tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/environmentalist-54787/articlesenvironmentalist – The Conversation2024-01-31T13:36:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096502024-01-31T13:36:11Z2024-01-31T13:36:11ZMore than a year after the death of an environmental activist, questions remain on the dangerousness of the Stop Cop City movement near Atlanta<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557576/original/file-20231104-15-nnpdt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=872%2C136%2C4832%2C3532&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A makeshift memorial in the South River Forest for environmental activist Manuel Terán. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/makeshift-memorial-for-environmental-activist-manuel-teran-news-photo/1246854231?adppopup=true">Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Manuel Terán was one of a few dozen environmentalist activists who joined a protest nearly three years ago against the clearing of about 300 acres of woodlands near Atlanta to construct a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/protests-against-atlantas-cop-city-continue-despite-crackdown-demonstrations">proposed police and firefighter training center</a> that critics fear would lead to greater “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/us/cop-city-atlanta-police-training.html">police militirization</a>.” </p>
<p>Since 2021, some of the activists that include civil rights advocates and Indigenous tribes have called themselves “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/atlanta-protests-cop-city-georgia-state-of-emergency-forest-defenders/">forest defenders</a>” and rallied under the mantra of “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-new-fight-over-an-old-forest-in-atlanta">Stop Cop City</a>” to block construction workers by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/26/tree-sitters-appalachian-oil-pipeline-virginia-west">sitting in trees</a> and, in some cases, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fire-breaks-out-atlanta-police-training-center-after-protest-media-2023-03-06/">setting fires</a> and damaging construction vehicles.</p>
<p>Local police have responded in force with batons and riot shields to subdue demonstrators who <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/11/15/cop-city-protest-police-atlanta-tear-gas/#:%7E:text=By%209%20a.m.%2C%20over%20400,a%20vast%20police%20training%20facility%2C">on one march</a> in November 2023 were armed with tree saplings that they wanted to plant in cleared sections of the South River Forest. </p>
<p>But those protests turned deadly on Jan. 18, 2023, when <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cop-city-protestor-manuel-paez-teran-was-shot-least-57-autopsy-reveals-rcna80624">Terán was shot and killed</a> during a police raid at one of the makeshift camps set up by activists.</p>
<p>Local police claim Terán fired the first shot. But some <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-03-15/stop-cop-city-forest-camp-atlanta">activists dispute</a> the official version and argue that Terán was surrendering when he was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65340456">shot 57 times</a> by six different police officers. </p>
<p>Either way, one thing is indisputable: Terán was the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/20/manuel-paez-teran-autopsy-cop-city">first environmental activist</a> to be <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/environmental-protests-long-history-us-police-never-killed-activist-no-rcna68255">killed by police</a> in U.S. history.</p>
<p>A little more than a year later, his death has brought renewed questions about the dangerousness of environmental extremism.</p>
<h2>The threat of ecoterrorism</h2>
<p>Since Terán’s death, multiple waves of raids by police have largely cleared the area of protesters. </p>
<p>More than 40 Stop Cop City movement protesters face <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/atlanta-police-arrest-3-organizers-behind-bail-fund-supporting-protests-against-cop-city">domestic terrorism charges</a> and another <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/dozens-indicted-on-georgia-racketeering-charges-related-to-stop-cop-city-movement-appear-in-court">61 protesters</a> face Georgia <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/stop-city-indictment-rico-atlanta-b2405393.html">racketeering charges</a> for actions related to their involvement in the movement. </p>
<p>Those criminal actions, exceptions to the majority of nonviolent demonstrations organized by environmental activists, included damaging buildings, setting fires to police cars, and vandalism.</p>
<p>Although the radical environmental movement did not emerge in the U.S. until the 1970s, it has been considered by the FBI to be a <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/fbi-dhs-domestic-terrorism-strategic-report.pdf/view">domestic terrorist threat</a> since the 1990s.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors carrying large posters are marching through smoke and underneath a neon Coke sign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557577/original/file-20231104-29-f2tfza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators protest the death of environmental activist Manuel Terán on Jan. 21, 2023 in Atlanta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-protest-the-death-of-environmental-activist-news-photo/1246436202?adppopup=true">Elijah Nouvelage for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two, often overlapping, schools of thought formed the cornerstones of the radical environmental movement. Championed by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/deep-ecology">Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess</a>, the first is known as deep ecology and holds that everything in nature is of equal value. The second, championed by <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/peter-singer-interview">philosopher Peter Singer</a>, holds that animals have inherent value and deserve moral equality on par with humans.</p>
<p>Some radical environmentalists believe that because nature and animals have equal value to humans, they are justified in destroying property to protect nature and wilderness from human-made harm. But as a whole, environmental activists, like American writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Abbey">Edward Abbey</a>, do not support violence as a tactic and instead prefer peaceful acts of civil disobedience. </p>
<p>As defined by the FBI, <a href="https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/the-threat-of-eco-terrorism">ecoterrorism</a> is “the use or threatened use of violence” against innocent victims or property for environmental and political reasons. </p>
<p>In May 2004, for instance, <a href="https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism">John E. Lewis</a>, the FBI deputy assistant director, testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that radical environmentalists, such as the <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/animal-liberation-front">Animal Liberation Front</a> and <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/publication/st-frg-overview-bombing-and-arson-attacks-environmental-and-animal-rights-extremists">Earth Liberation Front</a>, were among the “most serious domestic terrorism threats.” </p>
<p>Lewis estimated that since 1976 both groups and other splinter organizations were responsible for committing more than 1,100 criminal acts in the U.S., which resulted in about US$110 million in damages.</p>
<p>However, our research has consistently shown that the majority of crimes committed by radical environmentalists were aimed at property rather than people and are not as dangerous as they once were in the 1990s.</p>
