Bristol Biofuels Protest
No 2 palm oil | 21.07.2010 12:22
Bristol City Council, The Council House, College Green, 9.00-10.00 am, 10th August
Earlier this year Bristol City’s Planning Committee resoundingly rejected an application for a biofuel power station at Avonmouth. There is cross-party support within the Council and local parliamentary candidates for rejecting this development. This is backed up by a local petition with over a 1000 signatures on it. The developer (W4B) has appealed the decision. A coalition of local and national groups are opposing this appeal and wish to demonstrate the strength of local and national feelings against the proposed development when the appeal inquiry starts on 10th August.
The power station will more than likely be powered by palm oil. Demand for palm oil leads to rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia, West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Ecuador, Cameroon and Uganda. Palm oil plantations are also linked to the displacement of communities, including indigenous peoples, the destruction of their livelihoods and very often to human rights abuses. The W4B power station would require 22,000 hectares of new oil palm plantations if crude palm oil was used.
This power station will add to the degradation of local air quality that will be caused by proposed biomass power stations and incinerators in Avonmouth. It will also have an adverse affect on nature reserves in the Severn Estuary.
Existing planning guidance and procedures do not allow issues of sustainability to be considered in this case, even though it will exacerbate climate change and biodiversity loss. The concerns of Bristol people, indigenous people and animals like the orang-utan are effectively being censored because of out of date planning procedure.
Some possible themes for those attending:
Censorship – gaffer tape over mouths, blacked out text on placards etc.
Air quality – gas masks/ builders masks
Rainforest destruction – stuffed parrots, toucans, jaguar, orang-utan etc.
Human rights abuses – wear read to signify bloodshed
Food security and sovereignty
Finally, if anyone can take a banner to each day (8 days in all) of the inquiry to remind the Planning Inspector how important their decision is, that would be fantastic.
Earlier this year Bristol City’s Planning Committee resoundingly rejected an application for a biofuel power station at Avonmouth. There is cross-party support within the Council and local parliamentary candidates for rejecting this development. This is backed up by a local petition with over a 1000 signatures on it. The developer (W4B) has appealed the decision. A coalition of local and national groups are opposing this appeal and wish to demonstrate the strength of local and national feelings against the proposed development when the appeal inquiry starts on 10th August.
The power station will more than likely be powered by palm oil. Demand for palm oil leads to rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia, West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Ecuador, Cameroon and Uganda. Palm oil plantations are also linked to the displacement of communities, including indigenous peoples, the destruction of their livelihoods and very often to human rights abuses. The W4B power station would require 22,000 hectares of new oil palm plantations if crude palm oil was used.
This power station will add to the degradation of local air quality that will be caused by proposed biomass power stations and incinerators in Avonmouth. It will also have an adverse affect on nature reserves in the Severn Estuary.
Existing planning guidance and procedures do not allow issues of sustainability to be considered in this case, even though it will exacerbate climate change and biodiversity loss. The concerns of Bristol people, indigenous people and animals like the orang-utan are effectively being censored because of out of date planning procedure.
Some possible themes for those attending:
Censorship – gaffer tape over mouths, blacked out text on placards etc.
Air quality – gas masks/ builders masks
Rainforest destruction – stuffed parrots, toucans, jaguar, orang-utan etc.
Human rights abuses – wear read to signify bloodshed
Food security and sovereignty
Finally, if anyone can take a banner to each day (8 days in all) of the inquiry to remind the Planning Inspector how important their decision is, that would be fantastic.
No 2 palm oil
Original article on IMC Bristol:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/692753