Latest news with #JohnSmyth
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
On Ireland's Peat Bogs, Climate Action Clashes with Tradition
CLONBULLOGUE, Ireland (Reuters) — As wind turbines on the horizon churn out clean energy, John Smyth bends to stack damp peat — the cheap, smoky fuel he has harvested for half a century. The painstaking work of 'footing turf,' as the process of drying peat for burning is known, is valued by people across rural Ireland as a source of low-cost energy that gives their homes a distinctive smell. But peat-harvesting has also destroyed precious wildlife habitats, and converted what should be natural stores for carbon dioxide into one of Ireland's biggest emitters of planet-warming gases. As the European Union seeks to make Dublin enforce the bloc's environmental law, peat has become a focus for opposition to policies that Smyth and others criticize as designed by wealthy urbanites with little knowledge of rural reality. 'The people that are coming up with plans to stop people from buying turf or from burning turf … They don't know what it's like to live in rural Ireland,' Smyth said. He describes himself as a dinosaur obstructing people that, he says, want to destroy rural Ireland. 'That's what we are. Dinosaurs. Tormenting them.' When the peat has dried, Smyth keeps his annual stock in a shed and tosses the sods, one at a time, into a metal stove used for cooking. The stove also heats radiators around his home. Turf, Smyth says, is for people who cannot afford what he labels 'extravagant fuels,' such as gas or electricity. The average Irish household energy bill is almost double, according to Ireland's utility regulator, the €800 ($906) Smyth pays for turf for a year. Smyth nevertheless acknowledges digging for peat could cease, regardless of politics, as the younger generation has little interest in keeping the tradition alive. 'They don't want to go to the bog. I don't blame them,' Smyth said. Turbary rights Peat has an ancient history. Over thousands of years, decaying plants in wetland areas formed the bogs. In drier, lowland parts of Ireland, dome-shaped raised bogs developed as peat accumulated in former glacial lakes. In upland and coastal areas, high rainfall and poor drainage created blanket bogs over large expanses. In the absence of coal and extensive forests, peat became an important source of fuel. By the second half of the 20th century, hand-cutting and drying had mostly given way to industrial-scale harvesting that reduced many bogs to barren wastelands. Ireland has lost over 70% of its blanket bog and over 80% of its raised bogs, according to estimates published by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council and National Parks and Wildlife Service, respectively. Following pressure from environmentalists, in the 1990s, an EU directive on habitats listed blanket bogs and raised bogs as priority habitats. As the EU regulation added to the pressure for change, in 2015, semi-state peat harvesting firm Bord na Mona said it planned to end peat extraction and shift to renewable energy. In 2022, the sale of peat for burning was banned. An exception was made, however, for 'turbary rights,' allowing people to dig turf for their personal use. Added to that, weak enforcement of complex regulations meant commercial-scale harvesting has continued across the country. Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency last year reported 38 large-scale illegal cutting sites, which it reported to local authorities responsible for preventing breaches of the regulation. The agency also said 350,000 tons of peat were exported, mostly for horticulture, in 2023. Data for 2024 has not yet been published. Green vision Pippa Hackett, a former Green Party junior minister for agriculture, who runs a farm near to where Smyth lives, said progress was too slow. 'I don't think it's likely that we'll see much action between now and the end of this decade,' Hackett said. Her party's efforts to ensure bogs were restored drew aggression from activists in some turf-cutting areas, she said. 'They see us as their archenemy,' she added. In an election last year, the party lost nine of the 10 seats it had in parliament and was replaced as the third leg of the center-right coalition government by a group of mainly rural independent members of parliament. The European Commission, which lists over 100 Irish bogs as Special Areas of Conservation, last year referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice for failing to protect them and taking insufficient action to restore the sites. The country also faces fines of billions of euros if it misses its 2030 carbon reduction target, according to Ireland's fiscal watchdog and climate groups. Degraded peatlands in Ireland emit 21.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year, according to a 2022 United Nations report. Ireland's transport sector, by comparison, emitted 21.4 million tons in 2023, government statistics show. The Irish government says turf-cutting has ended on almost 80% of the raised bog special areas of conservation since 2011. It has tasked Bord na Mona with 'rewetting' the bogs, allowing natural ecosystems to recover and eventually making the bogs once again carbon sinks. So far, Bord na Mona says it has restored around 20,000 hectares of its 80,000 hectare target. On many bogs, scientists monitoring emissions have replaced the peat harvesters, while operators of mechanical diggers carve out the most damaged areas to be filled with water. Bord na Mona is also using the land to generate renewable energy, including wind and solar. Mark McCorry, ecology manager at Bord na Mona, said eventually the bogs would resume their status as carbon sinks. 'But we have to be realistic; that is going to take a long time,' he said.
