Opencast Disaster

Opencast mining - big, bad and ugly.

While we’ve been getting excited about the protests against new coal that have been kicking off in the past few weeks, and getting ready for climate camp next month, it’s worth remembering that the coal industry continues to rumble on in the background - extracting, transporting and burning the most climate damaging of all the fossil fuels. Surely, we reckon, when you’re in a hole, you should just… stop digging?

There are 14 deep coal mines open in the UK at the moment, and 4 more planned. Deep coal mines are what you might traditionally think of when it comes to coal mining, but things have changed a bit these days. For the coal industry’s expansion plans, opencast is where it’s really at - there are 33 opencast mines in the UK at the moment, with 30 more in planning or development - a near doubling of mine sites.

Currently, 29% of the coal we use comes from the UK. While we’re generally in favour of local produce, we draw the line at coal. The Government, on the other hand,  would like to see that figure go up. They’ve said that they want to “maximise economic recovery… from remaining coal reserves” - which as far as we can work out means digging it up, making power companies rich by letting them burn it, and messing up our chances of having a safe climate in the future. Oh well!

Why is opencast poised for such a huge expansion? Simply, because it’s the cheapest way to extract coal from the ground. Using enormous mechanised machines, a small number of workers can rip apart the landscape and get to the coal, meaning no need for expensive underground tunnels and shafts. Unfortunately, this makes opencast amazingly destructive to the environment around the mine, as well as a climate disaster. It also means that new mines usually provide very few jobs.

The government approved 10 new open cast mines in 2006 - including Ffos-y-Fran and Lodge House in Derbyshire, the site of which is currently being occupied by some active citizens who are busy stopping work from starting on site. Between 2000 and 2004 the Government also provided £220 million in subsidy to coal mines, and that money isn’t going to dry up any time soon.

The good news is that people are increasingly joining the dots between local and global, mines and coal power stations, how we choose to get our power and what kind of planet we are going to have to live on in twenty years. After all, it’s not like there aren’t plenty of good alternatives to coal.

We know, Facebook is tacky

Like this canary, we’d like to be your friend. These days, that means facebook. We realise that facebook is:

a) often quite annoying
and b) probably funded by the CIA

Despite this, we like you so much that we’ve gone and created a facebook ‘experience’ for you. Go to our facebook page and ‘become a fan’ of us. This will be amazing for our egos, and more importantly it will also let us let you know when interesting stuff is happening - stuff like exciting protest opportunities, interesting stuff on the site, the collapse of the West Antarctic ice shelf, that kind of thing.

And while you’re busy integrating your digital life, why not sign up for our RSS feed as well? You lucky people.

Love,

- The coal hole geeks

Friday Links: Trains, rafts and cash

Flying in the face of scientists who said it was unlikely to happen for at least twenty years, we’ve captured the best of this week’s carbon internet for you , and stored it in this blog post. Read it quick - There is a reasonable chance that it will leak out and destroy the planet.

• No smoke without Ire - civil disobedience on coal is growing in the UK. Really good overview from the Guardian, plus a diary from the Drax coal protestor.
• The Great Rebel Raft Regatta - Take to the high seas at climate camp. Probably madness, possibly inspired.
• Getting in bed with industry - Greenpeace US go undercover to infiltrate a coal conference. Actually, they sponsor a coal conference. Madness.

Opencast camp continues

Too eager to wait for climate camp, some wonderful folks in Derbyshire have set up shop in the old farmhouse and trees at Lodge House, near Selby, to stop 70 acres of greenbelt land being turned into a huge coal hole…

No mine… yet.

Lodge House is owned by UK Coal, Britain’s largest coal company (it’s all in the name). They plan to extract 1 million tonnes of coal from the 122 hectare site despite objections form local councils, residents and environmental groups. The environment secretary Hilary Benn granted planning permission in 2007 and work is set to commence imminently.

This action is part of an ongoing summer of discontent against proposed plans for new coal power stations and mines in the UK. At Lodge House today, Andy Green said “We are here because the single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Coal fired generation is historically responsible for most of the CO2 in the air today – about half of all carbon dioxide emissions globally. Coal from opencast mines is dirtier than that from deep mines, so it is even worse!”

The protest is inviting people to go along and have a list of things they need. See the Leave It in The Ground Blog.

For some of the media coverage see The Guardian, and This is Derbyshire. This is Derbyshire!

Friday reading:
Where does our power originate?

Phew, what a week it’s been. From stopping coal trains to occupying a proposed opencast site it seems like the ’summer of discontent’ is here - coal protest is alive, well and kicking in the UK. And, if you’d like to back up action with a bit of theory, here’s some interesting reading from the states, where coal action is similarly alive, well, and shutting down the polluters.

For environmentalists and the small but growing percentage of Americans who have come to accept that the world as we know it is crashing down around us and who know that nothing serious is being done about it, the most rational response is to take to the streets. To continue our present strategy of downplaying climate change risk and making joint alliance with the chief architects of the massive ramp-up in global fossil fuel use is irrational.

Where Does Our Power Originate? - from Gristmill.

Have a good weekend.

Why going to climate camp is my ideal holiday

Camp for Climate Action 08:
3rd - 11th August, Kingsnorth, Kent

To the uninitiated, climate camp may sound a bit scary. For one thing, it involves camping, and for many people that evokes images of festivals. If you’ve ever seen the bleak post-apocalyptic scenes at the end of Glastonbury you might think the Camp for Climate Action 2008 - or just ‘climate camp’ - will be a waste strewn hole in the ground full of muddy, zoned out climate scientists, crying gently into their supercomputers.

Such were my worries, last year, as I approached the Heathrow camp. And certainly, it’s a slightly intimidating thing to be doing, walking past the massed policemen (it’s usually men…) with their cameras busily snapping your beautiful face. But as soon as I got to the edge of the site my worries started to drift away. “Welcome! Come in!” a friendly chap called as I stepped under the fence. “Have you got a neighbourhood?” I wandered over the the Welcome tent, where a girl called Fiona sorted me out with a tour of the site and some pretty nice food. From then on in it was a week of learning, sharing, building and debating. Everyone was working hard to give workshops, build kitchens, cook food, do the recycling… Having just come from a house where we struggle to do the dishes more than once a month it all felt pretty good.

So I’ve decided - climate camp is kind of like my ideal holiday. Even the preposterous numbers of police surrounding you only serves to create a nice feeling of solidarity with your fellow campers - and I suppose if you equate police levels with community safety, climate camp has to be about the safest place in Britain.

So this year, why not head down to Kent for the climate camp ‘08? Good food, good company and an opportunity to learn and put your learning to good use. It beats Glastonbury. (Well… maybe I’m just jealous ‘cos I haven’t got a ticket.)

Check out www.climatecamp.org.uk