I have found myself commenting a fair bit recently on the links between climate change, class and coal. This is both a painful and essential task, made all the more personally challenging and confusing given that my grandad was a coal miner (at Hatfield main colliery in Yorkshire).

I talked at a conference last November in Newcastle at the Bridge Inn organised by the Newcastle Branch of the International Workers of the World (the wobblies). It was an amazing day (it was also my 36th birthday) and the panel of speakers included Arthur Scargill (who I assume needs no introduction), Dave Douglass  (ex miner and more recently trade union activist whom i deeply admire), Paul Morrozzo (from GreenPeace and Climate Camp),  and Ian Lavery (current President of the National Union of Mineworkers).

I made a brief 10 minute speech, the jist of which can be read here:

http://www.paulchatterton.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/pdf-anti-coal-article-cat.pdf

This is also on my publications page (The emerging anti-coal debate).

Mute magazine has just published a fairly comprehensive write up of the day which can be found at:

http://www.metamute.org/en/content/a_climatic_disorder_class_and_climate_change_in_newcastle

This is a crucial area of debate given that new and old coal fired power stations are still firmly on the agenda, and one which i imagine will be revisited at this year’s Camp for Climate Action.

Tues June 30th 2009. Yorkshire Evening Post

Weds 1st July 2009. Guardian

Thurs 2nd July 2009 Guardian

Friday 3rd July 2009 Guardian

Sat 4th July 2009 Guardian

Sat 4th July 2009 Yorkshire Post

Sat 4th July 2oo9 Yorkshire Post (Part II)

Sorry for the absence - I have been in court as one of the defendants in the Drax trial at Leeds crown court. I’ll write more details next week, but just to give you the bare facts - the trial lasted five days and last Friday, the last day of the trial, it took the jury around an hour to find us guilty.

We lost, but as one of the defendants said,

‘while the law has to apply to everyone, so too do the effects of climate change. The trial has ended, but the death and destruction caused by Drax and other powerstations like it will continue’

In a nutshell, what we outlined was that Drax burns 13 million tonnes of coal a year, and that this coal produces 22 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year. Our defence was that this makes Drax the single biggest point source of Carbon in the UK and using UN and other government statistics it can be calculated that it is responsible for around 180 deaths a year, £3M cost to society EVERY DAY, and a loss of around 1200 species over its lifetime. By enhancing climate chaos, the effects that these carbon emissions are having on the Yorkshire region, as well as throughout the globe, are life threatening and terrifying.

You can follow the coverage of the trial here:

Defendants arrive at court on Monday:

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/433437.html

Prosecution evidence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/30/drax-train-trial-protest

Our evidence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/drax-climate-change-protest-court

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8129468.stm

Final summing up:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/02/drax-protester-trial-jury-retires

Final speech by defendant Jonathan Stevenson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/02/drax-protesters-defence-sum-up

The verdict:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/drax-coal-train-trial-guilty

Welcome to my new website. There’s loads of resources and free downloads on it - so help yourself. The main thing I run is a Masters Programme called Activism and Social Change (see www.activismsocialchange.org.uk). We are recruiting for this September so take a look and let me know if you are interested. We have a new fieldtrip module to the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales this year.

I live and work in Leeds and I’m based in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. To give you a flavour of what I do here are a few of things I’ve been involved in lately.

I help edit one of the longest running radical journals in Geography - Antipode. We recently had a summer school in Manchester and about 25 people came from all over the world.  We run this every couple of years so keep it in mind if you know any budding Geography students! Antipode is 40 years old this year and we have loads of content that you can download for free.

As part of the MA in Activism we have a fair amount of links with NGOs. One of the most inspiring that we have links with is the World Development Movement. I spoke at their Campaigners Convention this year.  Their local groups are pretty active and they are one of the few groups who try and get to the heart of the matter and analyse the causes of issues. Their campaign on the new coal industry is a good example of this.

I’ve also just been on a great straw bale course with a local group of strawbale geniuses called Amazonails. I’m involved with a co-housing group called LILAC (Low Impact Living Affordable Community) which is planning to build 20 houses based on timber and strawbale insulation. I have to admit, strawbales are amazing. Here’s some facts I picked up from Amazonails:

• 22% of energy produced globally is used to make and move new construction materials and around 7% of global Co2 emissions are generated from cement production!
• 15% of all Co2 in the west is generated from heating and cooling homes and for this reason we are committed to good design to reduce the need for energy input.
• In contrast to a conventionally built home which produces around 50 tonnes of Co2 during its construction, a home built using straw bale as insulation actually stores 12.25 tonnes of Co2!

This is a picture which a friend of mine did of what our cohousing project might look like - right in the heart of Leeds!