The Scottish Beacon - COP26 Special

Issue 1

Journalism from Scotland’s Independent News Publishers

FREE CO P 2 6 S p e c ia l!

How Scotland’s Communities are Facing the Challenges of Climate Change The Impact of Cruise Ships in Orkney • Climate Justice • A Low Emission Zone for Edinburgh Cove Park Arts Centre • Litter Picking on the Clyde • Young Hopes for the COP26 Legacy The Importance of Peatland • Staying Positive • Windfarms in Shetland • Scotland’s Climate Assembly

Produced by

Illustration by Alistair Quietsch

The Scottish Beacon brings together articles from independently published public interest journalism platforms from across Scotland.

Edited by Rhiannon J Davies and Sam Doak Creative Director Laura Hurst

It is produced by Greater Govanhill CIC, a solutions-focused free community magazine in Glasgow. We aim to provide a platform for typically under-represented voices and empower people to tell their own stories in their own words.

Greater Govanhill is proud to serve one of Scotland’s most multicultural neighbourhoods. To celebrate this diversity we publish articles into different community languages.

This first issue of the Scottish Beacon, published to coincide with COP26 features articles from Greater Govanhill, the Lochside Press, Shetland News, The Ileach, The Clydesider, The Edinburgh Reporter, The Ferret and the West Highlands Free Press.

Cover Design Laura Hurst Words by Angela Clark, Brian Palmer, Chinyanta Kabaso, Clare Harris, Donald Campbell, Dylan Lombard, Ferret Journalists, Fiona Grahame, Fraser Stewart, Hans J Marter, Jen Stout, Julian Calvert, Kirsty Watt, Phyllis Stephen, Rahela Cirpaci, Raymie Kiernan, Rebecca Menzies, Rhiannon J Davies, Sehar Mehmood, Yvonne Blake Featuring the photography of Alexander Hanssen, Brian Palmer, Brian Watson, Chris Watt, Cove Park, Dani Bowers, Eugene Daniels, Georgio Travato, Kate Holford, Kenny Armet, Martin Laird, Dylan Lombard, Friends of Dumbarton Foreshore, Shetland News, Stand Up To Racism Glasgow, YCSA Illustrations by Alistair Quietsch, Suzie Cichy Printed by Gladstone Media Ltd This magazine has been made possible with support from the Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust Ltd and the Lankelly Chase Foundation. Additional thanks go to the Public Interest News Foundation.

The Scottish Beacon magazine is a special edition produced by Greater Govanhill CIC. All content, unless otherwise stated, is copyright of the publishers listed. All rights reserved.

No part of this independently published magazine may be reproduced without permission.

Greater Govanhill CIC is a community interest company registered at Langside Lane, Glasgow, G42 8BH, Scotland: SC656194.

Any queries, comments or letters, get in touch via: hello@greatergovanhill.com To make a complaint, visit: greatergovanhill.com/complaints

Contents 04

Only Once You Have Carried Your Own Water Will you know the value of it

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Our Hopes for the COP Legacy

Young people from Glasgow share their views

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Orkney at a Crossroads of Change

The environmental impact of mass tourism

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What are Scotland’s Climate Targets?

And how well are we doing in meeting them?

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An Act of Resistance

Community climate action in Govanhill

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Cove Park Arts Centre

Responds to Climate Emergency

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What we can Learn from my Grandmother’s Village

The Roma experience of climate change

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Social Housing Failing to Meet Government Standards For energy efficiency

A Low Emission Zone for Edinburgh Moving in the right direction?

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Shore Has Potential

The Environmental Cost of Windfarms

Community litter picking in West Dunbartonshire

On Shetland’s peat bogs

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For Peat’s Sake

The role of Scotland’s whisky industry

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Stand Up to Racism at COP26 Climate justice is migrant justice

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Scotland’s Climate Assembly

Government urged to listen to its people

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Our Land Is the Greatest Weapon Against Global Warming If we work with it not against it

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Five Ways to Stay Positive In the face of the climate crisis 3

GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

"IT IS ONLY ONCE YOU HAVE CARRIED YOUR OWN WATER THAT YOU KNOW THE VALUE OF IT.

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limate change is, undoubtedly, the hottest topic right now (pun intended.) Global temperatures continue to rise at an alarming rate, with the last six years recorded as the hottest ever by the World Meteorological Organisation. Pressure is mounting on world leaders to find big solutions and the world's eyes are currently focused on COP26 happening here in Glasgow.

One issue that cannot be ignored in these discussions is climate injustice.

It is well known that the majority of the human population care most about things that directly affect them. We are more likely to donate to a cause if we can relate to the issue personally. We care more about issues when we can see firsthand how important they are. When it comes to climate change, however, its direct effects are not experienced in the same way by everyone.

The countries least responsible for climate change will experience the worst effects. According to the World Resources Institute, countries in Africa are responsible for just three percent of global CO2 emissions, yet these are the people most likely to have their livelihoods destroyed.

As climate change causes water shortages, women living in rural areas of the Global South are having to walk even further to collect water, or keep young girls home from school to assist with these duties. In central African countries like Chad, droughts and rainfall are displacing people from their homes. In Bangladesh, cyclones and storms are threatening the lives of millions of people. In western countries, the visible impact of climate change is not yet as extreme. While some areas in such countries have experienced more flooding, warmer summers and other issues, the biggest change observed by the average person may just be in their energy bill.

AFRICAN PROVERB

By Chinyanta Kabaso, Development Worker – YCSA Glasgow Portrait by Dani Bowers

“The countries least responsible for climate change will experience the worst effects.”

For there to be climate justice, wealthier countries of the Global North must take on greater responsibility in reducing their carbon footprint as well as protecting communities that are worst affected due to historic, systematic and institutional racism.

Most importantly, climate justice can only happen when there is a diversity of voices. Climate literacy education must be delivered to people who are under-represented and who have struggled against injustice.

At the ‘Mending Our Planet’ project at Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA) in Glasgow, we have been working towards a more diverse climate movement. We deliver activities and educational courses that encourage young black and minority ethnic people to be involved in the climate change campaign.

Earlier this year, the young people on the project produced a film titled “Our Take on Climate Change” which was shown in screenings to the community. The film reflected their learnings about climate change from taking part in the project. One young person showed the impact of textile waste in their home country of Sierra Leone, waste which is mainly produced by the consumptive lifestyle of the west. It is important to have a diverse range of voices, as only people who have experienced the effects of climate injustice can truly convey the problems and solutions that are needed. As the important conversations and decisions are made, we have to make sure the voices of the under-represented can be heard.

YCSA ‘Young Leaders’ making their film about Climate Change.

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GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

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or young people, there’s always this emphasis on the future: What are your plans for the future? What are your aspirations for the future? Who do you want to be in ten years’ time?

Those are fair questions, but right now they hold a different weight. My generation, ‘Gen Z’, is the first to grow up with an awareness of the climate crisis as a fact of everyday life.

And we are, quite possibly, the last to be able to do anything about it. For millions of us, the plans for our future have changed. In order to bring the climate crisis to an end, we feel we have no choice. Some of us jeopardise our future through activism and others change career paths, vocations,diets and the way we live – to save our home.

Glasgow is hosting COP26, a chance for countries to move forward as a unit and strive for the same aspirations. It is time for radical changes in the way we all live, consume and travel.

I hope that by having Glasgow as the host of the COP26, we as a city can help to steer others towards this goal, lead by example of how to build a more sustainable lifestyle and city. All 7.8 billion of us are standing together at this precipice.

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hope that more people in Scotland care about the future and what it holds for us. I think that some older people are destroying the younger generation.

Scotland’s goods, materials and services which are produced, are often thrown out after just one use. Scotland needs to take more action.

They are extracting raw materials, manufacturing them into products, and transporting them to retailers and consumers.

If we want to end this crisis, Scotland needs to think bigger and more globally. Scotland needs to be a role model for other countries who are in the same situation.

I’m in the younger generation and I’m Scottish and I want to see my country do me proud. What happens at COP26 will have a big impact on my future.

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s a young woman I feel angry – I’m watching the world burn. From climate catastrophe and poverty, to misogyny and division. When systems are built by powerful men, for powerful men, the world literally goes up in flames.

As COP26 comes to my city, I see streets being frantically cleaned up, workers planning long overdue strikes, free public transport – but not for residents – and an ever growing crisis for women’s safety; my safety.

Glasgow isn’t the city I want it to be.

But if there’s to be a legacy of COP in Glasgow, it should be a recognition that we need a new system. We can’t solve the crisis through more capitalism, nor can we continue to blame individuals when the people mainly responsible for chaos are corporations and the global elite.

If we want to truly save our planet we must recognise that the fight against the climate crisis can’t be won alone. It’s a fight against misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism. It’s a fight that must recognise class and centre working class voices.

For there to be a positive legacy of COP26 in Glasgow, we need our leaders to ensure that every person has safe and affordable housing; access to good quality locally produced food; a guaranteed income; accessible and free public transport that’s integrated; public services in public hands; and for our essential workers to be paid well and acknowledged for keeping our city going.

The world’s past breaking point, and so is Glasgow. It’s time our leaders quit talking and started acting.

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FOR THE COP LEGACY

Young people from around Glasgow tell us what they want to see happen in Scotland after COP26

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THE ORKNEY NEWS • ORKNEY

ORKNEY AT A CROSSROADS OF CHANGE

By Fiona Grahame, Editor – The Orkney News Photos by Martin Laird

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hese immense blocks of stone stood around the pirate in the grey light of the dawning, like the phantom forms of antediluvian giants.” The Pirate, Walter Scott In August 1814, Walter Scott, top author of his day, visited Orkney. He was so inspired by the ancient Standing Stones of Stenness and other tales he heard around the islands that he incorporated them into his novel, The Pirate.

