Time: 18:30-20:30
Date: Friday 10th June
Venue: B102, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1 H0XG.
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/971812339606220/
Where does the coal that we continue to burn in UK power stations come from? The UK is the second largest buyer in the world of Russian coal. Where does this coal come from? And at what human and environmental cost? Russian environmentalist and founder of Ecodefense, Vladimir Slivyak, is currently touring the UK with Coal Action Network, talking about the human conditions around Russian coal mines.
Most Russian coal mining takes place in the Kuzbass region of Siberia and the extraction process has been riddled with human rights and environmental abuses. Vladimir has been highlighting the forced explusions of the Shor and Teluet Indigenous peoples in the Kuzbass, to make way for coal mine expansion. Also concerning is the high air and water pollution, adversely affecting agricultural production and likely linked to lower life expectancies in the Kuzbass region and increased incidence of cancer, birth defects and childhood infections and diseases.
The Russian and British governments have promised to curb carbon emissions. The human rights and environmental allegations surrounding coal extraction at the ‘coal face’, demonstrate that coal is not only harmful when burned but when extracted, too. Whilst Russian coal is powering our homes, schools and offices, we have a right and a responsibility to shine a light on these ugly realities. By buying Russian coal, we are funding this environmental degradation and human suffering; it is time to get out of coal and to get our money out of the violence of the Russian coal industry.
Coal Action Network, who have organised Vladimir’s 13-city UK tour, will also be speaking about the costs of coal extraction in Colombia and the USA, which comprise the other key imports in the UK coal mix.
Join us to find out more and what we can do for Vladimir Slivyak’s final talk in London on the 10th June at B102, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1 H0XG.
Find out more through Vladimir’s piece in the New Internationalist, and his interview published on OpenDemocracy.