Iran protests: Videos show intensifying crackdown and brutal tactics used on protesters

Demonstrations in Iran's Kurdistan province are being met with increasingly brutal tactics from security forces, human rights groups say. With limited information coming out of the region, Sky News has analysed some of the videos from inside.


By Victoria Elms, digital investigations journalist
Saturday 15 October 2022 


Human rights groups have warned of Iranian security forces' escalating response to demonstrations in the western province of Kurdistan.

Clips from the regional capital Sanandaj appear to show security forces firing weapons in residential neighbourhoods and large groups of anti-riot police moving around the city.

The city was one of the first to see demonstrations following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after she was in the hands of security forces.

With internet disruption reported across Iran and reports of local journalists being arrested for covering the demonstrations, information about the situation on the ground is scarce.

But footage from across the country is surfacing online. One widely-condemned video showed a police officer sexually assaulting a female protester while trying to arrest her in Tehran's Argentina Square.

A voice in the video can be heard saying: "Oh they have arrested her, it is a girl. Please let her go. Why no one goes to her rescue?"

Police officer assaults female protester
A new video has emerged online showing a police officer sexually assaulting a female protester while trying to arrest her in Tehran’s Argentina Square.


A new video has emerged online showing a police officer sexually assaulting a female protester while trying to arrest her in Tehran’s Argentina Square.

With reports of escalating tactics in Kurdistan province, Sky News has analysed footage emerging from the region's capital.

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Iran protests: Videos show intensifying crackdown and brutal tactics used on protesters


This video was shared on Monday by Norway-based group Hengaw, which monitors human rights violations in Iran's Kurdistan province. They say it was captured in Naysar, which is a northern suburb of Sanandaj.

Sky News has not been able to independently verify the video. Although reverse image searches of the video’s key frames confirm that the video is recent.

In it, at least six members of the Iranian security forces can be seen firing weapons in a residential neighbourhood.

The sound made when reloading indicates the weapons being fired are shotguns, according to analysts at the UK-based weapons research group, the Omega Research Foundation.

And while it's possible that they are using rubber bullets, they say it's more likely that they are shotgun pellets.

It's difficult to make out the direction of fire, but Hengaw say that officers in the video were firing directly at homes.

Amnesty International has also said that it's received reports of officers firing tear gas at people's homes.

Another video shared by Hengaw last weekend shows used canisters and cartridges.

The person recording the video says they were used to "suppress the people" and ends the video by saying "death to Khameini".

According to analysts at the Omega Research Foundation, those casings on the left and in the centre are shotgun cartridges.

The metal canisters on the top right would have contained CS gas - also known as tear gas.

The Omega Research Foundation says that the disused cartridges in the videos are similar to others found in other cities in Iran.

"While each require further verification, all evidence in combination points to the use of live fire against protesters," it said.

But human rights groups say this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

"We are entering a sensitive phase of the demonstrations and confrontations. The regime is using more and more force to repress the protests. And we've seen that in Sanandaj, Kurdistan but also in small towns in the region," said Taimor Aliassi, United Nations representative for the Association of Human Rights in Kurdistan of Iran.

"They're now using new arms against protesters that we haven't seen before [in the protests]" he told Sky News.

Other videos reportedly from Sanandaj demonstrate chaotic scenes on the ground.

In this video, at least 14 motorbikes driven by members of the security forces drive through the city.

Many of the bikes are carrying two officers, with those on the back equipped with weaponry. Shots can be heard throughout the video, and protesters can be seen throwing rocks at the officers as they pass.

Hengaw say that it's not unusual for officers to travel on motorbikes in Iran, but it's rare to see so many together at one time.

Other footage shared by the group demonstrates the scale of the security force's presence in the city.


This video, which they say was captured on Thursday, shows a convoy made up of at least 14 vehicles including cars, motorbikes and trucks carrying security forces.

Those visible appear to be wearing the uniform of Iran's anti-riot police.

However, Hengaw warn that officers from the military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been reported as operating in the region wearing police and riot police uniforms in recent days.

It's therefore difficult to discern exactly which units are part of the convoy depicted.

"All sorts of security forces, both plain cloth and uniform, have been transferred to Sanandaj," he told Sky News.

"We see photos taken by residents showing security forces stationed every five metres on the street. It's really quite a militarised situation."