Orkney is a group of islands, 20 of which are currently inhabited, 16 kilometres across the Pentland Firth from the mainland of Scotland. The islands bear the remnants of a great civilisation which lived and farmed here over 5,000 years ago. Situated between Scotland and Shetland, it has long been at a crossroads for shipping.

The route was used to travel down the west coast of Scotland and onward to Ireland. For the Norse, Orkney was an excellent place to settle, grow crops in its fertile soil and use as a base for successful raiding trips south. After the defeat of the Picts, it came under Norse rule until 1472, when it was incorporated into the growing Kingdom of Scotland as part payment for a marriage debt.

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The Orkney News is a not for profit community based newspaper. It is story driven, online and free to view.

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The impact of cruise ships and mass tourism

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Its strategic importance has always been known: be it for the early explorers like Captain Cook, the Hudson Bay traders going to Canada, or the fleets of the Royal Navy which, in two world wars, were based in the sheltered waters of Scapa Flow. Orkney serves as a gateway to the Arctic, with possible new routes opening up as climate change melts the seas to the north.

Today, however, Orkney is at another kind of crossroads, one that could change the fortunes and appearance of the islands forever. The popularity of Orkney as a visitor destination, has grown substantially since Walter Scott penned his popular novel of the Pirate Gow. In 1999, Orkney was accorded UNESCO World Heritage status for an area known as ‘The Heart of Neolithic Orkney.’ This comprises: the Neolithic village of Skara Brae, Maeshowe burial chamber, The Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness. The granting of World Heritage status has been a major selling point for islands already famed for their wildlife, natural environment, culture, food and drink.

For a time, the increase in tourism was welcomed by nearly all islanders as holiday accommodation filled up, quality Orkney products were purchased and trained tour guides helped visitors learn more about the islands. Several festivals, some of international importance like the St Magnus Festival and the Orkney Folk Festival, ensured that the tourist season was able to stretch beyond the summer months.

Kirkwall, with its excellent port facilities, has for many years been a destination for cruise ships and now has a slick operation for welcoming arrivals. Before the coronavirus pandemic put a brief halt to the cruising sector, Orkney was host to increasing numbers of vessels, to such an extent that there was growing concern about the damage the increased footfall was doing to its historic sites.

The number of cruise ships calling into Orkney has grown extraordinarily, from 134 in 2017 to a projected 200 vessels in 2022.

The 5,000 year-old Ring of Brodgar has had its inner ring fenced off and major drainage works were undertaken by Historic Environment Scotland to offset the damage caused by hundreds of thousands of pairs of feet compacting the grass pathways. Skara Brae, already under extreme threat as the Bay of Skaill continues to erode the sand dunes around it, has to limit when and where

visitors can go. There is a consultation underway to develop ‘slow tourism’ but this involves the creation of more car parking areas as well as additional visitor facilities. The slow tourism strategy also sits uncomfortably with a continued expansion of the mass tourism of cruise ships to the islands supported by Orkney Islands Council.

We are living through a pandemic during a climate emergency and it is crucial to address the impact of cruise ships on the environment.

During the early days of the pandemic, cruise ships around the world were placed under quarantine as COVID-19 outbreaks surged around their decks. Yet with no prior consultation with islanders, Orkney Islands Council, re-commenced cruise ship visits in July 2021. This was despite the fact that the islands were seeing a rise in cases. Islanders have been vigilant and numbers have been kept to the lowest in Scotland, but there were cases on board the vessels when they called in at Kirkwall. Although those who tested positive remained on the vessel, all other passengers and crew were able to disembark and ‘walk about freely’.

This has led to a growing distrust of the way tourism is being managed in the islands. Public consultations are perceived as mere window dressing for strategies which have already been decided upon.

There is a conflict in Orkney between the desire for ‘slow tourism’ and the pursuit of mass tourism with ever increasing cruise ship numbers. Research has shown that a passenger’s carbon footprint triples in size when taking a cruise. Not only can emissions produced by exhaust fumes contribute to health issues, but there have been instances of cruise ships discarding their rubbish, fuel and sewage directly into the oceans.

Orkney is at a pivotal point in its development. It can choose a path of sustainable tourism, limiting the damage inflicted on the natural environment and on its archaeological wonders.

Alternatively, it can continue down the financially lucrative, but environmentally damaging, route of mass tourism with cruise ships. The latter option, whilst adding to the climate emergency, may also ultimately ensure lasting damage on the ‘slow tourism’ strategies.

It is a choice Orkney needs to make now and with urgency, for the islands are still yet a beautiful place.

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THE FERRET FACT SERVICE

SCOTLANDS

CLIMATE TARGETS

RENEWABLE ENERGY

The Scottish Government aims to generate 50 percent of Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity consumption from renewables by 2030, and a “near-complete decarbonisation” of energy by 2050.

This follows on from a previous target set in 2009. This target aimed for the equivalent of 30 percent of Scotland’s heat, transport and electricity consumption to be supplied from renewable sources by 2020.

The latest provisional figures from 2019 show 24 percent of energy consumption was coming from renewables.

Another target was set to generate the equivalent of 100 percent of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewables by 2020. This was narrowly missed last year, as 97.4 percent produced.

By Ferret Journalists

What targets has the Scottish Government set to reduce emissions? And how well are we doing in meeting them? Ferret Fact Service looked at the details in Scotland’s climate plans.

HOMES

Scotland’s occupied buildings currently account for 15 percent of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Eighty percent of homes are heated by gas, and about 11 percent of households use renewable or low emissions heating systems.

To meet the interim 2030 emissions target, the Scottish Government has committed to increasing the rate of homes converting to low emission or renewable heating systems to five-ten percent.

By 2025, Ministers have committed that zero emissions heating systems will account for at least 50 percent of new heating being installed, and by 2030, that at least 50 percent of Scotland’s buildings are heated using zero emissions systems.

GREENHOUSE GASES

Scotland’s overarching climate target is a plan to reach netzero emissions by 2045.

Net-zero is when greenhouse gas emissions are balanced with the amount which is removed from the atmosphere.

This is usually achieved by a reduction in emissions, as well as actively removing greenhouse gases – notably carbon dioxide, which accounts for 70 percent of Scotland’s emissions.

Measures to remove greenhouse gases include reforesting, as well as technologies such as carbon capture.

A large-scale carbon capture facility has been proposed in north east Scotland.

The legally binding date in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act is five years ahead of the planned target of the UK as a whole, and contains targets for yearly reductions in emissions.

There are also interim targets for reductions of at least 75 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.

The latest target we have data for is 2019, when a 55 percent reduction from 1990 levels was specified. Over that period Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions reduced 51.5 percent, meaning the target was missed.

The levels of greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland have decreased significantly since 1990, which is used as the baseline measurement. In 1990, Scotland was emitting 85.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). The latest figures for 2019 show 47.8 MtCO2e.

How do Scotland’s targets compare to other countries?

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Transport in Scotland is the largest source of greenhouse gases. In 2018, transport accounted for 36 percent of the total emissions.

While the use of electric cars is increasing, petrol and diesel cars still make up the vast majority of those on the road.

Ministers have committed to phasing out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and to a 20 percent decrease in kilometres travelled by car by 2030.

Scotland also aims to decarbonise rail services by 2035.

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Scotland’s emissions targets are tougher and more ambitious than the UK, which aims to become net-zero in 2050.

According to the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, which tracks the net-zero targets of countries around the world, there are currently 11 countries (plus the European Union) with net-zero emissions targets in law, as well as two countries (Suriname and Bhutan) which have already achieved net-zero.

Scotland’s targets are not included as it is part of the UK. Of these, the most ambitious U B L I S H E D BY targets are Sweden and • P • P BY UB Germany, which have both LI ED H S committed to 2045 as the The Ferret Fact Service is net-zero date.

Scotland’s first nonScotland’s targets partisan fact checking include a “fair share service. Launched in the of emissions from Spring of 2017, FFS remains international aviation the only Scottish fact-checker accredited by the International and shipping”, and are Fact-Checking Network not reliant on paying fact-checkers’ code of for carbon to be reduced principles. elsewhere, sometimes known as carbon offsetting.

GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION IN GOVANHILL IS AN ACT OF

by Fraser Stewart Photo by Kate Holford

RESISTANCE A

s someone who grew up workingclass in a scheme, I find myself naturally drawn to places with a bit of ‘character’. But before my partner and I moved to Govanhill in 2017, the stories we heard about the neighbourhood, made it sound like a warzone.

Taxi drivers and others were quick to suck their teeth and warn us of the state of the place; the litter, the run-down flats and closes, the hordes of ‘menacing men’ lining the pavements.

Most of those horror stories came from people who, it would invariably transpire, had never actually lived here. Due to a combination of being highly ethnically diverse and falling in the middle of Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency, Govanhill has served in recent times as a lightning rod for the ‘legitimate concerns’ mob. It’s hard to think of an area in Scotland that has been more baselessly targeted by racists, bigots and xenophobes. Whenever we spoke to people who actually lived here, though, they couldn’t speak about the area highly enough. We heard about the festival, the various cultures and carnivals, getting fed inordinate amounts of midnight snacks from neighbours during Ramadan, the community work that goes on in everything from tackling food poverty to teaching English as a foreign language, and how the area is generally not what its detractors make it out to be. Without rose tinting anything too much, this is far closer to the Govanhill we’ve come to know and love deeply in these last few years.

As ever, the story is complex. Govanhill is a nuanced, homely and lively place, full of contradictions and coalescence.

There are still issues – the slum landlords, the people like us moving in and driving the meteoric rise of rents, as well as an infuriating lack of council services, mostly around bins. But at its core, it is an area of real heart, solidarity and hospitality.