<p>Of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2011.639416">1,069 criminal incidents</a> between 1970 and 2007 that were motivated to protest the destruction of the environment, the mistreatment of animals, or both, nearly 72% of such crimes targeted businesses, such as food retailers, restaurants and fur or leather processors. Though the attacks could have hurt people or endangered their livelihoods, only 7% were aimed at politicians and business people.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/z4b32">August 2023 assessment</a> of the 896 criminal incidents committed between 1995 and 2022 by members of a radical environmental group indicated that the most common tactic used was smashing windows. According to the assessment, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/z4b32">78% of these incidents</a> did not involve a weapon. But of the 22% that did, the weapon of choice appeared to be some sort of incendiary device, the assessment showed.</p>
<p>But the actions of radical environmentalists and motivation to protect the environment and animals from harm are not without victims, as damages to property may mean a business is forced to close or lay off some of its workers. Our research has shown that their actions in the time period between 1970 and 2007 resulted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2011.639416">an estimated $194 million</a> in damages to businesses and government property. </p>
<h2>Effectiveness of criminal justice policies</h2>
<p>For the most part, today’s radical environmental movement has moved away from tactics using property destruction and threats of sabotage and is now characterized by forms of civil resistance, such as <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/kiro-7-looks-history-tree-sitting-protest/81984813/">tree-sitting</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/23892818/climate-change-activism-radical-protest-civil-disobedience">blockading roads</a>. </p>
<p>Although a number of factors, such as burnout and post-9/11 security measures, are cited by criminologists as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/magazine/earth-liberation-front-joseph-mahmoud-dibee.html">reasons for the changes in tactics</a>, government actions have been one important factor. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_EffectivenessofLECountermeasuresOperationBackfire_Sept2012.pdf">Operation Backfire</a>, a 2004 police crackdown in Portland, Oregon, was credited for the disbandment of “the Family,” a group of environmental extremists that included members of the <a href="https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism">Animal Liberation Front</a> and the <a href="https://www.counterextremism.com/supremacy/earth-liberation-front">Earth Liberation Front</a> that were active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. </p>
<p>In their assessment, criminologists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9367-4">Sue-Ming Yang and I-Chin Jen</a> determined that Operation Backfire was successful because the numbers of crimes committed in the name of the group <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9367-4">were reduced</a> as the FBI arrested members of the group under federal anti-terrorism laws. </p>
<p>The crackdown ultimately resulted in the arrest of more than a dozen people on charges ranging from arson and possession of a destructive device to destruction of an energy facility.</p>
<p>In addition, research further <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-013-9211-4">shows</a> that enforcement of federal legislation targeting specific acts, such as the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-109publ374/html/PLAW-109publ374.htm">Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act</a>, also helped <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/detailed-discussion-state-animal-terrorismanimal-enterprise-interference-laws">decrease the number</a> of criminal attacks against animal research facilities, processing plants and other agricultural operations. </p>
<p>But not all government actions have been good. In 2016, for instance, peaceful protests against the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/22/514988040/key-moments-in-the-dakota-access-pipeline-fight">Dakota Access pipeline</a> were confronted by North Dakota law enforcement officers who used water cannons and tear gas to stop unarmed activists. More than <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/21/dakota-access-pipeline-water-cannon-police-standing-rock-protest">300 people were injured</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-013-9211-4">Research suggests</a> that targeted law enforcement policies and the general threat of imprisonment <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00224278231152439">are effective</a> at deterring criminal acts committed by extremist environmentalists. </p>
<p>But whether those law enforcement efforts can deter the self-proclaimed forest defenders from continuing their nearly three-year demonstration at the South River Forest remains an open question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael K. Logan receives funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism, Innovation and Technology Center. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Varriale Carson receives funding from the National Institute of Justice.</span></em></p>The death of a protester in 2023 at the site of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center has brought renewed attention to radical environmentalism in the United States.Michael K. Logan, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Kennesaw State UniversityJennifer Carson, Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Central MissouriLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1721912021-12-16T12:06:54Z2021-12-16T12:06:54ZHere’s why we need climate protests: even if some think they’re annoying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436949/original/file-20211210-188518-70utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3489%2C2326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protestors march in Glasgow during the UN climate conference COP26.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theleft_eu/51658441637">TheLeft_EU/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last few years have seen a surge in climate protests. From <a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/10/24/legacy-of-gezi-protests-in-turkey-pub-80142">Turkey</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/10/20/737787659/activists-occupy-an-ancient-forest-in-germany-to-save-it">Germany</a> to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/north-dakota-access-oil-pipeline-protests-explainer">US</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/australia/surfers-drilling-bight.html">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/542052316/hundreds-protest-against-total-across-africa">countries across Africa</a>, local activists have fought corporate actions that threaten to destroy precious green space and accelerate global warming. </p>
<p>Consider the <a href="https://www.glasgowworld.com/news/people/cop26-global-day-of-action-protest-march-in-pictures-3447961">protest march</a> that took place in Glasgow on 6 November 2021, during the UN climate conference COP26. As a huge range of different groups marched together to demand action on global warming, they waved banners drawing attention to issues such as greenwashing, housing crises and trade unions.</p>
<p>Through taking part in this march, <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/5125">protesters</a> may have begun to see themselves as belonging to a wider, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368430220936759#">shared identity</a> – one that specifically stood in opposition to climate destruction. This identity was reinforced by songs and chants, such as the words “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYS9sNlj1bQ&ab_channel=clarissal">power to the people</a> because the people have the power”, that rippled out across groups along the march route.</p>
