Since the day it was founded, the Confederation has stood up for the rights of forest owners and managers and for the interests of Latvian society in advancing the country's prosperity, pursuing a genuine balance between social, economic and environmental interests. Over two decades the organisation has delivered on the aims and tasks of policies that support Latvia's foresters, despite constant pressure from various groups, organisations and individuals unfriendly to the sector.
In order to pursue the Confederation's aims more widely, in 2018 (in the centenary year of the Latvian state, as it happens) the portal zemeunvalsts.lv was created for Latvia's forest sector and related industries; over time it has reported on both the people and the events in and around the sector, and has looked beyond our borders at what is happening in the wider world.
To mark the birthday of the Latvian Confederation of Forest Owners and Managers, a look back at one of the first articles published on the zemeunvalsts.lv portal in August 2018
The next wave of extremism will be green. We are not ready for it. (Jamie Bartlett)
Military strategists always fight the last war, and the same is true of the people fighting radicalisation. In 2001, Western intelligence services, which had focused mainly on domestic terrorist groups such as the Irish Republican Army and ETA, were caught off guard by Al Qaeda. Then came 2011, and they were unpleasantly surprised by Anders Behring Breivik and the spread of far-right extremism. Around 2010, Islamist terrorists had become Islamic State — that, too, was noticed belatedly.
Today we are about to make the very same mistake again. We will not be able to forgive ourselves if our attention is fixed solely on Islamic State or far-right radicals, because what will befall us is a wave of ecological radicalisation.
Radical environmentalism is nothing new. In 2001 the FBI described the Earth Liberation Front — a militant, violent environmental protection group — as one of the most significant domestic terrorist threats. Academics estimate that "REAR" (Radical Environmentalist and Animal Rights) cells are active in at least 25 countries. In the United States alone, between 1970 and 2007 they carried out more than 1,000 criminal acts — mostly acts of vandalism and attacks on facilities that conduct animal testing. Over the past 30 years there have been periodic fears of new waves of "eco-terrorism", which have not really materialised.
Until recently, radical environmentalism has been a victim of its own success. Green ideas won broad popularity some years ago. Most of the major political parties in Western democracies (Donald Trump and the Republican Party notwithstanding) now accept the facts about climate change and promise to respond to them. Environmentalism has become part of a broader anti-capitalist movement, largely characterised by both a wish to renounce the use of force and a desire for change. As a result, very few people are still involved in climate activism that moves from peaceful protest, such as protest marches, to civil disobedience — shutting down mines or damaging equipment. There are no precise figures, but those in the know say that only a few hundred hardened activists are active in Britain, and a few thousand in the United States.
There are indications that this may change. The conditions for the radicalisation of climate activists are in place. There are signs that in some groups the process is already under way. Once it has happened, we may well not be ready for what the hardline green camp does.
Radicals of every kind share common features. Peter Neumann (Peter Neumann), director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) and author of the book "Der Terror ist unter uns" (Terrorism is among us), argues that people who become radicalised typically have a sense of grievance — sometimes real, sometimes imagined — and believe that the lawful routes for redressing that grievance are closed, inaccessible or ineffective. There is usually a social element as well, in the shape of a charismatic preacher or an ideology, which encourages people to seek emotional fulfilment through compensatory methods that are regarded as forbidden.
Climate activists most certainly do have a catastrophic, existential grievance, and one grounded in scientific research.
On current projections, by the end of this century vast regions of the globe will become uninhabitable; extreme weather, food shortages and drought will have become everyday occurrences. By 2050, as many as 250 million people may have become refugees because of climate change. That is a source of a great many grievances, and the situation is unfortunately deteriorating rapidly.
Formal, peaceful political activity, which is an important route to securing improvements, is not working. True, there have been successes as well. The renewable energy sector is thriving. Anti-capitalist and environmental political movements are growing broader (Jeremy Corbyn (Jeremy Corbyn), Bernie Sanders (Bernie Sanders) and Beppe Grillo, for example, have made climate change a top priority). Yet from the environmental activists' point of view there is all the more reason to doubt the prospects of saving the planet politically. In 2040, the amount of energy needed to meet the world's needs will be roughly 50% greater than in 2012. Demand for coal is forecast to grow by 0.6% a year over that period. Last year was a particularly unfavourable one in this respect. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to more than 400 parts per million (for the first time in millions of years), while the Living Planet Index projected that two thirds of wild animals could disappear by 2020. No serious activist believes that the Paris climate agreement accepted by national governments will be enough — that was already the case before Donald Trump withdrew from it.
The signs of radicalisation among the "green circles" are already visible, provided we know where to look for them. While writing the book "Radicals Chasing Utopia", I carried out research and spent time with the hardline environmental group "Earth First!"; it was founded in the south-west of the United States, but its cells operate all over the world. It is undergoing a revival, because it promises to "make no compromise in defence of Mother Earth". The group's more experienced members told me that they had never seen such a high level of interest and discontent. During the time I spent with the group, I realised that alongside the hardened veterans, "Earth First!" has attracted many young people who are getting involved in the movement for the first time and feel that "something must be done, and done quickly".
Look at environmentalists' websites or blogs and you will learn about protests, demonstrations, marches and planned acts of civil disobedience. There is a swell building here. I recently spoke to a representative of the environmental group "Friends of the Earth", which has branches all over the world. He said that local groups protesting against the use of hydraulic fracturing technology have grown in numbers faster than anything previously seen in the green movement. Had the Islamist terrorist attacks that led to a state of emergency being declared not taken place a few weeks before the climate change conference in Paris in November 2015, the demonstrations planned during the conference would probably have been the largest environmental protests of all time. At the time I interviewed several of those involved. Several months had been devoted to planning the protests, hundreds of organisers were moving around the city, and you could feel the energy in the air. That same year, German climate change activists founded "Ende Gelände" (Here and no further) — an alliance whose aim is civil disobedience directed against fossil fuels. In 2015, around 1,500 of these highly determined and well-organised protesters entered one of Europe's largest coal mines, forcing it to close temporarily. Last year, twice as many protesters did the same. This month "Ende Gelände" organised an 11-day action in which around 6,000 protesters attempted to halt production in Germany's coal-mining region.
The same stubborn determination was on display among the Standing Rock protesters, who sought to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in the northern United States. Between August 2016 and February 2017, 761 people were arrested. That partly reflects a sharp police response, of course, but it is also a signal of the protesters' persistence and refusal to back down. The authorities are not hiding their concern. A recent report by the US Department of Homeland Security included a warning about attacks by eco-terrorists who "believe that violence is justifiable", in view of the planned Diamond pipeline, which will run from Oklahoma to Tennessee (although the report noted that there was no current information about planned attacks).