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The new coal age
George Monbiot, Guardian
The government says it wants a low-carbon economy. Yet on a green hilltop in south Wales, despite huge opposition from locals, diggers have begun excavating what will be the largest opencast coal mine in Britain.
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As I watched the machine scraping away the first buckets of soil, one thought kept clanging through my head: “If this is allowed to happen, we might as well give up now.” It didn’t look like much: just a yellow digger and a couple of trucks taking the earth away. But in a secure compound behind me were the heaviest beasts I have ever seen – 1,300 horsepower or more – lined up and ready to start digging one of the largest opencast coal mines in Europe. In Romania perhaps? The Czech Republic? No, on a hilltop in south Wales.
The diggers at Ffos-y-fran, on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, are set to excavate 1,000 acres of land to a depth of 600ft. There has never been a hole quite like it in Britain, and our government’s climate change policies are about to fall into it.
Everything about this scheme is odd. The edge of the site is just 36 metres from the nearest homes, yet there will be no compensation for the owners, and their concerns have been dismissed by the authorities. Though local people have fought the plan, their council, the Welsh government and the Westminster government have collaborated with the developers to force it through, using questionable methods. I have found evidence that suggests to me that a member of Tony Blair’s government used false or outdated information to seek to persuade the Welsh administration to approve the pit. But perhaps the most remarkable fact is this: outside Merthyr Tydfil, hardly anyone knows it is happening.
It looks as if we are about to re-enter the coal age.
(9 October 2007)
Britain is second biggest consumer in the world
Angela Balakrishnan, The Guardian
Britain ranks behind only the United States as the world’s biggest consumer of natural materials and goods, according to a new report.
Despite an increasing political focus on tackling climate change and greener living, the UK is rated joint second in the table with France, a leading thinktank, the New Economics Foundation (NEF), says.
It has calculated that if everyone in the world wanted to live like people in the UK, three more planets like Earth would be needed to sustain the current population. Consumption rates in the US would require five more Earths.
…Figures show that the UK is rife with ecologically wasteful international trade. Last year alone, Britain imported 14,000 tonnes of chocolate-covered waffles from all its trading partners and exported 15,000 tonnes. The UK exported 20 tonnes of mineral water to Australia, only to bring back 21 tonnes.
Andrew Simms, lead author of the report and NEF policy director, said: “Despite rising fuel prices and fears about climate change, international trade makes up a growing share of the UK’s income.”
(6 October 2007)
Greenpeace protesters take over power plant in Kent
Alison Benjamin, Guardian
Environmental campaigners today claimed to have taken over a power station in Kent in a protest designed to stop the prime minister, Gordon Brown, from approving the UK’s first new coal plant in more than 30 years.
Just after 5am this morning, 50 Greenpeace volunteers entered Kingsnorth coal-fired power station. One group immobilised the conveyor belts carrying coal into the plant and chained themselves to the machinery. A second group with enough provisions to last for several days, began scaling a 200m ladder up the chimney which they painted with the words “Gordon Bin It”.
Robin Oakley, a senior energy campaigner at Greenpeace, said the protest posed no risk to the energy supply.
“Taking one power station off the national grid will not lead to a blackout,” he stressed. “There is plenty of spare supply in the system.”
The protestors are hoping to keep closed the fifth biggest polluter in the UK – which produces 20,000 tonnes of CO2 a day – for as long as possible, in order to draw attention to Gordon Brown’s refusal to veto plans to build a new coal plant on the site.
(8 October 2007)
Related: Why I’ve been chained to a conveyor belt today
Climate change protesters block airport entrance
Roxanne Escobales, Guardian Unlimited
Climate change protesters blocked a passenger entrance to a terminal at Manchester Airport today.
Members of the anti-air travel group, Plane Stupid, locked themselves together to form a human chain in front of the security gates at Terminal 3 for three hours this morning.
A Greater Manchester spokesman confirmed officers were called to the airport just after 7.30am.
A spokesman said: “Officers arrived at the entrance to the departures lounge, where up to 12 protesters were preventing passengers from getting through.”
(8 October 2007)
