Cameron McNeish has hit the headlines today in the Press & Journal (front page in the Inverness edition). You can see the article HERE. It is also reported in HeraldScotland, HERE
Young John Manning has rumbled into life over at his blog, HERE which also includes some excellent photographs of what is about to be sacrificed to Power Plants.
A very thoughtful three piece article has been written by the long distance walker, David Cotton, which covers the background to our nation’s energy problem as well as some very useful information on energy costs of production. You can find Part 1 HERE and then work up to his newer posts for Parts 2 & 3.
Amongst a host of highly respected outdoor groups and individuals,The John Muir Trust, The Ramblers and the MCofS have signed a letter to Alex Salmond: You can see that letter HERE. It must have taken a huge amount of time and organisation to to get all these bodies on board to unite together to write this. I just wonder how much time and attention he will afford it? Any guesses?
Ooh – I have just heard that I am in the Inverness Courier today as well (I don’t have a link for that)
Well done, Alan. You might be the pebble that started the avalanche. Can the momentum be sustained? Hopefully JMT, the Ramblers and MCoS can keep it going. It seems to me that it needs a lot of Scots to write and protest to their MSPs, as the SNP, in particular, are unlikely to take much notice of Sassenachs.
ReplyDeleteSteady! I hardly think that I have started anything here! These organisations have been battling these wind factories for years & years and virtually every time they have been picked off by a very well run, well funded wind turbine industry.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am trying to do is to get public perception of these wind farms changed so that the average man in the street (who may not be and probably is not a hillwalker) understands the damage being done to their own wild land and how their country's tourism will suffer as a consequence.
Money talks and it is only when the tourist industry realises what is to be lost with the increase in these wind factories will anything be done at a political level.
You have to change politicians' minds if anything is to be done about that and the only way you can do that is by them knowing that they will be voted out if they support wind farms on wild land.
Difficult.
Your last paragraph captures one of the problems Alan. We're talking about them changing their ways for votes, not because of what they believe or any love they might have for their country. Politicians are like rats: they're with you as long as you feed them votes; stop feeding them and they run off to someone else's sewer.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that they're allowing this rural vandalism to keep big business happy demonstrates the fact that they're not in politics because they want to serve their country or do some good.
Our political system is, overall, a terrible failure.
Ranting again. I HAVE almost finished the tax return, honestly.
Perhaps I got a bit too enthusiastic, but you have started something in blogdom, which may help. Maybe AN avalanche rather than THE avalanche.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately John is right, the political system serves special interest groups and is usually driven by money than by "the public good".
Oh well, every little helps.
The locus of politics is changing, yes, its a 300 mile turning circle, but none should underestimate your efforts, and also the difficulty of the job in hand!...but it is changing. Nobody believes the spindrift of mainstream party politics anymore, not even my ole da! I'm just back from a week opposite this proposed site, a meeting with Chris, and am so heartened to see how much the campaign is moving along. Maybe we can even get urban organs like Transition Town to ally? I wonder...
ReplyDeleteGoodspeed Alan, goodspeed all!
Would a protest be better made outside the Scottish parliament Alan? If you demonstrate outside the guy's mansion he'll just shut the curtains and turn the telly up. He's not going to change his mind. The only minds that matter now are those of vote hungry politicians and they don't live in the hills. They live in Edinburgh. The public like a spectacle and they like to be educated about causes in an entertaining way. Why don't you carry the coffin past the parliament? It's easier to get TV cameras to the parliament than the hills too.
ReplyDeleteImagine hundreds of protestors walking down from Arthur's Seat to the parliament, carrying a coffin!
Looking through the lists/maps of wind factories, existing and proposed and local websites in Scotland and the North of England e.g. from the group attempting to resist the Lammermuir tragedy (which seems to inclusde the Borders Council) - it appears that there's no shortage of anti-wind turbine feeling. There are echoes of the anti-motorway protests of the 1990's (remember Swampy and the Tweed ladies/Ganga generation alliance). In the end, despite some significant defeats, that movement had it's objectives achieved on the election of New Labour.
ReplyDeleteIts all a bit disparate, though. How does all this get pulled together, I wonder?
Incidentally, Moffat-Peebles-Moffat walkers might well soon be greeted by a couple of these installations, looking at the map.
I live, work and holiday in Scotland but I'm here because I enjoy the wild open spaces. If they are going to continue turning it into an energy producer and desecrate the land then it will be time to pack up my bags and leave. As John Manning pointed out Wind power is unreliable and the energy can't be stored so this means that we end up with the potential for producing twice as much power as we actually need. By all means use wind energy but make it efficient and put the turbines near where they are needed.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work Alan; I look forward to joining the protest. Paul
Hi Alan,
ReplyDeletePaul Sammonds laments that Scotland is being turned into "an energy producer". I sympathise with Paul but the horrible irony is these turbines don't produce much energy really. This is the point that needs to be harped on about. Wind is a poor generator of energy particularly when one considers the enormous cost of installing and maintaining the turbines.
Here in North Wales during the December freeze the wind turbines were stationary so in order to prevent them siezing up in the cold had to be electrically heated using power drawn from conventional sources.
This is a Kafka-esque joke being played out on everyone not just hillwalkers.