Since the Big If pledge launched in March, when Age of Stupid actor Pete Postletwaite promised the UK Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband that he would return his OBE if the government gave the go-ahead for a new coal power station Kingsnorth, thousands of people have joined him in making pledges of their own.
Greenpeace UK has been a core member of the Big If coalition from the start, together with a wide range of other organisations including the RSPB, World Development Movement, Oxfam and the Women's Institute. Because if Kingsnorth and the other 10 plants planned to follow it get built, then we'll have next to no chance of meeting our CO2 reduction targets and reining in runaway climate change.
The first major coalition event was the Mili-band - a symbolic surrounding of the Kingsnorth site in July, and others are planned in the near future. Each organisation has asked its supporters to pledge what they are prepared to do if Ed Miliband does give the go-ahead to new coal. The actual pledges vary depending on the nature of the organisation.
Here at Greenpeace we've already signed up nearly 6,000 people, who've variously agreed to either:
- vote at the next election for political candidates who oppose new coal;
- join a protest at the Department of Energy and Climate Change;
- take non-violent direct action to prevent the new plant being built;
...or make some other useful protest of their own devising.
We recently sent this video of pledgees to Ed Miliband. It features not only a wide range of of Greenpeace activists and supporters, but also some clued-up celebrities who gave us their support at Glastonbury - including Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos, comedian Mark Thomas, and singers VV Brown and K T Tunstall.
The latest 'coal consultation' comes to a close on 9 September. Thanks to the high levels of protest about these half-baked plans to return Britain to a new coal age, no decision on Kingsnorth has yet been reached, but that's no guarantee that it won't be soon. So we are planning more Big If events over the autumn to keep up the pressure on Ed, and to act as a constant reminder to him that IF he makes the wrong decision on coal, there are likely to to BIG consequences.
Take Action
Sign the Big If pledge today and let Ed know what you will do if Kingsnorth gets the go-ahead. If you've already signed, then please ask your family and friends to do so as well.
