Swansea Council’s Climate Emergency declaration meeting on Thursday evening was well attended. The Chair referred to it as the ‘best meeting’ in a long time. The Climate Emergency was duly declared unanimously following a motion brought by Councillors Mary Sherwood and Peter Jones after Extinction Rebellion’s April event.
Among those in the public gallery were members of Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, and Stop 5G Swansea.
Public questions were asked about the Council’s unambitious targets, but these were poo-pood by Clive Lloyd, Deputy Leader and Head of Business Transformation and Performance. In Council Leader Rob Stewart’s absence it was left to Mr Lloyd to display Swansea Council’s fierce pride in everything they are doing at the moment.
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Gower MP Tonia Antoniazzi initiated a debate into the health effects of WiFi technology.
My own submitted question concerning 5G had already been passed to Geraint Davies Labour MP for Swansea West. Earlier in the week he also took part in Gower MP Antonia Antoniazzi’s parliamentary debate (from about 16.45) on the health dangers of 5G.
Geraint had submitted the question to the Council and had already received a reply before we even got to the meeting.
The answer was the predictable ICNIRP flannel : a plastic head filled with water and tested for thermal effects after a few minutes over a decade ago.
Nothing whatsoever to do with 5G.
Geraint Davies, MP for Swansea West speaking at the Parliamentary debate on health effects of 5G. Courtesy Parliament TV.
There’s an irony in that even the industry admits that once the Internet of Things (IOT) comes into being, using 5G antennas in the street that communicate directly with SMART meters inside peoples’ homes, the carbon load of the information storage logging every single thing we do, is going to be huge.
The carbon footprint of global ICT was already comparable to the whole aviation industry in 2007 way before the explosion in streaming applications.
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So what was the answer to the question regarding ecological damage of 5G from the Deputy Leader?
“No we will not have a moratorium on 5G”.
Mr Lloyd seemed totally oblivious to the screaming contradiction in claiming a legal duty under the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act to combat climate emergency, but then sweeping away concerns about untested 5G by saying:
There are reports of dangers and then other reports saying the technology works.
Yes Clive, this is what engages the precautionary principle according the the Well-being of Future Generations Act you just quoted at us.
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Lloyd’s statements at Swansea Council Climate Emergency Declaration meeting unfortunately echo those of Tom Wheeler, former Chair of the Federal Communications Committee. Wheeler said in 2016 that industry would not be waiting for safety tests…. and to get out of the way of innovation.
Here Clive Lloyd said
“We don’t want to get left behind. Cardiff have 5G, we need it”.
Some in the public gallery were disappointed to hear him sound so similar to Wheeler, who was supposed to be a regulator before so obviously selling out to big business.
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Invoking the Future Generations Act is nevertheless an invitation to explore the issue further, as Sophie Howe, the Future generations Commissioner has asked Vaughn Gethin to do.
Meanwhile Swansea has a climate emergency of sorts. It’s one that doesn’t necessarily involve stopping spraying carcinogenic weed-killer, or divesting from fossil fuels as a stated priority, one that won’t cease from the annual celebration of war and gas-chugging aviation that is the Air Show, and won’t even employ the legal necessity of a precautionary principle on 5G. All because money.
Swansea Council climate emergency declaration is already clinging to junk science riddled with conflicts of interest to appease industry at the expense of the environment and everything in it. Some victory.
But let’s invoke the Zeitgeist. Clive Lloyd also referred to the timely BBC programme “Years and Years” to echo the great grandmother who said that we are all to blame because we buy cheap t-shirts.
Meanwhile Swansea businesses are still not even legally obliged to recycle.
It’s going to be an interesting summer.
Antonia Antoniazzi, Climate Emergency, Clive Lloyd, Extinction Rebellion, featured, Friends of the Earth, Geraint Davies, ICNIRP, Swansea Council
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