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Iranian State Media Is Now Going After Britney Spears


CT Jones
Tue, October 18, 2022 

Britney Spears Announces New Las Vegas Residency At Park Theater 

- Credit: Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Iran’s state sponsored media, the Islamic Republic News Agency, has turned their focus from state propaganda to U.S. icon Britney Spears. After Spears tweeted her support for the Iranian citizens currently protesting the country’s morality police, the IRNA shot back on Twitter by mentioning Spears’ years-long conservatorship. “American singer Britney Spears was placed under her father’s conservatorship in 2008 due to her mental health problems,” the organization tweeted. “That gave Britney’s father control over her finances and even her personal life aspects such as pregnancy, remarriage and visits to her teenage sons.” The IRNA’s tweet, and media response, is part of an ongoing (and failing) strategy to drown out widespread support for Iran’s nationwide protests.

The current protests center around the September death of 22-year-old activist Mahsa Amini. Amini was arrested by Iran’s morality police in Tehran under claims that she was not properly clothed in the required religious headscarf and modest dress. She died in police custody. Following news of her detainment and subsequent death, Amini’s family spoke out, claiming that the young girl was beaten to death by police. The IRNA has continued to deny the claim and assert the girl had a heart attack, even as Amini’s death has sparked some of the biggest nationwide protests in years.

Earlier this year, Spears married Iranian-American actor and model Sam Asghari. Since the protests began, the couple has been extremely vocal about their political beliefs, including her support for the Iranian protestors. “Me & my husband stand with the people of Iran fighting for freedom,” Spears tweeted on Sunday.

The IRNA didn’t even have the decency to quote-tweet the “Baby One More Time” singer, instead screenshotting the tweet to include a user’s response that read “Nice tweet. Can you manage your own money yet?”



The IRNA’s tweet was accompanied with the hashtag #MahsaAmini. The late activist’s name has been used as a rallying cry for the ongoing protests against the country’s morality police. In the past month, IRNA’s social media accounts have continued to use the hashtag to populate pro-protest online spaces with government narratives.

The organization seems to be taking some inspiration from the recent popularity of comedic government accounts. Since the start of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s official twitter account has taken a comfortable approach to social media, tweeting out memes and clapbacks in between serious videos and articles surrounding the conflict. And this isn’t the first time the IRNA have pushed back against big name support for the protestors. Last week, the organization posted a meme claiming that international superstar Shakira was ignoring police violence against women in the United States and Saudi Arabia, continuing to assert that Amini died of a heart attack instead of police brutality.

But their attempted comedic media response has been unable to break through a wave of celebrity support for the Iranian protests. Stars like Bella Hadid, Justin Bieber, Olivia Coleman, Angelina Jolie, and even Jake Paul have spoken out against accounts of police brutality against protestors and called for wider awareness of the Iranian movement. And in the country, Iran’s protests continue to grow. In the past week, hundreds of children have joined the protestors ranks and the cries of “Women, Life, Freedom,” have inspired potential sanctions from the European Union — demonstrating that even with the organization’s pithy comments about pop stars, international support and the voices of hundreds of thousand of Iranian protestors continue to ring out louder.

Britney Spears Issues Message Of Support For Iranians 'Fighting For Freedom'

Josephine Harvey

Sun, October 16, 2022

Britney Spears has voiced her support for protesters in Iran fighting for women’s rights.

“Me & my husband stand with the people of Iran fighting for freedom,” she tweeted on Sunday.

The pop star’s husband, Iranian-American model Sam Asghari, has been speaking out about the deadly demonstrations since last month, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in the custody of morality police in Tehran. Amini was arrested for improperly wearing her hijab. According to witnesses, she was beaten severely by police upon her arrest.

Her death sparked nationwide protests against the government and its authoritarian religious regime mandating strict dress codes for women. Human rights groups estimate more than 200 people have been killed in the demonstrations.

“Me & My Queen stand with the people of Iran. Keep fighting,” Asghari wrote on Sunday, sharing his wife’s post.

Last month, Asghari shared an impassioned message on Instagram about the protests, calling the Iranian government the “biggest terrorist for its own people.”

“The biggest protest for basic human rights in Iran is happening as we speak. We’ve seen videos of people getting murdered and slaughtered on the streets, innocent people,” he said, urging followers to share what’s happening in the country.

Widespread internet outages have made it difficult for protesters to communicate with the rest of the world, and Iranian authorities have detained dozens of journalists since the unrest began, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Many protesters have begged social media users to spread the word about what’s going on in Iran.

