On 12 February, Rob Hopkinsm the “co-parent of the Transition Town movement”, spoke in Machynlleth about peak oil and climate change.
Although climate change gets press attention, if not meaningful political action, it's peak oil that will hit us soonest.
The age of plentiful oil and cheap transport is drawing to a close. Implications for our communities are enormous, especially with respect to food supply dependent on road haulage.
Rob noted that (west) “Wales is a…
On 25 February, the ten East Midlands activists who shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station in early 2007 were found guilty by Nottingham magistrates court, and fined. (See PN2494.)
The defendants had been allowed to enter a “defence of necessity”, arguing that their action was lawful because of the perilous circumstances caused by CO2 emissions.
The judge said that shutting down a power station was “a step too far”, and that “necessity can easily become simply a…
East Midlands climate change activists who managed to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant for several hours in early 2007 won two significant legal victories in a Nottingham court in January.
In a trial which began at the magistrate's court on 14 January, the 11 activists (some defending themselves) were allowed to put forward an unprecedented legal defence, and to call as a defence witness an earth systems scientist who said the defendants' taking action attempting to make large…
"Sitting on my sleeping mat, nestling a cup of tea, dry and cosy in waterproofs and thermals, I erupted into giggles as my friend passed me a biscuit. What was so funny? It sounds like your average camping trip. Except that we were perched on top of a Komatsu 3000, one of the seven-metre-high, 250-tonne diggers being used to open-cast mine 10.8 million tonnes of coal at Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil."
This snippet of Cath's account comes from the 5 December 2007 occupation of Ffos-y-…
Why do we need another book on climate change? According to George Marshall, because climate change is “the greatest moral challenge we have ever faced” but is generally presented in a way which is “baffling, boring, and irrelevant” (oh, and we're all in denial about it anyway).
He aims - by presenting only the bare scientific facts, and concentrating on the essential issue of how to come to terms with the problem we face and reduce our personal emissions - to give us a book which…
On 12 January Plane Stupid activists staged an innovative “reclaim the ice” protest on the British Airways-sponsored rink at the Natural History Museum in London.
Around 30 protestors donned penguin outfits and wielded “BA Fly, penguins die” placards. After 20 minutes, the protestors were forcibly removed by BA security.
“Spokespenguin” Tamsin said: “We love ice too, but the ice in our own home is melting as a result of global warming.
“BA is a major lobbyist for the…
The Natural History Museum's decision to accept the giant oil company Shell as a sponsor for the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition caused outrage recently, not least from the environmental campaigning group Rising Tide.
The NHM justified its position by claiming that Shell is taking steps to change its ways and address environmental issues.
Truth after liesWhen the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition came to Wales, it was hosted by Aberystwyth Arts…
The Camp for Climate Action at Heathrow has been hailed, rightly, as one of the most important protests of our time.
Climate change is not simply one of the greatest threats facing future generations of humanity, it is one of the greatest threats facing the people of the Global South, whose homes and livelihoods are being destroyed today - as a consequence of the power and greed of Western corporations and states, and the apathy and irresponsibility of Western consumers.
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There was a lot of good news to do with the Climate Camp, including the fact that BAA tried to get an injunction which could have applied to five million people anywhere near Heathrow, and instead got an order against three individuals - who were legally entitled to go to Climate Camp because it was outside the area described in the order!
On 5 August, 26 detainees escaped from Campsfield detention centre near Oxford. (At the time of going to press, 10 have still not been captured.) It…The fundamental premise of this surprisingly gripping book is that “individuals rather than governments or companies are going to be the driving force behind reductions in greenhouse gases.”
Annual UK CO2 emissions amount to 12.5 tonnes per person, roughly half of which is generated by individuals running their houses, cars and taking transport. The other half is generated by activities such as agriculture, industry, and transporting goods. By a closely examining the emissions…
What happens when the earth's climate warms by several degrees? Mark Lynas's latest book discusses changes predicted at various levels of global warming. By assigning each of the six chapters to degree of warming, Lynas illustrates the range of scenarios from one degree to six degrees. Some ideas presented will be familiar (rising ocean levels, crop failures, violent storms), but many more will come as a shock (more rainfall predicted for the Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest easily…
Climate change is a danger to the whole human race (and a lot of other species), and is caused by greenhouse gases. One way we can cut down on the amount of greenhouse gases that we create is by stopping eating meat. Did you know a kilo of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car for 250km! It's partly the gases given off by the cow (mostly burping), but mostly all the energy used to produce and then transport the artificial food for the cows. (Cows and similar animals pro-…
In February, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (the Western Islands Council) approved plans for a giant “wind factory” with 181 super-size 140meter-high turbines on the north west of the Isle of Lewis.
With another planned 57 turbines on the island, this would mean a 40-mile stretch of wind turbines across the island, making it the largest wind farm in Europe.
The top-left-hand corner of the British Isles might seem like an ideal spot in which to tuck away such a wind farm. But for…
