Morningstar Consumer equity strategist RJ Hottovy and A.T. Kearney partner Greg Portell discussed Beyond Meat and the popularity of the meat alternative at fast-food restaurants.
Count Formula 1 racecar driver Lewis Hamilton among those who are getting into the meatless, plant-based burger businessOpens a New Window. following the growing popularity of Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, which has captured consumer’s attention and taken the fast food marketOpens a New Window. by storm.
Hamilton, 34, along with Italian night club promoter and entrepreneur Tommaso Chiabra and investor Ryan Bishti, are opening up Neat Burger just off of London’s Regent Street on Monday, with several more locations in Britain to follow.
They are currently seeking £15 million to fund expansions into locations at Covent Garden and Kings Cross.
“We are not aiming for vegans or a plant-based niche, we are aiming to convert meat eaters,” Bishti said in a statement. “We are part of a movement happening when you look at the world today in the Amazon with deforestation for crops and agri-farming. This is a perfect way to make a change.”
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The plant-based burger craze went viral when Burger King introduced its “Impossible Whopper” on Aug. 8, with upwards of 45 of the meat-free burgers being sold at Burger King locations a day, according to analyst Andrew Charles.
Seeking to capitalize on the concept’s growing popularity amongst consumers, Hamilton and company are also planning a U.S. location to launch sometime next year, with the intention of opening 14 more Neat Burger locations around Europe throughout the next two years.
Hamilton, a native of the U.K. and the richest sportsman in the entire country with a net worth of £187 million, became a vegetarian back in 2017. The five-time Formula 1 World Champion now holds a sizeable stake in the company.
The vegan and vegetarian food market has exploded over the years, with the amount of vegans in the U.K. climbing from 150,000 in 2014 to over 600,000 in 2018, the Vegan Society reports.
Hamilton is hardly the only sports figure or celebrity to get into the plant-based burger game, as Jay-Z, Trevor Noah, Serena Williams and Katy Perry are investing in Impossible Foods while the market for meatless burgers continues to grow worldwide.
Burger King has led the recent market expansion of plant-based burgers, and the payoff has been hard to ignore for competitors, with the Impossible Whopper predicted to contribute 6% to same-store sales growth at U.S. Burger Kings this quarter, according to the market research and investment firm Cowen.
“Our 6% same-store sales estimate for 3Q implies instances of one-time consumer trial for Impossible Whopper is sustained, and arguably offset, by awareness that continues to grow with Burger King using TV advertising to promote the innovation,” Charles said in a statement released last Thursday.
OFFICIALS in Somerset are hunting a suspected bird poisoner after more than 40 pigeons were killed – including some that fell out of the sky dead.
Investigators including police and the RSPCA are looking into a spate of dead pigeons in Wells and say it is possible they were poisoned.
The birds started appearing in the High Street and beyond at the end of July – on roads, pavements and in people’s gardens.
The birds showed no obvious injuries or signs of disease, leading to suspicions there was a pigeon poisoner in the city.
As many as 40 dead birds have been reported.
One woman found three in her garden and there there was even a report of one falling out of the sky and landing on a woman carrying a coffee.
It was suggested the birds might have been suffering from “pigeon canker”, a disease prevalent during the breeding season.
But autopsy carried out voluntarily vets proved ‘inconclusive’.
Wells City Councillor Celia Wride said: “I must say poisoning was my immediate reaction at the time.
“If this is a case of somebody putting down some killer feed for them we need to find out and do something about it. This is not the way to go about things.”
The matter has been referred to the police who passed it on to Natural England, the Government quango that advises the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on conservation and wildlife.
Natural England passed the matter onto the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which has responsibility through the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme.
It is an offence to injure or kill a wild bird under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, except under licence, and offenders can face an unlimited fine and/or six months imprisonment.
Tests for bird flu and West Nile Virus carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) proved negative.
A spokesman for the HSE said: “While HSE are unable to confirm the range of tests carried out by APHA as part of this post-mortem, the report provided did not state a view that disease was responsible for the pigeons’ deaths.”