Spears married Asghari in June, around seven months after she was released from a conservatorship that put strict limits on her personal and financial freedoms for more than 13 years.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Iranian dancer in Turkey says she believes protests will end Tehran's 'cruelty'





'Mikaeil Alizadeh, also known by her stage name Leo, is pictured with her cats in Istanbul

Tue, October 18, 2022 
By Dilara Senkaya and Ali Kucukgocmen

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Mikaeil Alizadeh decided to move to Turkey from Iran in 2015 after receiving threats for being gender-fluid and fearing she would be jailed for being a dancer. Now she believes the anti-government protests will lead to the end of Tehran's "cruelty."

Alizadeh, 33, who goes by the stage name Leo, is one of hundreds of Iranians who have attended protests in Turkey triggered by the death last month of a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman while in the custody of Iran's morality police.

The protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for violating strict codes requiring women to dress modestly in public, spread rapidly.

Attending a rally in Istanbul on Monday marking one month since Amini's death, Alizadeh said protesters in Iran were encouraged by support from abroad.

"The people in Iran have become very strong...thanks to our protests, the support from the world," she said among a crowd of around 100 people on a street opposite the Iranian consulate.

"We are going to win this time. This government is cruel, this government is a killer. Cruelty is not sustainable. Its end has come," Alizadeh said.

The unrest has become one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. However analysts say the chances of a political change in Iran remain slim anytime soon.

Alizadeh said she had to give dance lessons and perform in secret in Iran. She finally moved to Turkey in 2015 after a neighbour called the police and made prostitution accusations over the dance classes.

"I felt the danger in my heart after that day. I had to stop dancing if I lived in Iran or would have had to spend the rest of my life in prison," she told Reuters.

PERFORMING IN TURKEY

Alizadeh, who identifies as gender-fluid, said she got a hysterectomy and mastectomy in Iran. She had been receiving threats in her own country as she briefly underwent hormone therapy.

"They asked me why are you dancing with women as a man? I was really tired of that country at that time because our protests were going unanswered," she said.

Alizadeh later decided to reverse the mastectomy.

Turkey was once seen as a safe haven for the LGBT community in the Middle East and Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue was the scene of large Pride marches, with tens of thousands attending.

Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but hostility to it is widespread. President Tayyip Erdogan's conservative AK Party and their nationalist MHP allies have toughened their anti-LGBT stance in recent years, with a minister referring to the LGBT community as deviants.

Alizadeh said she got married in Turkey and now gives private lessons and performs at cultural and private events.

"At least Turkey does not ban dancing. It is a sin and is forbidden to even think about dancing in Iran," she said, speaking at an Istanbul restaurant where she performs.

"I put on shows here. People look me in the face as I dance and smile. That moment is a huge gift for me," she said.

(Reporting by Dilara Senkaya and Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Daren Butler and Angus MacSwan)

US: French cement firm admits Islamic State group payments

LIKE SHINGLES,CAPITALI$M DOESN'T CARE

 A logo of Lafarge, the world's largest cement maker, is pictured outside of a facility, in Paris, Sept. 8, 2017. Lafarge has pleaded guilty to paying $17 million to the Islamic State group so that a plant in Syria could remain open, in a case the Justice Department describes as the first of its kind. The charges were announced Tuesday in federal court in New York City. The allegations involve conduct that was earlier investigated by authorities in France. 

(AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

ERIC TUCKER and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN
Tue, October 18, 2022 

NEW YORK (AP) — French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group in exchange for permission to keep open a plant in Syria, a case the Justice Department described as the first of its kind. The company also agreed to penalties totaling roughly $778 million.

Prosecutors accused Lafarge of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the militant group, making payments to it in 2013 and 2014 as it occupied a broad swath of Syria and as some of its members were involved in torturing or beheading kidnapped Westerners. The company's actions occurred before it merged with Swiss company Holcim to form the world’s largest cement maker.

The payments were designed to ensure the continued operations of a roughly $680 million plant that prosecutors say Lafarge had constructed in 2011 at the start of the Syrian civil war. The money was to be used to protect employees and to keep a competitive edge.

“The defendants routed nearly six million dollars in illicit payments to two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations — ISIS and al-Nusrah Front in Syria — at a time those groups were brutalizing innocent civilians in Syria and actively plotting to harm Americans,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department's top national security official, said in a statement.

“There is simply no justification for a multi-national corporation authorizing payments to designated terrorist organizations,” he added.

