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EMERGING PLANET SERIES – IV:

Biodiversity, Business, Cities, Clean Air, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Covid-19, Cycling, Infrastructure, Institutions, Nature, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Sustainable Mobility, Transport • Comments Off on EMERGING PLANET SERIES – IV:

COVID-19: A clarion call to rebuild our cities greener and finally put nature centre stage.

By Jessica Tinkler MSc Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Graduate (Ethical Team Intern Associate)

CREDIT: Markus Spiske | UNSPLASH

Most of us know our current relationship with the environment is broken. In fact, it compromises our own long-term survival as a species. As governments and big business continue to exploit the planets finite natural resources, we can only standby and witness the acceleration of climate change and the deterioration of the environment. This is the new public health emergency alongside the existing climate emergency.

Recognising the need to sustain Rainforest but also the crisis in our biologically impoverished cities

This week coincided with World Rainforest Day. Deforestation and the removal of natural vegetation reduce the Earth’s capacity to sequester carbon and naturally regulate the climate.

Deforestation and land-use change, however, are not exclusive to the rainforests, as it is often portrayed, but are also prevalent locally. As urban areas expand, natural areas are cleared and paved for habitation, leaving biologically impoverished cities. The environmental sphere of influence of urban areas extends beyond the confines of a city, with parallel land use changes in rural areas for agriculture and infrastructure. With demographic changes and population growth, these spheres are swelling. With this, we not only reduce our ability to remove carbon and pollutants from the atmosphere and ecosystems, but we inhibit our natural environmental protections and increase our susceptibility to future climate hazards, including flooding, droughts, urban heat island and weather extremes.

Climate change, poor urban planning, public health and nature are all inextricably linked

It is clear COVID-19 has resulted from our failure to embrace long term environmental stewardship. Indisputable evidence is emerging, linking the environmental determinants of many diseases including infectious diseases and zoonoses but also allergies and mental health disorders, and so without a change in culture and behaviour, it is likely further public health emergencies will emerge in the future.

With half of the global population residing in urban areas, an ever-increasing population, and global net rural to urban migration, urban areas must become more resilient to future natural hazards while safeguarding public health. Enveloping ecosystem services, the essential benefits we obtain from the environment, into urban planning will enable us to simultaneously reach our climate adaptation goals, increase urban resilience and reduce the public health burden.

Time to accelerate city-based solutions from green roofs, bioretention initiatives, rainwater harvesting initiatives to integrated urban ecosystems.

“Green cities” must incorporate nature into urban planning, conserving wild ecosystems where possible or recreating natural areas where this is unfeasible. With nature at the forefront of development initiatives, we can design living spaces which are climate-resilient, with synergistic outcomes of improved air quality, clean water systems, improved food production and biodiversity. These ecosystem services are fundamental for human health and wellbeing both directly, and indirectly in the long and short term. Post-COVID-19 we could see futuristic green cities, abundant with green roofs and walls, bioretention initiatives (vegetated areas created to extract contaminants and improve drainage during extreme rainfall events), rainwater harvesting initiatives and urban ecosystems.

Governments are failing to deliver on their environmental election policy pledges

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) denounced the government in 2019 for failing to address any aspect of climate change sufficiently, and urban areas are no different. Unfulfilled “tree-pledges”, insufficient at the outset, fail to integrate urban areas which urgently need green spaces to reduce soil degradation, regenerate groundwater supplies and to absorb the impacts of temperature extremes and rainfall throughout the year. In spite of this, across England the public have been offered the opportunity to decide where trees will be planted, might these decisions incorporate the needs of urban areas? Potentially, this could incite the development of “green cities” across the UK.

What we need now – a consensus that we can harness this disruption to recalibrate our future

The CCC advises the UK government to focus the COVID-19 recovery on creating a cohesive and holistic green agenda, including investment in green infrastructure, tree planting and ecosystem restoration. And so, in the wake of COVID-19 we must force governments to adopt green energy policy and green infrastructure planning to safeguard public health and create climate-resilient living spaces without any delay.

On 26 June 2020
By admin
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EMERGING PLANET SERIES – III:

Cities, Clean Air, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Covid-19, Cycling, Fossil Fuels, Infrastructure, Sustainability, Sustainable Mobility, Transport • Comments Off on EMERGING PLANET SERIES – III:
How cycling can save the NHS and the environment

By Jessica Tinkler MSc Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Graduate (Ethical Team Intern Associate)

CREDIT: Andrew Gook | Unsplash

In the first week of “Emerging Planet”, I eluded to the possibility of green infrastructure as an economic recovery tool during COVID-19. Key components of urban areas for climate mitigation and adaptation planning include decarbonisation of the energy network but also creating resilient, adaptable cities through introducing green urban planning and clean transport.

COVID-19 has presented society with a period of uncertainty. Looking forward, we must also anticipate and prepare for the insurmountable impacts of an uncertain future and a changing climate. To mitigate climate change and to maintain a global temperature rise of 1.5℃, the UN states that emissions must be cut by 7.6% every year for the next decade. World leaders must, therefore, focus on trying to sustain and increase the emission reductions observed during this lockdown.

CREDIT: Mircea Iancu | Pixabay

How can infrastructure and improving access to sustainable mobility help?

It is well understood by economists that infrastructure investment can strengthen the economy for a sustained period, creating vital jobs, to assist us through economic hardships. The focus on stimulus packages to revitalise the economy will almost certainly include infrastructure, but where investment will be allocated is up for debate.

Throughout lockdown, emissions have sharply declined across the developed world, a glimmer of promise and potential for the green economy. As lockdown is lifted, and risks posed by public transport are made explicit, the workforce are taking to the roads. Despite weeks of reduced emissions, up to a quarter lower than usual, it is likely that emissions will escalate to unprecedented levels without intervention, surpassing the pre-pandemic rates.

CREDIT: Coen van den Broek | Unsplash

If governments choose to respond to this foreseen trend in emissions, it can be countered through:
1. Proposals to support “work from home” in the long term and “flexi-working”, automatically reducing traffic on the roads.
2. Through investments in walking and cycling infrastructure.
Requirements to socially distance have been a wake-up call that the UK has outdated roads and pavements which are unfit to support individuals who wish to cycle safely and those who choose to walk. In May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, released a £250M emergency fund to introduce “pop up” bike lanes and wider pavements across the country which have been well received. These pop-up lanes have been visible in major cities across the country and are a step towards cycle-friendly cities in the interim.