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Former Archbishop of Canterbury challenges key finding of report that led to his resignation
Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, publicly disputed the findings of an independent review that led to his resignation, asserting it was wrong. Mr Welby claimed he did not learn the full extent of prolific abuser John Smyth's actions until 2017, despite the review stating he could have reported Smyth sooner. John Smyth, who died in 2018, was responsible for abusing as many as 130 boys and young men over five decades in the UK and Africa. Mr Welby said that in 2013, he was aware of only one allegation against Smyth and was preoccupied with other major abuse cases within the Church. He admitted to being 'insufficiently persistent' in pursuing Smyth's case, which he cited as a reason for his resignation, describing it as a profoundly lonely experience. Justin Welby says review that led to resignation as archbishop was partly wrong
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Justin Welby says review that led to resignation as archbishop was partly wrong
Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has publicly challenged the findings of an independent review that led to his resignation, asserting it was "wrong" in its conclusion that he could have reported prolific abuser John Smyth sooner. Mr Welby, who officially stepped down in early January after resigning in November last year, faced scrutiny from a review led by Keith Makin. This independent inquiry concluded that he "had not done enough to deal with allegations of abuse by Christian camp leader Smyth". The report said Smyth 'could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (church authorities and potentially the police) by church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013'. During an interview which took place at the Cambridge Union in May, Mr Welby denied having learned the full extent of Smyth's abuse until 2017. 'Makin is wrong in that,' Mr Welby said during the event. 'Not deliberately, but he didn't see a bit of evidence that subsequently came out after his report and after my resignation. 'The bit of evidence was his emails from Lambeth to Ely and from Ely letters to South Africa, where Smyth was living, and letters to the police in which the reporting was fully given to the police, and the police asked the church not to carry out its own investigations because it would interfere with theirs. 'Now I had checked, and I was told the police had been informed.' Over five decades between the 1970s until his death, John Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives. Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and was 'never brought to justice for the abuse', the Makin Review said. Asked at the event why he did not report John Smyth in 2013 when he first heard of allegations made against him, Mr Welby said: 'First of all, I first knew of John Smyth's abuse in 2013 at the beginning of August, when one person in Cambridge disclosed to the diocesan safeguarding advisor that they had been abused. 'A few days later, I had a report through my chaplain who had been rung up from the Diocese of Ely, which Cambridge is in, saying … there was an allegation of abuse by one person. 'I didn't know the full details of the abuse until 2017 – that is clearly in the report … 'And it wasn't until about 2021, in a meeting with Keith Makin, that I discovered there were more than 100 people who had been physically abused. 'I disagree with the report on that … it's not truth. 'Secondly, I certainly didn't know about anything in Zimbabwe for the same period, and that emerged steadily as well.' Mr Welby added that, in 2013, he only knew of one person alleging they had been abused by Smyth, and that he was in the midst of dealing with other prominent cases of sexual abuse within the Church. Mr Welby said: 'I was dealing at the time with Peter Ball, the bishop of Gloucester, where we knew there were at least 30 victims, and he was going to prison, obviously, and one of those victims had committed suicide. 'That was among many cases that were coming out, and they were obviously getting my attention. 'I was focusing my attention on making sure it didn't happen again. 'I don't apologise for that. 'The worst of all possible things would have been to say, we're not going to change the system sufficiently to reduce the chances of such appalling events with such lifelong damage to survivors happening again.' The former archbishop, however, acknowledged he was 'insufficiently persistent' in bringing Smyth to justice while he was still alive – which ultimately compelled him to step down from his role as archbishop of Canterbury. Mr Welby also said he was seeing a psychotherapist with whom he has been discussing the time of his resignation, which he described as 'one of the loneliest moments I've ever had'. Asked about what he would have done differently, Mr Welby replied: 'I have thought a great deal about that. 'One must be very careful about making it sound as though it was all about me. It's really not. 'There will be people here who've been abused, who are the victims of abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse, emotional abuse, and I've been very open that I'm one of them, so I'm aware of what it means. 'There were two reasons it was right to resign. 'One was, although I thought I had done at the time everything I should have done, I hadn't. 'It had been reported to the police, the first signs of the abuse … and it was reported to Cambridgeshire Police and then to Hampshire Police, where he (Smyth) lived at the time. 'But I was insufficiently persistent and curious to follow up and check and check and check that action was being taken. 'And I felt that that had re-traumatised the survivors.' Mr Welby added: 'The other point was shame, because in my role, it wasn't only the Smyth case (in) the whole time I've been in post as archbishop for 12 years. 'There were more and more cases (that) emerged, very few from the present day, but going right back to the 60s and the 70s – 50, 60 years. 'And I'm sure we have not uncovered all of them, and I'm sure it goes further back than that. 'And there's one area the psychotherapist I have been seeing has helped me understand better, is: one develops an idealisation of an organisation, particularly the Church, and the sense of its failure made me feel that the only proper thing to do was to take responsibility as the current head of that organisation. 'It's one of the loneliest moments I've ever had, the reverberations of that I still feel. 'But I can persuade myself I could have done other things. I could have taken on the interviewers more strongly.' The process to replace Mr Welby is under way. It is expected there could be an announcement on a nomination for the 106th archbishop of Canterbury by autumn – a year after Mr Welby announced he was standing down.
