Tag: Ecology

Robert Habeck: ‘We have to be more pragmatic and less bureaucratic’

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The Vice-Chancellor of Germany, Robert Habeck, discusses the upcoming European elections, economic decline, gaps in the job market and higher defence spending on the Global Conversation.

Germany aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, despite being one of Europe’s biggest polluters.

The powerhouse economy is also the third largest in the world after the US and China, however, Gross Domestic Profit shrank 0.3 per cent in 2023.

According to the German government, real GDP is forecast to increase just 0.2 per cent in 2024 and 1.2 per cent in 2025. 

Following a period of sluggish growth, the country fought to keep inflation down but can the Bundestag balance economic and climate policies? 

Euronews reporter, Olivia Stroud, spoke with Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Robert Hack, to find out more.

To watch this episode of theGlobal Conversation, click on the video in the media player above or read the full interview below.

Euronews: What is at stake for Germany in the European elections in June?

Habeck: For Germany, it is important that Europe commits to being European, that we grow together. The internal market is extremely important for the German economy. The internal energy market, which has been created in recent years, is a part of this. This is the German perspective as an economic and energy-providing country in Europe.

As a European, I must say, that it is extremely important that Europe becomes a political, noticeable entity. At the moment, Russia, the US and China are at odds on the world stage. It remains to be seen if Europe has a role to play there.

If we divide, if we do not act united, then major geopolitical decisions will be made over our heads. Since Europe is fundamentally a continent of liberal democracy, decisions will be made against or at least without consideration of our values.

Therefore, our economic, energy policy and climate policy interests, are all valid and important. Ultimately, this is about keeping Europe – as a union of liberal democracies – strong within the global community.

The future of the world will not be decided by the competition that exists between Germany and France, Denmark and the Netherlands, or Sweden and Finland. The future of the world will be decided in the competition between the USA, China, and Europe – and potentially India and Russia.

EU member states must recognise that their role is in Europe and affirm it. The European rules, the subsidies, regulations for economic support, approval procedures, foreign policies, and the ability – as difficult as it is for me to say – to create a European arms industry.

We must face this realisation. If we understand Europe as a loose alliance of 27 states and do not equip it properly, saying that European integration must continue, then we will not be competitive globally.

Stuck in an economic rut

Euronews: Germany is facing an economic crisis, and people’s purchasing power has decreased. How do we get out of this?

Habeck: For Germany, it must be said that the country has been particularly hard hit for two reasons. We had this heavy dependence on Russian energy. Gas is over 50 per cent, 55 per cent, coal, but also oil, it comes from Russia.

And so it’s no wonder that the German economy has been hit particularly hard. All of our contracts had to be renegotiated. It was different in the likes of Spain, the UK or Denmark. And Germany is an export-oriented country.

So we rely on the global market, and the global economy is weak. China also has economic problems – which subsequently affect Germany much more than other countries.

But we’re fighting our way out of it. We have ensured energy security, we have now reduced energy prices, inflation is coming down, interest rates will soon fall again, and then investment will resume. And the global economy will pick up again. And then the country will have weathered this period of weakness.

Too many jobs, too few workers

Euronews: How can the labour shortage in Germany be addressed?

Habeck: Firstly, we need immigration. This is absolutely not a new insight. But for too long, conservative political parties have said, ‘No, no, we don’t need any of that.’ Secondly, we need to better integrate those with potential – the people who are already here – into the labour market.

This particularly concerns young people who do not have vocational qualifications or lack professional qualifications. This has to do with the education system, with the further education system.

To put it in numbers, there are 2.6 million Germans between the ages of 20 and 35 here, who do not have vocational qualifications. And that’s a political problem. It’s not an individual problem where you say, ‘You just have to try harder.’ Too many people fall through the cracks because they may have dyslexia or problems with math. But still, they might be good craftsmen, talented in nursing.

The same goes for female workforce participation. It’s worse in German-speaking countries – Switzerland, Austria, Germany – than the European average. Much worse than in Scandinavia. There is still a lack of childcare infrastructure so that one can balance family with work – also a political task.

And thirdly, I would say, in an ageing society, we need to work longer. Those who want to work longer should be allowed to do so.

Record high defence spending

Euronews: Military spending in Europe has increased significantly. What are the consequences for the economy?

Habeck: Either we didn’t see it or we didn’t want to see what Putin was doing, how he steadily built up his armies there.

I don’t like to spend money on armies and armaments. I can imagine it would be better for education, for research, for further education, and for climate protection and sustainability criteria. But we have to do it.

The time for not wanting to is over. Therefore, we have to increase military spending to be able to protect ourselves, for guaranteed European protection. We can’t rely on the Americans as the guarantors, but we have to become less dependent. Military spending has increased in the last two years because we have supported Ukraine so strongly.

In my opinion, however, it must be stabilised, also for… You almost have to say, the repair of the European and at least the German army in order to be able to do something.

Preparing for a carbon-neutral future

Euronews: According to a report by the European Environment Agency, the EU is not prepared for climate change and heatwaves. What do you plan to do to change this?

Habeck: Now, first and foremost, the aim is to limit global warming as much as possible. It’s solely about slowing down, containing the curve in a way that allows people to adapt, to withstand this significant change.

When you look at this from a biological and social perspective – relating to social cohesion and our communities, we must make our cities more resistant to heat and rain. We must make agriculture more sustainable. 

We need water reservoirs in arid regions. We must review water management. We need coastal protection measures along the coasts and significant investments.

Euronews: More speed in the energy transition in Europe: What needs to be done? And what does that mean for industry and people?

Habeck: In the next term of the European Commission, there needs to be less bureaucracy in the expansion of renewables. We are making our lives unnecessarily difficult in some ways when you read The Renewable Energy Directive, I don’t know if all of that needs to be so meticulously and extensively regulated.

So if we really want to make progress, we need to be more pragmatic and less bureaucratic.

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How ‘Dune’ became a beacon for the fledgling environmental movement

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“Dune,” widely considered one of the best sci-fi novels of all time, continues to influence how writers, artists and inventors envision the future.

