Rob Edwards

Scotland's seas under threat from oil development

from Sunday Herald, 02 March 2008

There will be blood, and oil will be to blame. Scotland’s seas, and the teeming wildlife they harbour, are facing one of the biggest dangers they have ever encountered.

A massive new search for oil and gas launched by the UK government will put whales, dolphins and other marine life at risk. And it will jeopardise global attempts to cut the pollution that is causing climate chaos.

Plans to open up virtually all of the seas around the Scottish coast for multinational companies to explore for oil and gas have been greeted with widespread horror by experts and environmentalists.

The councils failing to encourage renewables

from Sunday Herald, 24 February 2008

Plans to cut climate pollution by boosting the use of renewable energy in new building developments are being thwarted because most local authorities are failing to follow government planning guidelines.

A survey has revealed that 60% of Scottish councils have no policy to encourage solar, wind and other clean technologies in new homes and offices - despite being asked a year ago by ministers to introduce one.

This could mean that major flagship developments in the pipeline could be deprived of vital energy-saving measures. They include the Commonwealth games village in Glasgow, as well as new towns planned for Ravenscraig and near Inverness.

Scotland's renewable energy policy a 'poisonous guddle'

from Sunday Herald, 24 February 2008

Almost everyone involved in the “poisonous guddle” that is Scotland’s renewable energy policy has come under blistering attack from a leading Scottish Nationalist, who is calling on the government to draw up a new national energy plan.

Alyn Smith MEP, the SNP’s spokesman on Europe, has launched a fierce assault on developers, environmental groups, government agencies and politicians for the way they have dealt with wind farm applications. As a result, he warned, Scotland is at risk of losing the “glittering prize” of becoming Europe’s green powerhouse.

Climate of change

from Holyrood Magazine, 22 February 2008

The heat of the sun, the intensity of the rain, the force of the storm: these have always been natural phenomena, concocted by a power greater than humanity to warm, water and batter us.

But now something is changing, something so fundamental that it is altering the way we perceive the world. And as a result, we have to change the way we think, the way we talk and the way we act.

For the first time in history, the global climate is no longer entirely a product of nature. The pollution belched into the atmosphere by factories, farms, homes and vehicles has grown so great that it is disrupting weather patterns.

New government group to block nuclear weapons

from Sunday Herald, 17 February 2008

The Scottish government has set up an expert group to investigate how best to get rid of nuclear weapons, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The group, which will be chaired by the minister for parliamentary business, Bruce Crawford MSP, is seen by many as a crucial step towards making Scotland a nuclear-free nation - and could trigger a confrontation with Westminster.

Including religious leaders, academics, activists, a lawyer and a trade unionist, the group has been tasked with finding legal, planning, regulatory and diplomatic ways to block the UK government’s plan to replace Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system on the Clyde.

Supermarket food: unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable

from Sunday Herald, 17 February 2008

Big supermarkets are selling food that is unhealthy, unjust and unsustainable - and they should be tackled head on by the Scottish government.

That is the uncompromising message being delivered to ministers this weekend by their high-level environmental advisor, the Sustainable Development Commission. Otherwise, it warns, key targets to combat obesity, reduce waste and cut pollution will be frustrated.

The supermarkets are accused of being “retail leviathans”. Their alleged offences include offers of ‘two for the price of one’, the promotion of foods loaded with fat and salt, pointless packaging, excessive plastic bags, massive food waste and an over-dependence on cars and lorries.

GM seeds: be very afraid

from Green Pages, 13 February 2008

First there was Terminator. Now there is Exorcist and Zombie. And farmers should certainly be afraid. Very afraid.

For these are not just some Hollywood horror movies. They are the nicknames given to the new genetic seed technologies being developed by industries and governments which threaten to deprive farmers in developing countries of their traditional rights to harvest the seeds from the plants they grow.

The development, patenting and potential use of such technologies is just one sign of the mushrooming influence of multinational corporations on the global seed business. The relentless drive for more profits from plants, critics say, is endangering the natural diversity of crops on which humanity has depended for centuries.

Ministers and Scottish Water face legal action over sewage spills

from Sunday Herald, 10 February 2008

Scottish ministers and Scottish Water are both in the dock over a new £15 million waste plant that spills sewage into a marina up to a thousand times a year.

Ministers are facing legal action from the European Commission, while Scottish Water has been reported to the procurator fiscal by the government watchdog, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), for frequently breaching pollution rules.

If Scottish Water is convicted, it will be the 17th time it has been found guilty of a sewage pollution offence since November 2004. According to environmental groups, the public agency is “Scotland’s most frequently prosecuted environmental criminal”.

Plan to dig out old waste dump for new schools

from Sunday Herald, 10 February 2008

An unprecedented plan to excavate a giant waste dump dating back more than 60 years to make way for two new schools has prompted fears of an environmental disaster.

North Lanarkshire Council last week gave the green light to building St Ambrose and Drumpark secondary schools on an old landfill site in Coatbridge. But in order to prevent the build-up of explosive methane leaking from the site, the council is planning to remove all the waste.

For council officials this is “challenging”, but for local residents and politicians, it’s frightening. “It’s an appalling idea,” said Joe Ambrose (61), who overlooks the site from his front window.

The historic toilet in the way of a new Forth bridge

from Sunday Herald, 03 February 2008

The government’s controversial £4 billion plan to build another road bridge across the Firth of Forth is going to run into an unexpected hitch: a historic toilet.

A First World War latrine at Port Edgar in South Queensferry, along with a cell block, an air raid shelter and naval barracks, have all been put under legal protection by the government’s guardian of ancient monuments, Historic Scotland. But the buildings are directly in the way of the proposed new bridge.

The Sunday Herald can also reveal that another government agency, Transport Scotland, secretly tried to prevent the buildings from being protected in order to clear the path for the new bridge - a move that has been attacked as “inappropriate meddling” by environmentalists.

Green watchdog 'muzzled' on polluting farmers

from Sunday Herald, 03 February 2008

Scotland’s green watchdog held back a planned attack on polluting farmers after consulting government spin doctors, according to internal documents obtained by the Sunday Herald.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) completely rewrote a draft news release, after circulating it to ministerial media officials. An accusation that farmers’ leaders were being “misleading” was left out in favour of bland comments about the “key role” of agriculture in protecting the environment.

The revelation has prompted accusations from environmentalists that SEPA was “muzzled” by ministers in order not to offend the powerful farming lobby, though that is denied by SEPA and the Scottish government.

Forth oil plans cancelled

01 February 2008

Plans to pump millions of tonnes of Russian crude oil between tankers in the Firth of Forth have been abandoned. The harbour company Forth Ports announced this morning that it was not going ahead with the scheme, which has provoked widespread opposition.

"Given the uncertainty surrounding the scope of the proposed project, we have decided that this application is not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders," said Forth Ports chief executive, Charles Hammond.