Friend or FoE?



















A BBC news item on Friday casts a revealing light on the extent to which the so-called "Green" movement has drifted from its roots. Powys county council, besieged by multiple applications for wind farms, has put it's foot down and decided to put the whole thing on hold. It's main objection revolves around road access to some of the wildest and most remote sites in Wales. Councillor Wynne Jones, the Cabinet member for Regeneration and Development said;

"Unless there are major improvements to the roads where the construction traffic would have to travel, then we would have no choice but to recommend refusal of these developments."

In response, Friends of the Earth have called for Assembly ministers to ""intervene and to discuss with them how we can overcome this as soon as possible".

But wouldn't FoE do the Welsh environment a better service by questioning the thinking behind the whole crazy scheme in the first place? Whatever happened to the slogan "Small is Beautiful" that inspired groups like FoE in the first place?

After all, in the 1970s, in the early days of the green movement, thinkers like E F Schumacher questioned the entire rationale behind large scale "mega projects" and decried the tendency towards "bigness" in modern thinking. Schumacher, a pioneer who cared passionately about people as much as the environment, coined a term which has clearly been forgotten by groups like FoE. "Appropriate technology" - small-scale, decentralised projects which were relevant to the needs of the communities they served, "as if people mattered".

Can anyone say that about these projects?

Everything about them is top-down, driven by little more than an abstract, bureaucratic target which is effectively part of little more than a marketing exercise by the Welsh Assembly.
Meanwhile, in it's zeal to impose these targets on local authorities, it seems the Assembly has grossly underestimated the cumulative impact of a series of projects, which, taken together, will transform the landscape of mid-Wales forever.

Isn't it always the way with such top-heavy exercises?

Wind technology started in Wales around 30 years ago as little more than a number of small, innovative projects pioneered by ventures like the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. They were grassroots, local projects, which generally attracted little opposition. As the corporate world has taken an increasing interest in wind technology, however, the tendency has been for the size of the turbines to grow, and the numbers to multiply. It's no surprise, therefore, that local opposition has tended to multiply in direct proportion, as their impact on the landscape has become ever more intrusive.

So are Friends of the Earth now going to call on the Assembly to build bigger roads to make this ever expanding project happen? And could they do such a thing with a straight face?

The mind boggles. But one thing's for sure - If E F Schumacher was alive to see the slick, corporate monster the movement he inspired has mutated into, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be turning in his grave, he'd be spinning.