What on Earth 58

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s supporters’ magazine Issue 58 Spring / Summer 2012

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Contents

What on Earth 58 Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is: • Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation

WHAT ON EARTH SPRING/SUMMER 2012 3

• An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland • Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups – covering every continent.

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We have news from Moray, and our new star activist comes from Stirling this time.

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What on Earth is published by and copyrighted to: Friends of the Earth Scotland 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe-scotland.org.uk W: www.foe-scotland.org.uk

Campaigns Update Our intervention in a court case lead to a change in Scots law. We have also been out and about campaigning against RBS and for green transport.

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Campaigns Friends of the Earth International held their meeting on transformation in Scotland.

Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442.

Local Groups and Activism

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The bloody trail of gold A case study from Papua New Guinea on how gold mining leads to human rights abuses.

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A guide to 'new' fossil fuels A round-up of some of the new ways to feed our energy cravings.

10 What the Frack?

Editors: Davina Shiell and Per Fischer Picture Editor: Per Fischer Design: www.triggerpress.co.uk Advertising: Sheila Duffy Tel: 0131 243 2700 Cover Photo: Members of Friends of the Earth International’s executive committee show their support of the 'Occupy Edinburgh' protests in St Andrew's Square.

Photo: Friends of the Earth Scotland.

An in-depth look at the unconventional gas industry and its practices, including fracking.

12 CCS for cleaner electricity Professor Stuart Haszeldine from the University of Edinburgh examines the pros and cons of carbon capture and storage.

13 Dying to be eco-friendly The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements.

RE-USE AND SPREAD THE WORD When you have finished with this magazine, save it or pass it on to friends, a doctor’s surgery, school, student union, library or café. As a last resort recycle it.

More and more people are starting to consider how their passing impacts the environment. We look at the alternatives to traditional options.

14 The financial crisis is not over yet Financial analyst Ann Pettifor explains why she saw the economic crisis coming.

16 Your support and reviews Printed on Revive pure white silk 100% recycled paper

We have three new books reviewed for you.

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PHOTO: JOHN NyBERG, DENMARk.

View from the Street

Closing in on renewable energy.

Last year, 35 per cent of Scotland’s electricity demand was met from renewable sources, and with so many renewable energy projects under construction or consented in Scotland this figure is set to rocket in the coming years.

Our research has shown that, with some modest investment in energy efficiency and demand reduction, Scotland could produce 185 per cent of its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030, allowing plenty of safe and clean electricity for export and creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process. With additional improvements in interconnection, energy storage and deferrable demand, Scotland could actually phase out all of its coal, gas and nuclear electricity generation before 2030 and still deliver a secure and reliable electricity supply.

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

Our polling on this issue has showed that 88 per cent of Scots support reducing our reliance on imported gas and coal for the production of household electricity and instead want to see an increase in the

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amount of electricity produced from domestic renewable sources, especially wave and tidal, wind and solar.

that you’re able to assist in our policy development and campaign planning on these issues.

This is why it is so depressing that there are still those who are pushing for the extraction of ‘new’ and ‘hard to reach’ fossil fuels, as if climate change wasn’t happening and we can continue to pollute with impunity.

We’re also looking to recruit new members to our management board at our 2012 AGM. If you’re interested in becoming part of our team and are able to donate some time, effort or expertise on a voluntary basis, then please get in touch.

With oil companies being granted consent to drill in deep Arctic waters, plans to tag enhanced oil recovery schemes onto the back of carbon capture and storage projects, and the spread of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for shale gas and coalbed methane across Scotland, it’s clear that there are still those that would lock us into a high carbon future of climate change for short-term profit.

Of course not everyone wants to get that involved, but all of you can help us just by spreading the word. When you’re finished with this magazine, please pass it on to someone else. you can order more copies and distribute them locally, or use them to sign-up your friends, neighbours and colleagues as new members of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Every effort on your part is always very greatly appreciated.

This issue of What on Earth begins to look at these issues, and we hope you’ll join the debate around them at a conference to be held in Edinburgh after our AGM on Saturday 23 June 2012. Register your interest with us now and we’ll make sure

Thank you for your continued support.

This spring edition of What on Earth focuses on extractive industries. As this has been a key element of our work recently, we bring you stories from overseas as well as in-depth explanations of fracking and Carbon Capture and Storage, better know as CCS. The supporter conference following the Friends of the Earth Scotland Annual General Meeting in June 2012 will also be themed around extractive industries. you can register online at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/AGM2012 or use the letter included with the magazine.

Happy reading.

Stan Blackley Chief Executive

We are also featuring an interview with financial analyst Ann Pettifor, one of the key speakers at Friends of the Earth Scotland’s “Just Banking” conference, which took place just as this publication went to print.

Please do get in touch if you have feedback on any of the issues raised in the articles, or indeed if you have suggestions for things you would like to see covered in the future.

With best wishes, Per Fischer, Editor whatonearth@foe-scotland.org.uk

Local Groups and Activism

Friends of the Earth Edinburgh organised a fantastic visual stunt in January, protesting about the Scottish Government’s cuts in spending on walking and cycling provision, while also putting more money into roads.

