On April 19, young climate activists around the world will take to the streets to demand climate action and justice under the motto “fight for a world worth living in.” Earth.Org spoke with Fridays for Future USA’s Johanna Speiser and Winona Freed about the upcoming global strike’s significance and the future of climate change protests.

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Against the backdrop of relentlessly rising global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions, widespread suffering from the devastating impacts of increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, and the first signs of collapse of key ecosystems, young climate activists around the world are saying enough is enough.

On April 19, hundreds of thousands of young, frustrated, climate-conscious people from all corners of the world are expected to respond to Fridays for Future’s call to take to the streets and demand urgent climate action and justice for all. 

With the Global Day of Action (GCA) nearing, Earth.Org turned to Johanna Speiser and Winona Freed, coordinators of the strike for Fridays for Future (FFF) USA, to discuss its significance and how the youth climate movement is evolving and adapting to constantly changing social and economic dynamics amid a rapidly deteriorating climate crisis.

“Globally, the [GCA] objectives are to remind decision-makers and the wider public of the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to ‘End Fossil Fuels’ for a livable future for the youngest and future generations. By showing our presence in the streets we are conveying that many people no longer want business as usual and realize that another world is possible,” Speiser told Earth.Org.

The protest comes just months after an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 people from all walks of life joined the ‘March to End Fossil Fuels’ in New York City last September ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, demanding that world leaders take decisive action to limit global warming to well below 1.5C as outlined in the Paris Agreement. 

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global warming, accounting for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions. But despite the “historic” COP28 deal to “transition away” from fossil fuels, data shows that we are well off track from our climate commitments. 

All three main greenhouse gasses – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2023, albeit growing at a slower pace than previous years. What’s more the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) 2023 Production Gap Report suggested that while major producer countries have pledged to achieve net zero and take steps to reduce emissions from fossil fuel production, none have made commitments to decrease coal, oil, and gas production in alignment with the global goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Instead, current production plans indicate that governments will generate 110% more fossil fuels at the end of the current century than the amount required to keep on track with the Paris target.

You might also like: Will We Ever Be Able to Go Without Fossil Fuels?

The main consequence of this inaction is that the planet’s atmosphere and seas are warming at an unprecedented rate and in a way that climate scientists find harder and harder to predict and understand. In a recent interview with Earth.Org, Swedish Earth scientist Johan Rockström, the lead author of the planetary boundaries framework, said that what happened in 2023 “was beyond anything [scientists] expected and no climate models can reproduce [it],” making scientists “very nervous.”

“A large part of these Global Days of Climate Action is to raise awareness. 2023 was the hottest year on record yet many people are not aware of this,” said Speiser. “Our way of life is currently not sustainable within planetary boundaries and we are facing wide-scale ecosystem collapse. As soon as people realize this they want to act and that is the other important part of the GCAs, to grow our movement and provide people with a motivating and joyful space to take action.”

From Solo Protest to Global Movement

The iconic photos of 15-year-old Greta Thunberg‘s solitary protest outside the Swedish parliament marked the transformative start of the global youth-led climate movement Fridays for Future. From her initial campaign in August 2018, where she expressed frustration with her country’s politicians’ inadequate response to carbon emissions targets, the movement quickly gained momentum. Within months, over 20,000 students worldwide had joined the Fridays for Future strikes, culminating in nearly 6 million people participating in the Global Week of Climate Action a year later, demanding urgent climate action and justice.

The pandemic posed both opportunities and challenges for young climate activists. At its peak when Covid-19 emerged, FFF had millions of activists worldwide united in urging politicians to address the climate crisis. Though unable to hold large marches, they adapted by bringing the strike online using social media and hashtags like #DigitalStrike. They utilized petitions, live broadcasts, webinars, Instagram, TikTok, and virtual meetings to expand their reach and make the movement more inclusive globally. While depriving the movement of its visual impact – pictures of hundreds of thousands of young people flooding streets around the world – the pandemic also shaped public opinion on climate change as a crucial existential issue.

“The pandemic initially dampened the moment we had been building for the past one and a half years. We were unable to protest in person and had to move everything online, which resulted in a lot of local groups dissolving and people slowly dropping out,” said Speiser. 

“[But] we have seen a resurgence in new young people getting involved directly after the pandemic. With lockdowns forcing people to take a step away from business as usual, some found the time and space for climate activism for the first time. One of the members in my local group said that after Covid they felt that ‘now I have no excuse anymore, I need to go and do something.’ The current online structure that FFFUSA uses, the way we organize and communicate digitally, also came out of the pandemic.” 

Nowadays, Fridays for Future is a decentralized movement with hundreds of active local chapters around the world.

You might also like: Fridays for Future: How Young Climate Activists Are Making Their Voices Heard

“The heart and soul of our movement are local groups who do a lot of the ground work, organize protests and engage with people in their communities. The national and international FFF network is mainly there to provide support for, and connect, local groups,” explained Speiser.

She said that one of the main focuses internationally is the need to recognise that people and communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. 

“It is necessary to address the climate crisis from a historical perspective, which means viewing it in the context of colonialism and recognizing the responsibility the global North, and especially the US which is the historically largest emitter of CO2, has towards the Most Affected Peoples and Areas,” said Freed, who is part of FFF Las Vegas local group. “Growing the movement and making policy changes at the local level greatly impacts national and global policies.”

While sharing common objectives and demands, local groups also focus on pressing issues affecting their nation or local communities. The FFF US chapter, for example, provides support for a network of local groups based in cities across the country, collaborates with other grassroots initiatives such as Sunrise Movement, Reclaim Earth Day, and Campus Climate Network, and is part of Youth v. Fossil Fuels, an alliance of youth climate groups. The group hopes to use April 19 to call on President Biden to declare a state of emergency, finally acknowledging the climate crisis for what it is, Speiser said.

“In the USA specifically we are hoping that the GCA will, as part of a larger escalation arc including events planned in the summer, help raise the pressure on President Biden to take climate action.”

The group is demanding that the Biden administration turns the current pause on liquid natural gas (LNG) permits into a full stop and backtracks on both the US$10 billion proposed natural gas liquefaction export terminal CP2 LNG in Louisiana and the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a natural gas pipeline in the state of Virginia currently under construction. The group is also calling on the government to invest in a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels that takes the rights and needs of the communities most affected by the climate crisis into account, Speiser explained.

Dealing With Climate Skepticism

Climate activism often faces criticism or skepticism from certain quarters, and while it is true that an increasing number of people recognise climate change as a serious and imminent threat to the planet and acknowledge the indisputable role humans played in exacerbating this global crisis, climate denialism remains a reality, especially in the US. 

“How we deal with skepticism depends on where it’s coming from. Many of our FFF local groups hold teach-ins which provide education for those seeking the information. If it’s outright denial with no intention to have a meaningful conversation, then the best option is just not to engage,” said Speiser. 

Climate activists have also repeatedly come under fire for the tactics they use to draw attention, particularly when they resort to public disobedience and disruptions such as road blockades, with polling suggesting that public disobedience tactics and vandalism often lead to backlash rather than widespread public support. Extinction Rebellion UK, a notorious climate protest group known for civil disobedience actions such as occupying roads and bridges in central London and blocking oil refineries, announced last year that it would “temporarily” move away from disruptive tactics.

More on the topic: Are Climate Activists Reaching Too Far?

“Our goal is to empower those who want to act but don’t know how and to show that climate justice is an issue people care about. Similarly, our goal is not to defend ourselves and argue that our way of protesting or drawing attention to the climate crisis is the ideal or best way. We acknowledge that many forms of action are needed to create the social shift necessary…individual change, systemic change, peaceful civil disobedience and direct action, lobbying Congress are all valuable courses of climate activism,” said Freed.

“When it comes to the type of skepticism that agrees with our general sentiment but criticizes specific ways we go about our actions, then our response is often, ‘thank you for pointing that out, do you have an alternative you would like to propose?’ or an encouragement for those ‘skeptics’ to start organizing themselves and creating the types of actions they want to see.”

To find out more about the April 19 Global Action Day, visit fridaysforfuture.org/april19/ 

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In an exclusive interview with Earth.Org, Professor Johan Rockström, the lead scientist behind the planetary boundaries framework, discusses how recent climate trends are worrying the scientific community and the importance of adopting a new global governance approach that protects and preserves the regulating functions of the Earth system, critical for life on our planet.

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For more than a century, scientists have monitored climate trends and provided governments, businesses, and stakeholders with the understanding necessary to shape modern human lifestyles in a way that benefits both economic development and human well-being.

During the 1970s, scientific understanding of Earth systems increased tremendously and in the decade that followed, evidence of climate change began spreading. Since the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, the scientific community began looking at the planet with different eyes – as a complex, self-regulating bio-geophysical system characterized by interconnected spheres – lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), biosphere (living things), and atmosphere (air).

At the same time, scientists began developing an understanding of tipping points, multiple stable states of an Earth system that, if pushed too far, could result in unstoppable, permanent, and irreversible changes in the state of that system. For instance, continuous external pressure on a system like the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest and richest biological reservoir and one of the most important natural carbon storage systems, can turn the forest into a savannah and a source of carbon dioxide.

More on the topic: The Tipping Points of Climate Change: How Will Our World Change?

A turning point in climate science came in 2001, when the IPCC featured in its Third Assessment Report the popular “hockey stick” graph, an illustration of the changes in global temperatures of the past millennium that revealed an unprecedented, sharp upward trajectory towards the end of the 1990s and into the new century – the “blade” of the hockey stick. While the graph does not specifically attribute this increase to fossil fuel emissions, it aligns with the broader scientific consensus that human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, have been a primary driver of the observed global warming trend.

All the evidence gathered in the course of four decades left scientists with two key questions: What are the biophysical processes that regulate the state and health of the planet? Once identified, could we quantify safe boundaries that give us a good chance to keep the planet in a liveable state – but beyond which we risk causing a drift away from that state?

“Answering these questions was the next inevitable step in climate research at that point,” said Professor Johan Rockström, who sat down to speak with Earth.Org while on a visit to Hong Kong to attend the One Earth Summit in March 2024. 

Rockström is the director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and lead author of the planetary boundaries framework, an important body of climate research that has generated enormous interest within the fields of sustainability and environmental policy. The framework has served, and continues to serve, as a valuable guide for policymakers, urging them to consider the long-term consequences of human actions and adopt strategies that prioritize the sustainable use of Earth’s resources.

