Unhappy protesters settle into Happy Valley
While most most of us are today returning to work after the weekend (or enjoying a holiday if we’re lucky enough to be in Auckland or Nelson), 75 protesters at Happy Valley are settling in for a long stay in the great outdoors as they begin an indefinite occupation to protest Solid Energy’s proposed open cast mine at the site.
Members of the Save Happy Valley Coalition and other interested people are planning to camp out in bush close to the mine for as long as it takes for Solid Energy to give up plans for an open cast mine, one of the most environmentally destructive forms of mining, and propose a more sustainable West Coast development which doesn’t involve turning pristine areas of native bush into this.
As Metiria said in a press release on Friday, the Greens are 100% behind the protesters, especially in light of the fact that Solid Energy is state-owned.
It is scandalous that in this day and age we are still allowing companies to proceed with environmentally devastating open cast mining – especially when the company, Solid Energy, is a State Owned Enterprise.
The Government should be doing everything in its power to protect our fragile environment. It should certainly not allow one of its own businesses to be one of the biggest ecological destroyers.
In this case the open cast mine will destroy the habitat of a number of threatened native species, including the great spotted kiwi and the Powelliphanta “patrickensis� snail.
It will also do irreversible damage to a pristine ecosystem and pollute waterways with acid mine drainage.
The Save Happy Valley Coalition has an excellent website featuring a new Occupation Blog detailing what the protesters have been up to, as well as background on the issue and details of how to get involved in the campaign.
Solid Energy has been granted resource consent for the project and their website has copies of the Environment Court decision and also details their draft environmental management plans, which make for interesting reading. In their words, they are committed to “environmental best practice”, but you have to wonder how further pursuing non-renewable energy sources like coal can possibly be considered environmental best practice by any sane person these days. Not to mention the fate of the poor snails!
January 30th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
One more article or letter in the Greymouth Evening Star saying “people are more important than snails” and I’ll scream.
January 30th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
People are more important than snails -
Will I hear you from here?
That was SUCH an invitation to a windup.
respectfully
BJ
February 1st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Sorry… you genuinely don’t think that people are more important than snails? When was the last time a snail invented something? Or decided that, given their own ability to rationalise, decided to defend a species?
February 1st, 2006 at 3:42 pm
When was the last time snails wiped out a species or destroyed an ecosystem?
I don’t think snails are more important than people - but that’s not the choice that’s being made here. We’re not choosing to keep alive snails or people. But I do think that snails are more important than jobs created by unsustainable mining practices.