Outrage Optimism

🔥 OUTRAGE: Five climate activists have received jail sentences of 4 and 5 years for planning a peaceful protest (all while the UK's prisons are overflowing). UN Special Rapporteur Michel FORST said in his statement: "The gravity of today’s sentencing decision becomes glaringly obvious when considering the act for which Mr. Shaw has been sentenced: Mr. Shaw participated in a Zoom call that discussed climate change and the organizing of a peaceful environmental protest... Put differently, today’s ruling by Judge Hehir at Southwark Crown Court means that, in the United Kingdom, participation in a Zoom call that discusses peaceful protest... exposes the participants of the call to the risk of a lengthy prison sentence. How a sentence of this magnitude can be either reasonable, proportional or serve a legitimate public purpose is beyond comprehension" Sir David King, the government’s former Chief Scientific Adviser, said: “This is so disgraceful. We are all hoping that the change in UK Govt will also change the situation in our courts.” The sentences may violate the UK’s obligations under international law. A dark day indeed. Forst’s full statement: https://lnkd.in/eUBQNMPR

"The exploitation of our planet's natural resources has always been tied to the exploitation of people of color. The logic of colonization was to extract valuable resources from our planet through force, paying no attention to its secondary effects. The climate crisis is in a way colonialism's natural conclusion." You may have heard Tom Rivett-Carnac talk about David Lammy’s TED Countdown talk ‘Climate justice can’t happen without racial justice’ on last week’s podcast. The talk was recorded a few years ago when David was not yet in his new position of UK Foreign Secretary - it’s a must listen now 🎧 Head to https://lnkd.in/dB-3PY8 to check it out. Hear our hosts' takes on David and other new Labour ministers who will play a key role in climate in our latest episode: https://bit.ly/3xLTyXt And you can hear more from David in his opposition days in our 2020 episode ‘Climate Justice and Racial Justice with David Lammy’ - find it wherever you get your podcasts, or listen here: https://lnkd.in/eFkXbJ-S #climatejustice #racialjustice #socialjustice

In this week's news stories of outrage AND optimism (because we need both to move forward): Welsh rainforest, Brazil wetland wildfires, Marathan oil penalty, Australia protest, Amazon carbon offsets lawsuit, and heat waves across the globe. Read more ⬇️

"The fact that the multilateral negotiations will be led by the secretary of energy himself instead of delegating to a junior minister denotes recognition of the importance of the process as we near the halfway point in this decisive decade." Christiana Figueres on the announcment that Ed Miliband will lead UK negotations at #COP29 in November. https://lnkd.in/gsmmaMY3

Reminder: changing the world doesn't mean changing everyone in it... a ray of hope from "the godmother of modern herbalism" Rosemary Gladstar, from an interview on For The Wild podcast. If you have a quiet hour this weekend, listening to this gem-filled episode would be a wonderful way to spend it . And if you have any listening recommendations, we would love to hear them 👇🙏😊 https://lnkd.in/eBmzP2mE

Since 2015 the amount of new coal power in development has fallen from 1,496 GW to 578 GW and the majority of coal plants that were in development in 2015 have been cancelled. This transformational change occurred during a period when we were expecting a coal boom. This insightful new article from Joel Jaeger at #SystemsChangeLab explores the reasons for this unexpected development and what we can learn from it now.

Friday fun AND couldn't be more serious - play the Asset Manager Quest game to see what you would do as the CEO of abrdn asset management (stop investing in fossil fuel bonds perhaps... or go get pastries 🥐 ?!) ⬇ Play 🎮: https://lnkd.in/dg9ibRii Nice work from Oli Frost

How much did Rishi Sunak's moves to make climate a divisive issue contribute to the Tories' dramatic defeat (one of Christiana Figueres' key questions in this week's episode)? A lot, according to new polling which says his decision was a “catastrophic misjudgment”.  Glad to hear it. 😀 https://lnkd.in/dYvtwAhv

“There has been chaos and immaturity… now adults are back” With the news (since our episode was recorded on Monday) of climate expert Chris Stark’s appointment to lead a new clean energy task force, and the launch of a National Wealth Fund to raise £20B from the private sector to finance the UK’s low carbon economy, it seems Tom Rivett-Carnac’s assessment was very much on track 🙌 Hear more in depth analysis on the UK and French elections from Tom, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson in our latest episode, wherever you get your podcasts 🎧

⚡️SPECIAL EPISODE: ELECTION ROUND-UP⚡️ Tune in for analysis of the UK and France election results, including the rise of the far right (and how climate denial might be the Achilles heel that leads to their fall), and an in-depth look at Labour's key figures in climate: David Lammy, Ed Miliband and of course Keir Starmer. A look at the US presidential race - what happens now? Listen via the link below (or wherever you get your podcasts): https://bit.ly/3xLTyXt