‘Danger Zone’: The Consequences of Transgressing Planetary Boundaries

First published in 2009, the planetary boundaries framework defines and quantifies the limits within which human activities can safely operate without causing irreversible environmental changes. It does so by identifying several critical Earth system processes and defining thresholds – or boundaries – that should not be exceeded to maintain a stable and sustainable planet.

The framework consists of nine interrelated planetary boundaries: climate change, biodiversity loss, land use change, freshwater use, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading, chemical pollution, and the introduction of novel entities. Each boundary represents a specific aspect of the complex biophysical Earth system that is essential for maintaining a stable and habitable planet.

“Boundaries are set to avoid tipping points, to have a high chance to keep the planet in state as close as possible to the Holocene, that allows it to maintain its resilience, stability, and life support capabilities. Go beyond and we enter a danger zone… the uncertainty range of science,” Rockström explained. In 2023, he and other scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden published an update of the framework. The study found that six of the nine planetary boundaries are already transgressed, placing the Earth “well outside of the safe operating space for humanity.”

“Unfortunately for climate, six of the nine planetary boundaries are operating outside the green space… with a high risk of triggering irreversible changes,” Rockström said.

To better understand the “danger zone” scenario, it is worth looking at an example.  

Both ocean- and land-based ecosystems are dominated by what scientists call “negative feedbacks,” any processes or changes that act as buffering systems, regulating the planet’s functions and keeping it in a healthy state by limiting or reducing the impacts and severity of an initial change.

“Feedback processes are what we measure with planetary boundaries. Keep them in the green to remain at the right side of the fence, go into the danger zone and they start wobbling.” 

Concretely, these processes are found, among others, in forests and oceans, both of which have the extraordinary capacity to absorb and store about 25% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) present in the atmosphere, respectively. Oceans also capture about 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions.

“These absorption rates combined are the biggest subsidy to the world’s economy. It means that half of our climate debt is hidden under the carpet of a forgiving planet,” Rockström explained. “We enter a danger zone, and these systems start to misbehave.” 

This is the case for some parts of the Amazon biome – the world’s single-largest carbon stock – which, according to a 2021 study, is now releasing more carbon than it is absorbing. “It is no longer helping us, it’s becoming a negative force,” he said. 

Similarly, the Greenland ice sheet, capable of reflecting around 89% of incoming heat from the sun back to space, has experienced unprecedented melting for decades due to the relentless rise in global temperatures, and it is now melting at double the rate at the beginning of the century. This affects the reflectivity power of the ice sheet: as melted water becomes darker, it begins absorbing heat instead of reflecting it, a process known as ice-albedo feedback. 

“The moment a system absorbs more than it releases, it has crossed a tipping point and you cannot stop it. It goes from a cooling to a self-warming system,” explained Rockström.

So far, human activities – primarily the burning of fossil fuels – have increased global average temperature by 1.48C; this, however, represents a mere 2% of our heat contribution. The remaining excess heat is absorbed by and stored in the world’s oceans (89%), stored in land masses (5-6%), and about 4% is available for the energy-intensive melting process of ice and glaciers. 

“It’s a huge paradox,” said Rockström. “One of the biggest threats to humanity [melting ice] hides more warming than the fossil fuel emissions we’ve caused so far. Imagine what would happen if ice disappeared.”

“This alone is enough to explain the significance of the planetary boundaries.”

‘Shocking’ Trends

Early understanding of the anthropogenic impacts of human activities on the planet did not lead to the fundamental changes our society needed at the time to prevent the situation from worsening further. Thanks to our inaction in recent decades, we now find ourselves in completely uncharted territory. 

“Humanity has opened the gates to hell,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the UN General Assembly in 2023, warning that “humanity’s fate is hanging in the balance.”

The past nine years have been the hottest on record, with 2023 topping the ranking. Last year’s record-breaking temperatures can be partly attributed to the return of El Niño, a weather pattern associated with the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. However, despite scientists confirming the gradual weakening of the pattern in recent weeks, the trend has continued well into the new year, with this past winter as a whole setting new high-temperature marks and March 2024 marking the 10th consecutive hottest month on record, both in terms of air and sea surface temperature. 

What’s even more worrisome is that climate scientists are struggling to understand or explain these trends, which climate scientist Zeke Hausfather last year famously described as “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.” 

“We had seen El Niño conditions before, so we expected higher surface temperatures [last year] because the Pacific ocean releases heat. But what happened in 2023 was nothing close to 2016, the second-warmest year on record. It was beyond anything we expected and no climate models can reproduce what happened. And then 2024 starts, and it gets even warmer,” said Rockström. “We cannot explain these [trends] yet and it makes scientists that work on Earth resilience like myself very nervous.”

Recent data also show a relentless rise in global sea temperatures, which have doubled since the 1960s.

“There has always been the assumption that the ocean can cope with this, that the ocean is able to absorb this heat in a predictable, linear way, without causing surprise or any sudden abrupt changes. Up until 2023. Because suddenly, temperatures [went] off the charts, and that’s what is so shocking,” said the Swedish scientist.

Ocean warming has potentially huge implications for marine ecosystems such as coral reefs and coastal communities. What we are witnessing in our oceans, Rockström explained, has never been observed before and could be “a sign of collapse.”

“Has the ocean tipped over? We simply do not know. We don’t know if we are causing permanent changes. One thing we do know, unfortunately, irrespective of whether it’s a permanent change or not, is that it is virtually certain that this will knock over all the tropical coral reefs systems.”

Coral reefs are extremely important ecosystems that exist in more than 100 countries and territories and support at least 25% of marine species; they are integral to sustaining Earth’s vast and interconnected web of marine biodiversity and provide ecosystem services valued up to $9.9 trillion annually. They are sometimes referred to as “rainforests of the sea” for their ability to act as carbon sinks by absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in the water. 

Unfortunately, reefs are disappearing at an alarming pace. According to the most recent report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the world has lost approximately 14% of corals since 2009. 

In April 2024, scientists confirmed that the world is undergoing its fourth global coral bleaching event and already the second in the past ten years. “As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe,” said  Derek Manzello, coordinator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch (NOAA CRW). “When these events are sufficiently severe or prolonged, they can cause coral mortality, which can negatively impact the goods and services coral reefs provide and that people depend on for their livelihoods.”

Toward a New Global Approach to Safeguard Planet Earth

The planetary boundary framework was designed not only to define the environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate but also to guide global sustainability policy development and inspire meaningful action on a national and international level to ensure that these boundaries are not transgressed.

At the core of this is a newly established paradigm that Rockström and other scientists worked on for years and presented to the world in a paper published in January 2024. 

In light of recent climate trends, the team revisited the long-standing “global commons” concept, a framework that regulates the governance of four planetary systems: the atmosphere, the high oceans, outer space, and Antarctica. These systems are non-rival, meaning they are not owned by anyone and do not fall into a national jurisdiction, and non-excludable, meaning no one can prevent anyone from accessing them.

But as Rockström put it, the global commons system “is no longer enough” and it is time the international community adopts a more effective and comprehensive approach that safeguards critical regulating functions of the Earth system.

For this reason, the new approach suggests complementing the existing framework, which only takes globally shared geographic regions into account, with an additional legal entity: the planetary commons. The new paradigm incorporates all “critical biophysical systems that regulate the resilience and state, and therefore livability, on Earth” and that we collectively depend on for life support, irrespective of where we live or where they are located. These systems include tipping elements such as the Amazon rainforest, the Greenland ice sheet, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

“It is quite a revolutionary paradigm, but entirely consistent with planetary boundaries science. It changes the game entirely.”

The main argument in favor of the new approach is establishing a regulatory framework to govern planetary commons on an international scale, given that their benefits and contributions are far-reaching and extend well beyond national borders. 

A great example of this is the Amazon rainforest, which spans across nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. While being an important national asset, the rainforest also supports a myriad of ecosystem services, acting as a huge repository for Amazon countries and humankind. 

This sentiment was echoed in Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva’s speech at last year’s UN climate summit in Egypt: “Protecting forests means protecting the balance of the planet and the oceans… Commitment to the forest is not just from the government. It’s about business, society and science.  And we work with all these pillars – because protecting the forest is not just a government action, it is an action by all of humanity.”

“[President] Lula and Marina da Silva understood this very clearly before our paper was even published. Planetary commons have to be governed and protected by the international community. I’m as keen to keep the Amazon rainforest intact as an indigenous Brazilian community,” said Rockström.

Future Outlook

Despite all the science available, climate progress on a global level has been remarkably slow, putting the world off track on its climate targets. All three main greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2023 and according to the most recent data, the world has now just around six years left before it runs out of the carbon budget required for a 50-50 chance to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C. 

“The reason why [scientists] are using stronger and stronger language… is that we’re running out of time, not that the evidence is changing so much,” Rockström argued. He said no credible study shows us that we can achieve the 9% yearly emissions reduction needed between now and 2030 and the only chance we have at achieving that is by “doing everything right on nature, phase out fossil fuels, and get serious on carbon dioxide removal.” 

But by far the most effective way to do this, he argued, is carbon pricing, a policy approach aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by putting a price on CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the European Union’s price is among the highest in the world and the nearest one to the social cost of carbon (SCC), an estimate of the economic damages that would result from emitting one additional ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which a 2022 study put at around US$185 per tonne of CO2.

“Every economist hates subsidies and [carbon pricing] is the biggest subsidy in the world. But that would be the fastest way [to reduce emissions]. Put a $200 price tag on carbon dioxide, give all that money to a Loss and Damage fund, and off we go.”

Featured image: One Earth Summit.

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If major import markets, such as China and Hong Kong, were to restrict trade to slaughterhouses with more transparent supply chains, industry experts believe it could have a major impact on the sustainability of the Brazilian meat sector. 

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At first glance, there is little to link a handful of featureless Hong Kong office spaces to the world’s largest tropical rainforest. But supply chain data – obtained by non-profit organisation Repórter Brasil and shared with HKFP – reveals that at least four businesses in the city have imported beef products farmed by a man whom Brazilian police have called “the greatest devastator of the Amazon.” 

Cattle farming is “the number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country,” according to environmental NGO the World Wide Fund for Nature. Roughly 17% of the Amazon rainforest has already been lost to habitat conversion, with trees felled to make way for cattle pastures and the dusty roads that transport Brazilian beef from the forest to the global marketplace.