The charges were announced by federal prosecutors in New York City and by senior Justice Department leaders from Washington. The Justice Department described it as the first instance in which a company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The allegations involve conduct that was earlier investigated by authorities in France. Lafarge had previously acknowledged funneling money to Syrian armed organizations in 2013 and 2014 to guarantee safe passage for employees and supply its plant.

In 2014, the company was handed preliminary charges including financing a terrorist enterprise and complicity in crimes against humanity.

A French court later quashed the charges involving crimes against humanity but said other charges would be considered over payments made to armed forces in Syria. That ruling was later overturned by France’s supreme court, which ordered a retrial in September 2021.

The wrongdoing precedes Lafarge’s merger with Holcim in 2015.

In a statement, Holcim said that when it learned of the allegations from the news media in 2016, it voluntarily conducted an investigation and disclosed the findings publicly. It fired the former Lafarge executives who were involved in the payments.

“None of the conduct involved Holcim, which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for," the company said. “The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and LCS executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, as well as from external auditors.”

The Islamic State group is abbreviated as IS and has been referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Family: Saudis sentence US citizen to 16 years over tweets

The Associated Press
Tue, October 18, 2022 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi or U.S. officials.

It appeared to be the latest in a series of recent cases in which Saudis received long jail sentences for social media posts critical of the government.

Saudi authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has adopted a hard line toward any criticism.

A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student at Leeds University in England was sentenced to 34 years for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, a case that drew international outrage.

Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 “mild tweets” sent over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption. He says his father was not an activist but a private citizen expressing his opinion while in the U.S., where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.

President Joe Biden traveled to the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Prince Mohammed, in which he said he confronted him about human rights. Their meeting — and a widely criticized fist-bump — marked a sharp turnaround from Biden’s earlier vow to make the kingdom a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Ibrahim said his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Oct. 3 on charges of supporting terrorism. The father was also charged with failing to report terrorism, over tweets that Ibrahim had posted.

His father was also slapped with a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 upon his release and barred from returning home to the U.S. unless he reaches the age of 104.

Ibrahim said Saudi authorities warned his family to stay quiet about the case and to not involve the U.S. government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.

Ibrahim also accused the State Department of neglecting his father's case by not declaring him a “wrongfully detained” American, which would elevate his file.

“They manipulated me. They told me to stay quiet so they can get him out," Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. “I am not willing to take a gamble on the Department of State anymore.”

Validity of Turkey’s New Disinformation Law Tested in Top Court

Selcan Hacaoglu
Tue, October 18, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s main opposition party asked the nation’s top court to halt the implementation of part of a controversial new law that will enable social media users who knowingly spread disinformation to be jailed.

The application to the Constitutional Court by the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, on Tuesday came just hours after the law went into effect, and argued that the government could use its provisions to intimidate critics in the run-up to next year’s elections.

The move by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration to criminalize the spread of what it describes as false information on digital platforms is a troubling sign in a nation already under fire for its failure to protect free speech. Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkey 149th out of 180 nations.

Read more: New Turkey Law Mandates Jail Time for Spreading ‘Disinformation’

“We’ve filed a case for the annulment of Article 29 to stop its implementation,” until a verdict is given on its validity, Engin Altay, the CHP’s deputy parliamentary whip, told reporters outside the courthouse. “This law reflects the mindset of Stalin.”

Article 29 of the law provides for those who deliberately spread disinformation about the country’s security, public order and overall welfare in an attempt to incite panic or fear to be imprisoned for between one and three years. The challenge is unlikely to succeed because of the considerable influence Erdogan wields over the court -- he has appointed 10 of its 15 judges.

Civil rights groups have also condemned the law’s provisions as censorship, and say they are aimed at muzzling dissent ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections that will be held in about eight months’ time.

EU Puts Bitcoin in Crosshairs With Crypto Energy Labeling Plan



John Ainger and Alberto Nardelli
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 3:49 AM·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union will develop an energy efficiency label for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in a bid to rein in the growing electricity consumption of the industry.

The European Commission will work with international partners to come up with a grading measure that will encourage more environmentally friendly crypto systems, such as “proof of stake,” according to a draft proposal seen by Bloomberg News set to be announced Tuesday. The EU will also call on countries to target miners’ energy consumption this winter as it tries to navigate the season with far less Russian gas.

“Just as their use has grown significantly, the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies has more,” the the EU’s executive arm said in the draft action plan. “In harnessing the use of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies in energy markets and trading, care must be taken to use only the most energy efficient versions of the technology.”

