High-Profile Trial of the 'Heathrow 13' Enlists Climate Scientist as Expert Witness

Thirteen people found guilty of aggravated trespass while protesting against the proposed expansion of Heathrow airport are due to be sentenced next week. It could see the first custodial sentences handed down to environmental protesters in the UK in two decades.
The high-profile trial of the “Heathrow 13” has gone down the rare—but not unprecedented—route of enlisting a climate scientist as an expert witness for the defense.
Prof. Alice Bows-Larkin, professor of climate science and policy at the University of Manchester, gave evidence to the court on the impact of aviation on climate change. Exclusively, Carbon Brief has her full statement, exactly as it was submitted to the judge in the trial.
Awaiting Sentence
The “Heathrow 13,” part of the Plane Stupid campaign group, were arrested on July 13 last year after chaining themselves to a railing on Heathrow’s northern runway for six hours to protest against the impact of aviation emissions on climate change.
The protesters were arrested and later found guilty of aggravated trespass. District Judge Deborah Wright said that while it was clear the defendants were “principled people” and committed to their cause, she didn’t accept their actions were necessary to protect people from climate change. They should be prepared for jail time, she said, because of the “astronomical” cost of disrupting more than 20 flights.
With their final sentences due to be passed at Willesden magistrates court on Feb. 24, the case of the “Heathrow 13” has garnered a fair amount of media coverage and high-profile political support in recent weeks. One law expert told the Independent that custodial sentences for a peaceful, non-violent protest would be “unprecedented in modern times.”
The criminal charge of aggravated trespass came into force in 1994, following a series of road-building protests. While it can technically carry a custodial sentence “not exceeding three months,” no one has since faced jail time as a result of a non-violent environmental protest in the UK.
A statement on the Plane Stupid website says:
“The defendants argue that their action was necessary due to the airport’s contribution to life-threatening climatic changes. Furthermore, Heathrow expansion is inhumane to the local residents and those at the sharp end of climate change and hugely environmentally destructive.”
“Necessity Defense”
The “Heathrow 13” case isn’t the first time climate change has been used as a defense in a court of law. In 2008, the "Kingsnorth Six," arrested for trying to shut down a coal-fired power plant in Kent, England, were acquitted after arguing what’s known in law as a “necessity defense.”
The defendants successfully argued that their actions were legally justified since they were intending to prevent the far greater harms to society posed by climate change. The nine-person jury cleared the defendants of any wrongdoing by a majority verdict.
Unlike the “Heathrow 13,” whose lesser charges of aggravated trespass warranted a trial by magistrate, the reported £30,000 damages caused by “Kingsnorth Six” meant they appeared before a jury instead.
In January 2016, a judge allowed lawyers to present climate change as a necessity defense for the first time in the U.S., in the case of the "Delta Five," a group of activists accused of obstructed a train carrying coal and crude oil.
The defense was less successful that time, however, with the same judge later ruling that the evidence was insufficiently strong for the jury to take into account in its verdict. The protesters were found guilty of trespass, though not guilty of obstructing the train and spared jail time.
On the rare occasions when climate change has been used as a criminal defense, it’s not unknown for a climate scientist to be called on to give supporting evidence.
Dr. James Hansen, veteran climate scientist and former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies, appeared as an expert witness in both the “Kingsnorth Six” and “Delta Five” cases and again in 2010 in the trial of 20 activists accused of planning to trespass on a coal plant near Nottingham.
In the trial of the “Heathrow 13,” Prof. Alice Bows Larkin, a professor of climate science and energy policy at the University of Manchester, specializing in shipping and aviation emissions, gave evidence on behalf of the defense. She did not appear in court, instead submitting a written statement to the judge, parts of which were read out as a summary in court.
Bearing Witness
Bows-Larkin’s statement begins with a general outline of the impact on climate change of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other substances present in aircraft emissions, such as nitrous oxides, soot, water vapor and sulphur dioxides. She explains:
“Estimates of the historical warming … suggest that the total warming impact of aviation has been around twice that than would be caused by the CO2 alone.”
Bows-Larkin then explains how, to be consistent with the legally-binding obligation in the Paris agreement of limiting warming to “well-below 2C above pre-industrial levels,” emissions from the aviation sector, like all other sectors, will need to be reduced to near-zero. She says:
“The vast majority of academics working on climate change mitigation would agree that a rapid and significant reduction in the combustion of fossil fuels is needed in the coming decades … I am unaware of any analysis that can demonstrate how aviation could be an exception to this.”
