The invisible ideology trashing our planet

An interview with George Monbiot, ahead of his talk at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London on 11 February 2020.


Brendan Montague | 3rd February 2020


If you get into debt buying your child branded trainers, if you fear redundancy, if you suffer anxiety about the future of the planet and you blame yourself for all of these things then you are showing symptoms of drowning in the “insidious” and “sinister” ideology of neoliberalism.

The escalating environmental and social crises that confront us - climate breakdown, collapse in biodiversity, the threat of war - are all failures of a worldview that puts profit making, the markets and economic growth ahead of human happiness. This is the George Monbiot prognosis.

The journalist and campaigner will be speaking at a three-hour special event at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London on Tuesday, 11 February 2020 under the title The Invisible Ideology Trashing Our Planet. Monbiot's speaking tour will continue on Thursday, 12 March 2020 at the UBSU Richmond Building in Bristol.

Intersectionality

The invisible ideology referred to is neoliberalism. But when I caught up with Monbiot at his home in Oxford this week he had already extended the scope of his speech to include capitalism and consumerism. This is the unholy trinity: capitalism is the father, consumerism the son and neoliberalism is the wholly ghost.

Neoliberalism is difficult to define. But in general terms, it is a school of thought within economics that asserts that free market capitalist is the best mechanism for making decisions in our modern, complex societies. The state should not intervene. This means fewer regulations, from banking to food. It means not providing health and social care. It means cutting taxes. Neoliberalism dominates the thinking of the world’s leaders, at a time when it undermines the efficacy of the state to deal with climate breakdown.

I ask Monbiot what neoliberalism means for climate advocacy and campaigning, and in particular whether it is relevant to contemporary discussions and debates taking place within Extinction Rebellion (XR). He hesitates, not wanting to “abuse” his position as Britain’s most influential environment journalist to sway the climate direct action movement. But I press him for an answer.

“As I see it, XR tried very hard to remain a single issue movement and to say, ‘we are not taking a justice position, we are not going to take a political position, we just want people to respect the science and introduce the policies that are in accordance with the science’. I understand that, because they wanted to reach as many people as possible.

“But there is obviously a tension between that and the intersectionality that our many issues demand and the necessity to understand the political context in which we operate and the political change required in order for us to operate.

Hegemonic

“I do not think we need to flinch from the fact that to take effective action on climate breakdown requires a change of leadership, a change in government, it requires political change and it very much requires ideological change. We fool ourselves if we think we can change the policies without attending to the political framing in which these policies are discussed."

He adds: “These have to be political campaigns as well as environmental campaigns. There is a lot of recognition [within XR] about where the constraints have been and lots of intelligent people having great conversations about how it evolves. It cheers me to see so many interesting discussions happening.”

So, I ask, does XR need to be anti-neoliberal?

“Obviously, if anything XR wants to happen is to happen, then we have to overthrow neoliberal ideology. The idea of government being so activist that it is going to transform our whole economy and go to zero carbon by 2025, and change our political system, even acknowledge the importance of a political system in making decisions, all that is directly counter to neoliberalism. If a political scientist was to analyse XR’s three demands and its charter they would say, this is a profoundly anti-neoliberal programme’.”

I asked whether neoliberalism also presents a challenge in terms of the XR proposal to have a citizens’ assembly with members chosen through sortition (which is similar to the way we select members of a jury in the criminal justice system). If neoliberalism is hegemonic, is all pervasive, then even the great British public will be trapped within its assumptions. Monbiot points out that the civil service will also be immersed in, and will have an interest in upholding, neoliberal ideology.

Capitalism

“I have never been in favour of a pure sortition system,” Monbiot responds. “What it does is give tremendous power to the civil service, because the civil service are the permanent officials who understand how the system works, who have a long term stake in that system, whereas the people who are chosen by sortition haven’t. T[he citizens] are not trying to get in at the next election - they will not have a long term political programme. That makes the bureaucracy tremendously and dangerously powerful. A mixed system - in the widest possible sense - has got more to say for it.”

I’m interested in the fact that Monbiot has extended the horizon of his talk from neoliberalism to include capitalism. I want to know whether a non-neoliberal capitalism is now possible. Why did it take Monbiot so long to come to attacking capitalism head on? “There was an element of fear involved.”

“Directly attacking capitalism is blasphemy today. It’s like pronouncing that there is no god in the 19th century. But of course we recognise those who did so as pioneers whose voices were necessary. I suddenly realised that for years I had been talking about variants of capitalism. I had been talking about corporate capitalism, neoliberal capitalism, crony capitalism.

“But then it suddenly struck me that maybe it is not the adjective, but the noun. It makes a difference, the form of capitalism, but all forms drive us to the same destination, albeit at different rates. So neoliberal capitalism accelerates natural destruction. But Keynsian social democratic capitalism still gets us there, but maybe a little more slowly because it has more regulatory involvement and less inequality.

So John Maynard Keynes, the influential economist who advocated government management of the economy, make a return? Can we stage a tactical retreat? Or has capitalism reached a point where neoliberalism red in tooth and claw is necessary for capitalist profit generation?

Power

“We cannot go back to [Keynes],” Monbiot responds. “It is growth based. The whole point of Keynesian economics is to maintain the rate of growth - not too fast, not too slow - and we know that even a steady rate of growth is progress towards disaster. But also, in its first iteration in the years after the Second World War it was very effectively destroyed, principally by finance capital working out ways to destroy capital controls, foreigh exchange controls.

“The idea that we can relaunch a Keynesian capitalism and not have it destroyed by people who have already destroyed it once, who have not forgotten those lessons, and who are in a much more powerful position to destroy it today….that’s just dreaming. That is magical thinking. You cannot go back in politics, you have constantly to devise new models.”

So Monbiot argues that capitalism now is neoliberal capitalism. Also that XR is by necessity a direct challenge to neoliberalism. The inference - although he does not say this directly - is that XR can only achieve its aims by challenging capitalism itself.

Interestingly, Monbiot defines not just neoliberalism but also capitalism and consumerism as ideologies in his talk. Neoliberalism is defended as a practice, or as the contemporary paradigms in economics. But it also understood by many as an ideology. Calling capitalism and consumerism ideologies is novel, or at least unusual.