It is also an area that is more active against climate change than many places I’ve lived in. Turn just about any corner in Govanhill and you’ll meet someone running a community garden or trying to wrestle derelict land back from developers

to create new green space. At the top of Victoria Road South Seeds runs community gardens but also helps low income households bring down their energy bills through efficiency measures. Across the street, Bike For Good work to promote active travel.

Undoubtedly, Govanhill is a community that cares about itself, its people and the environment in which we live. Maybe it’s a siege mentality, a response to people from the outside talking about what a disaster site Govanhill is, that stokes that sense of pride and civic responsibility. Whatever drives it, it has generally become a force for good for the planet and people alike.

When we think about the climate crisis, it can be easy to get lost in despair over this enormous problem – one which feels insurmountable from our own homes and communities. But it’s in these spaces where real change begins. When we think about community gardens and cycling charities who do amazing work, it can be easy to think about how small their impact on global emissions is, compared to that of fossil fuel companies and governments intent on opening oil fields and coal mines.

That’s fair. But these community initiatives mean so much more than that, especially in a place like Govanhill.

Climate action in communities serves a more fundamental purpose than reducing emissions or creating green, liveable spaces – important and positive as these things are. Community initiatives serve as social spaces, where people can come and feel part of something. Within those spaces, we can build solidarity and human connection.

This not only makes us more resilient to deal with the pressures of climate change, which impact lowest-income and marginalised communities most sharply. But it also more adequately equips communities to form the building blocks of the broad and inclusive coalition we need to make sure leaders act on climate urgently, fairly and equitably. It may feel small. It may feel insignificant. But community climate work serves a much bigger social, political and planetary purpose. Govanhill has that work going on in spades.

There is one small caveat. While the work that goes on in Govanhill is visibly transformative, we still have a way to go to break out of the precarious middle class bubble these initiatives can often unintentionally become. I mean this constructively and with love, and with awareness of the work being done to be more inclusive. But we still have more to do to bring along people from outwith the usual interest groups in the area and to recognise their needs, perspectives and concerns.

We can do more to include diverse working-class residents who often find themselves on the outskirts of much of the work that goes on. We can bring more parts of the community on the journey, to bolster that solidarity and build something much bigger; to improve streets and homes and lives for everyone; to avoid squeezing local people any harder than they already have been by gentrifying forces; to take landlords and developers to task and to represent neglected perspectives more centrally in our community vision. This is key to maximising the wide-ranging impact this type of work can have.

In Govanhill, building more inclusive networks serves one final, fundamental purpose. External forces have tried to create fissures between members of this community, stirring up xenophobia, racism and bigotry to seed division between the people that live here. Building solidarity and networks that are truly inclusive of everyone sends a powerful message. It strengthens our ties and lets all groups within the area know that we truly stand with them, equally and unequivocally. It brings together strands of a community in Govanhill that many have tried to rip apart. It makes clear that our vision for the future of this community is one that weaves these ideas intrinsically together.

With a little more work to bring people from all corners of Govanhill into the fold, community climate action can become an act of resistance against the growing pressures of gentrification and the negative forces that have long tried to pull us apart.

THE LOCHSIDE PRESS • ROSNEATH PENSINSULA

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The Lochside Press was launched in 2012, primarily covering the rural Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll and Bute. It aims to produce journalism which campaigns to safeguard and enhance the area’s environment and services – several of which have faced the risk of closure in recent years – as well as recognising and supporting the achievements of residents, organisations and businesses. It is run by Julian Calvert, a journalism lecturer in Glasgow who previously spent 13 years as a newspaper editor.

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But Francesca has stressed that art would always be at the centre of the work carried out at Cove Park, and there would be no compulsion for artists staying there to take part in any of the climate-themed initiatives.

"I believe that we as a society and artists as artists would really benefit from working alongside, or at least having the opportunity to work with, the humanities and the hard sciences as well – and clearly the other way around," she said.

"I do believe in the conjunction of different brains and I believe that a few people in the same room will probably take a better decision than one person alone when it comes to complex problems and complex issues.

"Also I really believe A AN in the power and the H G responsibility that artists have, but I'm not entirely sure that society bestows onto them the respect and the status and the acknowledgement that they deserve.”

"To place artistic research at the centre, but at the same time alongside scientific and academic research – this may help in making sure that artists can be recognised more as public intellectuals."

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"This is going to be the launch of Cove Park's first inquiry. It's not going to be like a regular feature, it's part of a very special year of metamorphosis.”

"We are going to be talking about the past as well as the future, we're going to be talking with activists from Greenland as well as an organisation in Morocco and a poet from the Marshall Islands."

Most will join in online, but others will be at Cove Park itself – including the visitor from Greenland, who will then stay in the UK for a month, teaching in London.

"People in Scotland at least will be able to come without having a massive carbon footprint attached to the trip," said Francesca.

"But it's also very important, especially during COP26, to make sure that it's not just for the privileged global north to have the opportunity of any climate speech. It's important to have people physically present when these conversations take place."

There will also be tangible signs of the arts centre's focus on climate change – a microrainforest is being planted on its 50-acre hilltop site after it was named as one of the seven Climate Beacons in conjunction with Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust (ACT).

The beacon programme will also feature creative workshops for children and young people, climate cafés, artist workshops in schools and a newly commissioned moving image or film.

In March, Cove Park was announced as the winner of a British Council Future

by Design open calI, which has seen an outdoor classroom being built, with a sister landscaping installation in the largest public park in Accra, Ghana.

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ove Park, the residential centre on the Rosneath Peninsula celebrated its 21st anniversary this year. From the start, it has featured upcycled accommodation, with visiting artists staying in converted shipping containers as well as 'pods' which were built for the TV series Castaway.

With patrons including Margaret Atwood and Derek Jacobi, it has served as a residential retreat for artists from all over the world, but Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey, who joined as CEO early this year, says her team are now working with academics as well as politicians and activists: "We've got gigantic issues at stake, probably the biggest threat to humankind so far. It's apparent that if we work together, we may achieve better results, so why don't we try?

Cove Park as a collective brain wants to produce collective intelligence, if possible, around global concerns."

The arts centre is now working with universities including St Andrews, Glasgow, Warwick, Kingston, Liverpool John Moores and Glasgow School of Art, with the aim of creating an arts-based research centre.

To coincide with COP26 there will be a week-long event featuring artists, researchers, academics, scientists, politicians and activists.

"The idea is almost to use Cove Park as an academic campus,” said Franchesca. “It's a testing ground to see how different formats of conversations and different formats for relationship-making can produce."

Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey (left)

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By Julian Calvert, Editor – The Lochside Press Photos by Cove Park and Eugene Daniels

“We’ve got gigantic issues at stake, probably the biggest threat to humankind so far.

It’s apparent that if we work together, we may achieve better results, so why don’t we try?”

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COVE PARK ARTS CENTRE RESPONDS TO CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY

GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM MY GRANDMOTHER S VILLAGE

by Rahela Cirpaci, Project Coordinator at Romano Lav

lot of Roma people don't actually know how much they are contributing to the community and helping efforts against climate change. Our ancestors lived off the land, only taking what they needed. They respected the environment and the surrounding nature that provided them with the nourishment they needed.

My grandmother Etica, like many of her Roma neighbours, lives in much the same way. She resides in Semlac, a small village in Western Romania. She has been growing her own vegetables for over 15 years, and making the best, most healthy Roma meals with them. She saves a lot of money doing this, but what is also very important to her is that it means she doesn’t need to buy any plastic wrapped vegetables – she hates anything that is packaged, as she doesn’t want it to go to landfill.

She explained to me that the way she lives was never the result of any conscious decision to ‘save the planet’, it was just the way in which she had always done things. She said: “I haven’t really talked about climate change until now and didn’t realise, until now, how much I am actually helping the planet!”

We also have our own water pump. It’s easy for us to use and we don’t have to buy bottled water. We have one in our garden but there is also a pump in the middle of the village that churns out fresh water for the community. I sometimes use the community pump because I like that villagers often gather around it and catch up!

(Perhaps we should have one in Govanhill?)

There is also a big focus on bicycles in the village. My grandmother says that everyone cycles in the village, and that “our little village is not polluted by cars.”

Glasgow still has a long way to go in this respect, but it’s great that there has recently been more space given to bicycle paths in our area, as well as the recent addition of on-street bike storage.

Overall, the way my grandmother lives is how I think we all should live. Not just because climate change is happening and we need to do something, but because we should just want to live in this way!

Unfortunately many Roma in Eastern Europe are not given the opportunity to live like this. They are forced to live in the most appalling and unsanitary conditions, which can be seen as ‘environmental racism’. This is where Roma are pushed out of towns and cities and forced to live in ghettos that are often filthy and contaminated, with little to no access to even basic amenities such as clean water and electricity.

This horrific quality of life goes to show that it is often the poorest and most marginalized people, who bring the least pollution to the table, that have to live with the effects of global pollution most deeply.

Climate activism must also therefore include anti-racism work, and we must look further than individual changes we make to our lifestyles. We must look outward to how we can help our brothers and sisters who are forced to live in such terrible situations.

We also need to make bigger changes for the community in Govanhill and for the future of our planet and children!

noho Romů ve skutečnosti neví, jak moc přispívají CZECH ke komunitě a pomáhají v boji proti změně klimatu.

Naši předkové žili ze země a brali si jen to, co potřebovali. Respektovali životní prostředí a okolní přírodu, která jim zajišťovala potřebnou výživu.

