Near-extinct crocodile species returns from brink in Cambodia

Baby Siamese crocodiles are roughly the length of a hotdog (AP)

Wed, 23 Oct, 2024 - 10:13

Aniruddha Ghosal and Anton L Delgado, AP

Critically endangered Siamese crocodiles have staged a comeback in Cambodia – with a little help from an unlikely ally.

Crocodile farmers who had nearly hunted the species to extinction in the first place now play a vital role in providing purebred reptiles for captive breeding.

The appetite for crocodile skins for bags and other accessories had decimated populations to the extent that scientists thought they were extinct.

The reptiles had once been thought to be extinct (AP)

But one last enclave of the species was found in Cambodia’s remote Cardamom Mountains and a captive breeding programme was launched to restore the species to its wild habitat, forests that play an important role in absorbing carbon emissions.

Adult Siamese crocodiles can grow up to 13ft and weigh as much as 770lbs (350kg). They have few natural predators. But the hatchlings – each roughly the size of a hotdog – are vulnerable.

Hor Vichet, a zookeeper at the non-profit Fauna and Flora breeding centre for the critically endangered reptiles in Cambodia’s Phnom Tamao, is on hand to help the youngsters break their shells.

“It’s time to go into the world,” he said, as he helps the creatures begin their life’s journey.

Although the adults are large, as long as 13ft, the chirping youngsters are vulnerable soon after they hatch (AP)

A 2000 survey in the Cardamom Mountains in western Cambodia found a vestige of a wild population of these reptiles, long after they had been thought extinct. The misty rainforests were among the last strongholds of Khmer Rouge guerrillas who fought the government until 1999.

That, combined with the reverence of local Indigenous communities saved this lingering enclave of crocodiles. But they were still too few and too scattered to recover the populationLearn more

Conservationists realised that saving the species would require captive breeding of purebred, fertile crocodiles. The crocodile farmers who had nearly hunted the species to extinction now play a vital role in that effort.

Today there are about 1,000 Siamese crocodiles in the wild, roughly 400 in Cambodia and the rest scattered in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia.

The creatures are well cared for after hatching at the conservation breeding centre in Phnom Tama (AP)

Protecting the reptile also requires safeguarding its habitat in the Cardamom Mountains – a diverse ecosystem that is one of the last surviving rainforests in south-east Asia. It stretches over an area larger than Denmark, helping to trap earth-warming greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The efforts are finally paying off: The first crocodiles were reintroduced into the wild in 2012 and they have begun breeding in the wild: over 100 eggs were discovered in the forests in July, the most so far.

Pablo Sinovas of Fauna and Flora admits: “We are still far from being able to say the species is in a good place. But it is making progress.”

The conservationists faced big challenges when they began their project in 2011. There were more than 1.5 million crocodiles languishing in farms across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, but few were purebreds.

The adults’ skin was once prized for luxury items such as bags (AP)

Farmers had bred Siamese crocodiles with larger, more aggressive species to get skins with textures demanded by fashion brands. Releasing those hybrids into the wild might hasten the disappearance of the purebred species.

It also could pose a threat to people. Evidence of Cambodian reverence for Siamese crocodiles lives on in toothy carvings on the walls of the Bayon temple in the country’s Angkor Wat temple complex, but the hybrids are not the same animals.

“That would be a problem since some of these species are aggressive to humans. And you don’t want them in the wild,” Mr Sinovas said.

The crocodiles are revered in Indigenous culture (AP)

So the experts scoured through crocodile farms across Cambodia, working with farmers and scientists to find purebreds. The few that were eventually identified were brought to the wildlife centre at Phnom Tamao to breed in captivity.

Their eggs were were incubated artificially and the first group of 18 purebred young crocodiles was released in the Cardamom Mountains, laying the foundation for resurrecting the species.

Crocodiles are social species and once together, they “find their own hierarchy,” said Iri Gill, who manages cold-blooded animals at the Chester Zoo in the UK, which supports the breeding programme.

Former crocodile farmers are helping to bring the reptile back from the brink (AP)

After the breeding season, females lay eggs which are then kept in an artificial incubator where humidity and temperatures are monitored carefully to replicate the conditions of a nest in the wild.

“That is the key stage to hatch those juveniles out and raise them to a strong age before their release,” said Mr Gill.

A similar captive breeding programme was also instrumental in bringing back crocodile populations in India, after they were nearly wiped out by the early 1970s, said Yashendu Joshi, a crocodile researcher at the Indian Centre for Wildlife Studies.