The combination of growing demand and few technical options on the horizon that could dramatically reduce aircraft emissions means that the inability of the aviation industry to curb its environmental impact constitutes a public health risk, says Bows-Larkin. She says:
“All CO2 emitting sectors are damaging to human health through contributing to further warming, but particularly concerning are sectors that do not foresee a significant cut in CO2 going into the future.”
Bows-Larkin acknowledges the potential for technology, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, to offset greenhouse gas emissions. But there is a big question mark over whether we can assume such technologies will materialize in time to meet climate targets, she explains.
Full Text
Below is Bows-Larkin’s expert witness statement to the trial of the “Heathrow 13” in full, exactly as it was submitted to the judge.
It’s a detailed account of where the aviation industry sits alongside UK domestic and international law and is worth reading in full. Or, for a flavor of exactly what the court heard, Raj Chada, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen and defense lawyer for four of the accused, has confirmed to Carbon Brief that sections 2.2, 2.6, 3, 8 and parts of 9 were read out in court as a summary of her testimony.
Heathrow13 evidence from Prof Alice Bows Larkin
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By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge
In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were "on a collision course." Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a "safe space to operate." These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use.
The Good and Bad News
<p><span>Ecosystems consist of living and non-living components, and their interactions. They work like a super-complex engine: when some components are removed or stop working, knock-on consequences can lead to system failure.</span></p><p>Our study is based on measured data and observations, not modeling or predictions for the future. Encouragingly, not all ecosystems we examined have collapsed across their entire range. We still have, for instance, some intact reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, especially in deeper waters. And northern Australia has some of the most intact and least-modified stretches of savanna woodlands on Earth.</p><p><span>Still, collapses are happening, including in regions critical for growing food. This includes the </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/importance-murray-darling-basin/where-basin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Murray-Darling Basin</a><span>, which covers around 14% of Australia's landmass. Its rivers and other freshwater systems support more than </span><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/latestproducts/94F2007584736094CA2574A50014B1B6?opendocument" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30% of Australia's food</a><span> production.</span></p><p><span></span><span>The effects of floods, fires, heatwaves and storms do not stop at farm gates; they're felt equally in agricultural areas and natural ecosystems. We shouldn't forget how towns ran out of </span><a href="https://www.mdba.gov.au/issues-murray-darling-basin/drought#effects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drinking water</a><span> during the recent drought.</span></p><p><span></span><span>Drinking water is also at risk when ecosystems collapse in our water catchments. In Victoria, for example, the degradation of giant </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/logging-must-stop-in-melbournes-biggest-water-supply-catchment-106922" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mountain Ash forests</a><span> greatly reduces the amount of water flowing through the Thompson catchment, threatening nearly five million people's drinking water in Melbourne.</span></p><p>This is a dire <em data-redactor-tag="em">wake-up</em> call — not just a <em data-redactor-tag="em">warning</em>. Put bluntly, current changes across the continent, and their potential outcomes, pose an existential threat to our survival, and other life we share environments with.</p><p><span>In investigating patterns of collapse, we found most ecosystems experience multiple, concurrent pressures from both global climate change and regional human impacts (such as land clearing). Pressures are often </span><a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13427" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">additive and extreme</a><span>.</span></p><p>Take the last 11 years in Western Australia as an example.</p><p>In the summer of 2010 and 2011, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-heatwaves-are-getting-hotter-lasting-longer-and-doing-more-damage-95637" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heatwave</a> spanning more than 300,000 square kilometers ravaged both marine and land ecosystems. The extreme heat devastated forests and woodlands, kelp forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. This catastrophe was followed by two cyclones.</p><p>A record-breaking, marine heatwave in late 2019 dealt a further blow. And another marine heatwave is predicted for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/24/wa-coastline-facing-marine-heatwave-in-early-2021-csiro-predicts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this April</a>.</p>What to Do About It?