“Part of the insidious power of these ideologies is that they are the water in which we swim - the plastic soup in which we swim. They are everywhere. They affect our decision making every day, they affect the way we see ourselves.

Collective

"They are difficult to see not because they are so small but because they are so big. We are immersed in these incredibly powerful ideologies. The most powerful ideologies never announce themselves as ideologies, they are not recognised as ideologies. That is where their power lies. Our first step is to recognise them as ideologies.”

So the question arises: can we ever escape ideology? Karl Marx, the philosopher communist, believed that through a rational, logical, analysis of the economy and of society he had punched through “bourgeois” or capitalist ruling class ideology and glimpsed momentarily a non-ideological reality. But if we argue that we are not ideological, that we are free entirely of any illusions, is this not proof positive that we are so deeply immersed that we cannot even see the edges of our own delusion?

“I don’t think you can be [ideologically free]. We’re so governed by our social environment, and our social environment will always be saturated by ideology. To be ideology free would be to become an island, you would have to be completely isolated from all other human beings - and even then you would probably create your own ideology. You often hear people stand up and say, ‘I have no ideology’. And that is just self deception.”

Monbiot presents a compelling argument. We have come to the end of the interview. I take one last sip of tea. We say our goodbyes. And I am back out on the street. The cold air is refreshing. I think about the fact that I am even now contained entirely within ideology, neoliberal ideology.

I am willing to believe that we will never escape ideology - a grand narrative that explains who we are, where we are, what we are. If this is the case, we as individuals and as a collective humanity must choose our ideology wisely.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. A feature based on this George Monbiot interview - focused on neoliberalism as the ideology of disconnection - will feature in the May/June issue of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine.

Drugs, war inextricably tied, Watson panel says
Professor Peter Andreas explains how, through war, six drugs gained popularity

By AANCHAL SHETH STAFF WRITER Friday, January 31, 2020

LEON JIANG / HERALD

A panel at the Watson Institute discussed Professor Peter Andreas’ book, “Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs,” and the five dimensions of war and drugs, such as “war while on drugs.”

Six drugs — cocaine, tobacco, opium, amphetamines, alcohol and caffeine. In “Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs,” Peter Andreas, professor of international studies and political science and professor of international and public affairs, details how these six drugs have sparked, fueled and been popularized by war for hundreds of years.

Andreas spoke on his recently launched book at the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs Thursday. “War made drugs and drugs made war,” Andreas told The Herald.

Andreas explored the relationship between drugs and war through a“five-dimensional approach,” he said. The first dimension explores “war while on drugs,” which includes the use of drugs during wartime to cope with stressful situations and celebrate victories, Andreas said. The second consists of “war through drugs,” entailing the use of drugs as a weapon of war. Another example is funding wars through alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and opium revenue. The third dimension deals with “war for drugs,” which addresses conflict motivated by desire for access to or control of drug markets. The fourth dimension, “war against drugs,” uses military and strategic resources to fight drugs, an approach that began with President Nixon declaring war on drugs in 1971.
The final dimension is “drugs after war,” which covers the change in consumer outcomes and preferences because of war. Andreas questioned why the United States is a coffee-drinking nation rather than a tea-drinking one. “Because we won the American Revolution, when the Brits went on to tea, we went on to coffee. … The very taste that we take for granted is actually the result of war,” Andreas explained during the discussion. Panelist C.J. Chivers, a writer for the New York Times and combat veteran, also spoke to this aspect of Andreas’ research, noting that prescribed drugs are deeply concerning for veterans after war, who receive limited or no counseling on the proper use of pharmaceuticals.

Andreas began his research for “Killer High” seven years ago. When he initially began writing, Andreas had a “bias towards thinking it’s about cocaine and heroin.” But Andreas was surprised by the importance of legal drugs. “It was pretty eye-opening to discover how important caffeine and alcohol and tobacco have been historically,” he added. Andreas also said that the word “coffee” was mentioned more times in soldiers’ diaries than the words “gun,” “cannon” or “rifle.” Despite Andreas’ research on the harm drugs have caused, he has an addiction of his own. “Caffeine is my drug of choice.”

Andreas wanted to find the “sweet spot” between writing good scholarship and accessible reading material for non-specialists. Panelist Angelica Duran-Martinez PhD’13, associate professor of political science at University of Massachusetts Lowell, said that the topics were presented so accessibly that she has assigned this book as a reading for her students. Chivers also held up his copy of Andreas’ book, which had handwritten notes scrawled over the pages. “When I get to the end of the book and I’ve used up two ink pens, it’s probably a sign that it’s a hell of a book,” he said.

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RHODE ISLAND

Activists protest Chase Bank’s ties to fossil fuels

Protesters demand JPMorgan Chase divest from fossil fuels, ask customers to close accountsBy BEN GLICKMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Monday, February 3, 2020

Roughly 35 demonstrators gathered in front of Chase Bank on Thayer for the latest in a series of nationwide Stop the Money Pipeline protests.

Protesters waved colorful signs — painted with messages like “protect the lungs of the planet” and “defund fossil fuels” — outside Chase Bank’s Thayer Street location Friday. The sound of chants and songs filled the air as mid-day traffic slowed, some drivers honking and waving their hands in support. One protester brought a guitar.

Activists with Climate Action Rhode Island were calling for Chase to cut its fossil fuel industry investments.

The gathering of about 35 people was the latest in a series of nation-wide protests called Stop the Money Pipeline,  which aim to disrupt the financing of the fossil fuel industry. The protestors demanded that Chase fully divest from fossil fuels and, in the meantime, asked that customers close their accounts with the bank.

Between 2016 and 2018, JPMorgan Chase invested nearly $196 billion in the fossil fuel industry — more than any other U.S. bank, Justin Boyan, current president of Climate Action RI, said, citing a report last year on fossil fuel investments, which was published by a group of environmental organizations including the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and BankTrack.

Other major banks have reduced investments in fossil fuels, including HSBC in 2018 and BlackRock last year, Boyan added.

“Sustainability is an important part of serving our communities,” Carolyn Evert, vice president of Northeast regional communications at JPMorgan Chase, wrote in an email to The Herald. “Also, we recognize the complexity of climate change issues and actively engage with a diverse set of stakeholders to understand their views.”