<p>This inclusive identity, based on fighting inequality, could also be seen in the solidarity between climate protesters at COP26 and <a href="https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19690670.extinction-rebellion-stand-glasgow-binmen-third-day-cop26-strikes/">binmen</a> striking for better pay.</p>
<h2>Long-term benefits</h2>
<p>People who reduce their plastic use, use low-carbon transport like bicycles and eat a plant-based diet are often called “environmentalists” as a result of their behaviour. Interestingly, this relationship could also run in reverse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People at a climate protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests can help people develop valuable social skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TAG_Climate_Protest_Future.jpg">Thomas Good/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perceiving yourself as part of the “environmentalist” <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-98657-000">social category</a> – by identifying the environmentally friendly beliefs you share with that group – could help drive sustainable behaviour, crucial in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>However, for these behaviours to really have any influence, our research suggests they need to <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjso.12270">endure over time</a>. For that to happen, it’s important to have the opportunity to express your new shared identity in different social contexts. </p>
<p>This can be achieved by forming relationships with others who consider themselves part of an environmental community, increasing the prominence of environmental issues in your life and therefore the chance that your sustainable behaviour will continue behind closed doors.</p>
<p>Based on ours and others’ research on psychological change and collective action, it seems that what benefits protesters also benefits society. When protesters encourage reducing consumption and becoming more climate-conscious, we all – along with the environment – <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/5125">profit</a> from it.</p>
<h2>Taking action</h2>
<p>Some have suggested that protests can <a href="https://www.independent.ie/news/environment/greta-made-me-cry-but-climate-change-protests-risk-alienating-public-mary-robinson-38618785.html">alienate people</a> through, for example, actions which disrupt daily life (creating traffic jams receives particular criticism). And politicians have called protests <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband-blasts-counterproductive-insulate-25207626">counterproductive</a>, while emphasising that “real work” on climate happens within conferences and boardrooms. </p>
<p>But we’d argue that protests are an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023120925949">effective tool</a>, even when they’re disruptive. Seeing others take action increases our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328716301422?via%3Dihub">hope for the future</a> as well as offering an opportunity for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12786">vicarious empowerment</a> – motivating people in other places to take similar action, even when they haven’t physically participated in the original protests.</p>
<p>By seeing protests, directly or through media, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00004/full">bystanders</a> can come to identify with protesters, possibly increasing their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421001006?via%3Dihub">belief</a> in their own power to cause social change. </p>
<p>This can create a positive feedback loop. Researchers have found that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/socf.12422">emissions decrease</a> in US states with large numbers of environmental protests. Polling from <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/09/concern-environment-reaches-record-high-yougov-top">YouGov</a> also reported a significant rise in the number of British people concerned about climate following Extinction Rebellion’s early 2019 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/07/extinction-rebellion-protesters-block-road-outside-downing-street">protests</a> in London.</p>
<p>Protests can also help achieve <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/128/4/1633/1849540">policy change</a> if the policy being protested is already under public discussion – and if protesters have <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/article-abstract/12/1/53/82105/Useless-Protest-A-Time-Series-Analysis-of-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext">support from politicians</a>. And in countries where politicians are elected based on public opinion, protests that increase environmental awareness can <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/wcc.683">encourage change</a> through altering people’s voting habits. </p>
<p>For example, it’s likely that climate <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58681515">protests</a> across Germany helped in part to double the number of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germany-global-warming-changing-just-climate-s-changing-politics-rcna3571">voters</a> for the climate-conscious <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20210922-from-radical-to-mainstream-a-closer-look-at-germany-s-greens">Green Party</a> from 2017 to 2021. </p>
<p>Protests have even managed to change court decisions. Forest occupations in <a href="https://svenskbotanik.se/hur-ojnareskogen-raddades-och-bastetrask-blir-nationalpark/">Sweden</a> and <a href="https://energytransition.org/2018/10/in-a-win-for-the-environment-hambach-forest-stands-for-now/">Germany</a> resulted in courts saving the forests from destruction (for now). The value of protests should not be disregarded: they could have a larger effect than events behind closed doors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Finnerty is affiliated with Extinction Rebellion - XR Scientists. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Vestergren and Yasemin Gülsüm Acar do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joining a protest doesn’t just help attract others to supporting important causes - it comes with personal and psychological benefits too.Sara Vestergren, Lecturer in Psychology, Keele UniversitySamuel Finnerty, PhD Student in Social Psychology, Lancaster UniversityYasemin Gülsüm Acar, Lecturer in Psychology, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1240932019-10-18T02:02:38Z2019-10-18T02:02:38ZPenny Whetton: A pioneering climate scientist skilled in the art of life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297023/original/file-20191015-98661-10rim2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Penny Whetton, right, addressing a March for Science rally. Her death last month shocked and saddened colleagues.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by family</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month we lost <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/penny-whetton-2595">Dr Penny Whetton </a>- one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate environmentalist, artist, photographer and champion of the transgender community.</p>
<p>Penny was at the forefront of climate change projection science for more than three decades. She played a key role in putting CSIRO, and Australia, on the map as a world-leading centre for climate change research. Her groundbreaking scientific work was among the first to raise awareness of the challenges of a warming world, laying the groundwork for possible solutions.</p>
<p>Penny was a strong believer in the power of each person to make a difference, at work and elsewhere. Her professional career is a great example. She also encouraged those around her to seek out challenges that could benefit the world. That creative energy continues to flow through everybody who was close to her. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297025/original/file-20191015-98640-vnb73z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Penny Whetton at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. She was known as a passionate environmentalist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by family</span></span>
