What on Earth 60

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s supporters’ magazine Issue 60 Spring 2 Summer 6015

subject on lineEarth 60 What

Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is: • Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation • An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland

• Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups – covering every continent.

Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442.

What on Earth is published by and copyrighted to: Friends of the Earth Scotland 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe-scotland.org.uk W: www.foe-scotland.org.uk

Editor: Per Fischer Picture Editor: Per Fischer Design: www.triggerpress.co.uk Cover: Photograph by MAVERICK PHOTO AGENCY

The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements.

RE-USE AND SPREAD THE WORD When you have finished with this magazine, save it or pass it on to friends, a doctor’s surgery, school, student union, library or café.

As a last resort recycle it.

Printed on Revive pure white silk 100% recycled paper

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Contents 4 Back in Green Richard Dixon returns to Friends of the Earth Scotland.

5 News Scotland’s climate plan is not up to scratch.

6 Campaigns Update We have a lot going on right now with unconventional gas, corporate accountability and access to environmental justice.

10 Looking Back Richard Dixon peeks into the last 59 issues of What on Earth magazine.

15 Local Groups A lot has been happening in local groups lately, here’s a brief review.

16 The Tony Juniper interview The former chief executive of Friends of the Earth in London speaks to us about his new book.

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Welcome to this the 60th anniversary issue of What On Earth. To get an idea of what has changed since issue 1 in 1992, Director Richard Dixon has written a big retrospective on pages 8-9. Perhaps you have been a Friends of the Earth Scotland member ever since, perhaps you’ve recently joined us as a supporter. Whatever the case, we are very grateful for your support both now and then, and hope you will stay on and help us to achieve even greater successes in the future.

A lot of readers have come back to me with very kind words about the new, smaller What On Earth, which I want to thank all of you for.

Editorial

We were hoping that the re-vamped, and cheaper, magazine would be received positively, and so far we’ve only heard good things about it. Still, if you have ideas or requests for content, or suggestions, do get in touch, we are always interested in hearing your views.

Hope to see you at the next annual general meeting in Edinburgh in June 2013.

With best wishes Per Fischer, Editor whatonearth@foe-scotland.org.uk

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Director’s View

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By Dr Richard Dixon, Director Friends of the Earth Scotland

t’s great to be back. After a decade away leading WWF Scotland I have returned to Friends of the Earth, this time as Director.

I was here as Head of Research in the 1990s and spent eight years campaigning on issues from climate change and air pollution to bathing waters and toxic chemicals in your kitchen.

Of course things have changed since then, with a different team in a different office.

Some of the agenda is new, like unconventional gas and corporates, some quite familiar, like access to justice and climate change. Sadly some things have changed little, with levels of urban air pollution not really much better than when I left a decade ago – something we plan to try to change.

We have a great team in the office, complete for the first time in a long while and working well together. We are also getting plenty of help from Board members and our team of volunteers.

Already we have a new draft strategy doing the rounds. This maps out what we are about and how we will work over the next few years,

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and confirms our twin guiding priorities as environmental justice and climate change.

I have been out to meet a number of our local groups, discussing everything from fracking and climate change to community gardens and biomass. I look forward to working closely with them on our campaigns in the coming year.

We have of course been balancing the internal Friends of the Earth Scotland tasks with making sure we are getting our messages out in the media and around Parliament. This is going well but we will have to be clever, creative and tenacious if we are to win the big fights we are picking.

I look forward to meeting many of you at the Annual General Meeting to share thoughts on campaigns and to talk about the future.

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News

Get your Act together!

From Climate Act to Climate Action demonstration at Scottish Parliament COLIN HATTERSLEY PHOTOGRAPHY

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he second Report on Proposals and Polices under the Climate Act is strong on rhetoric but light on actual action to meet our climate targets. The plan does show how Scotland could meet all its climate targets between now and 2027 – if every policy delivers as planned, if every proposal is

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ur analysis of official figures for 2012 reveals streets across Scotland’s cities missing air pollution targets we were supposed to meet in 2005. The most polluted streets included Glasgow’s Hope Street, Aberdeen’s Wellington Street, Dundee’s Lochee Road, Edinburgh’s St. John Road and Perth’s Atholl Street. Air pollution is the biggest current environmental threat to people's health, with fumes from cars, lorries and buses, killing off at least 10 times the number who die in road crashes every year.