The crocodile is seen as a banner species, similar to the giant panda in China or the tiger in India (AP)

In the wild, fewer than one in 20 crocodile hatchlings make it to adulthood. Their chances of survival increase exponentially if they are released after they grow to a metre (3.28ft) long.

“That’s why these captive breeding programmes have been working across the world,” he said.

Today, demand for crocodile leather has diminished and many of the farms had been losing money since the pandemic, said crocodile farmer Ry Lean.

Dozens of large crocodiles bask in pens around the home where the 73-year-old lives with her extended family. Her shop sells souvenirs like crocodile skulls stacked in shelves like books, glass cases overflowing with canines, mounds of crocodile jerky and lacquered bodies of baby crocodiles drying in the sun. But tourism has dwindled since the pandemic and rising fish prices make it harder to feed the reptiles, Ms Lean said.

It is hopes that saving the creatures, as well as their habitat, can help the wider fight against climate change (AP)

“I am stuck with this business and the crocodiles,” she said, adding that a large crocodile used to fetch up to 1,500 dollars (£1,155) – where now she would be lucky to get 150 dollars (£115).

Conservationists still scout the farms searching for purebred Siamese crocodiles. They are also working to protect the habitats where the purebred juveniles are released.

In 2001-23, Cambodia lost nearly a third of its tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch – a platform run by the non-profit World Resources Institute.

The Siamese crocodile’s role as a flagship species – chosen to represent an environmental cause similar to giant pandas in China and tigers in India – helps the cause of protecting the Cardamom Mountains, Mr Sinovas said.

Miners are razing forests to meet surging demand for metals and minerals, report says

A report by the World Resources Institute shows that rapidly expanding mining operations are causing widespread destruction of tropical primary rainforests and protected areas, raising carbon emissions and displacing Indigenous communities

ByVICTORIA MILKO Associated Press
October 23, 2024, 


JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Whether it's digging for metals and minerals for cellphones and electric vehicles or coal for power generation, mining around the world has skyrocketed since 2000, causing widespread destruction of tropical forests, degrading the environment and displacing Indigenous and local communities, the World Resources Institute says in a report released Wednesday.

The analysis highlighted that from 2001 to 2020, the world lost nearly 1.4 million hectares (3,459,475 acres) of trees due to mining — an area roughly the size the country of Montenegro. Nearly a third were in tropical primary rainforests. Protected areas were also damaged.

This tree loss released 36 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year into the atmosphere, an amount similar to Finland’s fossil fuel emissions in 2022, according to the analysis.

Those figures are likely conservative since they do not include indirect tree loss from mining-related infrastructure like access roads and storage facilities, says the report by the World Resources Institute, a global nonprofit organization researching environmental issues.

Mining-related loss in tropical primary rainforests is especially concerning because they are some of the most carbon-rich and biodiverse areas of the world. They also help regulate local and regional climate effects like rainfall and temperatures.

Mining often involves digging up vegetation and soil, intensifying disasters from severe weather and climate change. It can also pollute the air and water.

“Where industrial scale extraction happens around the world right now ... it comes with significant harm to the environment and to the communities that rely on it," said Aimee Boulanger, executive director of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance.

Losses were concentrated in eleven countries, led by Indonesia and Brazil. Other notable contributors included Russia, the United States, Canada, Peru, Ghana, Suriname, Myanmar, Australia, and Guyana.

Lands used by Indigenous and local communities were heavily impacted in some countries: In Suriname, Venezuela and Ecuador, nearly two-thirds of mining-related forest loss occurred in such areas, according to the analysis.

Gold and coal have historically been the biggest drivers of tree cover loss related to mining. According to a World Wildlife Fund study, gold and coal extraction resulted in over 70% of all mining-related deforestation from 2001 to 2019.


While coal use is declining, it still dominates the global energy mix. According to a WWF study, 57% of tree cover loss linked to coal extraction from 2000 to 2019 happened in Indonesia alone. Indonesian coal production has accelerated over the last 10 years as it became one of the world's largest coal exporters.

Deforestation for coal production is not only a tropical problem: A WWF study showed that 20% of global coal-related tree cover loss happened in the United States between 2001 and 2019. From 2001 to 2020, 120,000 hectares (296,525 acres) of forest loss was related to mining, much of it linked to surface coal mining in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.

The current gold mining boom started shortly after the 2008 global financial crisis, when the price of gold skyrocketed. Tree loss in Brazil and Ghana is largely linked to gold mining.