More on the topic: 10 Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Facts to Know About

Among those profiting from the degradation of the Amazon is rancher Bruno Heller, whose family owns farms that have been fined US$5 million for illegal deforestation, and who has been accused by Brazilian federal police of clearing 6,500 hectares of forest – an area almost five times the size of Hong Kong’s Lamma Island.

Through a process known as “cattle laundering,” where cows raised at illicit locations are transported to those with a clean record, Repórter Brasil tracked cattle from Heller’s family farms to a slaughterhouse, 163 Beef Industria & Comercio De Carnes Ltda, and traced beef products from that slaughterhouse to Hong Kong. 

Traceability Without Sustainability

With scarce agricultural land, Hong Kong imports over 90% of its food, all of which is regulated by the Centre for Food Safety (CFS). Imports of meat and poultry from Brazil arrive in the city via processing plants that are recommended by Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture for approval by the CFS, 163 Beef among them. 

Plants must meet “the specific import requirements on food safety principles such as the products shall be fit for human consumption and in compliance with the legislation of the exporting economy and Hong Kong,” a CFS spokesperson told HKFP in late January.

Asked whether sustainability was considered, the CFS said the following month: “Hygienic and humane slaughtering / handling / processing / production / storage and transport should also be observed,” but did not elaborate on how these were assessed. 

“Currently, we don’t have many social-environmental requirements in [Brazil’s] international trade,” Marina Guyot, manager of public policy at non-profit Imaflora, told HKFP by phone from Brazil last month.

Last year, the European Union introduced regulations to prevent the importation of products linked to deforestation with the goal of “reducing the EU’s impact on global deforestation and forest degradation.” It targets the import and trade of commodities such as cattle, soy, and palm oil within the European bloc from areas deforested after December 31, 2020, and will come into force at the end of this year. 

While the policy was welcomed, it was not expected to have a major impact on demand for Brazilian exports, much of which came from Asia. “[European countries] represent a low amount of our production in terms of what they consume,” Guyot said. “That is around five per cent – five per cent of our exportations, not five per cent of what we produce.” 

Hong Kong, on the other hand, has an outsized appetite for Brazilian beef products. Despite its diminutive footprint and population – just 7.5 million people compared to the EU’s 448 million – the city is the world’s largest buyer of Brazilian bovine offal. 

If major import markets, such as China and Hong Kong, were to restrict trade to slaughterhouses with more transparent supply chains, Guyot believes it could have a major impact on the sustainability of the Brazilian meat sector. 

In 2022, Hong Kong imported US$253.65 million worth of frozen, edible beef offal and animal guts, bladders and stomachs from Brazil – or 48% of the country’s exports of those products – according to the country’s trade data. 

Indeterminate Operations and Origins

According to Repórter Brasil’s investigation, at least four firms registered in the city bought bovine offal such as aorta, omasum and honeycomb from 163 Beef several times between 2022 and 2023. They include Galaila International Company Limited, Harvest Charm Limited, Loyalty Union Asia Limited, and Uni Shining International Trading Co., Limited.

When HKFP visited the companies’ offices late last November, little could be gleaned about their operations. Only Galaila International, located in a tired 1980s office block in Central, and Loyalty Union Asia, which overlooked the city’s main container port from an industrial unit, maintained a visible presence and had their company names on display. 

At the addresses of Harvest Charm and Uni Shining International Trading, the former in an unadorned office in a Sheung Wan office tower and the latter in a subdivided industrial space in Tsuen Wan, there was nothing to indicate the businesses actually existed. Uni Shining’s small unit appeared to be occupied by a wedding florist. 

Records kept by Hong Kong’s Companies Registry provided no further information about the firms’ activities. Among the four, just Galaila International has a website, which presents it as a leather supplier. The remaining three have no internet presence, social media, or brands. 

Requests for comment sent via registered mail and, where possible, emails to all four companies have gone unanswered. An employee at Galaila International said by phone that she would forward the HKFP reporter’s contact details to her boss, but nothing more was heard. The letter to Uni Shining International Trading was “unclaimed” and returned to HKFP.

In 2019, Greenpeace found that nearly a third of Hong Kong’s beef came from ranches located in deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest, and lobbied major supermarkets to stop selling what it called “deforestation meat.” 

Several major supermarkets – Aeon, Yata, and City’Super – responded to Greenpeace to say they did not sell or rarely sold Brazilian beef. ParknShop later responded to say that it would switch to other suppliers once its existing stock ran out.

“After years of this campaign… that we can still find this kind of meat in Hong Kong is very sad,” Tom Ng, a campaigner at Greenpeace Hong Kong, told HKFP in late January. 

“Hong Kong is one of the largest importers of this kind of meat. We’ve been asking shops to stop importing this, at least from sources that are known to be of concern,” Ng said. 

Of the supermarkets checked by HKFP in February, only Wellcome sold beef from Brazil. In an emailed response to enquiries received in early March, DFI Retail Group, which owns the chain, said: “Wellcome’s sourcing complies to local regulations and is committed to sustainable development.”

The group added that it was “aware of the rising discussion on the environmental issues” and was “diligently reviewing our supplier network.”

In 2023, Hong Kong imported 316.7 million kilograms of Brazilian meat products, among which 34.9 million kilograms were “meat of bovine animals” and eight million kilograms were “meat and edible meat offal,” according to data from the Census and Statistics Department. 

Asked why the demand for Brazilian bovine offal was so high in Hong Kong, Louis Chan, deputy director of research at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, told Repórter Brasil in February that the city was “world-famous for its open and free trading regime… making Hong Kong a superb trading hub for international products.” 

“It goes without saying that Brazilian bovine offal… has [a] good market in Asia, both for direct consumption and further processing by the human food industry, the pet food sector and feed manufacturing for local agriculture and animal husbandry,” Chan said via email. 

He also pointed to Hong Kong’s per capita meat consumption rate, which a 2018 study by the University of Hong Kong’s Earth Science Department put at 664 grams per day, “equivalent to two pieces of 10-oz steak,” Chan said. 

“This, together with the city’s much hyped reputation as a food paradise, has made Hong Kong a prime destination for South American meat and offal exporters seeking market expansion and diversification.” 

Not all of the Brazilian beef products imported by Hong Kong are destined to stay in the city, however. Citing government data, Chan said that US$342 million worth of Brazilian bovine offal was re-exported from Hong Kong – 50.3% of which went to Vietnam, 29.9% to Taiwan and 15.4% to South Korea. 

You might also like: How Animal Agriculture Is Accelerating Global Deforestation

Last Stop, China?

Guyot, of Brazilian NGO Imaflora, believes that some of the Brazilian bovine offal that enters Hong Kong has another final destination – mainland China. 

“Hong Kong is not just another consuming country, but also an entry point for China… that is not properly traced,” she said. 

Speaking to Repórter Brasil in December, Alcides Torres of Scot Consultoria, one of the largest consultancy firms in Brazil’s meat sector, echoed Guyot, saying “a portion of what is exported to Hong Kong may be redirected to China.” 

In 2023, Uruguay, the US and New Zealand were China’s main source markets of bovine offal, according to the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution site. Brazil is nowhere to be seen, because the General Administration of Customs of China has not approved exports of such products from the country. 

For meat products to be re-exported from Hong Kong to mainland China or Macau, the CFS requires an “official health certificate issued by the place of origin clearly stating that the Mainland/Macau is the final destination of the consignment.” While Macau is the third-largest re-export market for Brazilian bovine meat and edible meat offal from Hong Kong, mainland China does not appear on the list.

During the pandemic, when Hong Kong’s border was firmly sealed, including from its neighbour to the north, instances of suspected meat smuggling between the city and mainland China rose. In September 2021, marine police anti-smuggling operations made headlines when an officer drowned during an anti-smuggling operation. 

Suspected smuggling activity peaked in 2022, when police seized 403 tonnes of frozen meat from smugglers worth an estimated HK$61 million, arresting 46 people in the process. According to local media reports at the time, Brazilian offal was among the types of meat intercepted. 

Police figures provided to HKFP showed that such seizures fell last year, with 52 tonnes of frozen suspected smuggled meat with an estimated value of HK$11 million intercepted in just four cases. 

Demand-Side Pressure for Sustainability

Without increased pressure for social and environmental traceability measures, it is unlikely that Brazilian beef products from illegally deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest will disappear from plates in Hong Kong, or elsewhere in the region. 

Lei Yu-ting, a freelance researcher for Greenpeace East Asia, told Repórter Brasil by email in February that awareness of meat sustainability among Hong Kong consumers was “rising slowly.” But, he added, “it’s not substantial [enough] to bring changes to consumption behaviour and industrial supply chain.” 

Additionally, “when consumers in Hong Kong think about meat sustainability and traceability, it’s more in regard of the meat quality and food safety,” Lei said. “It’s hard for consumers to tell whether meat consumed is associated with land destruction and deforestation in Brazil and other countries.” 

Ng, from Greenpeace Hong Kong, added that – while public pressure was one thing – policy change was preferred. “Transparency and traceability is a very important thing that requires all parties to work on it,” he said, naming the government, schools, NGOs and the media as having a role to play in educating people about how their meat consumption may be linked to deforestation, too. 

“I don’t know if it is possible for any government policy or corporate policy that can ban this type of product,” Ng continued. “That is something we wish to have.” 

At Brazilian NGO Imaflora, this is something Guyot and her colleagues are working towards. In collaboration with Brazil’s public prosecutors’ office, the organisation has established a monitoring system called Beef on Track, with the aim of establishing a supply chain free from “socio-environmental irregularities,” such as the deforestation of indigenous land and slave labour. 

Of 158 slaughterhouses in the Brazilian Amazon, 110 are signatories of the Beef on Track protocol, which requires them to ensure that direct suppliers comply with human rights and sustainability criteria. Because of the way the cattle industry is structured, it is not a perfect system as it only applies to final-phase suppliers that sell directly to the slaughterhouse, but it is a start. 

163 Beef, the slaughterhouse at the centre of Repórter Brasil and HKFP’s investigation, bought cattle from farms related to Heller and his family more than 20 times between 2018 and 2023, according to official documents, and sold bovine offal to the four Hong Kong firms. It has not signed on to the monitoring system, and did not respond to requests for comment.

Heller sent a statement via a lawyer engaged to defend him and his daughter Tatiana, which said: “they are a family group that has held peaceful, undisturbed possession of the family rural property located in the state of Pará since the 1970s.”

