Facing the pro coal villagers
Have you ever been surrounded by 20 people shouting at you in a language you don’t understand? Quite scary. Yesterday in the early hours of the evening the pro coal chief of the village next to our camp had organized his relatives to come to the camp and shout their pro coal messages. The atmosphere seemed tense.
I made eye contact with the women in the crowd and smiled at them and to my surprise the smiled back, even giggled and seemed somehow embarrassed. Most of them had spent the afternoon with us while their children had coloured in pictures of the Rainbow Warrior with our Quit Coal message. Three women seemed more serious though and tried to agitate the crowd. My heart was beating. Not the right moment to sit down and have a discussion about Climate Change. Just repeating that we are here to protest peacefully, smiling and calming down the crowd. I can understand that they want the jobs at the power plant and the money the company promised to invest into schools. However they will be the ones first feeling the impacts of climate change and won’t have any resources to adapt. I have to tell myself that many people in the community are against this plant and that this is also more than just a local issue.
It seemed hours before they left. They might come back though today.
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Comments
what happened after that? did they came back?
Posted by: alexis | June 17, 2008 1:29 PM
Hey! I am here in the Philippines and I am bold to say that I am a Pro- Coal!. Yesterday, I was reading a newspaper, I won't tell the name of the newspaper specifically. And I was surprised that JAPER INVENTOR(I know him since then) was on the picture holding with his right hand the banner of the woman (pro-coal) naming: YES TO COAL! GREENPEACE OUT!. They were three (one pro and two greenpeace activists) But Jasper was smiling in front of the camera trying to tell the public that he is in favor of the said coal plant to be built here in Iloilo City.In fact, he was holding the banner of YES to COAL!. I couldn't put here the picture but I'll try my best to put it tomorrow. I'll explain while I do believe Coal is NOT harmful. Nowadays, modern technology arises. One of which is the technology that stops the harmful emission of the COal Plant. Not like before, coal plants had no technology like this. No disadvantage for it. But many advantages including: additional power, labor,cheap electrical bill and economy boost-up! No reason for me to oppose! Stop your hindrances to this plant. THis is not harmful! In fact, this is powerful (+). =)
Posted by: xian | June 17, 2008 3:48 PM
I am not sure what picture you are referring to but there are some people with malicious intentions out there. I was actually in the camp and while the aggressive pro coal crowd, paid by the power plant, surrounded the Greenpeace campaigners, the Barangay captain told a woman to hold her banner in front of the campaigners. One of the newspapers that has close relations to the power plant, took a picture and might have published it. This is bad journalism as it is intentionally using a misleading picture (wouldn't go well with any ethics commission) that was taken while the Campaigners were threatened by the crowd. It does in no way reflect Greenpeace's position.
Regarding your opinion towards coal, I have to disappoint you. Coal fired power plants are as polluting as ever. There is no technology that stops dirty CO2 emissions, that cause climate change. The Philippines already experience more frequent and severe weather events such as typhoons (while I write one is just heading to Mindanao). There are also more droughts and water scarcity impacting on the harvests.
Beside the CO2 emissions, coal fired power plants emit harmful mercury, SOx and NOx impacting on the communities surrounding it. For more information on the impacts from mining to combustion look under http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/dirtytruth/
And lastly: Coal is not cheap. The English economist Lord Stern calculated last year for the British government that for every ton of CO2 we emit today, we will have to pay $85 dollars in damage. With several Million tons of CO2 emissions of an average coal fired power plant, we really cannot afford to pay this price.
Posted by: Mareike | June 20, 2008 5:45 AM
Hi, Xian. One thing I want to say is: look at the science behind coal and what makes it as pollutant. Google it. Cheers.
Posted by: Norman Sison | June 27, 2008 5:50 AM