Rob Edwards

RBS pulls out of climate campaign sponsorship after protest

from The Guardian, 28 November 2011

Protestors have claimed a victory after the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) pulled out of a major sponsorship deal with the UK’s largest campaign to cut climate pollution.

RBS will not be sponsoring Climate Week in March 2012, a government and industry-backed effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bank’s high-profile support for the event this year was dogged by accusations of “corporate greenwash” because of its multi-billion pound financial aid for polluting industries like oil and tar sands.

“With RBS being the UK bank most heavily involved in financing fossil fuels, it was clear that their sponsorship of Climate Week in 2011 was a case of greenwash,” said Liz Murray, from the World Development Movement, which campaigns against poverty.

“We’re pleased that they heeded our criticisms and decided to step down from sponsoring the event in 2012. Now they need to move beyond greenwash and look at their core business.”

Dress up as polar bears but don’t post pictures, Greenpeace told

Exclusive, 28 November 2011

It may be legal to dress up as polar bears and occupy the offices of a big oil company, but if you post pictures of your costumed protest online you could go to jail.

That is what the Greenpeace activists who invaded the Edinburgh offices of Cairn Energy to complain about climate pollution have been told. Though they were last week cleared of breach of the peace charges by Edinburgh Sheriff Court, the company is still enforcing an interdict that prevents pictures of the protest being published.

Cairn’s lawyers have insisted that a photo showing people clad as polar bears lying around the company’s offices be removed from a Greenpeace website. The penalty for not doing so would be a fine of up to £10,000 or imprisonment.

In response Greenpeace has blacked out the picture, and asked the court to withdraw or reduce the scope of the interdict. It was served in July after more than 40 activists dressed as polar bears took over Cairn’s offices in an early morning raid.

£2 billion being spent on nuclear bomb plants

from The Guardian, 27 November 2011

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is spending £2 billion on new nuclear weapons plants before a formal decision has been taken over whether to replace Trident warheads, according to ministers.

The revelation has prompted fierce attacks on the MoD for making “a complete mockery” of democracy by pre-empting a decision and so attempting to force the hands of future governments.

The ministry, however, argues that part of the investment helps to ensure the safety of the existing Trident warheads. But it accepts that the money also maintains the capability to design a new warhead “should that be required”.

Details of the MoD’s huge investments in plants for putting together and taking apart warheads, making enriched uranium components and high explosives have been unveiled for the first time. The plants are being built at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.

The most expensive plant, called Mensa, is a £734 million facility for “warhead assembly/disassembly”, a risky but essential maintenance process. Then there is Pegasus, a £634 million highly enriched uranium plant, and Circinus, a £231 million high explosives plant.

Scottish government under fire for failing to cut climate pollution

from Sunday Herald, 27 November 2011

Scottish ministers are coming under mounting pressure to reverse their “embarrassing” failures to put in place the policies needed to cut the pollution that is altering the climate.

As the climate change minister, Stewart Stevenson, heads for the world’s crucial next round of climate talks in Durban, South Africa, his government is coming under fierce fire at home for slashing spending on environmentally-friendly travel and not doing enough to save energy in homes.

A powerful coalition of groups representing substantial swathes of Scottish society are pressing ministers to drop their budget plans to cut spending on “sustainable and active travel” by a third. The spending review in September proposed reducing the money available for improving walking, cycling and other low-polluting travel facilities from £25 million in 2011-12 to £16 million in 2012-13.

“Scotland’s track record on this issue is embarrassing to the point of recklessness,” according to Scottish Environment Link, which represents 36 environmental and recreation groups with half a million members.

In a letter to ministers on Friday, Link’s chair, Deborah Long, condemned the cutback to the active travel budget. It contradicted the SNP’s manifesto pledge to increase spending, and would damage public health, she argued.

The climate hope that’s disappearing in Durban

from Sunday Herald, 27 November 2011

So here we are again. Another big world summit on climate change, another set of desperate hopes and promises, and another feeling that we’re heading for a fall.

The 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) opens in Durban, South Africa, tomorrow (Monday). Ministers and officials from some 200 countries, including the redoubtable Stewart Stevenson from Scotland, will gather to try and hammer out progress on cutting the pollution that is wrecking the climate.

Prospects for the summit are about as bleak as they could be. No one expects any major breakthroughs, and no one believes that a legally-binding agreement – promised for Copenhagen two years ago and again for Cancun last year – will be reached.

In fact, the latest reports suggest that all the major industrialised nations have given up on making such an agreement until 2016, and even then it wouldn’t come into force until 2020. For the poorer countries struggling to survive the droughts, floods and storms already being triggered by climate change, that is much too late.

Perhaps that is why the former president of Costa Rica, José María Figueres, has called for an extension of the worldwide ‘occupy’ movement provoked by the banking crisis to Durban. “I have called on all vulnerable countries to occupy Durban,” he said.

More nuclear workers risk being bribed, warns security watchdog

exclusive, 21 November 2011

The economic crisis has triggered a significant increase in the number of nuclear workers vulnerable to bribes, the government’s nuclear security watchdog has warned.

Roger Brunt, who was director of civil nuclear security with the Office for Nuclear Regulation, has revealed that growing numbers of workers vetted for national security reasons have run into financial difficulties, and had their clearances reviewed.

In a report to ministers covering 2009-11, released online today, Brunt also expressed concern about the vetting of foreign workers. He disclosed a problem with the security of nuclear information, and said that the proportion of nuclear police who were armed had risen.

Brunt has been head of the Office for Civil Nuclear Security, which in April merged with the Officer for Nuclear Regulation, for the last seven years. His job has been to prevent the theft of nuclear materials to make bombs, or the sabotage of nuclear plants by people “with a malicious agenda”.