The statement added “the facts discussed in the ongoing investigation are confidential,” although it is not clear which investigation is being referred to.

For plants like 163 Beef and perhaps farmers like Heller to believe there are benefits to ensuring a socially and environmentally friendly supply chain, Guyot believes it would take demand-side pressure from the likes of Hong Kong.

“We are engaged… to try to promote green trade between China and Brazil, and of course Hong Kong,” Guyot said. “Having a sign-off coming from China and Hong Kong would be very positive in terms of an incentive for the companies and industry here to adopt this protocol.”

This article was originally published on Hong Kong Free Press, written by Mercedes Hutton and Piero Locatelli, and is republished here as part of an editorial partnership with Earth.Org.

As the United Kingdom gears up for its forthcoming general election, attention is increasingly focused on the nation’s environmental issues and the climate agendas of political parties. With growing anticipation and voters seeking clear commitments on climate action, the electoral landscape is poised for a crucial showdown that will shape the country’s environmental direction and influence its role in the global fight against climate change.

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Excitement in the UK is palpable as the country readies itself for the imminent general election, set to take place no later than January 2025. Amidst the political discourse, conversations are shifting beyond conventional topics like the economy, healthcare, and immigration to underscore the critical imperative for climate action. At the same time, there is also a prevalent concern about the potential impact of transitioning to net zero, particularly in terms of living costs. Therefore, achieving the optimal balance that caters to the majority of society’s needs is a significant challenge for all parties and policymakers vying for success in the electoral arena.

The UK is currently battling with a myriad of environmental issues. 2023 was the country’s second-hottest year on record, with a mean temperature of 9.97C. Eight out of 12 months were warmer than average – with June marking the hottest June ever recorded in “by a wide margin,” according to the Met Office, the national weather service. September also saw its hottest day, with temperatures peaking at 33.5C. The Met Office predicts that climate change will affect the UK by raising summer temperatures by 1-6C and reducing rainfall by up to 60% by 2070, resulting in more intense rainfall and heightened flood risks.Biodiversity loss is another pressing problem in the UK, with a September 2023 assessment suggesting that one in six species in the country is at risk of extinction due to habitat loss, extreme weather events, and other human-induced pressures. The analysis found that wildlife in the UK has declined on average by 19% since widespread monitoring began in 1970, though evidence suggests that biodiversity had already been “highly depleted” by reckless human activity, including traditional farming practices and rapid urban development on land as well as unsustainable fishing, marine development, and climate change at sea.

Despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change are expected to continue, highlighting the urgent need for adaptation measures to protect people, homes, businesses, and ecosystems. As per the recent assessment by the UK’s Climate Change Committee, the country’s current climate adaptation plan is inadequate, lacking the necessary scale, ambition, and funding necessary to effectively tackle the challenges presented by climate change.

UK Election: How Much Do UK Voters Care About Climate?

As candidates gear up for the campaign trail, the green agenda has quickly risen to prominence as a solid focal point. 

A report from Greenpeace UK, based on a survey conducted between August and September 2023, indicated that climate and environmental policies play a crucial role in influencing voter preferences, especially in key battleground areas like the Blue Wall and marginal constituencies. 

A survey published in December 2023 revealed that 41% of respondents are more inclined to support a political party that pledges robust action on climate change, while 40% believe that the government’s postponement or cancellation of certain net zero policies has negatively impacted Britain’s reputation abroad. Another 2023 Copper Consultancy report found approximately 10% of individuals intending to vote for the Conservative Party cited climate change as the most crucial concern. In comparison, this figure was 12% for the Labour Party and notably higher at 27% for the Green Party.

According to Asset Finance International, the demand among small businesses in the country for clearer sustainability guidance from the next government, driven by concerns over recent policy reversals and a perceived lack of emphasis on environmental issues, underscoring the call for improved leadership and support in this area.

Ahead of the general election, the forthcoming local elections, set to take place in May, are poised to gauge public sentiment. Voters are evidently seeking clear proposals and strong commitments from candidates, emphasizing the need for substantial measures to address environmental concerns.

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Conservative Government’s Environmental Challenges

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government stands at the forefront of this electoral battleground, facing challenges due to recent decisions that have halted crucial climate initiatives. In his speech on net zero last September, the PM outlined a strategy centered on promoting a pragmatic and transparent approach, alleviating burdens on families, advancing green industries, and fostering innovation in new technologies to attain the net zero target by 2050. 

In February, the government announced that the UK had successfully halved its emissions between 1990 and 2022 while experiencing significant economic growth, outperforming other major economies like France and the US. This achievement is largely attributed to the transition from coal to renewables, with over 40% of the country’s electricity now sourced from clean energy sources. What’s more, the UK has consistently exceeded its carbon reduction targets, demonstrating its commitment to combating climate change and achieving net zero emissions.

However, Rishi Sunak’s concurrent decisions, such as delaying the ban on new petrol and diesel cars and slowing the phase-out of gas boilers, have drawn strong criticism from environmental organizations, opposition parties, and segments of the public. Sunak’s move to scrap regulations targeting heat pump installations and fines for heating system manufacturers also jeopardizes the government’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and undermines its global credibility, especially following the UK’s hosting of the COP26 climate conference in 2021. 

In response to these moves, the Tories’ perceived prioritization of short-term economic interests over long-term environmental sustainability has sparked intense scrutiny and criticism, fueling skepticism about its real commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Labour Party’s Climate Agenda

On the other hand, opposition parties, led by the Labour Party, have exploited the Conservative government’s vulnerabilities to advocate for more ambitious climate policies. 

During the annual Mais lecture in March 2024, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves laid out the party’s vision, stressing the significance of prioritizing the battle against global warming and integrating environmental sustainability into broader economic growth strategies.

The party, led by Sir Keir Starmer, announced an 8.3 billion pound (US$10.5 billion) investment in floating wind farms to enhance energy security and create jobs, furthering their pledge to decarbonize the UK by 2030, a move that contrasts with the Conservative Party’s target of achieving a net zero energy supply by 2035. Alongside the Tories, Labour’s environmental strategy is also facing criticism from other parties and voters.Amidst this, Starmer’s recent move to markedly scale back the party’s decarbonization plans, reducing the annual allocation from 28 billion pound to 23.7 billion pound ($35.3 billion to $29.9 billion) over five years, has sparked considerable attention and debate. The decision, driven by concerns over fiscal responsibility, reflects Labour’s endeavor to reconcile environmental goals with financial realities, utilizing funds from both borrowing and a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

While Labour grapples with internal debates over the feasibility and scale of its proposed decarbonization plans, it remains resolute in its commitment to aggressive climate targets, positioning itself as a viable alternative to the Conservative government’s environmental track record. The party’s emphasis on investing in renewable energy, green infrastructure, and sustainable industries resonates with voters increasingly concerned about the environmental and economic implications of inaction on climate change.

Diverse Environmental Landscape

The UK’s environmental agenda extends beyond the traditional dichotomy of Conservative versus Labour, with smaller parties and civil society groups exerting considerable influence. The Green Party, in particular, champions radical climate policies, castigating both major parties for what it perceives as inadequate action on environmental issues, and wins. It also maintains high favorability rankings in political party polls. Mainstream parties’ stances, particularly if adversarial or accommodative toward green issues, impact Green party support, with accommodative positions benefiting new parties and reinforcing established ones.

With mounting public awareness and concern regarding climate change, these smaller parties and grassroots movements possess the potential to disrupt the political landscape and shape the narrative surrounding environmental policies. Their advocacy for bold and transformative measures, such as divesting from fossil fuels, implementing carbon pricing mechanisms, and prioritizing environmental justice, adds depth and diversity to the discourse on climate action.

Importance of Voter Choice

The imminent general election presents voters with a pivotal directive: to endorse competing visions for the nation’s environmental future. Beyond mere rhetoric, the election serves as a referendum on tangible policy proposals and the credibility of parties’ commitments to addressing climate change. 

Voters increasingly scrutinize parties’ environmental platforms, demanding concrete plans and measurable outcomes rather than vague promises and greenwashing. The outcome of the election hinges on the electorate’s assessment of which party offers the most credible and effective strategy for mitigating climate change and transitioning to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Global Implications

The outcome of the election also holds profound implications not only for domestic policy but also for the UK’s standing on the global stage. As nations worldwide grapple with the urgent demand of mitigating climate change, the UK’s credibility as one of the climate frontrunners hangs in the balance. A failure to deliver on ambitious climate commitments could tarnish the country’s position in international climate negotiations and undermine efforts to galvanize global action. Conversely, bold and decisive action by the incoming government could reinvigorate international momentum towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and averting catastrophic climate change.

Voters Taking Initiative: Empowering Change

While the UK voters acknowledge the importance of climate change and achieving net zero, there remains a lack of urgency in embracing climate targets, primarily due to concerns about bearing the associated costs of a fully green agenda.

Firmly speaking, irrespective of which party wins the election battle, society must take initiatives into its own hands if it desires to create a sustainable and healthy environment for its future. It is essential for citizens to play an active role in compelling politicians to consider not only immediate profits and welfare but also to devise long-term strategies for the nation and its people to thrive in improved planetary conditions, even if it entails enduring short-term inconveniences and costs.

Ultimately, UK businesses and corporations have the opportunity to proactively tackle the climate crisis and champion a sustainable future by taking decisive action. This could involve investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, advocating for policies that promote renewable energy adoption, establishing targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, committing to operational carbon neutrality objectives, and engaging in voluntary carbon credit trading initiatives between firms. 

They can also lobby for government regulations that tax or cap carbon emissions and encourage the trading of carbon credits. Moreover, they can actively participate in global cooperation initiatives like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, playing a role in shaping policies for a sustainable future.

Individually, people wield considerable influence over the environment through their daily decisions. Making sustainable choices can have a profound impact, including reducing energy consumption by switching off lights and electronics when not in use, opting for energy-efficient appliances, utilizing carpooling or public transportation, and incorporating renewable energy sources like solar panels.

Furthermore, individuals can reduce waste by adopting practices like recycling, composting, and reusing items instead of disposing of them. They can also support eco-friendly products and services, such as locally sourced foods, organic products, and sustainable fashion brands, thus promoting a more sustainable lifestyle. By taking these intentional steps, individuals play an active role in advancing environmental sustainability and combating climate change.

