“People with great passion can make the
impossible happen.” After knowing her for more than three years, I think it is
safe to say that she truly is passionate about what she does. Myrto
Skouroupathi is an inspiring Environmental Engineer and activist doing her best
and playing her role in finding a solution.She is currently studying for her
MEng degree in Environmental Engineering at UCL.
I texted her saying that we should catch up and that I wanted to
interview her about her experience in Paris. Few minutes later, we are sitting
down in the café with our drinks, waiting for them to cool down and I took out
a pen and some papers and said “well I think I’m gonna start the interview
now”.
She introduced herself as a member of
Fossil Free UCL campaign and an environmental activist. The aim of the campaign is to get UCL divest from fossil fuel companies. “If fossil fuels are
bad and wreck the planet investing in them is bad as well.” (And I have to say
they have quite an interesting campaign that made some news headlines last year
as well. I will show some sneak peaks at the end, but if you are interested you can go
and check their campaign.)
Myrto with some of her fellow members
of Fossil Free UCL headed to Paris on December 10th.Along with a lot
of other activists from People & Planet, Friends of the Earth etc., they stayed
in a temporary structure at the Paris Event Center, provided by the
government. The next day they got medical and legal briefing at the ZAC
(The Climate Action Zone),during which they were advised on what to do if they
got arrested or if tear-gas or pepper spray were used! -quite scary. On the 12th,
Day of Action, they set out to the streets of Paris along with people from
Indigenous nations at Norte Dome and Arc de Triomphe, carrying red flowers in honor of past and future climate victims.
 |
| source : The Irish Times |
“It was empowering to see so many
people. When I was in the street marching with thousands of people, knowing
that we're risking getting arrested, I really felt that we had the power.” She talked about how fascinating it was to
witness the bond the indigenous people have with nature and to hear their
stories and how they are experiencing the impacts of Climate Change. She told me the story of a 19 year-old native American boy and how he was saying that his tribe, which relies on what nature provides for their survival, was struggling to provide for their people due to their polluted water, and how he clearly remembers his grandfather being able to feed the whole family by fishing few years back. “It is disheartening how the most
vulnerable people are not portrayed.”
 |
| Source : Indigenous Environmental Network |
Being confused about the agreement myself,
I asked what she thought of the COP21 results. “Activists considered it a failure.
The fact that the agreement is not legally binding is a big flaw. To me, it
even shows that many leaders still don't consider climate change a big issue,
otherwise they wouldn't have their people's futures depending on the good will
of other leaders and industries”. She then continued saying that even if the
countries “behave” and fulfill their intended INDCs, we will still be dealing
with 2.7 degrees of warming, results of which are going to be catastrophic.
Furthermore, that the agreement does not talk about how the target is going to
be achieved and there is no mention about facing out fossil fuels. This is perhaps due to
a lot of lobbying from fossil fuels companies and the fact that some decision makers actually believe that geoengineering can be the solution. She then said that the main gap in the agreement is the fact that it fails to mention the rights of indigenous people, who will soon
become climate refugees if the warming exceeds 1.5 degrees. “The world we are
creating is one where thousands, even millions, of human lives are considered
collateral damage, worth sacrificing in the name of endless development. The
system we live in, survives and thrives on exploitation: of resources, of
people, of their birth lands, of nature. As long as the agreement is made on the
same terms, for me it is bound to fail.”
Her response to how each of us could
contribute and be part of the solution, was to educate ourselves as much as we
can, but we should do it outside of our computers and rooms, as “you’ll never
fall in love with nature if you lose touch with it." She then stated that if we want to fully understand the people who have suffered from
climate change , we should put ourselves in their shoes, and this is not
done by just reading about them. she continued. We should then spread our knowledge and find what we
are good at and use it for good.
“How would you summarize your experience?”