Evert wrote that JPMorgan Chase is committed to converting to “renewable energy for 100 percent of our global power needs by the end of 2020 and to facilitate $200 billion in clean financing by 2025.”

Kendra Anderson, former president and current chair of fundraising for Climate Action RI, spoke to the protesters and led chants on a megaphone. Anderson is currently running for RI State Senate in District 31.

“The investing that Chase is doing is suicide investing,” she said. “There’s no reason for it to go on any longer.”

Shortly after the protest began, a single-file stream of protestors walked through the crowd outside the branch, and into the building. They held signs in the shape of gravestones, each inscribed with a event caused by climate change — and their corresponding death tolls.

Inside the bank, protesters read their specific natural disaster out loud — ending the statement with “funded by Chase” — and laid down on the floor. So-called “die-ins” have become a popular form of public protest amongst climate change activists.

Police arrived on-site several minutes later and escorted the protesters out of the building.

Employees of the Chase bank present at the protest declined to comment.

Some of the protesters outside are regularly involved with Climate Action RI, while others joined in after walking by.

Will Nakshian has been to four other protests with Climate Action. He said he’s protesting for his two children.

Nakshian had never been an activist and was never involved in politics — but that changed after he read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report in 2018. “When I heard about what could happen to (my children’s) future, I became very concerned,” Nakshian said. 

Sunrise Members confront state house speaker

Protestors oppose Speaker Matiello’s commentary on climate crisis

By KATIE CHEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Friday, January 31, 2020

NAOMY PEDROZA / HERALD

Student protesters, who work to promote environmental justice and stop the climate crisis, decided to interrupt Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello (D-Cranston) during a fundraiser. The protesters sang and hold up banners with statements opposing climate change.

At the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello (D-Cranston) was holding a fundraiser when a group of students from the Sunrise Movement Providence started to sing.

The student protesters, who work to promote environmental justice and stop the climate crisis, decided to interrupt the Democratic state representative’s event following comments he made earlier this month about climate change, according to a Sunrise Providence press release.

“There’s nothing Rhode Island can do to address climate change in a way that’s real or impactful … all you can do is harm your economy and not improve your climate unless the entire nation joins in,” Mattiello told the Boston Globe at their Legislative Kickoff Panel Jan.15.

After singing and holding up banners with statements opposing climate change, staff and security asked the protesters to leave. The Herald did not enter the fundraiser but was also asked to leave the hotel before the protest began.

“We are just appalled by Mattiello’s recent comments about the climate crisis and thinking that Rhode Island can’t do anything about it,” Emma Bouton ’20, Sunrise Providence actions lead and co-hub coordinator, told The Herald.

Speaker Mattiello could not be reached for comment by press time.

Attendees of the fundraiser had mixed reactions to Mattiello’s climate comments.

“I think he’s exactly right. I think he’s spot on, in fact. Climate change is a global issue. … Rhode Island’s carbon footprint is so fractional that it almost doesn’t even register,” said Jonathan Shaer, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association and fundraiser attendee.

“I don’t know how to take that. … I haven’t really thought about the climate change issue with him, and I’d have to do a little more sitting on it,” said Vice President of the Rhode Island State Association of Firefighters Scott Robinson.

In addition to his remarks about climate change, Mattiello has also been under fire for requesting an audit of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority while one of his friends dealt with a personnel issue there, according to WRPI.

Protesters believe his comments set a bad example.

“If that’s what they’re hearing from their leaders, people start to think that (climate change) is an impossible crisis, even though the reality is we have the technology, we’re just lacking the political will to implement it. It’s just confusing and disheartening to people, and we need our leaders to step up,” Bouton said.

Despite being one of the most powerful leaders in Rhode Island’s Democratic Party, Mattiello has a history of conflict with University students over the more conservative parts of his platform, The Herald previously reported. Students from groups Thoughts Prayers Action and Brown Progressive Action Committee canvassed against Mattiello when he ran for reelection in 2018.

Sunrise members, who have fought for top Democrats to reject fossil fuel money, were arrested last month after calling on Gov. Gina Raimondo to take the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.

“What tonight makes clear to us is that Speaker Mattiello has chosen his wealthy donors — including numerous fossil fuel executives — over our futures,” Bouton wrote in the Sunrise Providence press release.

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Capitol Alert
Teens drench themselves in fake oil in climate change protest at California pension fund


BY ANDREW SHEELER JANUARY 30, 2020 


See young activists drag 'oil tanker' down Capitol Mall in protest of CalSTRS
Activists from Youth vs Apocalypse march from the state Capitol to the CalSTRS building West Sacramento to call on divestment of funds from the fossil fuel industry, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. BY DANIEL KIM

Dozens of young people staged a dramatic march from the Capitol to the headquarters of California’s teacher pension fund on Thursday, imploring CalSTRS to withdraw its investments from oil and gas companies.

The children, some drenched in mock oil, participated in a “die-in” at CalSTRS headquarters in West Sacramento, where they said their generation would suffer from the effects of climate change.

“We’re the ones that are vulnerable,” Sophia Jacobs, 12, of Berkeley said.


Their protest marked the latest effort by environmental advocacy groups to press California’s public pension funds to divest from fossil fuel industries.

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The California State Teachers’ Retirement System with a $250 billion portfolio and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System with $400 billion in assets generally oppose divesting from legal industries, and each has an environmental sustainability strategy that acknowledges the risks of climate change.


Nonetheless, each fund is facing pressure to do more.

“We know that climate change will affect our portfolio and we have an investment team dedicated to managing climate risk and investing in solutions,” CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes said in a written statement. “We partner with other investors to push for companies to reduce their carbon emissions. The board is hearing items today and tomorrow that will keep us on the path to full funding while addressing climate risks, so we can deliver pensions far into the future.”

California state Treasurer Fiona Ma, a member of both pension boards, has called for CalSTRS to divest $6 billion from fossil fuel companies.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in September signed an executive order that called on CalPERS, CalSTRS and the University of California Retirement Plan to work with his office in shifting “investments to companies and industry sectors that have greater growth potential based on their focus of adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change, including investments in carbon-neutral, carbon-negative and clean energy technologies.”