Critical materials for smartphones, solar panels and electric vehicles have also become a new driver of mining, according to the analysis. That includes deforestation for Indonesia's nickel boom, Myanmar's murky rare earths industry and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

WRI's analysis noted that miners have the opportunity to improve and to minimize environmental damage as they open new mines.

That should include mining that incorporates the best available technologies and practices, rehabilitation plans and robust environmental monitoring, said Michael Goodsite, an expert on sustainable mining practices and technology.

“There is a conundrum: How do we get to the minerals that we need without doing more harm to the environment?" said Goodsite. “A holistic understanding, view and systematic approach is needed.” ___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Human Rights

Paul Watson’s 100 Days of Imprisonment in Greenland: Environmental Activist Faces Uncertain Future

October 23, 2024
By Colin Stevens

Canadian-born environmental activist Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has spent nearly 100 days in a Greenlandic prison, awaiting a crucial decision that could determine the rest of his life. The 73-year-old veteran of anti-whaling campaigns is being held while the Danish Ministry of Justice deliberates on whether to extradite him to Japan. Watson is wanted by Japan for his involvement in a 2010 anti-whaling protest, an action he dismisses as a “minor misdemeanor.”

Watson’s long-standing activism has made him both a hero to environmentalists and a controversial figure for governments that view his tactics as extreme. In 2010, he led a Sea Shepherd campaign against Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean, an operation that escalated into a confrontation with a Japanese vessel. The incident triggered Japan’s ongoing pursuit of Watson, resulting in an international arrest warrant that, in Watson’s view, should have expired by now.

For nearly 14 years, Watson managed to travel freely across borders, passing through Ireland, Switzerland, Monaco, France, and the USA without issue. His arrest came unexpectedly in July 2024, when Greenlandic police detained him during a routine ship refuelling stop at Nuuk port. His detention in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, thrust him back into the international spotlight.

Watson has since expressed grave concerns about his future, particularly if he is extradited to Japan. He told reporters recently that he fears for his life, believing that his age and health make imprisonment in Japan a potential death sentence. “I don’t think I will survive if I am sent to Japan,” he said, emphasising that his charges from the 2010 incident are disproportionate to the risk of being extradited.

Watson’s arrest has reignited debates about the balance between environmental activism and legal consequences. His supporters argue that Japan’s pursuit of Watson is politically motivated, aimed at silencing a long-time critic of its controversial whaling practices. Japan officially halted commercial whaling in 2019 but resumed the activity under the guise of scientific research, a practice that organisations like Sea Shepherd have long opposed.

As Watson’s fate hangs in the balance, the courts in Greenland are set to rule today on whether his detention will continue. The decision will not only affect Watson’s immediate future but also shape the broader discussion on the intersection of environmental activism and international law. For now, Watson remains in a Greenlandic prison, awaiting the Danish Ministry of Justice’s final say on his extradition. Whether he is extradited to Japan or granted release, his decades-long fight for marine life conservation continues to stir global controversy and admiration in equal measure

 

Time to serve a circular economy

Brendan Montague

 

| 14th October 2024 | 

Creative Commons 4.0

Sabel Blanco / Peles / Public Domain

The ‘Hospitality Spotlight Report’ explores how circular economy business models can play a vital role in ensuring the hospitality industry is more sustainable.

A circular economy could boost the hospitality sector by reducing costs and making resources go further while at the same cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a new report finds. 

The ‘Hospitality Spotlight Report’ explores how circular economy business models, which place an emphasis on enabling materials to be re-used and wasted less, can play a vital role in ensuring the hospitality industry is more efficient and cost-effective, as well as less polluting.

The report, part of the NICER (National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research) programme, saw researchers run consultations including two workshops with 42 stakeholders from across the hospitality sector and its supply chains in which they explored the challenges and opportunities for circular economy adoption and measures of success.

Life

It advocates for a ‘whole-system approach’ to eliminating waste and pollution that focuses on circulating products and materials during the ‘inflow’, ‘use’ and ‘outflow’ stages – an approach it says has the potential to reduce emissions, boost resource productivity and reduce costs.

It details initiatives that reduce demand for materials and resources at the outset, such as creative design agency Object.Space.Place’s (OSP) approach to circular refurbishment, working with clients in hospitality industry to embed circular principles into their refitting plans so as to prioritise longevity, energy efficiency and the use of low-impact materials.

It highlights mattress maker Silentnight’s initiative to tackle low rates of mattress recycling through redesigning their products to use fewer materials (with those materials used chosen due to ease of recycling) and a new modular design where a top ‘comfort layer’ can be replaced, reducing a mattress’ carbon footprint by 23 per cent.