Moje babička Etica, stejně jako mnoho Romů, kteří žijí poblíž ní, žije v podstatě stejným způsobem. Žije v Semlacu, malé vesnici v západním Rumunsku. Více než 15 let pěstuje vlastní zeleninu a připravuje s ní nejlepší a nejzdravější romská jídla. Šetří tím spoustu peněz, ale co je pro ni také velmi důležité, je to, že to znamená, že nemusí kupovat žádnou zeleninu zabalenou v plastu - nesnáší vše, co je zabaleno, protože nechce, aby to šlo na skládku . Vysvětlila mi, že způsob, jakým žije, nikdy nebyl vědomým rozhodnutím “zachránit planetu“, byl to jen způsob, jakým člověk žije. Ona mi řekla “Dosud jsem o klimatických změnách nemluvil a neuvědomil jsem si, jak moc planetě skutečně pomáhám!

Máme také vlastní vodní čerpadlo, které se nám snadno používá a nemusíme kupovat balenou vodu. Máme jednu na zahradě, ale uprostřed vesnice je také čerpadlo, které chrlí čerstvou vodu pro komunitu. Někdy používám komunitní pumpu, protože se mi líbí, že se vesničané často shromažďují kolem pumpy! “ Možná bychom měli mít jeden v Govanhillu?

Ve vesnici je také velký důraz na jízdní kola. Říká mi, že ve vesnici jezdí všichni na kole a že „naše malá vesnice není znečištěná auty“.

Glasgow má v tomto ohledu ještě dlouhou cestu, ale je skvělé, že v poslední době je v naší oblasti věnován větší prostor cyklistickým stezkám a také nedávné přidání pouličního úložiště kol.

Celkově je způsob, jakým žije moje babička, myslím, že bychom měli žít všichni. A nejen proto, že dochází ke změně klimatu a musíme něco udělat. Ale protože bychom prostě měli chtít takhle žít!

Bohužel mnoho Romů ve východní Evropě nedostává příležitost žít tímto způsobem. Jsou nuceni žít v těch nejděsivějších a nehygienických podmínkách, které lze považovat za ekologický rasismus“. Zde jsou Romové vytlačováni z měst a měst a nuceni žít v ghettech, která jsou často špinavá a kontaminovaná, s malým nebo žádným přístupem k základnímu vybavení, jako je čistá voda a elektřina.

Tato strašlivá kvalita života ukazuje, že často jsou to ti nejchudší a nejvíce marginalizovaní lidé, kteří přinesli na stůl nejméně znečištění, kteří musí žít s důsledky globálního znečištění nejhlouběji.

Klimatický aktivismus proto musí zahrnovat také protirasistickou práci a musíme se dívat dále, než na individuální změny, které provádíme v našem životním stylu, musí se dívat navenek na to, jak můžeme pomoci svým bratrům a sestrám, kteří jsou nuceni žít v tak strašných situacích.

Musíme také provést větší změny pro komunitu v Govanhillu a pro budoucnost naší planety a dětí!

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Greater Govanhill is proud to be a multilingual community magazine.

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THE FERRET INVESTIGATES

Social housing properties failing to meet government standards for energy efficiency

By Donald Campbell Photos by Dylan Lombard and Giorgio Trovato

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ens of thousands of social housing properties in Scotland are failing to meet the government’s minimum standards for energy efficiency, new data has revealed.

The figures show that around one in every 15 social homes which should be meeting the standard are failing to do so – with the proportion as high as 40 per cent in some areas.

A significant number of housing associations in Glasgow, which is due to host a major UN climate change summit in November, are among those performing worse than the national average on the energy efficiency target – a key part of the Scottish Government’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Critics say the figures are “really disappointing,” with warnings that – together with rising energy prices and UK Government cuts to universal credit – they will leave many social housing tenants “between a rock and a hard place.”

The Scottish Government said its energy efficiency standard for social housing (EESSH) “will help to reduce energy consumption, fuel poverty and the emission of greenhouse gases,” because more efficient homes will leak less heat and cost less to keep warm.

Scottish Ministers set a minimum energy efficiency target for social landlords to meet by the end of 2020, equivalent to a band D or C on an energy performance certificate (EPC). They stated in late 2019 that “excellent progress” was being made towards achieving this milestone.

However, newly published figures from the Scottish Housing Regulator show that 38,046 properties are failing to meet this minimum standard. This figure is on top of a further 25,564 properties exempted from the requirement to meet the standard, and 3151 for which it is unknown whether or not they are compliant because housing associations do not hold the relevant data.

With 542,557 properties meeting the EESSH minimum standard in the country as a whole, this means that around one in every 15 social homes which should be meeting the target are failing to do so.

There is considerable variation across the country, however, with more than a third of properties failing to meet the minimum standard in some areas. 40 percent of Aberdeenshire Council’s social housing which falls within the scope of the EESSH is failing to meet the target, and the figure for the Argyll Community Housing Association is 33 per cent.

Energy efficiency has been a major focus of Scottish Ministers’ efforts to address climate change, with the government pointing out that “heating our buildings is responsible for a significant proportion of Scotland’s emissions. As such, work to make our homes and buildings more energy efficient and to transition heating systems to renewable or low carbon sources will be critical.”

The Scottish Government said: “The EESSH will contribute to the requirements of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2019, which sets

targets to reduce Scotland’s emissions of all greenhouse gases to net-zero by 2045 at the latest.” It describes the standard as “a crucial part of Energy Efficient Scotland, which is the cornerstone of delivering the Scottish Government’s designation of energy efficiency as a National Infrastructure Priority, and sets out a 15-20 year programme that will significantly improve the energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of our homes and buildings.”

However, analysis of the data found eight housing associations in Glasgow – which is due to host a major UN climate summit this autumn – where between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of properties in scope of the energy efficiency target were failing to meet it.

As well as addressing climate change, the Scottish Government’s standards on energy efficiency in social housing are also intended to reduce fuel poverty – which is defined under Scottish legislation as a household spending more than 10 per cent of its net income on fuel (after housing costs have been deducted).

Improving the energy efficiency of homes means they will leak less heat and therefore cost less to keep warm. However, concerns have been expressed that the significant minority of people whose homes have failed to meet the energy efficiency standard are now facing not only winter, but also significant energy price rises.

Wholesale gas rises have reportedly risen by 250 per cent since the start of 2021, with energy suppliers raising domestic energy prices as a result.

Friends of the Earth Scotland Director Dr Richard Dixon said: “Our poor quality housing and the slow speed of climate action 12

“In the current climate, many of us are dreading higher fuel billsmore than a quarter of people in Scotland are in fuel poverty, living in leaky, draughty homes. Proper investment in energy efficiency can help cut energy bills, tackle fuel poverty and slash emissions.”

Holly O’Donnell, WWF Scotland’s Climate and Energy Policy Manager

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The Ferret is an award-winning investigative journalism platform in Scotland. They are an editorially independent, notfor-profit co-operative run by its journalists and members. You can join for £3 a month and get access to training, events, resources and opportunities to shape their investigations over at ferret.scot/subscribe.

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Net Zero Emission targets, and offers limited recognition of carbon reduction solutions.”

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said “the current methodology can also favour conventional fossil fuel heating systems over low and zero emissions alternatives which works against the Scottish Government’s ambitions to reach net zero by 2045.”

SFHA Chief Executive Sally Thomas said “The social housing sector has the most energy efficient homes in Scotland, and the Scottish Government’s energy efficiency standards have helped to drive this.”

She continued: “Our findings show that EESSH2, which is to be met by 2032, will cost housing associations an estimated £2bnn but only reduce the total percentage of households in fuel poverty by 24 per cent.”

Housing associations and Scottish Government bodies also pointed to the challenges caused by the pandemic to upgrading properties.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Housing Regulator said the total number of homes meeting the standard increased by nearly 14,500 during 2020-21, and 89 per cent of homes in the scope of EESSH meet the standard, but that the pandemic had “constrained landlords’ capacity to fully implement investment programmes, including those to bring homes up to EESSH.” The Scottish Government said social landlords were “leading the way in making social housing stock more energy efficient” and that it would invest £100m over the next five years to accelerate the delivery of energy efficiency and zero emission heating systems in social housing stock.

They added that the pandemic had had an impact on landlords ability to meet the EESSH milestone, and that rural areas also faced additional challenges because “heating options can be more limited.”

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over the past decade means that too many homes are still leaking heat and damaging the health of the residents. “ “Authorities across the country need to make sure that they are pulling out all the stops to ensure that Scotland is delivering energy efficient homes where people need it the most.”

WWF Scotland’s Climate and Energy Policy Manager, Holly O’Donnell said: “In the current climate, many of us are dreading higher fuel bills- more than a quarter of people in Scotland are in fuel poverty, living in leaky, draughty homes.

Proper investment in energy efficiency can help cut energy bills, tackle fuel poverty and slash emissions.”

Laura Moodie, former Scottish Greens’ candidate in the South of Scotland, said: “With rising fuel prices, cuts to universal credit and the Tory tax hike on workers, social housing tenants are caught between a rock and a hard place: unable to access the funding needed to improve the efficiency of their homes themselves but also unable to move to better homes.”

Moodie argued that the problem is exacerbated because support available to private tenants and homeowners to make their properties more energy efficient is not accessible to people living in social housing.

“There are good reasons behind this”, she said. “The social housing sector were funded directly to improve energy efficiency in their properties – but as we’ve seen the reality on the ground is that the hardest to fix homes have been left until last. And few people living in social housing can afford (or would wish) to move to the private rented sector or to buy outright.”

Some housing associations have pointed to the specific challenges they face in trying to upgrade old buildings in order to meet the energy efficiency target, while keeping rents as low as possible.

“Meeting the EESSH standards is very important to the association, not only as part of our responsibility to the planet, but also so that our tenants are not out of pocket when it comes to paying energy bills,” Annie Macfarlane, Govanhill Housing Association Chair and local resident told the Ferret.

