Rob Edwards

Police accused of harassing nuclear bomb convoy protestors

from The National, 12 January 2016

Scotland's police force has been accused of harassing peace campaigners who followed a nuclear bomb convoy by road around Glasgow and Stirling on Saturday afternoon.

An SNP MSP is to complain to the chief constable of Police Scotland after activists from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (SCND) were pulled over near Stirling, and their car was subjected to a detailed roadworthiness check. Students filming the convoy from a roundabout were also questioned by police.

Heavily guarded 20-vehicle convoys regularly transport nuclear weapons in need of maintenance between the Burghfield bomb factory in Berkshire and the Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport on Loch Long. The convoys are often tracked by anti-nuclear campaigners, but they say this is the first time they have been hassled by police in recent years.

The SNP MSP Bill Kidd, co-convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s cross party group on nuclear disarmament, accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) police who guard the convoy of tipping off Police Scotland.

“It seems to be a waste of police time to be stopping and questioning law-abiding peace campaigners, who are simply performing a legitimate public service by keeping a watchful eye on the transport of nuclear missiles along our roads,” he said.

“It appears that the MoD has, without good reason, requested that police officers detain peaceful nuclear disarmers by means of carrying out spurious car searches. I will be writing to the chief constable asking that this unwarranted practice should stop henceforth.”

Record rainfall and floods: climate pollution’s ‘new normal’

from Sunday Herald, 10 January 2016

The record-breaking rainfall and devastating floods that have drenched Scotland over the last few weeks are the “new normal” – and they could force communities to abandon built-up areas and move to higher ground.

Experts canvassed by the Sunday Herald warn that we will have to get used to more winters like this one, as climate pollution from vehicles and industry warms the globe and wreaks havoc with the weather. Without action to curb carbon emissions, they say, it is likely to get much worse.

“There is no natural weather any more,” declared Professor James Curran, the former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and a leading climate expert. “The world is now warmer by one degree centigrade than it would be without climate change – so there is no weather anywhere, at any time, that isn’t man-made these days.”

It was wasting time to endlessly debate to what extent the current bad weather was caused by climate pollution, he argued. After last month’s climate summit in Paris, the priority was to tackle the problem.

“It’s been long predicted and is almost certain now that, whatever we do, flooding both from the sea and from rivers will become more severe and at least twice as frequent by 2100,” he said.

Concerns over safety at Rosyth after emergency exercise failures

from Sunday Herald, 10 January 2016

The safety regime at the Rosyth naval dockyard in Fife has been called into question after an emergency exercise failed to demonstrate adequate arrangements for rescuing casualties from an accident.

The UK government’s nuclear safety watchdog has ordered Babcock, the multinational company that runs the dockyard for the Royal Navy, to rerun the exercise, codenamed Nightstar, in March because of mistakes made last September.

An inspection by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) concluded that there were flaws in the way that staff looked after injured people during the exercise. There were also communication and command problems in dealing with the imagined accident.

The revelation has prompted “unease” about safety at the naval base, according to the local MP. Anti-nuclear campaigners have highlighted the serious risks of accidents, and demanded higher standards.

The problems with the Nightstar exercise on 30 September 2015 were disclosed in the ONR’s latest three-monthly report on Rosyth, posted online. Though inspectors thought that some of the exercise procedures were adequate, others were not.

Trident: the decision that’s already been made

from Sunday Herald, 27 December 2015

Early in 2016, MPs at Westminster are due to take a momentous decision: whether or not to renew the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system. The trouble is, judging from what we’ve learnt in 2015, the decision has already effectively been made – and it will bring a host of problems in its wake.

The House of Commons is expecting to vote in the next few months on what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) calls “Main Gate”. This is the major decision on whether or not to authorise multi-billion expenditure on replacing the four ageing Vanguard submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles in and out of the Faslane naval base on the Clyde.

But it has because increasingly clear that, following an earlier “Initial Gate” decision in 2011, major sums of money have already been committed. In February 2015, the Sunday Herald reported that £4.2 billion was going to be spent on designing new submarines, reactors and missile compartments before next year’s parliamentary decision.

The figure came from the UK government’s National Audit Office. The MoD was roundly attacked by the Scottish National Party and the Greens for pre-empting the decision to renew Trident.

“It is utterly unacceptable that over £4 billion will be blown on replacing Trident nuclear weapons before parliament actually decides on whether or not to even give it the go ahead,” said the SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, at the time.

