristol Dr Lucy Delap, Reader in Modern British and Gender History, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Dr Peter Dwyer, UCU Branch Executive, Ruskin College, Oxford Dr Alison Dyke, Stockholm Environment Institute, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York Richard Eke Ph.D., Associate Lecturer in Education Professor Barbara Evans CEng MCIWEM, Co-Director, Centre for Global Development, University of Leeds Dr Nick Evans, Junior Research Fellow, Clare College, University of Cambridge Dr Keri Facer, Professor of Educational and Social Futures, University of Bristol Dr Andrew L. Fanning, Marie Curie Research Fellow, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds Suman Fernando, Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities, London Metropolitan University; retired Consultant Psychiatrist Michael Fielding Emeritus Professor of Education, UCL Institute of Education, London Dr Keith Flett, London Socialist Historians Group, University of London Alistair Ford, Research Associate (Cities and Climate Change), Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Dr Katy Fox-Hodess, University of Sheffield Professor Lynn Froggett FAcSS Dr Christophe Gagne, Senior Language Teaching Officer in French, MML, University of Cambridge Charlie J. Gardner, PhD Lecturer, Conservation Biology Dr Simon Gibbs university Reader in Educational Psychology Ian Gibson Professor and former MP and chair, Select Committee on Science and Technology Simona Giordano, University of Manchester Dr Sara González, Associate Professor, School of Geography, University of Leeds Harvey Goldstein, Professor of Social Statistics, University of Bristol Professor Dave Goulson FRES,, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex Dr Dina Glouberman Skyros Institute Dr Mia Gray, Dept of Geography, University of Cambridge Sarah Greenfield Clark, MSc (Sustainability), Partnerships Co-ordinator for Extinction
Rebellion Stephen Hall, University Academic Fellow, Sustainable Cities Dr Catherine Happer, Lecturer in Sociology Lukas Hardt, Postgraduate Research Student, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds Prof. Julie Harris, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews Rachael Harris PhD, University of Cambridge Stephan Harrison, Climate Scientist, Exeter University UK Dr Stephen Harwood, University of Edinburgh Business School Dr Karsten Haustein, Postdoctoral Researcher, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford Peter Hawkins Ph.D. Professor of Leadership Henley Business School, University of Reading Dr Clare Heaviside, NERC Independent Research Fellow, University of Oxford Dr Jason Hickel, Goldsmiths, University of London Chris Hines MBE, Hon.D.Sc
Dr Stuart Hodkinson, Associate Professor, School of Geography, University of Leeds Dr Dan Hodson, Research Scientist, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK Paul Hoggett, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, UWE Owen Holland, Department of English, UCL Dr Wendy Hollway, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Open University Dr Reza Hossain, MBBS, MRCGP, DCH, DRCOG, DFFP, General Practitioner & Population Matters Richard House, PhD (Env sci) Chartered psychologist, Stroud Michael Hrebeniak, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge David Humphreys, Professor of Environmental Policy, Open University Peter Humphreys Chair, Centre for Personalised Education, visiting lecturer, School of Education, Birmingham City University Dr Victoria Hurth Faculty of Business, University of Plymouth Professor Lisa Isherwood, FRSA, Director of the Institute for Theological Partnerships, Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies, University of Winchester Chris Jarrold, Professor of Cognitive Development, School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol Simon Jobson, Professor of Sport & Exercise Physiology, University of Winchester Professor Aled Jones, PhD MA BA FHEA HonFIA Director of Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University Steven Jones, PhD (Education), Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester Professor Stephen Joseph, University of Nottingham Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Presidential Fellow in Ethnicity and Inequalities, The University of Manchester Dr Alexandre Kabla, Reader, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge Dr. J. Kasmire, University of Manchester Philomena Keane, Educational Psychologist, Keane Minds Dr Ben Kenward, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Oxford Brookes University Dr Eleanor Kirk, Research Associate, University of Glasgow Professor Peter Kornicki FBA, University of Cambridge Dr Tonya Lander, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford Mary Laven, Professor of Early Modern History, University of Cambridge Jane Liddell-King, Cambridge Peter Lipman, Fellow, Cabot Institute, University of Bristol Del Loewenthal, Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapy and Counselling, University of