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<h2>A global climate science pioneer</h2>
<p>Penny’s work focused on understanding the emergent threat of a changing climate on Australia and the region. She authored papers and reports that have become fundamental to our understanding of how climate change would affect us.</p>
<p>Penny was recruited to the CSIRO’s new climate impacts group in 1990, after completing a doctorate at the University of Melbourne. She rapidly established a reputation for high quality science and innovative thinking.</p>
<p>Penny was a senior leader for much of her career and managed many large collaborative projects with colleagues in CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. After retiring in 2014, Penny became an honorary research fellow at CSIRO and the University of Melbourne, where she continued to be involved in climate research, advisory panels and consulting work.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-projections-show-australia-is-heading-for-a-much-warmer-future-36776">Climate projections show Australia is heading for a much warmer future</a>
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<p>Over her 25 years at CSIRO, Penny drove innovation in making climate projections useful to decision makers. Her clear grasp of the science and its impact led to novel ways of communicating many complicated concepts.</p>
<p>One of Penny’s many great ideas was to combine historic climate observations with future projections in a single timeline of data - creating a seamless path from past to future. This visualisation method is now a standard part of the climate projections toolkit.</p>
<p>Penny led the development of national climate change projections for Australia in 1992, 1996, 2001, <a href="http://ccia2007.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/">2007</a> and <a href="https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/">2015</a>. The 2015 projections remain the most comprehensive ever developed for Australia. They are widely used by the private sector, governments and NGOs and were one of Penny’s proudest achievements. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296841/original/file-20191014-135501-v97glj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This style of representing the climate as a seamless path from past to future was one of Penny’s many great ideas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/future-climate.shtml">State of the Climate 2018</a></span>
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<p>Penny’s science was renowned internationally as well as at home. She spoke at dozens of international conferences, and workshops and journalists sought her out regularly for interviews.</p>
<p>She was a lead author for <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/">three climate change assessments</a> by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on the subject. Penny’s work was recognised many times, including with a Eureka Prize in 2003 and internationally as part of the IPCC team that won the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2007/summary/">Nobel Peace Prize in 2007</a>.</p>
<p>More recently, Penny provided scientific assurance on the external advisory board for the <a href="https://www.eucp-project.eu/">European Climate Prediction</a> system, a project strongly influenced by methods and thinking developed under her leadership in climate projections for Australia.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297030/original/file-20191015-98653-60bjt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Penny Whetton taking part in a panel discussion at a CSIRO open day in Melbourne. Supplied by David Karoly.</span>
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<h2>Generous collaborator and mentor</h2>
<p>Penny was instrumental in forging links between researchers in CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and universities. This led to several collaborative, high-impact reports on climate change projections.</p>
<p>Penny was generous with her time and guidance - committed to developing the next generation of climate change specialists. Always with a smile on her face, she combined a great intellect and strongly held opinions with a receptiveness to the ideas of others.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-art-put-us-in-touch-with-our-feelings-about-climate-change-77084">Can art put us in touch with our feelings about climate change?</a>
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<p>Many of us writing this were mentored by Penny at various stages in our academic careers. Anyone who’s studied for a Masters or PhD knows meetings with academic supervisors can be stressful. But meetings with Penny were quite the opposite - she was friendly, but academically rigorous. Collectively we owe her an immense debt of gratitude. </p>
<p>Penny’s diverse knowledge and skills – including geology, geography, meteorology, climate, history, carpentry, painting and photography – gave her unique perspectives to draw on when <a href="http://theconversation.com/warmer-wetter-hotter-drier-how-to-choose-between-climate-futures-39561">tackling the wicked problems</a> posed by climate change.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297026/original/file-20191015-98640-1b6wllj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A painting completed by Penny Whetton in March 2018 titled ‘Liffey River downstream from the falls’. Acrylic on canvas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by family</span></span>
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<h2>Penny made our lives richer</h2>
<p>Penny was a real friend to many. Students became colleagues, colleagues became friends, and all of us were invited to be part of her life in a diverse extended family. We were pleased to support Penny in her own <a href="https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/HealthyLiving/Transgender-and-transsexuality">gender affirmation</a>, and for many LGBTIQA+ scientists, Penny was both role model and supportive friend.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-projections-right-predicting-future-climate-1936">Getting projections right: predicting future climate</a>
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<p>Penny had a wonderful knack for making inclusive conversation, whether at work or over dinner. Her contributions were insightful and grounded in truth, very often tinged with humour, and always kind and understanding.</p>
<p>We all assumed there would always be another dinner, and another opportunity to enjoy her company and be fascinated by her conversation. Sadly, and shockingly, this possibility has been taken from us.</p>
<p>Penny made our lives richer, more interesting and more human. Her absence leaves a massive hole in our community and our lives. </p>
<p><strong>Penny Whetton is survived by her wife Janet and adult children John and Leon.</strong></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296989/original/file-20191014-135495-3dtirx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Vale Dr Penny Whetton, 1958-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by authors</span></span>
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<p><em>The following people contributed significantly to this article:</em></p>