Scottish shellfish are contaminated by radioactive waste from Sellafield

from Sunday Herald, 20 December 2015

Radioactive waste from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is contaminating shellfish hundreds of kilometres away on the west coast of Scotland, according to a new scientific study.

Scottish researchers discovered traces of radioactive carbon discharged from Sellafield in the shells of mussels, cockles and winkles as far north as Port Appin in Argyll, 256 kilometres from the notorious nuclear plant.

The findings are a “wake-up call” for anyone who thinks pollution from Sellafield is yesterday’s problem, say campaigners. Sellafield, however, stresses that the contamination is well below safety limits.

The study was carried out by a team of scientists from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre in East Kilbride and the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban. It has been published online in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

The scientists found raised levels of radioactive carbon-14 in shellfish sampled at Port Appin, at Maidens in South Ayrshire and at Garlieston and Kippford on the Solway coast of Dumfries and Galloway. Mussels were most contaminated “due to the surface environment they inhabit and their feeding behaviour,” they said.

Trump breached planning rules on flagpoles

from The National, 15 December 2015

In his bid to become the next US president, Donald Trump has been accused of insulting Muslims and Mexicans, offending women and mocking the disabled. But now The National can reveal that he’s really done it: he has slightly upset Aberdeenshire Council.

The council has ruled that two 24-metre flagpoles erected by the property billionaire at his luxury golf resort at Menie on the northeast coast have broken planning rules. Officials say he will have to apply for retrospective planning permission to “regularise” them - or else. 

Trump has asked for planning permission to do something he has already done at Menie seven times since 2012. According to the council’s planning database, he has applied for retrospective permission for signs, a soakaway, a fountain, walls, a car park, a bag drop and accommodation.

The two flagpoles, both flying the Saltire, prompted a complaint to the council in October by local resident, Chris Edwards. He pointed out that the council had previously rejected planning applications for flagpoles because they were too high and would be visible for miles.

Aberdeenshire Council launched an investigation, and sent officials to inspect the site. “These flagpoles would not benefit from permitted development rights and therefore constitute a breach of planning control,” enforcement officer Robin Currie told Edwards.

He added: “However the planning service are of the view that the position could be regularised by the retrospective submission of planning applications for these flagpoles.”

Over 5,000 march for action to cut climate pollution

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2015

Political parties, green campaigners, faith groups, trade unionists, students and an array of pantomime animals braved the biting wind and rain in Edinburgh yesterday to demand global action to cut the pollution that is causing climate chaos.

Over 5,000 colourfully dressed protestors from across Scotland marched through the city from the Meadows to Princes Street Gardens in the bitter cold to a rally demanding “climate justice” from world leaders gathering in Paris on Monday.

The march was Scotland’s contribution to more than 2,300 actions around the world designed to put pressure on negotiators at the United Nations climate summit. Up to 200 countries will be deciding over the next two weeks what they must do to prevent global warming causing more floods, droughts, heatwaves and other disasters.

The march was organised by the umbrella group, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, which urged leaders not to let the world down, as they did in Copenhagen in 2009. “We will be watching you,” the coalition’s chair, Tom Ballantine told the rally.

“We demand action because science and honesty require it,” he declared. “We demand action because justice requires it for our children and generations to come” and for “fairness for the poorest people in the most fragile places”.

Fury over proposal to ban camping by roads

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2015

The Forestry Commission has sparked outrage by privately proposing to bar thousands of people from camping on roadsides across Scotland.

The government agency, one of the country’s largest landowners, suggested “a blanket ban on camping within 400 metres of a public road” in an internal minute from 2014, just released under freedom of information law.

According to countryside campaigners, such a widespread ban would undermine the “right to roam” law, turn the clock back more than a hundred years, and criminalise people enjoying the countryside. The commission, however, says it was “a throw-away comment”.

The comment was made during a meeting with Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority on 22 September last year. The meeting was to discuss the park’s controversial proposal to ban camping without permission on long stretches of loch shores, currently being considered by ministers.

A minute of the meeting records Forestry Commission Scotland as being “keen to secure solutions which covered all situations”. The commission complained that ”the current understanding of the meaning of wild camping was poor and that car boot camping and motorhome issues were growing across all of Scotland.”

The commission promised to raise concerns about the need for “wider review of car boot camping and antisocial behaviour and instigation of new measures to deal with it,” the minute said. “A possible suggestion for this could be a blanket ban on camping within 400m of a public road or recognised formal recreation facility car park.”

Trident spending leaves UK without adequate defences, says SNP

for Sunday Herald, 22 November 2015

The UK government failed to adequately protect Scotland from a Russia spy ship capable of monitoring and cutting vital underwater internet cables, an SNP MP has claimed.