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Protecting wolves in Finland
Grassroots appeal in the European Court of Justice to protect endangered wolves in Finland.Sari Kantinkoski | 16th January 2020


Wolves and other large carnivores were near extinction or extinct in several countries in Europe by the early 1900s.

In Finland, wolves continued to be freely hunted until 1973 and only few individuals were roaming in boreal forests. When Finland became a member state of the European Union in 1995, wolves became a protected species in Finland.

Poaching is considered to be as one of the main reasons why wolves have not managed to reach favorable conservation status in Finland in twenty years of their recovery.

Prohibition

The Habitats Directive of the European Union includes wolves as a protected species. The Directive protects wolves at different levels in different parts of Finland.

Outside of the designated reindeer husbandry area, wolves are strictly protected, meaning that all hunting, disturbing and harming of these animals is prohibited.

Finland was sued by the Commission of the European Union in the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in 2005 because it had not fulfilled its obligations of wolf conservation.

The Court decided that “by authorizing wolf hunting on a preventive basis, without it being established that the hunting is such as to prevent serious damage within the meaning of Article 16(1)(b) of Council Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, Finland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 12(1) and 16(1)(b) of that directive.”

In 2005, Finland also released the first management plan for wolves. The plan introduced several preventive methods and measures to protect the Finnish wolf population of about 200 individuals, but the implementation of those measures was handled very poorly.

Management

Before the decision of the CJEU, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry launched a so-called management hunt of wolves in 2006 and the next year, the population collapsed from 220-250 individuals to 200 wolves and continued to deteriorate to 120-135 wolves in 2013.

There was no action taken to prevent poaching, damage to livestock or dogs, the spreading of misinformation or the increasing antagonism towards wolves during 2007-2014.

The conflict worsened in 2013, when 12 hunters at Perho, Ostrobothnia were convicted of illegal hunting of wolves. One of the convicted was a member of a National Wildlife Council in Finland. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry began to update the management plan for wolves in 2014.

The new update of the management plan was supposed to concentrate on the preventive methods to support the recovery of the wolf population in Finland. In workshops, several stakeholders including representatives of hunting, agriculture, and conservation interest groups agreed on electric fencing, compensatory payments, territorial collaborative management and the importance of the role of accurate information, among other things.

But instead of going forward with what was agreed upon in the workshops, the Ministry decided to launch a management hunt of wolves as a two-year experiment.

WorkAs a result of the derogation procedures of the Wildlife Agency in Eastern Finland, we established NGO Tapiola in November 2014, to intervene by legal action and to question the decision making regarding the wrongful interpretations of the Habitats Directive.

Soon we realized that our new organization had its hands full of work. We gave a statement to the Ministry concerning the new management plan and the hunting quota of 29 wolves, which had unexpectedly appeared along with the plan.

Simultaneously the Wildlife Agency released the information regarding the application process for permissions. The last day for giving statements concerning the quota was on 22 January 2015, and all the permissions for 24 wolves were granted on 23 January 2015.

With only a small budget and without any assistance from lawyers, we appealed all the permissions. Two Administrative Courts prohibited the implementation of the licenses for five wolves. We argued that hunting violated the Habitats Directive Article 16 (1)(e) derogation preconditions in allowing the hunt to take place during the breeding season.

Also, the Directives requirements- “selective basis”, “limited extent” and “under strictly supervised conditions” weren’t met during the hunt. 17 wolves were killed in the management hunt.

Appeal

The appeal process can take several months, sometimes even years. As a result of the “first round”, all the courts, besides the Administrative court of Hämeenlinna (Northern Tavastia), claimed that legally Tapiola was not an authorized local NGO with a right to appeal. But when also the Court of Hämeenlinna rejected our appeal, none of them were successful.

Gathering information and scientific data was an essential part of our commitment to prove every single of the claims we made.

Therefore, we collected data of population development, mortality, biology, scientific studies and research, legislation, legal praxis, preventive methods, police orders, etc. At the end of 2015, we changed our organizational structure into an association with six district organizations under one national umbrella organization.

The management hunt of wolves continued as planned in January 2016, with a quota of 46 wolves. Eventually 44 of them were killed.

Our district organizations appealed, and this time all the Administrative courts rejected either our appeals or our right to appeal. The Administrative Court of Eastern Finland concluded that we had no right to appeal, even though, there was a contradictory decision from a year earlier given to another local organization.

We decided to take our case to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) of Finland. The SAC took our case and confirmed our right to appeal. As per our suggestion, the court also decided to ask for a preliminary ruling from European Union Court of Justice in November 2017.

Last resort

The process actually started when the CJEU asked for a written observation in March 2018. In the end the observation was a 20-page long document, with 30 attachments and 55 references. After the written observations, the Court invited us to an oral hearing which was held in Luxembourg in January 2019.

The Advocate General gave his opinion in May 2019 which gave reason for the Ministry to plan the management hunting again. The ministry had launched earlier the same year the third version of the management plan of wolves.

Hunting was once again on the table, until the ruling of the EUCJEU came out on October 10th2019. The CJEU’s decision respected the Habitats Directive and its spirit and purpose, which is to protect species. It confirmed that derogation is allowed only in rare cases, when there is no other satisfactory alternative, and there is scientifically valid evidence that derogation is an effective solution to the problem.

In other words, killing is always the last resort, while other alternatives are primary. The court also highlighted the precautionary principle and noted that recommendations in permissions were not legally binding, thus allowing the killing of breeding and collared individuals.

The Court also underlined, that reaching a favorable conservation status requires a long-term observation and highlighted the need for biological evidence. In larger context, the management hunting of wolves did not follow the Directive’s requirements for when exceptions from strict protection was permissible.

ProtectionsThe ruling of the CJEU concerns all species that are strictly protected under the Habitats Directive Annex IV and all the member states of the European Union.

Why did we do this? We did it because we had to. The administration gave us no choice, since there was no genuine effort to listen to the environmental organizations and no honest intention to fulfil the Directive’s obligations. We succeeded only because we were right. We had a case and the means to prove it. The CJEU was not interested in who we were, but what we had to say.

