You don’t have to have been indoctrinated by 8 years of Tomorrow’s World to realise that exciting scientists aren’t the norm. It’s worth remembering that scientists are basically just the kids in school who wanted to know how things worked, and climate scientists are no different. In fact, they’re the kids in school who wanted to know how the weather worked. (Or, possibly, they graduated and couldn’t get into investment banking).
It must be tough, being that kind of kid, to have ended up as a climate scientist. Because the thing we have to undersatand is that climate scientists are the most closely scrutinised groups of scientists to have ever lived – by the media, by politicians, by frightening activists like us. No wonder they usually keep themselves to themselves – conferences, peer review, the ivory towers of academia – it’s just a lot less scary than the world of ‘political reality’.
But for every rule, there’s an exception. In this case, the exception is James Hansen. The super-grandadio of climate science. So, while he does occasionally come out with some “sciencey” lines like this…
It is difficult to predict time of collapse in such a nonlinear problem … An ice sheet response time of centuries seems probable, and we cannot rule out large changes on decadal time-scales once wide-scale surface melt is underway.
… he’s also not afraid of stepping back and applying his scientific reasoning to society and politics and simply plain old-fashioned telling it as it is:
The people who are affected [by climate change] in the long-term: the young, the unborn and nature, do not have much voice in our decisions. That is what we have to change and I think young people are beginning to recognise the situation and we are going to see more and more actions to try to force the political systems to respond for the good of young people and future generations, but so far the fossil fuel industry has had more influence on our policies than our young people have.
And:
Coal, specifically prompt phase-out of coal emissions, is the one critical element in solution of the global warming problem, in preservation of a planet resembling the one on which civilization developed.
Oh and:
I think that scientists need to help connect the dots, because otherwise the dots are connected by special interests. The public doesn’t easily connect all the dots themselves, especially when public affairs offices at scientific agencies are controlled by political appointees.
Then there’s:
It’s becoming dire, because we have to start within the next few years on a track—on a different track. We have to realize that we have to get to energy sources beyond fossil fuels, and we need to do that sooner.
And finally, saving the best til last:
It seems to me that young people, especially, should be doing whatever is necessary to block construction of dirty (no CCS) coal-fired power plants.
So, on balance, I’ve decided that James can be my honourary grandad climate scientist. And if you’re doing stuff around coal and want backup from the pre-eminent climate scientist in the world, maybe drop a few Hansen quotes into your press releases, legal defence, of maybe just down the pub.
Remember – it’s cool to want to know how stuff works, but it’s even cooler to want to go out and tell everyone about it.
We found an interesting article in the Hexham Currant a while back, which showed how a proposed new mine in Northumberland – while causing years of blasting, noise, dust and general destruction – would feed a coal-fired power station for only 9 days.
That got us thinking.
So we rolled out our maths geek and set her to work using the Government’s energy figures, found in the “Digest of UK Energy Statistics” – or DUKEs for civil servants under 55 – which are few and far between!
And this is what she came back to us with…
[For those of you with an aversion to maths, you can skip down to the "headline conlusions" below the image]
1. Last year, the UK used 52.5 million tonnes of coal to make electricity (DUKEs, 2.7 cell M17).
2. That 52.5 million tonnes produced 129.4 terrawatt hours of electricity (DUKEs, 5.6 cell B261), a very large amount of energy! 129,400,000,000 kWh – like leaving your toaster on for 130,000 years, or leaving 130,000 toasters on for 1 year – whatever. Anyway, it’s a lot.
3. By dividing, the two figures, we see that every 1 TWh of electricity requires 406,000 tonnes of coal to be burnt.
What’s the significance of that I hear you ask?
4. Well, 1 TWh of electricity is roughly equal to the amount of electricity we use every day in the UK (DUKEs 5.6 cell M261 divided by 365 days in a year, apparently!).
5. Taking those figures, we see that the electricity used in a single day in the UK, is equivalent to 400,000 tonnes of coal being burnt.
5b. Which incidentally, creates around 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 – the same as the annual emissions of Burkina Faso with a population of 13 million – one day in the UK, one year in Burkina Faso! Shit!
