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Climate Activists Occupy Proposed Site For Coal-Fired Power Station
Kingsnorth, England - Climate change activists yesterday occupied the proposed site for Britain's first coal-fired power station in 30 years, claiming the development will cause huge damage to the environment if it goes ahead.
More than 150 protesters descended on the site near the village of Kingsnorth in Kent ahead of next week's Camp for Climate Action, which is expected to attract thousands of environmentalists.
Activist Connor O'Brien said: "The purpose of the climate change camp is to target those businesses and companies who are involved in bringing about destructive climate change. This is the first of six coal-fired power stations being planned in the UK and if they go ahead the impact on the environment will be catastrophic."
The protest started on Sunday when environmentalists gathered at Heathrow airport - the scene of last year's camp - before travelling across London in a "green caravan", stopping off each night to highlight their objections to the proposed power station. The caravan is expected to arrive at Kingsnorth on Sunday along with hundreds of other protesters.
O'Brien said: "We want to make the issue of coal-fired power stations so big and so toxic that they will be widely opposed by the public and it will be impossible for them to go ahead. What we need is properly sustainable solutions."
Medway council in Kent has already given the green light to the £1bn plant, which has been proposed by the German-owned gas and electricity provider E.ON.
The final decision rests with the business secretary, John Hutton, who is expected to make an announcement later this year.
E.ON has argued that the plant will produce power from coal more efficiently and cleanly than ever before in Britain, leading to a cut in carbon emissions of almost 2m tonnes a year. It has also claimed that the plant could help Britain develop carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The project has received the backing of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, which said Medway council had made a "commonsense" decision. But green groups are fiercely opposed to the plans, arguing they are at odds with the government's commitment to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050.
"The claims about new carbon-capture technology ... are pure greenwash," said O'Brien. "This camp will draw attention to the science behind these claims and outline real sustainable alternatives."
The group had promised to infiltrate the site by digging under fences, or dropping in by air. One group, dubbing themselves the Great Rebel Raft Regatta, is planning to enter the site on pirate ships and boats.
Protesters said they were planning a "rolling programme" of action against Kingsnorth and said other coal plants would be targeted.
The group is well known for its dramatic protests. In June campaigners halted a coal train outside Drax, Britain's biggest power station, and shovelled its contents on to the line into the plant. More than 20 tonnes of coal blocked the tracks as protesters strung ropes between the train and the girders of a river bridge.
Their concerns have attracted wide support. Some 228 MPs signed an early-day motion calling on the government to hold a public inquiry before deciding whether to consent to the Kingsnorth plant. Actor Robert Redford wrote to the climate camp organisers backing the campaign.
A spokeswoman for Kent Police said yesterday that they were monitoring the situation at the Kingsnorth camp.
© 2008 The Guardian
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9 Comments so far
Show AllObama/Redford!?
Way to go you beautiful Brits!
I wish we could get those kinds of numbers and that kind of activism going here in the United States.
I work for a nonprofit trying to stop the construction of new coal-fired plants and it is not easy!
There just aren't enough people who care enough to get out there and protest.
Redford's worked with us in the past, but you guys sure did a good job getting his attention.
It's pretty sad on our part that ya'll only have that one plant and are so vocal about stopping it when we have over 50 new proposed plants in this country and nothing near this level of activism.
Cheers!
God bless the Brits - stay strong and stop the nonsense from perpetuating itself. Energy from coal means gross pollution, and you and we are well aware of that - there is no viable "capture" policy; it's just another scam. Kingsnorth needs to be stopped, and we in America need to follow your example and stop our asinine energy "policies".
Creative and colorful way to oppose what's clearly a half-measure that can't resolve Global Climate Radicalization (GCR.) This theory assumes the additional CO2 will destabilize the climate, lead to more extreme droughts and floods, stronger storms, greater changes in temperature, etc.. If we use the term Global Warming, we assume the temperature will rise where we are, steadily and predictably. It may, or it may not--if we use averages, we'll fail to capture the extremes that are threatening Earth's fragile balance, ocean currents, wind, and precipitation patterns.
Coal creates greenhouse gases which will warm the poles the most. Huge pools of methane trapped in the artic regions are now escaping to the atmosphere. Methane is more than twenty times stronger than CO2.
Now the ice at the North Pole won't add to any ocean rise, because they're floating atop the ocean, according to Al Gore. But a lot of Antarctic and Greenland ice sits on land, and would add to the oceans as it melts.
Now the global sea level rise is the #1 threat to the United Kingdom. Tens of trillions will have to be invested worldwide to combat sea level rise, including up the Thames and flooding London.
Stopping sea level rise could take foresight and leadership we don't have--yet--so people are taking things into their own hands. It will take a full stoppage of coal-burning plants or the dominoes start falling, irrevocably.
The capitalists build new electric plants to create an oversupply, which depresses the price, so the people develop wasteful consumption habits and a sense of entitlement. Then the capitalists put the squeeze on the people to recoup their investment. The people don't like it, but their sense of entitlement has become their straightjacket, so they pay the bill. When the capitalists recoup their investment they take profits from the newly conditioned slaves to fund yet another expansion. And the cycle repeats.
Interesting comment, rtrury. I missed the deliberate oversupply strategy, but it makes perfect sense.
the coal lobby is huge, which is why it will not go away. the amount of sun falling on our lovely earth in any one hour provides enough energy to power the world's needs for a whole year! sadly, we have little leadership to exploit this gift...
There are untold numbers of
people in this Nation who care,
know, and want to protest.
We just don't want to waste our
efforts by standing silently
at different locations for five minutes
(doing nothing) and then walking
away.
Most sincerely, Dwayne Chandler.
My kid is moving to UK...she can't get any one even interested in any kind of activism....and the high school makes her jump through so many hoops just to start a simple peace club...she is disgusted with banging her head against the right wing brick wall.