Category: THE ENVIRONMENT

SUSTAINABLE, AFFORDABLE HOUSING: WHAT A LOAD OF BS!

A HEARTWARMING, HUMAN-interest story for Bristol was effectively smashed on 10th July by local govermint – surprise! To echo the fate of previous community-empowerment schemes in the face of red tape (such as the Snow Hill Skills and Enterprise Initiative in Bath two years before: ever heard of them? Thought not), the BS3 Project dreamed a dream of sustainable community, hoping to regenerate the old City of Bristol College and adjoining open land of Bedminster’s Northern Slopes – due for developer sell-off/sell-out. Instead of just another housing estate or sterile harbourside, BS3 envisioned a range of affordable and self-build housing options alongside work, training arts and recreation facilities, allotments, low-impact construction and renewable power… Growing Space, Community Space, Eating Space… Maannn, this is good shit! But, even though they spent a year finding financial partners and ticking the 100-odd compliance boxes on the acquisition form… Whatever they were smoking, the landowners didn’t want it, and instead claimed they were calling off the tender: apparently, there wasn’t enough entries to make the competition fair. And the moral of the story? If you want to play nice, you can fuck off.

http://www.bs3campus.org.uk

https://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/24008

GET OFF ARRR LAND

Bizarre Art Project Victim Of Bizzare Protest. Locals Reported Confused

FOR THE PAST few weeks, weird, floating art instillation ‘Nowhere island’ has been meandering its way around the coastal towns of the West. ‘Nowhere island’ features about six tonnes of rock on a barge found under a retreating glacier in the Svalbard peninsula. Over the past year, people have been invited to sign up as Nowhere citizens, drawing up laws and a constitution. Great, eh? Except no one is allowed on or near the £500,000 tax-payer-funded project as the barren utopia chugs around our coast. That is until 12 intrepid wetsuit-clad rebels launched an occupation of the island as it passed Sunny Torbay, in what they triumphantly described as a “coup d’état”. Boarding the (broad)side of the island after a half-mile swim, the swimmers hoisted the Jolly Roger, before doing a little dance and walking the plank, leaving only a plastic duck and stuffed squirrel! But what caused this brave water-borne invasion? The massive cost to the taxpayer? The environmental cost of lugging tonnes of empty rock around our coastline? No, according to one of the swimmers, Pauline Barker, “It just seemed like a fun thing to do”! Despite doing her best to convince us that the protest was totally aimless, Barker did go on to make the valid point that Nowhere Island is “designed to be an art project to get art closer to the people, and we are the people, so we decided to get as close as we possibly could.” So, hats off to those aquatic revolutionaries that risked the Seven Seas for but a bit of nautical naughtiness and to reclaim a little corner of the island that our money built!

 

NO NUKES IS GOOD NUKES

AS ENERGY SUCKRETARY Ed Davey is planning a new Energy Bill this Autumn, Somersettites are getting a little hot under the collar. The basis for the new Bill is ‘Contracts for Difference’, a form of fancy new subsidies for ‘low-carbon’ companies (read: nuclear power), where suppliers are guaranteed long-term contracts with a pre-agreed, artificially inflated price. Taxes, taxes! Not only are we going to be shaken down with £60 billion of extra taxes and higher bills, but, as we’re talking nuclear power, our kids and our kids’ kids will be sitting on a shitty legacy of radioactive waste.

But, we’re not all gonna take this lying down: in Japan, following Fukushima, between 75,000 and 170,000 are on the streets every Friday night calling for an end to nuclear power. Over here, back in March, 1,000 or so blockaded the entrance to Hinkley Point power station in opposition to E.D.F. Energy’s diabolical plans. The Stop New Nuclear Alliance is holding a non-violent weekend protest camp in Somerset from 5th to 9th October, with a demo in Bridgwater on the 6th, and a mass trespass of the proposed Hinkley C site on the 8th. Premature E.D.F. aren’t even waiting to receive planning permission before they Eagerly Destroy Fields in preparation, so trespassers will be sowing the seeds of resistance by planting wildflowers and other native species. If your dream Monday day-out involves yawning for hours in a police cell, this is the one for you!

26 years after the Chernobyl disaster, just 20% of Belarussian children are born healthy. For the first time in over half a century, Japan is nuclear-free, but the people are still footing the bill: the Tepco corporation was re-nationalised due to the cost of compensation and stabilising the reactors, people are still living in contaminated areas, and people are encouraged to eat radioactive food to support Fukushima farmers: the triple meltdown is still in full swing. Spiralling costs for new reactors in France and Finland are also causing a chain reaction of financial judders around the world. Over here, several Chinese companies are now considering building new stations at Wylfa in Anglesey and Oldbury in Gloucestershire. At Hinkley C, the toxic sludge will need to be stored on site for over 100 years: the dangers associated with flooding, accidental leakage and terrorist attack (real terrorists, not just the ones handing out leaflets) are apparently totally unacceptable.

But ecos say that a future without unclear power is not just a dream: Germany has set out a nuclear-free roadmap that is safe and affordable enough to reach its commitment of 80% carbon reduction by 2050; if they can do it, why not us? The way forward is through energy reduction and greater investment to make renewable energy fit for the 21st century. Further details of the protest weekend can be found at: http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk.

http://stopnewnuclear.org.uk
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/710586