Green

Satisfied with the European Commission's response to Fukushima, the European parliament petitions committee closed four petitions which raised concerns about the safety of nuclear power stations. However, Plaid Cymru's group in the parliament (Greens/EFA) has raised serious doubts about the Commission’s “stress tests”. An independent study highlighted their failure to assess the risks of accidents. For example, they do not evaluate the risks of fire, human failure or an aeroplane crash.…

On 15 March, Plaid Cymru will elect a new leader. Known by environmentalists as ‘Ieuan Air’ on account of his practice of flying from his constituency in Ynys Mon (Anglesey) to Cardiff, Ieuan Wyn Jones is standing down.

Four candidates have declared their intention to stand in the election: Elin Jones, Lord Elis Thomas, Simon Thomas and Leanne Wood. Progressive MEP Jill Evans told PN: “This is a critical time in Welsh politics and a very exciting one. We have to have a real and honest…

On 14 October, Greenpeace launched its third Rainbow Warrior in Berne-Motzen, Germany. Greenpeace’s first purpose-built campaigning ship, the Rainbow Warrior carries state-of-the-art communications equipment, two fast boats and can carry a helicopter. The motor-assisted 58m-long yacht has large sails which help keep her carbon footprint to a minimum, making her one of the most environmentally-friendly vessels of her class. The £14.6m construction cost of the new Rainbow Warrior (10-15% of…

On 10 November, a Paris court gave four men working for EDF, the French nuclear energy company, fines and prison sentences for a surveillance operation in 2006 that included hacking into Greenpeace France’s computers. EDF itself was fined €1.5m, and ordered to pay €500,000 (£427,770) in damages to Greenpeace.

Pascal Durieux, EDF’s head of nuclear production security in 2006, was jailed for one year (three years with two suspended) and given a €10,000 fine. His deputy, Pierre-Paul…

Unsilenced, John Stewart and Dan Glass speak on aviation resistance to a US audience in San Jose University via Skype

A new US-wide activist network is to be set up to oppose the soaring growth of aviation in America.

This exciting development follows the Aviation Justice Express tour in which John Stewart and I were invited to share the great British people’s victory against Heathrow’s third runway with people in the USA. The invitation…

On 9 July, 17 enthusiastic young cyclists from Dyfodol (The Welsh Youth Forum for Sustainable Development) set off from Corris in Gwynedd on a five-day, 160-mile bike ride to Cardiff.

Funded by The Co-operative, this is the fourth consecutive year for the Carbon Cycle, and numbers continue to grow. The ride was to increase awareness and call for better cycling provisions in Wales and raise sponsorship money for Project Mongolia, a collaborative venture between young climate activists…

In July of this year, following exhibitions in Llangollen and Carmarthen, there was an exhibition of Emily Johns’ prints “Conscious Oil” at the environment centre in Swansea. These pictures have a dramatic impact on most people who see them, and have prompted debate throughout the sustainability movement in South-West Wales.

On 22 July the exhibition was accompanied by talks by Aghogho Okpako on the oil spills in the Niger Delta and the "Wild Law" barrister Polly Higgins on the need…

This issue we carry a report from a participant in this year’s Uncivilisation festival, inspired by the Dark Mountain project and manifesto (see p3). This is a very intriguing initiative, self-consciously metaphorical. There are two faces to the Dark Mountain manifesto, it seems to us. On the one hand, it is refreshing to hear despair honestly spoken: “our sense that civilisation as we have known it is coming to an end; brought down by a rapidly changing climate, a cancerous economic system…

Uncivilisation 2011, the Dark Mountain festival, sold all its 300 (£60) weekend tickets and took place from 19-21 August at the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire. The festival was born out of the Dark Mountain Project and its manifesto, conceived by Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine. The manifesto, which “starts with our sense that civilisation as we have known it is coming to an end; brought down by a rapidly changing climate, a cancerous economic system and the ongoing mass destruction of…

As the last “male principal speaker” for the Green Party for England and Wales, the author of numerous books on environmentalism and a lecturer in political economy, Derek Wall is well placed to write on Green politics.

Due to the quickening climate crisis, it is a politics he describes, in the No-nonsense Guide, as one “of survival”. Wall manages to pack a lot of interesting information and ideas into a short book, including summaries of what he sees as the four pillars of Green…

The third runway campaign is one of the seminal success stories of recent years. A coalition that encompassed local authorities, direct action groups, local resid-ents associations, and others, took on the entwined might of government and aviation industry and won a famous victory.

This booklet outlines the history of that campaign from its beginnings in 1997 to the decision in 2010 to scrap plans for a third runway. It explains the strategy and tactics that worked, the problems that…

A Greenpeace-commissioned satellite map of the world released on 13 April has shown that only 10% of the world is covered by intact forest, at the same time the most valuable of these forests are being threatened by logging and farm expansion.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), activist groups are working with local organisations to stop the destruction of the largest remaining forest in the Asia Pacific region. On 11 April activists from the Rainbow Warrior demonstrated in front of a ship…

At the beginning of April protestors from Wales were out in force in Brussels. Supported by Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans and AM Bethan Jenkins, environmental groups petitioned the European Parliament against the National Grid’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline.
The European Commission has been looking into possible breaches of EU law relating to the pipeline, which stretches 150 miles from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire.
Meanwhile, residents opposed to the Hafod landfill…

As part of Bike Week 2008 (14-22 June), cyclists from all over Wales will be riding to a rally in Cardiff. Youth, cycling and environmental groups, including the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development (WYFSD), Scouts and Grwp Beic Aberystwyth, are promoting the ride, which in mid-Wales will start on Wednesday 18 June, finishing in Cardiff on the Saturday.

En route, cyclists will stop off to find out about local environmental campaigns. In Merthyr Tydfil, for example, cyclists…