We will be calling for action on traffic levels and the types of vehicles allowed on our most polluted streets.

turned into a policy and fully delivers, and if the European Union increases its own 2020 target from 20% to 30%. But there is no wriggle room, if just one policy fails to deliver or one proposal is never put into action, multiple targets will be missed. http://foes.do/Minister-climate-plan

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riends of the Earth Scotland has signed up to the “Enough Food For Everyone IF” campaign, alongside more than 100 other organisations, to help ensure a life free from hunger for people all over the world. Nearly one billion people go to bed hungry every night, and two million children die from malnutrition every year. We've made progress in other areas, but hunger is still the great scandal of our age. All around the world, even in the UK, people are struggling to feed their families, and this must be tackled now. http://enoughfoodif.org/scotland

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Campaigns

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By Mary Church, Campaigner

n August Dart Energy submitted a planning application to Falkirk and Stirling Council’s to take their Airth coalbed methane (CBM) development to commercial scale. 16 wells have already been drilled, this application is for a further 22, and full field development could see more than hundred wells in only around 300 square km.

While Dart is busy assuring locals that they don’t intend to frack, it’s hard to find this reassuring since industry evidence from Australia suggests that around a third of all CBM wells there end up being fracked.

Local communities have been gearing up to fight the development with 250 people attending one public meeting at only a weeks notice. Recent news that Australia’s New South Wales Government have banned all CBM activity – not just fracking – within 2km of residential areas did nothing to calm fears about what this industry might mean for the local environment.

Top: Campaigners from Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland at fracking meeting in Brussels

It’s clearly not just the local environment that will suffer if the unconventional gas industry is allowed to roll out. Despite what certain developers would have you believe, CBM is a fossil fuel and burning it will contribute to climate change! In addition, recent studies from the USA and Australia show the amount of methane leaking from both shale and CBM sites to be significantly higher than previously expected.

Unconventional gas extraction and fracking sit in a slightly awkward regulatory framework

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Email your MSP & MP: foes.do/MSP-address-fracking / foes.do/MP-address-fracking 'Object to Dart’s development at Airth: foe-scotland.org.uk/stopAirthCBM'

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in the devolved countries, with Whitehall issuing licenses and Holyrood responsible for planning and environmental regulation.

At Holyrood, shadow environment minister Claire Baker MSP has tabled a motion calling for a full lifecycle analysis of the industry before it is allowed to roll out any further, and the Scottish Government has commented: “Whilst we recognise the future potential there is for unconventional gas in Scotland, shale gases and coalbed methane are not

Campaigns

included in our energy plans or in our national energy modelling.”

With Scottish Planning Policy under review and the new National Planning Framework under development a key focus of our campaign is to ensure that unconventional gas is given no encouragement at a national level – or better still, ruled out altogether – and at the very least, local authorities are given adequate guidance for dealing with applications.

'Good news! We successfully applied to the Isvara Foundation for funding to work with communities in areas under license for oil and gas exploration, to help them understand the risks of unconventional gas and declare themselves ‘frack free zones’.

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s the Government prepares to introduce new laws to overhaul our antiquated justice system, we continue to advocate for environmental justice as part of this reform, and are building a case for a new specialist environmental court or tribunal.

And, as the European Commission's legal action against the UK for the excessive expense of going to court in the public interest gears up, we are working to ensure they understand the distinct legal barriers that citizens face in standing up for the environment in Scotland.

Meanwhile some interesting and important strides have been made in case law following our intervention in a case at the UK Supreme Court in 2011 that led to the repeal of a 100year old technicality that blocked access to the courts.

In Autumn, William Walton appealed to the Supreme Court in his case against the

Government’s decision to allow the construction of the Aberdeen bypass. While unfortunately William lost on the substance of his appeal, the Court upheld his right to go to court, and made it clear that legal challenges to important decisions and acts by public authorities are a vital means of up upholding the rule of law. The Court also emphasised the importance of individuals and NGOs taking cases on behalf of the environment, since the environment cannot stand up for itself in a court of law.

This ruling means there’s a lot at stake in Marco McGinty’s return to court to challenge the government's decision to build a coal power plant on a nationally important nature site at Hunterston.

Marco’s appeal is a crucial test case in Scotland because his legal team were able to rely on the ruling of the Supreme Court in Walton – we await the outcome with bated breath! Marco is also appealing the level of

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Campaigns

costs he should pay if he loses again. This will be a very important decision in the development of public law in Scotland, and our campaign for access to justice in environmental matters.