As a result of a Stop Climate Chaos week of action the Scottish Government

Friends of the Earth Moray held a fascinating and well-attended event in Forres at the end of January. Jamie Whittle, an environment and conservation lawyer, explained the practical implications of the international treaty about participation in environmental decisions, the Aarhus Convention, in his daily work. Friends of the Earth Scotland

announced an extra £20.25 million for active transport over the next three years.

While this is still a small amount in comparison to their road-building budget, it is a clear campaign victory for the green movement in Scotland, showing that when we come out in force, it’s hard to ignore us!

campaigners Mary Church and Hannah kitchen went on to give a presentation about our Access to Environmental Justice campaign. There was a mix of people who were interested in the legal issues, and others who are currently fighting a development locally, and for whom the issues have taken on an urgent nature.

Walter has been coordinator of Friends of the Earth Stirling for a few years, and his attention to detail and commitment to campaigning is extraordinary.

He has recently been objecting to a plans for a new incinerator in the area.

He fears that it would mean more air pollution, and lock the local authority into providing waste to be burned for years to come, instead of reducing waste.

Walter followed the planning process very carefully, responding wherever he could, and carrying out his own research into the issues. He also attended a planning hearing and spoke against the planning application.

The application has been rejected, although the developer is appealing this decision.

We have produced a set of simple guides for community and campaigning groups to offer ideas and advice about key environmental issues. you can order free guides on waste reduction, local food and fuel poverty to use with your friends, community group, faith group or campaigning group. There is also a guide to green living, specifically aimed at people living in the Highlands.

Please contact the office to order copies for your local area on 0131 243 2700.

WHAT YOU CAN DO We have local groups all over Scotland, come along to a meeting near you.

Please visit www.foe-scotland.org.uk/localgroups

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Campaigns

From now on communities, individuals and NGOs should be able to challenge breaches of environmental law and poor decision-making in the courts, whether or not it has directly impacted on their private interest, for example a property.

As Scottish minister Stewart Stevenson MSP went to the UN climate negotiations in Durban to highlight our world-leading Climate Act, we took to song to point out that the Act is only as good as the behaviour of politicians and business leaders. Our Calvin Harris inspired ‘stuck in the 80s’ stunt outside parliament highlighted the ‘retro climate-crimes of’ keith Brown MSP, the Transport Minister (cutting active travel budgets), Callum Wilson of Forth Energy (planning big, inefficient biomass plants across Scotland), RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester (investing

The ruling was damning about the negative effect that years of judge-made law has had on the development of public law in Scotland, and called into question the basic premise of applying private law principles in public law cases, which a great many environmental cases are.

However, the hugely restrictive cost of legal action remains and the Scottish Government is dragging its heals on this front. We are continuing to pursue these issues through our parliamentary petition, which is now being examined by the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee.

billions in coal and tar sands) and Ayrshire Power’s Muir Miller (planning a new polluting coal power station).

This comes hot on the heels of our previous hit, a spoof of Jessie J's Price Tag, criticising the Royal Bank of Scotland’s greenwash efforts in sponsoring last years’ low carbon investment conference, in light of their continued investments in tar sands and coal.

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Watch the videos, share them with your friends and help them go viral: bit.ly/acceptable80s bit.ly/pumpthetarsands

PICTURE FROM: COLIN HATTERSLEy PHOTOGRAPHy

Last autumn we secured a crucial breakthrough in our access to environmental justice campaign, following our intervention in a case at the Uk Supreme Court. The court ruled that ‘title and interest’ – the test that individuals and communities had to pass to have their case heard – had no place in public interest litigation, and that a broad new ‘sufficient interest’ test must be introduced. As the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, this means we have effectively changed Scots law.

PICTURE FROM: COLIN HATTERSLEy PHOTOGRAPHy

Campaigns

We worked with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland to pull off a highly successful demonstration against cuts to the active travel budget, with 350 people on bikes congregating outside St. Andrew’s House on a cold January day, targeting Minister for Transport keith Brown MSP. Backed up with a detailed policy case and the Edinburgh local group’s ‘give keith Brown the boot’

stunt, we were successful in securing additional funding for walking and cycling measures, reversing previously proposed cuts in the government budget. While keith Brown came in for criticism due to the proposed cuts, he deserves credit for successfully making the case to ministerial colleagues for these to be reversed.

Following a great grassroots campaign from No Leith Biomass, FoES and others, in February Forth Energy withdrew their application for a 200MW biomass plant in Leith. While this is a great success, we will continue to support community groups campaigning against Forth Energy’s proposals in Grangemouth, Rosyth and Dundee, as well as lobbying the Scottish Government to ensure that their renewable subsidy review ensures sufficient safeguards to prevent large-scale biomass from receiving subsidies.

The campaign continues against the proposed 1600MW power station in Hunterston, Ayrshire. Thanks to Friends of the Earth Scotland, WWF, RSPB and other campaigns, over 20,000 official objections were generated, and the local council objected to the proposal. As a ‘statutory consultee’ the council’s objection has triggered a public inquiry. This is not expected to start until late 2012 at the earliest. We’ll continue to make the case that the developer, Peel, should stop wasting everyones time and withdraw their application.

Following an anti-renewables campaign from vested interests such as Donald Trump, the Scottish Parliament’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee launched an inquiry into the ‘achievability of the Scottish Government’s renewables targets’.