CREDIT: Swaminathan Jayaraman | Unsplash

The UK could seek to imitate the “supercycle” highways introduced by Copenhagen, Denmark. This is transforming urban planning and infrastructure development with climate change and public health at the forefront of design and investment. Recent socio-economic analyses have estimated that Copenhagen’s “superhighways” have provided an economic surplus of €765 million. The Danish government advocate for prioritisation of cycle infrastructure as it is a relatively inexpensive transportation mechanism to install and has innumerable economic benefits; reducing air pollution and decreasing healthcare costs for instance.

In the wake of COVID-19 cycle investment could reduce pressure for the NHS while reducing our emissions and improving the local environment.

In the UK, promises and plans around cycling and walking before and during COVID-19, have been the environmental “buzz” for both the Scottish Government and Westminster. But whether these promises will materialise into tangible action or mere tokenism, time will tell. Let’s hope these plans don’t fall to the same fate as the afforestation commitments.
On 18 June 2020
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EMERGING PLANET SERIES – II:

Climate Emergency, Covid-19, Fish, Marine Industry, Nature, Ocean, Sustainability, Water, Wildlife Conservation • Comments Off on EMERGING PLANET SERIES – II:

Will COVID-19 be the last call to preserve our oceans? Introduction to World Oceans Day | Reanimated Oceans

By Jessica Tinkler MSc Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Graduate (Ethical Team Intern Associate)

CREDIT: Andrew Bain | UNSPLASH

This brief intermission in societal life has prompted the reinvigoration and reanimation of our oceans. In quick succession, images have poured from Venice of “nature’s comeback”, shoals of fish and seabirds have returned to the city. The endangered Spiny Seahorse has been sighted in a small enclave off the coast of Dorset in the largest recorded observation since 2008. Also, sensitive seagrass around the UK shows early signs of recovery, thanks to respite from marine traffic. Initial indications point to benefits for humpback whales as well which respond to quieter seas, devoid of tourists and fishing fleets. Marine scientists hope that the undisturbed breeding season, which has coincided with the lockdown, coupled with the implementation of additional restrictions on commercial whaling will result in population growth. These observations indicate some recovery of marine life, perhaps these early signs could lead us to some cautious optimism for the future.

CREDIT: Seyiram Kweku |UNSPLASH

COVID-19 and Human Activity

Fortunately for developed countries, resilient economies and strong social welfare systems have momentarily cushioned the economic hardship for most of their populations. However, this is not representative of the wider global community, many of whom reside in developing nations, not entitled to furlough schemes and are often reliant on subsistence livelihoods. This can result in the exploitation of local ecosystems, with people seeking their own social security by the only means accessible to them. Communities have turned to the forests and the ocean, increasing hunting and fishing to buffer the inevitable economic strain of the pandemic. This echoes patterns of natural resource destruction following the 2008 financial crash, which saw low-income communities globally exploiting natural resources to mitigate economic distress. These behaviour patterns are possible due to gaps in law enforcement’s ability to control exploitation allowing overfishing, deleterious fishing practices and the unlawful misuse of marine protected areas (MPAs).

CREDIT: Krisztian Tabori | UNSPLASH

The current pandemic has had a significant impact on maritime transport and tourism and the hospitality industry, with parallel challenges for fisheries. Fishing exports are projected to decline by one third due to the decrease in demand. Whilst this is problematic for the industry which has until now unsustainably exploited a third of the fish stocks worldwide; this hiatus could allow for the recovery of fish populations in the short to medium term. The economic value of fisheries is high for many countries but especially significant for the livelihoods of small-scale fishers who lack the adaptive capacity to find alternative means of living. This trade-off is not feasible for many, and poses questions about how oceans could be replenished sustainably for all?

CREDIT: Amelia Barklid | UNSPLASH

What now?

Our oceans are in turmoil, with everyone clamouring to take their piece. Fish stocks are plundered for consumption, coral reefs are devastated by ocean acidification, coastal areas are suffocated by eutrophication, fuel spills threaten fragile ecosystems and habitat destruction infringe upon sensitive areas. The emergence of Covid-19 has triggered outrage at the relationship that we, as humans, have with the environment. In the past, such crisis’ have brought forth environmental changes and the development of strategic conservation plans. The synergy between Covid-19 and the environment, both in its conception and potential recovery solutions, could establish effectual conservation strategies; protecting human health and the environment above and below the ocean. This is encouraged by Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of The Commonwealth, who states:

“While the fallout from the pandemic has had a huge impact on our blue economies, it also presents a crucial opportunity to strategise on how to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable economic practices built on climate resilience and ocean sustainability”.

In times of crisis, we see the interrelationship of people and the ocean, with 3 billion people reliant on the ocean for food and the rest are dependent on the ocean for health, wellbeing and livelihoods. Covid-19 might be the impetus we need to demand renewed marine protections. Sustainable management of the blue economy is essential to build resilience and key for the preservation of our oceans.

On 13 June 2020
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EMERGING PLANET SERIES – I:

Activism, Advocacy, Business, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Energy, Nature, Renewable Energy • Comments Off on EMERGING PLANET SERIES – I:

Can we ensure further uptake of renewables and decarbonisation of the economy post-COVID -19?

By Jessica Tinkler MSc Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Graduate (Ethical Team Intern Associate)

CREDIT: Biel Morro -UNSPLASH

Covid-19 has called for drastic and unprecedented action from world leaders. It has taken a herculean effort to suppress the devastating impact of coronavirus and the challenge looks to persist long into the future. As lockdowns ease, this presents an opportunity to align environmental and economic agendas to ensure our own long-term survival.

The pandemic has revealed that it is possible to reduce emissions across polluting sectors when compelled. In the UK, lower energy demand has enabled ‘greener supplies’ to govern the grid, which might provide a flavour of a greener future if society demands it. Although absolute lockdown cannot be sustained long term, are there lessons to take from restrictions? And how could these insights inform sustainability and environmental agendas in the coming years?

While the coronavirus pandemic has dominated media headlines, for now, it is critical to see how the environmental discourse will develop in a post-Covid world.

A Tool for Economic Recovery?

While there are early signs of levelling or, in some cases, restoration, the pressure to revive global economies is mounting and governments seek to stimulate growth. Immediate responses to mediate the damage and absorb economic shocks must reform into longer-term solutions. This might resemble infrastructure investment or renewable energy pledges.