Of course, there are Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning films, “Dune: Part One” (2021) and “Dune: Part Two” (2024).

But Frank Herbert’s masterpiece also helped Afrofuturist novelist Octavia Butler imagine a future of conflict amid environmental catastrophe; it inspired Elon Musk to build SpaceX and Tesla and push humanity toward the stars and a greener future; and it’s hard not to see parallels in George Lucas’ “Star Wars” franchise, especially their fascination with desert planets and giant worms.

And yet when Herbert sat down in 1963 to start writing “Dune,” he wasn’t thinking about how to leave Earth behind. He was thinking about how to save it.

Herbert wanted to tell a story about the environmental crisis on our own planet, a world driven to the edge of ecological catastrophe. Technologies that had been inconceivable just 50 years prior had put the world at the edge of nuclear war and the environment on the brink of collapse; massive industries were sucking wealth from the ground and spewing toxic fumes into the sky.

When the book was published, these themes were front and center for readers, too. After all, they were living in the wake of both the Cuban missile crisis and the publication of “Silent Spring,” conservationist Rachel Carson’s landmark study of pollution and its threat to the environment and human health.

“Dune” soon became a beacon for the fledgling environmental movement and a rallying flag for the new science of ecology.

Indigenous wisdoms

Though the term “ecology” had been coined almost a century earlier, the first textbook on ecology was not written until 1953, and the field was rarely mentioned in newspapers or magazines at the time. Few readers had heard of the emerging science, and even fewer knew what it suggested about the future of our planet.

While studying “Dune” for a book I’m writing on the history of ecology, I was surprised to learn that Herbert didn’t learn about ecology as a student or as a journalist.

Instead, he was inspired to explore ecology by the conservation practices of the tribes of the Pacific Northwest. He learned about them from two friends in particular.

The first was Wilbur Ternyik, a descendant of Chief Coboway, the Clatsop leader who welcomed explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark when their expedition reached the West Coast in 1805. The second, Howard Hansen, was an art teacher and oral historian of the Quileute tribe.

Ternyik, who was also an expert field ecologist, took Herbert on a tour of Oregon’s dunes in 1958. There, he explained his work to build massive dunes of sand using beach grasses and other deep-rooted plants in order to prevent the sands from blowing into the nearby town of Florence – a terraforming technology described at length in “Dune.” As Ternyik explains in a handbook he wrote for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his work in Oregon was part of an effort to heal landscapes scarred by European colonization, especially the large river jetties built by early settlers.

These structures disturbed coastal currents and created vast expanses of sand, turning stretches of the lush Pacific Northwest landscape into desert. This scenario is echoed in “Dune,” where the novel’s setting, the planet Arrakis, was similarly laid to waste by its first colonizers.

Hansen, who became the godfather to Herbert’s son, had closely studied the equally drastic impact logging had on the homelands of the Quileute people in coastal Washington. He encouraged Herbert to examine ecology carefully, giving him a copy of Paul B. Sears’ “Where There is Life,” from which Herbert gathered one of his favorite quotes: “The highest function of science is to give us an understanding of consequences.” The Fremen of “Dune,” who live in the deserts of Arrakis and carefully manage its ecosystem and wildlife, embody these teachings. In the fight to save their world, they expertly blend ecological science and Indigenous practices.

Treasures hidden in the sand

But the work that had the most profound impact on “Dune” was Leslie Reid’s 1962 ecological study “The Sociology of Nature.” In this landmark work, Reid explained ecology and ecosystem science for a popular audience, illustrating the complex interdependence of all creatures within the environment.

“The more deeply ecology is studied,” Reid writes, “the clearer does it become that mutual dependence is a governing principle, that animals are bound to one another by unbreakable ties of dependence.” In the pages of Reid’s book, Herbert found a model for the ecosystem of Arrakis in a surprising place: the guano islands of Peru. As Reid explains, the accumulated bird droppings found on these islands was an ideal fertilizer. Home to mountains of manure described as a new “white gold” and one of the most valuable substances on Earth, the guano islands became in the late 1800s ground zero for a series of resource wars between Spain and several of its former colonies, including Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.

At the heart of the plot of “Dune” is a battle for control of the “spice,” a priceless resource. Harvested from the sands of the desert planet, it’s both a luxurious flavoring for food and a hallucinogenic drug that allows some people to bend space, making interstellar travel possible.

There is some irony in the fact that Herbert cooked up the idea of spice from bird droppings. But he was fascinated by Reid’s careful account of the unique and efficient ecosystem that produced a valuable – albeit noxious – commodity.

As the ecologist explains, frigid currents in the Pacific Ocean push nutrients to the surface of nearby waters, helping photosynthetic plankton thrive. These support an astounding population of fish that feed hordes of birds, along with whales.

In early drafts of “Dune,” Herbert combined all of these stages into the life cycle of the giant sandworms, football field-sized monsters that prowl the desert sands and devour everything in their path.

Herbert imagines each of these terrifying creatures beginning as small, photosynthetic plants that grow into larger “sand trout.” Eventually, they become immense sandworms that churn the desert sands, spewing spice onto the surface.

In both the book and “Dune: Part One,” soldier Gurney Halleck recites a cryptic verse that comments on this inversion of marine life and arid regimes of extraction: “For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasure hid in the sand.”

‘Dune’ revolutions

After “Dune” was published in 1965, the environmental movement eagerly embraced it.

Herbert spoke at Philadelphia’s first Earth Day in 1970, and in the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog – a famous DIY manual and bulletin for environmental activists – “Dune” was advertised with the tagline: “The metaphor is ecology. The theme revolution.” In the opening of Denis Villeneuve’s first adaptation, “Dune,” Chani, an indigenous Fremen played by Zendaya, asks a question that anticipates the violent conclusion of the second film: “Who will our next oppressors be?” The immediate cut to a sleeping Paul Atreides, the white protagonist who’s played by Timothée Chalamet, drives the pointed anti-colonial message home like a knife. In fact, both of Villeneuve’s movies expertly elaborate upon the anti-colonial themes of Herbert’s novels.