Roehampton Gerhard Lohmann-Bond, Chair/Coordinator East Midlands Green Party Ed Lord RMN, Ph.D. fellow, Swansea University Rachel Lunnon Ph.D. (mathematical logic), computer programmer, Bristol Robert Macfarlane, Reader at Cambridge University Professor Neil Marriott Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Pru Marriott, Dean of Business, Law and Sport, Director of the Winchester Business School Andrew Marsham, DPhil, Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge Dr John Marsham, PhD (Meteorology) John Mateer, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Production, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York Giulio Mattioli, (PhD) Visiting Research Fellow, Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds Dr Emma Mawdsley, Geography Department, Cambridge University Dr Debbie Maxwell Lecturer in Interactive Media, Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York Susannah Mayhew, Professor of Health Policy, Systems and Reproductive Health Marjorie Mayo, Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Duncan McCollin, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of Northampton Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards, University College London Ciarán McInerney, PhD., Research Fellow, University of Leeds Professor Alastair McIntosh University of Glasgow & Centre for Human Ecology James Mckay, project leader: ‘The Art of a Sustainable Future’, University of Leeds Dr Jean McKendree, Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York Laura McMahon, University of Cambridge Dr Kate McMillan Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries, King’s College London Dr Alessandra Mezzadri Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, London Dr Lucie Middlemiss, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds Professor Martin Milton, Regents University London
Dr Iris Möller, Lecturer in Coastal Processes, Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (CCRU) / Biogeography & Biogeomorphology Research Group, University of Cambridge Dr Gerry Mooney, Open University in Scotland Professor Sian Moore Director, Work and Employment Research Unit (WERU) and Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU), Greenwich Business School, London Emeritus Professor Peter Moss, UCL Institute of Education Richard Murphy, Professor of Practice in International Political Economy, City, University of London Dr David Nally, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Calum Neill, Associate Professor of Psychoanalysis & Cultural Theory, Edinburgh Napier University Peter Newell, Professor of International Relations, Department of International Relations, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex Dr Robbie Nicol, Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Environmental Education, University of Edinburgh Dany Nobus, Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychology, Brunel University London Eva Novotny, PhD
Jeff Ollerton, Professor of Biodiversity, University of Northampton Dr Susie Orbach, The Balint Consultancy Professor Jayne Osgood, Middlesex University, mother, feminist, activist Stephanie Palmer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge Douglas Parker, Professor of Meteorology, University of Leeds Ian Parker, Emeritus Professor of Management, University of Leicester Carole Parkes, Professor of Sustainable Business, University of Winchester Christine Parkinson Ph.D. (Behavioural Science), retired biologist and author (climate change), Birmingham Dr Volker Patent, CPsychol, Open University Dr Ian Patterson, Life Fellow, Queens’ College, Cambridge David Peters Professor Emeritus, Westminster Centre for Resilience, College of Liberal Arts and Science, University of Westminster Dr Mary Phillips reader in organisation studies, University of Bristol Professor Ann Phoenix
Professor Jenny Pickerill, University of Sheffield Adela Pickles, Communications Director for Rainforest Trust UK Professor Jonatan Pinkse, University of Manchester Professor Wouter Poortinga, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University Dr Gillian Proctor, Programme Leader in MA Psychotherapy and Counselling, University of Leeds Professor Sarah A. Radcliffe, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge Joe Ravetz, Co-Director, CURE, University of Manchester Dr Rupert Read, Reader in Philosophy, University of East Anglia, UK Dr Peter Reason, Emeritus Professor, University of Bath Dr Helen Richardson, Professor of Gender and Organisation, Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University Annette Rimmer, University of Manchester Rosemary Rizq, Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, University of Roehampton, London Pip Roddis, School of Geography, University of Leeds Paul Routledge, Professor of Contentious Politics and Social Change, School of Geography, University of Leeds Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex; Former Chair, UK Council for Psychotherapy Kate Sapin, Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge