W H AT
O N E A R T H
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s members’ magazine Issue 95 I Spring 2025
BUILDING A MOVEMENT
O N E A R T H
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Members’ Magazine Issue 95 I Spring 2025
Friends of the Earth Scotland is:
> Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
> An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
> Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 73 national member groups and 5,000 local activist groups
Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.
Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442
What on Earth is published by and copyright to: Friends of the Earth Scotland, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR
T: 0131 243 2700
E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot
Editor: Eilidh Stanners
Design: Emma Quinn
Cover photo: Siobhan Chalmers
The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements
If you would prefer to receive a digital version of What on Earth please contact us: info@foe.scot
DIRECTOR’S VIEW
By Rochana Sheward, Director
It’s been a hard start to the year as the world shifts around us. Many of us are processing recent tragedies and tensions on the global stage, trying to determine what they may mean for us. These challenging moments remind us of how interconnected our communities truly are.
While the global order feels increasingly uncertain, our focus remains on solidarity with our allies and connecting to our sister Friends of the Earth groups across the world, as well as fostering wellbeing for those around us, drawing strength from our connections, and continuing to advocate for a more just world where we are all able to flourish within the planet’s limits.
For me, holding onto hope is part of being resilient – small wins in our journey towards our vision.
We’ve already seen important victories this year, including a landmark court ruling that deemed UK Government’s approval of the Rosebank oilfield was unlawful and our campaign to stop a new gas-burning power station in Peterhead forcing developer SSE to resubmit its assessment of the project’s climate harm.
None of this would have been possible without you – our members. Your activism, whether through writing to MSPs, coming to events, demonstrating, donating, or spreading the word, has been instrumental in achieving these successes.
Alongside continuing our core campaigns, this year we will be prioritising our movement building work as well looking forward to the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026, and pushing political parties to include our key demands in their manifestos.
I look forward to hopefully meeting many of you at our National Gathering and AGM in June!
Rochana
National Gathering and AGM Saturday 7 June 2025
All Friends of the Earth Scotland members are warmly invited to our National Gathering and AGM on Saturday 7 June 2024.
We’re pleased to be holding the event in person in Edinburgh, and it will also be possible to join online, so you can choose which option works best for you.
This event is a chance to meet our board members and team, learn more about our campaigns and build connections with other members. This year we will also be celebrating local activism and workshopping plans to grow our movement.
Friends of the Earth Scotland is a democratic, grassroots organisation and the AGM is an opportunity for members to influence our direction as well as elect members of our board.
For more information and to sign up, visit www.foe.scot/agm2025 or scan this QR code >>>
The Friends of the Earth Scotland team is looking forward to seeing you!
Getting involved in the National Gathering and AGM
Alison Ritchie, Head of Operations
Our annual National Gathering and AGM is your chance as a member to get involved with the running of Friends of the Earth Scotland.
You can come along (virtually if you can’t make it in person!) to learn about what we’ve been doing over the past year, discuss plans for next year, vote on motions or submit your own, and vote on the election of board members, and you can put yourself forward for that too when there’s space.
Putting forward a motion
Putting forward a motion is a way to have a policy or issue you care about debated by the members of Friends of the Earth Scotland Any member can raise a motion, which must then be seconded by another member
If you have a motion you would like to raise, but you don’t know another member willing to second this, please contact us as we may be able to help.
Your motion will be available for members to read ahead of the National Gathering and AGM At the AGM you will be asked to say a little bit about the motion and why you believe it is important for Friends of the Earth Scotland to adopt it as a position. There will then be time for questions and debate, before the members present at the AGM vote on whether to approve it.
Approved motions will then be taken into consideration when shaping the work of Friends of the Earth Scotland
Some examples of motions that have been passed in the past few years are a motion to campaign against the proposed new power station in Peterhead, a motion to pressure the Scottish Government to face the climate emergency and stop business as usual, and a motion to support the plant a tree in Palestine campaign
Electing board members
You will also be able to hear from and vote on the election of board members. The board are responsible for the governance of Friends of the Earth Scotland, including overseeing finance and policy.