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By Paul Daly, Campaigner

e met with Ian Watt, Director of Assets (Greenland), and David Nisbet, Group Corporate Affairs, to hear more about their Arctic operation and took the opportunity to express our concerns over Arctic drilling.

Cairn claim that its response plan is robust enough, although there is growing consensus from experts that this is not the case.

Regardless of how strong the plan is, the point remains that the Arctic should be off limits for oil and gas exploration. The fragile ecosystems are already under great stress from the effects of climate change – having to deal with contamination could really be the tipping point for some species.

We were never going to convince them on the spot to pull out of the Arctic. But hopefully we were able to get them to open their eyes to the consequences of drilling in the Arctic and most importantly the fact that people in

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Support our Access to Environmental Justice campaign: foes.do/foesdonate

Scotland do not want this operation to be undertaken by a Scottish corporation.

We recently launched our ‘Cairn’s Calamitous Cowboys’ video which highlights the fact that Cairn have been denounced to a UK Parliamentary committee as a ‘cowboy’ operation. Although slightly tongue in cheek, the video highlights the risky operations that are being undertaken by a Scottish company which is not fully prepared for the dangerous and unprecedented work that they will be doing in 2014.

It is important that we get a strong message through to Cairn Energy that we do not want our Scottish corporations to be undertaking such dangerous work. Add your voice to the growing number of people who are taking this action.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Watch the video & take action on our webpage: www.foe-scotland.org.uk/cairn

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t has been another difficult year for RBS. The bank finally received its massive £391m fine for fiddling the Libor rate.

We continue to campaign for the taxpayerowned bank to move towards a more sustainable approach to banking that delivers on what we need, rather than focusing on their fat cat bonuses.

Surprisingly RBS, alongside Shell, were nominated for a prestigious VIBES award in the ‘Management’ category. RBS’ Gogarburn HQ was nominated for its green credentials, in isolation from the bank’s climate change causing investments. We wrote an open letter to the organisers of the awards, and asked for our supporters to do the same.

One notable change that we have seen with RBS crept up in a Q&A session for the Guardian by the Chairman Sir Philip Hampton. During this session, which focused on Libor, Sir Philip was asked about the Canadian tar sands investment. His response indicated that RBS now recognise that this

Campaigns

was not a wise investment and had resulted in some brand damage. The Chairman indicated that the bank has not subsequently invested in any other tar sands projects since 2009, and Sir Philip revealed that RBS now see financing tar sands projects as off limits as financing cluster bombs.

So perhaps RBS have turned a corner? Not quite.

RBS are one of several major banks that are now known to be funding mountaintop removal in order to gain access to limited amounts of coal. The project is based in West Virginia and is already responsible for displacing hundreds of locals and introducing carcinogens and contamination of heavy metals to the environment. Of course this is simply for the extraction process – burning the coal will obviously push us further towards disastrous climate change.

It seems RBS are still not as squeaky clean as they would have us believe.

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Looking Back

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hat on Earth has reached its 60th edition, giving us a good excuse to look back at the last two decades of Friends of the Earth Scotland activity.

The first ever edition of What on Earth appeared in March 1992 and led with the results of air pollution monitoring we had carried out as of part of a campaign with Scotland on Sunday. We also looked forward to the creation of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the preparations for the Rio Earth Summit that May. And we celebrated our campaign victory on getting the Scottish Office to accept they had to restore grants for removing lead from drinking water.

The front page in Spring 1993 was of course about the Braer disaster and our calls for better tanker routing and safety rules.

The next few issues celebrated success on tropical timber imports, reduced speed limits in communities and cleaner beaches, and launched the campaign against the Harris Superquarry, something which took us more than a decade to win. In the nineties we also celebrated our part in defeating plans for a

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WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2013

Dixon, Director

By Dr Richard

second Forth Road Bridge, sadly not repeated in the late 2000s.

The front page in Spring 1995 loudly proclaimed ‘Environment=Jobs,’ another message that is only now part of mainstream thinking.

In 1996 we were pointing out that nine of the hottest years on record had been in the last 16 years. Now nine of the warmest years have been since 2000. In 1996 we talked about the UN climate agreement from the Earth Summit but no serious action on emissions in Scotland. Now, and in large part thanks to our efforts, we have Scotland’s excellent climate change act and a set of ambitious targets. Of course our challenge now is to get those targets delivered.

An anonymous caller threatened to burn down the office after we highlighted people driving one to a car in the Edinburgh rush hour while dressed as Eco-Wardens.

