Update on Yirca Yirca is a small village in Soma. Soma is the sight of the May 2014 mining disaster that killed over 300 miners. It is also the home of a very large coal fired power plant. The owners of the plant and the governor, decided to build another coal fired plant next to Yirca. To develop a right of way, they would need to cut down the olive groves of Yirca. The started by cutting down 13 trees at midnight on the 17th of September. On the 21st, many of the Rainbow Warrior crew visited Yirca to meet people and show support. See our Facebook posting near that date. You see, the olive groves represent most of the income of the village. A Greenpeace staff member moved into the village, to organize people to camp out in the groves at night. The villagers began to harvest the olives, months ahead of time, scared they would lose everything. A Greenpeace lawyer began working in Soma to stop the illegal cutting of the trees. The Greenpeace office in Istanbul initiated a campaign and called on Erdogan Bektas, the governor of Manisa, to protect the area. Under the Constitutional law 5403, this task falls to the governor. But the governor said that “there are ongoing wars because of energy in the world. People are dying. It isn’t a big deal to cut down a few trees to produce energy. That should be our mind-set.” We believe that if anyone should realize that coal is a killer, it should be Erdogan Bektas. In a country with an abundance of both wind and solar, his attitude is stupid in the extreme. On October 10th, the company came in the early morning hours and cut down 86 trees. The Gerdarmerie (Police) came and left. After they left the men from the company cut down an additional 475 trees. They further stated that they will cut down all the trees in the area. I do not know if this is the end of Yirca, but it might be. Coal is dirty. It kills the miners who rip it out of the earth. It gives respiratory diseases to anyone living near the factory or power plant. It even poisons the oceans, which are becoming more and more acidic every day. But there are some men who can make money burning coal. So it continues. The Rainbow Warrior crew send support to the people of Yirca. I only wish we could have done more.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 08:07:19 +0000
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