Last night I saw Quantum of Solace. I’d been warned that the latest Bond movie consisted of sheer action devoid of narrative substance, but as light entertainment it turned out to be suprisingly enjoyable. I’m learning that with action movies it’s all about low expectations.
Anyway, David Mitchell – the dark-haired one from Peep Show – had never struck me as a likely successor to the chiselled Daniel Craig, but in a new Bond-inspired cartoon from Greenpeace, he sends up the role pretty well.
Also starring Brian Blessed, the film tries to tell the story of our dangerous dependence on coal and the miscreants who are trying to feed our fossil fuel addiction. Specifically, the energy provider E.ON, by building the first new coal-fired power station in 30 years. There are plans for seven more.
As I’ve said before, coal is the most polluting way we know of producing electricity and it makes absolutely no sense to expand its use. The new power station at Kingsnorth would produce more CO2 each year than Ghana.
It’s worth watching Greenpeace’s short animation (which I’ve posted below) just to imagine E.ON‘s response – I can’t see them being too pleased to be cast as arch-villains in the style of Dr.No, Blofeld and Auric Goldfinger, especially as they’ve just installed the first turbine at a new offshore wind farm and are also trying to flog their ‘Go Green’ dual fuel offer.
But the fact is they’ve asked for it: by stubbornly sticking to their plans to revamp Kingsnorth, and thus ignoring passionate opposition from a horde of scientists, politicians and ordinary people.
Al Gore has encouraged civil disobedience to halt the construction of new coal plants; charities including Christian Aid, Tearfund, WWF, Oxfam, RSPB and the World Development Movement have all spoken out against Kingsnorth.
Professor Jim Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, told a British court: “Somebody needs to step forward and say there has to be a moratorium, draw a line in the sand and say no more coal-fired power stations”, while Zac Goldsmith pointed out: “By building a coal-power plant in this country, it makes it very much harder [to exert] pressure on countries like China and India”.
The excuse E.ON give is that carbon capture technology will eventually limit the damage caused by coal, but unfortunately this is just a huge smokescreen, because clean coal technology is still only at a trial stage, and as the Economist says: “even the most optimistic proponents of carbon capture and storage doubt it will be a serious alternative much before 2020. And by then both the physical and the political climate may look rather different.”
Of course Britain isn’t the only country mulling new coal plans – the US has 28 under construction, India plans 73 in the next 10 years, and Germany has 27 in the pipeline, though six have already been stopped by successful environmental campaigns.
As Greenpeace says, the good news is: “We know exactly what needs to be done to stop climate change – and the technologies we need already exist. The use of renewable energy sources such as wind, wave, tidal and solar power combined with increased energy efficiency would dramatically reduce our carbon emissions and our chances for stopping climate change.”
If you want to make your voice heard against Kingsnorth, add your name to a letter to Gordon Brown here.
There was an interesting article in the Sunday Telegraph Business section yesterday focusing on the plans of Britain’s biggest coal plant, Drax, to develop three biomass-fired generation plants which would make a “significant” contribution towards Britain meeting its renewable energy targets.
Although Drax currently remains central to the UK’s energy needs, the EU’s new requirements on carbon levels are likely, without a change in business strategy, to render the plant an anachronism. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on nuclear power as an alternative.
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[...] 26, 2009 by estherbintliff Joel and Ethan Coen have made a fun little film about clean coal. Enjoyable. Watch it [...]