Initiatives such as Loopcycle (now part of ImpactLoop) help tackle the amount of working equipment that businesses no longer use, with their digital platform helping to trace, manage and recover physical products throughout their lifecycle, as they work with businesses to identify opportunities to refurbish, reuse or resale unused equipment, while making significant cost savings.

Other initiatives aim to decrease waste by extending the life of materials, such as a new recycling programme by the Textiles Services Association designed to maintain the value of high-quality textiles through future-use cycles, aiming to address the 6,000 tonnes of textile waste generated each year by hotels.

Optimisation

The hospitality sector is the UK’s sixth largest industrial sector, contributing £103bn per year to the economy and supporting 2.74 million jobs.

However, its environmental impact is largely negative, with 2.8m tonnes of waste generated per year at a cost of £3.2bn, and the sector emitting around one per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse emissions.

To do nothing, or to focus on net zero targets alone, misses the opportunity to realise financial savings through addressing wasteful practices.

Hotels, pubs and restaurants are also intensive users of materials, either through activities such as construction and refurbishment, or through goods and services such as textiles and laundry for soft furnishings, linens and uniforms, or electrical items, packaging and food and drink.

The Hospitality Spotlight report looks at how a circular economy can help a sector facing a number of business pressures, such as tight profit margins, staff shortages and the rising cost of living - where food prices rose 26.2 per cent between 2021 and 2023 and the cost of energy rose 238 per cent in 2022.

It finds that a high percentage of the hospitality sector’s emissions (around 84% on average) are embedded in its supply chains, making it difficult to tackle through a net zero approach, which will mainly focus on renewable energy and increasing optimisation and efficiencies.

Resilience

The report acknowledges the barriers to a circular economy in hospitality, including limited knowledge of circular economy and no clear goal to work towards, while identifying six enablers that would accelerate the transition: funding and incentives; data collection and transparency; collaboration and leadership; knowledge and awareness; policy and regulation; and shared vision.

It also sets out recommendations for five groups: hospitality businesses, policymakers, academic partners, manufacturers and third parties, which focus on funding and incentives, data transparency, collaboration, policy engagement, knowledge sharing and creating a shared vision across supply chains and sectors where circular economy thinking is embedded into organisations’ vision, mission and values.

Danielle Farrow, an Industrial Impact Fellow for the NICER Circular Economy Hub, said: “Our report underscores that a circular economy offers a tangible solution to the challenges faced by the hospitality sector. 

"To do nothing, or to focus on net zero targets alone, misses the opportunity to realise financial savings through addressing wasteful practices, to increase resource and material security through value capture strategies, to increase supply chain resilience through simplification and increased collaboration and to increase profit margins through innovation.”

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist.

 

'Tax the rich' - Greenpeace

Rebecca Speare-Cole

 

| 15th October 2024 | 

Creative Commons 4.0

HM Treasury / Creative Commons 2.0

Greenpeace calls for temporary tax on super-rich to fund environmental measures.

Greenpeace is calling for a temporary tax on the super-rich to help fund green measures such as insulating homes, providing free bus travel and creating green jobs.

A report written by economist Ben Tippet from King’s College London on behalf of the environmental group said a “national renewal tax” on the richest 0.1 per cent of the population could bring in a minimum of £130 billion in revenue for the British Government over the next five years.

It proposes a temporary annual 2.5 per cent tax on all individual wealth above £10 million over the parliamentary term.

Renewal

The report said the money could be spent on a series of measures, starting with insulating the 19 million draughty homes in the UK and energy bill support in the winter months for vulnerable households.

In terms of transport, the paper said it could help to cap public transport fares, provide free bus travel for people aged 25 and under, and fund a “climate ticket” for trains that gives users unlimited access to rail travel across Britain for £49.

It said training schemes could be set up to enable the 3.2 million workers in high-emitting industries to retrain for green jobs and could support farmers to roll out agro-ecological methods that enhance the UK’s food security, clean up rivers and deliver nature restoration.

Greenpeace said all this would simultaneously boost the economy and reduce inequalities, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the climate crisis.

The proposals come days ahead of chancellor Rachel Reeves delivering her first budget on October 30. The methodology, design and implementation of the “national renewal tax” was drawn from recommendations set out by the Wealth Tax Commission, Greenpeace said.

Oversized

It argued that the proposed tax would affect fewer than 75,000 people in the UK but could raise between £130 billion and £183 billion for the Treasury, depending on levels of avoidance and evasion.