Further analysis of tissue samples is currently being carried out by Fera Science Limited to determine if pesticides were used. This can take up to eight weeks.
If the toxicological report does indicate pesticide use, this information will be considered along with the field investigation report to try to identify whether the exposure took place from an approved use or not.
If abuse is suspected, then the information will be referred back to the police who are responsible for catching the pigeon poisoner.
A spokesperson for the RSPCA said: “We are not sure what has happened, but we believe they may have been poisoned.
“The pigeons were taken to a vet by a member of the public and post mortems carried out.”
As well as being a deliberate act of poisoning the spokesperson said any potential source could also include poisonous substances not being safely stowed away.
Anyone with information that might help with the investigations is asked to call the RSPCA on 0300 123 8018 in confidence.
The NEC had conceded that allowing operators to market trophy-hunting tours at the show was “controversial” CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES
BY JANE FLANAGAN – THE TIMES UK
Trophy-hunting businesses targeting big-game hunters in Britain have been banned from a shooting show after public objections. The NEC in Birmingham said that it would no longer be welcoming safari operators selling hunting trips for sport at the Great British Shooting Show in February.
Campaigners had gathered 30,000 signatures demanding that the venue revoke admission for ten safari operators that wanted to market their tours to shoot lions, elephants and other big game in Africa. The announcement by the NEC yesterday came after organisers had earlier defended the safari operators’ appearance at the show as “controversial”.
The venue, which also hosts Crufts, said in a tweet yesterday that it had listened to its customers’ concerns “and have acted”.
“Taking these concerns and the safety of staff and visitors into consideration, we will be removing exhibitors that practise safari hunting from the show,” it said.
Among the exhibitors that had bought stands at the show were Umlilo Safaris, from South Africa, which offers packages including lion trophy hunts “in fenced areas” — a practice known as canned hunting because there is no way the trapped animals can avoid their fate. Another operator, Legelela Safaris, offers giraffe hunts for £2,400 and baboons for £160.
The safari firms had been expected to capitalise on an increase in interest from British big-game hunters, documented in a report by the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. The report, based on data from Cites, the global wildlife trade regulator, tracks a sharp rise in souvenir animal trophies imported into Britain in recent years.
Last night the veteran explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes welcomed the NEC’s decision as “a small but positive first step”.
“The idea that animals may be killed, not in self-defence or for food but purely for entertainment, must surely be challenged,” he told The Times. Last week Sir Ranulph appeared at a reception in parliament calling for a ban on the import of trophies from endangered animals to Britain.
From 2004 to 2014 about 2,500 such trophies were brought home by British hunters. The UK is among the top 12 nations taking part in such hunting trips, along with the United States, Russia and Germany, according to Cites data.
Many of the lions being imported into Britain come from hunting farms in South Africa, which Sir Ranulph described as a “hideous trade”. The country has 3,000 lions in the wild, compared with up to 8,000 born in captivity for commercial purposes. Canned hunting is legal in South Africa. Supporters argue that it helps conservation efforts by giving greater value to preserving animals in the wild, as well as bringing revenue to rural areas.
Scientists consider captive-bred lions to have little to no conservation value.
London (CNN)Drastic restrictions on almost every aspect of people’s lives, from the cars they drive, the way they heat their homes, to the fridges they buy — even the food stored in them. That is the reality of what awaits us in 2050 if a UK government pledge to cut greenhouse emissions to “net zero” is to be met.
Net zero means the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is no more than the amount taken out.
By setting the target, the government is doing what it promised to do. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the UK and almost 200 other countries pledged to work together to keep global warming in check.
The agreement seeks to keep temperatures to 1.5 degree or at the very least to “well below 2 degrees” above pre-industrial levels.
Cutting emissions is a non-negotiable part of that plan. To keep the warming under 1.5 degrees, global carbon emissions need to reach net zero by 2050. For the “well below 2 degrees” scenario, the deadline moves back to 2070.
That puts the UK at the more ambitious end of the range — and under pressure to deliver concrete policies very, very soon.
The “net zero” target means the country must slash domestic emissions as much as it can. A report by the Committee on Climate Change, the advisory body that recommended the target, gives a glimpse of what that future will look like.
