Latest news from Denmark

This is the latest news sent to us by Peter Skeel Hjorth.

"July 28th 2011 Two activists were arrested Thursday morning in Østerild Klitplantage in Thy, Denmark.

One was bitten by a police dog. Activists went through a police bar. Police dogs were sent into the area, and one of the activists had superficial scratches, as the dogs stopped him, a police spokesman said . The activist who was bitten is Amos Stenner, who Tuesday made ​​himself noticed when he sat for hours in a tree to be cut down.

"We were going to build a nest in one of the trees that have not yet been harvested. There was no police bar or warnings. When the police came, we would leave, but I forgot my jacket and phone at the nest, and went back to retrieve it. Suddenly a German shepherd came behind me and bit my arm," Amos Spener from the activists' camp in Østerild told the press.

"The dog bit my arm and my leg. It was very painful", Amos Spener said. He has spoken with his lawyer. And it may well be that this ends with a lawsuit. At hospital Amos Stenner had his wounds cleaned at hospital. He is released, while the other arrested activist was kept for interrogation. Both can expect a fine of 4000 Dkr = 550 Euro."

Peter also sent us a link to these photos by Egon Bennetsen:

The place with the flag at half mast shows the place where the activists had their tents, until the police demanded they moved. The other photos show how it looks after cutting down trees. One photo shows the police who still watch the area.

Swedish artist

Example of work by Swedish artist Lars Jonssons can be seen at this address:

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Lars_Jonssons_Birds.htmlo

Together with the world famous film director Jan Troell, Lars Jonnsons wrote a very critical article against wind power in the most important Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (News of
the day).

The linked website (Art Knowledge News) reviews his book "Lars Jonnson's Birds, Paintings from a Near Horizon" and shows a couple of his stunning bird paintings, "Gyrfalcon" and "Black Vultures".

Avatar versus Vestas

Ville aflede politi med bare bryster
26. jul. 2011 Maria Bundgaard, marb@tv2.dk

Translation:
"Would distract police with bare breasts"

Activists attempting to stop machinery removing trees in Østerild Klitplantage climbed trees and some even took off their clothes, to distract the police officers who showed up to stop the activists.



See video: http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-42053950:ville-aflede-politi-med-bare-bryster.html

Activists attempting to stop machinery removing trees in Østerild Klitplantage climbed trees and some even took off their clothes, to distract the police officers who showed up to stop the activists.

Video from the area of the turbines, in Denmark

This video shows a local resident explaining in English what the protest is about. You can also hear the voices of other locals.
This story - of government and industry ignoring the democratic wishes of ordinary people - is repeated worldwide, but it is especially poignant to hear Danish people speaking. Notice also that wind turbine noise is regarded as a serious issue by these people.
Just a reminder as a well to those of us who think in feet and inches - 250 metres equals 820.2 feet or 273.4 yards.

NET-Tv Denmark

More from Peter Skeel Hjorth in Denmark: "This reportage from a local television channel has many live pictures showing what has happened in Thy. It also shows a map over several other places for test turbines 250 meters high. This is madness."


link:
http://www.tvmidtvest.dk/nettv/?id=7785

The television report shows gripping images of the police as they arrive in numerous vans, with dogs, as well as the machinery destroying the forest trees, and the activists being carried away by the police.

More from Peter Skeel Hjorth

"The peaceful blockade of the cutting down of forest around the coming testcenter for giant wind turbines in Northern Jutlands west coast ended this morning, when a police force of 50 police officers moved away the activists. Here are photos from the police action."