Fossil fuels seem a viable tool to instigate economic recovery, the option to invest in high carbon energy to stimulate growth is appealing. Australia, notorious for its high carbon energy mixture, looks set to hold natural gas at the heart of its Covid-19 recovery plan. Whether this will be reflective of wider recovery proposals remains to be seen.

CREDIT: Nicholas Doherty: UNSPLASH

With renewable energy production exceeding coal in the United States for the first time and the United Kingdom observing the first coal-free month ever, we could be optimistic for the future of green energy. In spite of this progress, however, the proportion of the global energy mix extracted from renewable sources and the efficiency of energy systems will still fall short of the 2030 targets of Sustainable Development Goal 7 without drastic amendments. Covid-19 has interrupted the supply chain of renewables, and consequently, the generation of electricity from renewable sources has declined, although less dramatically than its’ corrosive counterparts.

In a unanimous endeavour Greenpeace, HSBC, Siemens, Asda and the National Grid are among the organisations calling for the UK recovery plan to stress the decarbonisation of the economy. A recovery plan prioritising emission reductions will revive the economy and protect jobs, they insist. Renewable energies are quickly becoming cost-effective sources of energy and therefore offer a window of opportunity for the global economy in uncertain times. The UK should not neglect or overlook the medium- and long-term goals of the country and, instead, move environmental obligations to the forefront of the UK’s recovery plan. Implementing progressive policies and prioritising low-cost renewables will adapt markets and reflect a green economic revival. The EU has already pledged €750bn to a green recovery package, the largest green stimulus package ever, the question is whether the UK and other nations will follow suit.

On this World Environment Day, we should be able to look optimistically to a future with sustainable economic growth, powered by clean energy. World leaders could and should use this pandemic to leap into a new era of green energy and green living.

On 5 June 2020
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COVID-19 AND GLOBAL WARMING.

Consumers, Covid-19, Sustainability • Comments Off on COVID-19 AND GLOBAL WARMING.

Two good reasons to eat fewer animals. Shifting to a flexitarian diet will help to prevent pandemics, fight climate change, and feed the world sustainably.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: Giulia Wegner

June 01st 2020

Deforestation for agriculture and livestock, Menabe, Madagascar. | Flickr/USAID. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Over the past year the world has witnessed an alarming succession of environmental disasters. Millions of hectares of forests have been incinerated in Amazonia and Australia. Floods have submerged whole cities like Venice and its historic and cultural heritage. An ever-increasing number of cetaceans, turtles and birds are dying in agony due to the ingestion of plastic. And most recently, the global Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that messing with our planet can have consequences that are deadly.

The past 60 years have been characterised by the increasingly frequent emergence of new ‘zoonoses,’ which are infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans – as is most likely to have been the case with the coronavirus. The majority of these zoonoses (more than 150) were transmitted by wild animals, including Ebola (1976 in western Africa), HIV (identified in 1981 in the USA), SARS (2003 in China), and most recently Covid-19.

This may partly be due to climate change, which alters temperature and rainfall patterns in ways that favour disease carriers like mosquitoes. Melting glaciers may also release viruses that have been buried for thousands of years. But the rise in new zoonoses is primarily caused by the ways in which we are pushing into, and extracting resources from, the few remaining pristine ecosystems left on the planet.

When the Amazonian rainforest is burned to obtain cheap land for cattle ranching, or African territories are cleared to extract timber and minerals like coltan for electronic devices, or uncharted landscapes are penetrated to hunt exotic animals and sell their meat, skins, ivory, and body parts for presumed medicinal uses, humans come into contact with previously‑isolated populations of wild animals that host hundreds of thousands of viruses and bacteria to which we’ve never been exposed.

These microorganisms aren’t new – viruses have been on planet earth for more than three billion years – but our interactions with them are quite recent. This explains why the majority of new infectious epidemics are linked to deforestation, which creates novel rural landscapes where wild animals and humans intermingle, and which also facilitates the entry of illegal hunters into pristine ecosystems.

Certain species of bats and rodents prosper in these modified landscapes, and due to their high numbers and tolerant immune systems these animals act as ‘reservoir’ species that host viruses asymptomatically. Once these viruses enter the human body they can be lethal. Many viruses also make use of an ‘intermediate vector’ through which they can evolve and transit from reservoir species to humans.

For example, insufficiently-cooked meat from wild animals is one of Ebola’s main vectors, where the animals involved were probably infected by eating fruits that were partly consumed by bats that host the virus. The Nipah epidemic in Malaysia in 1998 broke out when a large intensive pig farm was established together with fruit orchards at the edge of a forest, with the virus transmitted first from bat to pig through fruit contaminated with the bat’s saliva and urine, and then from pig to human through direct contact with sick pigs or their contaminated tissues.

Thus, as long as we keep encroaching into the last uncontaminated ecosystems on earth to extract resources, new infectious diseases will continue to emerge. As explained by Alanna Shaikh, an expert in global public health, even if every country in the world was able to develop effective protocols to contain new disease outbreaks by identifying new viruses as soon as they emerge, immediately treating infected people, and sharing all the necessary information so that other countries can be prepared, new viral disease outbreaks will be inevitable so long as we continue to abuse our planet.

The sharing of diseases between animals and humans reminds us of something fundamental: we are animals too, and as such form an integral part of nature. The only way to mitigate environmental disasters is to learn to accept and respect this basic truth.

The causes of ecosystem disruption are several, but they are all linked to the overconsumption of natural resources. One form of consumption in particular lies at the root of both the increasing risk of zoonotic pandemics and global warming: the consumption of animal‑sourced foods. As is well known, climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, especially from electricity and heat production (which account for 25% of the total); deforestation, crop cultivation and livestock ranching (24%); industrial production (21%), and transportation (14%).

In order to curb emissions and mitigate climate change, governments tend to focus on the energy and transport sectors, but the second of these areas – the global food system – is also key, especially livestock production. The farming of poultry, pigs, cattle, goats and other livestock is responsible for between 72% and 78% of agricultural food-related greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to the fact that livestock is the world’s largest user of land and water resources, and also to cattle gut fermentation (which produces methane), and manure-related gas emissions.

With its high requirements for land, water and feed, livestock production is also one of the main causes of the habitat destruction that brings humans into increasing contact with wild animals. Since the expansion of livestock and feed production occurs predominantly in tropical countries, the risk of new zoonoses is also concentrated in tropical forests which are characterised by high mammal species diversity, and which are undergoing land conversion for crop and livestock production. Moreover, due to their high density and low genetic diversity, intensive livestock farms can also act as amplifiers for the transmission of new pathogens.

