‘Well, we know what you’re against, but what are you for?’

So, we’re having a Wind Turbine workshop up here in Mayo this week. Why? Well, there’re a lot of reasons…

We want to show what we’re for in a practical way. Everyone knows that we’re against the Corrib Gas Project, and hopefully the reasons for that, but what’s the alternative? Well, this course is looking in the right direction.

It’s a practical example of project in the community, rather than one that’s being imposed from the outside. The work and learning is being done by people in the community, as well as visitors and the good people from V3 power leading the course, and the expertise that’ll be gained will help people around here to build their own turbines. This is turn creates a level of independence and self-sufficiency in this area, by responding to its own needs. All done in an environmentally sound fashion, both from a local and a global viewpoint. The contrast between local control and harnessing of the resource (the wind), and the damage Shell want to do for the good of their shareholders alone is also a fairly strong one. And at the end of the course, we’ll have a new turbine, and the ability to generate electricity for use when the camp is set up again.

People aren’t being told what’s good for them, as if they hadn’t the first clue themselves. And the benefit will be to people around here, without the massive safety and environmental impacts on the area of the disastrous Corrib Gas Project.

There are alternatives, and most of them involve people taking back control of things that affect their lives, and doing them in a way that is beneficial to all.

Which is pretty much what the Shell to Sea campaign is all about, and why we’re so happy to be hosting this course.