Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Friday, July 09, 2021

Rocket launch alert: Protect the Mhoine, protect the planet!

 


One of Scotland’s most important contributions to global fight against ecological and climate breakdown lies beneath the ground – in layers of peat that have been trapping carbon for thousands of years. 
 
The Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland is the largest peatbog in Europe. It stores approximately 400 million tonnes of carbon-- that’s more than double the amount of all of Britain’s woodlands! It is a rare and precious wildlife haven, and a potential UNESCO World Heritage site. 
 
The Space Hub Sutherland project submitted an application to the Highland Council for the development of a rocket launch facility over 800 acres of the Flow Country, on the A’Mhòine Peninsula. This would put the blanket bog’s fragile ecosystem at huge risk. When peat dries out, it stops trapping carbon and instead starts to emit it back out into the atmosphere. Degraded peat is highly flammable, as we saw in the Sutherland wildfire this summer, which raged for six days over 20,000 acres. Scientists estimated that the carbon released by the wildfire doubled Scotland’s emissions over those six days. 
 
The Highland Council have declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency. Let’s send them the message that building a space port right on a uniquely precious ecosystem and massive carbon sink is not an emergency response!

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