Brian Bunyan
Waste disposal and pipeline developments seem to be the bane of environmentalists the world over. Permanent damage and destruction of the land follow wherever dumps and terminals are sited.
So far, 2007 has seen the development of two relatively new campaigns: to save Radley Lakes in Oxfordshire from toxic ash, and the Brecon Beacons in south Wales from a high-pressure pipeline.
Save Radley Lakes Two lakes, Thrupp and Bullfield, in Radley near Abingdon in south Oxfordshire are…
Recent weeks have seen two victories that should roll back years of deteriorating standards and ensure a healthy food environment for children across the country.
On 19 May, Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced new minimum nutrition standards that will be effective from September 2006. The first unhealthy victims are meals high in low-quality meats, salt, fat and sugar. Vending machines and tuck shops are also being given the boot. Meanwhile, the Nottingham-based Veggies…
Recent months have seen an upsurge in activity within the road protest movement, particularly in Scotland, reinforcing existing camps and campaigns - such as the ongoing occupation of Bilston Wood since 2002 and a legal challenge brought by Friends of the Earth to the extension of the M74 - and establishing new camps such as Dalkeith, near Edinburgh and, in southern England, at Camp Bling in Southend.
The Dalkeith bypass was first discussed in 1992 and approval was finally given in…
When the invasion of Iraq was being planned, the US government needed bases to refuel and load planes full of troops en route to its bases in Qatar and Kuwait. They picked Shannon Airport in County Clare, Ireland. And, despite its much-vaunted neutrality, the Irish government was more than willing to help.
According to recent calculations, approximately 50,000 soldiers have passed through Shannon Airport on their way to fight the war in Iraq, never mind the weapons, which reportedly…
Who are the biggest and most willing purchasers of arms? Tyrants. Why? They need to oppress their own people and to conquer others, to do this one needs the appropriate tools. Who are the biggest sellers and producers of arms? Democracies. Why? They have the market capacity to produce them. Strange bedfellows, but supply and demand brings them together. A cynic would contend that wars and violence are manufactured to make profits, because wars are boom times for almost all involved, except…
On Tuesday 21 April, Mordechai Vanunu was released after spending 18 years in prison. He had been jailed after divulging Israel's secret nuclear activities and capabilities to the British Sunday Times in 1986.
With one swift blow, he undid Israel's policy of “strategic ambiguity” whereby Israel neither accepted nor denied the existence of nuclear weapons. Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and does not allow inspections of its nuclear sites.
Unbowed…Crossing the Irish Sea, the “Battle of the Bog” reached London at the end of September, as protests were held outside Shell's South Bank headquarters.
Carried out in solidarity with the Irish “Shell to Sea” campaign to resist the development of a gas pipeline in a pristine conservation area in Rossport, Co Mayo, protesters managed to catch the police and local security off-guard when they dumped two tonnes of sand on Shell's doorstep and dropped a 40-foot banner reading “danger - keep…