Unfortunately, the edge of their environmental critique is blunted. But Villeneuve has suggested that he might also adapt “Dune Messiah” for his next film in the series – a novel in which the ecological damage to Arrakis is glaringly obvious.

I hope Herbert’s prescient ecological warning, which resonated so powerfully with readers back in the 1960s, will be unsheathed in “Dune 3.”

By Devin Griffiths, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Los Angeles

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In Azerbaijan, UK-based gold mine accused of pollution

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Six journalists from the independent Azerbaijani investigative website Abzas Media have been under arrest since November 2023. They had previously transmitted elements of their investigations to the Paris-based Forbidden Stories collective, which took over their work in collaboration with 14 European news organisations in the “The Baku Connection” project, including FRANCE 24 and RFI. This article focuses on the tensions surrounding a mine in the west of the country, whose gold ends up in the products of major high-tech brands. 

The anger was visible on their faces as they faced off against squadrons of riot police sent to silence them. On June 20, 2023, residents of the village of Söyüdlü, in western Azerbaijan, demonstrated to reject the construction of a new reservoir to store toxic waste from a gold mine that has been operating in the area since 2012. An initial reservoir had been installed by Anglo Asian Mining, the British company that operates the mine, but it was close to capacity. The villagers believe it had led to soil and river water pollution, and that the fumes escaping from it were causing an increase in respiratory illnesses.


Video of tensions at the Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan published on Facebook by the account Azərbaycan Respublikası on june 21, 2023.

 

The first reservoir, with a capacity of 6 million cubic metres, is located a few hundred meters from Söyüdlü. To separate the gold from the rock, Anglo Asian Mining uses cyanide, and dumps the sludge generated by the process, which contains toxic products including cyanide and arsenic, into the reservoir, known as a tailings pond.  The company says that the quantities of waste do not threaten the environment or the health of local residents. 

That is not how the residents feel. But their efforts to show their frustration in June 2023 were cut short: images posted on social media show police in riot gear spraying tear gas in the faces of demonstrators, particularly elderly women, and using rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

 

‘The police set up roadblocks and turned back journalists who were not under government control’

Interviewed by the Forbidden Stories consortium, freelance journalist Elmaddin Shamilzade recounts: 

 

There were about 300 policemen. It was far too many. The local administrator came to talk to the people. Then he wanted to take them to some kind of government building. He wanted to have a conversation without journalists and activists. The villagers refused, and got permission for the media to follow the discussions.  

The next day, the police set up roadblocks and turned back journalists who weren’t under government control. They wouldn’t let them into the village. They checked passports, even those of the villagers.

 

On Shamilzade’s return to Baku, he was arrested for posting on Facebook a photo of two policemen in Söyüdlü. He recounts being beaten, tortured and threatened with rape, which prompted him to give the police his password so that they could delete the photo. He has since left the country.

At least four journalists were arrested on June 22, 2023 for reporting on the Söyüdlü protests. Three were arrested on the spot, including Nargiz Absalamova of Abzas Media. She accuses the police officers who arrested them of violence against her and her colleagues. According to the police, the three people arrested were not wearing “any distinctive signs” identifying them as journalists. The fourth journalist was arrested in Baku on June 23: the director of Abzas Media, Ülvi Hasanli, was detained for distributing photos of the two police officers accused by the journalists of arresting them. He was released after four hours.  

Facebook post by Sevinç Vaqifqizi, editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, for which the site’s director, Ülvi Hasanli, was detained by police for four hours on June 23, 2023.. © FACEBOOK

On-site samples and questions  

In a video filmed by Abzas Media in Söyüdlü, Gadabay district administrator Orkhan Mursalov is seen telling protesters: “The reservoir has been there for more than 11 years. Have there been any complaints about the reservoir in all those years? No! Why did the inhabitants conclude in one day that the lake endangered their lives? It’s likely that people are being misinformed. Who’s misinforming them? Unfortunately, social networks.” 

 

 

Read more“Don’t think that they can stop these investigations by arresting us one by one.”

Azerbaijani state media accused first the West, and then Russia, of organizing the protests. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in power since 2003, finally reacted to the events on July 11, 2023. He said the demonstrations were the work of “provocateurs… some of whom are hiding in Azerbaijan, others abroad”. He defended the right of the local residents to demonstrate (a way of polishing his image with his people, one activist told us). He accused the country’s minister of ecology of being  “negligent,” adding: “As a result, a foreign investor is poisoning our nature.” The Azerbaijani government had granted the right to operate the mine to Anglo Asian Mining, whose CEO and main shareholder, Iranian-American Reza Vaziri, is said by the company’s CFO Bill Morgan to be a “personal friend of the president”. The Azerbaijani government also shares profits from the mine with the company. (The company lists its second-biggest shareholder as former US governor John Sununu, who did not respond to requests for comment for this report.)

 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Anglo Asian Mining CEO Mohammad Reza Vaziri at the inauguration of a treatment centre in 2013.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Anglo Asian Mining CEO Mohammad Reza Vaziri at the inauguration of a treatment centre in 2013. © Official website of the Azerbaijan presidency

In mid-July, the Azerbaijani authorities ordered tests to be carried out on the site, and the mine suspended operations while the investigation was carried out. 

On September 28, 2023, Anglo Asian Mining announced the findings in a press release. The statement said that analyses carried out by the British laboratory Micon and the Azerbaijani laboratory Iqlim indicated there was no reason to worry about pollution at the site. “Radiation levels at Gedabek are aligned with natural background conditions for the area,” the statement says. It also states that “no issues of concern were identified with air quality”, that “no cyanide was found in any soil sample above the limits of analytical detection (

On November 7, 2023, the company announced that it had signed an “action plan” with the Azerbaijani government to restart the mine’s operations. The plan called on the company to “improve environmental monitoring of the site” and “establish a community relations department”, without giving further detail.  The company announced that rather than building a new waste reservoir, it would raise the height of the existing reservoir’s dam so that it could continue to receive waste. 

