Northern Climate Rush – Rush on UK Coal!
Fresh from their Manchester Airport incursion, Northern Climate Rush is back, and we are paying a visit to the UK’s largest coal company! We will be travelling by minibus to the headquarters of UK Coal in Doncaster. Meet in front of the Manchester University Student Union building at 1pm on Thursday Feb 26. Dress in Edwardian fashion (if you so desire) and bring food to share, banners, and musical instruments.
WHAT IS NORTHERN CLIMATE RUSH?
It’s a group of intrepid activists who, taking inspiration from the suffragettes, use civil disobedience to bring about a transition to a low-carbon economy. We believe that, given government’s total failure to take meaningful action on climate change, a campaign of civil disobedience is necessary, and in fact it is the only responsible way forward, given that the fate of all future generations rests on the decisions that are made now and in the next couple of years.
Our sister group of Climate Rushers in the South will be paying a visit to a coal industry awards ceremony in London on the same day.
WHY UK COAL?
Coal companies such as UK Coal are actively standing in the way of the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy based on renewables. They invest in new coal mines, and by lobby government against the changes needed for a transition to alternatives.
HOW CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT COAL?
Various recent scientific reports* have shown how the UK could transition from fossil fuels, to a low-carbon economy. We would have to switch to renewable power sources (mainly wind and wave) and reduce our energy consumption by flying much less, by reducing the use of private cars by creating a vastly improved public transport system, by ensuring that within the next few years all UK homes and buildings are properly insulated, and by requiring all appliances to have the highest standard of energy efficiency.
WHAT ABOUT JOBS?
During the miners’ strikes of the 70’s and 80’s most coal mines in the UK were deep pit mines, which required hundreds of miners to work them. But now most of the coal that can be deep-mined has already been dug up, and new UK coal mines are open-cast – huge diggers are used to rip the top off a hill, and then coal is sifted from the rubble. It is tremendously destructive to local ecologies, and also employs far fewer workers.
By contrast the creation of new wind and wave-power infrastructure, a program of building insulation installation, and laying on more trains, trams and buses, would all create new, sustainable jobs. We are calling for government to provide training programs so that workers from fossil fuel industries which need to be phased out can move directly into positions in the new, sustainable industries.
It’s now or never time for the climate, join us!
All genders welcome.
* See for example:
– Nicolas Stern, “Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change”, http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/stern.htm
– Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, “Decarbonising the UK”, http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/media/news/tyndall_decarbonising_the_uk.pdf
northernclimaterush@googlemail.com
http://www.northernclimaterush.wordpress.com
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UK Coal will be presenting celebratory awards to the most damaging companies in the coal industry on February 26th February at the Landmark Hotel on Marylebone Road, London. Climate Rush will be in attendance to offer alternative awards based on the ecological damage that the coal industry is inflicting on the environment.
We invite you to join us in your best cocktail finery (fabulous hats a recommendation, and sooty styling a suggestion) to show UK Coal precisely what “industry players can expect to challenge them in 2009.”
NO NEW COAL AWARDS
THURSDAY 26TH FEBRUARY
THE LANDMARK HOTEL
Dress formally for cocktails in the Winter Garden at 6.30 prompt.
WHAT CLIMATE RUSH SAYS TO THE UK COAL AWARDS
No new coal to avoid runaway climate change
Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and by far the dirtiest way to produce electricity. We must leave coal in the ground and not build any new coal fired power stations if we want to avoid runaway climate change. CCS is an unproven technology that may never be a viable option. Climate change is happening now and we must act now to stop it.
We can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet
At this outdated and fossilized awards ceremony UK Coal is celebrating the worst excesses of our failing economic system. Just like overpaid bankers these heads of corporations are receiving plaudits for plundering the planet.
A transition to a low carbon society with sustainable jobs
We must counteract any jobs losses from the coal industry with a major re-skilling program in sustainable trades. Many more jobs will be created by a huge retrofitting program of old housing stock and in the new renewable energies sector than in new coal. The German clean energy revolution has seen the creation of 250,000 new jobs.