Press release

For immediate release

June 4th 2008

Protesters "freeze butts off" to save Happy Valley

Time and Date: 12 noon, Thursday, June the 5th.
Venue: front of Rutherford House, near Wellington Bus Exchange.

To protest the hypocrisy of the NZ government’s continued plan to mine Happy Valley on the South Island’s West Coast for coal while portraying to the world that we are ‘clean and green’, members and supporters of the Save Happy Valley Coalition will “freeze our butts off rather than burn coal” outside the government’s World Environment Day activities tomorrow.

On Thursday June 5th Wellington hosts the UN World Environment Day activities. David Parker the minister responsible for climate change will be part of a panel discussion alongside the executive Director of the UNEP and the chairman of the UNIPCC. The discussion topic is ‘How do we de-carbonise the world?’

“We'll hear a lot of green-tinged rhetoric on World Environment Day, but in reality the government is happy to take the money and let the environment go to hell. At Happy Valley near Westport, the state-owned enterprise Solid Energy plans to destroy a pristine wetland and kiwi habitat in order to flog climate-changing coal overseas,” says Wellington Save Happy Valley group spokesperson Emily Bailey.

“The government is hoping that if they just keep saying ‘sustainability’ and ‘environment’, people will think climate change is being addressed rather than quietly sidelined.”

ENDS

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