Dr Jason Scott-Warren, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge Lynne Segal, Anniversary Professor of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London Professor Farzana Shain, Keele University Dr Jo Shuttleworth, Lecturer in Counselling Psychology, University of Manchester Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting and Finance, University of Sheffield Andrew Simms, Research Associate, University of Sussex & Coordinator, the Rapid Transition Alliance David Sims, Emeritus Professor of Organisational Behaviour, City, University of London Helen Spandler, Professor of Mental Health Studies, University of Central Lancashire Nick Srnicek, Lecturer in Digital Economy, Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London Lauren Stabler, PhD (Sustainability) Researcher at Global Sustainability Institute Dr Guy Standing, FAcSS Professorial Research Associate, SOAS University of London Professor Julia K. Steinberger, University of Leeds Arran Stibbe, Professor of Ecological Linguistics, University of Gloucestershire Peter Strachan, Professor of Energy Policy, The Robert Gordon University Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, University of Cambridge, and a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge Harriet Thew, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds Brian Thorne, Emeritus Professor of Counselling, University of East Anglia Professor Fred Toates, UK Steve Tombs, Prof of Criminology, The Open University Dr Corrado Topi, Ecological Economist, Stockholm Environment Institute, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York Martin Upchurch, Professor of International Employment Relations, Middlesex University Business School, Hendon Simon van der Borgh, Senior Lecturer in film & television production & screenwriter, University of York Andreas Vossler, Phd (Psychology) Lianne Waterston, B.Ed, 2041 Climateforce Ambassador, Climate Reality Leader Professor Andrew Watterson, Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, University of Stirling Dr David Whitebread retired senior member, Homerton College, Cambridge Ian Willis, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge Dr Rebecca Willis, Independent Researcher Dr Ruth Wood, Senior Lecturer in Environment and Climate Change, University of Manchester Michael J Wright, Emeritus Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience, Brunel University, London Mike Yule, Associate Lecturer, Department of Education, University of Chichester Dr Andrew Zurcher, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge”
I am putting together here, two recent pieces of information, which may or may not be related to one another. First the North Pole:
A report from Washington, in Time magazine, states that Earth’s north pole is moving, shifting about 34 miles per year. The magnetic north pole has been drifting so fast in the last few decades that scientists are saying that past estimates are no longer accurate enough for precise navigation. It crossed the international date line in 2017, and is now leaving the Canadian Arctic on its way to Siberia. Since 1831, when it was first measured in the Canadian Arctic, it has moved about 1,400 miles towards Siberia. Its speed has increased from about 9 mpy to 34 mpy since 2000.
The reason given is turbulence in Earth’s liquid outer core. There is a hot liquid ocean of iron and nickel in the planet’s core where the motion generates an electric field. In general Earth’s magnetic field is getting weaker, leading scientists to say that it will eventually flip, so that the north and south poles change polarity. This has happened numerous times in Earth’s past, but not in the last 780,000 years.
Second, Greenland:
A study cited by National Geographic has found that Greenland’s ice is melting four times faster than expected. And the ice loss is from the land-fast ice sheet itself, not from Greenland’s glaciers.
Greenland is the world’s biggest island and it appears to have hit a tipping point in 2002, when ice loss rapidly accelerated, with a sustained ice loss in the SW region of the island, an area without large glaciers. By 2012 the annual ice loss was “unprecedented” at nearly four times the rate measured in 2003.
The study was was originally published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 21st 2019. Data from NASA’s GRACE satellites and GPS stations scattered around Greenland’s coast showed that between 2002 and 2016, Greenland lost approximately 280 billion tons of ice per year.
The Greenland ice sheet is 10,000 feet thick in places and contains enough ice to raise sea levels 23 feet (7 meters). However, the situation in Antarctica is more worrying, as the Antarctic ice sheet, if fully melted, could raise sea level 57 meters if fully melted. Alarmingly, the Antarctic is also undergoing an accelerated melt down, losing six times as much ice as it was four decades ago. Its ice loss averaged 252 billion tons a year over the past decade.
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