Comment by yodelshady
12 days ago
Projects I've seen recently refused permission by the local population in the UK on environmental grounds:
- A data centre using the site of an old landfill. - A data centre next to an oil refinery. - A film studio using the site of a disused quarry. - A solar farm. That one was opposed by Greens. - A housing development, by a roundabout.
And organised campaigns on environmental grounds against:
- A cycle bridge, built next to a railway bridge. A grade-separated railway bridge, in case you were wondering about safety concerns. - A sewage works, near greenbelt land. Not on greenbelt land. Servicing a conurbation that currently dumps raw sewage into the local river. Also opposed by Greens, naturally.
Dare I even say that, after writing a forty-five thousand page environmental report for Hinckley, legal objections - based on matters clearly covered by said report - continued?
Or everything to do with HS2? Also, again, naturally most vocally opposed - by vocally, I mean by trespass - near me by Greens.
Or literally any wind turbines visible by anyone. Including offshore.
Our local democracy, like a fair few other institutions I can think of, was built by idiots with no concept that said system could be abused, from inside (I've not mentioned bribery, have I?) and outside. And so it's a tool of abusers. If the only way China could avoid that abuse was to override the locals entirely, that's a shame. But I can't in good conscience say they've picked wrong.
Got to see this first hand. A bunch of environmentalists killed a solar project because supposedly part of it would cast a shadow on a stream that the fish wouldn't like. Ironically, fish often hide under rocks etc, so my guess is the fish WOULD have like the added protection if there actually was a periodic shadow.
The other reality - everyone had nice houses with views and didn't want to see solar panels :) So after fighting and protecting for things like solar, they now only wanted the solar to be forced on folks elsewhere. The project was actually super cool otherwise - an old school type business was going to go green in part with this project.
"was built by idiots with no concept that said system could be abused, from inside"
I think you are being too harsh on said "idiots". These democratic mechanisms were built in times when no one knew what Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V meant, and when it was an order of magnitude harder to organize any campaign.
It is like calling Vauban idiot, because his fortifications are not designed to withstand air attacks. He wasn't in a position to anticipate this way of attack, and neither were the pre-Internet regulators.
Or maybe the purpose of the system is what it does. Why assume the intended primary purpose of the planning system can't be making constituents happy by preventing construction?
Here's a cool one from here in New Zealand - Greenpeace opposed a wind farm because a portion of the energy would be used to make (carbon-free) urea. They were ultimately unsuccessful in their opposition, but they tied it up for 3 years.
Since the urea molecule contains a carbon atom, carbon-free urea would be a neat trick. :)