She pointed out the housing stock in Govanhill is “predominantly made up of pre-1919 tenements, adding: “as someone who lives in such a building, I am more than aware of the difficulties they present when it comes to energy efficiency.”

Others have said that there are problems with the Scottish Government’s EESSH standard itself. Patrick McGrath, director of Southside Housing Association, said that while they were committed to achieving the standard where possible, the “EESSH perversely, along with the current tax system, has a bias towards gas heating [and] in many cases is not consistent with

SHETLAND NEWS • SHETLAND

THE ENVIRONMENTAL COST OF WINDFARMS

By Hans J Marter and Jen Stout Photos by Shetland News

Damaged peatland west of South Nesting with wind farm construction work underway.

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ith the new Scottish Government partnership between the SNP and the Greens pledging to further accelerate the construction of onshore wind power until 2030 to help meet climate targets, the question around whether building more turbines on the country’s vast peatlands is a good idea needs urgent attention.

Increasingly, climate experts and environmentalists are voicing concerns that the damage done by disturbing peatlands through construction work could be far greater than originally thought. They may – potentially outweigh any benefits gained from generating renewable energy.

This is because peatlands, those boggy and waterlogged landscapes covering ten percent of the UK land area, are the single most important terrestrial carbon store Britain has.

Worldwide, peatlands play a major role in climate regulation, and store at least 550 gigatonnes of carbon. This is more than twice the carbon stored in all of the world’s forests.

Sue White of Shetland Amenity Trust said: “Peatlands are home to sphagnum moss which not only holds huge amounts of water, it also sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and locks it into the peat as carbon – so it's the perfect solution for combatting climate change.”

Yet in the Highlands and Islands, including Shetland in the far north of Scotland, large new wind farms are predominantly built on peatlands.

It is true that large areas of these peat bogs are damaged through decades of draining and overgrazing, and are therefore emitting, rather than storing, greenhouse gases. But repair and restoration is possible, and is happening across Scotland.

Meanwhile, renewable energy companies claim to have a positive impact on the quality of the peatlands by committing to reinstate, repair and eventually restore some of the degraded peat to compensate for the damage during the construction of the wind farms.

SSE Renewables claims that the carbon damage from building its 103-turbine Viking Energy wind farm on peatlands in the heart of the Shetland mainland will offset in just over two years, leaving – at least on paper – a net benefit of 28 or more years of generating green electricity.

Once operational at the end of 2024, the 443 megawatt wind farm will be one of the largest onshore wind farms in Europe and is, due to the strong local winds, expected to be one of the UK’s most productive wind farms. It is reportedly set to save a massive 500,000 tonnes of CO² emissions per year.

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Other projects, such as the not yet consented 126MW Energy Isles wind farm, also in Shetland, claim to be able to pay back the carbon used for building the project in just under two years.

But are these figures correct, and if not, do these projects still make sense environmentally?

Digging deep into Viking Energy’s own environmental impact assessment, it turns out that the carbon payback period has been calculated to be between two years (best case scenario) and 15 years (worst case scenario).

Scientists agree that the carbon calculator used by the Scottish Government to evaluate proposed wind farm developments is out of date and biased towards developers.

Clifton Bain, the programme advisor of the International Union for Conservation of Nature UK peatland programme, said there is a risk that the impact of building renewable energy capacity on peatlands is “significantly underestimated” and placed a question mark over whether any repair work adequately compensates for the damage done.

“In order to meet our net zero commitments, we need all our peatlands being restored urgently,” Bain said.

“We need all our renewables operating to best effect, not compromised by being based on a peat bog. And we cannot have our peat bogs being damaged further. These are just absolute realities of meeting our net zero obligations.

“There should be absolute agreement on not putting wind farms onto deeper peat, with the warning that there are many areas of shallow peat that area also significant.

“We can’t have absolute faith that all renewables built on peatlands are delivering carbon benefits they proposed, because we still don’t have agreement on how to identify impacts, and on oversight to ensure developers deliver what was intended.

“We need to tackle biodiversity and climate change together – they’re interlinked. We need to have a smarter way that delivers both without compromising renewables or biodiversity. Surely that’s within our gift and if we’re not showing we’ve embraced that, we’re failing to take leadership.”

In an interview with Shetland News, the internationally respected specialist in the ecology and conservation of peatland, Dr Richard Lindsay, applauds the Scottish Government for recognising the importance of peatland as a major carbon sink, yet despairs of the same administration for continuing to allow large wind farm projects to go ahead on the country’s rich peatlands.

“My position with regards to wind farms is that they are a good source of renewable energy when they are in the right place, but putting them on peatland – although peatlands are generally areas of high wind energy – really is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Lindsay said.

He added: “It is the one area where we really shouldn’t put them [wind turbines] because we are using the long-term carbon that is stored there.

“We should acknowledge the importance of peatland. Relatively shallow peatland of just 30cm depth can contain as much carbon in a hectare as a hectare of tropical rainforest.”

Meanwhile, the Shetland Greens have been calling for an active peatland management strategy with incentives for restoring and maintaining peat bogs.

Local party member Alex Armitage said: “Taxpayer subsidies have helped farmers produce food for decades. Now Greens believe that subsidies should also be used to incentivise peatland restoration and conservation.

“There has been spirited debate about the effect of infrastructure projects like the Viking Energy wind farm on our peatlands.

“Greens believe that community owned onshore wind must play a part in our future but that independent carbon payback calculations should be central to future planning decisions to any new infrastructure that involves building on peat.”

Base for one of 105 turbines each 155 metres high

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Publishing at • B www.shetnews.co.uk Shetland News is small but widely read daily online news service covering the Shetland Isles in the far north of Scotland. Established 2003, the team running the news website won the award for Best Use of Digital Media in the Highlands & Islands in 2012 and 2016, and has always seen itself as part of an emerging movement of independent community news organisations, long before the sector started to organise itself. Shetland News is a member of the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), is regulated by IMPRESS, and works closely with the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF).

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THE EDINBURGH REPORTER • EDINBURGH

A LOW EMISSION ZONE FOR EDINBURGH n the capital, there are moves afoot to try and improve air quality by the introduction of a Low Emission Zone (LEZ). Although not the first in the country (that honour goes to Glasgow), The City of Edinburgh Council is moving forward with its plans for a city centre LEZ, banning petrol cars manufactured before 2006 and diesel cars registered prior to 2015 from a defined area.

Edinburgh is one of four Scottish cities which The Scottish Government has empowered to introduce such measures, intended to protect public health by reducing harmful emissions. At least 300 deaths each year in Scotland are estimated to be a direct result of air pollution.

The LEZ will be introduced in spring 2022, but with enforcement to follow in 2024.

By allowing a grace period, the council hopes it will encourage motorists and other drivers to ‘do the right thing’ while allowing businesses and individuals a period of transition to prepare. The Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Macinnes was at pains to point out that this is not a revenue generating exercise for the council, rather a means of improving air quality in the city.

A wider boundary across the whole city which was originally proposed only included a ban on certain commercial vehicles within the proposed restrictions, and not all vehicles of every class, which the city centre scheme will when introduced next year.

The reasoning behind adopting a city centre only approach, rather than a city-wide approach, seems rather hard to grasp. The Edinburgh Reporter asked Councillor Macinnes to expand on the reasons for the restricted area.

Cllr Macinnes said: "We are fully expecting the rest of the city to benefit from the changes, not just the city centre.

"It is a really interesting answer. When we first kicked this project off, I was the first one to say that it should be city-wide. My assumption at that point – and that is several years ago – was that a city-wide zone would be good for the city. However we also agreed that we had to take an evidence-led modelling of what the position is. So there has been a lot of extensive work done with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for example.”

The evidence-led approach is required by the National Low Emission Framework, which sets out the methodology behind air quality assessment in Scotland.

Cllr Macinnes continued: "Our understanding of exactly where we can gain the greatest benefit has resulted in the same city boundary that came out much earlier in the process. I must confess

By Phyllis Stephen, Editor - The Edinburgh Reporter

I was quite disappointed when we reached that conclusion. The natural assumption is that the wider the area, the more effective it is going to be.”

“But in fact when you look at the city centre, for example, virtually every bus operating in the city will have to go through the city centre at some point. A lot of the HGV and LGV fleets will also have to service central Edinburgh. By default if they have to be vehicles of a certain standard to gain entry then it will benefit the rest of the city as well. We understand that Lothian Buses will be fully compliant by the end of this year.”

“Their buses do not operate only in the city centre. They will be in the suburbs and on St John's Road, which was always an area of concern but is now improving largely due to the improvement in the bus fleet. So there are changes going on that say to us, where the evidence demonstrates – looking also at the Air Quality Management Areas – where the best place to put the boundary is to gain maximum impact. That is why the city centre boundary has been chosen.”

The LEZ is regarded as an important part of the City Mobility Plan adopted in early 2021, which involves a move to low emission transport and an expansion of active travel.

There is funding available from the Energy Saving Trust for anyone who wants or requires to change their vehicle. If you live within 20km of a planned low emission zone, then you may be eligible for support to move to a newer compliant vehicle. There are also funds available for purchasing electric vehicles.

The City of Edinburgh Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 and the implementation of a LEZ is just one of their responses to the crisis. Others include the new Local Development Plan which aims to ban any new developments on green belt land if it is approved. All new H E D BY • development will be approved on PU BLIS BL PU IS • a brownfield-first basis. In the HE Y B world of active travel, the city D The Edinburgh is to introduce more than 50 Reporter is a news miles of routes for walking, website and monthly wheeling and cycling with newspaper. We write about local planned investment of news, events that are taking place here and local sport. The news is £117 million over the aimed at people living, working or next five years – of which visiting the capital of Scotland. We the council will pay a fifth, welcome contributions from the rest will come from the anyone who has something Scottish Government. to say about Edinburgh.