Petrol and diesel vehicles will need to be phased out and replaced by electric or hydrogen powered ones by 2035. Consumption of beef, lamb and dairy must be cut by 20% by 2050. No houses built after 2025 will be connected to the gas grid. The owners of older buildings will need to switch their heating system to a low carbon one by around 2035.
There are issues with the plan. Some sectors are more difficult, or even impossible, to rid of emissions. Agriculture is one example.
“The methane created by livestock is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide … so we will have to reduce meat consumption, but it’s unlikely that we will reduce livestock to zero,” said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which is part of London School of Economics.
Aviation and shipping are other sectors where low-carbon alternatives don’t yet exist. “They are quite high carbon sectors, they are rapidly growing, and the decarbonization pathway is more uncertain for them,” said Barny Evans, renewable energy expert at WSP, a sustainability consultancy.
UK’s emission reduction targets are among the most ambitious in the world.
Planting trees is part of the plan
Emissions that can’t be cut, like the ones created by belching animals, must be offset for the country to reach the net zero target. Trees take carbon out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis, so planting more of them is one way to do this.
But growing more trees is not always practical. Britain is a small island and space is limited, so the government wants the option of paying other countries to plant trees instead.
Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are sounding the alarm about that idea. They worry that being able to pay someone else to act could undermine UK’s domestic efforts.
“This type of offsetting has a history of failure and is not, according the government’s [own] climate advisers, cost efficient,” said Doug Parr, the chief scientist at Greenpeace UK.
Another way to offset emissions is by storing greenhouse gases underground or under the sea. But scientists are still figuring out how exactly to do that in a cost-effective and safe way.
Price tag for survival: £1 trillion
Reaching net zero will cost about £1 trillion ($1.3 trillion), a price that for some, is simply too much. One vocal critic is Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who called the net zero policy “pointless” because the UK is only responsible for around 1% of global emissions. He argues the cost of the plan will far exceed its benefits, and advocates for more investment into research and development instead.
But for Ward, and an overwhelming majority of climate scientists and climate economists, the numbers do add up.
“The only reason why people think that cleaner living is more expensive is because they are forgetting about the hidden costs of our current reliance on fossil fuels,” Ward said.
“People are paying for the impacts of climate change through increased risks of coastal flooding, increased risk of land flooding, increased risk of droughts, increased risk of heatwaves,” he added.
The investments required to get to net zero will be around 1% to 2% of GDP each year, according to the Climate Change Committee. But dealing with the consequences of unchecked warming — rising sea levels, for example — would be way more expensive, it said.
Too little too late?
There are also those who argue the UK and other countries should move much faster. Extinction Rebellion, which recently staged major protests in central London and pushed the UK parliament to declare a climate emergency, wants the net zero target to be set for 2025.
Swedish schoolgirl and climate activist Greta Thunberg has been striking outside the Swedish Parliament every Friday precisely because she believes the Swedes, with their target of net zero by 2045, should move faster. She is also questioning the way reductions are calculated.
While the urgency is undeniable, the Climate Change Committee and other experts say a quicker action could hurt the economy — and the people.
“I hope we can get to net zero earlier and I hope the Extinction Rebellion will continue to push for that, but we’ve got to do this whilst improving the quality of people’s lives,” Ward said.
“We have more than 20 million homes in the UK that have gas central heating … if you were to stop that now, rip up their gas central heating without knowing what you are going to replace it with, you will kill people. Because there will be people who will freeze to death,” he added.
“There is a socio-economic and politic dimension to this. We need to make sure we all benefit,” Evans added.
What government?
Experts mostly welcomed the plan announced by Theresa May. But they were quick to point out that a sweeping announcement by an outgoing Prime Minister who has failed to deliver on her own promise to take the UK out of the European Union, and a complete transformation of one of the world’s biggest economies are two quite different things.
Especially when the country is struggling to meet even its existing target of 80% reduction by 2050.
“The government has to recognize it needs to do more … and whoever is prime minister must bring forward new policies that will strengthen the emission reductions, otherwise we won’t get there,” Ward said.