There is a growing consensus among the scientific community that greenhouse gas emissions cannot be sufficiently mitigated without a radical reduction in the consumption of animal‑based foods. The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and the Special Report on Climate Change and Land of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) both assert that the target of keeping global warming well below 2°C won’t be met without intensifying sustainable agriculture, reducing food loss and waste, and adopting diets that are low in animal-sourced protein.

A so called ‘flexitarian’ or ‘planetary health’ diet consists of large amounts of plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, wholegrains, nuts and seeds, along with modest amounts of animal-based foods such as fish, poultry, eggs and dairy produce and very low amounts of red meat (i.e. beef, pork and lamb). A global shift to a flexitarian diet has the potential to reduce food‑related greenhouse gas emissions by 56% and feed more than nine billion people by 2050 in an environmentally-sustainable manner.

The EAT Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health in 2019 reached the same conclusions. In addition, the commission highlights how a plant‑based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and wholegrains , along with cutting unhealthy products like red meat, added sugars and highly processed foods, could prevent approximately 11 million deaths per year (or 19 – 24% of total adult deaths). High levels of consumption of red and processed meat are linked to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and some cancers.

Therefore, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of new epidemics, it’s crucial that each one of us begins to shift to a flexitarian diet as soon as possible, as well as purchasing more sustainably-produced food (like organic products) and eliminating food waste from our households.

The Covid-19 pandemic shows that each and every one of us is vulnerable to the consequences of environmental degradation. Therefore, we all share the responsibility to act in order to prevent land and water pollution, floods, drought, famine, and epidemics from becoming increasingly prevalent.

In evolutionary terms, what distinguishes humans from other animal species is not, as many suppose, the capacity to feel emotions or express oneself through technology and art. Other animal species share our capacity to feel fear, joy, pain and expectation, and to develop knowledge and transmit it to their offspring.

Rather, what distinguishes us from other animal species is our cerebral capacity to imagine something that doesn’t yet exist, and communicate it to the rest of our community in words and images so that we can turn abstract ideas into concrete action. But to do so requires that we activate this capacity.

We are already feeling the consequences of our inaction. Our children and grandchildren, and those human communities and non-human animals who lack the privilege of choice that’s available to many of us in wealthy societies, will have it much worse if we do nothing.

First published on Open Democracy 26May

On 1 June 2020
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Certification

Consumers • Comments Off on Certification
How product certification can win consumers’ hearts and minds

The age of restorative and regenerative brands is taking center stage. In an era of heightened environmental challenges and climate change in the daily news, there’s mounting evidence consumers are differentiating brands by their authenticity, values and sustainability credentials at an unprecedented rate.

Branding always has played a vital role in purchasing decisions. But what’s behind the label as we witness a cultural overhaul and the rise of “purpose-driven” brands?

Alongside this growing consumer consciousness and awareness, we’re witnessing the mainstreaming of certification, with the surge in certified products appearing in our weekly shopping baskets — from coffee in Lidl, chocolate in Asda to bananas in Aldi and Tesco. For example, in the United Kingdom, you’re spoiled for choice for where to buy your coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms: from McDonald’s, Costa, EAT or POD.

Everyday consumers can make ethical purchasing decisions in their daily lives and vote with their wallets. Some would argue retailers exist only as curators of products and services and soon would stop stocking items that didn’t sell. Consumers, therefore, are holding ever-increasing power when it comes to “hearts and minds” issues based on what a brand is conveying.

According to the Edelman 2018 Earned Brand Report, “Brands are now being pushed beyond their classic business interests to become advocates for a better society.”

Today, opinions count, and as consumers evolve, they’re becoming increasingly educated and environmental savvy, thus certifiers also must evolve along with them to ensure radical transparency at the touch of a smart-phone button. According to the 2018 Edelman “Trust Barometer, The State of Trust in Business” report (PDF), 63 percent of respondents agreed that “A good reputation may get them to try a product — but unless they come to trust the company behind the product, they will soon stop buying it, regardless of its reputation.”

Part of the solution

The rise of sustainable products and services has allowed consumers to become part of the solution and not just the problem by being able to differentiate a brands sustainability values and credentials about its supply chain through its certification. This retail tipping point slowly has been taking place as both retailers and producers have sought to ensure product traceability as a necessity and commercial survival strategy.

However, this silent food retail revolution has been occurring in the background for some time, as most responsible brands have sought to measure the impact of their supply chain and ensure that they can identify where, how and when something has been produced to meet their environmental commitments.

The rise of sustainable products and services has allowed consumers to become part of the solution and not just the problem.

In fact, companies are in a unique position to act as drivers of change and influence consumption habits. For better or worse, they profoundly affect our lives, and not just through our wallets. From Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Uber and McDonald’s to Facebook, major global corporations possess unparalleled scale, power, reach and influence with the potential to use their resources for good, and help ensure a fairer, safer and more equitable world for us all.

However, we really must rethink the terminology and now substitute the word “sustainability” with the word “responsibility” in business. In our “conversations for action,” the business of business is unequivocally humanity in an era of global climate change and other unprecedented environmental challenges ahead.

Hearts and minds

The clear drivers influencing shopping habits are the proliferation of product choices, making differentiation a hearts-and-minds issue, to breakthroughs in technological innovation at the farm level, enabling data collection, measurement and benchmarking against established metrics.

These drivers are contributing to the rise in purpose-driven brands. And because of the internet age, the provenance of a brand and its supply chain can be checked in seconds, which also adds a risk to an organization’s reputation simply overnight. In fact, a report by Deloitte shows that 87 percent of millennials believe that the success of a company should be measured by its social and environmental impact, as well as on its financial performance.

As millennials are the retail food shoppers of the future in a competitive retail environment, it would be natural to think that all brands eventually will embed supply chain transparency into their operations to maintain market share as much as they would want to “do the right thing.”

Fortunately, our food producers, farmers and food supply chains have become faster at disclosing their environmental and social data as a result of advances in digital technology and are helping to provide radical transparency. Alongside the evolution of sustainable packaging solutions, which are driving the public discourse, it is arguably almost second nature for consumers to make more enlightened purchasing decisions based on their products’ origins, production techniques, packaging, gender equality, carbon emissions and environmental considerations.

