The Bureau of Environmental Security website and YouTube channel aims to inform, educate, and provoke discussion of climate, biodiversity, and clean energy. The project is inspired by a series of science fiction novels. The project extends the world of the novels while highlight positive progress on environmental problems.
The Bureau of Environmental Security is a project that explores climate change, clean energy, biodiversity, and conservation issues facing the planet. BES is inspired by a series of science fiction novels authored by J.G. Follansbee, who also manages the website and a companion YouTube channel with the same name.
Titled Tales from a Warming Planet, the novels explore how humans adapt to a changing climate over the next few centuries. Click the links below to visit pages for each story.
In the novels, the Bureau of Environmental Security enforces environmental protection and conservation laws. Think of an international agency mashup of the CIA, the EPA, and the FBI, all focused on the environment.
The Mission of the BES in the Real World
Today, in the 2020s, the BES aims to inform, educate, and sometimes provoke discussion about the state of Earth’s biosphere and the role played by its human inhabitants. However, unlike other environmental information projects, the BES prefers to focus on what’s working to fix our chronic environmental issues.
For example, the YouTube video series Bending the Curve highlights environmental successes, achievements, and results that mean positive progress on the environment. Bending the Curve is a direct response to mainstream media’s tendency to reinforce “doom and gloom” by constant (and often necessary) reporting on environmental failures. The world is making progress toward a clean energy future, for example, but this gets lost in the day-to-day reporting of climate-influenced natural disasters, political dysfunction, and performative grandstanding by some elements of the environmental movement.
Though we avoid blind optimism, we accept the science of climate change, while embracing “good news” about humanity’s evolving relationship with its home world.
(Below is an imagined “About page” for the BES in a not-to-distant future.)
About BES: Environmental Law Enforcement and Protection
The Bureau of Environmental Security (BES) is a supra-national government agency tasked with enforcing international environmental law, especially with regard to the climate emergency. National governments created the agency after signing the Treaty of Port Vila in Vanuatu, a nation threatened by rising sea levels caused by the Warming.
What is the history of the BES?
At the time of the signing, the planet had experienced several years of extreme weather events and an unexpected methane rise collectively called “The Spike”. The number of lives lost and the value of property destroyed has never been fully accounted. Despite the universal global support of the 2016 Paris Agreement, the treaty had failed to limit climate change.
The Port Vila Treaty spelled out global prohibitions on certain energy sources and power technologies. Signatories determined that national governments and international enforcement protocols were inadequate to meet the challenge. The Bureau was empowered to accomplish environmental protection and conservation that would ensure the survival of future generations.
All 193 United Nations member states signed the Treaty. The two non-member observer states endorsed the Treaty in separate letters.
What is the BES’s legal authority?
Title I, Section 4, of the Treaty states, “The parties agree to creation of an agency which shall have the authority to investigate, review, recommend, and enforce relevant regulations, statutes and treaty provisions related to land, water, and air ecosystems, wildlife, landscapes, and atmospheric protection, especially as it pertains to the global climate emergency, in order to support human communities while avoiding and preventing the detrimental effects of their activities.”
Section 7 enumerates agency authority to overrule national sovereignty in cases where the evidence shows how national borders prevent action or contribute to inaction.
How does the BES operate?
BES operates as a virtual organization, although its leadership works in Washington, DC, and it has a number of physical branch offices in key bio-regions. Shortly after its charter was accepted, the agency adopted a stylized tulip as its logo, partly to honor the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which provided support and early funding to stand up BES operations. Leadership also adopted the motto “Terra supra omnia,” Latin for “Earth over all”.
The BES has a current operating budget of USD$205 million, which is determined annually by a committee of the Board of Governors. The agency receives its funds from Treaty signatories, with contributions calculated using a sliding-scale formula based on each nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the previous year. This ensures that contributions are spread evenly across economies, with richer countries paying proportionally more than struggling countries.
BES investigations cover these types of environmental crimes and unpermitted activities under the Port Vila Treaty and Annexes, often called the Carbon Laws:
- Oil and gas drilling (land and offshore)
- Ocean acidification
- Fossil fuel subsidies
- Operating a petroleum-fueled engine
- Deforestation
- Draining wetlands
- Operating a private jet
- Operating an airport or road built post-Treaty
- Overuse of air travel
BES is developing a registry or “watch list” of countries, trans-national corporations, and individuals which may be in violation of the Carbon Laws. Reasons for inclusion will generally fall under failure to respect or enforce the provisions of the Port Vila Treaty.
Is the BES recruiting?
The Bureau is always recruiting for its investigative and legal teams. Individuals with military, law enforcement, and science backgrounds are encouraged to apply. The agency does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual preference, geographic origin, income level, or educational attainment, provided the applicant meets minimum standards.
Citizen Council of Advisors
The BES Board of Governors has created a Citizen Council of Advisors to advise the agency on policies and practices that further the BES mission of environmental law enforcement and protection. As the Council grows, we’ll add more names to the list below.
If you’d like to join our Council, send email to contact@bureauofenvironmentalsecurity.com.
BES compared to other agencies
| Agency | Authorizing Statute/Body | Headquarters | Governing Body | Targeted Crimes | Function |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Environmental Security (BES) | Port Vila Treaty and Annexes | Washington, DC | Board of Governors | Ecosystems, species | Enforcement arm of Envi-ronmental Crimes Tribunal |
| Int’l Criminal Police Org. (INTERPOL) | INTERPOL Constitution | Lyon, France | INTERPOL General Assembly | Counter-terrorism, organized crime, cybercrime | Coordinates and supports national police agencies |
| Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion (FBI) | US Law Code | Washington, DC | US Dept of Justice | Domestic federal criminal laws | Refers to US federal courts |
| AU Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL) | African Union | Algiers, Algeria | AFRIPOL General Assemby | Organized crime, terrorism, cybercrime, drug and human trafficking | Coordinates and supports national police agencies |
| EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation | European Union | The Hague, Netherlands | EU Council of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs | Organized crime, terrorism, cybercrime, drug and human trafficking | Coordinates and supports national police agencies |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was the Bureau given supra-national authority? Since the late 20th century, national governments and international organizations had tried to cooperate on the issue of climate change. However, these efforts failed, leading to worsening conditions. Humanity, through its representatives, felt a stronger, more aggressive approach was needed.
What about my individual rights under my country’s laws? You absolutely retain those rights, including property rights, although the Treaty allows the Bureau to work across national boundaries and apply other rights, such as a natural right for non-human creatures to enjoy a safe and healthy environment.
What happens if I’m accused of an environmental crime under the Treaty? The Treaty creates a body called the Environmental Crimes Tribunal, which hears cases brought by the Bureau’s prosecutors. All accused persons are afforded legal rights, including an assumption of innocence, before the Tribunal.
Contact
To contact the Bureau, email contact@bureauofenvironmentalsecurity.com.
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