JUSTICE IN THE SOUP!

I have written about this topic before[1] but it deserves another attempt. Many reasonable and knowledgeable people have protested strongly against the obvious injustice of putting people in prison for protesting strongly, but without violence, about the climate catastrophe – recently for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s sunflowers painting which was protected by a glass shield so the protesters knew no damage would be caused. I was therefore heartened to see the wisdom and logic of influential columnists such as George Monbiot, and the former political prisoner Nadya Tolokonnikova[2] presenting the arguments against the highly inappropriate judgments of the judge jailing climate protesters at Southwark Crown Court[3]. It may or may not be that this judge was following new government  policy, but that does not make it right: the sentences meted out are wholly, and almost unbelievably, disproportionate in our supposedly fair and reasonable country (well, it used to be).

It is high time our law makers and enforcers educated themselves about the climate catastrophe and ditched the dangerous, crackpot, Trumpian attitude of denying it as a hoax.

The evidence for climate change is extensive and is derived from direct observations, climate models, and historical records. It is worth repeating for the benefit of certain judges and others just what, and how alarming, the evidence for the climate catastrophe is. It includes:

1. Rising Global Temperatures

• Surface Temperature Records: Global surface temperatures have risen by about 1.2°C since the late 19th century. This is measured through long-term data collection by weather stations, satellites, and ocean buoys.
• Warming Oceans: Over 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases has been absorbed by the oceans. Ocean temperatures are rising, with warmer surface waters and deeper heat penetration.

2. Melting Ice and Snow

• Shrinking Glaciers: Glaciers around the world, from the Alps to the Andes, have been losing mass and shrinking. Measurements show rapid ice loss over the past century. Changes in ice cover between Switzerland and Italy have even led to moving the boundary between these nations!
• Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Satellite records show that the extent of Arctic sea ice has declined by about 40% since the late 1970s. The ice is also thinner and less extensive during the summer.
• Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets: Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass. In Greenland, ice melt has increased sharply in recent decades, contributing to rising sea levels.

3. Rising Sea Levels

• Global Sea-Level Rise: The average global sea level has risen by about 20cm since 1880, with the rate of increase accelerating in recent decades. This rise is driven by thermal expansion (water expanding as it warms) and the melting of ice sheets and glaciers.
• Coastal Impacts: Many coastal regions are already experiencing flooding, storm surges, and erosion due to higher sea levels.

4. Ocean Acidification

• Chemical Changes: The oceans absorb about a quarter of the CO₂ emitted to the atmosphere. This is causing ocean acidification, a process whereby seawater becomes more acidic, affecting marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs and shellfish.

5. Extreme Weather Events

• Increased Frequency and Intensity: There is strong evidence that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including heatwaves, droughts, heavy rainfall, and hurricanes[4]. The number of extreme heat days has risen, while certain regions are experiencing more intense rainfall and flooding.
• Drought and Wildfires: Climate change is linked to more severe droughts, particularly in regions like the western USA, and to longer and more intense wildfire seasons around the world.

6. Shifts in Ecosystems and Wildlife

• Changing Migration and Flowering Patterns: Animals and plants are shifting their ranges toward the poles or higher altitudes as temperatures rise. For example, spring events, such as seasonal blooming and animal migration, are occurring earlier in many parts of the world.
• Coral Reef Bleaching: Rising sea temperatures have caused widespread coral bleaching, where corals lose the algae that provide them with food and colour. This is a major threat to biodiversity in tropical oceans.

7. Paleoclimate Evidence (Historical Records)

• Ice Cores: Scientists have drilled into ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, extracting cores that provide data on past climate conditions. These ice cores contain trapped ancient air bubbles, revealing a close relationship between CO₂ levels and global temperatures.
• Tree Rings and Sediment Cores: Tree rings, lake sediments, and other natural records show past climate conditions. These records indicate that recent warming is unprecedented over millennia.

8. Human Influence

• Increased Greenhouse Gas Concentrations: CO₂ levels in the atmosphere have increased by over 50% since the industrial revolution, primarily due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), deforestation, and industrial processes.
• Attribution Studies: Climate models show that natural factors alone (such as solar variability and volcanic activity) cannot explain the observed warming. When anthropogenic emissions are included, the models accurately reproduce the warming trend, showing that the dominant cause of recent warming is human activity.

9. Scientific Consensus

• IPCC Reports: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which compiles research from thousands of climate scientists, has concluded with high confidence that climate change is happening and that human activities are the primary driver.
• Multiple Independent Lines of Evidence: The convergence of evidence from multiple disciplines (e.g. atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, biology, ecology) reinforces the conclusion that climate change is real, ongoing, and largely driven by human activity.

This broad array of evidence clearly and very strongly supports the conclusion that the Earth’s climate is warming, with significant impacts on ecosystems, weather patterns, and human societies. Shockingly, it seems the judge in the Sunflowers case refused to allow this evidence to be presented in detail in defence by the protesters in the dock!  Hopefully he will take it to heart and stop incarcerating the people trying hard to bring attention to it. Perhaps he and our law-making politicians could turn their attention to the people still promoting the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and use instead of persecuting protesters.

It is also worth noting this important comment this week by our Professional Institute:

Glaring National Security blind spot for Climate Threats

“An assessment of climate threats to UK National Security has highlighted climate tipping points as a severely overlooked danger, based on a new report from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), Chatham House, the University of Exeter and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative[5]. The paper outlines that there is a serious blind spot in Government, with major climate threats not being adequately addressed in its national risk register. The report urges the Government to change this, and consider climate change a key national security issue.”

At Betts Ecology, all of us are acutely aware of the climate catastrophe, the results of which we see on a daily basis in species and habitat changes. I do not shrink from stating that a major advance of government priorities, actions and attitudes is needed urgently if there is to be any chance of preventing global devastation.

 

[1] See https://www.bettsecology.co.uk/insight/just-stop/

[2] See https://tinyurl.com/4mpf9ww6

[3] See http://tiny.cc/leaozz. This is a “must read”.

[4] Such as Helene and Milton in SE USA.

[5] https://tinyurl.com/5hxct5b4