While the EU makes up only around 10% of proof-of-work crypto mining -- a more-energy intensive system used by Bitcoin to issue new digital tokens -- any action taken by the bloc can still have knock-on effects globally. It has previously considered banning proof-of-work practices before deciding that cryptoasset providers should be required to disclose the energy consumption and environmental impact of the assets they choose to list.

By comparison, proof-of-stake mining -- which is now used by Ethereum -- can use 99.9% less energy than proof-of-work. The idea is that a labeling system could encourage other cryptocurrencies to make the switch.

The bloc will also produce a report that evaluates the climate impact of the industry by 2025, while urging member states to put an end to tax breaks for cryto-miners, according to the document. In the event of an electricity shortage, countries must also be ready to stop mining activities, the EU will recommend.

NATO air strikes in Libya did not cause 'half a million civilian casualties' in 2011

BUT IT DID CAUSE THE RAPE, TORTURE AND MURDER OF KADHAFI

AFP Hong Kong
Mon, October 17, 2022 

Social media posts circulating globally have falsely claimed air strikes during NATO's 2011 military campaign in Libya that led to the toppling of strongman Moamer Kadhafi resulted in more than half a million civilian casualties. While the United Nations and rights groups say the NATO air strikes led to civilian deaths, the number is far lower than the half a million alleged by the posts. A UN investigation found NATO air strikes killed 60 civilians and separate reports by rights organisations indicate there were dozens of civilian deaths.

"NATO launched more than 10,000 air raids on Libya in 2011 with over 500,000 civilian casualties," reads a simplified Chinese tweet posted on October 10, 2022.

"When they were questioned about civilian casualties they insisted that it was collateral damage and that it happens in wars," the post adds.

The Chinese post is a direct translation of a tweet by an Africa-based user that was shared more than 20,000 times.


The false claim -- also debunked by Reuters and USA Today -- has been circulating since March in English and Chinese-language posts shared on Twitter and Weibo.


A screenshot of the misleading tweet, captured on October 18, 2022

NATO, the world's biggest military alliance of 30 European and North American countries, took sole command of air strikes in Libya in 2011 under a UN mandate to protect civilians.

The seven-month campaign led to Moamer Kadhafi being overthrown.

In June 2011, NATO addressed allegations it had targeted a residential building to the west of Libya's capital, Tripoli, saying: "While NATO cannot confirm reports of casualties, we would regret any loss of civilian life and we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties."

While the UN and rights groups say NATO air strikes killed civilians, the number of deaths that social media posts claim were caused by the strikes has been inflated.

A UN commission investigating war crimes and human rights violations in Libya reported in March 2012 that NATO air strikes in the country killed 60 civilians and wounded 55 others.

The report was published here.

Audrey Kawire Wabwire, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, told AFP: "NATO air strikes killed at least 72 civilians, one-third of them children under age 18.

"Altogether, NATO conducted roughly 9,700 strike sorties and dropped over 7,700 precision-guided bombs during the seven-month campaign."

The organisation's full report was published here.

A separate report by Amnesty International here said it had documented "55 cases of named civilians, including 16 children and 14 women, killed in airstrikes in Tripoli, Zlitan, Majer, Sirte and Brega."

Responding to the claim that there were 500,000 civilian casualties, a NATO official told AFP: "This is completely bogus."

ELECTORAL POLITICS THAT IS

Greta Thunberg: I don't want to go into politics




Amol Rajan - Media editor
Tue, October 18, 2022 at 3:47 AM·2 min read

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she will not pursue a career in politics - because it is too "toxic".

The Swedish teenager became a household name in 2018, after she skipped school and inspired an international movement to fight climate change.

Now 19, she says the necessary changes "will only come if there's enough public pressure from the outside - and that is something that we create".

And she never intended to become the face of a global movement.

"It's too much responsibility," Ms Thunberg said. "Sometimes I can snap. I say, 'If you think that all the hope in the world rests on burned-out teenagers' shoulders, I mean, that's not very good.'''

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop27), is in Egypt, on 6-18 November - but Ms Thunberg will be absent.

"I'm not needed there," she said. "There will be other people who will attend, from the most affected areas. And I think that their voice there is more important."

Greta Thunberg has been telling BBC News media editor Amol Rajan about her views and life

Ms Thunberg told me she remained unaffected by abuse on social media but said: "What I am most bothered about is when people lie about me and spread, like, conspiracy theories - because I can't lie, so when other people lie about me, it's like, 'No - don't.'''