<p><em>Aurel Moise (Bureau of Meteorology), Barrie Pittock (retired), Chris Gerbing (CSIRO), Craig Heady (CSIRO), David Karoly (CSIRO), Debbie Abbs (retired), Dewi Kirono (CSIRO), Diana Pittock (retired), Helen Cleugh (CSIRO), Ian Macadam (University of New South Wales Sydney), Ian Watterson (CSIRO), Jim Salinger (University of Florence, Italy), Jonas Bhend (MeteoSwiss, Switzerland), Karl Braganza (Bureau of Meteorology), Kathy McInnes (CSIRO), Kevin Hennessy (CSIRO), Leanne Webb (CSIRO), Louise Wilson (Bureau of Meteorology), Mandy Hopkins (CSIRO), Marie Ekström (Cardiff University, UK), Michael Grose (CSIRO), Rob Colman (Bureau of Meteorology) and Scott Power (Bureau of Meteorology).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M Clarke receives funding from the Commonwealth and State governments. They are affiliated with CSIRO, which sponsors The Conversation. </span></em></p>Penny Whetton made the lives of those around her richer, more interesting and more human. Her death leaves a massive void.John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1203522019-08-05T15:00:57Z2019-08-05T15:00:57ZMore than 1,700 activists have been killed this century defending the environment<p>According to records compiled by the campaign group <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org">Global Witness</a>, 1,738 people described as environmental defenders were killed between 2002 and 2018, across 50 countries.</p>
<p>Their <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/enemies-state/">latest report for 2018</a>, released last week, identified 164 killings </p>
<p>Although the figure is slightly down on that for 2017, the group says the number of reported deaths has been increasing over time with about three people killed each week on average.</p>
<p><iframe id="JceiM" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JceiM/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Yet the <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/deadly-environment/">campaign group says</a> only about 10% of these killings from 2002-2013 resulted in a conviction, compared with about 43% on average for <a href="https://www.oas.org/ext/en/security/crime-prevention-network/Resources/Digital-Library/global-study-on-homicide-2013-trends-contexts-data">global homicide convictions</a> in 2013.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/koala-detecting-dogs-sniff-out-flaws-in-australias-threatened-species-protection-121118">Koala-detecting dogs sniff out flaws in Australia's threatened species protection</a>
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<p>In a study of the group’s data from 2002-2017, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0349-4" title="The supply chain of violence">published today in Nature Sustainability</a>, we found many of the deaths related to conflict over natural resources, including fossil fuels, timber and water. All but three of the countries where deaths were recorded are classed as highly corrupt, according to their <a href="https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018">Corruption Perceptions Index</a> score.</p>
<h2>What’s an environmental defender?</h2>
<p>The term environmental defenders can include anyone involved in protecting land, forests, water and other natural resources. </p>
<p>Environmental defenders can be community activists, Indigenous peoples, lawyers, journalists or non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff. They are defined not by job title or political identity, but by their struggles to protect the environment or land rights. Many are part of collective struggles: they do not act alone.</p>
<p>One of the most well-known murdered defenders is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chico-Mendes">Chico Mendes</a>, a Brazilian rubber tapper, union leader and environmentalist. He was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/brazil-salutes-chico-mendes-25-years-after-murder">killed in 1988</a> for his work protecting the Amazon and advocating for the rights of local people.</p>
<p>More recently, in another corner of the Brazilian Amazon, José Claudio Ribeiro and Maria do Espirito Santo were <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/23/world/americas/vice-toxic-amazon/index.html">killed in 2011</a> for <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jmvdqd/its-been-a-year-since-they-killed-ze-claudio-and-maria">defending their forests against illegal loggers</a>.</p>
<p>In Cambodia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/21/cambodia-bans-film-about-murdered-rainforest-activist-chut-wutty">Chut Wutty</a>, director of the Natural Resource Protection Group and a critic of military and government corruption in illegal logging, was shot and killed in 2012.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/29/berta-caceres-seven-men-convicted-conspiracy-murder-honduras">Berta Cáceres</a> was murdered in 2016 for her fight against a dam that encroached on the water and land rights of the Lenca people of Honduras. Her death led to international movements calling for justice. </p>
<p>While some of the killings have sparked international outcry, others led to much more localised repercussions. Still others remain unreported and are not accounted for in the Global Witness database. </p>
<h2>A conflict of interest</h2>
<p>Conflicts over natural resources are often the underlying cause of the violence against environmental defenders. They are linked to different resources and sectors, such as fossil fuels, minerals, agriculture, aquaculture, timber and to the land or water from where these resources can be extracted. </p>
<p>We can see these conflicts as the continuation of historical colonial land use and appropriation. Today, the environmental footprint arising from the resource consumption of high-income countries is effectively outsourced to less wealthy nations and regions.</p>
<p>This is where <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/112/20/6271" title="The material footprint of nations">raw materials are sourced in a country</a> separate to where the resulting product or service is consumed.</p>
<p>Resource extraction is often carried out by companies or groups without legitimate rights to that resource. Examples include <a href="https://www.illegal-logging.info/topics/community-forestry">illegal logging in community forests</a>. There is also the consumption of water from rivers that traditionally supplied villages or towns, for example, <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-01-04/la-paz-short-water-bolivia-s-suffers-its-worst-drought-25-years">foreign mining companies in Bolivia</a>. </p>
<p>While some of these natural resource drivers are local or national, in many cases it is <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3164142" title="Environmental Pollution and Human Rights Violations by Multinational Corporations">multinational companies</a> that are directly outsourcing their resource needs that play a role in violence against environmental defenders.</p>
<p>But who is actually doing the killing?</p>
<p>Violence against defenders may be carried out by those representing their own interests, such as <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/perus-deadly-environment/">illegal loggers</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/28/amazon-gold-miners-invade-indigenous-village-brazil-leader-killed">miners</a>, or on behalf of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/31/cambodian-forest-defenders-killed-after-confronting-illegal-loggers">government interests</a>.</p>
<p>In one case, it’s <a href="https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/brazil-two-years-pau-darco-massacre-still-no-justice">alleged</a> it was police in Pau D’Arco, Brazil who <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/brazil-pau-darco-massacre-is-the-second-largest-slaughter-for-land-conflicts-in-the-last-20-years-it-involves-peasants-santa-l%C3%BAcia-farm-private-security-companies-public-agencies">killed ten land defenders in May 2017</a>, and in Chut Wutty’s case it’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/26/cambodia-police-shoot-dead-antilogging-activist">alleged</a> it was the military police who carried out the killing.</p>
<p>In our study we found weak rule of law and corruption in a country is closely correlated with environmental defender deaths. </p>