Very noticeable through this period is the growing emphasis on working with communities, from opencast to landfill, from sewage sludge dumping to incinerators, with

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Environmental Justice emerging as a fully fledged driver of our work in 1999. By Spring 2002 we were able to talk about holding First Minister Jack McConnell to his commitment to Environmental Justice and launched our project creating Agents for Environmental Justice across Scotland.

What on Earth issues in the 2000s covered GM crops, lobbying on European chemicals legislation, the Big Ask work around the climate bills here and at Westminster, green energy and the tour of the Nuclear White Elephant, and followed a group of 5 MSPs as they tried to save energy in their homes.

In the nineties, with European funding, we set out a vision for a low-carbon, resourceefficient Scotland, in the last few years we have set out practical plans for a low-carbon energy system in the three ‘Power of Scotland’ reports.

Over two decades What on Earth has analysed and highlighted party policies in Scottish, UK and European elections and interviewed politicians.

Campaigns over the years have included air pollution, packaging, bathing water quality, the M77 and the Aberdeen Bypass, tropical timber, toxic chemicals in your home,

Looking Back

biomass burners, GM crops, unconventional gas and renewable energy, as well as our work on Cairn Energy and RBS. Our legal challenge of the M74 led to our work on community access to justice. We also helped introduce 20mph zones across Scotland and defeat the Hunterston coal-fired power station proposal, shaped Scotland’s Freedom of Information legislation and trialled energy efficiency information for house buyers – now a legal requirement.

We took over the front steps of the French Consulate to protest nuclear testing, took barrels of radioactive waste to the Australian Consulate and highlighted polluting factories from Muir of Ord to Leith docks. The Chair of our Board hung off a crane. Inflatable chainsaws, dinosaurs and white elephants all put in an appearance. People in suits sang songs and drank oil. Our own version of Borat supported trams and Bob the Builder said he could fix the Forth Road Bridge (he was right).

Penguins marched to a pipe band, and the Antarctic came to the Scottish Parliament.

The 60 issues of What on Earth show us many of the great and creative things we have done over the last two decades, including some big successes and some major frustrations. They certainly inspire use to keep on campaigning hard.

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Staff and Board

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By Per Fischer, Communications Officer

he last pieces of the Friends of the Earth Scotland restructure have finally fallen into place, and we are happy to say that we now have a refreshed and very enthusiastic staff team in place at Thorn House.

Finally, we have welcomed new campaigns intern Helle Hang, who is studying PR and Media at Queen Margaret University.

She is also a keen cyclist and has helped to organize several Reclaim the Streets events.

You have probably already heard that the name of our new director is Richard Dixon, who returns to Friends of the Earth Scotland after leading WWF Scotland for a number of years. Richard was head of research for Friends of the Earth Scotland for no less than eight years from 1994.

Sam Franklin, who despite his name is Dutch, is our new communications volunteer. Sam is also a freelance graphic designer, has a past as a Green Party city councillor in Amsterdam and is currently studying in Edinburgh.

Alice Hoeper has joined us as our new membership and office administrator.

Alice has been working in the public and charitable sector in Scotland for the last ten years.

In January we said sad goodbyes to the marvellous Vicki Bradley, membership and events fundraising manager, who left Friends of the Earth Scotland after being a steadfast member of staff for more than two decades.

John Fitzgerald has started in the role of development co-ordinator, and will be leading on grants and fundraising. He recently completed a masters in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on environmental ethics. In his spare time, John is a keen cyclist, and is a part-owner of a tandem.

We would like to thank chair of the board Matthew Crighton for his help during the last six months. In the absence of a director, Matthew has been supporting staff in the office on a daily basis, and his positive attitude has been a great help during this period of transition.

Alice Hoeper & John Fitzgerald

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Your support

By John Fitzgerald, Development Co-ordinator

ast year, a generous donor offered to match donations from our members and supporters in a ‘double your donation’ scheme. We are pleased to say that this

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e will shortly be launching an appeal for our campaign to halt fracking and unconventional gas extraction in Scotland.

Evidence from the US and Australia highlights inherent and unacceptably high environmental and health risks including methane gas escapes and water contamination. But despite these risks, the UK Government has issued permits for

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ucy van der Ham, 16, has set herself a personal challenge to raise funds for Friends of the Earth Scotland. On 3 August, Lucy and her family will be climbing a Munro called Beinn Heasgarnich, which translates as Peaceful Hill. Their route is 20.27km long with an ascent of 1635m and will take about 7 hours to complete.