This year, we are looking for a new treasurer to join the board from within our membership This is a voluntary role, vital to guiding our financial health and shaping our future growth. As well as having a commitment to climate justice, the ideal candidate will have financial expertise, a strong grasp of accounting principles, and the ability to explain financial information to non-experts.
If you’re interested in this role, you can find the full role outline on our website at www.foe.scot/agm25
National Meetings
Outside of the National Gathering and AGM space, we’ve launched a series of monthly national meetings for our movement to learn, share, and strategise together. These will largely be for Friends of the Earth Scotland members only and will all take place online so you can log on from home, wherever that may be.
Each national meeting will have a focus topic, as well as space to hear updates from our campaigns, and room for discussion with your fellow members.
At the meeting on 28 May, we will be presenting the new movement building strategy, which members will be voting on at the AGM. This is a good opportunity to dive deeper into this topic and increase your understanding before the vote
You can find out more about the national meetings, including when the next one is, at www.foe.scot/join-our-national-meetings
Coming together as a movement has never been more important (as you’ll read more about on p7), and I hope you’ll be able to take these opportunities to get involved
Building a powerful movement
Ric Lander, Research and Development Manager and Kate Whitaker, Movement Building Lead
For nearly half a century, Friends of the Earth Scotland has been striving to transform Scotland into a place of thriving and sustainable communities that recognises and takes action to address its contribution to global inequality and environmental destruction.
Together, we have had a lot of success. From stopping fracking, to pushing the Scottish Government to abandon its policy of drilling every last drop of oil and gas, we’ve been forcing progress through.
But today, as a movement we must confront a hard truth: we’re not winning. It doesn’t feel like we are on a path to a just and peaceful world. The world we want is still possible, but we must confront our present reality, and ground our feet in it, in order to gather new strength and new allies with whom we can build pathways to lasting change
Many of the achievements of progressives which seemed built to last – a commitment to climate action, outright opposition to genocide, rights for queer and trans people, respect for fair elections and the right to protest – are now being brought into question.
...today, as a movement we must confront a hard truth: we ’ re not winning
People's worries are being exploited by those who wish to deepen the divides within and between our communities. Billionaires and their allies, no-longer satisfied with squandering the earth’s wealth, want to run it too. Democracy itself is under threat and the political system is utterly incapable of confronting global crises.
There’s no question that the need for change is urgent, and to achieve it, we need a lot of people, and to get organised!
To put it another way, rising to this task will take a movement.
So what kind of a movement can win systemic change, and how do we build it? History is brimming with examples where people have collectively faced down such odds and won lasting changes for justice and sustainability. We can learn so much from them
We need new visions of the future we want and plans to get there, new spaces to organise in, new ways to mobilise our communities, new connections and coalitions, new tools to help people step-in and step-up, in short, a new structure and strategy for our movement
“System change has never felt more urgent… This means dismantling the corporate capitalist system and building sustainable societies based on peoples’ sovereignty and environmental, social, economic, class, racial and gender justice.”
Friends of the Earth International, 2023
Friends of the Earth has long since given up on the notion that the environment can be cared for within our current capitalist system, which prioritises the creation and accumulation of profit over the wellbeing of people and ecosystems. Instead, we understand that only deep and lasting system change will bring about a healthy and sustainable future.
The fight has become that much bigger Too big, in fact, for us to expect to be able to make progress whilst keeping within our silos. We will not succeed whilst there is one movement for the planet and another for people. We must work with allies outside the environmental movement to win
“No one way works. It will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down.”
Diane di Prima, ‘Revolutionary Letter #8’, 1971
We must connect shared experiences and shared values of hope
There are deep, wide and long-term changes required to deliver justice but we shouldn’t bank on achieving such changes in one giant leap. As campaigners, we fundamentally believe that our best shot is to take stepping stones towards our vision, winning smaller changes that carry us towards the change we need. Working in this way gives our movement purpose and momentum
“We can act in the here and now to create changes that make that world more likely whilst also understanding the magnitude of the systemic transformations that are needed to bring our vision about.”
Gracie Bradley, Friends of the Earth Scotland strategy, 2023
What might these stepping stones look like? An effective global movement acts locally and nationally. For us this is about working out what global climate justice means in our neighbourhoods and local communities in Scotland.