The ruling of the CJEU authoritatively interprets the Habitats Directive and must be followed in every decision concerning strictly protected species in lawmaking, administrative decision making, as well as by courts.

The “Fellowship of The Ruling” must go on, we have still work to do. We continue to monitor that endangered species will have the full protection provided by the Habitats Directive in Finland.

At the moment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has set up a committee to find solutions on how to implement managemental hunting despite the ruling and without going into infringement proceedings with the EU Commission.

This Author

Sari Kantinkoski is a founding member of ANC Tapiola. She is a Bachelor of Environmental Science and her main subject is the environmental change and policy. Her current occupation is a nature surveyor, specialized in mammals and dragonflies. She lives on the West Coast of Finland and has a wolf pack “of her own” living nearby, which she has monitored for several years. Tapiola was established in 2014. Priorities of the organization are habitats, endangered species and large carnivore.

Image: Juha Sjöholm, wolves at Ähtäri Zoo.


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And the Oscar goes to ... Planet Earth?

Reuters
February 2, 2020

From plant-based meals to repeat tuxedos and water bottle bans, Hollywood has come to embrace sustainability in an awards season usually known for excess.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, many of whom are vocal about environmental issues, are now turning words into action on red carpets and at gala dinners as they crisscross the United States for award shows and appearances.

Dinners at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice Awards in January served up vegan fare, while the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has banned plastic water bottles at all Oscar events and said all food served will be sustainably farmed.

“Consuming animals is no longer just a personal choice. It is having a drastic and vast consequence on the rest of the world and all of us,” said “Joker” best actor Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, a lifelong vegan who encouraged organizers of the Golden Globes to switch to an entirely plant-based menu for the first time.

Others are ditching planes and private jets for electric or hybrid cars as they travel to film festivals in California and beyond

“Stranger Things” actor Brett Gelman is among those who say they have been spurred to review their lifestyles. “I plan to change a great deal in my diet and the way I use energy, composting, the way I purchase clothing. … I’m certainly not taking any private jets,” Gelman told reporters last month.

Inspired by teen activist Greta Thunberg, Jane Fonda is bringing her Fire Drill Fridays climate change protest from Washington to Los Angeles, two days before next Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.

To be sure, there is still a way to go. While celebrity gift bags this season include items like a “self-watering, self-fertilizing farmstand” they also offer cruises on luxury yachts.

Guests at the MusiCares gala dinner for rock band Aerosmith last month were served steak and chicken, on the same plate, and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actress Alex Borstein quipped that she planned to head to a steak house after a vegan dinner at the Critics’ Choice Awards in January.

‘NO HOLLYWOOD ON A DEAD PLANET’The youth arm of the group Extinction Rebellion plans a protest at the famous Hollywood sign on the eve of the Academy Awards, aimed at persuading the entertainment industry to do more.

“Some stars of Hollywood are aware of the scale of the climate crisis, and some have started to take action. … But we do not believe that Hollywood as a whole has taken an acceptable stance on the climate crisis,” the group said in a statement, announcing the protest.

“There is no Hollywood on a dead planet,” the group added.

Daniel Hinerfeld, director of content partnerships at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the publicity around initiatives like vegan dinners “shows the power that Hollywood has to start conversations, to set trends, and to shift attitudes.”

But he urged the industry to do more and to use its storytelling powers to highlight climate change.

“We really need to see more film and TV that really is dealing with all of the incredibly complicated and dramatic and potentially comedic aspects of climate change, which is this huge drama,” Hinerfeld said.

Red carpet fashion may be slow to catch up, despite the influence of designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, whose Paris retirement show in January featured upcycled haute couture, including skirts made out of silk ties.

Phoenix, who has won a slew of awards this year, won kudos in January for his plans to stick with the same tuxedo throughout the season.

“He chooses to make choices for the future of the planet. He has also chosen to wear this same tux for the entire award season to reduce waste,” tweeted designer Stella McCartney, who provided the tux.

It remains to be seen whether other stars will follow suit, or choose recycled gowns for the world’s biggest red carpet at the Oscars.

Rising New York-based designer Daniel Silverstein, who creates clothing from remnants and scraps, says he has not so far had any red carpet approaches for his Zero Waste Daniel label, although he is prepared to give A-listers the benefit of the doubt.

“People in Hollywood and the music industry are fanatical about using ethical beauty products. So I am sure there is a lot of sustainability under the surface that we don’t even realize,” he said.

“What I would hope to see more of is people with a platform using their opportunity to talk about their personal style and to change the conversation.”

 (Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Jane Ross Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Des Moines protest: Climate change activists march through Des Moines

Danielle Gehr, Des Moines Register Published Feb. 1, 2020

Blair Frank led a group chant, "One global family," as climate change activists filled up Locust Street between 5th and 4th avenues Saturday around noon. 

(Photo: Danielle Gehr / The Register)

Hundreds of climate activists filled portions of downtown Des Moines on Saturday to address what they believe is a lack of media coverage of climate issues.

The "Climate Crisis Parade" began on Locust Street between Fifth and Fourth avenues, just outside the building that houses the Des Moines Register.

Before marching through the street, some of the participants stood in the road and addressed the crowd with a sense of urgency, saying the media has failed to cover global warming and its effects. Seventy groups sponsored the event Saturday and about 400 people marched through downtown to the Iowa Events Center.

► Wetter springs, hotter summers: Climate change threatens Iowa farm economy

► More: Students demand action on climate during a rally at Iowa Capitol

► More: Iowa scientists warn of 'sobering extreme heat' for the Midwest

Danielle Gehr is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. She can be reached by email at dgehr@dmreg.com, by phone at 515-284-8367 or on Twitter at @Dani_Gehr.

Uncle's legacy

The struggle for social and ecological justice can't be left to technocrats. We must name the real culprits - capitalism and colonialism.


Elias Koenig | 23rd January 2020 


On June 23, 1988, a 47-year old NASA-scientist delivered a path-breaking testimony to the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The scientist, who had been studying global temperatures for years, announced that he could declare “with 99 percent confidence” that the recent surge in global temperatures was a result of human activity. He also warned that a further increase in global temperatures would considerably increase the likelihood of extreme events such as heat waves.