Brexit is another major roadblock on the way to net zero. Apart from consuming the energy of government and paralyzing the parliament, Brexit could also cause a massive hit to the British economy.
Energy transition is a key part of the plan.
Most economists expect the UK to slump into recession if it crashes out of the EU without a deal. The decarbonization plan will only work if companies are willing to invest in innovation, and a struggling economy isn’t the best environment to attract investors.
But the public, at least in Britain, is becoming more aware of climate change — and the potentially damning consequences of failing to act on it.
According to opinion polls by YouGov, the number of Brits who think the climate is among the top three most pressing issues the country is facing has been growing steadily. The trend was noticeable in recent European and local elections in which Green parties posted big gains.
“The UK has not suffered, in the same way as the United States, from any major party denying the science … it’s not a question of whether we should act, it’s about the best way in which to act,” Ward said.
Whitelees windfarm in East Renfrewshire. Onshore wind is now cheap form but there are few new projects.
Photograph: Graham Hamilton/Epicscotland
The net zero carbon target will require sweeping changes to almost every aspect of British life, affecting our homes, food and the way we get around, as well as jobs and businesses across the board. Ministers hope there will be health benefits and improvements to the natural environment along the way, as well as helping to stave off the global climate emergency.
On some of the key areas where rapid change is needed, however, the signals so far have been mixed.
The UK must wean itself off gas. Photograph: Alamy
Phasing out coal use and bringing more renewable energy on stream are the key planks of the government’s strategy. Gas has become an increasingly important source of fuel in the last three decades, particularly for domestic heating, but to reach net zero it will have to be phased out too.
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Support for renewable energy has been reduced and in some cases scrapped by the government. Onshore wind is now one of the cheapest forms of energy, but the withdrawal of subsidies and stricter planning rules have resulted in a dearth of new projects, though offshore wind is continuing to make progress.
The number of new solar installations plunged by 94% in April, according to Labour, after the government’s withdrawal of support. Chris Hewett, the chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, says: “Solar and wind are now the lowest cost forms of power generation in the UK, yet there is no route to market and government is continuing to subsidise the fossil fuels it is aiming to phase out.”
The number of jobs in renewable energy in the UK fell by about a third, from 36,000 in 2014 to 25,000 in 2017, according to the union Prospect.
Carbon capture and storage will be needed if we are to continue to use any fossil fuels. A long-running £1bn competition to build the first large-scale demonstration project for the technology was scrapped by George Osborne, but the government says that smaller projects not requiring taxpayer assistance could start to develop.
Controversially for some, the Committee on Climate Change says fracking is compatible with a net-zero target – but only if the gas produced displaces gas which would otherwise have been imported.
The government has slashed support for electric vehicles. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images
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There are only about 210,000 electric vehicles in the UKAbout 1% of households use an all-electric car and about 2% hybrids, so tens of millions of cars will have to be replaced. Public transport, walking, cycling and ways of working that avoid travel will also be part of the solution.
Darren Shirley, the chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, says: “In the coming weeks the government should commit to restarting the programme of rail electrification, outlining further incentives to rapidly grow the market in electric vehicles in the UK, and start work on publishing a national strategy for buses with investment to grow the network and green the bus fleet to be published by 2020.”
The government has pledged to phase out diesel and petrol cars by 2040, but that target should be brought forward to 2030, according to the CCC.
The government has slashed support for electric vehicles, resulting in slower take-up. A lack of charging points is also hitting demand. There are about 8,500, but they are not spread evenly across the country, and some towns have few or none.
The CCC notes that the number of flights we take can continue to grow at least in the short term provided emissions come down in other areas, but campaigners say the decision to allow Heathrow’s expansion will blow away any chance of reducing the UK’s overall transport emissions.
Measures to insulate the existing housing stock were scrapped by the government. Photograph: Newscast/UIG via Getty Images
All newly built homes – of which the UK needs a record number to solve the housing crisis – were meant to be zero emissions from 2016 under plans from the Labour government in 2006. Those plans were scrapped in 2015 on cost grounds, and now there are few requirements for new-build houses to incorporate energy-saving features or renewable generation.