Targeted on Twitter by several world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, she has responded usually by changing her Twitter profile.

"I just think it's genuinely funny," she said. "I mean, the most powerful people in the world feel intimidated by teenagers. That is funny. It says more about them than it does about me."

Greta Thunberg watches as then US President Donald Trump enters the United Nations in 2019

Ms Thunberg's most recent project has been creating and curating a book of essays by dozens of experts, to provide a toolkit for those concerned about climate change.

Amol Rajan Interviews Greta Thunberg is on BBC2, at 19:30 BST, on Tuesday, 18 October, and BBC iPlayer.

Trees Help Protect the Planet From Climate Change. 

But The World Isn’t Doing Enough to Protect Forests

Jennifer Fergesen

TIME
Tue, October 18, 2022 

BRAZIL-UN-COP26-CLIMATE-AMAZON

Aerial view of a burnt area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Sept. 15, 2021. The Amazon, the world's biggest rainforest, is known as the "lungs of the Earth." But it is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs. Credit - MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP—Getty Images

People breathe out carbon dioxide, trees breathe in carbon dioxide. It’s one of the first things children learn about the carbon cycle, the paths carbon takes as it moves among the living and nonliving things that make up the planet. That might be part of the reason trees and forests have long been a focal point of the carbon sequestration conversation. Dozens of companies have committed to planting and protecting trees as part of their efforts to counteract greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2030 the Trillion Trees Campaign is aiming to increase the number of trees in the world by one third.

Tree planting sounds great and makes for striking photo-ops of CEOs and presidents turning soil with golden shovels—and there’s compelling evidence that both new trees and existing forests can help bring down the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But trees’ and forests’ role in global warming is more complex than it may seem. Anyone hoping to harness the power of trees in the fight against global warming needs to appreciate that complexity.

Forest protection and tree planting projects predate the idea of net-zero: The Trillion Trees Campaign is a continuation of the Billion Trees Campaign of the early 2000s, which was inspired by the Green Belt Movement that started in Kenya in the 1970s. The current number comes from a much-cited 2015 paper that calculated that planting an additional 1.2 trillion trees would absorb the equivalent of 10 years of carbon emissions. A later 2019 paper calculated that 1 trillion trees could fit on about 2.2 million acres of available land, though its definition of “available” has been contested.
Remembering Basic Science

How would trees pull off this feat? In a word, photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) are the ingredients for this recipe; light serves as the energy that helps the plant reassemble the hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon into carbohydrates (CH2O) and oxygen (O2).

Read more: We Can Use Trees to Fight Climate Change. Here’s How

Plants use some of the carbohydrates they make through respiration. This is the same process people use when we convert the food we eat into energy; like people, plants breathe out some carbon dioxide when they respirate. On average, plants emit about half of the carbon dioxide they absorb and store the rest in their bodies as biomass while they’re alive. Trees can store more carbon in their bodies and hold onto it longer than most plants because they’re larger, denser, and live longer than the average blade of grass.

For nearly 100 million years after trees evolved in the Carboniferous period, nothing could break down the tough lignin that gives wood its rigidity, so dead trees piled up in swampy deposits that hardened under pressure and over time. Some of these deposits became the coal seams that are now mined and burned, re-releasing the carbon stored by ancient forests. The Carboniferous period is named after these carbon-rich coal seams, surrounded by layers of rock where geologists can find fossils of trees, ferns, marine animals, and other creatures from a bygone world.

Today, however, fungi have evolved to be able to break down lignin, and trees eventually decay after they die like the rest of us. Fungi and other decomposers also produce carbon dioxide through respiration, so the carbon that trees store can be re-released to the atmosphere as they decompose. Trees also release their carbon if they burn, either in wildfires (which have increased in frequency and intensity with global warming) or the slash-and-burn practices employed by farmers and ranchers that clear forest for agriculture. That’s a key detail to keep in mind when considering the role of forests in combating global warming.

A Vital Carbon Sink at Risk

Despite these disturbances and the slower process of decay, earth’s forests remain a net-sink for carbon dioxide. The planet is currently home to about 4 billion hectares of forest, which collectively emit 8.1 billion metric tons of carbon each year and absorb 16 billion metric tons. The net absorption of 7.6 billion metric tons is more than the United States emits in a year and about 30% of the amount the world emits in a year.