According to another recent report, “The New Sustainability: Regeneration” by advertising agency JWT, British consumers recently have mobilized and become highly concerned about single-use plastics, with 60 percent believing that products are overpackaged. In fact, many shoppers see familiar certifications as much a part of intrinsic packaging design as an ethical brand promise. This demonstrates that the brand is “doing their bit” across all these issues and is somewhere on the sustainability journey now that eco-consciousness has gone mainstream.

Supply chain insights

So how does one’s choice of morning coffee, tea, banana or chocolate really make a difference? Can certification provide the guarantees necessary? How do we communicate that sustainability is a journey and not an endpoint?

Certification helps all the players to work towards unified standards: It sets the standards and provides independent verification against them.

Certification is an important tool for making sectors more sustainable. It helps all the players to work towards unified standards: It sets the standards and provides independent verification against them.

Three key points about certification:
- Certification can offer deep supply chain insights that are hard to achieve otherwise and a level of transparency that few other systems do.
- Certification forms the basis of a fully scalable system that engages both farmers and companies along the supply chain, bringing them together with markets and civil society resulting in positive impacts.
- It is most effective at catalyzing sustainable transformation when implemented within a larger context of collaboration between companies, NGOs, governments and others.
From a long-term perspective, certification helps ensure the future viability of farming and agriculture, which likely will confront increasing pressures from climate change and socio-economic factors. By applying good practices related to environmental management, worker health and safety, and farm productivity, certified farms are preparing to be able to deliver high-quality, sustainable produce in the future.

It’s never too late to build brand ethics into your marketing as sustainability has become synonymous with quality. It’s also clear that employees also want to work for purpose-driven brands. As polar explorer Robert Swan once said, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
On 31 January 2020
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The glamorisation of toy weapons – counter-productive symbolism?

Activism, Campaigning • Comments Off on The glamorisation of toy weapons – counter-productive symbolism?

It’s quite disturbing this Christmas to witness our high streets glamorising weapons of violence in the lead up to the celebration of Christmas Day itself. A day, which is meant to symbolise peace, and goodwill to all men, and women. Especially post the Paris 2015 atrocities. In the advent of a heightened paranoia around terrorism repeating itself in some other unsuspecting town or city, you would hope that both retailers, and parents would show some sort of leadership around this issue. I was prompted to write this after recently seeing one high street retailer’s front window, stacked high with replica toy machine guns. Whilst most toy guns might bear little resemblance to the real McCoy, many are close identical replicas and, from a distance could prove quite threatening to a casual observer. With names like Shooting Play, Army Machine Gun and Rapid Firing Gun, are we not pretending that these toys are doing anything other than re-enacting death and destruction in a play format? Do these sorts of toys not reinforce and familiarise children with a destruction led, conflict narrative, normalising war and weapons, which is also regularly reinforced through popular entertainment, films, TV and video games?

Whilst gun culture in the UK is not remotely as prevalent as the US where there have been 294 mass shootings so far in 2015 we need to look at society and how our values are communicated as there appears to be no less promotion of guns and symbols of conflict in the retail arena, even though there’s a noticeable rise in knife and gun crime among the young in most urban environments. Certainly to cite the US again for decades, the most dangerous piece of machinery was an automobile. But now, it’s a gun.

It’s also interesting when ones does a search on Google for ‘children’s toy guns’ one finds an array of AK47’s, military assault and hand guns replicas popping up.

As the current programme on Channel 4 called “The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds” shows. This age is arguably the most crucial period in a child’s development as they cross the threshold from family life into the social arena of school, and the tools of social interaction these children are learning can lay the foundations for the relationships they will form right across their adult lives.

Klaus Dodd’s, Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London is examining the historical and contemporary play with Action Man over the last 40 years. He believes that parental concern with weapons, which also loomed large in previous decades, masks an even bigger issue now.

“There is a kind of anxiety that expresses itself through war toys about Britain and its relationship with militarism. We are a country addicted to war. We are a highly militarised society and I think children and the relationship to toys is one aspect of that broader debate about what Britain is and represents.”

A generation ago or two, it wouldn’t be unusual to see kids running around their neighbourhood wielding toy guns as they played cowboys or cops and robbers. Myself included. But as school shootings have become frighteningly commonplace, playing with toy guns doesn’t seem that innocent anymore?

Many schools around the world have even implemented zero tolerance policies on guns, and in some cases, have gone as far as suspending children for pointing their fingers in the shape of a gun and pretending to shoot another student. Therefore, understandably some people feel that playing with toy guns sends the wrong message, making light of a deadly weapon — or worse, that toy guns increase aggression in children.

Playing with a toy gun can also have painful and even deadly consequences. There have been several incidences that involved children being shot accidentally.

It’s easy to see violence and aggression in society as a whole and in the media, through TV, video and the cinema. And then one hears a sweet, innocent child saying ‘bang bang’ and ‘I killed you,’. It’s not surprising in today’s increasingly violent culture not to worry that he/she could grow up to be violent.

In the same way that we go to the gym to train our bodies, we need to feed our minds, and those of younger generations and our good citizens of tomorrow. We need to do this with the appropriate symbolism through accessories and toys that promote goodwill, harmony and creativity as an antidote to extremism, violence and destruction. And there is no greater time to instil these values in society, than now, at Christmas, through play.

On 22 December 2015
By admin
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Environmental Protection is a Human Rights Issue – the Legal Case to Act Now.

Activism, Advocacy, Sustainability • Comments Off on Environmental Protection is a Human Rights Issue – the Legal Case to Act Now.

I’d be surprised if the publicity and coverage surrounding the Magna Carta hasn’t touched everyone at some point during the last few months as the 800th anniversary was marked by an array of exciting celebrations, stories and comment. Its significance is truly timely, and feels remarkably like some kind of synchronicity has taken place. This is because it allows us to reflect on our current place in history and how are our own stewardship of the earth requires an equivalent blue print and route map as we count down to the historic COP21 Paris 2015 climate change talks this December.

Magna Carta and Human Rights

Magna Carta, an 800-year-old document contains the idea that no-one is above the law, and it still forms the foundation of many modern ideas, constitutions and documents today. Its emergence came during the reign of King John when there was rampant exploitation of assets by the landed classes and those in power, much like today. Lots of constitutions have been derived and based upon it including the US Constitution, United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. This therefore also marks the anniversary of the Bill of Human Rights. But human rights are fictitious and not our birth right even though they should be and they vary depending on where you live on this planet. We therefore, have to ensure our right to a safe environment is upheld as one of the most basic principles of human rights at the same times as fighting for them.

