Car companies misleading regulators and consumers about diesel emissions, the murder of Indigenous land defenders, ivory poaching and organised crime – this month’s miniseries on climate crime takes listeners around the world to explore different green crimes and ask what’s the psychology driving these criminals? And perhaps, more importantly, what can we do to stop them?
To take us on this journey is Dr Julia Shaw: a criminal psychologist at University College London, regular podcast and TV host, TED and TEDxLondon Speaker, and the author of the new book, Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet and How to Stop Them. Within the miniseries and the book, Julia introduces us to the unsung heroes across the world that are fighting green crime and their unique perspectives on the cases, people we like to call “Capable Guardians”.
Climate Curious on Crime
Before we share any more about green crime and the miniseries, let’s get Julia’s definition on what it is:
“Green crime is another term for environmental crime. It is when you extract or take something out of nature or pollute – so put something into nature – that you’re not supposed to, and it’s breaking a law.”
As Julia puts in in our Climate quickie, ‘What is green crime?’, green crime isn’t just bad behaviour by individuals or organisations across the world, it’s breaking local or international laws that aim to protect our environment and nature.
As a criminal psychologist, Julia is fascinated by the why people do bad things and with green crime, she was particularly interested in why people do bad things to the environment that also will affect them in the long term. It’s these insights into the psychology of criminals committing green crimes that the miniseries brings to the forefront. Below we give a taster on each green crime case and why people committed them.
Dieselgate and the psychology of corporate green con men
“Back in September 2015, the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency found that many Volkswagen cars were being sold in America with a defeat device or software in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, therefore changing the performance to improve the results. The German car giant has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US. But 10 years on, what really happened? Do the conditions that enabled this green crime to exist still exist?”
Episode one kicks off with Dieselgate – a huge case of environmental crime by Volkswagen where they misled consumers about the emissions of their diesel engines. Often seen as just a big case of consumer fraud, Volkswagen actually committed environmental crimes by lying about their emissions and advertising their cars as better for the environment, purposefully targeting environmentally conscious buyers.
As Julia put it in the episode, the staff involved “are diesel emissions scientists…these are literally the people who know everything about this and know that this is a super pollutant that has consequences for asthma, that it’s life shortening.” Not only were they lying to consumers, they were causing air pollution and damaging human health. It was only thanks to whistleblowers and regulators like Alberto Ayala, the deputy executive director of the California Air Resources Board, that they were caught and stopped.
Listen to episode one to learn more about the Dieselgate case and the psychology behind these corporate green crimes.
The murders of Maria and Zé Cláudio and the psychology of eco-hitmen
“If we rewind back to May 2011 in one of the Earth’s last ancient forests, two Amazonian rainforest environmental defenders, Maria and Zé Cláudio are murdered in broad daylight, just months after Zé does a TEDxAmazonia talk where he says that this will happen. His ear is cut off as proof, and the police quickly find the killers. But who hired them?
You’d think in such a vast and dense geography as a rainforest, it would be impossible to solve such a crime. But in reality, there were so many suspects and law enforcement didn’t quite know where to start… Even though the murderers went to prison for the murders of Maria and Zé, the bosses didn’t. And the fights on the front lines of the Amazon still continue.”
Episode two is the shocking story of Maria and Zé Cláudio who were murdered over land rights conflict in the Amazon. Maria and Zé Cláudio were environmental defenders and nut gatherers based in Pará, a remote region in the Amazon in Brazil. In their community they worked tirelessly to protect the land rights of local, Indigenous groups and individuals, helping protect the land they had long been living on.
When Julia spoke to environmental and human rights lawyer, Paulo Busse, she discovered the reality that environmental defenders around the world are often murdered and police and criminal justice systems aren’t taking these murders seriously. As Julia summarises: “Brazil is one of the highest in terms of the murder rate of environmental defenders and overall, globally, we’re looking at thousands of people being murdered in these kinds of contexts.”
Listen to episode two to discover more about Maria and Zé Cláudio’s story, the psychology behind how these eco-hitmen operate, who their bosses are, and how they were captured and brought to justice.
The Shuidong Syndicate case and the psychology of wildlife trafficking
“This story offers… a glimpse into the heart of one of the largest ivory trafficking groups ever: the Shuidong Syndicate syndicate. Beginning and ending in China with three little boys Xie, Ou and Wong and their uncles in Shuidong, a town that the Syndicate claims is a destination for up to 80% of all poached ivory entering China from Africa. Well, fast forward to 2012 in Tanzania Xie, Ou and Wong are no longer little boys, but ivory kingpins running an illegal smuggling business they have inherited from their uncles.