From here we draw strength, because there are plenty of changes which local communities can fight for that will improve people in Scotland’s lives right now and carry us towards our vision of climate justice. The fight for warm homes, local bus services, and sustainable jobs is grounded in our neighbourhoods, but from there it can take the fight to Holyrood and swell into a global movement. Injustice is not foreign to Scottish communities: we must connect shared experiences and shared values of hope.
Organising across difference makes us all stronger.
There are over 2,000 of you who are members of Friends of the Earth Scotland. From some viewpoints we may seem a loose collection of folk, but if we got organised we could wield a lot of power! The staff team has been cooking up some ideas for how to do this including holding monthly members’ meetings, local meet-ups and socials, new online spaces, and bringing democracy back into the way we work. We know that there is so much more knowledge, experience and ideas within our membership and network, and we need your input
More than just a membership card, Friends of the Earth Scotland could be a place for everyone who cares about justice and the environment to feel at home and empowered.
Nationally, we’re opening up our campaigns with our first ‘Campaign Forum’, a new space for interested members to direct and drive the campaign against the proposed fossil fuel burning power station at Peterhead. If you want to get involved let us know at activism@foe.scot
We are also working on more meaningful ways for people to organise locally and nationally, to welcome new people into our movement, to spark action and empower community leadership. This is already well underway in the North East, which you can read about on p12.
With visionary campaigns to win, new organising approaches in our hands and members at the heart of the work, Friends of the Earth Scotland can become an engine for a renewed movement or for climate justice.
But we can’t do everything, and we shouldn’t try to Instead, we should work in solidarity with groups in Scotland and globally who share our vision
“Solidarity is not contagious; it does not simply infect those who encounter it. Instead, solidarity is built, taught, and consciously and laboriously spread.”
Paula Lacey, 2023
A movement made up of diverse communities and organisations is enriched with a variety of perspectives and is able to deploy a range of tactics Organising across difference makes us all stronger We must deepen our ties with trade unions, education and arts groups, community organisations, direct action groups, the media, policy and legal organisations, allies in party politics.
This will not be easy. We must give up on any notion that there are shortcuts to achieving our vision. It will take patience, care and hard work.
Above all it will take a movement, and Friends of the Earth Scotland has the chance to commit to that movement
In June we are putting these proposals for your vote at our AGM. You’ll get to hear about our new movement building work, shape its direction and then decide if you agree with it as a strategy.
We have a world to win, and we can’t do it without you.
Community connection in the North East
Guy Ingerson, North East Organiser
Making face-to-face connections with people is the first step towards building a community response.
Since my colleague Michelle and I joined Friends of the Earth Scotland last year, as two members of staff permanently based in the North East, with all the local knowledge and community connections that brings, we have been doing just that. We have been reaching out to people across the region, listening to people in places like Boddam, Newburgh, Peterhead and Aberdeen and connecting with like-minded groups and organisations
Through our canvassing in Boddam, where Peterhead power station is located, we learned more about the community’s priorities We found that what people really want here, what will make life better for them, isn’t a huge new power station (shock), but better public services
They want better public transport, so they can reach opportunities, they want more to do for young people, and as they are actively campaigning for at the moment, they want a secure future for the village’s local library. The impending closure of libraries in Aberdeenshire is symptomatic of a much wider problem across Scotland. Decades of cuts from both Westminster and Holyrood have hollowed out the
services provided by local councils
Libraries are one such service, providing not just the joy of reading but digital access to those who cannot afford it and community hubs for all to enjoy. Our politicians are failing our communities when they prioritise the protection of corporate profits and private wealth over the needs of the people who elect them.
So, what are we going to do about it?
For the last few months, we have been planning our next move and making strong community connections will remain central to that. We’ll be organising within our communities to win the change we need, but not only that – we'll be hosting lots of fun events, knocking on more doors to keep learning about what people want to see, and making our voices heard far and wide so that people hear about what’s happening here. If you live in Peterhead and the surrounding area, you’re going to see a lot more of Michelle and I over the summer!
