We have 9 days to object to Galetech's plan to erect 140 metre high wind turbines, lets put pen to paper!

Another big Friday night out ... at a meeting about the ludicrous government and corrupt business (this time Galetech's) plans to turn the whole of Ireland into a highly charged power station (this time Old Leighlin, a sleepy little village with a school, long views over the Slieve Margie hills and a village that was once the seat of a high king of Ireland too. So, yes, we're talking heritage site, past, present and future).

'Highly charged' are the words I'd definitely use for it; emotionally, magnetically and financially… I gather that the 'new infrastructure' (aka the 'exporting renewable energy business plan at the complete expense of the people' - ) will add approximately €650 on to each household's annual bill! We watched some some telling footage of the miserable pulsing drone of a wind turbine that even 3 thick duvets and two inches of polystyrene over the windows can't block out! People in tears. Farmers who were all promised €7,000 each to allow access and use their fields and not one of them received the money. Discussion of the sensory over load to people with special needs and the elderly and fragile.

Wait for it though. Someone had been studying Eirgrid's 10 year plan! That hapless shower is planning to generate and transmit 23,000 megawatts of electricity. That is 5 times what we have bandying around now. The danger of electro magnetic fields, remember, is the strength and duration of our exposure to them. People have argued that only on the coldest days would the full 5000 be sent through those cables but actually if its being exported, it will bare no relation to our electricity needs. It will be continual and it will be 5 times the level we're exposed to now. And, if we don't stop it, it will be so concentrated too. There isn't an inch on the map where there is not planned a 45 metre high pylon with up to 6 cables (400kV rather than the 110 domestic cable we're accustomed to), or a 100 metre high wind turbine with another 40 metres of blades on top (if that was horizontal it would be considered a race - a legitimate distance to run! They are vast! or probably worst of all as no one's brought them up yet the 'conventional power stations' to process all this electricity.

It is completely insane but I came away excited by all the brilliant coherent and committed speakers. There were about 25 on the committee each one skilled, inspired and I thought wow, here is a force to be reckoned with. They have each put in a lot of personal money to oppose the plans and all we have to do is get behind them and put in our own individual objection to Carlow County Council. These companies have been stopped before. There is not too much in bribery being offered this time either so we just need to stand up and be counted. The other person to watch is Kieran Hartley who has given up his job to go into politics and straight to Europe to act on our behalf.

I came away excited by the emergence of conscious leadership. I found myself singing in the car on my way home, 'Finally the tables have started to turn, talking about a revolution, oh yeah!' by Tracy Chapman.

I will write again when I have formulated my submission, in case that helps others formulate theirs. The people to ask are No To Wind Turbines! on Facebook. Wind turbines, pylons, power stations they are all part of the old paradeigm unconscious creation and its time to come up with something better!

When they had a pre planning meeting with Carlow's County Planning Office, it was for 4 turbines (the biggest in Europe). The actual application is for 21 of them. I gathered, however, that if it was for 4 more, the planning application would have to go straight to An Bord Pleanala. The difference for us is that it is only €20 to put in an objection to Carlow County Council and €50 at least to lodge an objection to An Bord Pleanala! So we've got until the 24th to object. Even if you're not nearby, we're setting a precedent to support each other in guiding each country out of the environmental crisis its in.

 Here's to a human development politics replacing the economic growth one…why not.
I'm reading a book called Creating Capabilities by the brilliant philosopher Martha C Nussbaum, she spells it all out. Even in the first pages she describes an activist in India who has helped more than 50,000 women with micro investments, health, legal support, education and nourishment, to help extricate them from domestic violence. We really can move mountains!