Keep
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Keep it in the ground!
28th May 2008
An opportunity to visit the beautiful Derbyshire countryside is not one to be missed, especially when part of that countryside is about to be ravaged in the increasingly desperate quest to seek fuel sources to sustain our consumerist-driven lifestyle.
So when I received an invitation to take part in a walkabout of a site about to be transformed into yet another ugly open-cast coal mine by UK Coal, well, how could I refuse?
Which is how I came to find myself at the Visitors Centre of the Shipley Country Park (adjoining UK Coal's Lodge House site), announced as the meeting-point for the walkabout and "Picnic in the Park".
As this is very much a local issue (albeit tying in with open-cast
mine projects elsewhere, which I'll mention later), and with the unseasonably
changeable weather (nothing to do with climate change of course!)
turning quite overcast and threatening rain at any moment, there was
some concern that very few people, if indeed any, would actually turn
up.
But, in drifts and drabs, they did. From all parts of the country,
most (like myself) having travelled many miles. Amazing! (And an indication
perhaps of how widespread is the concern over the continued use of
fossil fuels.)
The police, clearly fearing a serious breach of public order and safety
in this area far removed from any significantly large population,
had decided to monitor the event, so there was also present some sort
of intelligence-gathering unit videoing all the arrivals.
In fairness to the police though, they maintained quite a low profile
(I only ever managed to count four cops at any one time) and, apart
from one minor incident, they were quite well-behaved.
Eventually, in a party of about 50 or so, we all set off... on what
proved to be a rather long trek.
First, given that few of us seemed to know the precise route to our
intended destination, we had to negotiate our way out of the Country
Park. But it proved to be a fairly straightforward route ("follow
this path to the end, turn right, and keep going till you reach
the fence") and we finally reached the perimeter of the site, which
was fenced in by a very simple post and wire affair, interrupted by
a large gap clearly intended to allow visitors easy access.
Of which, in the absence of any "Keep Off" or "Private Property" signs,
we availed ourselves.
The site covers some 122 hectares, and appears to comprise fields,
hedgerows, and some empty/abandoned/derelict dwellings (at least one
in a significant, and sad, state of disrepair).
Apparently UK Coal announced their intention to develop this open-cast
mine some five years ago, and was fairly rapidly met with opposition
from the local population.
A number of different campaigning groups gradually coalesced and sought
to oppose the project through all the conventional "democratic" channels,
but were ultimately defeated by a decision on the part of the Secretary
of State in 2007 giving the go-ahead for the project (yet another
example of local concerns being over-ridden by central government
maybe?).
Objections to the site embraced a number of different issues, one of which was the site's anticipated "lifespan". Apparently UK Coal had said the site would remain as an open-cast mine for approximately 4.5/5 years, whereas local residents, fearing that the yield would prove to be far larger than official figures (seemingly about one million tonnes), were deeply worried that the site's lifespan could well extend to 27+ years.
Moreover if, as some locals fear, the yield is indeed larger than was originally announced, UK Coal could easily extend the size of the existing site to almost three times its present size, as apparently they also own adjoining land.
One of the obvious questions that needed to be asked (as indeed I did) was about the nature of the local infrastructure to support such a project. How, for example, was the yield to be transported? Were the existing roads adequate to provide access for heavy lorries, plant, etc? And were UK Coal offering/intending to foot the bill for the construction of new and dedicated access routes (road, rail, etc)?
Apparently not.
Read the full article here
There's a BBC report of the event here, and here's another account.
This is UK Coal's own comment on the project.
Of course, Lodge House isn't the only site in the UK where open-cast coal mines are proposed. For information on other sites and indeed updates regarding this one check out www.leaveitintheground.org.uk.
There are also some even more worrying ramifications to the development of open-cast mines worldwide. See Phulbari Resistance.
The full Lodge House photoset can be found here!
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All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world
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Historically that information has been costly - in terms of human
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Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to stronger scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency can provide. Wikileaks provides a forum for the entire global community to relentlessly examine any document for its credibility, plausibility, veracity and validity. Communities can interpret leaked documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document comes from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community and diaspora can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document arrives from Iran, the entire Farsi community can analyze it and put it in context. A sample analysis is available here.