Government policy is key to making the built environment, which accounts for roughly 40% of the UK’s carbon footprint, more climate friendly, says Juliet Barfield, an architect at Marks Barfield. “The government must regulate if we want to bring down emissions.”
Repurposing and refurbishing existing buildings is nearly always preferable to demolishing and rebuilding, unless the existing construction is dangerous or of such poor quality it cannot be remedied. Concrete is one of the most commonly used construction materials, but associated emissions are sky-high. If the global concrete industry were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest emitter. Alternative materials from timber to wool are not widely used, and while innovators are working on ways to bring down emissions from concrete – using additives from coffee grounds to beetroot, for instance – it remains a significant source of carbon.
When new buildings are needed, a long-term vision – at least 50 years, for the lifetime of a building – and resisting cost-cutting temptations are also important. Barfield notes that high ceilings make buildings more liveable and easier to adapt in future, as well as having benefits in ventilation and light that help in designing ways to reduce energy use. BMany architects, however, come under pressure to reduce ceiling height to squeeze in more rooms, which limits the building’s future potential.
Less than 1% of Britain’s housing stock each year is newly built, and old homes tend to be leaky, draughty, costly to heat and inefficient. The government scrapped measures, such as the “green deal” policy, to insulate existing housing stock. Cash-strapped local authorities lack the resources to offer the insulation needed, even though it would save residents money and improve their health. The CCC recommends turning down heating to 19C in winter, but that may be of little comfort to people in unsuitable and uninsulated homes.
It is not clear what will replace the emissions trading scheme that covers heavy industry after Brexit. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
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Heavy industries such as steel and chemicals currently come under the EU’s emissions trading scheme. Companies are awarded a certain number of allowances to emit carbon dioxide, some free and some paid for, and the most efficient can sell any spares to laggards, who are supposed to be spurred by the additional cost to mend their ways. The system has suffered many setbacks in its nearly 15 years of operation, but it is still one of the main ways in which industry is held to account for its contribution to global heating.
It is not yet known what, if anything, will replace emissions trading after Brexit, when manufacturers and other heavy industries are likely to come under increasing economic pressure if trade is disrupted. Manufacturingoutput has already come under pressure from the prospect of a no-deal exit, but losing manufacturing in the UK will not reduce carbon emissions overall, but will increase reliance on imports.
The UK must reduce its meat consumption Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
More than a tenth of greenhouse gas emissions comes from agriculture and this proportion is rising as other sectors have been able to reduce emissions faster.
Growing more trees is the key plank of the government’s strategy on land use, along with better soil management. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has set out plans for the UK’s first soil strategy since the “dig for victory” campaigns of the second world war. Soil is one of the world’s biggest carbon sinks, but can also be a major source of carbon depending on the farming techniques used.
Details of the strategy are still to come, and when it comes to tree planting farmers face some uncertainty. There are benefits under the common agricultural policy for planting new and maintaining existing trees, but these can be complex and hard to access. The government has promised £50m for rural tree planting in England to meet its target of 10m new trees across the countryside. The UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with 10% of land forested in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland and only 8% in Northern Ireland.
Urban trees can also be a vital way of reducing carbon, cleaning air and reducing the impact of climate change by providing shade and health benefits. The government has put up £10m for 130,000 new trees in towns and cities in the next two years. There is no national policy, however, and some local authorities and landowners such as Network Rail have embarked on tree-cutting programmes without clear oversight of the environmental costs and benefits.
Our heavy consumption of meat is taking a toll on our health as well as the planet, and farmers can help reduce emissions from livestock, for instance by improving their diet so they produce less methane. Ultimately, however, meat consumption must be reduced. Moving from a high-meat to a low-meat diet would cut emissions by 35%, the CCC found.
Biodegradable food waste must not be sent to landfill, where it rots to produce methane, after 2025, according to the CCC. Food waste should be avoided as far as possible to bring down agricultural emissions. Unavoidable food waste, treated properly with anaerobic digestion, can be a source of natural gas to be used for heating or electricity generation, displacing fossil fuels.