<p>We also found that indigenous people represent a disproportionate percentage of the defenders who are killed. About 40% of deaths recorded in 2015 and 2016, and about 30% in 2017, were indigenous people.</p>
<p>Indigenous people manage or have tenure over about a quarter of the world’s surface (<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0100-6">about 38 million square kilometres</a>. Conflict over natural resources is often related to a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24694452.2018.1530586">lack of recognition or acknowledgement of these rights</a>.</p>
<p>A well-known recent example in the United States,<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/22/standing-rock-jailed-activists-water-protectors">Standing Rock</a> involved resistance of the Sioux tribe, and allies, to the North Dakota Access Pipe Line. The aggressive response of the authorities, lead to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/29/standing-rock-protest-north-dakota-shutdown-evacuation">hospitalisation of many demonstrators</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-native-grasslands-and-why-do-they-matter-121181">What are native grasslands, and why do they matter?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We believe companies that profit from natural resources extracted under conditions that disregard the rights of environmental defenders are complicit in driving violence through their supply chains. They have a responsibility to act ethically.</p>
<p>There is an urgent need for a global perspective on natural resource conflicts. What is currently happening, in terms of the displacement of environmental and social damage, is a result of globalisation, and is increasing with trade and consumption.</p>
<p>The voices of those trying to defend the environment are being silenced. Low conviction rates show few people are being held accountable for these killings. This cycle of violence and impunity affects entire communities, creating a climate of fear. Despite their fear, many continue to fight for social and environmental justice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Menton receives funding from the British Academy for research on how environmental defenders experience atmospheres of violence. She is affiliated with Not 1 More, a not-for-profit that supports at risk environmental defenders. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalie Butt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reported number of deaths of people campaigning to protect the environment has tripled over a 15 year period.Nathalie Butt, Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of QueenslandMary Menton, Research Fellow in Environmental Justice, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004382018-10-25T10:47:47Z2018-10-25T10:47:47ZCollaboration, not fighting, is what the rural West is really about<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241547/original/file-20181021-105767-1wnv6i4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harney County, Ore., sign.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/2580127305/">Wikimedia/Ken Lund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dick Jenkins is a fourth-generation rancher living in Oregon’s most remote county. I wanted to know why he continues living in a rural community, even though life elsewhere might be easier.</p>
<p>“Taking care of [the land] is worth more than all the money in the world,” he told me. “Taking care of the animals, taking care of the environment, it all goes together and we’re very proud of it.”</p>
<p>While Dick’s answer was more evocative than I could’ve hoped for, I can’t say I was surprised by it. </p>
<p><a href="https://history.uoregon.edu/profile/sbeda/">I’m a historian who studies the rural Northwest</a>, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time talking with loggers, miners, fisherman and ranchers like Dick. </p>
<p>Each one of them, in their own way, articulates a similar sentiment: Whatever hardships contemporary rural life may pose – and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-america-is-the-new-inner-city-1495817008">there are many</a> – it’s their love of the land and desire to protect it that keeps them put.</p>
<p>This is not a description of rural life you typically hear.</p>
<p>Many stories about rural America, particularly during election cycles like we’re in now, portray rural communities as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/magazine/fear-of-the-federal-government-in-the-ranchlands-of-oregon.html">political monoliths</a> made up of nothing more than <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/1/5/10718128/federal-land-west-oregon-militia">angry ranchers</a> frustrated with the Bureau of Land Management, what’s commonly called “the BLM.” Or you see camouflage-clad <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/politics-anti-government-groups-in-the-west-right-now">militia members</a> hoping to overthrow the government.</p>
<p>These people do exist in rural communities. The <a href="https://www.politicalresearch.org/2016/10/03/oregon-three-percenters/">Three Percenters</a>, a heavily-armed militia whose members advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government, has a sizable presence in Harney County, the same county Dick lives in. </p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/08/sheriff_glenn_palmer_makes_his.html">sheriff of Grant County</a>, just to the north, is a self-described “constitutional sheriff” who believes his power supersedes the federal government’s.</p>
<p>But for every AR-15 wielding militia member or rancher angrily shaking his fist at the BLM, there’s likely a dozen like Dick who want to find peaceful ways to protect their interests and the environment. </p>
<h2>Rebellion vs. collaboration</h2>
<p>The tone in recent news coverage of rural issues was largely set in the late 1970s, when ranchers started protesting new BLM limits on grazing in what became known as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1979/11/11/the-sagebrush-revolution/7ebf91e7-cbed-4bae-80c9-9a0cce5fe5d7/?utm_term=.c9c6ed3f7927">“Sagebrush Rebellion.”</a> These protests were sometimes <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/hcn-media/archive-pdf/1988_09_12_Wheeler.pdf">dramatic</a>, like when ranchers bulldozed road barriers that had been erected to limit access to wilderness areas. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242122/original/file-20181024-71032-fmx12l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sagebrush Rebellion made the cover of Newsweek in 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://uni.edu/carrchl/wp/cv/the-sagebrush-rebellion/">Newsweek</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the origins of many present-day rural extremist movements can be traced back to frustrations with BLM policy in the 1970s, the Sagebrush Rebellion spawned another less talked-about movement: collaborative land management.</p>
<p>Many people recognized that fighting over wilderness, grazing rights, timber harvests and endangered species protections was getting them nowhere. </p>
<p>So in the 1990s, rural workers sat down with environmentalists, government agents and tribal representatives, and together they worked out agreements that would protect the land, preserve tribal resource rights and allow for continued grazing, mining and logging. </p>
<p>Rarely were these conversations easy. </p>
<p>One early collaborative effort, Northern California’s <a href="http://www.qlg.org/">Quincy Library Group</a>, was so named because members met in a setting that would force them to keep their voices – and tempers – in check.</p>
<p>But these difficult conversations bore results. </p>
<p>To name just two examples, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/get-involved/partnerships/featured-partners/idaho">ranchers and environmentalists in Idaho</a> have collectively used conservation funds to preserve agriculture and critical habitat along the Snake River. And in Dick Jenkins’ Harney County, ranchers, BLM agents, environmentalists and members of the Burns Paiute Tribe work together through the <a href="http://highdesertpartnership.org/">High Desert Partnership</a> to collectively manage the land.</p>