Soon after, the first public debate about climate change erupted. The scientist’s name is James Hansen and until today his testimony is remembered as the first warning to a mass audience about global warming and one of the key moments in the history of climate change.

Catastrophic consequences

Hansen, however, was not the first person to address a public body and to issue a warning on the looming catastrophic effects on climate change. Among the many forgotten stories, one is that of Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder from Greenland, who goes by the name “Uncle”.

Long before the world came to be aware of climate change, Uncle’s elders had observed the increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet with great concern. They knew it could have catastrophic consequences for the entire planet.

In 1978 – 10 years before Hansen’s hearing – they sent Uncle to speak to the governments of the world and to warn them. Uncle indeed travelled to New York and issued a stern warning at the United Nations. Unfortunately, no one listened.

Several decades later, both Hansen’s and Uncle’s worst predictions have become true. With Australia burning and Indonesia drowning, Indian farmers committing mass suicide, and Zambia at the brink of famine, there are few corners of the world left that that have not yet been severely impacted by the climate crisis.

Even after years, Hansen’s testimony is still well-remembered by a rejuvenated youth-led global climate movement, which mobilised six million people around the world for its September climate action week alone. One of its heroes, Greta Thunberg (“Unite behind the Science”), was recently named the Person of the Year by TIME magazine.

But the movement has forgotten about Uncle and millions of people like him.

Wilderness movement

Rather than being understood as an issue that pertains to everyone and especially the most vulnerable populations, climate change has come to be viewed as the exclusive domain of scientists and technocrats (“policy-makers”), a perception that remains unchallenged by most middle-class climate protestors.

Perhaps, one might argue, this ignorance is one of the reasons that the movement that has brought so many people onto the streets has also been rather ineffective in actually effecting change: global carbon-emissions once more reached an all-time high in 2019.

In their 1997 book “Varieties of Environmentalism” historian Ramachandra Guha and economist Juan Martinez-Alier distinguish between two “kinds of environmentalism”: “The environmentalism of the poor originates as a clash over productive resources: A third kind of class conflict, but one with deep ecological implications. Red on the outside, but green on the inside.

"In Southern movements, issues of ecology are often interlinked with questions of human rights, ethnicity and distributive justice.

"In contrast, the wilderness movement in the North originates outside the production process. It is in this respect more of a single-issue movement, calling for a change in attitudes (towards the natural world), rather than a change in sytems of production or distribution.”

Social justice

Guha and Martinez-Alier heavily criticise the Western environmental movement, in particular its wilderness preservation strand, for being ignorant about social and political issues. They cite examples such as the eviction of indigenous people for tiger reserves in South Indian Karnataka or the imposition of fishing bans on poor fishermen on the Galapagos Islands.

According to Guha and Martinez-Alier, this does not only put the wilderness movement into a morally questionable position (“destroying the world and at the same time mourning it”), but it also makes it ineffective.

Instead, the authors argue in favour of an environmentalism of the poor which combines environmentalism with the quest for social justice and a more equitable access to resources.

A famous instance thereof is the struggle of the Ogoni people in Nigeria, who bravely stood up to the oil companies that made billions of dollars by destroying their homeland, and whose leaders were murdered at the hands of Shell and the Nigerian dictatorship.

Another well-known case is the Chipko movement in India, lead by peasant indigenous women protesting deforestation - to them, we owe the term “tree hugger”.

From environment to climateIn the twenty-first century, we have seen a shift from environmental movements to climate movements, as the climate crisis has surfaced as perhaps the most urgent of many environmental problems. But the basic contrast observed by Guha, Martinez-Alier, and others has not disappeared.

On the one hand, there are climate movements, which are dominated by members of the (white) educated middle class, who have attended prestigious schools and use the language of “carbon taxes”, “mitigation/adaptation”, “governance”, “sustainable development”, “green growth”, and “carbon accounting”.

On the other hand, there are still many other movements more centred around issues such as land rights, social and ecological justice, and other issues, often lead by women, students, workers, minorities, or indigenous groups.

The fact that the latter type of movement often does not label or understand itself as a “climate movement” does not mean that its struggles are less important to the cause of creating a fair and sustainable, carbon-neutral world, a fact that the middle-class climate movement often seems to forget.

Consider, for example the anti-gentrification struggle that is fought in many places around the world. Most anti-gentrification activists would not regard themselves as part of a climate movement, yet their struggle is connected to environmental concerns, too: after all, there is no more carbon-intensive city than the segregated, gentrified metropolis.

Or the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement MST, one of the biggest social movements around the world with more than a million members. MST’s focus is to agitate for land reform and to redistribute land through occupation. On the face of it, it is therefore not necessarily part of the “climate movement”. But in addressing issues such as climate change, and deforestation, and by redistributing land to more than 370 000 families, the MST had perhaps had a much larger positive impact on the climate than many self-proclaimed climate movements.

Neglect

Similarly, people who are engaged in confronting fascists and climate change deniers directly, or in making education more accessible, are contributing a great deal to the fight against climate change.

Another case in point is the example of Malaysia, which hosts a climate movement comprising groups like KAMY - Klima Action Malaysia (Klima being derived from the German word for “climate”).

During a recent event at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, a young local climate activist claimed that 2019 had marked the birth of the Malaysian climate movement. In a sense, this statement is correct: A climate movement that fashions itself in the manner of the Western climate movements is perhaps indeed a new appearance in Malaysia.

On the other hand, the speaker seems to be neglecting the work that has been done by different movements since the dawn of the colonial era, be it against deforestation, extinction, mining and infrastructure projects, the dislocation of indigenous communities and peasants, and large multinational corporations since the British East India Company.

Political change

If the global climate movement wants to avoid becoming the Wilderness Preservation Movement of the 21st century, it must avoid repeating its mistakes and rethink its priorities and allies.

It must stop paying lip service to “climate justice”, cease to only centre scientists and technocrats and start to address and include people like Uncle, who have decades of experience in resisting colonialism and extractive capitalism.

And it must understand that movements which are not just climate movements, but understand themselves to be engaged in a more holistic socio-ecological struggle, are more likely to be successful in bringing about effective and sustainable political change for at least two reasons.

Firstly, because they have a better analysis and understanding of the crisis they are facing. They understand that moderate institutional reforms are not addressing the issue in a way that is productive.