Tim Benton, the dean of strategic research at the University of Leeds, says food will only increase in importance as a source of greenhouse gases. He says: “When you have reduced everything else – energy, transport, and so on – the thing you’re left with is food.”
A ‘just transition’
When the UK first made its “dash for gas”, it was in the context of closing coal mines and the aftermath of the miners’ strike of the 1980s. Hundreds of thousands of workers in traditional coal-mining areas lost their jobs and the devastation is still keenly felt across swathes of the UK. The recent and enduring memory of that loss and upheaval should act as a warning of how not to engineer a transition to a new form of economy, trade unions believe.
Sue Ferns, Prospect’s senior deputy director general, says: “We need a just transition for all the workers affected and this means we need to work proactively to ensure that the damage inflicted on coal communities in the 1980s is not repeated.”
Image copyrightPAImage captionProtesters at a “die in” in Glasgow
The UK should lead the global fight against climate change by cutting greenhouse gases to nearly zero by 2050, a report says.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) maintains this can be done at no added cost from previous estimates.
Its report says that if other countries follow the UK, there’s a 50-50 chance of staying below the recommended 1.5C temperature rise by 2100.
A 1.5C rise is considered the threshold for dangerous climate change.
Some say the proposed 2050 target for near-zero emissions is too soft, but others will fear the goal could damage the UK’s economy.
The CCC – the independent adviser to government on climate change – said it would not be able to hit “net zero“ emissions any sooner, but 2050 was still an extremely significant goal.
The main author Chris Stark told me: “This report would have been absolutely inconceivable just a few years ago. People would have laughed us out of court for suggesting that the target could be so high.”
The main change, he said, was the huge drop in the cost of renewable energy prompted by government policies to nurture solar and wind power.
The UK government has announced it will provide £4.6 million in funding for projects tackling illegal wildlife trade around the world. They include efforts to stop smuggling in Madagascar, to disrupt the grey parrot trade in Cameroon and to reduce demand for marine turtle products in Nicaragua.
The UK has pledged to spend £36 million to fight illegal wildlife trade between 2014 and 2021. The new projects are among a series of actions to emerge from a major conference held in London last October.
“The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund is backing projects that will tackle the criminals at source and in countries that are destinations for items made from illegally traded plants and animals,” environment minister Thérèse Coffey said in a statement.
The government is also drawing on expertise in behaviour change science to recommend the most effective approaches to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products, such as environmental education and social marketing.
Another initiative, the Wildlabs Tech Hub, has brought together conservationists and engineers to develop new technological tools to combat wildlife crime, with support from Google and Arm.
“It’s hugely encouraging to see efforts under way to address key drivers of illegal wildlife trade, in particular to tackle illicit financial flows,” says Richard Thomas of Traffic, an NGO focusing on global wildlife trade.
Two issues that require more attention are corruption – a key facilitator of wildlife crime – and cybercrime, Thomas says. “The latter is a rising threat, in part because of successful efforts in shutting down physical market places, which has led to more transactions going online where they are more difficult to regulate.”
An Extinction Rebellion protester blocking Blackfriars Bridge, in London, November 2018.
London (CNN)Earlier this month a group of climate change activists stripped down to their underwear in British parliament and glued their hands to the glass of the House of Commons’ public gallery.
Why? To get arrested.
Extinction Rebellion, a grassroots environmental group based in the UK, is responsible for a series of stunts that deliberately break the law to highlight the threat of climate change.
Since launching last year they have caused disruption by holding a “Funeral for our Future” outside Buckingham Palace, which led to 14 arrests, poured200 liters of fake blood outside Downing Street, and brought London to a standstill by shutting down five bridges.
So far Extinction Rebellion has counted 222 arrests — and thousands have declared they are willing to be arrested, or even go to prison, to demand action on climate change.
Method to the madness
Extinction Rebellion claims their actions are based on research into how to use “non-violent civil disobedience to achieve radical change.”
