John,
Do you not think there is enough development in Telford already?
We need to protect the green land we have.

Report abuse

Y Mab Darogan.
What about all the health implications that come from opencast mining? As long as it doesn’t affect you it’s ok i suppose…

Report abuse

‘UK Coal says its plan will stabilise an area riddled by old mine workings, create 90 jobs and help meet the national demand for coal.’

Last Thursday (19th March) in Coventry Cathedral I and hundreds of others heard a very different message about coal from the NASA chief scientist, James Hansen, who spoke about climate change.

Hansen’s message about coal-burning to activists fighting poverty in developing countries was unequivocal, stark and convincing.

Hansen told us that climate systems around the world are reaching tipping points as levels of CO2 have risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 385 ppm (this is growing by about 2 ppm per year).

Hansen said that coal, as the largest fossil fuel reservoir of carbon dioxide, was the single greatest threat to civilisation and to life on this planet.

He said that there is no such thing as ‘clean coal’ and that there is NO fully functioning technology yet available to capture pollutants, despite politicians telling us there is.

More arrestingly he said that the trains carrying coal to power plants are ‘death trains’ and that coal-fired power plants are ‘factories of death’, because of the deaths that climate change is already causing in poorer countries.

Before Hansen spoke, we heard from a Christian Aid development worker from Kenya, who told us how the way of life of rural Kenyans was being devastated by unprecedented changes in rainfall patterns there.

The Bishop of Liverpool followed Hansen’s grim warning about coal by highlighting how unfair the situation is: that the poorest people in the world are the first to be affected by a problem they have done little to cause. He called on all of us present to fight this appalling injustice.

I would be interested to know if any other Shropshire Star readers are making these connections and seeing the appalling consequences of coal mining, not only for the local environment but also for the global climate.

gg mentioned wind turbines.

What does gg think is the best way to engage groups, like VORTEX, opposed to greener sources of energy (see http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/03/09/bellamy-backs-windfarm-fight/ ) to say in an open and honest debate which alternative zero-carbon source of energy their group favours?

What do other readers think of wind, coupled with a massive government-led drive on insulation and energy conservastion, as part of the solution to climate change?

Wind creates many more jobs than nuclear.

And it does not contribute to climate chaos.

Report abuse

John
More houses is the last thing we need in Shropshire. It’s disappearing under brick and concrete at an alarming rate as it is.

Report abuse

John, I suppose one way of dealing with inconvenient arguments is to ignore them.

If we ‘get the coal out of the ground’ as you put it, we are storing up more problems for future generations and, as I pointed out in #6, the poorest people in the world.

The WHO estimates already that climate change is killing 150,000 people globally every year, and that this figure will go up.

You spoke about creating jobs.

I agree with you that this is absolutely vital at this moment in time.

Would you not agree, though, that renewable energy creates far more jobs than coal or nuclear?

Report abuse