One might assume that the most significant carbon sinks would be tropical rainforests, the most biodiverse biomes on the terrestrial earth. But Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests, one of the world’s three largest systems, are now a net source of carbon emissions due to fires, clearing for plantations, and peat soil drainage. The Amazon rainforest is on the brink of becoming a net source due to similar disturbances. The world’s second largest tropical rainforest, located in the Congo River Basin, is the only rainforest in the top three that is still a significant carbon sink. These dire statistics are part of the reason why protecting forests, especially rainforests, has become a key talking point around decarbonizing the atmosphere and slowing global warming.

Read more: Trees Are the Secret Weapon of America’s Historic Climate Bill

“Whether it’s in Amazonia or the Tongass Rainforest in Alaska … those are all the lungs of our planet,” says Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist at Wild Heritage, an environmental organization based in Berkeley, California. “The logging and development that takes place in those forests, that forever changes their ability to absorb and hang onto carbon.” DellaSala says that businesses can avoid being part of the problem by avoiding wood and fiber sourced from old-growth forests.

Many other globally traded products are grown on land cleared from rainforests, including beef, cacao, and palm oil. The complex commodities market can make it difficult to account for which products are grown on former rainforest land, but companies such as Nestlé and IKEA have published “forest positive” plans to reduce the amount of deforestation involved in their supply chains through efforts such as satellite monitoring and supply chain mapping.

The Carbon Offset Problem

Some businesses are investing directly in forest protection through the carbon offset market. Organizations such as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and the Rainforest Trust sell the opportunity to protect the rainforest for as little as $5 an acre, money which they say goes to Indigenous people, local governments, and other groups who might otherwise choose to cut down the rainforest for economic reasons. Companies can buy these credits to offset their own greenhouse gasses as part of the carbon accounting involved in reaching net-zero.

However, ProPublica reported in 2019 that several forest protection projects that had received money from carbon credit sales were not keeping their promises; some protected plots were cleared even though people had been paid to keep them forested. Even when the people involved stick to their commitments, forests set aside for carbon offsets can be burned by wildfires, releasing their carbon.

Additionally, there is just not enough land available for carbon projects (and without impacting food security). A 2021 report from Oxfam notes that “the total amount of land required for planned carbon removal could potentially be five times the size of India, or the equivalent of all the farmland on the planet.”

Some carbon offset projects involve planting new trees, but these plantings do not absorb as much carbon as mature, natural forests. Still, each tree can absorb tens of pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, and carbon credit sellers, governments, and organizations are all getting involved in tree planting “to the point where we’re also now concerned about the supply chain for tree planting to make sure that we’re going to be able to have enough seeds to meet that demand,” says Joe Fargione, lead scientist for North America at The Nature Conservancy.

Read more: The Miraculous Trees That Could Save Pakistan’s Largest City from Climate Disaster

Fargione says that the most effective tree planting projects focus on restoring existing forests, rather than trying to create new ones. If planted in the wrong environment, trees can cause an increase in carbon emissions through side effects that may be difficult to anticipate ahead of time. For example, planting trees in grasslands can increase the risk of fire, releasing the carbon stored naturally in that environment’s plants and soil. Draining peatlands to plant trees releases the carbon those wetland ecosystems can hold onto for centuries.

As much as they love trees and forests, scientists like Fargione and DellaSala agree that we can’t rely on them to take care of the glut of carbon dioxide emissions humans have added to the atmosphere. To maintain trees’ current role as a sink for a large slice of carbon dioxide emissions, the priority should be to restore and maintain the mature forests that still exist, finding better ways to protect them against ourselves.

—With reporting by Jennifer Junghans

This article is part of a series on key topics in the climate crisis for time.com and CO2.com, a division of TIME that helps companies reduce their impact on the planet. For more information, go to co2.com

Planting trees – and hope – in a flood-prone Nigerian town


Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi
Tue, October 18, 2022 

A quarter of a century after the event, Soladoye Gbenjo still remembers the storm that changed everything. For months during the rainy season, battering rains tore through Igbajo, his rural community in the southwestern Nigerian state of Osun. Then came a wind that tore off the roof of his house, and dumped most of his belongings in the surrounding flooded fields.

Mr. Gbenjo, an agriculturist, realized something: His house, like most in the district of steep, windswept hills, was too open to the elements.

After replacing his roof, Mr. Gbenjo did the only other thing he could think of to make his home safer – he planted dozens of trees around it.