The lower estimate allows for a 42.5 per cent avoidance or evasion rate, equivalent to one per cent of gross domestic product and 3.1 per cent of total tax revenues taken in by the government each year, the paper said.

It has been estimated that the richest one per cent of people in the world emit as much carbon as two-thirds of the global population, while in the UK the richest 0.1 per cent emit 12 times more than the average person.

Georgia Whitaker, Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner, said: “The oversized carbon footprint of the super-rich is a clear rationale for ensuring that they play an oversized role in fixing the crisis that they have an oversized role in creating.

“It’s time the UK Government taxed their vast wealth. By tapping into a fraction of the wealth of a few thousand people, we can pay for climate solutions benefiting millions.”

Super-rich

Julia Davies, a millionaire impact investor who is supporting the report, said: “Don’t believe the Government when they say the money isn’t there. Because it is.

“As someone who would be covered by this tax, I can tell you that if you are fortunate enough to have wealth over £10 million, you can afford to make this contribution to a better future for Britain and still enjoy a very good lifestyle indeed.”

Mr Tippet said: “The case for a new wealth tax has never been stronger. Wealth inequality has been rising for decades.

“This report sets out a fair, balanced and feasible proposal for a new wealth tax on the super-rich to tackle these issues, backed up by sound economic theory and empirical evidence.”

The PA news agency has contacted the Treasury for comment.

This Author

Rebecca Speare-Cole is the PA sustainability reporter

Manchester Arena attack survivors win harassment case against conspiracy theorist Richard Hall who claims it was hoax

Wednesday 23 October 2024 

Richard Hall outside the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year. Pic: PA


Two survivors of the Manchester Arena attack have won their harassment case against a conspiracy theorist who claims the bombing was "staged".

Former television producer Richard Hall has said he believes the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017 was a "elaborate hoax", and that no one was "genuinely injured".

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, who were both severely injured in the explosion, brought legal proceedings against Mr Hall for harassment and data protection, with a civil trial taking place in July.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Steyn ruling today that "the claimants have succeeded on their harassment claim", adding that she would not decide the data protection claim at this stage.

Martin Hibbert (centre) sued Mr Hall. Pic: PA

The legal action related to several videos and a book where he claims the bombing was a "hoax", as well as "secretly filming" Ms Hibbert and her mother at their house.

Hall had specifically alleged that Mr Hibbert and his daughter had not been at the concert that night at all, and did not suffer their injuries there.

The judge said there was "powerful evidence that Mr Hall's course of conduct caused Mr Hibbert to suffer alarm, distress and anxiety".

But Mr Hall had claimed his actions - including an incident of filming Miss Hibbert outside her home - were in the public interest as a self-styled journalist, and that "millions of people have bought a lie" about the attack.

In a statement after today's ruling, Mr Hibbert said it was "a comprehensive victory".

"I am really pleased with not only the overall judgment, but also the many comments of the judge as to how unacceptable Hall's behaviour was," he said.

"I don't want to make much more comment until the final terms of the judgment are agreed in terms of settlements and hopefully an injunction being imposed.

"However, I do want this to open the door for change, and to help protect others from what we have been put through in the future. I will be discussing this with my legal team at Hudgell Solicitors, with the aim of establishing a new law in Eve’s name."

Mr Hibbert suffered a spinal cord injury - leaving him paralysed - and Ms Hibbert, then 14, was left with a "catastrophic" brain injury.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds when he detonated a homemade bomb into a crowd leaving the concert on 22 May 2017.

Opinion

Is the UK government creating a 'Stasi' police force to silence Israel's critics?


October 23, 2024 

Students and workers with the SOAS Liberated Zone for Gaza shut down a Barclays Bank branch on Tottenham Court Road in London on 29 May 2024 [Giorgia Bianchi/Middle East Monitor]

by Yvonne Ridley
yvonneridley


Police forces in Britain are under fire following several incidents involving pro-Palestine campaigners and activists, as well as journalists, giving rise to fears that the police across the country have become tools of an increasingly repressive state.

Mick Napier, a veteran pro-Palestine campaigner, was banned earlier this month from setting foot in Glasgow after an example of “heavy-handed” policing outside Barclays Bank in the city centre. This drew parallels with the then East Germany’s notorious Stasi, a much-feared security service and secret police force operational from 1950 to 1990.