That includes ensuring that workers with access to plutonium, or other sensitive materials or facilities, don’t pose an “insider threat”. But increasing money worries caused by the banking crisis have put more of them in danger of being tempted by bribes.

Revealed: the toxic pesticides that pollute our lochs

from Sunday Herald, 20 November 2011

They look like pristine, unpolluted beauty spots - but in fact they are contaminated with toxic pesticides.

The sea lochs that line Scotland’s north west coast, famed for their natural splendour, are polluted by poisonous chemicals used by fish farms, surveys by the Scottish government’s green watchdog have revealed.

The sediments in nine sea lochs – all those surveyed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) – have been found to contain detectable levels of pesticides widely used to kill the sea lice that eat caged salmon.

Although Sepa stresses that the levels are mostly low, environmentalists, anglers and creel fishers condemn the contamination as unacceptable. And they claim that the chemicals could be damaging marine wildlife.

Sepa has released the results of its latest surveys of sea lochs for four pesticides: teflubenzuron, diflubenzuron, emamectin and ivermectin. They are all chemical compounds for treating salmon infested with sea lice, though land managers can also use them.

Traces of emamectin were found in sediment at all nine lochs tested in 2008 and 2009, including Loch Linnhe, Loch Ewe, Loch Nevis, Loch Fyne and lochs around Skye, Mull and the Summer Isles. Teflubenzuron was found at six lochs, and diflubenzuron at four (see table below).

Dangers of uranium weapons to be reviewed after MoD admit gaffe

from The Guardian, 14 November 2011

The armed forces minister has been forced to apologise over misleading statements he made regarding the legality and dangers of depleted uranium (DU) weapons.

Nick Harvey admitted that he had inadvertently misled MPs about a Ministry of Defence (MoD) review that he said had concluded the weapons were permissible on humanitarian and environmental grounds under the Geneva conventions.

It subsequently emerged that the review had never happened, and Harvey has apologised for the error, which he said had been made "in good faith". He has ordered that a review into the weapons' legality be carried out by civil servants. The department is facing calls for the weapons to be suspended until it is completed.

The revelations come as a new cross-party campaign is launched to pile pressure on the MoD to phase out the use of DU. The tank shells that depend on it have to be renewed in 2013.

DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as waste by the nuclear power industry that is included in weapons because it is an extremely hard material capable of piercing armour. Once the frontline has moved on, however, it can contaminate the environment, and has been linked to health problems in civilian populations.

Crackdown on toxic waste trade that contaminates Africa

from Sunday Herald, 13 November, 2011

More than 40 shipments of toxic waste that could contaminate developing countries have been prevented from leaving Scotland in the latest attempt to crack down on the multi-million-pound criminal trade in waste.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), the government’s green watchdog, has this year stopped or sent back export containers full of broken TVs, defunct computers, old fridges, contaminated paper, worn-out tyres and even clapped-out cars.

According to officials, the hazardous junk is heading for Africa or Asia, where much is likely to end up being burnt or dumped, triggering the escape of poisonous toxins that will pollute air and water. Sometimes electronic items will be dismantled using child labour, in a business that has links to serious, organised crime, they say.

The illegal trade is driven by the big profits to be made by selling unsafe or polluting equipment abroad, or by extracting valuable components and materials. A Sepa study suggests that traders would be able to make a profit of around £7,000 for every container of old TVs they export.

“Illegal shipments are a way for criminals to make serious money by dumping our waste on other countries,” John Kenny, Sepa’s waste and enforcement manager told the Sunday Herald.

“There are significant risks to the environment and human health as a result. That’s why Sepa is cracking down on those who flout the law by stopping waste, before it leaves Scotland, through intelligence sharing and targeted inspections.”

Plan to test uranium weapons in Scotland again

from Sunday Herald, 06 November 2011

Depleted uranium (DU) weapons are set to be tested in Scotland again in the next two years because they have to be renewed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Sunday Herald has learnt.

The resumption of DU tests at the Dundrennan military firing range near Kirkcudbright on the Solway coast will reignite opposition from the Scottish government and environmentalists worried about pollution and possible health effects.

The revelation comes as politicians and campaigners launch a new drive today to persuade the MoD to drop DU weapons. A motion at Westminster has been backed by Labour, Liberal, Conservative, nationalist and other MPs.

DU is a radioactive and chemically toxic heavy metal produced as waste by the nuclear industry. It has been widely used by UK and US military forces to harden armour-piercing shells fired in the Gulf, Balkans and Iraq wars.

When DU weapons burn, they release a hazardous dust that can contaminate wide areas. Civilians and soldiers exposed to the contamination claim to have suffered from cancers, birth defects and other illnesses as a result.

The secret history of DU testing in Scotland

for Sunday Herald, 06 November 2011

Depleted uranium (DU) weapons were tested in Scotland despite warnings from Ministry of Defence (MoD) scientists that the contamination they would cause could never be cleaned up, government documents reveal.

Fierce opposition to anything nuclear north of the border also caused the MoD to conceal its real intentions on DU testing. In an attempt to defuse public anxiety, MoD officials even proposed giving uranium another name.

Previously secret government records made available in the National Archive give a fascinating insight into the political manipulation and manoeuvring that went on behind the scenes in the 1970s to try and ensure that Scotland didn’t thwart MoD plans to test fire DU munitions at the Dundrennan military range near Kirkcudbright.

An internal MoD memo from 1973 warned that test firing would leave parts of the range contaminated by “very persistent dust”. It added: “It will probably be impossible to remove this completely and initial consideration of this fact is essential.”