<p><span>Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?</span></p><p>We devised a simple but tractable scheme called the 3As:</p><ul><li>Awareness of what is important</li><li>Anticipation of what is coming down the line</li><li>Action to stop the pressures or deal with impacts.</li></ul><p>In our paper, we identify positive actions to help protect or restore ecosystems. Many are already happening. In some cases, ecosystems might be better left to recover by themselves, such as coral after a cyclone.</p><p>In other cases, active human intervention will be required – for example, placing artificial nesting boxes for Carnaby's black cockatoos in areas where old trees have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-carnabys-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-latirostris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">removed</a>.</p><p><span>"Future-ready" actions are also vital. This includes reinstating </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/a-burning-question-fire/12395700" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultural burning practices</a><span>, which have </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-you-have-unfinished-business-its-time-to-let-our-fire-people-care-for-this-land-135196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple values and benefits for Aboriginal communities</a><span> and can help minimize the risk and strength of bushfires.</span></p><p>It might also include replanting banks along the Murray River with species better suited to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---matt-hansen/12322978" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmer conditions</a>.</p><p>Some actions may be small and localized, but have substantial positive benefits.</p><p>For example, billions of migrating Bogong moths, the main summer food for critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, have not arrived in their typical numbers in Australian alpine regions in recent years. This was further exacerbated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-million-hectares-of-threatened-species-habitat-up-in-smoke-129438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019-20</a> fires. Brilliantly, <a href="https://www.zoo.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoos Victoria</a> anticipated this pressure and developed supplementary food — <a href="https://theconversation.com/looks-like-an-anzac-biscuit-tastes-like-a-protein-bar-bogong-bikkies-help-mountain-pygmy-possums-after-fire-131045" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bogong bikkies</a>.</p><p><span>Other more challenging, global or large-scale actions must address the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iICpI9H0GkU&t=34s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">root cause of environmental threats</a><span>, such as </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0504-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human population growth and per-capita consumption</a><span> of environmental resources.</span><br></p><p>We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, remove or suppress invasive species such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mam.12080" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feral cats</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buffel-kerfuffle-how-one-species-quietly-destroys-native-wildlife-and-cultural-sites-in-arid-australia-149456" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">buffel grass</a>, and stop widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-fire-risk-and-meet-climate-targets-over-300-scientists-call-for-stronger-land-clearing-laws-113172" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">land clearing</a> and other forms of habitat destruction.</p>Our Lives Depend On It
<p>The multiple ecosystem collapses we have documented in Australia are a harbinger for <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/202102/natures-future-our-future-world-speaks" target="_blank">environments globally</a>.</p><p>The simplicity of the 3As is to show people <em>can</em> do something positive, either at the local level of a landcare group, or at the level of government departments and conservation agencies.</p><p>Our lives and those of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-are-our-future-and-the-planets-heres-how-you-can-teach-them-to-take-care-of-it-113759" target="_blank">children</a>, as well as our <a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-care-of-business-the-private-sector-is-waking-up-to-natures-value-153786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">economies</a>, societies and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-address-the-ecological-crisis-aboriginal-peoples-must-be-restored-as-custodians-of-country-108594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cultures</a>, depend on it.</p><p>We simply cannot afford any further delay.</p><p><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dana-m-bergstrom-1008495" target="_blank" style="">Dana M Bergstrom</a> is a principal research scientist at the University of Wollongong. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/euan-ritchie-735" target="_blank" style="">Euan Ritchie</a> is a professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences at Deakin University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lesley-hughes-5823" target="_blank">Lesley Hughes</a> is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-depledge-114659" target="_blank">Michael Depledge</a> is a professor and chair, Environment and Human Health, at the University of Exeter. </em></p><p><em>Disclosure statements: Dana Bergstrom works for the Australian Antarctic Division and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wollongong. Her research including fieldwork on Macquarie Island and in Antarctica was supported by the Australian Antarctic Division.</em></p><p><em>Euan Ritchie receives funding from the Australian Research Council, The Australia and Pacific Science Foundation, Australian Geographic, Parks Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. Euan Ritchie is a Director (Media Working Group) of the Ecological Society of Australia, and a member of the Australian Mammal Society.</em></p><p><em>Lesley Hughes receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a Councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and a Director of WWF-Australia.</em></p><p><em>Michael Depledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/existential-threat-to-our-survival-see-the-19-australian-ecosystems-already-collapsing-154077" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>- Coral Reef Tipping Point: 'Near-Annual' Bleaching May Occur ... ›
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