So, the headline conclusion – for non-energy geeks – is that a 400,000 tonne opencast mine, would power the UK for only 1 day…
The following proposed mines would power the UK for:
These mines, on average, will blast, dig and extract coal for around 4-6 years… Ffos-y-fran, the largest open cast mine in the UK will operate for 17 years, only 36 metres from the nearest homes… and that’s only enough coal to power the UK for one, single, solitary month.
17 years of blasting, noise, dust and asthma!
That doesn’t seem to make much sense to us.
Whip up an offshore wind farm and you’ve got power for 20 years without destroying local communities. Plus, you haven’t destroyed the global community by causing irreversible climate change. Plus you’ve created more jobs per unit of energy than any fossil fuel. Win-win-win, surely?
Try telling that to a 60-year old energy dinosaur in the Department for Energy!
This morning thirty campaigners from Coal Action Scotland together with local residents peacefully blockaded the entrance to the Scottish Coal-operated Ravenstruther coal rail terminal in South Lanarkshire. Having stopped its reopening after the weekend, this action is currently preventing the delivery of thousands of tonnes of coal to power stations across Scotland. Protestors intend to stay in place as long as possible.
With Scotland’s CO2 emissions increasing significantly, continuing the consumption of coal will make it impossible for Scotland to meet its 80% target reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Angus Mcloud said “The fact is that the government will not meet its own targets. This confirms what climate protestors have believed all along – that the Scottish government is paying lip service to the dangers of climate change.”
The action is aiming to disrupt the operations of Scottish Coal and Scottish Power in the region. The protestors are acting to oppose the five open cast coal mines that deliver coal to the rail terminal and in resistance to the thirteen new open cast coal mines due to open in Scotland.
Protestors erected and scaled a 15ft scaffolding tripod, blocking trucks from entering the terminal. Others are locked by their necks to a conveyor belt and a bulldozer, preventing coal stockpiles from being loaded onto trains.
Tilly Gifford who is at the site said: “In the face of dangerous runaway climate change, increasing our dependence on coal – the most polluting of the fossil fuels – is simply unacceptable. We urgently need to make the transition to renewable energy and close existing mines. We shouldn’t even be thinking about new ones.”
The demonstration today is in support of communities opposing new open cast mines. Rebecca Mackenzie, a local resident said: “We’re here today to send a clear message that we don’t want parts of Scotland such as South Lanarkshire to become the most heavily mined areas in Europe, as they will be if permission is granted for all the new open cast coal mines currently being proposed. If sites such as Mainshill near Douglas can’t be stopped through legal avenues, then action will have to be taken to make sure these last remaining areas of un-mined countryside aren’t destroyed”.
Beth Whelan, the campaigner perched on the scaffolding tripod, said: “Local authorities, the Scottish government and companies such as Scottish Coal and Scottish Power are ignoring the scientific evidence on climate change. We have to take responsibility for our climate and our future, and stop the coal industry and its expansion. This is what we doing today: acting responsibly”.
It is estimated that 6,380 tonnes of coal were stopped from being transported from the coal mines to power stations, equivalent to 11,675,400 kg CO2 (11,675.4 tonnes) released into the atmosphere.
Coal Action Scotland apologizes to any workers affected by today’s demonstration, but in recognizing the desperate need to stop burning coal sees no other choice but to target the companies responsible for mining it.
Yorkshire Against New Coal, wildly active coal, er, activists, are having a day out in the New Year. Why not walk off some of those mince pies and turkey with a good stomp around a proposed open cast site?
Join them on Saturday 10th January 2009 to march around the proposed open cast coal mine site at Newton Lane [MAP LINK]. If you’d like to go, meet at the White Horse in Ledston at 11:30 for a 12:30 start. The route is on public rights of way, through the proposed open cast site, and the whole excursion should last no more than an hour.
This is a great opportunity to see what’s threatened by open cast, meet up with some friendly coal campaigners, and get some fresh air. The event will be a joint venture between YANC and RAGE (Residents Against Greenbelt Exploitation), both of whom have excellent abbreviated names. Maybe make some banners and take ‘em along?
Top New Years Resolution? To do something about climate change!
It’s vitally important to the coal industry that they can persuade you that coal can be made ‘clean’ – that its environmental impacts can be neutralised using technology. And so they spend a lot of money on advertising. But the latest shot in the clean coal PR war is genuinely bizarre.