We gave evidence to the committee outlining how the government’s targets are not only achievable but could go further, enabling fossil fuels and nuclear to be phased out completely by 2030. The committee is due to publish a final report from its inquiry in June and we’ll continue to make the case for ambitious action on renewables and community-owned renewables in particular.

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News

23 JUNE 2012 Venue: Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh Come along to our Annual General Meeting in the morning to find out more about our activities over the last year.

In the afternoon we have a conference on extractive industries that is open to the public. Come along to find out more about: Fracking; Tar sands; Coal mining and Carbon capture and storage.

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

Register today at www.foescotland.org.uk/AGM2012 or complete the form on the letter enclosed with this copy of What on Earth.

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Over the last few months we said sad goodbyes to: Sam Adderley, Supporter Assistant Victoria Irvine, Finance Assistant Martine Moynes, Clerical Assistant Claire Addison, Trusts and Grants Fundraiser Francis Stuart, Policy and Parliamentary Officer Juliet Swann, Head of Projects and Campaigns.

We would like to thank all of you for your dedicated support over the year.

Clare McKeown is joining us as our new Trusts & Grants Fundraiser.

We have also had a re-shuffle and Davina Shiell's role has changed to Head of Campaigns and Communications.

30 campaigners from Friends of the Earth member groups around the world came to Scotland in October 2011 for a meeting on transformation. Transformation is the third pillar of Friends of the Earth International's work – we mobile, resist and transform!

The campaigners, who met in Wiston Lodge, near Biggar, explored what the federation means by 'transformation' and brainstormed project ideas.

The conclusion was that for a campaign to be 'transformational' it needs to fundamentally change power relations. In 2013 we are hoping to start a campaign alongside other groups in Friends of the Earth Europe on community ownership of renewables. There is already movement

towards this in Scotland, but we would like to call for 25% of Scotland's renewable energy to be in non-commercial ownership by 2020. This would be transformational as it would move power and ownership away from corporations to communities.

After the meeting on transformation, we had the pleasure of hosting Friends of the Earth International's Executive Committee's (ExCom) meeting in our office. The ExCom is made up of senior FoEI campaigners and directors from around the international federation. During their visit, the Occupy Movement set up camp in St Andrew's Square and the Excom joined them for a solidarity action.

Extractive Industries

The following case study is from a new report from Friends of the Earth International titled ‘Memory, Truth and Justice for heroes.’

Papua New Guinea: rape and killings In the central highlands of Papua New Guinea lies some of the highest grade gold in the world. The deposit is owned by the world’s largest gold producer, Canadian Barrick Gold. It is also one of the most controversial mines in the world with allegations of rapes, beatings and killings of community members by Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) security forces. Local grassroots human rights organisation, Akali Tange Association, issued a report in 2007 called ‘The Shooting Fields of Porgera Joint Venture’, documenting killings, torture, arbitrary arrest, and beatings by the mine’s security forces. Early in 2006 Barrick Gold took over the mine when it acquired Placer Dome, who had admitted to eight killings of community members by its security forces. There have been further allegations of killings by PJV security forces every year from 2007-2010. As a result of the killings, the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government established an investigation in 2006, but the findings have not been publicly released. On 2 December 2007, MiningWatch Canada filed a complaint with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or

Arbitrary Executions regarding killings of residents of Porgera by PJV’s private security guards, PNG Police, and Mobile Unit Police at the Porgera Mine. In March 2009 the Government of Papua New Guinea’s National Executive Council responded to a request by Member of Parliament Philip kikala of Lagaip-Porgera by deciding to deploy military and police in a “call out” to address “law and order issues” in the vicinity of the Porgera Joint Venture gold mine. On 18 April 2009, more than 200 troops including four mobile units, an air tactical unit and intelligence officials from the PNG Defence Force were deployed in Porgera in an operation named “Operation Ipili ‘09.” On 27 April 2009, at the Ungima village adjacent to the open pit mine, ‘Operation Ipili 2009’ had completely burnt down all the houses and evacuated the land. All eighty houses of the Ungima village, two houses in yokolama village and another four houses of kulapi village were burnt. Villagers who spoke up to protect their homes were bashed and bruised. Others were detained. Despite receiving condemnation from international NGOs such as Amnesty International and the Center for Housing Rights and Evictions – the Ungima village was burnt

down two more times over the next three months. Jetro Tulin from the Akali Tange Association and members of the Porgera Land Owners Association (PLOA) travelled to Barrick Gold’s annual shareholder meeting in Canada in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 to complain of human rights abuses at the hands of Barrick’s Security, such as gang rapes, only to have these allegation repeatedly denied by Barrick Gold. On 1 February 2011, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing gang rapes by Barrick’s security guards at the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea. The report identified ‘systemic failures on the part of Toronto based Barrick Gold that kept the company from recognising the risk of abuses, and responding to allegations that abuses had occurred.’ Barrick states that they take a ‘zero tolerance approach to human rights abuses’, yet Barrick didn’t act on the allegations from local leaders long before Human Rights Watch conducted its research.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Read the full report with case studies from around the world:bit.ly/justice4heroes

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Extractive Industries

TARSANDS IN SNOW: DAN WOyNILLOWICz, THE PEMBINA INSTITUTE

By campaigners Francis Stuart and Mary Church Most of the energy we use, whether it is to heat our homes, power our electricity, or fuel our cars, comes from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil are produced over many hundreds of thousands of years from decomposed organic matter. Because they take so long to form they are known as non-renewable resources.