Conclusion

The upcoming general election represents the next juncture in the UK’s environmental strategy. To show their dedication, leaders must prioritize actions that align with the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs) framework for 2021 to 2025, which includes targets on greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water consumption, procurement, nature recovery, climate adaptation, and Information and communications technology (ICT). It is also imperative to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities, ensure a just transition for workers in carbon-intensive industries, and promote equitable access to clean air, water, and green spaces.

By centering environmental justice in their climate agendas, policymakers can work towards building a more inclusive and sustainable future for all members of society in the UK. Voters can also hold candidates accountable for their commitments to environmental justice and advocate for policies that prioritize the needs and voices of vulnerable communities in the fight against climate change. 

It is clear that public support for achieving net zero in the UK is strong, emphasizing the necessity of transparently outlining both the challenges and benefits while acknowledging that the transition will require time, contributions from all sectors, and individual efforts.

As voters, businesses can take sustainability initiatives by embracing renewable energy and advocating for policy changes, while individuals can wield their influence through everyday eco-conscious choices, collectively propelling environmental efforts forward and combating the looming threat of climate change.

Featured image: Number 10/Flickr

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Step into Rwanda’s vast Volcanoes National Park through the lens of Zambia-raised Earth.Org photographer Amish Chhagan as he documents the last remaining species of Mountain Gorillas. Despite showing signs of a miraculous resurgence, the Mountain Gorilla remains listed as endangered, with roughly 1,000 individuals spotted in a recent count. 

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“When you realise the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.” – Dian Fossey

As we sluggishly made our way to the hotel lobby after a long flight the day before, we found Didier eagerly waiting to take us on a cross-country trip to the Volcanoes National Park. His ear-to-ear smile caught our attention and he quickly approached us like we were old friends reconnecting after many years. We felt a sense of pride and welcomeness, a belonging, another home far from home.

Back in the 1990s, Rwanda went through one of the most brutal and violent genocides in human history. Growing up in the nearby country of Zambia, there was a general concern that the instability may instigate issues within our own country. I was a kid during the Civil War and clearly did not comprehend what was going on, but there was tension in the air anytime Rwanda was mentioned. I once caught a glimpse of the local news reporting about what was going on – I still have this vivid image of a machete embedded in my mind. Since then, numerous documentaries and movies have depicted what happened; most are extremely painful to watch.

I am not here to relive the details. Instead, I would like to highlight the remarkable progress the country has made since 1994. Today, a mere three decades after the end of the war, Rwanda is regarded as one of the safest, cleanest, and most business friendly countries in Africa. In 2021, a formidable report by the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), Where to Invest in Africa, ranked Rwanda fourth in investment attractiveness.

Few countries in Africa boast such progress in multiple thematic areas – strength of economy, low poverty levels, zero corruption and crime, a thriving and forward-thinking education system, ecotourism, conservation – the list goes on. 

While I have spent most of my life in Zambia, my work took me to numerous countries in Africa, even before I became a professional photographer. In this time, no country I have visited or researched has shown this level of progress and advancement, in particular in less than a generation – from a war-stricken country to one of the most thriving countries, not just in Africa, but in the world.

Given my profession as a photographer, supporting conservation (and ecotourism) is part of my mission statement. My role only subsists because the natural world and their inhabitants still exist today, but therein exists an important and mandatory duty in conservation. It is not about me, my creative passion, and my artistic impressions but rather part of an impactful global climate agenda. I am blessed and grateful to be part of this mission, despite the challenging, frustrating, and often painful nature of this journey.

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The more time I spend capturing beautiful moments in the wild, the more I am drawn to documenting endangered species, not only because it is increasingly becoming scarce to photography but also to communicate a powerful message by showcasing the beauty of these magnificent creatures. Unfortunately, that endangered list continues to grow every day. 

The Mountain Gorilla, a sub-species of the Eastern Gorilla, is one such example. As the name suggests, they reside in low to mid-range altitudes, found only in what is known as the Virunga Massif, a chain of eight dormant volcanoes at the intersection of Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. They tend to roam around these mountains seeking new territories, shelter, and food, crossing country borders seamlessly – visa free.

Back in the late 1960s, a young and ambitious explorer by the name of Dian Fossey made it her life’s work to study and research Mountain Gorillas. As Jane Goodall made strides with chimpanzees, Fossey made incredible progress in habituating these gorillas and sharing her ground-breaking research on their ethology. Unfortunately, one of her learnings was that poachers were contributing to the rapid decline of the Mountain Gorilla population. Her role quickly turned into one of conservation, using arguably unconventional methods to terrify poachers and creating havoc amongst local communities, the government, and international traders. 

Gorilla infants were targeted as demand from zoos around the world wanted to showcase the species. To acquire an infant, poachers would often have to eliminate entire gorilla families. Demand from several countries in Asia paid handsomely for the head, feet or the hand – the latter of which was typically used as a cigar ashtray. It became increasingly difficult to recognise the gorillas that had been killed as the face, hands and feet were key factors in identifying individuals.

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To you and me, these types of gruesome stories will surely sicken us and prompt us to question why, maybe even take action. It is not a simple answer – a complex and prosperous supply chain of poached products, the local community’s livelihood, Asian culture for status and traditional beliefs are just a few. I believe it goes deeper than this, touching on the human psyche around power and competition. These traditions have been around for many years, even during the time of hunter gathers, when humans hunted mammoths and other prehistoric animals. It is a practice that has evolved over time and has become one of displaying wealth, power, and status – a social construct we created to show we are at the top of the food chain. All the while, these actions contribute to one of the primary existential threats of not only these species, but our very own existence.

At their low in the early 1980s, there were around 250 Mountain Gorillas in the wild. Thanks to Dian Fossey’s Research Centre, the Rwandan government, and a global conservation effort, populations have risen to over 1,000 today. Across the gorilla subspecies, the Mountain Gorillas are the only species seeing an upward trend in population. Whilst this is most certainly progress, they are still considered endangered despite poaching and habitat destruction no longer a primary threat. The gorillas are closely monitored daily, whether it be trackers sourcing a family for the one-hour visit from tourists or researchers attempting to build relationships with non-habituated gorillas.

The ongoing and future threats to these species are naturally human-wildlife conflicts, as it tends to be across Africa and other parts of the world that maintain terrestrial areas. As human populations continue to grow, including the surrounding local communities, demand for more land to be used for agriculture and shelter will inevitably increase. Tackling this before it crosses a point of no return is now a job for the government; and as with most other thematic areas, the Rwandan government is already making progress. 

In partnership with ecotourism operators such as Wilderness Destinations, the government has developed plans to expand the Volcanoes National Park. The plan involves offering local communities an incentivised relocation program, which includes building new homes and providing access to key agricultural tools. 

The night before our gorilla trek, I barely slept. I woke up several times thinking it was time to get my gear on. The Bisate Lodge setting was already teasing us as to what will come of this trip; a mini uphill trek to our “nest”, sights of the Bisoke and Karisimbi volcano peaks rising through the forests, and the symptoms of heavy breathing and coolness due to the high altitudes.

The camp was exquisite, blending luxury with an African twist and homely feel. There are only six rooms – well, more like an open plan one-bedroom penthouse. The views of the volcano mountains in the distance gave the eyes space to breathe. The aroma of fresh crisp air gave you a small adrenaline high as it reminded you of where you were. Every little detail seemed to have been thought of.

I have always valued client service; it is the factor that distinguishes good hospitality from great. Whether at my local coffee shop, barber, or a camp in Africa, those I have fond memories of made an effort in building a relationship with us. Our experience at Bistate Lodge was most definitely one of those fond memories. All the staff knew our names and backgrounds before we even stepped foot at camp. Not only were most of the staff from the surrounding communities, but it almost seemed they were hand-picked with the criteria of a glowing warm orange energy. In hindsight, our encounters with Rwandans throughout our trip were charming and engaging.

On the morning of our gorilla trek, I was woken by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. The rich scent filled the air, instantly energising me for the adventure ahead. As I sipped the steaming cup, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of excitement and anticipation, with a hint of nervousness. I was about to witness the Mountain Gorilla in person. We gathered our gear and set off into the dense jungle, guided by experienced trackers and rangers.

The family we were going to meet was the Suza family consisting of about 20 members with three silverbacks, several blackbucks, and a couple of babies. We were informed that our estimated time of arrival to the gorilla family’s location was about 30-45 minutes, but as we approached the half hour mark, we were informed the gorillas had moved further north. We adjusted our course and continued deeper into the dense foliage, our anticipation growing with each step. The sounds of rustling leaves and distant calls of birds enveloped us, creating an otherworldly atmosphere. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we caught a glimpse of black fur through the trees. We placed our masks over our faces, got my cameras out and approached cautiously.

The gorillas seemed unperturbed by our presence, as if they were allowing us a glimpse into their world. The expressions on their faces spoke volumes – wisdom, curiosity, and a deep connection with each other. Their tranquil demeanour conveyed a sense of peace and acceptance. It was as if we had entered a sacred sanctuary, where humans and gorillas coexisted harmoniously. With each click of my camera’s shutter, I felt a surge of excitement, realising the significance of documenting these incredible creatures.

The similarities of these species to us are un-canning – unsurprisingly, considering that there is only a 1.6% difference in DNA between humans and gorillas. The obvious features are hands, opposable thumbs, ears, teeth structure and facial composition. Females have a similar pregnancy period of around 8.5 months, with mothers and other female family members taking care of their offspring as we would. What struck me the most was their mannerisms – their facial expressions clearly show their emotion, whether calm, annoyed, playful or curious.

The behaviour between them was dependent on how strong the relationships with each other were; again, much like us humans. Brothers, sisters, and mothers clearly showed protection for their curious infant, who kept creeping closer to me as it saw his reflection on my lens. There was a particular blackback that was not even allowed close to where the family was resting. Every time he took a step closer, one of the silverbacks grunted aggressively, communicating to stay away – the ranger explained it could have been something he did to upset the silverback and this was his punishment.

Toward the end of our visit, it started to drizzle, and the main silverback of the family went from a relaxed state to becoming very grumpy, arms crossed and frowning, visibly upset. We were protected well with all our waterproof gear, but it was yet another moment when our parallels with gorillas surfaced once more. We were in an open area, hence no protection for him and his family. He looked up at the sky as if to ask why and then looked directly at me as if to demand for my raincoat. Those five seconds felt like an hour and gave me heart palpitations. What a way to say goodbye.