Emerging victorious this week from Glasgow Sheriff’s Court after the case against him was thrown out, Napier criticised Police Scotland for the force’s “heavy-handed and oppressive” tactics. He insisted that the millions of voices being raised in support of Palestine “will not be silenced”, and went on to express concern for the “jailing of journalists in Britain,” including Julian Assange, who was released in June this year after nearly fourteen years in prison, embassy confinement and house arrest in the UK.

In December 2022, MEMO catalogued what Napier has had to endure at the hands of Police Scotland over the past two decades. “To our mutual astonishment,” I wrote at the time, “the persecution of Napier could make him Britain’s most persecuted individual and a familiar face in Glasgow and Edinburgh courts where has appeared on scores of occasions over the year.”

The first charge against him of “racial aggravation” took more than a year and a half to be resolved, and involved more than 20 court appearances, which Napier described angrily as “beyond preposterous”. The ludicrous charges, more often than not thrown out of court or leading to the collapse of trials, demonstrate the desperation of pro-Israel lobbyists and their lackeys who want to destroy the retired college lecturer and his co-accused.

His first trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in front of Sheriff John Scott came to a grinding halt after the procurator fiscal told a packed courtroom that it was “racist” to say the words “End the siege of Gaza! Genocide in Gaza!” on a public street. The crime, added the Scottish legal official, would be made more serious by repetition.


Sheriff Scott ridiculed the procurator fiscal’s case.

“Our Article 10 free speech protections would be rendered useless and we would have to march in a demonstration carrying placards saying, ‘End war crimes in an unnamed Middle Eastern state’,” Napier pointed out.

Outlawing the word “genocide” in Scotland would more than likely have led to many more spurious arrests if the procurator fiscal had been allowed to proceed with the absurd case against Napier, given that Israel is being investigated for genocide by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

READ: UN urged to declare northern Gaza a disaster zone, stop Gaza genocide

That case against the co-founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign was thrown out of court in December 2022. How it even got as far as the courtroom is a mystery, because “genocide” is an apt description of what Israel has been committing against the Palestinians for the past 76 years and counting. It started before the 1948 Nakba, when Israel was created in Palestine, built upon the terrorism of the Irgun and Stern Gang against both the British Mandate authorities and the indigenous Palestinians. These Zionist terror gangs have been turned into heroes by the occupation state of Israel.

The initial charge against Napier was breach of the peace, but it was ramped up to the far more serious “racial aggravation” a couple of weeks after the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed a precursor to the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. Napier went back to court in a process that took a total of three years at Glasgow Sheriff Court because the first presiding sheriff became gravely ill almost two years into the case.

“The Glasgow procurator fiscal’s case was that a placard we carried a few weeks after Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against the Palestinians in Gaza in 2014 was ‘racist’ because it included some ‘blood’ symbolising the 2,200 Palestinians killed in that murderous offensive,” explained Napier at the time. “The procurator fiscal, however, claimed that the blood symbol alluded to a medieval blood libel against Jews that they used the blood of Christian children in religious ceremonies. The sheriff threw out that charge.”

Happily, this robust defender of Palestinian rights has emerged from his years of trials victorious, with most charges dropped or thrown out of court. However, others have not been so fortunate, and have had their careers ruined and futures jeopardised by vindictive Zionists who refuse to accept any criticism of Israel’s brutal military occupation of Palestine.

“As the genocide in Gaza and slaughter in Lebanon continues, we cannot be constrained from protesting against Israel’s war crimes and raising our voices on the streets,” said a spokesman for the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee on Tuesday. “Mick has been a stalwart figure for Palestinian rights and a valued voice throughout this past, terrible year. We must do all we can to protect our right to free political speech.”

The GGEC is organising a march of the headquarters of the BBC in Glasgow on Saturday to protest against its “suppressed reporting, avoidance of the word genocide and failure to relate the true extent of Palestinian suffering.”

OPINION: Israel’s Biblical wars of ‘self-defence’: The myth of the ‘seven war fronts’

Meanwhile, Mick Napier’s unenviable court record is currently being challenged by the UK-based Palestine Action pressure group, whose members are at the centre of an ongoing legal farce of being arrested, detained and charged, only for their trials to collapse resulting in their release.

Most recently, a jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict in the trial of four defendants from Palestine Action charged with causing £700,000 worth of damage at the Teledyne weapons factory in Shipley, West Yorkshire. The four occupied the roof of one of the buildings at the site.


They accepted that they had damaged the roof tiles over a period of 17 hours.

