Monday, November 23, 2009

Biofuel power for Bristol would very seriously detract from 'green capital' ambition

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Biofuels Scandal: The Hidden Cost of the Biofuels Stations proposed for Bristol and for sites across Britain. Public Meeting organized by Zenith Milner, Environmentalist, Thursday 3rd December, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, The 3rd Floor, Bush House, Arnolfini, 72 Prince St.,Bristol, BS1 4QD

Heavy government subsidies, to the tune of tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, are all that are making power stations using virgin plant oil viable. But the truth shocking is that, instead of reducing the gases that cause climate change, these biofuels stations actually increase them. Also, they cause local air pollution, causing respiratory and heart diseases and they bring about rainforest destruction on a massive scale.

The ravenous need for crops, such as palm, to create the oil required for these stations, often results in violent evictions of indigenous peoples and peasant farmers who receive no compensation, and have nowhere else to go. With them, thousands of species are threatened with extinction, including the orang utan, and Sumatran tigers and elephants.

In a world where one in six people are in hunger, ie one billion, industrial scale biofuels, which mean that more and more land is used for fuel, rather than for food, are condemned as a "crime against humanity" by Jean Zeigler, UN. But a number of these stations are planned around the country including Avonmouth, Bristol [despite its 'green capital' ambition - Ed] with minimal or no public consultation.

You are invited to come and voice your views on whether we should build biofuels power stations in this country. We hope to have representatives from Southall, Portland and Newport campaigns on biofuel power station applications with us.

Come along and bring friends and colleagues with you and let others know about it - lets get those councillors and MPs can candidates for such posts attending. Write to them and invite them – they may send a representative if unavailable themselves as has already happened.

Copenhagen Climate Summit and Cumbria...

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Excellent guide to and commentary on the soon to be held Copenhagen Climate Summit here produced by Greenpeace. It shows that the current draft treaty has no agreement on the key issues: the level and timings of carbon emissions cuts; financing of measures to adapt to climate change, transfer clean technologies around the globe, help poorer countries cut emissions and protect their forests. It also shows that there is as yet no agreement on how best to protect forests, whose destruction causes between a fifth and a quarter of all climate change.

In short, all the hard issues and real problems are currently being ducked!! See this very useful Greenpeace guide to where various world leaders (so called!) are letting us down, here - this is a snippett of what it says about our PM Gordon Brown:
...He’s failed to embrace renewable energy and quit coal putting him at odds with his own advisors on climate change. And because of wrangling over finance with the rest of the EU, the UK hasn’t been able to offer more than words to developing nations.

Gordon - have you truly seen the flooding in Cumbria and the other very serious flooding events in recent yrs or have you merely looked at them? This from the BBC website:

Five million people in England and Wales are now at risk from flooding every year,

Two million homes have been built in the natural floodplain of rivers or the coast and are vulnerable to flooding,

Scientists predict that climate change may lead to more frequent flooding in the future,

Property, land and assets to the value of £214 billion are at risk of flooding in England and Wales,

Since 1998, 28 people have died as a direct result of flooding, including children. Thousands have suffered shock, trauma and devastating damage to their homes and possessions,

Many families have still not moved back into their homes following the 2000 floods,

Six inches of fast flowing water will knock you off your feet; four inches of water will ruin your carpet, and two feet of water will float your car.
See details of the Foresight Future Flooding report, by Sir David King and 60 top scientists, here.