Little did they know that their next step moving to Mozambique would see their operation all come tumbling down. This move got the antenna of the Environmental Investigation Agency twitching… who then started working undercover to expose one of the biggest poaching syndicates in the world and their illegal ivory trafficking practices.”
Episode three delves into poaching and wildlife trafficking by following the story of the Shuidong Syndicate and how environmental agents managed to bring this group to justice. You quite rightly might think poaching like this is horrible in itself, but the ecological damage it unleashes is also dreadful. Julia discovered elephants and other ‘charismatic megafauna’ are very important ecosystem engineers; helping to disperse seeds, mow down trees and create little lakes. This is why environmental groups work so tirelessly to protect these animals – like Ceres Kam, a senior wildlife campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency – who helped Julia better understand the psychology behind why people poach animals and what the buyers are after.
Listen to the episode three to discover how the Shuidong Syndicate case was brought to justice and the psychology behind wildlife trafficking from those hunting the animals to those buying the product.
The six pillars of green crime
In Ep.4 Meet the capable guardians fighting green crime, Julia outlines her ‘six pillars of green crime’. Inspired by criminology, these are motivating factors that Julia saw again and again across these cases: ease, impunity, greed, rationalisation, conformity, and desperation. These psychological insights are what Julia felt we needed to understand to then tackle the individuals actually doing the crimes:
“So the six pillars of green crime are ease, impunity, which is either actual impunity – you’re getting away with things – or perceived impunity.
There’s greed, which is the one that everyone jumps to.
There’s rationalisation, which is, ‘oh, I’m not really that bad’, or some sort of excuse that you make for yourself often that you might believe.
Then there’s conformity, which is that everyone else is doing it too, and so it doesn’t really matter.
And then there’s the last one, which is desperation.”
Then there’s conformity, which is that everyone else is doing it too, and so it doesn’t really matter.
For instance, when we look at Dieselgate, Julia noted she saw conformity and rationalisation play a key role. Individuals felt like everyone else was doing it around them and so there was pressure to conform. Similarly, a lot of the testimonies centred around staff members trying to rationalise their behaviour, with phrases like ‘it’s not so bad, we’re just one car manufacturer,” and“I’m gonna lose my job if I don’t do this.’ Greed obviously plays a role with corporate green crimes, but Julia shows there are many psychological processes happening too.
Impunity and ease played a clear role in episode two where we examine the psychology of eco-hitmen. Julia noted there was a sense that individuals could get away with the crime easily, because there was a real lack of consequences. When considering ease, Julia zooms out to ask bigger questions.
“The bigger question is in terms of things like ease, for example. Why do people think that it’s easier to murder an environmental defender than to have cattle elsewhere? Or to not have cattle and have a different kind of business?”
Ep.2 The murders of Maria and Zé Cláudio and the psychology of eco-hitmen
Finally, if we look at the Shuidong Syndicate case, Julia, Ben and Maryam spent a long time considering the motivations of the actual poachers in the local areas and a big motivating factor for them was desperation.
“Who’s doing this [the poaching] is incredibly poor people in small towns, in the middle of nowhere, or near other natural spaces who are often basically destitute or are just making ends meet.”
Ep.3 The Shuidong Syndicate case and the psychology of wildlife trafficking
It’s unsurprising, then, when the middlemen of the organised crime group offer money for hunting an elephant or similar that it’s so attractive – it may be one of the only ways to increase your income to send your child to school, cover healthcare etc. If you explore the motivations of individuals higher up in organised crime groups, you then get different motivating factors. Julia shared some research into crime bosses in prison where they found that they rationalised their actions by seeing themselves as job creators:
“There was one study in particular that actually interviewed these people [crime bosses] who were on the ground paying for poachers, and they asked them, how do you feel about the fact that you created these poaching industries? And they said, well, we’re creating jobs, like we’re good people… we’re the good guys.”
Ep.3 The Shuidong Syndicate case and the psychology of wildlife trafficking
So part of solving green crime? It’s understanding and tackling the psychology of the individuals doing it, declares Julia. Her hope is that scientists, criminal psychologists and other social scientists can work more closely together to help tackle these crimes and also importantly to support the work of the incredible individuals that are already succeeding in stopping green crime in its tracks.
We hope you loved this mini series as much as we did! Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet and How to Stop Them is out now and you can buy it wherever you buy books. Be sure to share this series with your friends who love true crime or the environment. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with any future insights and success stories from Julia and the other folks working tirelessly to protect people and planet. Stay Curious!
