Axe Drax
Far from being offcuts, most of the wood pellets burned at Drax, in North Yorkshire, are imported from North America, with a significant proportion from clear-cut highly biodiverse coastal wetland forests.
Join Biofuelwatch, Coal Action Network and other climate justice organisations for a demonstration in opposition to Drax Power Station, and a celebration of the work of climate activists this October on 22 October.
Green Christian have supported Biofuelwatch for many years. Biofuelwatch write:–
Drax burns more wood than any other power station in the world, and more coal than any in the UK, causing climate change, forest destruction and human rights abuses.
In 2015, Drax burnt 12 million tonnes of wood, a million more tonnes than the UK produces in a single year. Far from being offcuts, most of the wood pellets are imported from North America, with a significant proportion from clear-cut highly biodiverse coastal wetland forests. The coal Drax burns comes from mines in the UK, US, Russia and Colombia. In every case, coal mining has decimated ecosystems and damaged local peoples’ health and livelihood. In Russia, indigenous peoples are being evicted from their ancestral land, and in Colombia the mining companies are linked to paramilitary murders and disappearances, and mass evictions.
In return for destroying forests and digging up communities, Drax is receiving massive subsidies when it should have been closed down years ago, cashing in on some £1.3 million every single day. Meanwhile, subsidies for genuinely renewable and low carbon wind and solar power and for energy efficiency have been slashed across the UK.
In 2006, Drax was the site of the first Climate Camp, an important point in the global history of direct action targeting the root causes of climate change. We have joined up with climate and environmental justice activists from other groups to return to Drax to celebrate what has been achieved in the intervening decade and name the work we still have to do for climate justice. This includes the urgent need to finally shut down Drax and replacing it with genuinely renewable power.
Without biomass subsidies, Drax would be forced to shut down. Stopping Drax’s biomass subsidies is vital for ending coal burning in the UK and for protecting forests, communities and the climate.
Bring your banners, costumes, placards and voices – and make it clear that Drax’s greenwashing of biomass has to stop. Veggies Catering Campaign will be attending and will provide vegan burgers and cakes, as well as tea. There will be a theatre performance, music and speakers.
Together we can #AxeDrax.
For transport details and a form for offering and inquiring about lift shares and a minibus from London (and possibly elsewhere) please see here (http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2016/transport-axedrax-oct16/).
If you can’t make it to the demo, you can still take part. Take a photograph of yourself with an #AxeDrax banner or placard and upload it to our Facebook event page, or tweet it with #AxeDrax , @Draxnews , @beisgovuk .
For more information about Drax, see the detailed #AxeDrax campaign page (http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/axedrax-campaign/). For more information about the impacts of coal, see coalaction.org.uk.”
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