And secondly, because they are better at mobilising people for their cause. The climate movement might be able to mobilise millions for protest marches and demonstrations, similar to the Anti-Iraq war protests. But it cannot compete with locally-rooted social movements that are grounded in existing communities, appeal to the material interests of the majority of the population, and aim at affecting radical and sustainable change.

New vision

The rise of the global climate movement in 2019 has been hopeful, yet ineffective.

In 2020, let us focus on strengthening the cause of a slightly different kind of global movement. A movement that does not hesitate to name the culprits: capitalism and colonialism.

A transnational movement that aims to save the Kendeng mountains in Indonesia, the Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh, and the Lamu community in Kenya.

A movement that stands in solidarity with the indigenous youth of Australia, the revolution in Rojava, and the Zapatista movement in Chiapas.

A movement that does not rely on international treaties and technocrats to realise “climate action”, but takes it into its own hands to build and world of solidarity, justice and ecology.

This Author

Elias König is a philosophy student at the Free University of Berlin. His research is in non-Western environmental philosophy.

Image: Hannes Grobe, Wikipedia.

Help us keep The Ecologist working for the planet

The Ecologist website is a free service, published by The Resurgence Trust, a UK-based educational charity. We work hard - with a small budget and tiny editorial team - to bring you the wide-ranging, independent journalism we know you value and enjoy, but we need your help. Please make a donation to support The Ecologist platform. Thank you!

'BP must fall'

Biggest ever oil sponsorship protest will ramp up pressure on British Museum.

Marianne Brooker | 3rd February 2020


Organisers of a mass creative protest against BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum on Saturday, 8 February 2020 have revealed that over 1,200 people have pledged to take part.

BP or not BP?, the activist theatre group behind the performance protest, are keeping the full details under wraps but have promised 'creative actions for all ages' and have successfully crowdfunded to bring a Trojan Horse to the museum in a direct response to its current BP-sponsored exhibition, Troy: Myth and Reality.

Pressure has been mounting on the British Museum after several leading cultural organisations, citing the climate emergency, cut their ties with oil companies last year, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, National Galleries Scotland and Edinburgh Science Festival.

This month, the Natural History Museum confirmed it no longer had ties to its former partners BP and Shell and is putting climate change at the heart of its 10-year strategy, leaving the British Museum looking increasingly isolated and out of step with the wider sector.

Reimagining

Participants in what will be the biggest protest in the museum’s 260 year history are being invited to register online so they can be sent the details of when to arrive, what to bring and what to wear.

While the exact nature of the protest performance will be revealed on the day, the group have announced that they have a range of speakers representing communities around the world who are on the frontlines of colonialism, fossil fuel extraction, climate change and repression.

Together, they plan to ‘reimagine the museum’. The group has also published a statement online highlighting how their protest will 'put pressure on the Director, Chairman and Board of the British Museum, demanding that they show the climate leadership that staff, visitors and others are demanding'.

The protest will be 'respectful of Museum visitors and staff' and 'rooted in solidarity'.

The controversy around promotional relationships with the fossil fuel industry continues to make headlines. Just this week, the Guardian announced it would no longer take advertising from the fossil fuel industry, saying ‘Fossil fuel extractors are qualitatively different. The intent - and extent - of their lobbying efforts has explicitly harmed the environmental cause.’

Troy

Sarah Horne, a member of BP or not BP? said: ‘After 7 years and 39 actions at the museum, we can’t wait any longer: Indonesia is flooded, Australia is on fire and yet BP is investing in more oil and more gas.

'Meanwhile, it is using its sponsorship of the arts as a Trojan Horse to try and hide the destructive reality of its business. Our protest is a bold and necessary escalation in this campaign.

'It’s shameful that even now, in the midst of a climate emergency, the British Museum is lending legitimacy to BP when it could follow the lead of the RSC and National Galleries Scotland, and help create a culture beyond fossil fuels.’

The museum is facing specific criticism for attaching a BP logo to a Troy exhibition, when BP has recently completed a controversial gas pipeline that runs just 75 miles from the modern-day site of Troy in Turkey.

BP has been working with the Turkish government to build the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) through Turkey. The pipeline was completed in July 2019.

Repressive regimeThe pipeline runs about 75 miles from the site of ancient Troy, and is part of a complex of pipelines called the Southern Gas Corridor, intended to bring fossil gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.

The final part – the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) from Turkey via Greece and Albania to Italy – is still under construction, and has faced serious protests along its route.

When a previous BP pipeline (the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline) was built in this region from 2003 – 2005, there was an organised international campaign linked up with activists on the ground to oppose it.

People in Turkey were especially concerned about militarisation and land grabs along the route of the pipeline where it came into North East Turkey.

However, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline has not experienced similar protest on its route through Turkey. Campaigners believe this is because of the anti-protest crackdowns of the repressive government of Turkish President Erdoğan, which has made people too scared to speak up this time.

This means that BP is, once again, benefiting from a relationship with a repressive regime that is silencing protest and thus making it easier for BP to build its destructive and polluting projects.

Escalation

The Southern Gas Corridor, if completed, could lock Europe into increased fossil gas use for decades to come.

Zozan Yaşar, a Kurdish journalist and activist, said: ‘In many countries people are starting to protest about climate change, to imagine a different future and to change things.

'But in Turkey, the situation is politically very different – it’s hard to speak out and these kinds of protests have been banned. Oil and gas projects like BP’s pipelines have cost many lives, but because of the sanctions placed on freedom of speech, few people are aware of this.

'By partnering with the Turkish government on gas pipelines, BP is helping to maintain this situation and is profiting from the silencing of protest.'

This escalation in the campaign against oil sponsorship of culture comes as BP’s new CEO is attempting to counter accusations of inaction and deflection on climate change. According to Sarah Horne from BP or not BP?: ‘The growing movement against the fossil fuel industry - and BP in particular - has put the oil giant on the back foot, forcing the CEO to talk about climate change from day one in the job.

'We’re expecting some announcements from BP that may sound good, but that won’t change its underlying plan to keep expanding its fossil fuel extraction projects. Unless BP ditches all new exploration for oil and gas and starts leaving existing reserves in the ground, it will remain on a collision course with the climate.’