As traditional resources dwindle, the industry is going to extreme lengths to extract and utilise those fossil fuels that remain. Below we set out some of the new techniques being used to fuel our energy needs.

Coal Underground coal gasification

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a way of utilising the energy in coal that is too thin, deep or difficult to extract. It involves drilling into the coal seam and injecting oxygen to trigger partial combustion underground. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide that is produced is captured through a parallel borehole and used as natural gas above ground.

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There are already a number of UCG consents across the Uk, including in the Firth of Forth. UCG carries with it a number of environmental risks including water contamination, increased risk of subsidence and the possibility of uncontrolled coal seam fires. This may explain why all Uk consents to date are offshore.

Opencast mining Opencast or openpit coal mining involves the removal of earth above the coal seam, resulting in quarries that give easy access to the coal. It contrasts with more traditional tunnel mining, where tunnels are constructed underground. Opencast mining is common in large parts of Scotland’s central belt, in eastern Europe and America. Opencast mining disrupts local

ecosystems and wildlife, and can have a huge and permanent impact on the visual landscape. Local communities can suffer health impacts from depleted air and water quality, not to mention the distress caused by the noise of mining.

Mountain top removal Mountain top removal or mountain top mining, as the name suggests, involves the removal of the top of a mountain in order to expose the underlying coal seams. This type of mining is most closely associated with the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States which involved using explosives to remove up to 400 feet of mountain. As you might imagine, this kind of mining has very significant environmental impacts similar to those associated with opencast, although perhaps the visual impact is even more striking and irreparable.

Oil Deepwater drilling Deepwater oil drilling is the process of extracting oil from depths of more than 500 feet. While many of these wells were previously considered economically unviable, dwindling conventional supplies and increased oil prices have led to drilling in previously unexplored areas such as Greenland, including by Scottish companies such as Cairn Energy. BP gained consent for a new deepwater well off the coast of Shetland, despite their oil response plan showing that in a worst case scenario of a ‘blowout’ around 75,000 barrels of oil a day for up to 140 days could be released into the North Sea. The recent Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates the risks associated with the move into ever-deeper waters all too well.

Enhanced oil recovery Enhanced or improved oil recovery covers a range of techniques used to increase the amount of oil that can be extracted from an

Extractive Industries

TARSANDS: CHRIS EVANS, THE PEMBINA INSTITUTE

oil well. Most commonly this involves injecting gas such as CO2 into an existing or old oil well. This can help reduce the viscosity of the crude oil as the gas mixes with it, making it easier to extract. Enhanced oil recovery is being developed in the US and Canada, and is linked with the move towards Carbon Capture and Storage technologies, because of the need for large quantities of CO2. The waste products can include toxic and radioactive substances, which are generally re-injected into the oil well for disposal.

Tar sands The ’tar sands’ are thick, oil rich bitumen held in semi-solid or solid sandstone. The vast reserves under the boreal forests of Alberta, Canada, are currently under commercial extraction, and further reserves exist in kazakhstan, Jordan, Madagascar, Russia and the Republic of Congo. Tar sands mining devastates the local environment, and communities in Alberta are seeing abnormally high rates of cancer and immune system diseases.

Well to burner greenhouse gas emissions are three to five times higher than conventional oil. The Royal Bank of Scotland is a major funder of tar sands extraction, financing companies involved in tar sands to the tune of over £7bn between 2007 and 2009.

Gas Unconventional gas is a term used to describe sources of gas that were historically too deep or difficult to extract, but are now becoming increasingly accessible and cost effective to exploit due to technological advances and high fossil fuel prices. Shale gas and coalbed methane are unconventional gases.

Coalbed methane Coalbed methane (CBM) is a gas that can be extracted from coal seams using a variety of techniques including deep vertical and horizontal drilling and fracking. In most CBM developments the seam needs to be ‘de-watered’ before gas extraction can happen, whether or not fracking is used. Testing for CBM extraction is currently taking place in the Scottish borders and the Forth Valley area.

It’s important to note the distinction between CBM and the utilisation of methane gas from current or abandoned coalmines.

Methane building up in coal mine seams is a safety risk both in terms of workers’ health and explosions and also an environmental risk in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Capturing and using this gas makes sense, however, drilling (vertically and horizontally, and fracking) deep down into unworked coal beds to extract methane that is still locked up – CBM – is a different matter altogether, and introduces new health, safety and environmental risks where they did not previously exist.

Shale gas Shale is a hard rock formation deep underground from which natural gas, largely composed of methane, can be extracted. As shale rock is brittle and non-permeable, hydraulic fracturing is used to extract the gas. Developments in horizontal drilling combined with fracking have made shale gas extraction much more economically viable in recent years. Due to high levels of global reserves, shale gas is seen by its advocates as a solution to our energy problems. Currently, there isn’t any shale gas extraction in Scotland, although Dart Energy hopes to exploit the Lothian and Black Metal shale reserve, which falls in one of their licenses.

There is an extensive feature on fracking on the following pages.

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Extractive Industries

By Mary Church, Campaigner you have probably come across the term ‘fracking’ in the news recently, and perhaps wondered if the reality is as ugly as the word. Maybe you heard about the new natural gas boom and wondered if, even hoped that, the reportedly vast reserves of shale and coalbed methane could be the answer to our energy needs. That is certainly what the industry would like us to think.