We asked Anglo Asian Mining to provide detailed results of the analyses for this report, as well as details of the dam-raising project. The company referred us to its public press releases, and sent this statement from its CEO, Reza Vaziri: 

 

Statement from Anglo Asian Mining provided to the Forbidden Stories consortium. © Anglo Asian Mining
Statement from Anglo Asian Mining provided to the Forbidden Stories consortium. © Anglo Asian Mining © Anglo Asian Mining

‘This toxic water is seeping through the rocks’

Without precise data from the analyses, and without samples to analyse independently, it is impossible to assess the risk of pollution at the Gedabek mine. A member of the Azerbaijani NGO Ecofront had taken water and soil samples around the lake during the June 2023 protests, but he was arrested and his samples were confiscated. The NGO remains convinced that the lake is a source of pollution, and that its contaminated water is seeping into the soil. One of its members, Javid Gara, explains:

In recent years, the lake has been enlarged. Not by structural engineering: it’s trucks digging up the soil to make it bigger. As they dig, they cause more vibrations, more cracks and more leaks. The toxic water seeps through the rocks to the river and springs below the reservoir. The village of Soyüdlü is above the reservoir and therefore not directly affected, but it does have an agricultural life. The villagers take their livestock, cows and sheep, below the reservoir, but they never use the water downstream from the reservoir. That’s because they think it’s contaminated.

Dust, odours, soil infiltration  

Two geologists contacted by our consortium confirm these concerns, noting that the reservoir was dug directly into the rock, raising the possibility that its contents could seep into the soil and groundwater. They sent us this analysis: “You can see from the satellite images that the company dug into the valley floor. This makes it easier to bring the tailings stored in the lake into contact with the deeper layers of soil, and therefore increases the chances of disrupting underground and surface flows.”

This satellite image from 2012 show the location where a waste-containment reservoir known as a tailings pond will later be built at the Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan.
This satellite image from 2012 show the location where a waste-containment reservoir known as a tailings pond will later be built at the Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan. © Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies.

Images taken by Ecofront show that below the tailings dam that contains the reservoir a small complex has been set up to alleviate any potential leaks. “Between the retaining structure and the natural topography, you have heterogeneities, so there’s bound to be leakage,” the geologists told us. Anglo Asian Mining says the filtration complex consists of a “reed bed”, artificially planted reeds that biologically filter potentially polluted water before releasing it back into the river.  

In the absence of data about the reed bed, the geologists said they could not evaluate its effectiveness. But they caution: “A reed bed won’t recover everything, but it will absorb some of the elements. Such systems can at best reduce the concentration of metals in the water, but cannot necessarily produce a drastic reduction that would allow the safe release of the water back into the river”. Ecofront, for its part, is convinced that the complex does not filter the lake water sufficiently, and pollutes the river. 


Video filmed by the NGO Ecofront below the tailings dam at the Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan. The NGO believes the facility does not sufficiently filter water from the dam before it flows into the local river.

Residents also complain about odours emitted by the reservoir, says Ecofront’s Gara.

When it’s hot, all this liquid starts to evaporate. This vapour on hot summer days is unbearable. Humans shouldn’t live in these conditions. This kind of reservoir should not be near a residential area.

 

In videos filmed by Abzas Media and other independent media in June, residents complain of respiratory illnesses. Some report an increase in cancer cases since the reservoir was built. But the repression of the protests in June has apparently had an effect: no resident of Söyüdlü dared to speak directly to our consortium, and we were unable to obtain any medical reports from local doctors and hospitals. 

The same applies to the nearby town of Gadabay, which adjoins the mine site. Geologists and toxicologists we consulted all told us the town’s immediate proximity to the mine without any doubt exposes its inhabitants to dust from the mine, carried by wind or rainwater.  

Map showing the Gedabek mine, the town of Gadabay, the village of Söyüdlü and the mine's tailing pond.
Map showing the Gedabek mine, the town of Gadabay, the village of Söyüdlü and the mine’s tailing pond. © Upian

From Swiss refineries to cell phones

Where does Gedabek’s gold end up? According to Anglo Asian Mining’s 2022 annual report, two Swiss refineries buy from the company. The first, Argor-Heraeus, told us it had terminated its relationship with Anglo Asian: “As part of our Know Your Customer update process started in 2022, Anglo Asian Mining did not provide all the required information” explains the refinery, which states that it “blocked the company in May 2023”, before the crackdown on protests. 

The other refinery, MKS Pamp, told us that on the basis of the analyses carried out in the summer of 2023 they would “continue to engage with Anglo Asian Mining.” Among the refinery’s customers are the major hi-tech brands: Apple, Samsung, Tesla, HP… none of whom responded to our questions. Microsoft was the only major brand to respond, stating that it “requires its suppliers (…) to comply with all applicable laws and regulations regarding labor, ethics, occupational health and safety and environmental protection”, without commenting on its gold purchases from this refinery.

‘Refineries are not asked to carry out scientific analyses of water quality and air pollution near mines’

Marc Ummel, head of the raw materials sector at the NGO Swissaid, says there’s a problem with the “due diligence” Swiss refineries are required to conduct before entering into a contract with a mining company:

 

 

The problem with refineries’ due diligence is that it is still based far too often on simply requesting documents from their suppliers or mining groups, but not on any real control or inspection of mining sites.

They carry out on-site inspections, but often don’t realize what the problem is, because they don’t talk to the local communities suffering the negative effects of the mine. In the end, the requirement for refineries’ due diligence are quite basic. They are not asked to carry out scientific analyses of water quality or air pollution at the mines they source from. They are simply asked to carry out checks to identify risks, prevent them and mitigate their negative impact. 

When a government shuts down a mine because of pollution problems or human rights violations, the situation is very concerning. A state has no interest in suspending the activities of a mine, as it will generally lose revenue. 

The six Abzas Media journalists face up to eight years’ imprisonment. As well as investigating the Gedabek mine, they had been looking into the corruption and torture used by the Azerbaijani government. The six face charges of “foreign currency trafficking”.

