Last issue, you reported on South Lakes Action on Climate Change’s legal challenge to the government’s approval of the proposed huge new coal mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria. (PN 2664)
I’d like to add to what Friends of the Earth are quoted as saying about the climate and employment impacts.
Figures of 500 jobs in the mine have been contrasted with over 9,000 green jobs that could be created in Cumbria.
However, one figure submitted by Scientists for Global Responsibility to the planning inquiry has received no media attention.
Using an economist’s estimate of global climate-related mortality before 2100, the additional coal mined would lead to 50,000 deaths or ‘100 extra deaths for each mining job that the developer is claiming to create’.
Thousands of pounds are still needed to fund the judicial review.