Activist in tree

More from Peter Skeel Hjorth:
This morning one of the activist crawled up into a tree before the police
could stop him. He is refuse to come down and is still sitting there. Here
is a link to Danish TV2 News:

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-42048540:aktivist-n%C3%A6gter-at-komme-ned-fra-tr%C3%A6.html

Here's a link showing it translated (Google Translate)

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fnyhederne.tv2.dk%2Farticle.php%2Fid-42048540%3Aaktivist-n%25C3%25A6gter-at-komme-ned-fra-tr%25C3%25A6.html

The police move in on Green activists trying to save forest

This morning we had a message from Peter Skeel Hjorth that at 5.20 o´clock am 50 police officers began to take away the activists
from the blockade, arresting six of them. One activist who crawled up in a tree is still sitting there, but the authorities have started to
cut down the forest. Peter also sent us this link:

http://www.dr.dk/P4/Vest/Nyheder/Thisted/2011/07/26/071319.htm

Here is a link to the same page translated on Google Translate (not speaking Danish, we can't vouch for its accuracy, but it seems to make sense!):

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dr.dk%2FP4%2FVest%2FNyheder%2FThisted%2F2011%2F07%2F26%2F071319.htm

Here is a short paragraph from the translation:
"Amos Spener sits so far safe from the police. A policeman tried earlier to get him down, but failed at first.

Nature Agency has started to fell the trees around the tree where Amos Spener sit. "

Well, if the translation is correct, you can't help wondering if the translation software has a sense of irony in regard to the second sentence. Perhaps the Danish cartoonist, mentioned on our Facebook page on Sunday, Jens Hage will be inspired to produce another cartoon about wind turbines.

Here is a link to earlier photographs ( by Aleksaner Sønder)
of the protest as well:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalttestcenter/

Watch this video!

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-41917327:politiet-p%C3%A5-umulig-opgave-i-%C3%B8sterild.html

This is a link to a video showing protesters running to stand in front of the machines that were advancing on the forest where they planned to build 250m high turbines. As each protester is carried away by the police, more come to take their place. In the end, the police gave up.

Why didn't this happen at Romney Marsh, or Fullabrook Down, or Cefn Croes? Until people see industrial wind turbines with their own eyes, and become aware of the environmental damage that they cause, they don't usually understand the problems associated with them. It is easy to be misled by the PR of the wind industry, with their photographs of happy families with small and inoffensive-looking turbines in the background. Make no mistake, as more and more turbines are forced onto our landscapes against the will of the local people, this will happen here too, as it is in Demark, and the USA.

More from Denmark

This is another photograph by Aleksaner Sønder.

Using Google translate, the banner seems to say:
"Vestas smashing Danish Nature"

More about the protest here:

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/51931-protestors-target-turbine-test-center.html

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/24/climate-craziness-of-the-week-denmark-evicting-citizens-to-clear-cut-forests-for-wind-turbines/test-center/

Photos

Thanks to Egon Bennetsen for allowing us to show this and other photographs (on our Facebook page) of activists at the blockade against the Danish test centre for giant wind turbines.

Well done to all these brave Danish activists!

A quick attempt to translate using Google translate wasn't that successful, but the first words seem to be:

"We are nature's friends"

and that is something all fighters against industrial wind power agree with.

More about protest here, with photos!

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/news/2011/finally-civil-disobedience-over-wind-turbines-denmark/


True Green activists!

More here too:
http://www.epaw.org/echoes.php?lang=en&article=n15

See this quote: "“People are thoroughly fed up having their property devalued and their sleep disturbed by big wind turbines 130 and up to 200 meters high” , says the chairperson of a new Danish national association to Jyllandsposten."

Protest in Denmark - support needed

Blockade against Danish test centre for giant wind turbines

Appeal for support from activists in Denmark


Thursday morning, the local Danish police gave up removing the activists who since Friday, 15 July 2011, have prevented the cutting down of forest to make room for the planned national test centre for 250 metres high windmills in Thy, Northern Jutland.


10 police officers turned up to end the blockade but withdrew when it turned out that there were more activists than exspected. They are camping in the forest area where the authorities intend to cut down the forest to create the right wind conditions in the test centre. We shall be back in great numbers, the police said.


The test centre will be situated right between a protected birds area, a so-called Ramsar area, and a Natura 2000 area. The Danish Society for Nature Conservation finds that the law regarding the test centre violates the EU habitat directive and has brought the case before the EU Commission who has requested a detailed statement from the Danish government. Furthermore, a local association has filed a case against the Danish State.