The SNP blames plans to spend £167 billion on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system for depriving conventional defences of the money they need to ensure that the UK is kept safe.

The defence minister, Penny Mordaunt, has revealed that a naval fleet meant to escort Russian ships through UK waters was not deployed when the Russian research vessel, Yantar, sailed up the east coast towards Norway on 24-26 October.

Instead Yantar was tracked by a single offshore patrol vessel, HMS Severn, because ”it made the most operational sense”. Mordaunt, however, kept further details secret in order not to “prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.”

According to US naval officials, the Yantar has two self-propelled submersible vehicles capable of observing and cutting cables miles under the sea. As well as being seen around the UK, the boat was tracked last month by US forces as it moved down the east coast of America on a visit to Cuba.

Major wildlife conference under fire for corporate “greenwash”

from Sunday Herald, 22 November 2015

A major international conference in Edinburgh this week aimed at conserving wildlife is facing protests for helping big companies “profit from greenwash”.

The World Forum on Natural Capital to discuss how businesses can value and protect nature has run into fierce criticism from campaign groups in Scotland and India for hosting companies with controversial environmental records.

Amongst those due to give a presentation is Mary Draves, a global director of the US chemical giant, Dow. Critics hold the company responsible for the fallout-out from 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, which caused 25,000 deaths.

Carina Mueller, a scientist from the UK-Dutch consumer goods firm, Unilever, is also scheduled to address the conference. The company has been attacked for failing to properly clean up mercury contamination and compensate former workers at a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal in South India.

The World Forum on Natural Capital is organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and backed by other major environmental groups. Due to take place on 23-24 November in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, it is expected to attract over 500 delegates from more than 35 countries.

Planned cuts in carbon emissions ‘not enough’ to prevent climate disaster

from Sunday Herald, 15 November 2015

Cuts in climate pollution so far promised by countries around the world will fail to prevent floods, droughts, heatwaves and other catastrophic changes, according to the latest analysis by the United Nations (UN).

Current commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the run-up to the crucial Paris climate summit at the end of the month are only about half of what’s needed to reduce the risk of disaster, creating a widening “emissions gap” over the next 15 years, the UN has warned.

Environmentalists, experts and politicians fear that the summit of world leaders – the most important since Copenhagen in 2009 - could end in failure unless major polluters agree further reductions. Some insist they are still optimistic about the outcome, but others are distinctly pessimistic.

“Paris is obviously going to be a failure,” said Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland. “The proposed targets fall far short of the effort needed to deliver the 2ºC world that world leaders have promised, let alone the 1.5ºC temperature limit which is needed to protect the most vulnerable people, nations and wildlife.”

The world is aiming to limit global warming to an average of less than two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial temperatures. Scientists say that this is the limit beyond which the impacts of climate change are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible - though some also suggest that a rise of 1.5 degrees could have serious consequences.

Most countries have now set out in reports to the UN for the Paris summit the cuts in emissions they plan to achieve. An analysis by the UN Environment Programme has added them all together and concluded out that they will only result in a reduction of around 11 gigatonnes of carbon by 2030 – less than half of that required to give the world a good chance of staying within the two degree limit (see table below).

Scottish ministers under attack for cutting air tax

from Sunday Herald, 15 November 2015

Scottish ministers have come under fierce fire for planning to boost climate pollution by cutting one of the few taxes on flying.

The government’s promise to halve and then abolish air passenger duty (APD) in Scotland would be “totally counterproductive” say leading environmentalists, who are pressing for the tax to stay.

The SNP government wants to help the Scottish economy by cutting APD 50 per cent in April 2018 and then getting rid of it altogether “when public finances permit”. But the plan has provoked growing opposition because it could make it more difficult to meet Scotland’s ambitious targets to combat climate change.

Mike Robinson, a board member of the umbrella group, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, who sits on the government’s APD stakeholder forum, pointed out that aviation has kept growing despite the tax.

“All this cut will do is to leave a handful of regular fliers slightly better off, the aviation industry a little richer, and the tax man and the environment very much the poorer,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“And this in an industry which according to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the UK Treasury is one of the least taxed industries in the world.”

Tristram Stuart: from boy pig farmer to global campaigner against food waste

from Towards Zero, October 2015

It started with a sundried tomato loaf. When Tristram Stuart was 15 years old he bought some pigs, and started feeding them food that was being thrown away by local shops, a farm and his school in Sussex.