The 8 February protest has been named ‘BP Must Fall!’ by the group, taking inspiration from the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign for the removal of colonial monuments in South Africa, as well as the group ‘Shell Must Fall’ in the Netherlands.

BP or not BP? is a member of the Art Not Oil Coalition.

Image: Diana More.

This Author 
Marianne Brooker is The Ecologist's content editor. This article is based on a press release from BP or not BP. 

Help us keep The Ecologist working for the planet

The Ecologist website is a free service, published by The Resurgence Trust, a UK-based educational charity. We work hard - with a small budget and tiny editorial team - to bring you the wide-ranging, independent journalism we know you value and enjoy, but we need your help. Please make a donation to support The Ecologist platform. Thank you!

President Trump's $5.6m 30-second commercial sparks fury after he boasts about freeing black prisoner Alice Johnson

President Trump's re-election campaign purchased a first quarter commercial slot for the Super Bowl

The ad, which depicted the Commander-in-chief as an advocate for criminal justice reform, divided opinion

Some dismissed it as 'trash' and 'pathetic' while others said it was 'simply brilliant' and thanked the president

By LUKE ANDREWS FOR MAILONLINE and ANDREW COURT and MEGAN SHEETS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM  3 February 2020

President Trump's $5.6 million 30-second Super Bowl commercial sparked fury on Sunday after he boasted about freeing black prisoner Alice Johnson.

In the clip, priced at more than $186,000 a second, the president pitches himself as a champion of criminal justice reform and claims credit for the release of Ms Johnson, who is shown crying and holding flowers, after she is released following a life sentence for nonviolent drugs offences.

A second advert, aired after the Super Bowl, struck a more 'Trumpian' tone as it set out his nationalistic credentials with images of the US army, navy and air force alongside crowds cheering and waving US flags.

His adverts were branded as 'trash' online by some viewers, while a former democratic speech writer also accused him of 'screaming at black athletes'. Others were impressed, however, telling Trump 'well done sir' and 'simply brilliant'.

Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg paid $11million for a 60-second ad space during the Super Bowl, in which he put himself forward as a president that would fight against the powerful gun lobby. 

Trump releases Super Bowl ad for 2020 reelection campaign


The Super Bowl advert pitched Trump as a criminal justice reformer. It showed prisoner Alice Johnson crying and holding flowers after she was released from a life prison sentence following a conviction for nonviolent drug offences

Mr Trump's decision to feature Ms Johnson has been criticised online. Celebrity Kim Kardashian worked for her release, and hired a team of top lawyers. President Trump granted her clemency in 2018 following a visit to the Oval Office



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Kim Kardashian pictured with Alice Johnson. Ms Kardashian has also written the foreword to Ms Johnson's memoir. Above right is Ms Johnson's tweet after the Super Bowl advert was broadcast

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Trump tweeted the first advert with a caption saying he promises to 'restore hope in America. That includes the least among us'. The second advert, posted after the Super Bowl, had the caption 'Hope you liked this!'.



















Trump's advert played during the game began with the phrase; 'Thanks to President Trump, people like Alice are getting a second chance.'

It then showed Alice crying and holding flowers following her release before stating that the president doesn't just talk about criminal justice reform, he 'got it done'.

Trump goes on to claim that through his work thousands of families have been re-united.

The advert was slammed online as 'embarrassing', 'pathetic' and 'racist', with one Twitter user even accusing the president of tearing families apart from 'the minute he got into office'.

Former Democratic speechwriter Jake Maccoby also posted a tweeted accusing the president of hypocrisy, writing: '"Don't bring your politics into sports!" Trump screamed at black athletes while purchasing a million-dollar super bowl ad'.

Alice Johnson was released from prison following a tireless campaign headed by celebrity Kim Kardashian, who recruited a team of dedicated lawyers to work on her case.

She was granted clemency a week after an Oval office meeting with Trump in 2018.

Ms Kardashian also wrote the foreword to Ms Johnson's memoir, After Life: My Journey from Incarceration to Freedom, that was published last year.

After the ad went out, Ms Johnson tweeted it with the caption: 'Two Super Bowls ago I was sitting in a prison cell. Today I am a free woman and my story was featured in a Super Bowl Ad.

'I will spend the rest of my life fighting for the wrongly and unjustly convicted! God Bless America!'

Ms Kardashian tweeted to Ms Johnson 'so proud of you!!!' after viewing the advert.

Trump has also overseen the separation of families crossing the US-Mexico border during his presidency. Dozens of parents were split from their children and sent to jail while their sons and daughters were taken into foster care.

The policy was changed in 2018 following a powerful lobby, which included his wife and US first lady Melania. She also launched a 'Be Best' initiative focusing on the well-being of children.

Despite the outcry, others heralded Trump's advert as a success. One tweeted: 'Over 100 million Americans saw this glorious Super Bowl ad by President Trump... Promises made. Promises kept.'

Another said: 'Powerful! Well done sir!'. And a third remarked that the advert was 'simply brilliant'. 

Trump releases second re-election campaign Super Bowl commercial





Trump's second video saw the president stray back onto nationalistic ground. He showed images of the US army (left), navy (centre) and air force (right) alongside the words stronger, safer and more prosperous

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The second clip also shows President Trump and Mike Pence standing in front of American flags at a rally

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Crowds of people cheering and brandishing American flags and vote Trump placards were also shown in the advert

The President's second advert, played after the Super Bowl, took him back onto home turf by stressing his nationalistic credentials.

It begins with Trump walking towards a US flag before showing pictures of the US army, navy and air force as the words 'stronger', 'safer' and 'more prosperous' flash across the screen.

The video then reminds voters that the economy has swelled under Trump and unemployment has reached a 49-year low.

Some Twitter users again were not impressed, stating the ad 'made me vomit', 'really sucks' and 'the world is laughing at you'.

However, others were more convinced and called for 'four more years of you!', as well as saying 'God bless you President Trump!' and 'You're the best President Trump, with the Lord's love and prayers'.

Economic growth under the president has remained at a steady two to three per cent of GDP, although this is expected to slow due to trade tensions.

Wages have also climbed more than three per cent before slowing again, which may be linked to tax cuts.

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