Campaigners have issued an open letter to Bournemouth Council Leaders, Bournemouth MPs and local media expressing “significant concerns at the negative coverage and lack of balance in the public ‘debate’ over the Navitus Bay Wind Farm”. Signed by a number of local environmental groups, campaigning organisations, a local Unison Branch and more than 70 individuals (including a number of Poole Councillors) the letter has grown in significance as the final round of consultations has prompted further negative comments from opponents – not least the selective use of data that has been widely publicised suggesting the local tourist industry will be ‘devastated’ – despite the overall assessment clearly showing there is ‘no pattern of adverse impacts on tourism trips and nights by domestic tourists from (existing) offshore wind projects’.
The letter stresses how the assessment of major issues that create the need for such a development are being ignored in the coverage and how ‘future tourism to the area is being threatened by creating an impression that it may not be worth visiting once the development is complete’.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition of groups who drafted the letter Angela Pooley pointed out how “the damaging approach being led by our elected representatives in Bournemouth, the Council’s Tourism Officer continuing use of selected data to back up his personal views, and the complete contrast in Bournemouth to the reasoned decision taken by Poole Council to support the development, have largely been ignored in the news, while a rabble rousing campaign, led by the same Bournemouth officials, enjoys front page coverage with voices of support consigned to the letters page”.
There is also concern over the apparent close links between council officials and the Challenge Navitus group which opposes the development, particularly how their material, rather than independently sourced assessments, is used by officials and Councillors at presentations.
Outlining the scientific arguments for renewable energy the letter calls on leaders and media organisations to “consider future generations over and above short term political concerns and to uphold their public duty to base their decisions upon reasoned and considered factual evidence.”
The letter was presented by Angela Pooley to Cllr Mike Greene who was representing those opposed to the development, at the recording of a programme on the debate for the BBC.
The letter reads as follows:
We are writing today as a coalition of local groups and individuals to express a number of significant concerns at the negative coverage and lack of balance in the public ‘debate’ over the Navitus Wind Farm. In particular we are concerned about:
1. alarmist claims being made by opponents of the scheme, which are often made on the basis of incorrect facts and emotive rhetoric.
2. elected representatives, some of whom are making pre-judgements and attempting to campaign against the proposal, rather than acting in the public interest on the basis of considered facts.
3. a climate where councillors and officials are paying considerable heed to biased and ill-informed information and no platform exists where reasoned and unbiased consideration of the facts can take place.
4. future tourism to the area which is being threatened by creating an impression that it may not be worth visiting once the development is complete.
5. the major issues of future energy needs, security of supply, and the desperate need to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change, being ignored by comparison to the relatively small-scale potential environmental and economic issues raised by the Navitus Bay proposals. Three years ago, 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences published an open letter on the growing claims of climate change deniers and explained that thousands of scientists have concluded:
(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth’s climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.
Ref: www.pacinst.org/climate/climate_statement.pdf
Since the above was written, further evidence has been gathered and modelling performed that supports their conclusions. We have already experienced extreme weather that may well be an early indicator of our changing climate. We need to act now. As former NASA Scientist and leading Climate Academic James Hansen, speaking in London in early May this year pointed out “Our parents did not know but we can only pretend we don’t know”.
We, and we expect many others, believe the provision of clean energy to more than 700,000 homes and the loss of 1.25 million tonnes of carbon a year for the next 25 years must be a priority. We urge our leaders and officials to consider future generations over and above short term political concerns and to uphold their public duty to base their decisions upon reasoned and considered factual evidence.
Helen Woodall