Lucy says: “I have never before climbed a Munro or anything similar. I am very interested in conservation and fairness and when I found that FoES represented all of my views I knew I was going to help in any way I could and so made the decision to get involved and raise some money.”

initiative raised over £21,000 for Friends of the Earth Scotland. Thanks to everyone who donated.

energy companies to prospect for coalbed methane at a number of sites in Scotland.

With your support, we can campaign effectively to ensure that this dangerous and environmentally damaging industry is halted in Scotland.

See www.foe-scotland.org.uk/fracking for more details of this campaign.

Lucy has set up a donations page at Virgin Money Giving. This easy-to-use online service allows you to set up an online sponsorship form for Friends of the Earth Scotland. If you’re thinking of doing a sponsored challenge this year, let us know.

We’d be happy to help you. We wish Lucy and her family all the best with their challenge!

Lucy’s sponsorship page is at foes.do/lucyvanderham

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Strategy Update

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WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2013

By Dr Richard Dixon, Director

new strategy for Friends of the Earth has been circulated to local groups and interested members. Building on our history and our strengths as part of a global network, it looks at how we can be Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation.

Acknowledging that we have had some great successes, but overall the threats to our planet are greater than ever, it takes Environmental Justice and climate change as our twin themes and looks at how we will develop future campaigns, where we will raise money and how we will work over the next three years.

The plan sets new targets for the number of members and other supporters we will have in Scotland and looks at how we can help more young people take action on the environment. This plan sets the framework under which we will continue our current campaigns on community access to justice, unconventional gas, biomass and the global impact of Scottish companies, and our new work on climate jobs and air pollution.

Key elements are the commitments to work

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closely with our local groups so we can make the biggest difference across Scotland, and with our international colleagues so we can make the biggest difference on a global scale.

Annual General Meeting Come to the Annual General Meeting this year to hear more about the new strategy, and then listen to Fintan Hurley, Scientific Director, Institute of Occupational Medicine, talk about air pollution and health.

Fintan Hurley is one of Scotland's leading experts on the health impacts of air pollution and is a member of the UK Government's Committee on the Medical Aspects of Air Pollution.

Attending the AGM allows you to have your say in the way that Friends of the Earth Scotland is run. In addition to finding out more about our campaign successes and challenges over the last year, you can also submit a motion, vote on current issues and stand for election to our Board.

The AGM will be held on Saturday 1 June 2013 in the Augustine Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. All members welcome.

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Local Groups

Tayside: Big Biomass ig Biomass continues to be the main campaigning issue, with Friends of the Earth Tayside taking the lead on behalf of FoE Scotland. Despite a limit on the size of electricity-only biomass power stations in the proposed changes to the Renewables Obligation order, there are loopholes for “good quality” CHP and co-firing or

conversion of fossil fuel power stations to biomass. This still leaves the way open for Forth Energy’s inefficient “CHP” power stations proposed at Dundee, Rosyth and Grangemouth. The Government is sticking with its position and the campaign continues.

And check out the new FoE Tayside website! www.foe-tayside.org.uk

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Dumfries: Environment Day

he Dumfries group attended a local environment day in Dumfries, and talked to lots of people around the theme “warmer homes”, to both raise awareness and educate. The group is also hosting a public meeting on fracking in April.

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Stirling and Falkirk: Dart Energy battle he local groups in Stirling and Falkirk continue their hugely important work against unconventional gas developments in their areas. There’s a Falkirk Council planning hearing regarding Dart Energy’s planning

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application in the pipeline. There will be an opportunity to both object and present objections verbally at the hearing, and the preparations for that are on-going.

Glasgow: Fundraising he Glasgow group has successfully been fundraising from collecting cans in shops, and a street collection. All the donations were eligible for the “Double Your Donation” drive last year.

They organised a very interesting talk from Professor Mitchell on the importance of green spaces to health and wellbeing, and several people have given short talks before the group’s meetings.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you live in an area with an active local group, please consider coming along to a meeting.

If your local group is dormant or non-existent, why not get a group up and running where you live. www.foe-scotland.org.uk/localgroups

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The Interview

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JUNIPER IS THE FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH ENGLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND. ONY

Q. Can you give us an overview of the book?

There is a massive gap in how economics looks at nature and that’s really the reason for the book and what’s in it is a series of stories that hopefully carry the research findings on the immense value of nature to a much bigger audience than is evidently happening through publication in scientific journals. It’s an attempt to reach out and to flip the narrative around economics and ecology so that we can have more rational debate around the choices that we are making.