Alongside my colleague Scott, we are taking the climate movement into households across Aberdeenshire via a new monthly radio show at Shmu FM, a community radio station. We’ll be exploring a variety of subjects connecting the national and international movement to local concerns and issues. The dominant narrative around environmental policies needs to be challenged, and this gives us the space to do so. You and I know that affordable and better public transport, warmer homes, taxing wealth and protecting social security are positive changes that will transform Scotland for the better. This is one small way we can challenge the power of vested interests We’re up against huge sums of money being pumped from oil and gas
fields into the pockets of media savvy PR firms.
A real just transition isn’t only for offshore workers, although they need secure and sustainable employment as much as the rest of us A real just transition is and should always be for everyone. We’ll be looking to share our learnings with a gathering of activists later in the year We hope that this sharing of skills and knowledge can help us build collective power in the North East in a more coordinated way
We’ll be sharing more details about our other activities throughout the year, so make sure you are signed up to our mailing list to be there first to hear about them: www.foe.scot/newsletter
Putting on a play about Torry, Aberdeen
Scott Herrett, Just Transition Organiser
In late 2023, I went for a walk with Emer Morris around the headland of Girdleness and Greyhope Bay. This is the part of Torry, in Aberdeen that sticks out into the North Sea. It sits beyond the glow of the city, so at nighttime it can be the best place in Aberdeen to witness the Northern Lights when they shine.
Emer and I met through our work in the UK climate movement, having coordinated a demo on Aberdeen beach together to protest drilling in the North Sea Emer, who was based in London at the time, learnt about the community’s campaign to save St Fittick’s Park while she was up During our walk I described why it’s so important to keep telling the story of what’s happening in Torry far and
wide, because it’s a story that transcends the people and place it directly affects. It’s a story of injustice, one that gets repeated More people must hear and heed its lessons if ever we have chance to stop it being played out on the backs of other people, elsewhere or in the future.
I told Emer I thought it would make a great play, something like The Cheviot, Stag and the Black Black Oil, if they had heard of it? It turned out to be one of their favourites and had been thinking the exact same thing. It wasn’t until after I’d shared this idea that I learned Emer is in fact a playwright by trade and had even made community-led plays that use verbatim text from interviews with people to form the scripts.
All images: Dani Ellis
So we set off to make a play about Torry, but before getting too far along, we agreed on some core aims and principles for the project We felt it had to be a celebratory play about resistance of the land and people of Torrypast, present and future. We felt it had to be a community-based theatre project that centres community members as culture bearers, storytellers, artists. Using verbatim interviews, music and poetry, we’d develop it directly with the people of Torry.
We also set out some principles that underpin everything we do in the project, and ideally feature in the finished play, these being:
> Centring injustice (done to people and land)
> The responses are collective rather than individual (as seen through the ensemble)
> The individual is the tip of an iceberg (systemic under the surface)
> Authentically represent the richness of and in Torry
> Health is impacted by society and wider social structures
> Joy is resistance (there will be singing about the dark times!)
> A community informed process of making this work
Over the last year, Emer and I have conducted hours of interviews with people living in or connected to Torry, gathering personal and historic stories about life in Torry, from “the fish, to the oil, RAAC and the wind”, a phrase from the play that highlights theme of industrial change and issues that have affected the community We’ve held writing workshops, cooked breakfasts and lunches for people, to help capture a diversity of perspectives from the loons and quines of Torry, both longstanding and new. We’ve scoured library shelves and internet pages, building an archive of key events in the community’s history, and uncovered numerous personal anecdotes.
In January we recruited a Torry resident, Nattie, in the role of community producer to help coordinate the various community workshops we were holding We also have the privilege to work with two of Aberdeen’s leading lights in writing, Mae Diansangu and Shane Strachan. We now have a draft script, which was shared with the community for the first time, via a public reading in a local pub, with community members eading their own and other parts
Thankfully the event went even better than I’d hoped. Everyone performed their parts beautifully, the script seemed to land well with most, if not all, of the audience, and we received some useful feedback to make it better. At times I felt moved by what I was hearing and seeing, which I thought must bode well for the full production.