Producing around 1,200 kilos of gold a year, the Gedabek mine remains a relatively modest operation compared with other gold mines around the world. But in this remote region of Azerbaijan, it had raised hopes. A decade after it opened, hope has given way to fear and suspicion, fueled by the violent repression of 100 protesters in June 2023 and the effective blocking of journalists’ efforts to investigate allegations of pollution. The site is now cordoned off by Azerbaijani police, inaccessible to journalists or activists. While it is not possible to say for sure whether the pollution is real, the case seems to make the Azerbaijani authorities uncomfortable, to say the least, and raises questions in a country that claims to make the environment a priority – and will host the COP 29 climate change conference in December 2024. 

Article written in collaboration with Léa Perruchon, Leyla Mustafayeva, Lamiya Adilgizi, Sofía Alvarez Jurado (Forbidden Stories), Virginie Pironon (Radio France) and François Rüchti (RTS).



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Large Herbivores Can Help Prevent Massive Wildfires

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In 2019 and 2020, a megafire scorched eastern Australia, destroying some 24 million hectares of land, and adding to the hole in the ozone layer. Another massive fire ate away parts of Northern California in 2018, and slowly animals are starting to return. Over the years fires have scorched parts of Africa, including a 15,000-hectare disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

While the frequency, intensity and severity of large-scale wildfires might be a consequence of climate change, there is another cause receiving little attention: the decline of large herbivore populations. Large herbivores regulate nature’s fire systems by eating plant matter that fuels wildfires and turning over soil and vegetation litter as a result of their rummaging behavior. But, large herbivores are in trouble. About 60 percent of species of the world’s largest terrestrial herbivores are at risk of vanishing, for two key reasons: one, because of extensive overhunting, to feed rising populations across the developing world, and two, as part of encroachment by livestock, deforestation and expanding cultivation in the developed world.

Ecosystem engineering to reintroduce large herbivores into fire-prone regions in Australia has shown some promise, yet conservationists and media outlets often portray these animals as helpless victims. As a relatively inexpensive part of any fire prevention strategy, we must prioritize the reintroduction of either wild or domestic large herbivores into fire-prone areas to help prevent these disasters.

Wildfire is not always the enemy. Low-intensity fire destroys invasive species, for example, that have not adapted. But the consequences of megafires, continuous fires that cover more than 10,000 hectares, or the equivalent of approximately 14,000 soccer fields, are uniquely devastating. Large fires, and the smoke they create, have caused the deaths of more than 30,000 people annually in 43 countries. In 2022, wildfires in the U.S. caused an estimated $18.09 billion in property damage. In addition, the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center says federal fire suppression costs have skyrocketed from $240 million in 1985 to about $3.5 billion in 2022.

Megafires are part of the blowback from the loss of biodiversity. Large herbivores like the American bison and the white rhinoceros traditionally clipped grass and ate shrubs, reducing available wildfire fuel. Their feeding habits changed the composition of vegetation over vast areas, creating diverse habitats. These habitats differed in their vulnerability to wildfires, producing a vast mosaic of natural firebreaks, which experts say affected the regularity, speed and strength of wildfires. In addition, reduced leaf matter leads to decreased flame height and rate of fire spread.

Wild herbivores also help reduce the spread of wildfires in other ways. For instance, animal trails have been proven to limit the spread of low-intensity wildfires by creating firebreaks. Large herbivores such as Cape buffalo and red deer make temporary pools by creating wallows, which also interrupt wildfires. On the southern Russian steppes, livestock populations that have declined since the fall of the Soviet Union led to an increase in fuel for wildfires; there was a rapid increase in the area burned by wildfire.

This is not just a modern phenomenon. Archeological evidence indicates that the extinction of species like mammoths, giant kangaroos and other megafauna as a result of human expansion more than 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, led to an increase in wildfires.

In the present, places like California and southern Australia have felt the brunt of these infernos almost every summer. These are areas where mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers prevail, and, unsurprisingly, these areas have had major declines in large herbivores. Among the 29 Australian terrestrial mammals that have become extinct over the past two centuries were several ecosystem engineers whose burrowing activities increased the speed of leafy debris’ decomposition.

In 2022, California’s black-tail deer and mule deer populations was estimated to be around 475,000 according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a sharp reduction from about two million back in 1960. This decline has contributed significantly to an accumulation of flammable vegetation since one deer can consume about seven pounds of vegetation per day, about 2,555 pounds annually.

Rewilding large wild and domestic herbivores for wildfire prevention has worked before. Researchers in Australia reintroduced “ecosystem engineers” including species of rat and wallaby, to areas from which they had disappeared. Leaf litter was significantly lower, and fire behavior modeling illustrated these animals had substantial impacts on flame height and speed. Livestock grazing has also reduced fire frequency in Southern Arizona. Another example is the reintroduction of giant tortoises to Española Island in the Galápagos, which has regulated shrubbery and created mosaics of vegetation, mitigating the spread of wildfires.

Every ecosystem will need a specific plan. For example, to address the fire risk on abandoned farmland, a specific kind of livestock would have to perform extensive or targeted intensive grazing, which is the use of domesticated large herbivores for a predetermined duration and intensity.

According to experts, the most effective strategy generally is to combine both grazing and browsing herbivores in sufficient numbers with browsers feeding primarily on leaves, soft shoots or fruits of woody plants like shrubs, while grazers eat grass and other herbaceous plants. Additionally, herbivore food preferences need to match the local vegetation. For example, certain types of goats have been found to have more of an impact in reducing fuel biomass than cows because the former feeds on more diverse vegetation types than the latter.

Cows would be more useful in predominantly grassy environments as their diet is fairly restricted to grasses, while some larger breeds of goats have a wider variety of vegetation in their diets including branches, young trees or tree bark that other herbivore species find inedible. Herbivore reintroduction may also need to be combined with other strategies like mechanical clearing to reduce wildfire damage.

