AxeDrax Wooden Burning & Scholar Housing: At present, nineteenth October, is the Worldwide Day of Motion In opposition to Huge Biomass (IDoA) calling for an finish to climate-wrecking tree burning in energy stations, and I hope to be attending a protest in London at Barclay’s Financial institution in Canary Wharf at midday calling for an finish of the £billions in subsidies given to the world’s greatest tree burner, Drax, for burning timber and polluting communities. In 2016 I photographed a protest towards Drax and one other towards suppliers of excessive value (and excessive revenue) housing for college students.
AxeDrax protest towards Biomass & Coal – Westminster
Again on Wednesday nineteenth Oct 2016 protesters got here to the newly fashioned Dept of Enterprise Power and Industrial Technique (BEIS) to induce the federal government to finish the inexperienced subsidies to Drax as scientific analysis had make it clear that producing electrical energy from Biofuels is dangerous to the local weather, forests, biodiversity and folks.
Biofuel Watch and London Biomassive, each a part of the Axe Drax marketing campaign had introduced with them posters, banners and a cooling tower and have been accompanied by the Draxosaurus dinosaur.
They demanded the federal government finish the £600million a 12 months subsidy Drax will get for its polluting actions and spend the cash on measures resembling constructing insulation to chop demand for electrical energy and to help the usage of actual low-carbon renewable electrical energy era.
Drax is an previous and inefficient energy generator, constructed for coal, nonetheless utilized in two of its six boilers in 2016, although in April 2023 they introduced utilizing coal had come to an finish. The 4 boilers transformed to wooden pellet use waste 60% of the power created in waste warmth to the environment and into the cooling water taken from and discharged into the close by river Ouse. With out the massive annual subsidies it will get from our electrical energy payments it might not be viable. It must be closed as quickly as attainable and its staff skilled for brand spanking new inexperienced jobs which the massive subsidies presently spent on conserving this extremely polluting facility open might present.
In addition to being generously awarded for including extreme quantities of carbon and thus rising international temperatures, Drax additionally creates giant quantities of extremely harmful particulates, releasing over 400 tons a 12 months into the surroundings within the UK. And Drax additionally creates environmental havoc within the areas which provide its wooden – and till 2023, coal.
A lot of the wooden comes from destroying forests within the Southeast of america, and Drax additionally provides wooden to be burnt in different nations. It has mills to show freshly reduce timber into wooden pellets in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Planting the monoculture pine forests wanted to produce these has been on the expense of the clear reduce felling of older numerous forests and changing them with sterile plantations with little undergrowth and wildlife.
Drax additionally buys wooden pellets from the world’s largest pellet producer Enviva which cuts down giant areas of extremely numerous coastal hardwood forests within the US with an unimaginable lack of bio-diversity. Comparable surroundings degradation and destruction of habitats is happening in different nations all over the world the place Drax sources pellets. Their transportation to Drax additionally produces giant quantities of carbon dioxide.
The pellet vegetation which produce wooden largely from entire timber and full felling of enormous forest areas to be burnt at Drax additionally generate large quantities of air air pollution each at Drax in Yorkshire and Drax on the US pellet vegetation have been Drax has needed to pay giant fines for this. Most of those vegetation are in disadvantaged, majority-Black communities.
On the protest on the BEIS we heard a from a Colombian girl concerning the calamitous impact of open-cast coal-mining on the big open-pit Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, northern Colombia. collectively owned by Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Glencore Xstrata.
Drax could now have ended burning coal and imports led to 2020, however following the closure of UK mines the entire coal burnt there got here from overseas, together with from Colombia.
The Cerrejón mine is in Wayúu indigenous territory and the native folks weren’t consulted when mining started there 30 years in the past. Their land was merely seized and communities forcibly displaced in violation of their constitutional land rights and there was no correct compensation. Air pollution and dirt from the coal mine continues to infect the air and water provides badly affecting conventional life; soil air pollution results in failed crops, and fishing areas have been contaminated.
Drax additionally had a carbon seize and storage mission for its biomass vegetation, however that is solely based mostly on very restricted trials and appears extremely unlikely to ever have a major impact, not least as a result of the mandatory infrastructure for the removing and storage of any carbon dioxide captured appears unlikely ever to be accessible. And by the point each the removing and disposal might presumably be applied on any scale there shall be completely no financial justification for retaining costly sources of energy resembling wooden burning fairly than very less expensive renewable era.
AxeDrax protest towards Biomass & Coal
Scholar Hire Strike protest – Holborn
I went on from the BEIS protest to Russell Sq. the place college students have been assembly to debate scholar housing. As soon as halls of residence have been largely an at-cost service supplied by universities, however have now grow to be large enterprise for personal builders.
After some speeches they marched behind the #RENTSTRIKE banner to briefly occupy the close by workplace of Unite College students, a FTSE 250 firm housing round 50,000 college students within the UK.
The occasion was part of a nationwide collection of protests happening as traders and builders have been discussing the wealthy income to be constructed from college students on the MIPIM convention, the world’s largest actual property market occasion in Cannes.
Most of the giant new blocks of scholar housing have flats with rents bigger than your entire scholar mortgage, increased than all however college students from very rich households can afford, and are largely for letting to wealthy abroad college students finding out right here.
Extra photos at Scholar Hire Strike protest.
Tags: #RENTSTRIKE, air air pollution, Axe Drax marketing campaign, AxeDrax, BEIS, large enterprise, biodiversity, Biofuel Watch, biomass, carbon seize, carbon seize and storage, carbon dioxide, CCS, clear chopping, clear felling, local weather change, Dept of Enterprise Power and Industrial Technique, Drax, Draxosaurus dinosaur, electrical energy, electrical energy payments, Enviva, forests, inexperienced subsidy, excessive rents, London, London Biomassive, march, market occasion, MIPIM, monoculture, abroad college students, particulates, peter Marshall, energy station, personal builders, protest, actual property, lease strike, lease strikes, wealthy income, scholar rents, tower blocks, tree burner, Unite College students, US forests, Victoria St, rich college students, Westminster, entire timber, wooden burning, wooden pellets
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