HRH The Prince of Wales – a Magna Carta for the Earth

As HRH The Prince of Wales recently stated in his Social Impact Blog on theHuffington Post, we truly need a Magna Carta for the Earth. This blog post was part of a series produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with the OECD Forum 2015.

Some would argue that the answers to the future lie in our past.

Not all Countries Have Environmental Laws Enshrined in Their Constitutions

It’s interesting to note that only 1/2 to 3/4 of the world’s political and country constitutions take into account environmental protection as a key foundation of their fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. So how about the rest? Does the Earth and its regulatory powers not need to establish a ‘Ministry of the Earth’ over and above the national interests of each of the constitutions where environmental protection is absent? Should a country such as the US and its President, Barack Obama be allowed to sanction drilling in the Arctic which is hardly in the interests of the whole world and certainly not in the interests of its poorest 2/3rds who are without a voice on such issues that affect them indirectly? Or even the future generations who have yet to be born in hundreds of years’ time.

Environmental Protection is a Human Rights issue.

Because human rights are not granted by any human authority such as a monarch, government, or secular or religious authority, they are not the same as civil rights, such as those in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Constitutional rights are granted to individuals by virtue of their citizen ship or residence in a particular country.

Human rights are both abstract and practical. They hold up the inspiring vision of a free, just, and peaceful world and set minimum standards for how both individuals and institutions should treat people. They also empower people to take action to demand and defend their rights and the rights of others

According to the scientist Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, “We control the world basically because we are the only animals that can cooperate flexibly in very large numbers. And if you examine any large-scale human cooperation, you will always find that it is based on some fiction like the nation, like money, like human rights. These are all things that do not exist objectively, but they exist only in the stories that we tell and that we spread around. This is something very unique to us, perhaps the most unique feature of our species.”

Protect the Idea of the Common Good

The Magna Carta in principal essentially sets out to protect the idea of the Common Good. Jonathan Porritt , Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development recently commented that “social justice and environmental sustainability are two sides of the same coin – a coin which has very little value if all you’re seeing is either one side or the other.”

When Magna Carta was confirmed by Henry III’s minority government in 1217, the opportunity was taken to hive off the clauses relating to the forests and place them in a separate charter, at the same time adding to their number. This resulted in theForest Charter 1215. There was much in the 1215 Charter about forest matters because the extent of the king’s forests and the administration of the forest law were both sources of popular grievance. By way of redress the king promised limited disafforestation and investigations into the malpractices of his forest officials.

It’s interesting to note that the Settlement for all time was brokered by the Church – Now we see the mobilisation of the Catholic Church around climate issues and the environment with Pope Francis’s recent Encyclical.

Paris 2015 could turn out to be the modern day Magna Carta. The global pact in Paris should be a Magna Carta for the Earth. Justice should be free to all and our human rights to clean air, water and access to shared resources protected.

Aarhus Convention – Access to Environmental Justice

Access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters is a key tenet of the Aarhus Convention which was signed in October 2001. It’s been ratified several times over the last 10 years but Article 9 is the key part of the convention of which there are 3 parts.

We should all have access to administrative or judicial procedures for members of the public to challenge Acts or omissions which contravene the provisions for environmental protection and we must fight to ensure these civil rights are upheld. However many in the legal profession would argue that this convention has not been effectively implemented.

Ecocide – Ensuring the welfare of both people and planet.

Polly Higgins famously coined the term Ecocide. A fully proposed draft of the law of Ecocide was submitted into the United Nations by her in April 2010. The intent behind the drafting is to ensure that people and planet are put first and to create a legal duty of care to a) prohibit the causes of mass damage and destruction, b) prevent future significant harm from taking place and c) pre-empt both human caused and natural Ecocides that put nations at risk of being unable to self-govern.

A law of Ecocide addresses the core issue of today: ensuring the welfare of both people and planet. For instance, Small Island States that are at risk of rising sea-levels (a naturally occurring Ecocide) shall benefit by the creation of a legal duty of care to give assistance before their land is destroyed and their people are left stranded as refugees. The shift to non-destructive industrial activity (such as clean energy) can only be put in place globally by the creation of an overriding legal duty of care.

We can only hope that those in power and authority are able to demonstrate the same sort of leadership that transpired from the chaos at the time Magna Carta so that we can ratify an equivalent route map that sets out to preserve the earth through effective stewardship for future generations. It is doubtful any authority could give an equivalent guarantee to maintain the status quo in 800 years’ time based on our current scientific climate predictions? I doubt I’d be wrong if I said the world will be a very different place in 50 years as a result of our current evolutionary pace in the age of the Anthropocene. The epoch we’re experiencing where human activities have started to have a significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems.

We must continue to fight for the ‘common good’ and enshrine environmental protection in every constitution of this earth through the climate change talks this December, and create the corresponding legal frameworks going forward. These must then be embedded in every single constitution around the world without delay. It is only then, that with wishful thinking, people might be able to look back 800 years from now and thank us for our foresight, stewardship and leadership.

_______________________________________________________________

Iain Patton is an global sustainability engagement consultant based in London amplifying the sustainability agenda to business, organisations and civil society. He does this by building partnerships, advocacy, outreach, capacity building, stakeholder engagement and challenging business to embed sustainability at its heart. Iain helps organisations pursue large-scale social change efforts, which is the challenge and opportunity of our time. Iain supports initiatives that help create sustainable movements of citizens mobilised to take direct action. If you have a sustainability campaign/project that needs amplifying or outreach to senior decision-makers drop a line to action@ethicalteam.com or visit www.ethicalteam.com for further details.

On 14 July 2015
By admin
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The Dark Force of ‘Wilful Blindness’

Activism, Advocacy, Campaigning, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability • Comments Off on The Dark Force of ‘Wilful Blindness’

It was recently the centenary of the sinking of the Lusitania which was marked by memorial services across the United Kingdom and around the world. For those that don’t know, the RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner and briefly, the world’s largest passenger ship. She was launched by the British/American Cunard Line in 1906, at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade.

When the RMS Lusitania left New York for Liverpool on what would be her final voyage on 1 May 1915, submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic during the 1st World War. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed a newspaper advertisement warning people of the dangers of sailing on the Lusitania. On the afternoon of 7 May, Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared “zone of war”. A second internal explosion sent her to the bottom in 18 minutes causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew.