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CLYDESIDER • WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE

SHORE HAS POTENTIAL

lastic tampon applicators, bottles, cups and cotton buds litter local shorelines. Each piece is a danger to marine life and ultimately to human life.

Scientists have already identified plastic molecules in our drinking water, in the air we breathe and in the fish we eat.

Local marine biologist Zoe Were (pictured above right) is leading the fight against the plastic tide right here in her backyard with the help of an ever-growing team of volunteers.

Zoe explained: “There is no such thing as ‘away’, if you flush something down your loo it could wash back up on your local beach.

“Animals such as tiny shrimps and krills get trapped in plastic lids or cups and suffocate. Little shrimps are not very lovable creatures.

But when you start to think about the creatures which need the

By Angela Clark Photo (below) by Brian Watson Photo (right) courtesy of Friends of Dumbarton Foreshore

shrimp to survive – our harbour porpoises or grey seals – they’re a bit more lovable.

“The things eating those tiny shrimp are fish and they’re the food source for rare and threatened sea creatures. Scotland has internationally important numbers of these species – if we lose our seals it makes them massively more threatened worldwide.”

Zoe has been clearing plastic from shorelines for over 10 years.

She set up Friends of Dumbarton Foreshore to help protect wildlife and keep the coastline healthy for generations to come.

When the group first started, it was just Zoe and husband Iain picking up litter and taking it away in their car. They were struggling to get people involved until Plastic Free West Dunbartonshire shared their Facebook page and since then the group has flourished.

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TOP TIPS ON REDUCING YOUR PLASTIC USE (courtesy of WWF) CARRY A CUP

Approx 2.5bn coffee cups are thrown away every year in the UK alone – that’s seven million a day! Less than 1 percent can be recycled, meaning most spend up to 50 years in landfill. Lots of coffee outlets offer a discount when you use your own cup.

BRING A BOTTLE

Plastic bottles are the most common throwaway item with lids usually ending up in seabirds’ stomachs.

They now have over 30 volunteers who come on regular litter picks alternating between foreshore at Havoc Road, Castlegreen Street and Levengrove.

Zoe said: “We'd like to see the shore back to the good old days when people would spend their summer holidays down there with their whole family. People have fond memories of these shores from their youth.”

The group receives massive support from the public when they are clearing rubbish. People who use it want to see it thriving.

Zoe said: “The biggest thing we can do to save our shores and see them flourish once again, is to change our habits.

“We are asking people to find replacements for single-use plastics such as coffee cups, shopping bags, choose vegetables that aren’t wrapped in plastic, and replace shampoo bottles for bars of shampoo soap.

“Much of the rubbish on the shore is washed up by the tide and to prevent it, we need a ban on single-use plastics – things you use once then throw away.

“Recycling is not solving our plastics problem. Tons of the toxic materials are sent abroad and end up right back on our beaches.

“Oceans and rivers don’t recognise boundaries. Plastics we throw away here can end up thousands of miles away and impact on people we’ve never met or animals we have never seen.”

The European Parliament has already taken action and will ban a range of single-use plastic products by 2021, but habits need to change.

Another area the group has started to care for is Havoc Meadow, just next to the shore. Zoe is working alongside Havoc Park ranger Gillian Neil to organise conservation days to increase awareness of its high biodiversity.

Zoe said: “A question I always get asked is why not bring in the tractors and scrape the beach? The simple answer is it would wreck the ecosystem.

“There are 377 species of plants on the beach so scraping it would rip those out, ruin it and kill the animals living in the sand.

“There are birds nesting there, lots of insects using those plants – it’s a complex ecosystem. Scraping it would be like letting a bomb off in the meadow, it would kill everything.”

Zoe's love of the shore saw her and Iain tie the knot in Levengrove Park next to Havoc Meadow. The day before the wedding, she went down to the shore with her bridesmaid to clear the litter. After the ceremony, guests surprised the couple by taking litter picker sticks to make an archway as the newlyweds ran along the shore.

Zoe said: “It was a lovely surprise. I was absolutely made up by it.

I feel proud we are keeping the space clean.”

“It’s about taking pride and claiming ownership of your own area and feeling ‘this is my bit so I will look after it’. I look at this beautiful clean beach and think – we did that. I’m awesome and so are my pals, it’s a high.”

CUT THE CUTLERY

Buy a spork and avoid using plastic cutlery.

SAY NO TO STRAWS

They’re heading for landfill for 50+ years and could end up choking birds, fish or sea creatures as well as polluting our water supply.

SWITCH THE CLINGFILM

Use foil which is recyclable or beeswax wraps which are 100% natural and environmentally friendly.

TIME FOR TEA

Teabags are sealed with plastic! Every time you get rid of a tea bag, microplastics end up in our waterways. Try tea leaves and a strainer or plastic free tea products.

GIVE UP GUM

Chewing gum is made from plastic!

Try plastic free alternatives.

GLITTER ISN’T GLAM

Made from tiny plastic particles glitter is lethal for our oceans, it’s eaten by seashells and fish and ends up in our food chain.

There are now plenty of biodegradable glitters.

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THE ILEACH • ISLAY AND JURA

FOR PEAT’S SAKE

The impact of Scotland’s whisky industry on climate change

By Brian Palmer, Editor – The Ileach Photo by Alexander Hanssen

The pagoda atop the kiln where Laphroaig distillery dries the barley by burning peat below. Drying the barley in this way adds phenols, giving the whisky its ‘smoky’ flavour. The vents on the side allow the smoke to escape. Photo by Brian Palmer.

he popularity of Islay’s single malts is frequently associated with their ‘peated smokiness’, a characteristic that undoubtedly contributes to their uniqueness. Peat, therefore, forms an inseparable component of many an Islay dram. But, with concerns over climate change, can this go on forever?

It has been estimated that Islay has reserves of peat to last the next 5,000 years at the current rate of extraction. Peat regenerates itself at around 1mm per year, so, as author Andrew Jefford wrote in his 2004 publication, ‘Peat Smoke and Spirit’, despite this renewability, “extraction rates on Islay cannot truly be regarded as sustainable.”

Peat, as a fuel, has seen its use significantly reduced over recent decades – predominantly due to a reduction in home fires and the uptake of central heating in island homes. The UK government recently announced that it intends to ban the sale of peat-based compost to amateur gardeners by 2024. It has been suggested that the Scottish Government is likely to follow suit, which appears to be a reasonable assumption given Holyrood’s investment of £20 million for peatland restoration in the last financial year alone.

It seems, then, that the whisky industry is perhaps set to be alone in continuing its reliance on peat as a resource. When asked about the environmental implications of this, a spokesperson for Diageo, the owner of a number of Scottish distilleries, was quoted in The Ferret saying: “The whisky industry accounts for less than one percent of peat extracted in Scotland, compared to a figure of over 90 percent for the horticultural sector.”

Andrew Jefford gives credence to this in ‘Peat Smoke and Spirit’, writing that: “its use in whisky production is statistically insignificant.”

It must be kept in mind, however, that without concrete figures on how much peat is removed each year, the figures quoted by interested parties might not be all they appear to be.

While peat extraction will always have a negative environmental impact, work is being done in places to mitigate this. In 2016, as part of the Lagavulin 200th Anniversary Legacy Fund, Diageo provided the RSPB with around £60,000 to fund a peat restoration project of 700 acres on Islay. The RSPB’s David Wood told the Ileach: “The Diageo funding was used on peatland restoration projects on the Islay RSPB reserves on the Oa and at Loch Gruinart. Areas at Glen Astle on The Oa and Strath Mòr at Loch Gruinart were restored.

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the USA, hold more than twice the carbon stored in all the world’s forests, despite covering just three percent of the planet’s surface.

When peat is extracted from the so-called ‘peat bogs’ to provide compost or fuel, it releases stored carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to our climate-change predicament.

The Scottish Government has set 2045 as the year in which it expects to reach ‘net-zero’ emission of all greenhouse gases. In view of the amount of carbon stored in Scottish peatlands, the desire to substantially reduce its use makes logical sense.

But one of the major selling points of Islay’s single malts is their ‘peatiness’, achieved by drying the barley with peat smoke. And as Andrew Jefford has pointed out: “Peat has to be burned to create those phenols.”

So what will that mean for Islay’s distilleries? Is the banning of peat extraction and burning, a future for which they’re already planning? Is there, indeed, anything that would imbue the necessary phenols without peat?

In addressing these questions, the SWA has stated the following: “Current Scotch Whisky production guidelines state that Scotch can only be made from three ingredients – cereals, water and yeast.

The addition of any flavouring or compounds that would seek to replicate the flavours that peated malt brings to whisky is not legal under current guidelines.

“We believe a more productive focus is on the restoration and responsible management of peat use, something with which the industry is completely engaged.”

So, while both the UK and Scottish governments are keen to demonstrate their ecological awareness, and set targets towards zero carbon emissions, will they be willing to place a ban on peat extraction and potentially diminish the revenue received from the Scotch malt whisky industry?

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“The work entailed surveying and planning the restoration work, the actual physical restoration, and post restoration monitoring.

These areas would have been drained in the past to try and improve the ground for livestock farming and in some areas for local peat cutting.

“Damming work slows the flow and raises the surrounding water table, changing these areas from drying, carbon emitting peatlands into wetter, sphagnum growing, carbon sequestering peatland.

Other tangible benefits from this type of work include improved water quality, reduced flooding downstream, improved habitat for peatland specialist species, such as curlew and large heath butterfly.”

The Ileach asked the Scottish Whisky Association if the sustainability of peat was something the industry had on its horizon.

