GP042BO by Greenpeace International on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Police talk with activists blockading train tracks leading to Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station in North Carolina. Activists stopped a train delivering coal and branded the coal cars with the Apple logo. The train is carrying coal extracted from the mountains of Appalachia with mountain top removal, the most destructive form of mining. The coal will be burned at the Marshall coal plant to generate electricity which is sold to the North Carolina grid, and will eventually power Apple’s Maiden, N.C., data center, currently under construction just 19 miles from the plant.
Greenpeace joins with activists from communities impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining to block and “rebrand” a coal train with Apple logos, as it headed to a Duke Energy coal plant in North Carolina, US. The coal, extracted from the mountains of Appalachia, will be burned by Duke Energy and help to power Apple’s data centre in North Carolina. As more people around the world use the cloud to store and share photos, videos, and documents, IT companies have to build more data centres (buildings so large they are often visible from space) that house thousands of computers and consume tremendous amounts of electricity. Some data centres use as much electricity as 250,000 European homes. Currently, Apple power their iCloud with coal.
Great video targeting Apple for their dirty coal-powered data centres.
Apple - Introducing iCoal (by GreenpeaceVideo)
Source: youtube.com
Submission Against 4th Coal Terminal in Newcastle
Dear people who care,
This is the submission I just put in to the NSW Department of Planning & Infrastructure against the proposal to build a fourth coal terminal in Newcastle harbour, already the world’s biggest coal port.
It only took a minute, so please do one yourself (DEADLINE 7 MAY) here:
http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=4399
More info here: http://risingtide.org.au/node/1159
Thanks, Erland.
The proposal for the fourth coal terminal in Newcastle should be rejected outright.
Unacceptable impacts of the development would include:
- 41 more coal trains through Newcastle & Maitland every day, with effects such as increased dust related health problems.
- Enabling development of yet more coal mines in the Hunter Valley at a time when the region needs to build new clean energy industries to provide employment and a sustainable economy after the coal boom and the world a a whole must stop burning coal on the shortest possible timeline.
- Potential disturbance and spills of toxic contaminants on Kooragang Island.
- Damage to internationally significant wetlands that are critical habitat for protected migratory bird species and nationally threatened species including the Green and Golden Bell Frog and the Australasian Bittern.
In addition, the Environmental Assessment for the project fails to meet the requirements set out by both State and Federal agencies, and the proposal represents an unacceptable risk to the Australasian Bittern.
After construction, the coal terminal will provide no additional employment. Rather, it is likely to result in the loss of other economic activities in the port, such as tourism, fishing and other shipping.
Regards,
Erland Howden.
Source: risingtide.org.au
Just registered for the Climate Action Summit 2012. Late I know but I’m locked in now! (via Climate Action Summit 2012)
Source: climatesummit.org.au
PLANS for a new coal and gas-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley have been put on ice after a legal ruling that it cannot be built until a deal is struck to shut an existing coal plant.
(via HRL freezes Latrobe Valley power station plans after legal ruling)
Source: theage.com.au
We set out to look at how a large range of climate models could try to span a range of uncertainties to try to get a better handle on the sort of range of plausible climates we might see in the next half century and beyond,” said Professor Frame, who works at the Victoria University of Wellington.
Who ever let scientists talk to journalists. This is the quote of the day.
Source: abc.net.au
The aerial pic of the 80m REEF IN DANGER banner I rolled out with Bowen locals this arvo for UNESCO at Abbot Pt (set to become the world’s biggest coal port if approved this month).
Photo ©Greenpeace/Tom Jefferson
Source: greenpeace.org
The mining industry plans to build the world’s biggest coal port in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
Help us protect the reef.
Source: greenpeace.org.au
DEEP-GREEN agendas to rid the world of coal must not derail genuine concerns about the potential impact of wide-scale industrial development near the Great Barrier Reef.
Environmental pressures from mining, dredging, shipping, population growth and ocean acidification are well known and require a considered response.
The World Heritage Committee has been quick to praise Australia’s good track record in protecting its environmental wonderland. But past actions do not always predict future outcomes.
By raising the alarm, the committee has done Australia, and the reef, a big favour. A strategic plan that looks at the cumulative impact of coastal development on the health of the reef is long overdue.
Concerns over dredging at Gladstone Harbour, which first raised the committee’s alarm, justify taking a closer look at what has been accepted as standard practice.
The challenge is not to stop development but to limit the impact it has on Australia’s greatest World Heritage asset.
The World Heritage delegation says the Great Barrier Reef ranks alongside the Great Wall of China and Taj Mahal in the global consciousness.
It is a fair bet that neither China nor India would be prepared to swap either for Australian coal.
Nor should we be prepared to sacrifice the Great Barrier Reef to give it to them.
