OPEN LETTER: To Renewable Industry

To the innovators, inventors, creators and makers of renewables and 'off-grid' energy - a proposition:

I expect you have read/heard about Balcombe and Barton Moss Community Protection Camps where 'Protectors' (rather than protestors) gather, camp and daily slow progress at unconventional energy sites.

From a tiny network of just a few groups opposing this industry in the UK some 2+ years ago - we are now 140+ groups arranged primarily by geography although some by shared role/interest ie: Mothers Against Fracking, Knitting Nanas, Creatives Against Fracking etc. Each of these groups is aware and likely planning their camps (we watch the planning registers with the aid of Friends of the Earth and local groups) and as you will have noted from the media - we are portrayed as tree-hugging, jobless, lazy, communist hippies.

YOU could change this - and promote renewables at the same time!

Our camps are created from nothing and powered by generators if we have them. Camp fires abound along with compost toilets etc. What if though, the renewable energy sector stepped in and showcased just what it can do? I have no idea how this would work or if it is possible - but I think it is time to start showing that life without fossils is not stone-age and we can do this by example if you're willing and able...

Media love to be on-site with their cameras - aiming to catch us at our domestic-terrorist, grubby worst... so the publicity will be ready-made. Renewable companies can get together with the camps - keep a presence on site and show-off the technology. Perhaps it will be that local companies,  get together with local groups etc. A great chance to start linking: protection and innovation... the present threats and the inspirational future as concepts people can begin to trust.

Would love your thoughts...