Morag Garden, Head of Sustainability and Innovation said: “The Scotch Whisky industry knows it has a duty of care to protect peat as one of Scotland’s important natural resources. We estimate that Scotch whisky accounts for around 0.1 percent of all peat use in Scotland, a very small amount from a handful of sites in Scotland, solely for giving the barley a distinctive smoky flavour profile during the malting process.

“Producers who are creating the style of Scotch that requires peat in the malting process, are committed to industry-wide plans around sustainable peat use as part of the SWA’s Sustainability Strategy, given its important role in natural carbon storage. The SWA and our members collaborate with a variety of stakeholders to conduct and support research into peat and peatland restoration, and later this year we will publish a Peat Action Plan as part of that work.

“This will help the industry to deliver on its commitment to extract peat responsibly and play an active role in conserving and restoring Scotland’s peatland by 2035.”

Peatlands across the world, in Belarus, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Norway, the Russian federation, Sweden and

GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

STAND UP TO RACISM AT COP 26

By Raymie Keirnan, Stand Up to Racism, Glasgow Photo by SUTR Glasgow

t's been another unusually warm and dry summer in Scotland.

It was the hottest for the Glasgow region–and another six regions across Scotland – in over 130 years. It's part of a now familiar pattern of the unusual becoming the norm on our warming planet.

Glasgow is being ‘spruced up’. Money is being spent where previously we've been told there wasn't any, ahead of the COP26 global climate summit. The melted Science Centre roof is now getting its make-over before the glare of the world's media is upon it.

The Southside is marching to join the global day of action for climate justice on Saturday 6 November. Stand Up To Racism activists are mobilising for the COP26 Coalition demonstration that will snake its way through the streets of Glasgow and we call on all anti-racists to join the Migrant Justice Anti Racism bloc.

We will demand justice! We'll say it loud and clear that climate refugees are welcome here. We make the links between the climate crisis engulfing the world and the hostile environment for refugees and migrants here.

The global climate emergency is here and growing evidence says the earth’s climate is changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts.

More and more people will become displaced from more frequent and intense weather-related events, and through the erosion of already fragile livelihoods and ecosystems.

For hundreds of millions of people, the consequences are either happening now or will in the immediate future – and they will cause people to try to move to new places to try to build a better life.

Small island states are among the least responsible for climate change but they are likely to bear the brunt of its adverse effects and, in some cases, even become uninhabitable.

There are many complex reasons for migration but the climate crisis is increasingly a factor in these often interconnected issues leading to displacement of populations.

In 2019 almost 25 million new displacements across 140 countries and territories were recorded, three times the number of people displaced by conflict and violence. In 2020 it was 30 million.

World leaders resist calls to provide legal protections to displaced people, forced to flee increasingly inhospitable conditions. Instead of taking climate action they’re looking at how to stop the flow of people, beef up border security and treat migrants and refugees harsher than they already are.

On 8 October, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council recognised access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right. The resolution, first discussed in the 1990s, is shamefully still not legally binding but it is a small step forward.

August 2021 marked the 70th anniversary of the UN refugee convention. And while it doesn’t enshrine the rights of ‘climate

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refugees’ or recognise the effects of the climate crisis. Campaigning for this to change would be a step forward but we have to address the cause not the symptom.

The same states fortifying their borders and fuelling racism against migrants and refugees are also those who have, for decades, failed to address climate change.

Governments that demonise migrants and refugees also assist the far right in stoking hatred with alarmist predictions of climate disaster and mass migration.

Increasingly, we’re seeing not just attacks on refugees and migrants but attempts to criminalise solidarity with them. This is shown by the recent attacks on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, dismissed by Nigel Farage as a ‘taxi service for migrants’.

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We need to be the counterweight that mobilises the majority who want to see compassion at the heart of how we treat vulnerable people searching for a better life.

Communities are at the heart of that, as we witnessed with the global solidarity for the #BlackLivesMatter movement following the killing of George Floyd. And when we came together to tell Jayda Fransen where to go when she tried to whip up hatred in Govanhill during the 2021 Holyrood elections.

Or in Kenmure Street in Pollokshields earlier this year when over 1,000 people blocked a Home Office deportation in an inspiring challenge to Westminster’s hostile environment.

We must continue to rail against the Home Office’s new draconian immigration plans.

COP26 is taking place in Glasgow in November. It is the most important summit yet: life on Earth literally depends on what

danger of floods coming downhill with potentially devastating impacts. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency estimates that about 170,000 people in and around Glasgow face risks from flooding.

This emergency is happening now – and we all have a stake in the outcome of the COP26 talks.

People and their communities will be at the heart of solutions that can mitigate the worst impacts of wilder weather and rising temperatures or seas. Just as we saw at Kenmure Street the fusing of numerous networks for a shared humanitarian goal, so we have to foster the same links and unity towards the common goal of climate justice.

An approach that centres global justice, equality and solidarity can strengthen the movement for climate action and defeat the racists.

Glasgow South is for the Global South, Southside Feeder March is scheduled for Sat 6 Nov, 12pm at Queens Park.

Migrant Justice Anti Racism bloc, COP26 Coalition demonstration is scheduled for Sat 6 Nov, 11.30am at Kelvingrove Park

CLIMATE JUSTICE IS MIGRANT JUSTICE “We are all aware that the climate crisis is fuelled by racism, capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism and makes many parts of the world, mainly the Global South, inhospitable for families, children and entire populations. This causes climate-driven migration and creates climate refugees who are yet to be given legal protection.

As refugees, we are acutely aware of the disproportionate intersectional impact of the climate crisis because this is our lived intergenerational reality.

A few examples that spring to my mind are the lack of legal protection/recognition of climate refugees, mothers and babies cramped in prison-like conditions in Mears and the Home Office Mother and Baby Unit in Glasgow, state enforced destitution, and poverty on International Protection applicants who are unable to access employment, education and decent housing. This makes them vulnerable to modern day slavery, human trafficking and other forms of exploitations and on several occasions their untimely demise.

Be under no illusion the climate crisis was created by the ruling class who are continually enriched at the expense of working-class communities locally, nationally and globally. Sadly our communities in Scotland are not exempt.

agreements are struck there. Anti-racists must mobilise to pressure world leaders and demand that climate justice is enshrined in any agreements struck.

We should not think that this is only stuff that affects people in far off lands. Climate migration and displacement will also affect Scots, old and new.

Coastlines are already being eroded and, if our societies don't take real action (and quickly), some of the worst predictions of temperature and sea level rises could be realised. Then, large urban populations in Grangemouth, Leith and along the Cart and Clyde rivers will be under threat.

We may have loved the ‘taps aff’ weather, but drier summers undermine the land's ability to soak up water – increasing the

Yvonne Blake, co-founder of Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment, a migrant-led grassroots organisation in Glasgow. To support their work, visit: chuffed.org/project/climatejusticeismigrantjustice

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GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

SCOTLANDS CLIMATE ASSEMBLY: Organisations Urge Scottish Government to Listen to Its People

By Rhiannon J Davies Photo by Chris Watt

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rganisations across Scotland – including Greater Govanhill CIC – have signed a Civic Charter expressing support for the recommendations Scotland’s Climate Assembly submitted to the Scottish Parliament.

The charter urges policy makers to take heed of the recommendations themselves and the spirit in which they were made, stating: “Scotland now has a mandate from its people to provide genuine global leadership on climate change.

“Through the Climate Assembly, ordinary people from across the country have laid the foundations of a strategic vision and urgent plan of action for Scotland to deliver on its climate change commitments.

“The Assembly’s 100 members found common ground for driving both cuts in emissions and adapting to a changing climate – despite coming from diverse backgrounds and holding different views.”

Scotland’s Climate Assembly was the second to be held in Scotland following on from the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland. These forums are a way of ‘doing democracy differently’, bringing together a cross-section of society to learn about and deliberate on set topics before making recommendations.

Scotland’s Climate Assembly ran from November 2020 to March 2021, meeting virtually over seven weekends. They learned about ‘climate change, mitigation, adaptation, fairness, and how change happens, before splitting into three streams to consider Diet, Land Use and Lifestyle; Homes and Communities; and Travel and Work’. They also worked closely with the Children’s Parliament to ensure those under 16 got to have their say too.

The members were chosen to represent a ‘mini Scotland’, taking into account geography, age, gender, disability ethnicity, household income, rurality and attitudes towards climate change.

The Assembly’s report sets out 81 recommendations which were agreed by an overwhelming consensus. They cover a broad range of issues including domestic heating, emissions, environmental impact in public procurement, land use and agriculture, taxation, transport (including air travel) and the economy.

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Provide support to Local Authorities to establish a network of ‘Resource Libraries’ across the country, where people can ‘borrow’ high quality tools and equipment.

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Ban the use of single-use plastics (unless there is no viable alternative) and increase regulation to prevent the supply of products in non-recyclable packaging.

Update building standards to ensure that, within the next five years, all new housing is built to Passivhaus standards (or an agreed Scottish equivalent).

Empower local communities to manage underused, unproductive, and/or unoccupied land around them in ways that address the climate emergency through rapid and decisive movement on land ownership reform.

Raise public awareness on the value that can be achieved for climate change by embracing localised living and a 4-day, or reduced, working week.

Writing about their proposals, assembly members stated: “As a nation we have the opportunity to be pioneers, by taking immediate action to empower our next generations to lead sustainable lives by setting up the framework now. As a society we will need to change and adapt to meet the challenges, and recognise that there will be costs. But failure to act now will mean greater expense, and more difficult changes in the future, in order to avoid catastrophic costs to the planet.”

The Scottish Government will formally respond to the recommendations of the Climate Assembly later this year. The Civic Charter shows the groundswell of support for the proposals, with a broad range of organisations and individuals adding their name to the document.