Meet the Clean Coal Carollers, singing lumps of coal, pedalling popular Christmas classics rewritten with lyrics like ‘Frosty the coalman… he’s abundant here in America and he helps our economy grow.”
It took a while to accept that this wasn’t a spoof. What are they playing at? Is this just a way to spend PR money to give people worried about climate change a good laugh? Do they really think that anyone is going to be reassured by the sight of levitating cartoon bits of coal wearing wooly hats pedalling musical lies about energy independence? Or did some advertising executive genuinely flip out? The mind boggles.
Police have begun an investigation after protesters broke into one of Britain’s biggest power stations last week and cut almost 2 per cent of the country’s electricity supplies.
Up to 500 megawatts of generating capacity was lost from the national network for about four hours after the incident at Kingsnorth coal and oil-fired power station in Kent, The Times has learnt. An intruder scaled an electric fence, entered a secure area and switched off one of four turbines supplying London and the South East.
E.ON, the German power group that operates the plant, is understood to suspect that some of its own staff or contracted employees were involved in the incident last Friday night.
Well… E.ON do have a big renewable power division, who probably get a bit annoyed by working for a company which also tries to build enormous coal power stations. Maybe the renewable folks decided to try some more direct methods to increase their market share. But seriously… can you believe it? Weird…
If you do work in the E.ON renewables division and would like to help speed up the market growth for renewables in the UK, you might be interested in E.ON Tipoff. Although probably not from your work computers, eh?
VICTORY ALERT: This is brilliant. Following a concerted campaign of making a nuisance of themselves engaging with e.on over their lamentably bad climate change policies, student activists had loudly sent the message to e.on that they are not welcome at universities as long as the company continues to pursue action, like trying to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth, that is going to trash the planet.
And… e.on seem to have got the message! They’ve pulled the remainder of their recruitment events at universities. Now, plucky activists will no doubt say that this is because of the pressure they’ve put on the company, but I have strong suspicions that actually, the thought of facing the guy with the guitar featured in the video above *again* was too much for the mighty corporation, and they bottled it.
Excellent. These victories are winnable, people. Next?
Winter: Good for squirrels, who get to demonstrate their uncanny ability to hide and retrieve nuts. Bad for humans, who get to spend all day in front of a computer before stumbling out of the office at 5.30 into darkness, freezing cold wind, and icy pavements.
So, if you want to get out of the office and get some daylight and exercise, why not get together with some friends and see what you can do to send a clear message to E.on that even though it’s the time of year that sensible animals, like bears, would be thinking about hibernating, your passion for opposing new coal keeps you warm throughout the year.
Even better, there’s an already-thought out opportunity to get involved! From our friends at the Campaign Against Climate Change, Plane Stupid, Climate Camp and Rising Tide comes this…
**48 HOURS OF ACTION AGAINST E.ON AND NEW COAL**
Friday 28th and Saturday 29th November 2008
The UK Government is calling for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, we are calling for 48 hours of action against E.ON and new coal NOW.
It’s easy enough to set a target that’s 42 years away, but we don’t stand a rapidly melting snowball’s chance of achieving it if the government give the green light to new coal fired power stations (7 are in the planning stages, with E.ON’s new Kingsnorth being first up) and keep dishing out subsidies to new coal mines. Coal is the dirtiest fuel there is, so while the government continues with business-as-usual through the last 100 months we have to make a difference on climate change, we call for 48 hours of action against new coal – now!
Join us in saying ‘No to New Coal’: get your friends together and plan an action for your area. Go stickering, blockading, serving direct action warning notices at supply chain premises, organise an awareness raising talk, hang a banner, get creative on the streets, the options are endless. Get together, get creative, and plan an action!
On Friday you could visit the Coal Authority, E.ON offices, UK Coal offices or Global Coal Management offices, to name but a few. Or take aim at their investors or parts of their supply chain. On the Saturday you could take action at 2nd round FA Cup matches sponsored by E.ON. Together, we’ll raise awareness about killer coal, and we’ll say loud and clear that we won’t stand for new coal – at Kingsnorth or anywhere else.
For more information visit - http://www.e-onf-off.org.uk/ - where a list of potential targets, action ideas and plenty of resources will follow shortly.
There you go. Time to get involved! (Or the polar bear gets it.)
