XR scientists highlight the biodiversity crisis

Extinction Rebellion are best known for their campaign to bring home the importance of combatting climate change. But our future is also threatened by the loss of biodiversity, and the two crises are inextricably linked. Richard Price talked to local XR scientist Jane Ripley-Neale about the struggle get government take biodiversity loss seriously.

I interviewed Jane Ripley-Neale in her home in December, a few days after she had taken part in a demonstration outside the headquarters of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affiars (Defra), the ministry responsible for protecting biodiversity, the countryside and the marine environment, and for supporting the growth of a sustainable green economy. It was organised by Extinction Rebellion Scientists to highlight the biodiversity crisis.

The climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are linked to each other because when one gets worse so does the other and when one improves so does the other. Scientists predict that on our current trajectory of habitat loss and global warming, nearly 40 per cent of all species will face extinction by the end of this century. Entire food chains and ecosystems are threatened by these species’ extinction. This loss of biodiversity is also an existential threat to humanity because nature is us and we are nature.

The scientists

You have to be an active or recently retired scientist to be part of Extinction Rebellion Scientists. This is so that everybody can communicate on scientific issues. Jane has a degree in environmental science and started her career working in an environmental analysis laboratory where she carried out tests on water quality. She now teaches science to healthcare students.

Jane mentioned that she arrived late for the demonstration due to a delayed train. When she arrives at demonstrations, she feels a great deal of camaraderie for her fellow scientists who also risk arrest and intimidation. I asked Jane how they keep each other’s spirits up.

“Just coming together with other people who are fighting for the same cause is a morale booster. We keep in contact with one another online. Between demonstrations we plan the next. Burnout is a thing to avoid and for that reason we plan lots of retreat days and online relaxation. Mentally it is quite a challenge. You have the almost overwhelming worry that this apocalyptic event is coming towards us and the feeling that you’re risking intimidation or arrest.”

Why demonstrate?

If it was costing her time and money and causing her anxiety, why did she travel all the way from Hastings to London to attend demonstrations?

“Because I am really, really worried. I don’t like using words like terrified but all the time I think this is just starting to happen. This is just the beginning. Every year is worse. We have just three years to sort the climate. That’s not all. I don’t think that people really realise that if we can deal with the climate crisis the biodiversity crisis is going to get us because it is just as bad. We can’t survive without our food mechanisms and the natural systems that our whole society is based on. I really feel that the whole of society is in danger. Which is why I am demonstrating about both crises: biodiversity and climate.”

She is also worried about her granddaughter. “I look at her and I think that I might arguably get a few dodgy rough years at the end of my life but she will only be my age when it kicks off in 2050. By 2050 we are likely to have wars over water scarcity. Will Britain be hitting 45°C or 50°C regularly by then? That is not far away.

“I don’t think people realise our food systems and our soil depend on having a healthy environment and a diverse ecology to keep them running. That, and if you don’t have pollinators, there is a whole swathe of food that you are not going to be able to eat. If the soil is too depleted you have another problem, it won’t support the crops we rely on. We have just hit eight billion people.”

Sewage in our sea

The format of the demonstration is that scientists can volunteer to give a speech to explain why they are demonstrating. If her train had not been late Jane would have spoken of sewage. Hastings is a seaside town. Since water privatisation the beach has suffered increasingly poor water quality due to sewage discharges. Hastings now has one of the most polluted beaches in the UK.

I asked Jane what she would have said if her train had been on time. “It is quite personal – I have been on the sewage demonstrations in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea. There have been some bad sewage releases this year. Everybody demonstrating outside Defra was going to take a different aspect. I was going to focus on the marine ecology and the effect not only on the marine ecology but on locals and tourism. Marine environments are under threat because of the loss of the environmental protection. Even before we lost it we were not meeting any of our targets. It’s almost like the government have thought, we are not meeting the targets so let’s scrap them.”

Is it working? And if not, why not?

I pointed out that the government are very good at using public relations to persuade people that they are doing something about the environment and climate and  asked, “How do you counter that?”

“We are scientists. I don’t know whether or not providing scientific advisers is an effective way anymore because that is what we have been doing. We have been using statistics of biodiversity loss to show that there is a biodiversity crisis. We have been showing how carbon emissions are rising to demonstrate that there is a climate crisis. The changes required to lower them to safe levels becomes much harder as each year of government inaction passes. I don’t know why people aren’t as frightened as I am. I wonder if people are fed up with experts and have decided to ignore them.”

I asked Jane if there could there be another reason why presenting the facts was not working.

“I think that there are too many vested interests which have got too much of an upper hand. You can tell them the truth about what is happening to the climate but if oil companies have got deeper pockets, then that is the way the legislation will go. You can see it coming, opening up another coalmine. Giving out over 100 oil licences when last year at Cop 26 we committed to no new fossil fuel licences and here we are. It almost gives a message of, whatever you say, we are just going to do whatever we want.”

Recently I wrote a review of Jason Hickel’s book Less is More. Hickel wrote, ‘Sometimes scientific evidence conflicts with the dominant world view of a civilisation. When that happens, we have to make a choice. Either we ignore science, or we change our world view. If the government ignore the scientists there is a massive catastrophe later on but if they listen to them there is a chance but they have to change the economic system. Are they too afraid to change anything so they do nothing?” What did she think?

“I feel frustrated like one of the scientists in the film Don’t Look Up. When I am standing in the street sometimes people come up to me and say that they understand that there is a big issue. I think 70% of the population appreciate that a climate crisis is imminent. It wasn’t until this year when temperatures hit 40° that they really started to feel the effects of it. Now, we are in the middle of everything with the Ukraine and energy crisis.

“People cannot see that the energy crisis is linked to the climate crisis. Going for renewables could help both problems. People are trying to get by. Life is quite hard and they are just trying to get by and it’s hard for them to see the bigger picture. They feel as if you are asking for them to give up something.

“Whereas we pretty much run this house on renewables part of the time, not 100%. It is not really giving up on anything, it is moving towards a new future. We have had the carbon age, now it is time to move on to the renewables age. We are not saying that you’ve all got to live in a cave, it’s just that this is the next stage.

“I don’t know what stops people from wanting to move forward. It seems to me to be more of an opportunity, especially financially. It is the biggest growing sector in the world. It is green technology. It is not a panacea; there is always going to be an environmental impact with everything, but at least it is the least bad option and then in 50 years’ time we may have an even better world.”

Two connected crises have scientists alarmed

Scientists are sounding the warning claxon for two crises: the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. Hundreds of scientists contributed to the Working Group III report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, which was published in April 2022.

The report states that: “The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030.” To achieve such a change means our dependence upon and use of fossil fuels has to radically change. The report’s authors state that unprecedented changes will be required to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Everything will need to change: energy, transport, land use, industry, buildings and cities.

A safe operating space for humanity

During the interview Jane mentioned Jane mentioned Johan Rockström’s scientific paper, A Safe Operating Space for Humanity. This shows that the growth-based economic model is causing biodiversity and climate collapse as safe ecological limits are transgressed. Politicians advocate growth. I asked Jane what she would to Michael Gove if he said,” I am opening another coalmine because I’ve got to keep the growth going so that people won’t be hungry.”She replied, “I would say to him, there is no growth on a dead planet.”

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