We took the opportunity to visit yet another primate species, the golden monkey. These unique and rare species are primarily found in the Virunga Mountains at the intersection of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

Golden monkeys are considered endangered and, although no official statistics exist on population, it is estimated there are between 4,000-5,000 remaining in the forests of the Virunga Mountains, with populations in decline due to habitat destruction. They are insufficiently explored, unlike other primates such as the mountain gorillas and chimpanzees that reside in similar habitats. The Dian Fossey Centre is one of the only organisations that have created a team specific to researching these species and have been doing this over the last 15 years, making great strides in understanding their ethology. The idea was to replicate a similar approach to one that Dian Fossey applied to the mountain gorillas using trackers and researchers, all the while habituating them and creating a conservation model that will assist in recovering the species.

There are few experiences in my life that have taken me by awe than being in the presence of one of humanity’s closest ancestors. It is almost as if we were witnessing a time before human settlements. Those of us lucky enough to have witnessed mountain gorillas in their habitat will surely understand how fortunate and lucky we are. In the few years since I have embarked on the journey of conservation and wildlife photography, this has been the pinnacle. That is not to say my other adventures have not been special. This one took me on an unexpected emotional journey – one with gratitude, joy, and thrill but also with sadness and shame as the conservationist in me kicks in because of the destruction we have caused, not only for these gorillas, but for the wider biodiversity. 

Article and photos: Chags Photography by Amish Chhagan

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Water scarcity is a deeply gendered issue that disproportionately burdens women, particularly in regions like Pakistan. Over a year ago, Pakistan made global headlines as catastrophic flooding tore through the country, resulting in displacing over 33 million people and unimaginable damage. After flooding destroyed villages and critical infrastructure, millions now face either unsafe drinking water or live in severely water-scarce regions. The climate change-induced water insecurity has led to other social crises that often go unnoticed. It has heightened the vulnerability of women to gender-based violence as they strive to secure an adequate water supply for their households.

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The Global Water Crisis

In 2020, Germanwatch published a report that listed Pakistan as the 5th most susceptible nation to climate change. One of the several consequences of the rapidly changing climate in the country is water scarcity.

This dire situation is echoed globally, as evidenced by a recent poll conducted by One Young World, a community of over 17,000 young leaders and ambassadors. Its Global Consultation Process showed that 33% of 1,500 respondents from 160 countries have experienced problems accessing clean water at least once a month, while 55% experienced problems accessing clean water at least once a year. According to a 2023 UNICEF-WHO report looking at water issues with special focus on gender, in seven out of ten households without water supplies on the premises, women and girls are primarily responsible for collection. 

Women or Water Labourers?

For many communities, collecting water is a matter of survival, and it has a clear impact on the social and gender norms of the area. Nowhere is the gendered impact of water scarcity more evident than in Pakistan, where over 22 million people struggle to access clean water. Here, the responsibility of water collection is perceived as a woman-only chore. Each day, women wake up to an impossible choice between dying of thirst or risking their lives to fetch water over difficult journeys. 

Women are enduring long and arduous journeys to distant water sources multiple times a day. These trips, often lasting up to four hours, with women carrying heavy clay pots, have an intense impact on the mental and physical well-being of women. For example, women in rural areas of Pakistan, like Tharparkar desert, are facing sexual and physical assault when they undertake long journeys to fetch water.

This is compounded with intimate partner violence resulting from women’s inability to fulfil household duties as families do not have enough water. 

In addition, “Water Wives” have become common practice, where polygamy is seen as the only solution to the water crisis people face. Women, burdened by the daily physical and emotional toll of water collection, sometimes themselves advocate for their husbands to take additional wives. The rationale behind this decision is often rooted in the survival need for more “water labourers.” 

Towards a Solution 

To remove the unfair burden on women and inhuman water head-loading in Pakistan, Tayaba Welfare International Association developed an innovative solution, the H2O (Help-2-Others) Wheel. 

This simple yet effective tool enables women to transport larger quantities of water with significantly less physical strain, reducing the time and effort required for collection. The H2O Wheel holds 40 litres compared to the 8-10 litres clay pots can carry, eliminating the need for repeat journeys.

The H2O Wheel not only empowers women by granting them more control over their lives but also challenges existing gender stereotypes. Its design is perceived to be “gender neutral,” encouraging men to share the responsibility of water collection.

It represents more than just a practical solution to water scarcity and symbolises hope and empowerment for women in Pakistan and beyond. It has transformed almost every aspect of women’s daily lives in Pakistan – physically, mentally, socially, and economically. It started with a simple idea and today offers a scalable solution for water-scarce communities globally. 

As we commemorate World Water Day, let us remember that addressing water scarcity is not just an environmental concern; it is a fundamental issue of survival and social justice. And, our actions, even small, have the power to tackle this tough challenge. By coming together, we can break the shackles of water collection that have confined women for generations and pave the way for a more equitable and sustainable future for all.

Featured image: Tabaya (organisation).

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A Progressive Holistic Tax model implemented at the consumer level holds the potential to significantly influence behavior towards a more sustainable planet. By shaping consumer purchasing patterns, this approach would compel companies to pivot towards offering goods that are less detrimental to the foundational elements of our planet. Proposed as an alternative to the direct tax model, with the exception of the very high-income category, this innovative concept builds upon the framework of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) model in India. Its introduction warrants thorough discussion and debate to foster holistic progress and ensure the long-term survivability of our planet for future generations.

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Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” 

As a political saint, he influenced masses to free India from British rule through non-violence, preaching the message of “simple living, high thinking,” which reinforced sustainable living principles. Sadly, in our modern world, these ideals have lost their luster amidst warfare, greed, and excessive consumption driven by fossil fuel-based products, which are wreaking havoc on our planet.

Johan Rockstrom, recipient of the 2024 Tyler Prize, often dubbed the “Nobel Prize for the environment,” has warned that six of the nine planetary boundaries have been breached, pushing Earth out of the safe zone. These boundaries encompass land systems change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, biosphere integrity, climate change, novel entities, stratosphere ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading, and ocean acidification, with only the last three remaining within safe limits. The scientific evidence of our planet’s peril is unequivocal, and we have a limited window to rescue it from intensive care.

Various factors have contributed to this precarious situation, including unsustainable lifestyles, incessant product upgrades driven by marketing tactics, and extractive technologies leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. Furthermore, societal perceptions equating happiness with material possessions and wealth have exacerbated the issue. In contrast, historical wisdom, such as that found in India, emphasized finding happiness by overcoming desires through wisdom without suppressing them, a philosophy now overshadowed.

This consumption-driven culture has led to the proliferation of manufacturing production lines, programmed obsolescence of products, and inflated landfills, exemplified by the staggering increase in average American home size and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth. 

However, GDP fails to distinguish between activities that enhance well-being and those that degrade it, underscoring the urgent need for a new economic model to restore planetary health and foster holistic prosperity.

The proposed Progressive Holistic Tax (PHT) model aims to reshape consumer behavior towards sustainability, clean technology adoption, and circular economy principles by levying taxes at the point of final consumption. Unlike traditional income taxes, which are inadequate for addressing contemporary challenges, this model directly incentivizes sustainable choices by hitting consumers’ wallets. By taxing products based on their environmental impact, particularly their effect on essential elements like water, soil, air, energy, and space, the PHT model encourages responsible consumption patterns.

How Does a PHT Model Work?

It is suggested that a PHT model have five tax tiers ranging from 0% to 40%. At high tiers, PHT taxes those products or services that wreck the foundational elements of our earth, namely water, soil, air, energy, and space. Luxury products or services in a higher tax tier may also encourage consumers towards more sustainable options. 

Implementation

In 2017, India implemented an indirect tax model called the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a comprehensive, multistage, destination-based tax. It is comprehensive because it subsumed almost all indirect taxes; multi-staged as the GST is imposed at every step in the production process, but is meant to be refunded to all parties in the various stages of production other than the final consumer. As a destination-based tax, it is collected at the point of consumption and not the point of origin. 

The tax has five tiers, ranging from 0% to 28%. Luxury products and services are placed in the highest tax tier. The consumer never pays a tax on a tax. The Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) code, a nomenclature used worldwide, is also used by GST. Each product has a unique code, thus enabling GST to place different products in different tax tiers. 

Key Difference Between PHT and GST

The key difference between the proposed PHT model and GST model is that the former levies a tax on products that destroy the planet at a higher tier, whereas in the GST model, a product that wrecks the health of our soil such as a chemical fertilizer could potentially be in the lower tax tier. Similarly, in PHT, a plastic water bottle could be in the highest tax tier versus canned water in a lower tier. An automobile with a metal-free biodegradable battery could be in a lower tax tier versus one with a lithium ion battery. 

Such fine nuances in PHT may necessitate a revision to HSN to account for the environmental degradation of various products. This ensures every country can implement PHT successfully.

Way Forward

Two countries that can urgently implement a PHT-type model are India and the United States for the following reasons:

• India 

A highly successful GST system is providing excellent tax revenues for India. A revised HSN code will allow the country to easily leapfrog into a PHT model. In this manner, it can achieve the dual purpose of addressing planetary health and holistic progress. The current debate on streamlining GST towards a 2-tier or a 3-tier model may hinder the progress of implementing a PHT-type model. Instead, India can become the first country in the world to launch a PHT model. It would be a historic achievement and it would help reach net zero faster than anticipated.

• United States 

Most of the innovative cleantech startups are in the US. A PHT model will allow these startups to enter the market faster. Today, the ecosystem of big corporations has kept the growth of most of these innovative startups under the lid. For example, there are hundreds of startups that can replace single-use plastics, but none has successfully gained entry into the market because virgin plastic remains significantly cheaper than any other more environmentally friendly alternative. A PHT model would address this issue by changing behavior patterns in the market. 

Moreover, the US can streamline its current complicated direct tax law – personal income taxes must be only collected from people in the high-income category. A significant portion of the tax revenues must be collected via PHT (as is happening in India already through the GST mechanism). Income taxes do not influence purchasing behavior at least at the level of achieving holistic progress.

If India can help implement a PHT system for the US, and the US can share its clean tech know-how, then both countries together could demonstrate to the world that a PHT model would succeed in addressing the critical woes of our planet.

Advantages of a PHT model

In addition to fostering holistic national progress, PHT serves as a unified tax system across any nation, streamlining the complexity of various state-level taxes. Revenue sharing between the central and state governments is determined by predefined formulas, mirroring the existing GST system in India.