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

Hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – is a technique that, combined with advances in horizontal drilling, has opened up potentially vast reserves of shale gas and coalbed methane across the globe.

There is a growing body of evidence from the USA, where the unconventional gas industry is far more developed, that there are inherent and unacceptably high environmental and health risks associated with coalbed methane and shale gas extraction, whether or not fracking is used.

Fracking involves drilling deep into the Earth, vertically and horizontally, and pumping a mix of water, proppants (such as sand) and chemicals (including highly carcinogenic benzene and formaldehyde) into the borehole under high pressure to ease the flow of gas for extraction. It is an expensive process that is only economically viable when the price of fossil fuels is high.

Unconventional gas

Environmental impacts

Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is produced through the decomposition and heating of organic matter over many hundreds of thousands of years. Conventional gas extraction involves drilling vertically through rock formations into gas pockets, from which the gas rises through the borehole and is captured at the wellhead.

Recent media focus has been on the impacts of shale gas extraction and fracking, and there is a tendency to use these terms interchangeably, as shale drilling almost always involves fracking.

However, as these convenient and relatively easily accessed pockets dry up, the industry has been developing ways of extracting gas that is trapped inside the rock formations – known as unconventional gas. The Uk has potentially vast reserves of unconventional gas trapped inside shale rock and coal seams.

In Scotland, reserves are largely coalbed methane (CBM).

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Fracking

In Scotland we are largely concerned with CBM, which does not always require fracking. But the impacts of its exploitation are similar to those of the shale industry, and there are serious environmental problems even with non-fracked CBM.

Groundwater contamination A key risk associated with CBM and shale developments is contamination of groundwater and aquifers, leading to

Extractive Industries

contamination of drinking water and water used for agricultural purposes. Contaminated water could also find its way into wildlife and ecosystems.

Both methane and other substances naturally found within coal and shale, and the toxic chemicals used in fracking fluids, can find their way into groundwater and aquifers. Contamination can take place through increased mobility of particles of methane following drilling, from frack fluid that stays behind in the well, leakages of methane or frack fluids though damaged well heads or borehole casing, or through direct spillages of frack fluid, and well blowouts.

Produced water and fracking fluid disposal Hydraulic fracturing requires the use of vast quantities of water to be pumped into shale or coal seams under high pressure. A single shale gas ‘fracture treatment’ can use over 500,000 tonnes of water, but a well requiring multiple treatments may use several million tonnes. In addition to putting pressure on local water resources, there are risks associated with the disposal of and possible leakage of contaminated water.

Fracking for CBM requires less water than for shale because of the greater porosity of coal. With CBM, however, there is the additional problem of de-watering the coal seam and the disposal of this water, whether or not fracking takes place. This water can be very saline, and contain other substances absorbed from the coal. There is the added risk of depleting ground water and aquifers by extracting it from adjoining coal seams, and of possible subsidence.

Earth tremors Fracking has been suspended at a site near Blackpool following an industry study that confirmed the technique was the likely cause of recent earth tremors. The most important impact of these relatively low magnitude earth tremors is potential damage to borehole casing, leading to increased risk of fugitive emissions and contaminated water or fracking fluid escapage.

Additional risks include possible damage to sensitive equipment in any nearby data centres.

Surface impacts While the above ground infrastructure for an individual coalbed methane or shale well is fairly neat, there are numerous local environmental impacts such as noise, lorry traffic and landscaping. However, each CBM and shale development requires hundreds of wells, so the cumulative local environmental impacts over multiple sites needed for each of the numerous potential projects makes unconventional gas start to look a lot bigger, uglier and riskier.

Climate change Energy companies like to promote shale and CBM as a crucial ‘bridging fuel’ to ease the transition to a low carbon economy.

However, not only are unconventional gas extraction techniques very energy hungry, but an additional risk lies in the possibility of methane leakage, or ‘fugitive emissions’ from fractures and well bores. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential of at least 25 times that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period.

The crucial point is that even if it proved to be safe to extract this gas, burning it still contributes to climate change. Investing in unconventional gas now will lock us into to dangerously high greenhouse gas emissions and make it extremely difficult to meet our legally binding carbon reduction targets in 2050.

What is happening in Scotland?

There are currently six areas licensed for onshore gas exploitation in Scotland. However, later this year, the Uk Department for Energy and Climate Change is due to start tendering licenses covering the whole of the central belt of Scotland and Fife, as well as areas in the Scottish Borders. This means that in the coming years CBM, and to a lesser extent shale, activity in Scotland could increase enormously.

The first company to undertake fracking in Scotland is Greenpark Energy, who is fracking for coalbed methane at a test site in Dumfries and Galloway. Greenpark’s licenses were recently bought by Australian firm Dart Energy who are developing coalbed methane at Airth, near Stirling. A third company, Reach CSG is hoping to exploit coalbed methane in North Lanarkshire.

Our campaign We are calling on the Scottish Government to introduce policies to prevent unconventional gas exploration and development in Scotland, and increase support for renewables.

WHAT YOU CAN DO If you are concerned about a coalbed methane or shale development in your area, why not try to mobilise your community to become a ‘frack / CBM / shale free’ zone.

