On Saturday 16th August at 3pm the Coolagad river burst its banks in Delgany Co. Wicklow. A culvert under the R761 collapsed and forced a road closure and millions of gallons of water to flow into Killincarrig village. What happened next can only be described as gross negligence by Wicklow County Council and it's Fire Service. Approxamitely 20 residents started to look for assistance from the various state agencies but were ignored. WCC had no emergency numbers in place, had no crews working on the ground, had no sandbags filled and would not allow its Fire Service to be dispatched.

Wicklow is the only County in Ireland that refuses to dispatch Fire Brigades to floods. In light of the recent history of this service and its problems in Bray you would think that the powers that be would put their budgetary problems aside and assist the taxpayers that fund this service. Dublin Fire Brigade provides a call-out service to Wicklow Fire Service from Tara St. in Dublin.

The operators of this service informed our residents that they received 250 calls from Wicklow Residents to deal with flooding. They were unable to dispatch any Wicklow based brigades because of restrictions imposed by the Chief Fire Officer of Co. Wicklow. They were also unable to give an emergency number for WCC.

Related Links: Climate Change will flood Limerick | Ramor Ryan gatecrashes the ineffectual UN Conference on Climate Change | Daily Video Reports From Camp For Climate Action | Creative Commons Images of Flooding In Ireland

Today (Saturday) at noon a flotilla of sea kayaks reclaimed Glengad beach, Pollathomas, Co Mayo; the landfall site for Shell’s offshore pipeline.

Members of the ‘Great Rebel Raft Regatta’ recently deployed at the E.ON coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, England, have made their way from Climate Camp UK to Erris, in order to assist Shell to Sea campaigners in their opposition to this pipeline construction at Glengad.

The first wave of the Rebel Regatta arrived today following Marine & Public Information Notices which announced the arrival of the world’s largest pipe-laying vessel, the Solitaire, in Broadhaven Bay, any time from today onwards.

Captain Ahab of the Rebel Crew states, “It’s unacceptable what Shell are being allowed to get away with here in Mayo. We intend to plunder Shell’s compound at Glengad and board the Solitaire when she arrives in the bay. We take no prisoners. It’s the gang-plank for these boys. This environment needs protection from these marauders of Shell’s.”

Brian Guckian, a researcher into sustainable development and transport in Ireland, lays out the case against the proposed Cork to Limerick (M20) Motorway.

Mr Guckian claims that the scheme is not supported by traffic counts, that it breaches EU Law and government environmental policies, and that councils could face fines and funding penalties if it goes ahead.

Related Links: M20 on Wikipedia | M20 on Politics.ie

This is a series of daily video reports from the Climate Camp 2008 in Kingsnorth, Kent, UK

The Climate Camp 2008 at Kingsnorth has chosen that site, because there are plans to build a new coal powered generating station there and given that coal is a big emitter of CO-2 into the atmosphere, then this make sense to make it the focus of a climate action campagin.

The camp is ongoing; click here to access daily video reports from the camp.

It should be noted that the well known climate scientist James Hansen has come out strongly against any further coal plants and thinks there should be a complete halt to them, given that his and other scientists' recent research, including recent observations from the Arctic, show that the climate is turning out to be far more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change is happening much much quicker than anticipated.

Indeed, the level of the annual summer melt in the Arctic in 2007 was so great that projections for an (summer) ice free Arctic have been brought forward from around the year 2080 to anytime within the next few years. This should be an urgent wake up call to everyone.

Violence from the police has been reported. Dunk, an Indymedia.ie contributor, says: "police handling was very over the top: witnessed headbutts from cops, shields and batons to heads and one poor bloke getting full side baton blow to knee, didn't see him after, rumours were that his knee cap had been seriously injured".

Related Links: Climate Camp | Chart of Arctic Sea Ice Melt & Case for Sustainable Emergency | US Scientist calls for Prosecution of Energy Company CEOs for Global Warming Disinformation | Camp Feauture on IMC-UK: Climate Camp Ready For Action | Climate Camp TV | Climate Camp Radio live streams everyday

Jim Keys, a member of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign (FEIC), was arrested on Friday after their monthly peace vigil outside Raytheon’s Derry software facility. His crime? He touched up a three year old spray drawing of The Black Shamrock on the public pavement outside Raytheon! The charge? Criminal Damage?

Related Links: Raytheon stories on indy