Climate Change
Climate change is changing our world. Within the lifetimes of children being born today, it may challenge our survival as a species. This is primarily due to burning fossil fuels. New coal-fired power stations like Marsden B are a bad idea.
The Earth is hotter than it has been for at least one thousand years. By the end of this century, if current trends continue, the temperature will likely climb higher than it's been at any time in the past two million years. The consequences of this drastic rise, directly caused by burning fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas) for our energy are likely to be catastrophic: mass extinctions, droughts, hundreds of millions of refugees - and sea level rises that could, if the Greenland ice sheet collapsed, result in millions of refugees.
There is widespread agreement that:
- Warming of about 1.3 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels is now probably inevitable because of emissions that have already been released. Limiting warming to under 2 degrees Celsius is possible and is considered vital to preventing the worst effects.
- If our emissions are not brought under control, the speed of climate change over the next hundred years will be faster than anything known since before the dawn of civilization.
- There is a very real possibility that climate feedback mechanisms will result in a sudden and irreversible climate shift. No one knows how much global warming it would take to trigger such a "doomsday scenario".
Marsden B
In spite of recent big talking by the Government and Helen Clark that New Zealand should lead the way in sustainability and be bold on climate change they have done nothing to stop the state owned enterprise Mighty River Power from going ahead with their crazy proposal to start New Zealand's first new coal fired power station in 25 years at Marsden B.
Marsden B is an old disused oil fired power station in Ruakaka, Northland. Mighty River power have proposed to bring it online as a coal fired power station. Stopping this happening has been the main focus of the climate campaign for Greenpeace in New Zealand.
Here's a timeline of the campaign to stop Marsden B going ahead:
February 2005, Greenpeace activists occupy the roof of Marsden B for 9 days. Local people make a record number of submissions against the proposal. [ read more ] [ Slide show of the 2005 occupation ]
September 2005, Mighty River Power, a Government owned power company, was granted a resource consent by the Northland Regional Council to fire up Marsden B on coal.
October 2005, Greenpeace lodged an appeal to the Environment Court against the Commissioners failure to consider climate change, renewable energy, and other effects of carbon dioxide on the environment and the threat to human health and the environment posed by mercury, sulphur and dioxin emissions.
November 2005 , Greenpeace launched the Clean Energy Guide ranking electricity companies according to their current and future impact on the climate. Mighty River Power subsidiary Mercury Energy ranks worst thanks largely to their Marsden B proposal.
July 2006, the Environment Court ruled against part of Greenpeace's appeal opposing the re-firing of Marsden B power station on coal, saying that the effects of the station's discharge on climate change could not be considered. Greenpeace appealed this decision in the High Court.
September 2006, The High Court overturned the Environment Court ruling and ruled that climate change to be considered in Greenpeace's appeal against Mighty River Power's proposed Marsden B coal-fired power station. The overall appeal including concerns about mercury, dioxins and sulphur dioxide still stands and the hearing is now delayed until 2007.
October 2006, the Department of Conservation granted permission for Mighty River Power to build a coal "conveyor" from the Whangarei Port to Marsden B, right through the Ruakaka Conservation Area. The "conveyor" will be used to transport millions of tonnes of coal from the port to the power station. Public submissions to DOC close on 21 November. [ Make a submission opposing this content ]