During the trial, the defendants argued that they had acted in defence of the lives and property of Palestinians in Gaza, which they honestly believed were at immediate risk, and that they had to act to prevent a crime. They believed that the site was being used to manufacture components for weapons that were to be exported for use by Israel in the commission of war crimes and genocide in Gaza. They believed that this in itself amounted to the aiding and abetting of a war crime and so argued that their actions amounted to a lawful excuse.

The judge heard legal argument on the scope of lawful excuse and ultimately withdrew all the available defences from the defendants. Nevertheless, the jury was unable to reach a verdict and was discharged.

The BBC, which usually keeps its court reporters well away from such cases, covered the trial in full. Lawyers believe that the January ruling by the ICJ on provisional measures in proceedings under the Genocide Convention in the case of South Africa v Israel has made it much more difficult for the mainstream media to ignore cases like this.

Furthermore, last Thursday, British police raided the London home of investigative journalist Asa Winstanley and seized electronic devices using draconian laws which criminalise free speech. The police investigation apparently centres on social media posts and will almost certainly come to nothing. Winstanley’s colleagues at US-based Electronic Intifada say that the laws used against him “would blatantly violate the First Amendment, the constitutional guarantee of free speech and freedom of the press, were they to be applied in the United States.”

READ: EU lawyers slam Israel over attacks on Lebanon, Gaza

In mid-August, British journalist Richard Medhurst was arrested on arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport, and was detained under the Terrorism Act (2000). His phone and recording devices that he used for his work were seized. He is currently out on bail, having been charged over his coverage of the genocide in Gaza.

“Richard Medhurst’s arrest and detention for almost 24 hours using terrorism legislation is deeply concerning and will likely have a chilling effect on journalists in the UK and worldwide, in fear of arrest by UK authorities simply for carrying out their work,” said Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the UK’s National Union of Journalists, and Anthony Bellanger, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, in a joint statement.

Winstanley’s most recent investigative article, “How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on 7 October”, brought together a year of the Electronic Intifada’s reporting, along with new information, detailing Israel’s use of the notorious Hannibal Directive, a secret order that allows Israeli security forces to kill their own citizens rather than allowing them to be taken captive.

Winstanley is the author of Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn, a book based on years of reporting on Britain’s Labour Party while it was in opposition. Since 2019, the Labour Party has launched an investigation and made legal threats in apparent retaliation for his fearless journalism.


Now that Labour is in government, it has the potential to use the full apparatus of the state against those it views as its own – or Israel’s – political enemies.

The lines are indeed becoming increasingly blurred, but it is clear to me that the raid on Winstanley’s home was intended to intimidate and silence him, as well as other journalists and activists.

A month earlier, pro-Palestine activist Sarah Wilkinson was reportedly asked to reveal the location of her contacts in Gaza when she was arrested by British police officers. Like Winstanley, she was forced to endure a morning raid by Counter Terrorism Police. “They said that she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online’,” explained her son Jack. She was later released, but is banned from using electronic devices.

On the same day as Wilkinson’s arrest, Palestine Action’s co-founder, Richard Barnard, was charged with three counts of “supporting a proscribed organisation”. Seven of the group’s members appeared in court on 13 August charged with violent disorder, burglary and other offences.

Both Medhurst and Wilkinson could face as much as 14 years in jail, although there are strong suspicions that neither of their respective police investigations has uncovered anything incriminating.

Such draconian action against pro-Palestine campaigners and journalists has provoked anger and disgust online, including from some of the more well-known pro-Palestine and free-speech campaigners. “Nineteen eighty-four has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom,” said former Pink Floyd bassist and active pro-Palestine campaigner Roger Waters.

The Stasi secret police were monstrous, and while we are not there yet, thank goodness, the fact that our Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has banned Nelson Mandela’s grandson from entering the UK for a speaking tour suggests that this Labour government is becoming increasingly authoritarian in order to protect a rogue foreign state which is currently committing “plausible genocide”, in the words of the ICJ.

This should give us all serious cause for concern.

Is it purely coincidence that Prime Minister Keir Starmer and around half of his cabinet ministers have received donations from pro-Israel lobbyists, including Yvette Cooper?

I’ve always felt secure in my profession as a journalist. However, after this latest news about Asa Winstanley and Mick Napier, two people I consider to be friends and colleagues in the fight against the pernicious influence of Zionism on British politics and institutions, I wonder who is going to be next to get an early morning knock on the door.


The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

 

Communicating discovery science

New insights on how to communicate basic science – new special issue on JCOM

Sissa Medialab

 

image: 

Created by Cape Town illustrator Tamsin Hinrichsen, is based on a story ‘The Ashes of the Milky Way’. The image is included in the book ‘The Crocodile Who Swallows the Sun’.