Ignoring the benefits of reintroducing large herbivores into fire-prone regions will risk the lives of people who live in these areas, could ruin national economies, and will threaten biodiversity and vital habitats. Megafires also release large amounts of stored carbon, worsening climate change. This summer has witnessed megafires in Hawaii, Canada, Algeria and Greece. But equally worrying is that large wildfires are occurring where they previously did not.

Successful land-management strategies must be all-inclusive and involve a variety of groups and individuals who have a vested interest in reducing fire risk. This includes ranchers, NGOs, fisher-folk, hunters, Indigenous peoples, landowners and recreationists. Funding for rewilding projects can help turn the tide against the global decline and disappearance of these large and environmentally influential plant consumers. Such efforts can also boost economic activities like biodiversity conservation and ecotourism.

This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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30 years on, is the Lyon-Turin rail project still looking so green?

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The high-speed Lyon-Turin rail link involves excavating what will be the world’s longest rail tunnel, but will its carbon footprint be too damaging?

The first of seven giant tunnel-boring machines was assembled at a German factory two weeks ago and, once they are all put into action in a year’s time, they will greatly speed up excavation through the base of Mont Cenis in Savoie, France.

Meanwhile, work is also continuing with the use of more traditional machinery to cut through 500 metres or so of the rock each day.

Construction workers for the state-owned Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin company (TELT) need to excavate enough rock to create two 57.5 km long tunnels – longer than the Channel tunnel by six kilometres.

By the time it is finally finished in 2032, it will mean fewer trucks and more trains on both sides of the border – if it is finished on time. The project has suffered many delays, mostly involving financing setbacks over the years.

But will it still be viewed as beneficial to the environment, as it was in the 1990s when it is finally finished in 2032?

Stéphane Guggino, the General Delegate of La Transalpine Lyon-Turin, supports the project:

“The urgency is, there are three million trucks passing between France and Italy every year. If you don’t dig tunnels, you keep the trucks on the roads.”

But drilling a tunnel on the French-Italian border is threatening water resources, which are under strain more than ever before, according to environmentalists.

Alberto Poggio from the Mountain Union of Val de Suse’s Technical Commission told Euronews the data speaks for itself:

“We have calculated that the construction of the entire Turin-Lyon line will result in a net contribution of 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Estimates indicate that 600 to 1,000 litres of water per second of water will be discharged from the tunnels during the work. 

“It’s a bit like a large part of Turin or a large part of Lyon running out of water.”

Will the TGV Lyon-Turin have a positive impact on CO2 emissions?

According to the TELT project website, “The Mont Cenis base tunnel is a priority intervention in the context of the Green Deal’s decarbonisation objectives.”

Reducing emissions is said to be at the heart of the project which has two main aims:

– To encourage rail travel by halving journey times between Lyon and Turin.

– To encourage the transfer of 25 million tonnes of freight from road to rail every year.

 This is a major challenge, given that freight accounts for 80% of traffic on the line.

At present, it takes around seven hours to reach Milan from Paris by train. With the future high-speed line, it would take two hours less. 

At this point, it’s starting to become attractive for travellers to take the train rather than the plane,” said Stéphane Guggino. At present, the Paris-Milan air route, a journey of 1h 30 minutes, is used by over 50,000 passengers a month.

The project’s promoters also believe that fast, reliable and efficient infrastructure will be an incentive for freight carriers. The aim is to transfer almost half of all traffic from road to rail.

Construction of the Lyon-Turin track will emit around 10 million tonnes of CO2, which TELT insists will be offset after the line has been in use for 15 years. After that TELS maintains, that thanks to the transfer of goods from road to rail, the infrastructure should produce results in terms of CO2 reduction. 

Over 120 years of its use, the new line is expected to save one million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.

These figures were revised upwards in 2020 by a report from the European Court of Auditors, which estimates that it would take a minimum of 25 years – and perhaps even 50 years if the line is under-used – to offset the emissions linked to construction.

This estimate has been called into question by Transalpine, which criticised the report’s author, Yves Crozet, economist and president of the Union Routière de France think tank, for his lack of neutrality towards the Lyon-Turin project.

For the environmentalists opposed to the project, the environmental cost of the line outweighs its usefulness in the context of the climate crisis. 

“We think we’re going to solve problems by replacing old technologies with new ones. But our planetary limits no longer allow all that,” says Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield. “It’s also a question of reducing, being sober and no longer building useless things because their very construction causes environmental damage”.

2. Why not use the existing rail line?

The question of how to use the existing rail line is central to the debate on the Lyon-Turin TGV.

A line linking Lyon and Turin already exists. It passes through a historic 14-kilometre-long tunnel on Mont Cenis. Dug in 1871, the tunnel was renovated in 2012 to facilitate the transport of goods. It’s completely modernised. It only needs a few improvements, and it would cost much less to make them than to dig new tunnels,” said Philippe Delhomme, Co-President of the Vivre et Agir en Maurienne Association.

According to the project’s opponents, this “historic line” is under-used. NGO Les Amis de la Terre, the Vivre et Agir en Maurienne Association and the La France party have argued that the existing line would be “capable of ensuring a massive modal shift of 16 million tonnes per year, equivalent to the weight transported by one million heavy goods vehicles” – the target set by TELT.

However, it argues 162 freight trains will be able to pass through the new tunnel every day, compared with the 50 or so that currently travel daily on the existing line.

3. What impact will the project have on water resources?

The drying up of water resources is the most divisive aspect of this project.

One of the main challenges is the limited availability of this vital resource in the regions crossed by the project. In fact, the areas affected by the construction project are already experiencing a reduction in the flow of water as a result of climate change.

On the one hand, a project of this scale is extremely water-intensive. The construction of tunnels and railroads requires large quantities of water for earthworks, concreting and washing materials. This demand has a significant impact on existing reserves, further jeopardising the water supply of local communities and the surrounding ecosystem.

“But the water needed to build the tunnel is derisory compared to the amount of water wasted due to the interception of natural resources during excavation operations”, explained Alberto Poggio, an engineer and member of the Technical Commission of the Montana Union of Val di Susa.