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
Review that led me to resign as archbishop was partly ‘wrong', says Welby
The former archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said the review that led to him resigning was 'wrong' in stating he could have reported prolific abuser John Smyth earlier. The former archbishop resigned in November last year and stepped down officially in early January after an independent review by Keith Makin concluded he had not done enough to deal with allegations of abuse by Christian camp leader Smyth. The report said Smyth 'could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (church authorities and potentially the police) by church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013'. During an interview which took place at the Cambridge Union in May, Mr Welby denied having learned the full extent of Smyth's abuse until 2017. 'Makin is wrong in that,' Mr Welby said during the event. 'Not deliberately, but he didn't see a bit of evidence that subsequently came out after his report and after my resignation. 'The bit of evidence was his emails from Lambeth to Ely and from Ely letters to South Africa, where Smyth was living, and letters to the police in which the reporting was fully given to the police, and the police asked the church not to carry out its own investigations because it would interfere with theirs. 'Now I had checked, and I was told the police had been informed.' Over five decades between the 1970s until his death, John Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives. Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and was 'never brought to justice for the abuse', the Makin Review said. Asked at the event why he did not report John Smyth in 2013 when he first heard of allegations made against him, Mr Welby said: 'First of all, I first knew of John Smyth's abuse in 2013 at the beginning of August, when one person in Cambridge disclosed to the diocesan safeguarding advisor that they had been abused. 'A few days later, I had a report through my chaplain who had been rung up from the Diocese of Ely, which Cambridge is in, saying … there was an allegation of abuse by one person. 'I didn't know the full details of the abuse until 2017 – that is clearly in the report … 'And it wasn't until about 2021, in a meeting with Keith Makin, that I discovered there were more than 100 people who had been physically abused. 'I disagree with the report on that … it's not truth. 'Secondly, I certainly didn't know about anything in Zimbabwe for the same period, and that emerged steadily as well.' Mr Welby added that, in 2013, he only knew of one person alleging they had been abused by Smyth, and that he was in the midst of dealing with other prominent cases of sexual abuse within the Church. Mr Welby said: 'I was dealing at the time with Peter Ball, the bishop of Gloucester, where we knew there were at least 30 victims, and he was going to prison, obviously, and one of those victims had committed suicide. 'That was among many cases that were coming out, and they were obviously getting my attention. 'I was focusing my attention on making sure it didn't happen again. 'I don't apologise for that. 'The worst of all possible things would have been to say, we're not going to change the system sufficiently to reduce the chances of such appalling events with such lifelong damage to survivors happening again.' The former archbishop, however, acknowledged he was 'insufficiently persistent' in bringing Smyth to justice while he was still alive – which ultimately compelled him to step down from his role as archbishop of Canterbury. Mr Welby also said he was seeing a psychotherapist with whom he has been discussing the time of his resignation, which he described as 'one of the loneliest moments I've ever had'. Asked about what he would have done differently, Mr Welby replied: 'I have thought a great deal about that. 'One must be very careful about making it sound as though it was all about me. It's really not. 'There will be people here who've been abused, who are the victims of abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse, emotional abuse, and I've been very open that I'm one of them, so I'm aware of what it means. 'There were two reasons it was right to resign. 'One was, although I thought I had done at the time everything I should have done, I hadn't. 'It had been reported to the police, the first signs of the abuse … and it was reported to Cambridgeshire Police and then to Hampshire Police, where he (Smyth) lived at the time. 'But I was insufficiently persistent and curious to follow up and check and check and check that action was being taken. 'And I felt that that had re-traumatised the survivors.' Mr Welby added: 'The other point was shame, because in my role, it wasn't only the Smyth case (in) the whole time I've been in post as archbishop for 12 years. 'There were more and more cases (that) emerged, very few from the present day, but going right back to the 60s and the 70s – 50, 60 years. 'And I'm sure we have not uncovered all of them, and I'm sure it goes further back than that. 'And there's one area the psychotherapist I have been seeing has helped me understand better, is: one develops an idealisation of an organisation, particularly the Church, and the sense of its failure made me feel that the only proper thing to do was to take responsibility as the current head of that organisation. 'It's one of the loneliest moments I've ever had, the reverberations of that I still feel. 'But I can persuade myself I could have done other things. I could have taken on the interviewers more strongly.' The process to replace Mr Welby is under way. It is expected there could be an announcement on a nomination for the 106th archbishop of Canterbury by autumn – a year after Mr Welby announced he was standing down.
Times
6 days ago
- Times
Justin Welby says damning report that led to his downfall was flawed
Parts of the damning report that led to his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury were 'wrong', the Right Rev Justin Welby has said, claiming its author did not see evidence of police telling the church not to 'interfere' with investigations into a child abuser. The former archbishop also said he had been seeing a psychotherapist who helped him to understand that resigning was still the right thing to do, as he had to 'take responsibility' for church failures. Welby moved out of Lambeth Palace in May, five months after resigning as Archbishop of Canterbury in January. He appeared at the Cambridge Union and was asked about the report compiled by Keith Makin, a social services director, into the church's handling of abuse allegations against John Smyth, the late barrister who beat scores of boys.
