05 October 2007 - Iowa,
United States — Greenpeace USA's "Project
Hot Seat" campaign aims to get a pro-climate
protection majority in the US Congress.
Greenpeace activists and grassroots groups
are urging Congressmen and women across
America, to sign up to the Safe Climate
Act.
The Act is a scientifically based solution
that would by 2050; reduce America’s greenhouse
gas emissions by 80 percent compared to
11000 levels. This is urgently needed to
stop climate change spiralling out of control.
The reductions may seem like a big ask,
but luckily we have the solution – investment
in renewable energy technologies, and massive
improvements in the ways we use energy,
make the goals entirely plausible.
Crop circle boosts campaign
The campaign had a great boost this week,
when Congressman Dave Loebsack in Iowa changed
his mind and agreed to sign up to the Act.
He had previously told Greenpeace that though
he was concerned about global warming, he
would be unable to commit to the Safe Climate
Act.
So Greenpeace and local grassroots groups
created a very clear message, a crop circle
of a wind turbine in an Iowan cornfield.
The demand was simple "Congress: deliver
renewable energy solutions to climate change."
And it worked, Loebsack signed the very
next day.
Greenpeace is calling on Iowa to have at
least 20 per cent of its energy come from
renewable technologies by 2020. This alone
would create 5,080 jobs, one and half times
more than generating electricity from fossil
fuels does. Consumers would save a massive
$400 million (US) in lower electricity and
natural gas bills, and the greenhouse gas
emission reductions would equal a massive
71 million cars off the road. Hopefully,
Loebsack colleague, Representative Leonard
Boswell, will soon follow suit.
As Kelly Mitchell from Greenpeace USA put
it "the solutions to global warming
are right here in the fields of Iowa."
Dutch court rules that term "clean
coal" is misleading
Meanwhile, Greenpeace Netherlands had a
court victory this week, when the Dutch
Advertising Authority (ACA) ruled that use
of terms such as "clean coal"
and "clean fuel" by Dutch energy
giant NUON are "misleading."
NUON must now stop using "clean coal"
in its print and web adverts. The ruling
shows that "clean coal" is a contradiction
in terms and that aggressive marketing of
it is nothing more than a desperate attempt
by the coal industry to make itself relevant
in the face of climate change.
+ More
Greenpeace UK shuts down coal fired power
station
08 October 2007 - Kent, United Kingdom
— Just after 5am this morning, 50 Greenpeace
UK volunteers went into Kingsnorth coal
fired power station. One group immobilised
the huge conveyor belts carrying coal into
the plant then chained themselves to the
machinery. A second group is climbing up
the chimney, with supplies to hold it for
several days and force the power station
off the national grid.
Coal is the most polluting of all fossil
fuels; it just isn't fit for purpose in
the 21st century. No new coal fired power
station has been built in the UK in over
30 years but now we're worried that prime
minister Gordon Brown may be giving the
green light to a new coal rush.
Background on Brown, E.ON and coal
In December last year, the owner of the
Kingsnorth plant, E.ON, applied to build
a new coal plant that would emit as much
carbon dioxide as the world's 24 lowest
emitting countries combined. Worse, it could
keep pumping out emissions for another 50
years. And it will only be 45 percent efficient,
in an age when power stations can reach
95 percent efficiency. E.ON, the German
group behind the plan for the new coal plant,
is Britain's single biggest greenhouse gas
polluter.
Brown's repeatedly been asked to veto the
plans; he's refused. In fact, his government
has convened a coal forum to "bring
forward ways of strengthening the industry,
and working to ensure that the UK has the
right framework to secure the long-term
future of coal-fired generation."
"Instead of climate wrecking coal
fired power stations, Brown should be investing
in energy efficiency, renewable energy and
decentralised energy," said Greenpeace
energy expert Robin Oakley outside the power
station. "For example, the London Array
offshore wind farm will provide energy for
1000,000 homes. Let's see more projects
like that instead of outdated, dirty projects
like Kingsnorth 2."