Now you’ve read all about how the play has come to be, you may still be wondering why Friends of the Earth Scotland is supporting the making of a community-based theatre production about Torry. It might seem some way off our usual campaigning against new fossil fuel projects and organising protests –but really, it's all connected.
Our support for this project is part of our continued solidarity with people in Torry, who have been burdened with the fossil fuel industry impacting their lives for decades. They carry the environmental burden for the wealthier parts of society who are consuming and polluting more For example, all the unrecyclable waste produced in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray, ends up in Torry, to be burnt in a giant waste incinerator, just yards from a primary school full of the community’s kids The Tullos Death Star as it’s aptly referred to in the play.
I believe, theatre projects that are directly informed or made by the people that they are representing can contribute to broadening the movement
It’s crucial for us, as a climate justice organisation, to support working class communities that are being exploited like this
But still, why support a play?
I believe, theatre projects that are directly informed or made by the people that they are representing can contribute to broadening the movement Building more spaces where we can create the understanding and connection we need is crucial work to truly bring about climate and environmental justice. These projects have the potential to provide people with organising skills and confidence,
that orthodox political organising spaces are unable to.
Sometimes, meeting spaces within the current social and climate justice movement can be alienating for people not accustomed to the language and practices used in those spaces. This is not always a fault of those leading those meetings, but sometimes we forget that many people have never seen themselves as agents of political change –other than say casting a vote every so often – and so might feel intimidated to walk into a traditional organising space.
Live theatre has the power to move and shape people in profound ways
Providing alternatives for people to meet and organise, like a community theatre project, can provide people ways to work, learn and make decisions together, that is not ‘work’ or part of some other hierarchal structure, such as a sports team.
I also believe well-made theatre can provide more weight to stories of injustice and resistance, than say a written report, film or even a book. I don’t go to the theatre that often, but when I have, I feel involved in the story and moved emotionally, more so than other forms of public story telling. Live theatre has the power to move and shape people in profound ways, that can have consequences long after the event.
Sometimes I’ve even left with a sense that I want to change the world. I remember that feeling walking out the doors of Dundee Rep in 2015, after watching the play I previously mentioned – The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil. That feeling made me want to study the consequences of the highland clearances for my degree, which got me a job in academic research, which eventually brought me to Aberdeen, and then onto this organising job through which I’m now writing these words to you. I hope a ‘Play for Torry’ is similarly impactful for those who come to see when we eventually perform it.
The next stage of the project is to seek funding for full production, performing it first in Torry later this year before a Scottish tour.
How would you feel if a mining company started
drilling near your home?
Kim Pratt, Senior Circular Economy Campaigner
Last year, Friends of the Earth Scotland worked with the University of Edinburgh to interview people across Scotland who are concerned about transition mineral mining happening in their local areas.
We spoke to people in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, and the Highlands, where mining companies are exploring transition mineral opportunities
In this article, I’ll share some of the feedback that we got from these communities and what can be done better in the future.
Transition minerals, like lithium, cobalt and nickel, are required for the energy transition away from fossil fuels They are a vital part of creating a better future but, as demand for these materials increases, the rush to obtain them is harming people and nature We need to make sure they are being mined in a fair way
It is possible to create a fossil free future whilst protecting people and nature at the same time
The research findings
Companies are not engaging with communities
For many locals, the first they knew about mining plans in their area was when the drills arrived. Exploratory drilling is not considered a ‘development’ under planning rules so there is no legal requirement to consult the local community. However, this lack of engagement made people feel excluded and disempowered. One local resident from Dumfries and Galloway said: “The lack of honesty and openness that the company displayed did them no favours whatsoever”
Politicians are failing to support their constituents
When people reached out to their politicians, support quickly fizzled out. Mineral mining falls into the grey area of powers between the Scottish and UK Governments. MSPs and MPs were quick to point the finger at each other, rather than work together to support their constituents.
Many people think transition mineral mining will not benefit them
Despite being told mining will bring jobs to the local area, most people were skeptical that any benefits would reach them. As one resident said: “the only benefits are for landowners”. People cared about their local environment and were concerned about the impacts of mining on nature and tourism.
Scottish communities want fairer resource use
People in these communities were aware that ‘green’ extraction is creating mining conflicts all around the world They pointed to the need to reduce our demand for these materials in Scotland by saving energy and recycling what we already have.