Visit foe-scotland.org.uk/fracking for more information.

Fracking photos and diagrams by Frack Off UK.

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Opinion: CCS

We asked Professor Stuart Haszeldine from the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, to give us his views on the pros and cons of Carbon Capture and Storage CCS. CCS is a technology that could potentially partly remove greenhouse gas emissions from energy production.

CCS is a set of existing technologies that could enable industrial combustion of coal, gas or oil, with 95 per cent reduced CO2 emissions at a powerplant or industry site.

Through the whole fuel chain, from extraction to disposal, the advantage is inevitably less – about a 75 per cent reduction. Why, then, should this be considered?

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

Advantages

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What advantages can CCS bring? First, it could work within the existing system – so the powerplant sites and wires, which make and transport electricity, can be reused. That saves decades of planning wrangles, and low carbon electricity can be delivered at a similar price to renewables.

Remember 38 per cent of Scottish households live in fuel poverty, so price is a factor. Second, CCS could take away 35 per cent of Scottish CO2 emissions, and provide low carbon electricity routinely by

2025. That enables development of electric cars and electric house heating to remove still more carbon emissions. Third, the power output is flexible, so that as renewables grow to dominate output, CCS fossil fuel is still available to be turned up rapidly on the calm or cold days and weeks when it is needed. Fourth, CCS can reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. If 10 per cent or more biomass, formed from atmospheric carbon, is co-combusted and the CO2 captured, that is a net reduction.

Fifth, Scotland has 50 per cent of the offshore storage capacity in Europe.

Disadvantages There are also disadvantages to CCS. First of these is that it doesn’t exist yet.

That is why very big grants are needed to get the first plant running. Only then will skeptical bankers and environmentalists believe its possible. Second, the energy used in capturing CO2 is 25-30 per cent of the fuel. But that penalty can be reduced to 15 per cent, or even just 2 per cent.

Historically, spectacular improvements occurred with both sulphur oxide (acid rain) and nitrogen oxide capture at power plants. Both of these were “impossible” initially, but are now cheap and routine.

Capturing carbon oxides will work too.

Third, maybe the stored carbon will leak?

Well, there are natural accumulations of CO2 beneath the North Sea which have been stored, along with oil or gas, for 55 million years. So we should look for more of the same geology. Even if leaks occur, the chances of being killed by CO2 seepage are less than winning the Uk lottery jackpot. Fourth, using CCS encourages extraction of coal, oil and gas.

These fuels are convenient and cheap, and will be extracted and burned anyway.

Better, then, to tax emissions, which discourages fossil use, while also providing clean electricity from renewables and CCS, so that citizens have something good to change towards.

Why Scotland?

Simple. Because we can. Scotland has the powerplants, the engineers and scientists, and huge storage. And because we should.

Scotland invented the industrial revolution, so we had better help to clean it up.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Come along to our AGM + Supporter Conference and hear Professor Haszeldine speak, and join a debate about the pros and cons of CCS. www.foe-scotland.org.uk/AGM2012

Green Funerals

By Stan Blackley, Chief Executive

Death may still be a taboo subject for some, but more and more people nowadays are considering the environmental impact of their dying. Having lived an environmentally friendly lifestyle it’s only natural that someone planning for their passing might want to minimise the environmental impacts of that event.

environmentally friendly coffins available and promotes natural and woodland burials. There are a growing number of woodland burial sites throughout Scotland that are managed for their landscape and biodiversity value rather than just their function as a graveyard, which may be particularly attractive to those who’ve spent their life enjoying nature and wildlife.

More than three in every four of those dying each year are currently cremated, yet modern crematoria use massive amounts of energy and release large quantities of pollutants into the atmosphere, including mercury from the burning of teeth containing amalgam fillings.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not a legal requirement that a coffin be used to accommodate a dead body. A body should be fully covered in public, but the method of doing so is entirely up to whoever is responsible for the disposal of that body.

By burying bodies we place large amounts of hardwoods, plastics, metals and materials such as glues and embalming chemicals directly into the ground. Dental fillings also pose an environmental hazard in burial as mercury can leech into ground water.

Until recently, the choice has been limited between cremation and burial, but this is slowly changing, with more environmentally friendly options appearing on the market.

The Co-operative Funeralcare already offers environmentally sensitive options and it is now putting resources behind the development of resomation (www.resomation.com), which uses the natural process of alkaline hydrolysis to break the body down chemically, leaving only a quantity of ash and sterile liquid. Other new developments include cryomation (www.cryomation.co.uk) and promession (www.promessa.org.uk), both of which use liquid nitrogen to freeze dry the body and vacuums to remove moisture until it is brittle, at which point it is reduced into a sterile powder.

These processes have been shown to use considerably less energy than conventional cremation, release few or no pollutants into the air and soil, and remove contaminants such as mercury, leaving only a small amount of organic, odourless, hygienic remains that can be scattered like ashes or buried anywhere with the appropriate permissions.

This has, in part, led to an explosion of suppliers, like Bellacouche and Greenfield creations, offering coffins and caskets made from cardboard, bamboo or woven willow, as well as woollen, felt or cotton shrouds, and urns made from organic clay or papier mache, all of which are readily biodegrade and use less embodied energy in their production than traditional coffins and urns do.

These alternatives can cost a fraction of the more ostentatious traditional models.