“One morning when I was feeding my pigs I noticed a particularly tasty-looking sundried tomato loaf that used to crop up from time to time,” he recalled with relish. “I grabbed hold of it, sat down and ate my breakfast with my pigs.”

This was Stuart’s first act of what he later learned to call freeganism, the collection and eating of discarded food. It was suddenly obvious: the solution to food waste was simply to sit down and eat it rather than throwing it away.

More than 20 years on, he is now one of the world’s best known and most effective campaigners against food waste. He has written two acclaimed books, founded the campaign group, Feedback, and travelled to countries around the globe to research, publicise and sometimes solve gross examples of food waste.

He has met with ministers and key decision-makers in the UK and Europe, and is an expert adviser to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security. This month he was in to Glasgow to address the Scottish Resources Conference on his continuing crusade against the “global scandal” of food waste.

Wildlife under threat from proposed ‘dilution’ of nature areas

from Sunday Herald, 25 October 2015

A radical new review by the government’s nature agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has sparked warnings that Scotland is preparing to give up on its most precious wildlife areas in order to save money.

Environmental groups are worried that protection of the country’s 1,800 nature conservation areas - and the multitude of invaluable animals, trees and plants they contain - will be diluted. This would be a mistake for which future generations would not forgive us, they say.

They fear that SNH is bowing to the inevitability of future budget cuts, instead of fighting its corner for more money. SNH accepts that its review carries “significant risks” because of the opposition it will engender.

Among the many species at risk are puffins, harbour seals, fresh water pearl mussels and juniper. Areas where woodlands and plants could suffer include Loch Lomond, Ben Nevis, Glen Coe and the Cairngorms (see tables below). 

SNH has embarked on a major review of the way all protected wildlife areas, which cover 18 per cent of Scotland, are managed. It asked a panel of experts to produce some ideas, and it is now considering how to proceed.

Juniper is being killed off by deadly disease

from Sunday Herald, 25 October 2015

Juniper, one of Scotland’s most loved and treasured plants, is in serious decline and being killed off by a deadly new disease, according to a new survey.

Observations reported by the conservation group, Plantlife Scotland, suggest that 79 per cent of juniper in 2014 was mature, old or dead. And as many as 63 per cent of bushes surveyed were found to have brown patches, a sign that they were suffering from ill health or disease.

A new air-borne fungal disease known as Phytophthora austrocedri is spreading across Scotland and having a severe impact on juniper, Plantlife says. The disease was first recorded in Argentina in 2007, and it is not known how it arrived in the UK.

Juniper is also being eaten by deer, cleared by foresters and burnt by land managers. A report published this weekend by Plantlife concludes that the species is now in a “critical state”.

Juniper is a native coniferous shrub famous for its dark purple berries, which are used to flavour gin and stews. Historically a defining characteristic of Scottish woodlands and mountainsides, it is gradually disappearing.

Plantlife asked volunteers to report sightings of juniper across the country in a “citizen science” survey. “We know juniper populations are struggling, but they now face an additional threat,” said the head of Plantlife Scotland, Dr Deborah Long.

It was vital to work with landowners to help juniper bushes resist the disease and the other risks they face, she argued. “We need to ensure juniper has a future. It needs active conservation effort and intervention now for it to survive.”

Drinking water contamination puts health of thousands at risk

from Sunday Herald, 27 September 2015

Many thousands of people across Scotland are endangering their health by drinking dirty water from private supplies, according to a new report from a government watchdog.

Tests in 2014 detected contamination by bacteria and metals in 4,400 samples from springs, wells, lochs and rivers used for drinking water. One bug known to cause illness, E coli, was detected in more than 500 supplies.

The poor quality of water from private supplies has been highlighted as a concern by Sue Petch, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator for Scotland. Critics say that the system meant to combat the problem is “broken”, and that urgent action is required.

There are over 20,000 private water supplies in Scotland, relied on daily by over 188,000 people mostly in rural areas. In addition large numbers of people use the supplies occasionally, when they are on holiday or in the countryside.

Tests in 2014 found that 2,700 samples from the larger ‘type A’ supplies – six per cent of the samples taken - failed to meet water quality standards. There were 549 samples with coliform bacteria, 303 with E coli, and others containing iron, aluminium and lead.

Most of the breaches were in the six local authorities with the highest number of private water supplies: Argyll and Bute, Highland, Perth and Kinross, Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire (see table below).

Of the smaller ‘type B’ supplies tested, 1,696 samples (12 per cent) were contaminated, including 486 with coliform bacteria and 244 with E coli. But the vast majority of the smaller supplies weren’t tested.