One of the many interesting facets of this piece of history was the fact that the Germans had pre-notified the world of their prospective target before sinking the Lusitania, and yet its passengers falsely believed they would be immune from such a fate. The Imperial German Embassy had in fact placed the warning advertisement in 50 American newspapers at the time, including those in New York. Unbelievably this warning was even printed adjacent to the advertisement for Lusitania‍’s return voyage but other American newspapers dismissed the claim at the time as an idle threat.

Wilful Blindness

This is a good example of the phase made famous by Margaret Heffernan called‘Wilful Blindness’. I was one of over 80 people who gathered on a delightful summers evening a couple of years ago at the Institute of Business Ethics in London to hear her speak about how as humans, we are predisposed to overlook things that we don’t like and how the concept of ‘them and us’, where catastrophes are provoked by a few ‘awful’ individuals is not actually the case. The conversation went on to focus on the observation that humans choose conformity, rather than standing out from the crowd. And that studies from Europe and the US show that there is also culture of organisational silence, where 85% of respondents said there were issues that they wouldn’t voice in the workplace. This is clearly a societal condition that needs to be addressed.

March 2015 – (NOAA) reveal the highest recorded ppm (parts for million)

This sad commemoration resonated as my daily inbox became typically overloaded with an array of environmental and mainstream news digests displaying attention grabbing headlines. One announced that for the first time in our recorded history, global levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere averaged more than 400 parts per million (ppm) for an entire month—in March 2015 (The highest EVER recorded). This seemed to highlight yet another grim, and yet largely unmarked milestone for an ever-warming planet according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) . “It was only a matter of time that we would average 400 parts per million globally,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.

What does this really mean to most people I wonder? This environmental narrative seems to hold little sway now as we’ve become so desensitised to these sorts of stories. Charities realised long ago that featuring a child suffering from extreme famine in Africa doesn’t necessarily lead to any immediate emotional reaction or engagement in a world of saturated media. As consumers we’ve developed an immunity and filter to block out these images, facts and figures from our daily lives as they don’t often, or in fact never, impact on our day to day existence.

In the same week, I heard that the Obama administration gave conditional approval to Shell to start drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean this summer. Shell has been fighting for the right to drill in the Arctic for years, despite a number of botched forays in recent years, and it looks like they are still going to get their way. The Arctic is the last pristine wilderness that is financially beyond protection should any disaster strike as a result of an open house policy allowing resource exploitation. These two stories seem to confirm that ‘generational blindness’ in the face of adversity is a human condition. It’s the same with cycle or pedestrian deaths where often preventative urban planning measures have not been implemented unless there are enough tragedies to justify a change in policy.

Parallel Narratives

According to climate change consultant, writer and psychotherapist Rosemary Randall, climate change discourse presents two parallel narratives. One about the problems of climate change, the other about the solutions. When media commentators discuss the problem of climate change, loss often features dramatically and terrifyingly in their stories but is located in the future or in places remote from Western audiences. In narratives about solutions – particularly in the discourse of government – loss is completely excised and we are encouraged to believe that ‘small steps’ and technical wizardry will do the trick alongside the advent of a low carbon economy.

Rosemary Randall’s paper suggests that this division into parallel narratives is the result of a defensive process of splitting and projection that protects the public from the need to truly face and mourn the losses associated with climate change. The effect is to produce monstrous and terrifying images of the future accompanied by bland and ineffective proposals for change now. She suggests that a more sophisticated understanding of the processes of loss and mourning, which allowed them to be restored to public narratives, would help to release energy for realistic and lasting programmes of change.

Old School Environmentalism VS ‘The New Environmentalism’

We therefore need to recognise the limits of what it means to be human and embrace the fact that we’re not going to always react when we need to act. As humans we’ll continue to do what we know we shouldn’t. That’s partly because it’s what makes us human and we’re probably the only species that’s aware of our own demise and yet we don’t often take the precautions necessary to preserve our future. Therefore, as communicators we need to continue to explore and test new approaches to getting the single minded message across that we’ve change ahead, and that we need to be prepared for it. Martin Wright Senior Affiliate, Forum for the Future talks about ‘The New Environmentalism – Levelling the Playing Field’ in his TED Talk where he suggests we need to focus more on the innovation and opportunity ahead, than the threats as there is a lot we will not be able to change or have an impact on at this stage in our human civilization.

Acclaimed self-help guru Tony Robbins also comments in one of his audio sessions that some people in the 21st Century have never had it so good. We’ve the best technology, people are living longer, experiencing the best healthcare and access to products and services that we could never have dreamt of 30 years ago. Sadly, this is not the case for everyone in the world right now. For those that are experiencing the good times they need to reflect on how their quality of living might be curtailed in a world exemplified by resource shortages, pollution and conflict without some clever planning now.

One of the biggest challenges facing the population in years to come will be itself. Not specifically in the form of war or conflict, but in terms of its’ size. In the wake of the birth of a collection of children symbolically referred to as the “seventh billionth babies”, it is now, ironically our quality of life that poses a significant threat certainly in the developed world.

We need to detach ourselves from that which is no longer sustainable, which is easier said than done, and remake our futures using all the creativity that exists and brought us to this point in the first place. We’ve come a long way in the last 2.5 million years ago since our more recent ancestor – Homo habilis or ‘man, the toolmaker’ appears to have evolved out of the Rift Valley in Africa.

Let’s celebrate the future and look ahead, but with a cautious eye that is weary of our own inherent frailty and absence of mind. It makes no sense to continue to ignore the perilous signs all around us. And, as an industry, communicators have to try harder to interpret the numbers associated with climate change so that they are not filtered out i.e. it’s not going to affect me mentality. As we know from our own not too distant history the risks of wilful blindness are indeed perilous.

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On 18 May 2015
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Mobilising the masses around climate change in 2015

Activism, Advocacy, Campaigning, Climate Change, Consumers, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability • Comments Off on Mobilising the masses around climate change in 2015

How can we mobilise the masses around climate change? The case to act is now urgent. As you probably know, 2014 was the hottest year in 130 years of systematic record keeping. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. If this wasn’t compelling enough, the symbolic Doomsday Clock moved to three minutes before midnight in January 2015 because of the gathering dangers of climate change and nuclear proliferation, signalling the gravest threat to humanity since the throes of the cold war.