An Extinction Rebellion protester, London, November 2018
They estimate that significant numbers of people will have to get arrested and cause disruption for the government to pay attention to their demands. These include the UK government declaring a climate change emergency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and starting a citizen’s assembly.
“People making decisions have to pay attention to a mass of people that come out on to the streets to demand action in the face of this crisis we are in,” said Roman Paluch-Machnik, an Extinction Rebellion activist who has been arrested more than once.
“You put the police in a dilemma,” explained Nuala Gathercole Lam, another protester. “If you have got thousands of people refusing to move, they either have to let you do it, which is hugely economically disruptive, or they have to arrest you.”
According to the group, research shows that non-violent uprisings involving 3.5% of the public participating in acts of civil disobedience force a political response because they cannot be ignored.
“Every non-violent uprising since 1900, if it achieves that threshold, succeeds in its aims,” said Paluch-Machnik. “One of our main principles is to get this 3.5% mobilized.”
That would need about 2 million people to get involved in the UK.
Almost 10,000 people worldwide have signed up as “willing to get arrested,” as of April 8, 2019, according to the group. Around 3,000 are based in the UK.
Of those people, over 80% are also “willing to go to prison.” The group holds prison workshopsand training sessions to prepare people for what to do if they end up at a police station.
Pictured, a protest outside Downing Street, March 2019.
“Nothing has been achieved after 30 years of regular environmental campaign,” said Paluch-Machnik. “People are so motivated by what is happening right now because there is not really another option.”
“I’ve always been very worried about continuous news about the government not addressing the situation,” said Alanna Byrne, an activist for Extinction Rebellion. “I felt very isolated in the way that I felt.”
Along with 25 others, Paluch-Machnik, Lam and Byrne have quit their jobs to work for Extinction Rebellion full time.
Since the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned last year that the planet only has 11 years before it reaches disastrous levels of global warming, Extinction Rebellion isn’t the only group to launch radical climate activism.
Extinction Rebellion activists threw 200 liters of fake blood outside Downing Street in March 2019.
School students around the world have been skipping school to demand that world leaders take action on climate change.
The movement has spanned more than 100 countries and 1,500 cities, with teenagers missing out on their education to show how worried they are about the threat to their future.
In response to critics, who say Extinction Rebellion is causing unnecessary disruption and wasting police time, the activists say the “climate and ecological emergency” demands their actions.
“I think that any suffering that is caused as a result of a few hours sitting in a traffic jam is incomparable to what is going to happen in a few years” said Paluch-Machnik.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service told CNN that it is aware of a number of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations and protests planned over the coming weeks, and that “Appropriate policing plans are in place.”
It added: “We will always provide a proportionate policing plan to balance the right to a peaceful protest, while ensuring that disruption to communities is kept to a minimum.”
This Monday, the group plans to shut down London in their biggest action yet. They plan to meet at five London locations and block traffic by playing music, hosting discussions and refusing to move from the street.
Demonstrators blocked Waterloo Bridge by bringing trees and solar panels.
Extinction Rebellion demonstrating on Waterloo Bridge, London, April 15, 2019.
The group says hundreds of people have taken time off work to camp for as long as it takes get their demands heard by the government. Read more coverage of the protest.
Members of an anti-hunting group have come under fire for posting a barrage of ‘sick and twisted’ comments about a father-of-three who died on a pigeon shooting trip.
Marco Cavola, 42, was accidentally shot dead on March 25 when a hunting trip to Rossie Estate in Perthshire, Scotland, went badly wrong.
But among the heartfelt tributes which have been pouring in for the Italian businessman, a collection of so-called ‘hunt monitors’ have let rip with a string of nasty comments, including suggestions that his death was ‘karma’.
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Marco Cavola, 42, was accidentally shot dead on March 25 when a hunting trip to Rossie Estate in Perthshire
The North East Hunt Monitors today posted a news article on their Facebook page relating to Mr Cavola’s death, under the caption ‘oh dear’.
It attracted 130 comments within hours as trolls unloaded a torrent of messages celebrating the fatal accident which left three young children, aged 14, 12 and 7, fatherless and a wife widowed.