<p>As several scholars have <a href="http://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/sagebrush-collaboration">documented</a>, these collaborative partnerships are a source of local pride in many rural communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241549/original/file-20181021-105773-11b7h52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forester Ed Murphy, a member of the Quincy Library Group, tells a House subcommittee about the group’s plan for balancing logging and environmental interests in Northern California forests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-California-Unite-/1ea3a6e587e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/0">AP/Rich Pedroncelli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Competing images</h2>
<p>So if many rural people are proud of their ability to collaborate, why are we seeing more anger and more high-profile protests directed at environmentalists and the federal government throughout the rural West, what some have called a <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-new-and-more-dangerous-sagebrush-rebellion">“second Sagebrush Rebellion”</a>? </p>
<p>The answer is that in recent years it’s mostly been newcomers or outsiders who’ve attempted to mobilize imagined rural anger in order to advance their own narrow political goals. </p>
<p>This was certainly the case during the highly publicized <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/">takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge</a> in 2016. </p>
<p>Led by a group calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/us/oregon-wildlife-refuge-what-bundy-wants/index.html">the occupiers argued that</a> the Constitution did not give the federal government the right to own land. They hoped to turn BLM land over to local control and turn <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqL9NGRTGss">Harney County into the first “Constitutional county.”</a> </p>
<p>Of the roughly dozen occupiers who said they were fighting for the rights of Oregon ranchers, only one, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/01/robert_lavoy_finicum_killed_in.html">Robert “LaVoy” Finicum</a>, was actually a rancher – from Arizona. The group’s leader, <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/oregon_militant_profiles_list.html">Ammon Bundy</a>, is the son of an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/politics/rancher-proudly-breaks-the-law-becoming-a-hero-in-the-west.html">infamous Nevada rancher</a>, but he worked as a car fleet manager prior to leading the standoff. And only one, Walter “Butch” Eaton, was from Oregon, and he stayed with the occupiers for just a half hour before deciding to <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/09/burns_man_who_rode_in_first_ca.html">walk home</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/241858/original/file-20181023-169825-qxcjsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harney County billboard erected during the occupation of a local wildlife refuge by militia members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Walker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Their ‘own voice’</h2>
<p>These outsiders have been challenged by people in rural communities. </p>
<p>At least in Oregon, the <a href="http://www.rop.org/">Rural Organizing Project</a> has been at the forefront of efforts to help rural communities fight outside extremist groups.</p>
<p>Founded in the early 1990s to help people in rural communities organize against local anti-gay ordinances, the project has since grown into a <a href="http://www.rop.org/about-the-rural-organizing-project/our-history/">network of rural activists</a> who, according to the group’s website, “facilitate local organizing, communication and political analysis.” </p>
<p>When the paramilitary group <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/oath-keepers">the Oath Keepers</a> occupied the <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/48.2/showdown-at-sugar-pine-mine">Sugar Pine Mine</a> in Oregon’s Josephine County in April 2015, project activists and local community members quickly mobilized to communicate to both politicians and the media that the militia members did not have the support of the community. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.rop.org/up-in-arms/up-in-arms-section-iii/stories-from-the-field/">statement</a> released by the coalition, the Oath Keepers were “individuals from outside our community” there to “advance their own agenda.”</p>
<p>A year later, during the Malheur occupation, the project organized a day of action, coordinating rallies, meetings and press conferences in rural communities across Oregon to again clearly communicate to the media and decision-makers that a handful of armed protesters did not speak for most rural people.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://btimesherald.com/2016/02/10/new-harney-county-billboards-donated/">billboard</a> that Harney County residents put up during the 2016 occupation speaks volumes about the way many rural people feel about these outsiders. It read: “We Are HARNEY COUNTY. We Have OUR OWN VOICE.”</p>
<h2>A less divisive future</h2>
<p>To be perfectly clear, many ranchers, loggers and miners have problems with federal bureaucracies and environmental organizations. </p>
<p>Underfunded and overburdened by arcane rules, the BLM has a massive <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/backlog-grows-for-rangelands/">backlog of grazing permit applications</a>. Federal timber sales are <a href="http://www.capitalpress.com/Timber/20180523/environmental-groups-challenge-oregon-timber-sale-over-voles">routinely tied up in litigation</a>. </p>
<p>Many rural people are likewise troubled by the federal government’s <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11239.html">waning investment in rural economies</a> and rapidly <a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/01/18/how-education-is-failing-rural-america.html">declining funding for rural education and social services</a>.</p>
<p>The journalists who report on the radical fringes of rural America are doing important work. Their stories shine light on dangerous political trends that, if allowed to grow in the shadows, might become something even more dangerous than they already are.</p>
<p>But ranchers like Dick Jenkins, groups like the Rural Organizing Project and other rural people committed to collaboration need to have their stories heard, too. </p>
<p>Paying as much attention to them as so-called Sagebrush Rebels just might show that while there are indeed many problems in rural America, most rural people are committed to bringing about a more amicable future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven C. Beda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rural Westerners have been stereotyped as angry ranchers who hate government. But for every gun-wielding militia member, there are many others who work collaboratively to protect what they value.Steven C. Beda, Assistant Professor, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/976202018-06-07T08:57:38Z2018-06-07T08:57:38ZHow $6 trillion of fossil fuel investments got dumped thanks to green campaigners<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222026/original/file-20180606-137288-1pi63hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesting in Berlin. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Climate_March_Berlin_-136_(22799793223).jpg#/media/File:Global_Climate_March_Berlin_-136_(22799793223).jpg">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It <a href="http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/reports/SAP-divestment-report-final.pdf">has become</a> one of the fastest growing political campaigns in human history, surpassing similar battles against the tobacco industry and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Its logic <a href="https://gofossilfree.org/divestment/what-is-fossil-fuel-divestment/">is simple</a>: the only way to avoid climate change and dangerous levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is for most fossil fuel reserves to stay in the ground. </p>