The greatest danger is excavation. By drilling in the mountains, we risk drawing on natural water reservoirs. In a 2021 report, TELT confirmed that some of these resources were under threat. The water extracted would not be used in the work but would be taken out through the galleries to avoid flooding.

4. How will the landscape be affected?

The Alpine landscape that crosses the French-Italian border is already visibly affected. “In the Val di Susa, quality of life has become problematic from several points of view,” explains Alberto Poggio. “The presence of construction sites is starting to become a nuisance, from the point of view of materials and for the environmental impact noted by controls which are rather small but, are starting to indicate criticalities”, continued the expert.

According to the engineer, the landscape is also compromised by the presence of landfill sites where the materials used on the sites are stored: “When I do an excavation, what comes out, the crushed rock, has to be permanently disposed of. Part of this elimination has been achieved by dumping the material in identified areas of the same valley. This has already happened in the Maurienne and also at the Maddalena di Chiomonte site, where an auxiliary tunnel was dug and the waste used was dumped alongside it on a permanent basis”.

It’s the same scenario in France: “Meadows have been gutted, forests have already been razed to store future waste”, explains Philippe Delhomme. “Small villages are seeing more trucks transporting waste or goods, and are obviously upset by the dust, the noise… As the crow flies, I’m 1.4 kilometres from a waste disposal site. Well, I can hear the trucks, I can hear the noise of the machines. It’s no longer possible to accept this today.”

And farmland is at risk too. “We’re in a Beaufort zone which stipulates that 70% of the fodder needed to make this cheese for livestock is indispensable, and it can only be indispensable if the meadows are irrigated. But with less water, irrigation won’t be possible”, commented Philippe Delhomme.

But for TELT and its supporters, these are issues that need to be put into perspective.

“When you build infrastructure, there is always an ecological impact, that’s obvious. It is a reality, Stéphane Guggino said. “But these ecological impacts must be measured against the ecological benefits, over the very long term and from this point of view, it is always positive.”

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EU’s green transition is ‘a marathon’, says Environment Commissioner

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In this latest episode of the Global Conversation, we speak to Virginijus Sinkevičius about Europe’s waning enthusiasm for greener policies.

Green Week is the European Union’s annual opportunity to take stock of its climate policy. 

This year, the week of meetings and debates is taking place in an atmosphere where environmental objectives are being called into question. 

To discuss these challenges, Euronews met with the European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius.

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: The environmental priority seems to have taken a backseat when we hear the French president or the Belgian prime minister talking about a regulatory pause.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “I think the French president, if you listen for the whole speech, that was a very good, good speech, and that was not really meant to, you know, go against any of the current proposals that are already put forward. 

“It’s more of keeping a balanced approach and ensuring that we have the competitiveness of our businesses as the priority. And I can only reconfirm that was the Commission’s position from the very beginning, that the Green Deal is not possible without having everyone on board. But we should not forget that there is not going to be a peace treaty as regards [to] climate change or biodiversity loss. And these crises and their consequences are already putting a huge toll on our life as regards [to] food insecurity, as regards [to] floods or droughts, which not only costs a living for European citizens but also human lives. And of course, we need to prevent such disasters of scaling up across Europe.”

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: Isn’t this pause what people want to hear because they don’t see in their daily lives the effects of these green policies and they have other concerns?

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “It’s always easier to spot the immediate crisis. Such as a war which now [is] ongoing in Ukraine for more than a year. You have a clear image. With, for example, the degradation of our soil, it’s much more difficult to see it. Most likely the first ones to see, to understand are our farmers that have to deal with soil every day and who depend on soil fertility directly. But still, we as politicians, if we are responsible, we have to take future-oriented decisions. We cannot be jumping only on those topics that society is at this moment voicing up.

“If you return to 2019, across all political parties, everyone was in the race for the Green Deal. Who is even more ambitious? Today, this voice is diminishing. But the climate crisis or biodiversity loss or pollution pressures, they didn’t go anywhere. Such policies and a change that we are now doing as regards our economy, as regards our energy transition, transport and so on, this is a marathon, despite the pressures from outside.”

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: Are the Member states still involved? And what about the Parliament? Because the centre-right is asking for a moratorium (on several important texts of the Green Deal). Is there still a majority in favour of environmental policy?

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “So of course, first of all, member states, of course, are fully involved. Same I see with the parliament. Yes, you always have voices, that’s the beauty of democracy and the Parliament. But overall, you have to look if the work is going forward, then I can see that the work is going forward. I always wanted to go faster ahead. So we need to ensure that we are ready, that we are fit for tomorrow that looks gloomy. 

“And first of all, it looks gloomy to those economic actors that are directly dependent on ecosystems: our farmers, our fishers, our foresters. 50% of the world’s GDP is actually connected to ecosystems. I know it’s something that we take for granted, but at some point, if we lose it, there is not going to be a technology that can successfully replace it.”

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: Is the ongoing war in Ukraine putting pressure on the ambition and investment in favour of green policies?

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “I would say you have to probably split it into two parts. On the one hand, it had a very positive effect on our energy policies. So all our goals on renewable energy, our work as regards the package of REpowerEU, of developing renewable projects as being adopted with astonishing speed. And it really showed that this uncertainty and increased energy prices, they pushed us to look for alternatives that would allow us not [to] be dependent on uncertain, undemocratic regimes. 

“Now, when it comes to biodiversity policies, I can only reassure you that we don’t want foresters out of the forest or we don’t want fishers off the sea or farmers not working the land. On the contrary, we want them to do it for many, many years to come in a way that it’s rewarding for them, that it’s profitable in a way that is not damaging to the ecosystem. So that we ensure long-term sustainability.”

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: Will all the text be concluded before the end of the mandate?

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “If you look at the files that I’m in charge of: [the] circular economy, environmental files, I am optimistic that we are moving ahead swiftly and I hope that we can successfully conclude. As I said, we need it. We need [it] to maintain our leadership position globally. We need it because we were the leading force behind the global agreements and we need it to secure a deliverable future for the generations to come.