Friday, 15 July, the bird breeding season ended and by midnight the Danish authorities intended to start the cutting down. During the day, the local population protested against the demolition of Denmark's last wild nature.



The activists simply laid down in front of the authorities' machines to prevent the cutting down to start. They are staying in the area in tents day and night.



The ruling of the EU Commission is expected within a couple of weeks. The activists demand that the cutting down is postponed until the ruling of the EU Commission and the verdict of Danish court have been made public. The Danish press is following the case every hour. An open letter from a Danish association to the Minister for the Environment was published today requesting the Minister to stop the work.



”We find it very problematic that you, as the government's representative, wants to force through a very controversial test centre for windmills, as the most basic investigations of the negative impact on the surroundings have not yet been made”, the Association for Improved Environment writes to the minister.



The demonstration in Thy has no central organization but arose spontaneously. A spokesman for the activists appeals for support and assistance from both Europe and the rest of the world. And, preferably, as soon as possible.

Please contact Peter Skeel Hjorth, spokesman of EPAW in Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Email: peter@skeelhjorth.dk Phone: +46 708 166521

Or Aleksander Sønder. Email: aleksander.soender@gmail.com Phone: +45 26160630

(This report was sent to us by Peter Skeel Hjorth)

Seen on EPAW

It would be great to have an English translation of this!


More information here:
www.5sindgenug.de

And watch Heinrich Schott the artist at work on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tslZosEpAyI

PVPTV2 - part 4

Here is Part Four, all four can be seen on YouTube, or scroll back down here for parts 1, 2 and 3.
What a shame there wasn't a video of the North Devon District Council Planning Committee Meeting about the Batsworthy Cross proposal for 9 giant turbines near Exmoor, as well.
The same spirit - on a smaller scale - was felt there.
All over Britain - and the rest of the world - local people come out in their droves to say "No, we don't want these industrial turbines destroying our landscapes, for such little gain, and so great a cost." When are the Government Ministers and party leaders going to listen to what their local MPs and AMs are saying?

Part 3 of Powys County Council Meeting in Welshpool

Pylons, Windfarm-PCC Motion, Councillors' Address - Part 3(A)

PVPTV2

Hear the councillors speak - this is local democracy in action. They are properly representing the views of local people.

Tax Payers Alliance

http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/letthemeatcarbon/2011/07/government-fiddle-disastrous-energy-policy-households-fuel-poverty.html

Matthew Sinclair's new book mentioned in the above link sounds interesting:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Them-Eat-Carbon-Governments/dp/184954116


Other news on this blog:

There will be more links uploaded shortly about the Welshpool Council Meeting (there have been no postings here the last few days because of IT problems)

Part 2 PVPTV News

More from Welshpool - hear Councillor R. G. Brown as he calls for a moratorium on wind farm applications, with words such as these "stop this ludicrous, inexcusable and completely out of proportion trashing of our countryside"

Pylons, Windfarms - Powys County Council Motion TAN 8.-PVPTV News Part 1

The people speak.
This is Part 1 of a news documentary that features a meeting that took place at Welshpool on the 29th June 2011 organised by Powys County Council to discuss a motion to review TAN8.

David Bellamy's Blog

David Bellamy's blog is very much worth visiting if you are an artist, and also if yuo are concerned about the wind farm threat to Mid Wales.
Here is a link to his June 30 2011 posting.

Exhibition by Jenny Keal

Lindisfarne, by Jenny Keal

Exhibition of Paintings
by Jenny Keal
from her new book
Painting with Pastels

at
Erwood Station Craft Centre and Gallery
(6 miles south of Builth Wells)
LD2 3SJ
www.erwood-station.co.uk
tel: 01982 560674
from Saturday 2nd July 2011
until 18th August 2011

Go to this page on:
David Bellamy and Jenny Keal's website
for more details.

Jenny will be available at Erwood Station's Summer of Great Events
to sign books, demonstrate pastel techniques and answer questions on Saturday 23rd July 2011 between 12 noon and 4 pm.