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We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government. That is why the time has come for an anonymous global avenue for disseminating documents the public should see."
Cops Capture Campers!
10th March 2008
Climate Change is an issue that's affecting us all
(whether we acknowledge it or not) and one about which we should all,
rightly, be concerned.
Increasingly we are seeing the effects of climate change impacting
peoples' lives all over the world and, unless something dramatic is
done, this situation will only get worse. Nor is this something that
we can afford to simply put on the back burner for future generations
to deal with...
...The measures that government and the corporate world are introducing, or have planned to introduce, are neither enough or go far enough (or even quickly enough), and in some cases may actually be counter-productive by creating worse problems than they're intended to solve (one classic example being the development of "biofuels"). There is also a very real concern that climate change issues are simply being used as another angle to generate yet more massive profits for "big business" (and by the political parties purely to gain popular support) with little genuine interest in what's really at stake.
In reality our current lifestyle, certainly in the "developed world",
is likely to prove unsustainable and we shall all be forced into a
far-reaching reappraisal.
Of course, this is not a "popular" message for politicians to have
to convey, nor is there much prospect in it of endlessly increasing
profits for the commercial world. A return to a simpler, more sustainable
and less energy-intensive lifestyle would almost certainly impact
the world economy in an unprecedented manner and therefore, for the
"movers and shakers", is a message to be avoided at any cost.
So it may prove that the initiative for real change will have to come
from the grassroots level, with the ordinary general public driving
forward demands to tackle climate change as a matter of extreme urgency.
And indeed this is already happening with initiatives such as the Camp for Climate Action (aka Climate Camp).
Climate Camp is an event organised by ordinary people at an extreme grassroots level that has occurred for the past two years and provides a space (for about a week or so) where people can come together and experience sustainable living for themselves, learning more about the issues involved, skill-sharing, and participating in activities that help to increase awareness amongst the population at large of the issues surrounding climate change.
In 2006 the first Climate Camp was located near Drax in Yorkshire, the largest coal-fired power station in the UK. 2007, and Climate Camp was to be found near Heathrow, where there are plans afoot to ravage an entire swathe of countryside and displace local communities to expand the runways, opening the way for ever more pollution-producing flights.
And its just been announced (last Monday, 3rd March) that this year's Climate Camp will be at Kingsnorth in Kent, site of a proposed new coal-fired power station.
The Climate Camp itself (finding the space and creating the infrastructure of a large campsite to support hundreds of "Campers" for just over a week or so) is a tremendous undertaking in terms of planning, organisation, and actually "making it happen"... given that its an entirely volunteer effort with no corporate or institutional support. The entire event relies exclusively on ordinary people from vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints working together over a considerable period. The fact that it happens at all is little short of a miracle, and a huge testament to what is achievable when folk put their minds to it.
The first Camp saw 600+ people converging on a field in Yorkshire, the second witnessed well over double that number at a campsite established near Heathrow airport.
A significant amount of planning and prior preparation (and indeed the continual need to find "accords" and "compromises" that must inevitably occur when large numbers of people, each with their own particular viewpoint and way of doing things, come together to achieve a common objective within a non-hierarchical framework) obviously occur in the months leading up to the Camp itself.
Weekend-long meetings (or "gatherings" to use the terminology of the Campers) are hosted at different venues throughout the country, from as far afield as Scotland to the South of England, on a monthly cycle where everyone's welcome to attend and participate in the process of making the Camp happen. And of course all the relevant details of these gatherings (time, date, venue etc) are published beforehand.
The first one I managed to attend this year was at the SUMAC centre in Nottingham which, coincidentally, was the gathering at which the Kingsnorth location for the Camp proved to be the concensus.
However, for me something of a sour note crept into this most recent gathering in the shape of the presence of a police surveillance team! I can't speak of the previous gatherings this year, but certainly I'd not noticed such a presence at any of the gatherings of the past two years (of which I attended quite a few), and I find this escalation of police monitoring of public assemblies to be quite disturbing in its implications.
Read the full article here
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