Helen Louise Rowan wrote that she ‘bloody love this. Hahaha’ while Barbara Rehman commented: ‘Karma is brilliant.’
Sharon Dolittle Young mockingly wrote ‘aww diddums’ and Jamie Bennion even commented that it was ‘vermin control’.
Other comments included ‘class’, ‘bravo’, ‘justice me thinks’ and ‘one less’.
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But the Italian businessman’s death was trolled by anti-hunting campaigners who suggested the death was karma in a string of celebratory messages
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The ‘sick and twisted’ comments included posts such as ‘one less’ and other expressions of delight at the death of the hunter
But the trolls have attracted a stinging backlash from who those who accuse the so-called hunt monitors of being ‘sick’.
Shane Sweeney wrote: ‘All these comments just goes to show that the majority of hunt sabs are sick twisted individuals.
‘A man dies and kids lose their father and you trolls think it’s a good thing. You all deserve nothing but hardship for the rest of your days.’
Jane King said: ‘What a load of sick people you are, whatever the circumstances. Show some respect. children have lost their father and a wife now a widow
Marco Cavola, a Juventus fan who lives in Lariano near Rome, had travelled to Scotland on March 24 and the following day set out hunting.
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North East Hunt Monitors had originally posted a link to a news article about Mr Cavola’s death under the caption ‘oh dear’
The trolls were met with a stinging backlash from other appalled comments such as one from Jane King who branded them ‘sick’
Shortly before 11.30am, the experienced hunter was hit and fatally wounded by an accidental rifle shot.
Emergency services were called but the construction firm owner and experienced hunter was confirmed dead shortly after. It is unclear how exactly the accident happened.
Italian authorities were sent to Scotland to oversee the return of the businessman’s body when it is released by local officials.
Formal identification is yet to be carried out but his family have been informed.
One man, who lives nearby and did not want to be named, said: ‘I heard from a farmer friend that it was a group of Italians who were out shooting pigeons and a gun’s gone off accidentally.
‘You don’t think things like that could happen up here, it’s quite dramatic for the area, but it looks like it was just an accident.’
A spokesperson from the North East Hunt Monitors told MailOnline that the comments had not been moderated and confirmed that the post has now been removed ‘out of respect for the family’.
They also claim that the comments were not made by their members but visitors to the page and fake Facebook accounts.
But they added: ‘Tensions are fraught on both sides of the hunting debate and you will find many similar comments made about sabs and monitors who die or get injured.’
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Mr Cavola, who lived in Lariano near rome, leaves behind three children aged 14, 12 and seven and a wife
Sboteurs say they have no plans to give up the fight to save foxes in Warwickshire.
Anti-hunt campaigners in the county are concerned at the number of foxes killed by ‘mistake’ during hunts up and down the country, and say they will not stop disrupting the Warwickshire Hunt until foxes were properly protected under the law.
Following the ban on fox hunting introduced in 2004, the hunt and its hounds now follow artificial trails, but saboteurs still follow the hunt closely when it takes to the Warwickshire countryside.
A spokeswoman for the West Midlands hunt saboteurs said: “It’s sad that it’s up to us to fight. The law is not enforced properly and hasn’t stopped animals being killed for blood sport. It’s barbaric.
“We do our utmost to try and save the animals.
“We will always try and stop them until the day when the law is tightened an outright ban on hunting. They can’t keep claiming killing foxes is an accident. If so many accidents are happening then it shouldn’t be allowed at all.”
But the hunt denied the accusations and said it operated within the law.
A spokesman for the hunt said: “We hunt legally to comply with the Hunting Act 2004 and our professional staff correct hounds as quickly as possible should any mistakes occur. Hunting remains a popular activity as demonstrated at many of its venues and increasing public attendance and support especially on Boxing Day and Opening Meets. People are welcome to come and see what we do.”
The hunt and saboteurs recently blamed each other when an ambulance was held up on a country lane near Shipston.
The hunt accused protesters for not pulling their car over as they followed the hunt, while saboteurs said the ambulance was delayed by the hunt ‘using the road as their own personal playground’.
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