Grégoire Lory, Euronews: In this difficult context, what are the achievements that are set in stone and that will affect the citizens?

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for the Environment: “I think, first of all, you know, we’ve done a tremendous work as regards [to] the climate package and “Fit for 55” package, which is almost done. And that’s a great achievement. We have put forward already all the policies that are key policies as regards the circular economy and really moving from the linear model to a more circular model. And I’m very happy that co-legislators are very supportive. 

“And if you look at the product policy after this mandate, it will be unrecognisable, on all the changes that we have put forward. And I’m very proud of it. I’m happy that we managed early on to conclude our file on the batteries. We see that battery production by 2030 will increase 14-fold. So there are a number of great achievements. But as [I] said, when we talk about the Green Deal, it’s a complex horizontal change. It’s not one single initiative that can be called a Green Deal. And we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

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EU Environment Commissioner urges more action to save biodiversity

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It is an almost invisible crisis that threatens our food security, our health and the quality of the atmosphere in which we live. The collapse of biodiversity threatens to wipe out one million living species.

Euronews spoke to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius to discuss the deal recently agreed by the EU institutions which bans products linked to deforestation, and ask how it will impact people’s daily lives and what it will mean for biodiversity.

“Now Europeans will know that when buying chocolate, coffee in the stores, they will know that these products don’t come from deforested land”, said Virginijus Sinkevičius. “I think this is our pride and this is our credibility to ensure that…our consumption patterns here in Europe do not drive forest losses around the globe. But we also have a credible legislation which ensures that our trading — or to say our consumption — does not drive the processes.”

Biodiversity should be at the centre stage of international concern because of the UN’s COP15 summit in Montreal, that the Commissioner will be attending. But it doesn’t appear to be attracting as much attention as the COP27 climate conference that just took place last month. 

“I think it’s not a lack of interest, but maybe more of a lack of awareness and understanding. With climate, we are probably ten years ahead of where we are with biodiversity policies”, Sinkevičius explained.

“Climate is much easier to negotiate and understand. First of all, you have this overarching goal of 1.5 degrees, which everyone on the street can relate to and understand very well. Secondly, I think the Paris [Climate Agreement] helped increase awarness of the climate a lot because it was a historic agreement. So there is always additional attention from the media, from policymakers, and from civil society who want to know if we are delivering on those huge promises that we have made, which gave them hope”, he added.

“So I think all of that combined is there. For biodiversity we are not yet there. We still need an overarching goal, something similar to 1.5 degrees. Societies still don’t understand what biodiversity is. Everyone might have a completely different opinion, and I think too often people think it’s just about environment. To be honest, it’s about humans, first of all, and the health of our planet”, the European Commissioner for the Environment told Euronews.

In the face of so many current crises, Euronews asked Commissioner Sinkevičius for his thoughts and concerns about the potential for climate fatigue. 

“You can [be fatigued], and you can be tired of [the climate]. Sometimes it looks like it’s not getting immediate attention, but the problem hasn’t disappeared”, he replied.

“COVID-19 had a tragic impact on our society with the number of deaths, but we were lucky to have a vaccine. Now we have a situation of war, which, of course, draws our immediate attention. But you also have a pressure on our economy with energy bills rising up with inflation increasing. But one day there will be a peace treaty, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

But, he explained, “for the biodiversity crisis, for the climate crisis, there won’t be a vaccine or a peace treaty. So we have to advance those policies. Sometimes they might not receive immediate attention. Sometimes they might be very complicated. But I think we have already proven many times that the 2019 decision to introduce the European Green Deal has been the correct one. And even now in the background of war and the energy crisis, we see that the solution is the Green Deal, and the development of renewables, and ensuring that the projects are actually put out as fast as possible.”

When asked what are the EU’s goals for this COP15, Commissioner Sinkevičius said, “we need a global agreement, we need a deal. But it has to be ambitious. So it has to have a 30 by 30 goal, which I think can be equal to 1.5 degrees or the Paris momentum, where we had agreed to protect 30% of land territories and 30% of marine territories.”

“That’s not going to be enough. Secondly, of course, we need to ensure at least 20% of nature restoration efforts will be deployed by the year 2030 and by the year 2040. Overall, by 2050, we need to stop human induced biodiversity loss and that has to be our overarching goal. Last but not least, funding. Funding will be, as always, a tricky question, which will require lots of emphasis from all parties. But I think what’s most important is to ensure that we don’t have a gap with regards to the funding and implementation of the goals agreed, because we are already two years behind. We’re talking about the framework up to 2030, which had to be agreed post-2020.”

During the COP27, the financial rift between the global North and global South was one of the conference’s major talking points. Euronews asked Virginijus Sinkevičius for this thoughts on this.

“Inevitably, that split is going to be there. And as always, one side will be saying that if you want us to do more, you need to put more on the table. On the other side, we have a situation where the economic situation is very different than what we had two years ago. So it’s very difficult to put additional money on the table. I’m proud that the EU again will have a credible position. We pledged that we will double our spending for biodiversity and we have done that. I’m also very thankful to France and Germany, who did so as well. We need other developed countries, of course, to step it up. But what’s very clear, and we have to be realistic, is that there will never be enough money raised. But what we have to do is to use it effectively”, he replied.

When asked how much money is needed and where this money would come from, Commissioner Sinkevičius admitted that, “it’s difficult to say how much money is needed, and there are different estimations. And as I always say, it still probably wouldn’t be enough.” 

“There are countries who are calling for €100 billion per year. I think, at this moment, that is absolutely unrealistic. Because if you look where the money comes from — the countries’ pledges and countries’ funds, or EU funding, they come mainly from the development budgets.”

“We have to ensure that using the current funding mechanism, we also tap into a possibilities from other sources: philanthropists, investment banks, especially international ones. I think they, and the private sector have to play a crucial role in adding additional funding. So there is a potential of additional funding. I think the current funding mechanism can be open for that, and that will be also one of the topics we discuss during the negotiations”, he concluded.



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