As COP26 gets underway, 12-year-old Margaret from the Western Isles, who was one of the Children’s Parliament’s ‘investigators’, said she had signed the charter because: “My message to party leaders is that they take our calls forward.

It’s our country too, and we have the right to be heard and listened to.”

Anyone inte rested in signing Sco tland’s Civic Charter has be to post thei en invited r support on social med ia using the hashtag, #SignForS cotland. Rea d the full report from Scotl and’s Climate Ass embly at climateass embly.scot Members of Scotland’s Climate Assembly

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WEST HIGHLAND FREE PRESS • SKYE

Let’s not get into wars over trees versus crofting – we need them both if we are going to make our planet more sustainable.

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hen you think about climate action, what do you think of?

Perhaps reducing plastic use, cutting transport emissions or switching to renewable energy sources, but what about using the land around us, or rather beneath us?

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if we are to reduce global warming we need to not only limit future production of greenhouse gasses, but start removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One of the ways we can do this is through the careful conservation of soil and vegetation.

Plants naturally absorb carbon dioxide, combining it with water to make sugars, starches and woody matter. Much of the carbon fixed into this organic matter is then sequestered into the soil as dead leaf matter where, if undisturbed, can potentially lie for centuries or even millennia. Globally, soil stores around 2,500 gigatonnes of carbon – more than three times the amount in our atmosphere – and around 25 percent of this is found in peatland.

Peat covers more than 20 percent of Scotland but, if we’re not careful, we could lose this vital carbon sink. For generations, peatlands have been drained to make them more suitable for commercial forestry and agriculture and now estimates show as much as 80 percent of our peatland has been degraded. Degraded peat not only has a reduced capacity to store carbon, it also releases greenhouse gases. In order to combat this, the Scottish Government aims to restore at least 250,000 hectares of degraded peatland by 2030. On Skye, action is well under way.

Near Carbost, the Uigshader Living Forest Project aims to restore peatland in an area of former commercial forestry. In Strathaird, the John Muir Trust (JMT) have recently completed 35 hectares of peatland restoration work.

Sitka spruce trees were felled from the area before drainage ditches were filled and the land reprofiled to slow the water flow and allow natural peatland plants to return.

Cathryn Baillie, JMT Conservation Officer, said: “Much of the area that was planted with conifers at Faoilean was an area of deep peat, not suitable for growing a timber crop. When restored to its natural state, deep peat is far more beneficial in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.”

But let’s not forget about trees altogether. They too are carbon sinks and while deforestation abroad is a much-covered issue, many don’t realise that we have been deforesting our own country for thousands of years. Neolithic farmers began grazing goats, sheep

and cattle in Scotland around 5,900 years ago, burning moorland and pinewoods to encourage fresh vegetation growth for their livestock.

These practices, which remain today an integral part of our culture, make it near impossible for young trees to survive and now, only one percent of native pinewoods remain in the Highlands.

Recognising the importance of trees in the fight against global warming, the Scottish Government aims to increase woodland cover from around 19 percent to 21 percent by 2032. Organisations such as the JMT and the Uigshader Living Forest Project are leading the way by encouraging native trees to grow alongside their peatland restoration projects.

However, the reforesting of our land seems to be all too often at odds with the interests of our food producers: our farmers and crofters. It needn’t be. Careful conservation and land use is all about balance: there is no point blanketing the land in trees because then, where do we farm? Food production in a climate friendly way is not just possible, but essential.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) is a UK-wide group of farmers who are championing sustainable, nature friendly food production.

Phil Knott, Vice Chair of the Scottish steering group of NFFN, said: “Nature friendly farming is vital for the fight against climate change.

It’s multifaceted, but in essence looks towards working with nature and not against it.

“Crofting is by and large nature friendly farming. Livestock receives a lot of negative press, but lots of this stems from data from feedlot systems abroad with very high inputs, such as grain-fed cattle.

“Growing food with minimal inputs is one of the most environmental actions you can take. Stopping farming practices would throw our food production overseas or into ever-intensifying pockets of farmland with unknown environmental consequences.

“We must look to our crofts right now as huge untapped potential to deliver fantastic food with a whole range of environmental benefits, and see those land managers suitably supported to do so.”

Let’s not get into wars over trees versus crofting – we need them both if we are going to make our planet more sustainable.

And as for the peat... next time I S H E D BY • P U B L I your wellie sinks a little too low UBL SH ED • P BY in the bog try to remember BY D • E H the cold, brown mush P The IS community-based, now swirling around and now employee-owned, your toes is actually West Highland Free Press was our greatest founded in 1972 with the principal warrior against objective of providing its immediate circulation area with all of the services global warming. expected from a local newspaper. Starting from humble beginnings on the Isle of Skye, the newspaper quickly gained a reputation for informed and outspoken news coverage.

Building on that reputation, the Free Press firmly established itself as the newspaper of choice for many thousands of households across the West Highlands and Islands and further afield.

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OUR LAND IS THE GREATEST WEAPON AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING

GREATER GOVANHILL • GLASGOW

Five Ways to

Stay Positive in the Face of the

Climate Crisis

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hen my son turned six recently, I took him for a milkshake at the café down the road. It was one of those days when the rain came down in hard torrents and we watched as puddles turned into rivers outside.

“Mummy,” he said, “does this mean Bangladesh is getting smaller?”

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, it does.” We finished our drinks.

When small children are processing the catastrophic impact of human activity on the world's climate as part of their daily conversation, you know that times are changing – and fast. The enormity of the situation that faces us (and I say “us”, knowing that many are facing it in far starker, far more tragic ways than I am at this moment) can feel too big to contemplate. But there are ways to arm yourself – with knowledge, with mutual motivation, and with a way to grieve the loss of what we knew without losing the will to fight for a future.

1. Don’t hide from the facts The climate crisis is huge and scary. Even the most environmentally aware of us instinctively want to suppress that fear, to put it on the bottom of the mental list and wish it would go away. But one of the most constructive things we can do for our mental health – and for facing the future – is to engage with the facts. Leading researcher and climate psychology expert Dr. Nadine Andrews calls this ‘adaptive coping’ and argues that we shouldn’t box away the powerful emotions the climate crisis evokes. Quite the opposite – we need those feelings to drive positive action.

By Clare Harris Illustrations by Suzie Cichy

2. Tend to your corner of the earth Whether it’s a back lane, a spot in the park you particularly love, a community garden or even a houseplant, focus on the nature that you can nurture. By taking the time to care for the places and living things in our immediate environment, we can help shift our focus from the cacophony of doom that fills news feeds, not only improving our mental health but helping to strengthen local ecosystems. Sometimes it’s just as important to focus on what we can control.

3. Make those changes You already know to turn the thermostat down and get on top of your recycling.

But as galling as it is, fundamental changes to the way we live our lives are important (even though it’d help if Big Government got on board too). Moving to a plant-based diet and reducing food waste have been pointed to in the recently-published report from the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as two of the most important shifts you can make at home. Get a WhatsApp group on the go to keep the motivation up among friends. Shop locally for the meals you need and no more. Fall back in love with the charity shop trawl. You can do it!

4. Assemble Not everyone takes action in the same way, but it’s easier to make an impact together. Seek out local activities and groups that work for you – whether that’s your local climate action group or Parents 26

for Future, which is aimed at getting the climate on the agenda in educational settings. You could get involved with the COP26 Coalition, which is crowdfunding to bring Global South delegates to the COP26 conference in November. The Climate Fringe website is packed with events in Glasgow and beyond. These look at the issue of climate change and COP26, and present ways to meet and hear from campaigners, thinkers, artists and more.

5. Celebrate the best of us Despite our myriad flaws, human beings are clever things. Do we deserve a future on this planet after what we’ve done to it? That’s debatable. But whenever I feel particularly nihilistic about the prospect of climate breakdown, I talk to friends, go see some art, remind myself of local community and of the strength of support networks.

One of the positive emotions that tends to emerge at times of crisis is compassion. And that’s what will carry us through.

More about climate psychology The Climate Psychology Alliance is a brilliant organisation that helps make sense of the impact on our mental health that the climate crisis can have – and what we can do about it. Head to their website or their Scottish Facebook page, which has regular updates on events, talks and webinars: www.climatepsychologyalliance.org

Just like our climate, journalism is at a crisis point.

Old models based on commercial advertising are no longer viable in today’s digital age. News publishers compete with sophisticated algorithms for the attention of their audiences. Polarising rhetoric dominates the conversation, driving wedges into communities. ‘News deserts’ expand as local titles dissolve or get swallowed up by media conglomerates. All but one of Scotland’s national newspapers are owned by companies based in other countries. The gulf between the people who produce the news and those who consume it is growing.

But journalism is a core component of any functioning democracy.

Locally-produced public interest journalism is needed more than ever.

As an industry, we need to rebuild trust in the media. The only way to achieve this is through actually listening to our audiences. We need to work to create a more diverse media that is more representative of the communities it serves. We need to break down the barriers, tear up the rule books and find a more inclusive way of doing journalism. We need to do better.

The climate crisis has shown us just how important it is to work collectively to take on the biggest challenge of our age, putting pressure on those who wield power to bring about meaningful transformation. The media has a vital role to play.

That’s why, with this special publication, we wanted to try something collaborative – bringing together stories of people from all over Scotland, to discuss the challenges we face. All eyes may be on Glasgow for COP26, but the whole of Scotland will feel the impact of decisions made.

Let’s find a new path forward, and let’s do it together.

Rhiannon J Davies Founder/Editor of Greater Govanhill CIC

To become a member of Greater Govanhill and support the magazine, visit greatergovanhill.com/members or scan this code:

To support any of the other publications featured, please visit their websites to find out how.

A collaborative magazine on climate change featuring articles from some of Scotland’s independent news publishers.

Support local journalism.