Q. Traditionally environmentalists have said that nature should be valued for itself rather in economic terms.

I agree with environmentalists who say nature is valuable for its own reasons and should be protected for its own sake. What I’m saying is that this is not an alternative argument as to why we should invest more in protecting natural systems it is an additional argument and I think that to that extent it is a question of playing these two things alongside each other.

When entering that discussion around economics I think it is really important to make a distinction between valuation and pricing because once you have established the value of a wetland or a woodland or a coastland system or a particular aspect of

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WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2013

biodiversity you don’t necessarily have to create some price mechanism for it, you can legislate and say that it is so valuable that we are going to ban particular activities. So, for example, the value of bees in Britain right now is immense in terms of the pollination services that they discharge and we are beginning to understand the impact of certain pesticides. One response would be to ban these pesticides and that’s a rational decision based upon the economic value of nature that doesn’t require a price being put on that particular pollination service.

There are occasions actually when prices might be sensible. One of the examples in the book I talk about is the services being provided by wetlands and pastures and forests near New York city in purifying the water supply and in that case payments for eco-system services are being allocated to landowners in order to keep the service intact. So even when you get into pricing it can be very positive not only from the point of view of protecting nature but also from the point of view of managing the costs that people need to pay in that case the water supply.

Q. If putting a value on nature really starts working, how do we ensure indigenous people and local communities do not lose out?

This is about civil society participation in the kinds of policies which finish up being crafted and implemented. One positive example has been the case of Guyana where there has been negotiations between the government of

WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2013

that country and the government of Norway in a very significant payment for ecosystem service deal, mainly because of the carbon services they are providing to the whole world.

Obviously there are dangers there for indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities but they have been involved in negotiations that have led to a national low carbon development plan and they will be getting very significant benefits from this in terms of, for example, renewable energy, access to the internet and demarcation of indigenous land, being paid for through the Norwegian money.

There are questions of technical expertise and capacity building to be able to negotiate effectively in these kinds of discussions, but

The Interview

there is a role there for civil society that is clued into some of the dangers and so international groups working on these kinds of issues can be helping these communities to get the best possible deal.

Q. What’s next for this work?

My great ambition for the book is that in a few years’ time it will be impossible for politicians and policy makers, and indeed seniors figures in major companies, to be saying that nature is something that can be sacrificed to deliver economic growth, that there is this choice between development on the one hand and ecology on the other.

An fuller version of this interview is on our website at foes.do/tony_juniper_interview

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Reviews

WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2013

WH ALLEN, 2013, 558PP HARDBACK, £25

By John Fitzgerald

Al Gore’s latest book is a self-consciously ‘big picture’ response to the question: "what are the drivers of global change?” In his early chapters, Gore strays into slightly overwrought futurism as he breathlessly analyses thousands of years of market forces and technology as drivers of change.

Gore’s policy proposals on climate solutions are sensible and familiar: an effective carbon tax, removing subsidies for fossil fuels and supporting the growth of renewable energy.

On the other hand Gore dismisses geoengineering proposals (such as modifying the atmosphere) as “wack-a-doodle”.

Gore’s wider conclusion is more controversial. He believes that the internet (which he labels ‘the Global Mind’) could function as a global conscience and an elevated public sphere where we can conduct reasoned debates on how to save the planet.

One wonders whether Gore has spent much time browsing internet forums.

It was heartening to read a high-profile American politician making the right calls on climate change and fossil fuels. We can only hope that the harder-edged, more urgent parts of Gore’s message can make it through the fog of futurism.

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POSITIVE MONEY, 2013, £14.99

By Paul Daly

Modernising Money has a ‘no prior knowledge’ foundation, which eases the reader into the complexities of our banking system. The harsh realities within the covers do make for a shocking read. Learning how and why our monetary system is structured and the way it has evolved highlights why we are in such a financial pickle. The book goes on to reflect on how changing this system can have an impact on different areas, specifically including the social and environmental implications.

Noting that we are in both financial and environmental crisis at the same time will come as no surprise to most. Modernising Money highlights ways out of our spiral that will ensure safeguards and even benefits for the environment whilst moving away from the destructive boom and bust cycles.

We have been campaigning for reform in RBS – Modernising Money highlights that it is also a restructure of the overall banking system that is required. We need banks that work for us, not for shareholders. We need banks that work for the long-term global view, not just at the financial year.

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