Environmental Protest Round-Up 10 July 2009
German Reactor ‘Accident-Prone’
July 6th Berlin: The Kruemmel nuclear power plant was described as ‘accident-prone’ following an automatic shut-down on Saturday. The shut-down was caused by a transformer failure. The plant only re-opened in June, after a two year period of closure following a fire. Greenpeace activists demonstrated in front of the site, near Hamburg on Monday to highlight both the number of issues that the plant has experienced since it opened in 1984, and the reopening of the ‘nuclear question’ by the German government. Kruemmel should close in 2018 and at present there is no replacement nuclear reactor planned, but this could change if the government chooses to follow the lead of several other European countries and either extend the life of its reactors or build new ones.
Banning bottled water environmentally sound, economically stupid?
The New South Wales government in Australia has decided to boycott the use of bottled water. Following the lead of the town of Bundanoon in NSW, the federal government has said that it will cease to use bottled water in government offices. But the decision, made on the grounds of transport, energy used to bottle the water, and environmental costs of plastic packaging for it, is being criticised on several levels.
The bottled water industry, and retailers, are protesting. They complain that the ban could not only lead to redundancies and job losses, but also cause adverse health results, as consumers turn to sugar-rich soft drinks because water is not available to them. The Director of the Australasian Bottled Water Institute said that there could be economic impacts if the ban becomes widespread, “In a month when Australia shed 22,000 full-time jobs the NSW government should be encouraging small business not hurting it.”
Mount Rushmore Protest for G-8 summit
On 8th July eleven Greenpeace activists were charged under federal law after they displayed a banner on Mount Rushmore. They claimed they were not guilty, and that their two thousand square foot sign would not damage Mount Rushmore. The arrested protestors were charged with illegal climbing and trespassing. They came from eight states across the USA, including California and New York. The banner, which read ‘America honors leaders not politicians: stop global warming’ is being held by the National Parks Authority as evidence.
Mount Rushmore courtesy of jimbowen0306 at Flickr under a creative commons licence