“Paris was not the game changer we were expecting. We didn't achieve what we wanted. The indigenous people returned to their sinking and dying homelands with no promising news. The few in power got richer, the millions in poverty got poorer. Yet what I experienced in Paris filled me with awe and hope. In the end it's up to you to decide what's more powerful: Millions of people across the world risking their safety and even their lives for a better, fairer world, or a handful of elites cowardly hiding behind their money. Personally, what I keep from Paris is this: When the police came to break a peaceful ceremony of indigenous people thanking Mother Earth for all that it has provided, we all held hands and one of the indigenous people said : “Don't let go. We will leave, but we are all connected.” WE ARE ALL CONNECTED...”
 |
| Source: Isabel Bennett member of Fossil Free UCL |
Well that is a wrap for this
post, hope that you enjoyed it and that you gained some new perspective. It sure taught
me new things and widened my view and reminded me the importance of
sharing your experiences as well as hearing others'. As Myrto concluded, we are
all connected and we should see climate change as OUR problem and not let the
fact that we are less vulnerable make it less important.
Before I end this post I
am going to leave you with some links to check out if you are interested and as promised share some of the Fossil Free UCL campaign pics.
 |
| Source: Fossil Free UCL |
 |
| Source: Fossil Free UCL |
 |
| Source: Fossil Free UCL |
Very interesting interview, it's clear that Myrto is passionate about the cause.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm not so sure whether pushing UCL to cut it's ties with the fossil fuel industry is such a good thing. I have to concede a great degree of ignorance in how university investments work, but it seems to me that, as it is at the moment, there's at least a seat at the table for UCL's researchers and decision makers. Doesn't this mean that those with an enviroethical bent, of which I hope there are many at our university, get to have a greater influence on the future energy narrative than if they refused to engage with the fossil fuel industry?
Thank you Chad, will try to answer your question as good as possible. The concept of divestment was created in the 1960s to protest against apartheid. Similarly, fossil fuel divestment is done to protest against a destructive and unethical industry who ignores the scientific facts and refuses to change. Obviously, divestment itself doesn't harm fossil fuel companies since stocks are not lost and are just sold to someone else. It is thus a symbolic act that can mainly be used by decision makers to show that people care about the issue and drive change through that. Therefore, as an investor and shareholder the university has very little influence in these companies and previous efforts from groups of shareholders that tried to change a company's policies from within weren't very successful. To the fossil free UCL group, these companies had their chance to prove that they are willing to change but instead did nothing for it. One can argue that these companies should be seen as energy companies and not fossil fuel companies but their actions show the opposite (Shell for example sold the majority of their investments in renewables about 5 years ago). Several examples of fossil fuel companies lobbying against renewables, suing governments for stopping them from polluting and lying about climate change (it has been revealed that ExxonMobil knew about the effects of climate change since 1977)prove that this is an industry that we can no longer trust our livelihoods with. UCL's own research shows that a lot of the reserves have to be left in the ground if the temperature rise is to be kept under 2 degrees Celsius, instead these companies spend billions every year for more exploration. In a talk at our university last year, Shell's vice president was presenting the company's future plan that clearly showed that they have no intention of shifting towards renewables. Instead, he said, they rely on us to find solutions like ccs (which even if it where to be used successfully, oceans will still be irrevocably destroyed) to reduce climate change effects. On the side of funding by these companies, it is no secret that a lot of great research is being done with money donated by fossil fuel companies. The question is how much freedom have researchers with that money. In the case of UCL, a possible divestment would mean that they would also stop accepting funding since that would be a conflict of interest (like the tobacco case). An interesting case is that of BHP Billiton. This huge mining company (responsible for one of the biggest environmental disasters of the century in Brazil) has been funding UCL's Institute of Sustainable Resources and UCL Australia's International Energy Policy Institute. Jane Rendell, then Vice Dean of Research for UCL’s Faculty for the Built Environment, was asked to consider the risks of this research expansion. During her efforts she was told that there was a partnership agreement that ensured the protection of the independence of academic research she wasn't allowed to see the documents. She then decided to resign. Working with industry is definitely useful but accepting money from it has many risks. At the critical point that we are at now for the climate, we believe that there is no more room to play along and divestment sends this message clear and loud.
DeleteMyrto