At the governmental level, PHT streamlines the legislative process, reducing the need for multiple laws and debates surrounding green tax incentives. An independent PHT council, comprising a diverse team of technical and social scientists, utilizes scientific evidence to make informed decisions regarding tax tier allocation for different products, tailored to meet the government’s revenue requirements and economic demands. This market-oriented approach cultivates an environment conducive to the growth of entrepreneurs and clean tech startups, fostering equitable development across all states. Economists should develop and analyze a simulated PHT model to assess its positive impact on overall societal progress, including its contribution to mitigating climate change. Existing GST data from India can shed more light on purchasing patterns at different tiers. 

Complementing the PHT model, a national economic planning framework should be established to monitor and manage the foundational elements of our planet. 

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As the most challenging global issue of all time, climate change has not only incalculable ecological impacts but is also complexly intertwined with global patterns of societal inequality. In any climate crisis, women and girls always bear the brunt of the negative impacts. However, women’s rights are less frequently discussed in the climate agenda. It needs to be developed into a well-acknowledged fact that gender equality and the climate justice movement are inextricably linked. Climate change has non-negligible gender impacts, including both the exacerbation of pre-existing phenomena of gender inequality and climate-derived vulnerabilities. To celebrate International Women’s Day 2023, which every year falls on March 8, we re-share this story looking at how the climate justice movement could solve global gender inequalities.

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On March 29, 2021, a report from United National Development (UNDP) once again emphasised that the “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, pollution, and natural loss impacts the very right to life, while women’s rights are unequally at risk and threat. Women, particularly those living in crisis-stricken areas and rural areas, or those belonging to Indigenous groups or a minority, are disproportionately affected. As a result, the UN Commission on the Status of Women has recently set up a new priority target of “achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.”

Given the magnitude of such a correlation between the climate justice movement and gender inequalities, we take a closer look into ways in which climate change is affecting women’s rights and living conditions.

Women Have Limited Control of and Access to Resources 

Women generally have less access to resources than men, especially women living in rural areas and those from a lower socioeconomic group. There are three main contributors exposing women to greater climate injustice: the social construction of womanhood, women’s longer life expectancy, and women’’s poverty.

Due to the discriminatory gender normalities in most patriarchal societies, women have unequal access to natural resources, land, education, financial incomes, water, food, and clean energies compared to men and are often dependent on men to obtain resources when the latter is in control of them. 

Many of the areas most affected by climate change are located in the Global South, where women have more social responsibilities and a more integral role to play in running a family. In many rural communities, women and girls are disproportionately responsible for procuring food, water, and domestic energy resources. Such larger burdens make it more difficult for women to acquire equal resources, especially when climate conflicts occur. Under extreme weather conditions, women have to spend more time and travel a long distance to complete their basic tasks as a mother or a wife, such as getting water and food, cooking, and laundry washing. As a consequence, women have less time and effort to pursue a career, education, or more income, since they have the fewest resources available to break free from poverty.

Water access is a distinct indicator of gender inequality in the context of climate conflicts.

In Mexico City, a city that has been plagued by severe droughts, water-related tasks can take up nearly an entire working week (4.4 days) for women. Considering the overwhelming role women normally serve in housework and childcare, domestic water management with limited water accessibility forces them to make unjustified compromises in their personal, vocational, and educational growth.

Women in developed countries do not fare any better. During climate disasters, women farmers in Saskatchewan, Canada, are more likely to fall into debt, have a harder time recovering livelihoods and develop the capabilities of climatic adaptation on farms. The lack of recognition and representation are the two main driving forces on such inequality. 

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Climate Change Exacerbates Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Against Women

Climate change has become a contributing factor in exacerbating gender-based violence against women. Women face a greater risk of gender-based violence amid or after climate disasters, in the absence of social safety programmes, and situations such as food scarcity – intensified by worsening heatwaves and drought. 

In climate emergencies, the abrupt breakdown of family and community frameworks caused by displacement put women at a greater danger of domestic violence. Due to the loss of incomes, resources, and security, as well as social pressure arising from sudden changes within a household, women have a bigger chance to be physically or psychologically harmed by their partners. After the environmental catastrophe of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar for example, there had been a 30% upsurge in domestic violence against women. There also had been a clear spike in the rate of domestic violence after 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the US and the 2020 bushfire in Australia. 

Rape and other sexual assaults against women and girls are more common in the context of climate change. Rural women in the Global South are compelled to walk long distances to acquire firewood for cooking, putting themselves at increased risk of being raped. Sexual assaults are also commonplace in settlements for climate refugees. Displaced women, when away from their familiar surroundings, have limited adaptive capacities to protect themselves. 

Women’s Physical Vulnerability in Climatic Disaster

There has been a distinct disparity in casualties and deaths between women and men in some disasters, particularly those that occurred in the Global South. Due to physiological differences, women and men have differentiated physical resilience to natural conflicts. Women accounted for 61% of mortality in Myanmar during Cyclone Nargis in 2008, 70% in Banda Aceh after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, and 91% in Bangladesh during 1991 Cyclone Gorky. Statistics have proven that women are more likely to die in natural disasters, and the worsening climate crisis would only increase the number of female victims. Such extreme weather circumstances generally violate women’s fundamental physical rights and safety. 

Social prejudices against women are part of the reason behind women’s relatively weak survivability in a climatic crisis. Although women’s underlying weakness is directly linked to their disadvantaged economic and social status, the most immediate determinant of women’s survivability lies in their physical competence of self-aid in a disaster.  

Essential survival skills such as swimming and climbing trees are primarily taught to boys, and in many rural religious communities, girls are not permitted to learn to swim. After the occurrences of disasters, males are given preferential treatment in rescue efforts and medical support, receiving priority over females. According to an analysis of 18 maritime disasters across three centuries, captains and crew, which are male, survive at a notably higher rate than female passengers. Physical abilities are the deciding factor in this scenario, despite the strict implementation of the “women and children first” (WCF) principle in shipwrecks. 

For more about the global climate justice movement: Indigenous Climate Justice in a Warming Arctic

Emotional Distress Related to Environmental Crises in Women

Apart from physical disadvantages, women tend to suffer more emotionally than men from climatic events. Mental health issues are another sneaky yet significant threat of climate change to human well-being. Risks to mental health from climate change, the persistent global stressor, are a “creeping development”.The American Psychology Association (APA) has put forward the term “eco-anxiety”, to describe “the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one’s future and that of next generations”. Arisen from direct or indirect exposure to climate change, eco-anxiety can result in a series of harmful psychological reactions, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, phobias, sleep disorders, attachment disorders, and substance abuse.

More on the topic: Explainer: What Is Climate Anxiety?

Women are also more likely to develop undesirable mental conditions than men under the context of incremental climate change. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by natural disasters is the number one mental issue that unevenly affects women. For most marginalised groups including women, the impacts of climate change can easily morph into climate trauma. Essentially, these traumatic responses are deprived of sudden landscape changes and loss of familiar environmental landmarks. Women have a different psychological patterns of cognitive and emotional responses to general traumatic events, giving them a higher level of sensitivity to negative environmental changes. 

In addition to PTSD, women also tend to face a greater risk of other mental disorders such as depression, general anxiety disorders, shock, feelings of abandonment, and even suicidal ideations following extreme weather events. Depression over the immediate struggles and anxiety about the unknown future are more commonly developed by women. This is primitively explained by women’s relatively poorer abilities to manage stressful situations rising from a higher sensitivity to stress hormones. Women’s fixed burdens and responsibilities within a household further consolidate their emotional vulnerabilities. 

The Invisibility of Women’s Roles in Climate Response

Women’s presence in climate response seems to be omnipresent but somehow invisible. Women have been deeply underrepresented in many spheres, such as in politics, businesses, and STEM across the globe. In the male-dominant decision-making process regarding climate response, women’s voices are hard to be heard, let alone have specific needs met. Even though being one of the most affected and marginalised groups by climate change, so far women hold barely one-third of leadership positions in climate-related negotiations. This imbalance could lead to an awful increase in existing inequalities and a decrease in result effectiveness if policies or projects are implemented without women’s significant involvement. 

Women’s achievements or contributions to climate mitigation are often overlooked or slighted, and their credits are sometimes taken away by men. Some female workers who are on the frontline of the climate apocalypse, such as firefighters, farmers, and rescue workers, do not receive the same level of recognition and publicity as their male counterparts, as these occupations are traditionally portrayed as male-oriented. During climate conflicts, women are uniformly perceived as the “victims’’, with their capabilities and efforts being denied. 

How Should the Climate Justice Movement Make Positive Changes?

The first step in solving any problem is recognising there is one, and that’s especially true for the climate justice movement. In a positive sign, gender issues in the context of climate change have been preliminary addressed. Starting from the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18), and the 2012 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), women’s rights and gender equalities have been covered in global climate discourse by degrees. Particular directions for solutions are inspired by certain vanguards’ persistent efforts to promote gender equality and protect women’s rights:

• Raise a comprehensive understanding of women’s vulnerabilities 

Improvement in gender equality cannot be achieved if women’s unique situations are not fully understood. Most gender injustices are rooted in the nature of patriarchal society and exacerbated by climate change. Provide funding for programmes specifically for women, supporting their physical and mental demands, and resistance against sexual violence.  Gender-specific programmes that are culturally competent and meet women’s distinct needs help them build climate resilience.

• Develop a gender-inclusive decision-making framework

To incorporate gender equality in climate change, the climate justice movement sees women’s appeals be equally taken into consideration when it comes to decision-making. A basis for gender-responsive environmental governance is fundamental to achieving effectiveness and encouraging outcomes of policies. This process can be started by increasing the representation of women in climate negotiations. The irreplaceable role of women in climate governance needs to be universally recognised and respected. 

• Encourage female participation and leadership in climate actions

Women’s involvement is crucial to effective climate action. A study has shown that as women’s representation in national legislatures grows, more rigorous climate change laws are enacted, resulting in reduced emissions. Female leadership is also key to bringing positive changes in climate strategies. Women around the world are ready to stand up for their environmental rights: hundreds of allied Indigenous women marched in Brazil in 2019 to protest the devastation of the Amazon rainforest, while a women-led group in Uganda established an environmental association to empower women to utilise energy-saving stoves and engage in land planning, agroforestry, and soil conservation activities.