Should we be alarmed? It is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1984, when arms-control negotiations stalled and virtually all channels of communication between the US and the former Soviet Union closed down.

Whilst ‘sustainability and climate’-related news is more commonplace in the developed nations and part of our mainstream media, even if it is lower down the news agenda, it’s not the case for most of the rest of the world. The majority of the world’s population is more worried about the end of the month and how to pay their bills rather than the end of the world (which seems a long way off unless you’re living in Kiribati island, one of the Pacific Island states that is one of the most vulnerable in the world due to the potential devastating effects of climate change that lay ahead.)

Global warming as well as nuclear proliferation seem to be such abstract notions for the average man or woman in the street, to the extent that they’re unlikely to show any real concern unless it makes an immediate and direct impact on their day to day lives.

The enormity of these unforeseen possibilities is unfathomable within the general context of most people’s lives, and it is therefore no surprise that most people become disenchanted and disenfranchised with this unknown realm of possibility. It is basically down to the fact that the problems seem so huge that no single individual feels that they can make a difference and therefore they cut the umbilical cord which connects them with the supposed prophetic events beholden in the future.

It seems many people in modern societies are still devoid of any significant emotional attachment to the advancement of extreme climate change as they live out their relatively straightforward lives living in their clean houses, streets, orderly neighbourhoods and functioning cities. Renee Lertzman’s research into Climate Change and inaction reported in The Ecologist (Lertzman 2008) alerts us to the role anxiety can play in an apparently apathetic response.

However, in the midst of all this climate doom and gloom, there are many great opportunities emerging. Although most people are experiencing extreme information overload in their daily lives and finding it difficult to process and manage, the advent of social media has allowed us to engage mass populations around climate change and disseminate the truth of our trajectory at lightning speed through online content sharing of news.

Most people I know have an almost inseparable relationship with their smart phone and an insatiable desire for content, new images and captivating videos to share. We have all turned into publishers, syndicating news to our respective social and professional networks at the press of a button. The whole world of viral marketing and word-of-mouth citizen engagement is racing ahead in leaps and bounds as the ‘sharing’ function becomes indispensable to people’s daily lives, feeding our social whims and for many validating our existence as social citizens. This is all good news for the world of campaigning and capacity building i.e. garnering support around popular issues and creating traction. There is now a burgeoning array of online social movements gaining ground and shifting attitudes including Avaaz.org , Change.org, Sumofus.org, the TckTckTck campaign, 38degrees and the more recent Global Catholic Climate Movement which Ethical Team supported with their April Care4Creation campaign and its inaugural Parish Toolkits .

The breadth of these organisations and their global reach is a cause for celebration in the fast moving chaotic world we occupy which now seems to be in a continual state of disarray, conflict and boom and bust economic cycles.

There are also more sector specific campaigns emerging such as the new More than Scientists campaign which recently launched to provide a clarion call from the worlds scientific elite to stand up and be counted in the fight against climate change. And from Greenpeace we have the Save the Arctic campaign which seeks to protect one of the last untapped natural habitats from the ravages of oil exploration.

Some of these organisations have achieved massive leaps in their membership – a case in point is Avaaz, which now has about 42 million subscribers. This is significant by any publisher’s standard and at this level Avaaz’s donor activation campaigns should be able to sustain them organisationally simply through the sheer numbers who are able to give small but regular donations, alongside traditional funding from foundations and HNWIs.

Another example of movement building and a sea change taking place within the world of politics is the emergence of the UK’s Green Party which has now become the largest youth movement in the country. It’s about time the Greens gained a foothold in the UK which no doubt spawned the impetus behind some of these new European online campaigning platforms. The green movement is in effect ‘coming of age’. It’s either now or never, and the future generation seem to be realising their potential in that they have a voice through digital engagement as well as through more traditional activism. Like the Arab spring they need to embrace this social tide and embark on a crusade to ensure they have a future worth living for long after today’s politicians are out of the frame.

So how do we stop the silent collapse? Why are we still facing an impeding gargantuan disaster similar to many of the apocalyptic science fiction movies we’ve all seen over the years if we are indeed such an ‘intelligent’ species? Why is sustainability such a hard sell? On the one had we are facing catastrophic and impending climate crisis and yet on the other hand we have the powerful solutions that could allow us to reduce the impact humanity has on the environment, maintain our rich biodiversity and habitats for future generations. Isn’t this just about basic stewardship? Is it that hard for our elected leaders to understand? Does it really make any sense polluting our water systems that are the essence of all life on earth or the air we need to breathe? I don’t think so. And yet we’re still seeing governments opting for short term measures such as fracking over cleaner energy solutions that are proven and ready to scale up.

Why is there so much scepticism and what’s holding back the true green revolution or should we say revelation? The tipping point will be creating and engaging these mass movements. There are also lots of large captive and in some cases untapped audiences that can be mobilised further and used to promote the climate agenda including in sport, religion, universities & colleges, unions and in popular culture with celebrities. Anywhere in fact where there are existing large organised groups that can be harnessed for a greater social good with clear channels of communications for cascading ideas and sharing best practice. Let’s hope that James Lovelock, independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist who pioneered the theory of Gaia isn’t right. His comment on BBC Radio 4 recently said we should focus ALL our efforts on adaption as opposed to mitigation as it was just too late to make the changes necessary. So the best advice is sign up to the global campaigning platforms that are now challenging global corporations and governments so that through mass online protest we can create a fairer, more equitable and more transparent society. And let’s hope that these movements pool resources and join forces to stand behind one single unified message as we count down to the historic COP21 Climate change talks this December in Paris. It really doesn’t make any sense that according to a report released by Oxfam last year, the richest 85 people in the world, who could fit onto a single double-decker bus, have just as much wealth as the poorest half of world. This shock finding from anti-poverty campaigners Oxfam came as world leaders, business chiefs and academics met in Davos for the World Economic Forum in 2014.

So start your journey as an armchair activist today and start petitioning and joining these climate change campaigning organisations as there’s just no excuse not to engage in 2015.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Ethical Team is an engagement consultancy amplifying the sustainability agenda to make it relevant and attractive to people who don’t care. It does this by building partnerships, advocacy, outreach and capacity building, stakeholder engagement and challenging business to embed sustainability at its heart. We help organisations pursue large-scale social change efforts, which is the challenge and opportunity of our time. We support initiatives that help create sustainable movements of citizens mobilised to take direct action. See www.ethicalteam.com

On 1 May 2015
By admin
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