Organise against biofuels refinery in Bristol

bristol | corporations | announcement Thursday October 01, 2009 21:04 by gizzacroggy - Espacio Bristol-Colombia gizzacroggy at gmail dot com

Colombia and palm oil

Waiting at the traffic lights on route to the park to enjoy a rest day after an intense week involved in the organisation of an event about Climate Justice here in Bogota, the captial of Colombia, an old man approached us. He was dressed as smartly as he could, dark suit, a tie and a felt hat, but he didnt look like your average suited man. Old, weather face by the sun that makes guessing ages very difficult, a calmness, resignation about him. He held a carefully handwritten sign in his hand, "please help my family, we are displaced from Bolivar( a region where there is huge amounts of palm planted) god bless you."

My eyes welled, i got angry at the taxi driver for taking me a longer route to get more money from me, hating myself for having got the taxi in the first place, i could have made the effort and walked, what a unneccesary luxury. Every night thousands of Colombians walk the length of the city with hand made carts filled with rubbish, recyclers, they easily walk 30 miles a day in the city to live one day to the next. I could have walked.

Angry at myself for the pesos I take out from the bank, angry for knowing that giving at the traffic lights is not the solution, angry for knowing how far we are from stopping the tide of people being forced from their land so that their land can be used to grow palm, or other monocrops, or becuase there is gold, or silver, or copper, or coal, or oil, or emeralds, or uranium, beneath them.

But guilt is not helpful, so as i write this, i feel the motivation to fight to stop this biofuel power station come strongly to me.
Knowing that it is possible. Knowing that in 22000 hectares there could be 200 familes forced to move to the cities and live in total poverty, and perhaps worse, live without dignity having to beg.

Since the beginning of September, the network I work with has been accompanying a village which was violently evicted by riot police at the orders of a palm oil company which sells to the Body shop. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/13/body-shop-c...tions

If the use of palm oil grows in Britain, people being forced to leave rural areas and beg at traffic lights will only grow.

Here are some other first hand reports about palm oil in Colombia by another Espacior.
http://bioduels.blogspot.com/

What can we do here in Bristol?

I can help from a far.
gizzacroggy@gmail.com

Dear all,

W4B Renewable Energy have just had their application for a biofuel power station in Portland rejected by Weymouth & Portland Council, amidst concerns about the impact of biofuels in general and palm oil in particular on the climate, on forests and other ecosystems and on communities in the global South, as well as concerns over air pollution and public health in nearby areas. This was one of three similar planning applications recently rejected by local authorities.

Now we have found out that W4B has submitted plans for a biofuel power station more than twice the size of the largest one applied for before. They want to build a 50 MW power station at Avonmouth Docks in Bristol, which would burn 90,000 tonnes of vegetable oil, most likely palm oil, every year. More than 22,000 hectares of oil palm plantations would be required to feed this one power station, and even more land if other feedstock was used. W4B have mentioned jatropha as well as palm oil, yet jatropha is not yet commercially available, many plantings are failing, yet thousands of people have already lost their land and livelihood for jatropha plantations to feed Europe’s biofuel market. Peat expert Professor Siegert of Munich University has said about palm oil power stations in Germany: “We were able to prove that the making of these plantations and the burning of the rainforests and peat areas emits many thousands of times as much CO2 as we then are able to prevent by using palm oil. And that is a disastrous balance for the climate.” (tinyurl.com/y9xel3g) Ever more communities in countries like Colombia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Ecuador are losing their land to palm oil companies, with plantation expansion to a large extent driven by Europe’s biofuel policies.

Local residents will be affected by increased levels of nitrogen oxide and small particulates which are linked to respiratory and cardiac disease. Avonmouth in particular already has high levels of pollution.

Please go to

www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/w4bsep2009.php

to object to W4B's application and let others know about this alert.

IF YOU LIVE IN OUR NEAR BRISTOL AND CAN HELP IN ANY WAY WITH CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THIS PROPOSAL, PLEASE CONTACT US - THANKS.