Coal PR Disaster Pt 2: It’s funny that people have to live next to open cast mines
McCloskey’s Coal UK, the magazine of the UK Coal industry, is a great source of information for those of you who might be interested in opposing new coal in the UK. It also appears to be entirely free of the usual sheen of PR that covers the coal industry’s climate-disaster trade.
This issue they kindly provide a write-up of the recent protest at the Coal Authority AGM at the Cardiff Hilton, apparently submitted by someone attending the day. The article contains a lot of rather boring self-congratulation, some quips about “nice middle class greens” and some rather wishful thinking on the part of Coal Authority Chair Helen Mounsey, who,
…spoke several times but was clearly proudest when talking of the CA’s achievements on the environmental front…
But, oh no!
As she talked, up popped the usual half dozen greens, fitting all the stereotypes; from the besuited precocious little lad who’d probably make a decent fist of being a spokesperson if he didn’t look so pleased with himself to the intellectual looking female and her puppy dog admirer and the vaguely earnest looking older guy – a Mr Sven Gali Coal UK believes.
Intellectual looking? Ouch!
So far, so mundane. Seeing as we’re into stereotype land, the irony of words like ‘nice middle class greens’ coming from what looked like to us like a bunch of well-paid fat old men (accompanied by their youthful female secretaries) is apparently lost on McClosky’s. Anyway…
As the piece continues:
Shortly after they were thrown out but they had achieved their objective, which wasn’t to win any arguments but to gain more publicity. Forget the issues, for these people any new member of the public conned into making a donation by the news coverage of their antics is a victory.
As ever, us poor, misguided little greenies have no interest in debate. An interesting observation from the same people who used their Hilton-employed heavies to eject anyone who disagreed with them – and from what was officially billed as a public meeting. But since they’re so interested in open debate, perhaps we’ll be on the guest list next time?
The best (or perhaps worst) bit, however, is surely this paragraph, which practically drips with contempt:
To support them, they had a little Irish lady with them, to give an emotional speech about how the mine is affecting her living standards. It was delivered in a truly heart-wrenching and plaintive voice and may even have influenced some of those in the audience. However, when Poyner spoke later, after the protestors had been booted out, he showed an aerial photo of the estates close to the mine, to general laughter pointing out the lady’s house somewhere in the middle of all the others.
A room full of coal execs sit around laughing about the fact that someone has to live next to an open cast mine - or maybe just that someone lives on a housing estate. Nice.
The coal industry has generally been keen to present a friendly and caring face to the people and politicians of the communities it destroys. We can only assume that this rather ‘off-message’ outburst in the main industry journal is because they’re angry about people spoiling their party, and the reason they’re angry is that they are feeling threatened. At the end of the piece they note:
This, of course, reflects the general fuss that is being made in South Wales about the proposed imposition of a rule disallowing mining within 500-metres of dwellings. Lawrence showed a slide demonstrating that over 70% of current Welsh surface-mineable reserves will be outlawed by the new rule and, to a man, the industry pointed out to officials attending that the new rule will damage mining beyond repair.
In other words, the objection is not to the 500-metre limit in itself, but to the fact that this limit would prevent the vast majority of opencast coal mining in South Wales. 70% of such mining is only possible because the industry is able to ignore the minimal standards that prevent coal mines irreparably damaging the communities in which they operate. But are they going to let that stop them? If the prospect of locking the world into ecological and human catastrophe isn’t a deterrence, perhaps not.
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