Featured image: UN Women Asia Pacific/Flickr

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In an exclusive interview with Earth.Org, Emmy-award winner and founder of Age of Union Dax Dasilva announced his latest YouTube series, “On the Frontline”, while also discussing the unique, important place that filmmaking has in the conservation of our planet. Utilizing filmmaking, Dasilva has empowered and brought attention to Age of Union’s worldwide conservation initiatives, producing five other film projects in the past, and garnering support for some of the Earth’s most trying issues. As a result of Age of Union and Dasilva’s concerted filmmaking efforts, France has been ordered to establish no-fishing zones in the Atlantic, as well as implement a means to protect dolphin populations. In addition, 25 land titles have been acquired in the Congo. In light of their continued success, Dasilva is wasting no time producing three more conservation films, while also establishing a new platform called “Age of Union Studios.” 

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Films about the environment often captivate and inspire their audiences in ways that other films fail to achieve. Take Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, for example. In the decade that followed its critically-acclaimed release, sales in the solar power generation industry increased by 6,800%, the Paris Agreement was signed, Google searches for “climate change” and other topics skyrocketed, and most importantly, global discourse surrounding the topic of climate change was suddenly achieved, bringing the discussion of “what can we do to help?” to dinner tables thousands of miles apart.

Unfortunately, the film industry has experienced a recent decline in productions related to climate change, though people are demanding an increase. A 2022 study conducted by USC researchers found that 48% of climate-conscious viewers wanted more shows and films with themes related to global warming. In addition, those who felt hopeful about climate solutions were 3.5 times more likely to have the desire to view more climate narratives on their TV’s. 

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Which is why it should be of no surprise that environmental activists such as Emmy award-winning executive producer, Dax Dasilva of Age of Union, a non-profit environmental alliance, feel the need to fill that gap, joining the ranks of other conscientious filmmakers who choose to spread information about the climate crisis and solutions.

On January 26, 2024, Dasilva, released “On the Frontline”, a YouTube series highlighting the important work being accomplished by dedicated environmentalists in locations from Canada to Trinidad. In an exclusive interview with Earth.Org, Dasilva shares what his newest film series is all about, why he has chosen film as one of his mediums to affect change, and where he sees Age of Union and its place in the film industry going in the future. 

“People often ask me when I’ve come back from these trips: ‘Don’t you feel depressed about the environment?’ For me it’s the opposite. When I go to the frontline, I see things happening in a positive direction,” said Dasilva.

He said the whole point of “On the Frontline” was to showcase the positive side of conservation efforts – the work being accomplished, rather than the destruction being caused – and to inspire others to conserve and protect remote locations they may not have access to.

“I think that that’s what we wanted to do with this series… We wanted to bring people to the front line of our projects and make them real to people that can’t get to some of these places.” said Dasilva.  “If you want to know what it takes to save a species or to save a place this is what you’re gonna see in [the series].”

The first and second episodes follow Suzan Lakhan Baptiste, managing director of Nature Seekers, a community-driven non-profit located on Matura beach of Trinidad, and her team of conservationists, fighting to protect a large population of leatherback sea turtles.

“[Baptiste] grew up in Matura beach, and saw these majestic creatures coming up during the nesting season, laying their eggs and returning to the ocean… Only one in 1,000 of those eggs will actually make it to breeding,” explained Dasilva.

“30 years ago, she also saw young men coming on to those beaches, poaching these mother turtles for meat and stealing their eggs. It was a graveyard. So she started fighting. She viscerally got involved with this incredible fight. And through the next 30 years she converted that whole community into a conservation, ecotourism community.”

“My local people are now the conservationists-they are now the protectors,” said Baptiste in an excerpt from the YouTube series. 

Though the leatherback sea turtle, a truly unique, 2,000-pound, deep sea-diving (4,000 feet) gentle giant may seem like a creature far removed from the ecosystems of the Western world, one of their migratory paths actually follows the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, all the way from Matura beach in Trinidad. While they follow this path, they consume jellyfish, growing in size by as much as two to three times their original weight (reason for which they have leathery, flexible backs that expand). Utilizing these stored calories, leatherback turtles produce anywhere from 85 to 95 tennis ball-sized eggs, and then lay them on Matura beach. 

“There’s a real impact to humans when [their populations] declined, because they are the main predator of jellyfish. If you’ve heard that there’s an overabundance of jellyfish in the ocean… that’s because turtle populations [are declining],” explained Dasilva. 

“What does the jellyfish prey on? The jellyfish preys on small, baby fish. So if the jellyfish eats all the small baby fish, we have no fish. The leatherback turtles help our fisheries – they keep fish populations healthy – and so it’s in our interest to make sure that they are doing that job, because there’s very few other predators that do clear out the jellyfish or reduce their population.”

As vital as the work in Trinidad is, Age of Union is also heavily dedicated to conservation efforts in other areas of the world, including Peru, the Atlantic, the Congo, the Amazon, and of course, their homeland, Canada, via the Saint Lawrence river. Utilizing the power of film, Dasilva believes that people can be motivated to fight for these causes, whether it be in their backyard or across the planet. 

“Film is important because it can bring people to a place, to a situation, to the reality of a challenge that we’re having with saving a species or saving a place…And the ability to capture that story, to capture the human emotion behind doing that work, and the struggle of it and the wins that are experienced, too. To bring that to people everywhere is ultra powerful.” explained Dasilva.

Since the inception of Age of Union in October of 2021, Dasilva has funded and released five other films to inspire, educate, and most importantly show people exactly what they are doing, up close and personal.

Amazingly, just as Dasilva hoped, their filmmaking efforts have garnered attention for many of their causes across the world, and in so doing, have inspired not only a call to action, but action itself. As a result of their documentary “CAUGHT” – an eye-opening revelatory film exposing the fishing and bycatch industries contributing to the destruction of oceanic ecosystems in the Atlantic – and the efforts of Sea Shepherd France, the Council of State ordered the French government to establish no-fishing zones, and to implement a means to protect dolphin populations in the Atlantic. Furthermore, “The Corridor”, a documentary centered on the gathering of 21 land titles in the Congo to establish a corridor of protected land, led to the acquisition of an astounding 25 land titles.

“Everybody can learn from Congo. They truly have found a model that’s gone viral. Chiefs from surrounding communities were coming to this town hall using chalk to delineate the different land titles… people were coming to this meeting to beg for their area to be added to this process. And that’s how we’ve gotten to 25. Because everybody wants in, because not only does it provide the land title, which provides the wood, which provides for their building and for their charcoal and keeps people out of the gorilla parks, but it also keeps all the mining from coming into their area,” said Dasilva.

Given the success that the filmmaking process has provided Age of Union and their conservation efforts, Dasilva has established a separate entity called Age of Union Studios, where they can invest in long-form film projects being developed by other filmmakers. In addition, this year, Dasilva and Age of Union will be executive producing three film projects: “The Snake Rescuer’s Son”, their second feature documentary in collaboration with the team behind “Wildcat” – the story of a father and son who work together to protect wildlife in South India, an unannounced project with Malaika Picture’s latest film (will be announced later this year), and a project with National Geographic’s Impact Story Lab.  

“Film possesses an unparalleled capacity to evoke emotion, challenge perspectives, and inspire change,” Dasilva wrote on the Age of Union website. “At Age of Union, we believe in the profound influence of cinema to not only grab people’s attention but to serve as a catalyst for positive change on a global scale.”

Featured image: Age of Union.

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Step into the frozen expanse of Antarctica through the lens of Hong Kong-based Earth.Org photographer Edwin Lee as he unveils a chilling photo story that exposes the heart-wrenching consequences of a rapidly spreading outbreak of avian flu that has decimated seal populations in recent months and is now beginning to spread to penguins. Edwin’s captivating images provide a sobering glimpse into the devastating toll this disease has taken on the continent’s delicate ecosystem and its remarkable inhabitants.

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In November 2023, I was commissioned by a travel agency to film promotional material for their luxury Antarctica cruises. Starting from the port town of Ushuaia in Argentina, our 19-day journey stopped at the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and finally the Antarctica Peninsula itself, located at about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) to the south. 

Cruises like this one are experiencing a boom in popularity thanks to new expedition lines and in part due to the post-pandemic trend of “revenge travel,” particularly to exotic locations.

After we left the Falkland Islands toward South Georgia, both British territories, the news of the progression of H5N1 – a contagious and highly pathogenic avian flu strain – slowly dawned on us. The virus had started to creep into this sub-Antarctic region. 

My hometown Hong Kong isn’t new to this strain. It is there that the first-ever outbreak of this avian flu strain originated in 1997, spreading to poultry and 18 individuals, six of whom died. New outbreaks in 2001 and 2002 resulted in the death of several avian species and led to a massive cull of poultry. A year later, another person succumbed to the disease. 

Understandably, there was a lot of apprehension when our ship arrived in South Georgia, as cruise ship crew and passengers feared a potential encounter with dead birds or penguins. Unlike the Falkland Islands – which is inhabited by just over 2,800 people – South Georgia is a designated Marine Protected Area and lacks a permanent population.

One unique aspect of our cruise voyage is its ability to facilitate landings on shores without the need for a port. With the use of “Zodiacs” – military-standard speedboats – passengers can be transported to rather inhospitable areas to get a chance to observe wildlife up close. However, whether we could land or not depended exclusively on daily rules set by the South Georgian government and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). 

As feared, H5N1 had been spreading around the islands, leading to the closure of many landing zones to prevent the spread of the disease to humans. During our four days around South Georgia, we were only permitted to land once at a penguin colony on Fortuna Bay on the northern side of the island. This involved strict biosecurity measures such as disinfecting clothing and maintaining a two-meter distance from all wildlife. The following day, authorities shut down Fortuna Bay due to the threat of an incoming H5N1 wave. 

According to one of our expedition guides, South Georgia is now being omitted from cruise itineraries altogether following the closure of most landing zones by local authorities.

As a consolation, our cruise company subsequently organized Zodiac trips along the coastline, allowing us to observe wildlife from a reasonable distance. These images were taken from the Gold Harbour beach in South Georgia.

Here, I witnessed the devastation of avian flu firsthand. Rows of dead seals lined the entire beach, while some carcasses were swept into the ocean. Curiously, the virus had only affected seals and not penguins. At least until then.

In recent days, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) identified 35 potential cases of H5N1 avian influenza virus among gentoo penguins, a species native to sub-Antarctic islands, with 14 cases being confirmed so far via PCR test. According to Reuters, the Falkland Islands government has identified “over 200 dead chicks alongside a handful of adults” and was awaiting test results from rockhopper penguins as it prepared “for a large-scale outbreak.”

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