Objections to spaceport increase
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Extinction Rebellion Scotland has joined the protests. They say that the Flow Country, ("Scotland’s Amazon") and Europe’s largest peat bog and carbon sink, is under serious threat from a "reckless and potentially extremely damaging spaceport development."
Landowner Anders Holch Povlsen has also objected to the spaceport being built in the remote part of the Highlands where he has an estate.
Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has submitted a planning application for a vertical launch site, Space Hub Sutherland, that it wants to build on the A’ Mhoine peninsula, Melness, near Tongue.
If the application is approved, construction on Europe’s first vertical launch site could begin later this year, with launches starting as early as 2022.
Objector Tasha Allen, Melness resident and parent, said: “I’ve lived here my whole life, within a mile of the site and have four young children. We are so privileged to bring up our children in this beautiful, untouched landscape. We need to teach our younger generations how important our planet’s resources are, it’s not all about money. How can this go ahead in a climate crisis? It’s not someone else’s problem, it’s everyone’s problem.”
Gordon McEwan, recycling centre operator and shareholder on the Melness Crofters Estate said: "I moved from Ayrshire with my two young boys and wife to get away from the noise and all that goes with life in towns and cities. This beautiful, remote and wild place will be ruined with this global vandalism in the name of apparent ‘progress and jobs’. As the saying goes, ‘there are no jobs on a dead planet’. Our planet and all the ecosystems on it, including this one, sustain us. They are our life line. We must stop destroying what keeps us alive in the name of short term profit.”
The proposed spaceport will put the fragile peatland ecosystem at huge risk, be that through fuel leaks, pollution or explosions, say campaigners.
Sarah Bird, conservation biologist said: “Any damaging development on this fragile peat bog ecosystem - which is so significant for our fight against climate change - is just wrong. If we upset that balance of chemicals in the ground or the water levels there and things dry out, then you begin to lose the peat. Which is critical, because that's carbon going out into the atmosphere.”
Holly Gillibrand, youth environmental activist, Fort William, said:“The idea that, in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency, a spaceport may be built on a rare ecosystem and a site of globally important carbon storage is ludicrous. Politicians talk about restoring peatlands and protecting species, but when you’re in a hole, you don’t keep making it deeper; you stop digging. We need to stop making this even harder for ourselves.”
Kate Willis, Extinction Rebellion Highlands and Islands said: “The Scottish Government and Highland Council have declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency; the development of the Mhoine spaceport, and the environmental impacts and carbon emissions resulting from its construction and regular launch of rockets, is contradictory to this declaration. Future generations need a planet that is habitable with functioning ecosystems.
"Continued investment in high carbon emitting developments is leading to rapid climate and ecological breakdown, which will not leave Scotland, or the planet, in a fit state for our children and grandchildren. Investment must focus on development of a green low carbon economy and rewilding, particularly in sensitive areas such as the Flow Country.”
Mr Povlsen's company Wildland Ltd has now made a holding objection.
It has concerns over the potential ecological and landscape damage set against the "likely very limited benefits".
