| Plea to save the Isle of Lewis |
(3691) |
| OPEN LETTER TO SCOTLAND´S FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND |
Scotland is a natural marvel with a fabulous tourism potential. Lewis, the largest of the Western Isles, is one of its jewels. The island is also a haven for wildlife, with three bird reserves that have attracted the greed of windfarm developers : they want to erect hundreds of wind turbines within them.
The heartfelt letter reproduced below, sent by a Welsh artist, is begging the highest Scottish authority to spare one of the bird reserves : the Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area, also a designated Ramsar (internationally-protected) wetland, and which is home to 5 breeding pairs of golden eagles, to white-tailed sea eagles, and to about a dozen more threatened bird species.
My open letter is reproduced further below. |
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Above : Stornoway, oil painting by James Barrett.
LETTER REPRODUCED WITH MRS KEAL´S AUTHORIZATION.
First Minister Alex Salmond,
St. Andrew´s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Alex.Salmond.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
cc : snp.hq@snp.org
FirstMinister@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Dear Mr Salmond
Over the past few days it has been reported that you are ‘Minded to Refuse Permission for the Lewis Wind Power development’
I applaud this stance and encourage you to stick to your intention.
Far from being the green solution that it has been claimed as, this development would be very damaging to the environment. Not just the damage to the landscape but the amount of carbon released from disturbing the peat bog would in fact negate any possible benefit gained from the ‘green’ energy.
The promise of jobs for the locals is just smoke and mirrors. I live in Mid Wales and at Cefn Croes the same promises were made – jobs for local people and economic benefits for the local community. None of this is true. There have been no jobs created locally at all. The contractors came in, tore up the landscape, poured masses of concrete into a primary water source, scattered the disturbed peat over the concrete bases in the name of conserving the environment and left. So far the local community are still waiting to see the benefits.
I urge you to refuse permission for this development and to mount a thorough review of your government’s policy on wind energy. An intermittent source of power can never provide the ‘base load’ energy that is required for a civilised society and will only every be a symbolic gesture of ‘greenness’
My husband and I are both artists and for many years we regarded Scotland as our second home, enjoying the unspoilt beauty of her wild places. The prospect of the industrialisation of the most inspirational views in the British Isles fills us with utter despair and we could not bring ourselves to visit Scotland again if it becomes the industrial wasteland that your government is proposing.
Please remember why tourists come to Scotland - for the scenery – don’t destroy it. Please.
With heartfelt feeling.
Yours sincerely
Jenny Keal
unquote
My open letter is shown below.
This other painting by James Barrett shows the Barvas Moor, with Stornoway in the forefront. The wind turbines, and about 100 km of service roads, would destroy the very moor that is pictured here and its ecologically-important peat.
OPEN LETTER TO FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND
Dear First Minister,
I subscribe to the terms of Mrs Keal´s letter and invite you to ponder the enormity of the loss a windfarm on Lewis would represent. Tourism, wildlife, biodiversity, ruined quality of life for the inhabitants, who massively rejected the project in various polls...
The developer may present a revised plan with fewer turbines. But Lewis must be saved in its entirety. A stain on a beautiful painting is not acceptable, no matter its size. Likewise, placing giant de-facto bird traps within a bird reserve is an act of poaching, no matter their number.
The European Commission has been informed of this threat to the Lewis Peatlands Special Protection Area, and they may bring the matter to the European Court of Justice, who in turn may impose heavy fines that would burden Scottish taxpayers.
It would be regrettable if the Scottish National Party would tarnish its good name with the destruction of Scotland´s wildlife, of its landscape, and of its main renewable resource : tourism.
Please view the picture below.
Yours, faithfully
Mark Duchamp
Four-times tourist of Scotland
Bird and nature lover
Partida La Sella, 25
E - 03750 Pedreguer
Spain
Tel : + 34 679 12 99 97
save.the.eagles@gmail.com
Windfarm in China : is this what Lewis will look like, thanks to the Scottish National Party ?
Information on related matters :
Windfarms to kill tourism on Lewis
Windfarms to wipe out Scottish eagles
Windfarms : Brussels has been warned of the risk to Scottish eagles
Will the Scottish Government condemn the Scottish eagles to extinction ?
Two more scandalous projects supported by SNH
Absurdity is... destroying carbon sinks in the name of Kyoto
Pairc windfarm : irreparable damage to hydrology
Absurdity is .... repeating the same mistake, thus causing more peat slides
Windfarms : the killing of Scottish eagles will not stop
RSPB executives are causing severe harm to bird life
The destruction of Scotland and its wildlife .
Windfarms are wrecking the Danish power system
The shame of Scotland
500 windfarm projects threaten the survival of the Scottish eagles - Open letter to SNH.
Eagles and wind farms : mortality statistics
Windfarms slaughter vultures in Spain - Covering up the evidence.
Windfarms - Red Energy (a scandal in Scotland)
Windfarms and Birds - Critical analysis of a confidential document. (a more detailed analysis of the scandalous EDINBANE EIA)
The negative effects of windfarms: links to papers published by Mark Duchamp
Pictures of windfarm victims ( eagles etc. ), of turbines on fire, of collapsed turbines, of soil & water contamination etc.
| Insertado
por: Mark Duchamp (29/01/2008) |
| Fuente/Autor:
Mark Duchamp |
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