Mr. Gbenjo did not know it then, but that decision was a seed that would come to fruition more than two decades later, as the community found itself grappling with the increasing ravages of climate change.

“I developed an interest in tree planting from what happened to me,” says Mr. Gbenjo, now an octogenarian, pointing with a trembling hand at the dozens of trees he has planted around his house over the decades.

Trees can help mitigate damage in storm- and flood-prone areas. Leaf canopies reduce erosion caused by falling rain and provide a surface area for water to evaporate; and tree branches and roots also act as a drag on wind and floodwater, reducing the speed of both.

Nigerians need all the help they can get tackling floods, which are predicted by scientists to rise as the climate emergency gathers pace. Already the country has one of the highest levels of deforestation in the world. As the oil-producing nation grapples with a rapidly growing population, trees are being lost to urbanization, wood burning, and environmental disasters such as oil spills. An annual deforestation rate of about 3.5% translated to the loss of around 14,587 hectares in 2020. Today, Africa’s most populous nation has lost all but 4% of its primary forest.

In recent weeks, much of Nigeria has been hit by devastating floods that have affected 29 of the country’s 36 states.

Caught off guard by extreme weather events, Nigeria’s government has struggled to contain the catastrophic fallout. Widespread deluges caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon has displaced 1.4 million citizens and killed 500 in the past month alone, according to government officials.

But in Igbajo, residents have long since banded together to try to plug the gaps left by government inaction. As is common in Nigeria, the community of around 25,000 residents has an informal association tasked with resolving local disputes and issues that rarely reach state – or even local – government offices. As floods ravage large parts of the country, residents in Igbajo have been largely spared in part thanks to that association.

When Mr. Gbenjo began planting his trees 25 years ago, the chairman of the Igbajo Development Association immediately saw the advantages it would bring. And so, in a series of spontaneous gatherings, Shola Fanowopo asked the well-respected Mr. Gbenjo to talk to other community members about the benefits of planting trees.

So convinced were locals by the plan, that they pooled money to buy about 40 hectares of land to turn into a juvenile forest. That forest, in turn, would serve as a reservoir for eventually repopulating the entire district’s depleted trees, they hoped.

But first, they needed the actual trees.

Olalere Ajayi, a local farmer, was one of dozens who was convinced to sign up after seeing a neighbor’s roof torn off during a violent storm.

That made him realize the “need to protect my house,” Mr. Ajayi says, while walking through rows of young saplings on the edge of the community.

Within a year, almost every compound had rows of seedlings sprouting around houses. Residents planted gmelina, afara, and maple saplings common to the area, hardy and fast-growing trees.

Out in the surrounding fields, farmers also planted teak trees – whose firm grain makes it particularly useful for weather control – alongside their cash crops of cocoa, cassava, and yams.

In the first year, about 2,000 trees were planted, Mr. Fanowopo says. This year, volunteers are on track to plant a whopping 20,000 saplings, making a total of 50,000 trees planted since the project launched.

Like about 40 other residents who regularly volunteer, Mr Ajayi can often be found pitching in, either planting seedlings into small nylon bags; spraying growing saplings to keep insects and disease at bay; or digging older saplings to transplant them to where they’re needed.

Not all of those trees make it. Some seedlings don’t germinate, while others die after being uprooted to be transferred.

“The weather,” Mr. Gbenjo notes dryly, often doesn’t help.

Then there’s a lack of funding to maintain and fuel the trucks used to transport the trees across different locations – now even more difficult amid rocketing costs of diesel. And with inflation hitting a 17-year high, residents of the rural community are having to tighten belts, meaning the project is being put on the back burner.

Nigeria has announced several strategies to tackle deforestation, such as REDD+ – a United Nations-backed project launched at the COP26 climate summit last year, which aimed to limit the number of trees being cut down. But local residents and researchers say such plans rarely translated into results on the ground, with most state governments lacking the financing and data needed to make significant progress.

Agriculturists say initiatives like the one in Igbajo could be successfully transplanted to other communities, though that would require more input from government agencies.

“Hopefully the government will wake up and take action,” says Ugwu Shedrach, a young agriculturist and soil scientist in Nigeria’s central Nasarawa State.

In Igbajo, residents say they are determined to press ahead regardless. Watching recent floods unleashed across the country prompted Funke Abu to volunteer her time toward a planting expedition. “It took me two days to pick 1,000 gmelina seedlings,” she says, weary but satisfied.

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