With around 60,000 people dying in Scotland each year, it’s clear that we’ll see more and more options of this kind becoming available. One way to ensure that you protect the environment when you die is to give a gift in your will to Friends of the Earth Scotland.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Find out more about leaving a gift to FoES in your willwww.foe-scotland.org.uk/legacy Or call the office and request a legacy brochure: 0131 243 2700

If the names and descriptions of these processes are offputting, there are always ways to reduce the environmental impact of being buried. The Association of Green Funeral Directors advises its members to avoid embalming wherever possible, encourages members to make a range of

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Interview

Ann Pettifor, analyst of the global financial system and co-author of the Green New Deal, spoke at Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Just Banking conference In Edinburgh in April 2012. Ann is known for her role in leading the Jubilee 2000 campaign and for correctly predicting the Anglo-American debt-deflationary crisis back in 2003. In advance of the conference we asked for her perspective on the current economic crisis.

Interview by Matthew Crighton, Friends of the Earth Scotland Board Member

How did you see the crisis coming, when so many economists did not?

It was a great and mostly unrecognised Scot, John Law, who first understood the nature of credit and helped invent western banking systems – which in turn led to periods of great prosperity as well as financial crises.

Most economists pay little attention to John Law, and most economic textbooks omit any discussion of the central and private bank’s roles in creating credit. We have come to know the central bank’s power to create credit as “quantitative easing” - a monetary operation performed by the Bank of England, as happened last month when it generated £50bn ‘out of thin air’.

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

But the Bank has engaged in such operations since it was founded in 1694. And credit creation is not limited to the central bank; private banks also have the power to create credit out of thin air too.

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When I approach a private bank for a loan for a mortgage, the money does not come out of someone’s ‘savings’ in the bank’s vaults. That money does not exist when I apply for the loan. It is my application that creates the loan, and the subsequent deposits of cash in my bank account. yet most economic textbooks persist in writing of banks as ‘financial intermediaries’ that simply swap someone’s savings for another’s loan. So no wonder orthodox economists were unable to predict the crisis!

If banks are merely ‘intermediaries’, then there never would have been a ‘credit crunch’ or financial crisis – caused by excessive, unregulated and often fraudulent lending.

So how did you manage to predict the crash?

Thanks to the work that I was privileged to do in the Jubilee 2000 campaign, I gained insights into the crazy recklessness of global finance – from an eagle-eye view. Most economists in the Uk were transfixed by the illusory appearance of the system’s success in promoting ‘growth’. But I was fortunate in being a little distanced from it and in watching its impact on the periphery of the global economy.

It became clear to me that the crisis had its origins in the de-regulation of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and that the crisis began in the ‘70s on the periphery – i.e. in the poor countries of Africa, Latin America and Asia – and then gradually moved to the core.

But they are all victims of ‘easy’ – deregulated – but ‘dear’ money i.e. money lent recklessly at unsustainable rates of interest.

Why do you think that the financial crisis will get worse still?

Because the authorities have not fixed the broken banking system. Banks are effectively insolvent, which is why they are not lending. Instead of being a lending machine, banks have become borrowing machines – borrowing from the real, productive economy, rather than lending to it.

Second, the authorities have not managed the orderly writedown, write-off or ‘re-structuring’ of the massive private debts that now bedevil the Uk economy. Private debts equal about 400 per cent of GDP while the public debt which is just under 70 per cent. Instead there is this ideological and myopic obsession with the public sector’s debt – largely brought about by private sector failure.

Interview

“The costs of de-carbonising the economy over the next 50 years are eminently affordable… provided of course, that we get a grip on that great public good: the finance sector.

“But so long as we fumble about, trying to mobilise and direct pension funds and other ‘savings’ …for so long shall we have a blind spot for the real answer to financing decarbonisation”.

Ann Pettifor at the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, 2011

Thirdly, the banking system, still de-regulated, is still creating bubbles – in commodities, in gold, in property, in currencies – and these bubbles will burst.

Fourth, the failure of the banking system to lend at sustainable, repayable rates of interest, means that firms are not investing.

Instead they are hoarding cash, fearful that the broken banking system might collapse again.

Fifth, and perhaps most disastrously, the Uk government is exacerbating these big structural problems by cutting government spending and ratcheting up unemployment, further disabling the private sector. Rising unemployment means that people snap their purses shut.

Deliberate contraction of the economy by government scares the hell out of private investors.

All of these elements make it likely that Britain will strain to recover.

The Jubilee 2000 campaign advocated the cancellation of debts owed by the poorest countries. Should the same principle apply in the debt crises we face in the West now?

First, we have to acknowledge that most of this debt will never be repaid. Then, we already have processes for managing unpayable debts: we call it bankruptcy law.

But the process has to be managed – and for that we need the ‘authorities’ to intervene. Right now everyone lives in cloudcuckoo land: we can lend to poor people, starve them, bleed them of all their assets and still expect to collect the debt repayments.

What is your response to the argument that we do not have the money to invest in the transition to a low carbon sustainable economy, it will have to wait until we have the economy back on track?

The idea that, as George Osborne says ‘we have run out of money’, is ludicrous given what John Law taught us. Both the central bank and private banks have powers to create credit.