Revealed: the £1.7bn we invest in risky fossil fuels

from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

The pension funds of half a million public sector workers in Scotland are investing a massive £1.7 billion into fossil fuel corporations, exposing them to financial risk if the so-called ‘carbon bubble’ bursts because of climate pollution.

An investigation by environmental groups has revealed the huge and increasing sums of money local government pension schemes are pouring into coal, oil and gas companies - despite the dangers they pose to the planet.

The investments have been condemned by trade unionists, politicians and pension fund members. They are demanding that councils pull out of fossil fuels, and put their money into clean energy, housing and other socially useful projects instead.

Multi-billion-pound pension funds covering hundreds of public sector bodies are run by 11 local authority organisations across Scotland. Using freedom of information requests, researchers have calculated how much is being invested in major fossil fuel companies.

The total comes to £1,664 million, the equivalent of £311 for every resident of Scotland. The most money - £56m - goes to the coal and metal mining giant, Rio Tinto, followed by £39m to the UK oil company, BP and £33m to the Italian oil firm, ENI.

Other major beneficiaries are Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total, Statoil, Chevron, EOG Resources (formerly Enron) and the German petrochemical producer BASF (see table below). Strathclyde pension fund was the biggest investor in Scotland, with £752m in fossil fuels.

Critics say that the market value of fossil fuels is falling as environmental risks become clearer, and predict they will become worthless as more government action is taken to cut climate pollution. They point to scientific evidence suggesting that 80 per cent should stay in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Air pollution kills more than 3,500 people a year in Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

The official death toll from the toxic fumes that belch from vehicle exhausts has nearly doubled, suggesting that more than 3,500 people die every year from air pollution in Scotland.

New figures from the UK government estimate for the first time the number of deaths blamed on nitrogen dioxide gas, as well as tiny sooty particles. Taken together these boost the number of annual deaths across the whole of the UK from 29,000 to over 50,000.

Environmentalists estimate that this translates to at least 3,500 deaths a year in Scotland, compared to a previous estimate of 2,000. They also attack new Scottish Government proposals to tackle air pollution as “incomplete, vague and lacklustre”.

Air pollution from cars, vans, buses and lorries can trigger heart attacks, strokes and cause infections. The emissions aggravate lung diseases, and can worsen the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people with asthma.

The new estimates of deaths were prompted by a Supreme Court ruling in April requiring the UK government to take urgent action to tackle illegal levels of air pollution in cities. Last week both the UK and Scottish governments launched new public consultations on their plans.

We must curb killer pollution from cars

Editorial from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

When Liz Ashton lived on a busy, polluted street in Edinburgh, she was worried about dying. “It frightens me that when I lived in the city centre I could have had a fatal asthma attack,” she said.

She is just one of the many thousands of reasons why Scotland needs to get serious about air pollution. For years, the average levels of toxic fumes on dozens of urban streets have exceeded legal safety limits.

Health standards for nitrogen dioxide and tiny sooty particles that Scotland should have met in 2010 have been breached, and then breached again. In April, after a long court battle, the UK Supreme Court ruled that governments had to take urgent action.

Now we learn that the official death toll from the pollution is much higher than previously acknowledged. Instead of killing 2,000 people a year in Scotland, evidence from government scientists suggests it could be killing at least 3,500 a year.

Whatever the number is, it is unacceptable. As critics have pointed out, if thousands of people were dying as a result of treatable diseases, crime or drugs, ministers would declare a national emergency.

Fishing boat raided for electrocuting clams in government crackdown

from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

Fishermen are facing fines of up to £10,000 or prosecution for illegally electrocuting a large number of razor clams after a night-time raid by Scottish Government inspectors.

As enforcement officers from Marine Scotland approached a boat in the Sound of Jura in the early hours of 10 September, fishing gear was unceremoniously dumped overboard. It has since been recovered by divers and confiscated.

According to the government, the razor clams were being harvested in an area that hadn’t been licenced for shell fishing. This meant that they could be poisoned by algal toxins and hence be “unfit for human consumption”.

The raid is the latest in a concerted crackdown on the illegal multi-million pound electro-fishing business. Boats drag arrays of electrodes powered by an on-board generator across the seabed to deliver a shock that forces clams out of their burrows.

The clams then have to be collected from the seabed by divers. In recent years three divers have been killed during electro-fishing operations, with one skipper jailed in March this year for failing to properly protect a diver.

Razor clams, also known as spoots, are regarded as a gourmet delicacy, and have a soft, sweet flesh much favoured by chefs. There is a lucrative market for them across Europe and in the Far East.