 

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Credit: Tamsin Hinrichsen

A gravitational wave has little relevance in the “day-to-day” of our lives. Yet when, for the first time in 2016, the first direct observation of one of these cosmic-scale events was announced, the entire world suddenly turned its attention to this major scientific discovery. The study of cosmic phenomena, like other areas of scientific research (from evolutionary studies to basic mathematics), falls under what is known as basic research. Since it has no direct applications in everyday life, this research can be difficult to communicate. However, as gravitational waves demonstrate, it can prove to be extremely interesting even for a broad, non-specialist audience. The new special issue of the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM), titled 'Communicating Discovery Science,' is dedicated precisely to communicating basic science. The issue (online from October the 21st and available in open access at this link) explores the challenges and opportunities associated with communicating basic science, the reasons why it is important to communicate it, and how insights from this field can also be relevant when communicating other scientific topics closer to practical applications. For the very first time, this special issue of JCOM is also available in prin to be distributed at an symposium on the same topic taking place at Stellenbosch University from 18 – 20 November 2024.

"One of the most common pieces of advice on how to engage the public with scientific research is to show how important it is in their everyday lives, but in reality, we see that people can become enthusiastically interested in basic science as well," explains Rick Borchelt. Borchelt has been the Director of Communications and Public Affairs and Senior Advisor to the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, and recently retired after a 40-year career communicating about and advocating for federal support of science and technology. He is also the coordinator of the newly published special issue on JCOM, which stems from his work alongside Brooke Smith (Director of Science and Society at the Kavli Foundation) for the joint Kavli Foundation/DOE project “The Science Public Engagement Partnership” (SciPEP), focused on providing scientists with the confidence, efficacy, and tools to engage the public around basic science.

"Basic science doesn’t provoke widespread debates like other fields, such as climate research, vaccines, and the heated discussions around misinformation," explains Borchelt. Discovery science isn’t particularly divisive, and that might seem like a good thing, but in reality, it also puts it at risk of not attracting enough attention. “Basic science is not a concern, but because it’s easy to overlook, and if it’s overlooked, it’s not going to be funded," points out Borchelt. The SciPEP project studied the communication of basic science for five years, with the aim of understanding these challenges, but also highlighting the strengths of basic science and learning how to best communicate it. The special issue, which features many of the researchers who contributed to the project, brings together many of the insights that emerged from this extensive work.

In the special issue, you can find contributions from Borchelt himself, Brooke Smith, and Keegan Sawyer on the foundations of the project, helping the reader understand the purpose of this effort. "In our work, we decided not to try to define what basic science is. Instead, we chose to focus on the scientific process, identifying discovery science as those initial steps in the path—the discovery phase." In this sense, basic science is present in every scientific field, even in those that will eventually lead to practical applications useful to everyone. "It’s important to communicate that when a major scientific announcement is made, it doesn’t come out of nowhere; there are decades of 'silent' work leading up to that result. This is a micro-narrative that we believe should also be included when communicating applied science and technology," says Borchelt.

The special issue can be ideally divided into three parts, with the first papers outlining the philosophical foundations that must be considered when addressing the main theme, a section dedicated to in-depth analyses of strategies and goals for science communication, and finally, some practical examples from fields such as astrophysics, experimental physics (the observation of the Higgs boson and how CERN managed communication over the decades), and ocean studies.

"In one of the papers, important platforms for the dissemination of science, such as EurekAlert! are discussed, examining, for instance, the balance between basic science and applied science in these services (Jingwen Zhang et al.)," explains Borchelt. "Milne and colleagues’ work, on the other hand, builds a bridge between basic science and social applications: they worked with scientists and members of the public to understand people’s opinions on the policy implications of basic science."

"I hope the special issue conveys to readers that curiosity is one of the central drivers for communicating science during the discovery phase. It’s not just about what science does for you or how it can change your life in tangible ways. It’s important to help people understand that science in its discovery phases has profound effects on them, even if they may not see its relevance for decades. These are long-term strategies, and engaging people in this is critical to maintain a robust scientific enterprise."

The Communicating Discovery Science JCOM Special Issue can be read for free on JCOM.

Created by Cape Town illustrator Tamsin Hinrichsen, is based on a story ‘The Ashes of the Milky Way’. The image is included in the book ‘The Crocodile Who Swallows the Sun’.

Credit

Tamsin Hinrichsen

Journal

Journal of Science Communication

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Communicating Discovery Science

Article Publication Date

21-Oct-2024