The wrong-headed and amoral liberalisation that preceded the 1929 crash and 2007 – 2012 financial crisis wrenched these powers from society as a whole, into the hands of the small banking elite. The result was catastrophic economic failure in both 1929 and 2007.

We need a Green New Deal! As one of its authors, I refer you to the documents on our site: www.greennewdealgroup.org

WHAT YOU CAN DO Watch the video from our Just Banking conference: www.justbanking.org.uk/

15

Your support

Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets at the end of last year. This goes a long way to help our campaigns. Special thanks to the companies who gave all the fabulous prizes to us for free, including Crubenbeg Holiday Cottages, Active Outdoor Pursuits, GreenPeople, Cairn o’Mohr fruit wines.

A great night was had by all at our ceilidh in February. The Robert Fish Band had everyone dancing all night. Many thanks to the Ceilidh Collective for doing such a great job of organising it.

Reviews

By Claire Addison Written by our colleague David Hallowes of groundWork (Friends of the Earth South Africa), Toxic Futures investigates the collision between the crises of energy, environment and capital. It demonstrates how environmental injustice in South Africa has brought major benefits to the rich and imposed destructive harm on the poor.

The book explains the systems which allow environmental damage, provides case studies of the communities throughout Africa which have are on the front line of environmental injustice and offers alternative ways of structuring our ecological and economic processes to benefit people and planet. The book goes beyond climate change impacts, focusing on more immediately apparent harms such as mining and petrochemical production which necessitate keeping the poor at the bottom of the pile.

By Gus Langlands

What on Earth Spring/Summer 2012

We held another successful craft fair in the Eric Liddell Centre, Edinburgh in November 2011 with diverse handmade crafts such as jewellery, scented candles, glass, scarves and even chutney. We have others planned for the same venue on Saturday 28 April and 4 August.

16

Henderson’s of Edinburgh was the venue for our fundraising dinner again last October. As always, the food was delicious but this time we had the company of our colleagues from other Friends of the Earth groups around the world, who were in Edinburgh for meetings. There were people from Malaysia, Africa, USA, Uruguay, Croatia and South Africa to name a few. Thanks to Henderson’s for their hospitality.

Our six months free gift membership was very popular, especially as we sent it with our unique ‘Seasons Greetings’ card. If there is a birthday, wedding, new home gift needed why not think of giving a membership to Friends of the Earth Scotland? A gift that gives long after it is given. www.foe-scotland.org.uk/gift-membership

I have been a campaigner all my adult life, but it is hard to recall a greater personal accomplishment than that achieved by Australians John Read and his wife katherine. Having enjoyed their honeymoon in the Solomon Islands, they heard about Tetepare, which is the largest uninhabited island in the entire South Pacific. However this pristine wilderness was in imminent danger of being utterly destroyed by loggers and so against all the very powerful vested interests, they determined to save this irreplaceable island and its ecology. Without their extraordinary and unswerving resolve, braving the dangers of sharks, crocodiles, malaria and lengthy ocean crossings in small canoes, “The Last Wild Island” and all its wildlife would almost certainly now be destroyed. This entertaining book describes how their dream was realised. www.tetepare.org

Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa

By Per Fischer Nnimmo Bassey is the Chair of Friends of the Earth International, and also heads Friends of the Earth Nigeria. In addition to being an environmental campaigner, Nnimmo is a published poet, and now he has written an book about the exploitation of Africa over time. It is important, and unpleasant reading.

Africa is a rich continent, and its resources have attracted people and companies from Europe and America in particular. It continues today where extractive industries from rich developed countries mine, burn and drill for oil and gas, paying no attention to the destruction of the environment, human rights violations, or indeed the impact on global climate change.

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“Tread lightly on this earth, even when leaving it...”

Send your unwanted Jewellery for Recycling. It doesn’t matter if it is single earrings, costume jewellery or if it is broken. Anything can be recycled and we will receive a donation.

Send it to: Friends of the Earth Scotland FREEPOST License RSkJ-AJAB-GSyA Fundraising Sutton Coldfield B75 5BH Or phone 0800 633 5323 and a FREEPOST envelope will be posted out to you Shop for ethical, environmentally friendly clothes, homeware, toys and much more at Ethictrade and we receive commission on the sale. www.foescotland.ethictrade.com

Do you have a bike or a car? If you insure your bike or get Green Breakdown Cover for your care and we will receive commission from the Ethical Transport Association. you can join up online at www.eta.co.uk/foe-scotland

Shop for eco-books, DVDs and products from Amazon through our Eco-store and we receive a donation – astore.amazon.co.uk/frieoftheeart-21 Switch your phone supplier to the Phone Co-op and receive a £10 credit off your first bill, plus they will donate 6% of your monthly bills to us www.thephone.coop/foescotland

Give as you Live Shop online and we receive a donation – at no cost you you. www.giveasyoulive.com

you can see all of these ideas in full and many more on our website www.foe-scotland.org.uk/supportus

S

ometimes we receive large and small donations from kind donors who choose to remember us in their will. We are enormously grateful for these legacies, which enable us to continue our work despite the economic downturn.

Leaving us a gift in your will can help us to continue campaigning to protect the environment for generations to come. Please consider us when writing or updating your will.

To request a brochure on leaving a leagacy, please contact Vicki Bradley on 0131 243 2724.

Find out more about leaving a gift www.foe-scotland.org.uk/legacy