Canadians fight landfill plans

In Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, the battle against a landfill site seemed to be over, but on 4 May around 600 people took part in a protest march from a local church to Site 41, the controversial location of the proposed dump.

Local activists were joined by environmentalist and Special Water Adviser to the UN, Maude Barlow, whose presence appears to have given a new impetus to the twenty-three year old campaign to stop the dump site which has been led by a constellation of interests including native Canadian land right protestors. Their concern is that the dump will contaminate local water supplies held in an underground aquifer.

However, the county is fighting back – it sent out a press release criticising ‘new opponents’ to the plan which, the county says, has been ‘debated, reviewed and approved’ and went on to suggest that other priority matters such as pandemic planning and the economic downturn were being neglected as a result of the media interest in the May 4 protest. Protestors, in turn, claimed that the issues are separate and shouldn’t be confused, they are talking about protecting their water supplies for future generations, not current economic or health problems.

More airport expansion protests in the UK

In the UK, powerful business leaders have taken a stand against the proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport in London. They include Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher, Russell Chambers of Credit Suisse, Sainsbury’s CEO Justing King and Charles Dunstone, head of Carphone Warehouse and their lobby group  says that the business case has not been adequately made by government while the environmental case for rejecting the runway has been resoundingly made by environmental groups. And, in an open letter published in the press and signed by them all, they say that there is not even a guarantee the new runway would serve more destinations, as the airlines government have claimed, rather, the evidence from the new Terminal 5 suggests that expansion on increases the number of flights on already popular routes.

Environmental protestors challenge UK police behaviour (again)

Following the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 protests in London and the claimed assaults by the police on several protestors, police forces across the UK are now being challenged on their use, or abuse, of special powers granted to them to manage large demonstrations. What makes this challenge notable is that it has been brought on behalf of twin boys, aged twelve, who were stopped and searched by police when they attended the Kingsnorth Climate Camp in Kent with their mother last year. The twins, then aged eleven, had stickers, badges and crayons confiscated and one boy was ‘traumatised’ by the experience because he thought he would have to go to jail when the items were taken from his bag by the police.

Judges decided the case should proceed because it dealt with ‘issues of general public importance’, overruling the Kent Police Force’s argument that searching the boys should not be considered a general policy. Lord Justice Keene said ‘Large demonstrations are a feature of our democracy, and the proper policing of them is itself a matter of some public importance.’

Heathrow Terminal 5 courtesy of garybembridge at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Having had a minor makeover in the form of a new terminal building which brings some aspects of travel via Heathrow into the 21^st century, most travellers are still subjected to an experience which does more to discourage flying than any environmental campaign could ever hope to achieve.

However, the real controversy at Heathrow right now concerns the proposal to build a third runway in response to ever increasing demands for capacity. This proposal has a significant environmental footprint; carbon emissions from additional flights alone will be equal to the those of the entire nation of Kenya, up to 4,000 houses may be bulldozed, including the entire village of Sipson, a graveyard and several historically relevant buildings.

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