This matched what we know about people’s concerns across the UK: last year research by the Corporate Justice Coalition and Friends of the Earth found that four out of five UK adults support new laws to tackle environmental harm and human rights abuses in company supply chains.
The path forward
Scottish communities affected by transition mineral mining exploration feel like they are not being properly consulted or supported in dealing with its impacts Companies need to consult locals earlier and more openly, politicians at all levels must take their responsibility to their constituents seriously, and the UK Government must put people and nature first in its Critical Mineral Strategy being revised this year
It is difficult to challenge plans for renewable solutions, when we know that they are a vital part of creating a better future. However, conflicts around transition mineral extraction are rising and causing serious and extensive harm, including human rights abuses, across the world right now. By speaking to people in Scotland and connecting with those facing these impacts internationally, we can see that ordinary people have more in common with communities facing injustice around the world than the corporate elites here
It is possible to create a fossil free future whilst protecting people and nature at the same time – after all, isn’t this why we are making the transition in the first place? Rather than replacing our energy requirements from fossil fuel power plants like for like with evermore wind turbines and solar farms, we need to reduce the amount of energy we need first and use the materials we already have more carefully
Our governments should focus on circular economy polices, including recycling (globally, only 1% of lithium is recycled currently) and reprocessing wind turbines, rather than landfilling them. Scotland is well placed to do this, as many of our first-generation wind turbines are reaching the end of their lives now.
We use the term ‘resource justice’ to describe the transition in our resource use to fair and sustainable systems of extraction, consumption and disposal. We believe that, by working together and fostering global collaboration, solidarity and mutual respect that we can create a future where resource justice becomes reality, where resources are shared fairly, ecosystems are protected, and human dignity is upheld.
To reduce our energy bills,
we
need to break free from fossil fuels
Freya Aitchison, Oil and Gas Activism Officer
The energy price cap rose once again in April, meaning that the average household’s energy bills will be £1,849. This is an increase of 6.4% – costing people over £100 more throughout the year compared to under the January price cap.
The main reason that the energy price cap keeps rising is that it’s tied to the price of gas. Global gas prices have been highly unstable ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but even before then prices fluctuated significantly due to global economic and political changes.
As long as the price of energy is linked to the price of gas, ordinary people will remain vulnerable to spikes in prices like this. Sticking to this system means that the price of powering our lives is being decided by factors way beyond the control of our government.
However, instead of transforming our energy model, the Scottish Government are considering approving a new gas burning power station in Peterhead, which would lock us into relying on gas until 2059 This is years beyond its own net zero target of 2045 when climate pollution should be all but eliminated
This is, obviously, not the correct way forward. But there are ideas for how we can break the stranglehold fossil fuels have on our finances.
Groups such as Fuel Poverty Action have long been advocating for the price of energy to be de-linked from the price of gas, which would incentivise cheaper renewables to be prioritised over gas They are also lobbying the energy regulator Ofgem to change the way that energy is priced so that everyone receives a basic amount of energy for free, while excess/luxury energy use is priced more highly. This would mean every household gets the essential energy they need to stay safe and well, with higher amounts given to those in greater need due to age, health, disability, children or leaky housing.
We must also call for measures which would reduce the overall demand for energy. Steps such as retrofitting housing which would make them more energy efficient, making it easier and cheaper for people to keep warm The less energy we use, the less need there is for major infrastructure in the first place
Advocating for public ownership of renewable energy also starts to move us away from the system where greedy companies are profiting from fuel poverty, instead ensuring that ordinary people benefit from the energy that is generated in their area.
Finally, we must continue to oppose new fossil fuel developments where they come up Projects like Peterhead gas will keep us trapped in this extractive and harmful energy system
We know that we need to end the burning of fossil fuels if we are to respond to the challenge of climate change. But the consistently rising cost of energy from fossil fuels makes this task even more urgent.
You can get involved in the campaign against the new Peterhead power station by emailing activism@foe.scot – all kinds of voices and skills are needed to turn the tide away from fossil fuels, and with people power behind us we can win against this destructive industry.