<p>Campaigners launched the fossil fuel divestment campaign in the early 2010s. Their argument was that you curb consumption of fossil fuels if you stop investing in the companies involved in extracting and burning them. Create a significant enough stigma, they argued, and this issue will shoot up the political agenda. </p>
<p>In the past five years or so, investment funds, public institutions and individuals have duly <a href="https://gofossilfree.org/divestment/commitments/">divested</a> around US$6.15 trillion (£4.6 trillion) of fossil fuel assets. It has helped that the campaign attracted a number of prestigious institutions early on, including
the British Medical Association, University College London, University of California, the Church of England and the World Council of Churches (representing more than a half billion Christians globally). </p>
<p>The campaign gained further traction after a London-based think tank <a href="https://www.carbontracker.org/reports/carbon-bubble/">argued that</a> fossil fuels were in any case a bad investment because the true costs of environmental damage had not been priced in and that at some point there would be a severe correction. </p>
<p>The battle is far from over, however, as demonstrated by the recent decision of the Church of Scotland not to divest. One of the cornerstones of European faith, whose teachings have helped shape everyone from Robert Burns to Rupert Murdoch, its annual general assembly held an <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/church-fund-urged-to-drop-oil-vt3wbl7wc">impassioned two-hour debate</a> on whether to remove oil and gas stocks from its £443m investment fund. </p>
<h2>The high road</h2>
<p>The Church of Scotland has form in this regard: it had <a href="http://brightnow.org.uk/news/church-of-scotland-divests-from-coal-and-tar-sands/">already divested</a> its coal and tar sands investments two years earlier. Ahead of the latest debate, its official <a href="https://www.gapublications.co.uk/docs/17_Report-of-Church-and-Society.pdf">general assembly report</a> summarised the issue as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is deeply uncomfortable for the Church, as a caring organisation concerned about climate justice, to continue to invest in something which causes the very harm it seeks to alleviate. </p>
<p>While we have profited from oil and gas exploration in the past, we now understand that financing the future exploration and production will take us away from fulfilling the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> and delay the transition to a low carbon economy. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222036/original/file-20180606-137318-1x7vmji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Church of Scotland general assembly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rowan Gard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the approximately 1,000 commissioners attending the General Assembly Hall on the city’s Mound, next to Edinburgh Castle, narrowly disagreed: 47% in favour and 53% against. Coming from a nation which <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/renewable-energy-electricity-wind-wave-scotland-climate-change-oil-gas-a8283166.html">already gets</a> most of its electricity from renewable sources, and whose government has indicated the end is in sight for fossil fuel vehicles on the roads, it was undeniably a disappointment. </p>
<p>Representatives were persuaded that it was better to stay invested and seek to influence better behaviour than to pull out altogether. Reverend Jenny Adams, who had brought the motion in the first place, argued that all the evidence suggests oil and gas companies have little intention of changing quickly enough to satisfy the Paris agreement. She said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a need for climate emissions to peak by 2020 and if we just keep talking, too much time passes and change is not coming fast enough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She is surely right about this. There may be traditional wisdom in engaging with fellow shareholders and board members on matters pertaining to large companies, but the church’s decision looks naïve in relation to this sector. </p>
<p>To give just one example, consider that approximately 94% of shareholders of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/shell-shareholders-94-per-cent-emissions-reduction-target-reject-paris-agreement-climate-change-a7751681.html">voted last year</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7f945fc4-5dc6-11e8-9334-2218e7146b04">again this year</a> to reject emission targets that would comply with the Paris climate accord, as it was deemed “not in the best interest of the company”. How do you persuade a bloc like that to change its mind?</p>
<h2>Amen corner</h2>
<p>While the Church of Scotland’s decision to sidestep divestment may have been a setback to the movement, there have been recent successes, too. The Church of Ireland <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/church-of-ireland-to-end-investments-in-fossil-fuel-companies-1.3492315">committed</a> to divest its fossil fuel assets earlier in May, while an international coalition of Catholic institutions, including the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, <a href="http://www.thenational.scot/news/16175358.35_Catholic_institutions_use_Earth_Day_to_vow_to_stop_funding_fossil_fuels/">pledged</a> in April to divest investments totalling £6.6 billion. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222040/original/file-20180606-137309-hkk4fb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The movement speaks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rowan Gard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Municipal administrations including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/10/new-york-city-plans-to-divest-5bn-from-fossil-fuels-and-sue-oil-companies">New York</a> and <a href="http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/paris-is-considering-suing-the-fossil-fuel-industry">Paris</a> are also divesting from fossil fuels and shifting their investments towards renewable energy sources – evidence that the global divestment is making an impact on public policy. </p>
<p>This certainly seems prudent, as newly published research suggests that the “carbon bubble” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/04/carbon-bubble-could-spark-global-financial-crisis-study-warns">could “burst”</a> in the next two decades as demand for fossil fuel energy falls despite population increases and burgeoning global economic growth. </p>
<p>The study projects that the global fossil energy demand will drop by as much as 40% by 2050. If that comes to fruition, it would mean containing global warming levels to 1.5 °C, which is the aspirational goal of the Paris climate accord. </p>
<p>That would be great news for environmentalists, most especially for those living on the front lines of climate change such as in the Pacific, less so for investors in fossil fuel businesses – Presbyterian or otherwise. It’s a strong signal that this global divestment movement may still be a long way from its peak.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rowan Gard has received funding from the European Consortium for Pacific Studies (ECOPAS) funded by the European Union. She is affiliated with 350.org and Friends of the Earth Scotland, and has also volunteered and contributed to divestment campaigns in the US, UK and New Zealand. </span></em></p>Not the sort of amount you’d want to lose down the back of the sofa.Rowan Gard, Environmental Anthropologist, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.