Leave it in the Ground: Drax Coal Train Halted
imc-uk-features | 13.06.2008 12:55 | Climate Chaos | Sheffield
On 13th June 2008 protestors halted a coal train carrying fuel for Drax power station in Yorkshire, the single biggest source of CO2 in the UK. Dressed in white overalls and canary outfits, the protestors used safety signals to stop the train on a bridge overlooking the power station, before climbing on board and dumping coal off onto the tracks.
The train was stopped on a branch line used exclusively for delivering coal to Drax. Protestors used a network of climbing ropes to suspend themselves under the bridge from the train to prevent the train from moving. After a number of hours, police began evicting the protestors. 29 arrests were reported.
The protest comes six weeks before the 2008 Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth power station - which will also highlight how using coal to supply energy will be a disaster for the planet. Meanwhile the UK Government has "eviscerated" the Climate Change Bill and abandoned 2°C maximum target for global temperature rise as scientists warn that a safe CO2 level might be a maximum of 350ppm — we are already at over 380ppm, the Arctic permafrost is melting and "we're seeing events predicted for the end of the 21st century happening already", according to Barry Brook.
Photos: 1 | 2
Reports: 1 | 2
Links: The Coal Hole | Climate Camp
Last September James Hansen, spelt out the situation with coal in a letter to Gordon Brown:
“The single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Coal-fired generation is historically responsible for most of the CO2 in the air today - responsible for about half of all carbon dioxide emissions globally”
Last month activists protested on proposed open cast coal mine site in Derbyshire under the banner Leave it in the Ground
imc-uk-features
Additions
Next public event - noise demo at UK Coal, 14th July
13.06.2008 16:14
More details to follow...
Check out our website
make coal history
Homepage:
http://leaveitintheground.org.uk
Comments
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leave them in the ground..
13.06.2008 20:55
This earth is being killed not by those in poverty but by the Middle Class, as we come near another climate camp protest the recreational protesters are at it again (’bisto kids’ as we now call them) and i for one thought i would never agree with a former tory
Nigel Lawson’s views on global warming.
I shall not give them any more publicity, and hope the night is long and cold, that the police give them the same injustice the working class get each day..
underclassrising
Homepage:
http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/underclassrising/
Some Thoughts..
13.06.2008 21:40
The Banner you have used what is it made of? Where was it Made, and how was it delivered to you from the suppliers?
What resources have gone into the Banner, the 3G mobile camera phones and laptops you use to make your protest?
The white overalls what are they made of? Where were they bought and what will happen to them at the end - how will they be disposed of?
The coal you removed from the trains is now contaminated and therefore can not be used now you have dumped it over the rail line, plus there will have to be a clean up following your departure..
The cost of the police, the arrival of the police - no doubt they come in vehicles using fossil fuels, The police will no doubt be on overtime, will have to use vehicles using fossil fuels to get home.
You will be nicked, therefore more vehicles using fossil fuels to get you to court each time you appear, The court will have to be powered by the electricity you say you are against, to hold your court case featuring barristers, etc, who will have had to drive over to the court - more use of earth resources?
I guess you get the idea by now? it is the privileged middle class, not those in poverty, who are creating problems for this earth, you state you are against government but believe their lies and propaganda on climate change.
Is climate change the problem here?
underclassrising
Homepage:
http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/underclassrising/
to underclassrising
14.06.2008 07:23
And you clearly know nothing at all about activism and the efforts made to re-use all materials, banners etc, use sustainable transport wherever possible, weigh up any enviro damage with bigger picture goals.
As for your tired signature - when the water is lapping round ALL our ankles, you'll still be bleating about a class system you continue to preserve and reinforce through your labelling and repetition. Climate chaos makes stupid squabbling about who's more working class than you, totally irrelevant. Wake up.
greengrass
To Underclassrising
14.06.2008 08:46
Secondly - i'm pretty tired of class war people whining about climte change not being part of the class struggle. Class and climate are intrinically linked. Whose bills go up as the problem worsens, who freezes to death when fuel becomes overpriced. Who cant afford to use cars, or even trains as corporates continue to force us to use rapidly diminishing fossil fuels? Yup, its the working class.
And who is on the sharp end of climate crisis? The global working class. It is their forests and land raped for bio and fossil fuels. Who suffers the food shortages, starvation, degredation and drought? The gobal working class do - it is the working people of the majority world who bear the brunt of minority world driven, climate trashing capitalism. And compared to them, fucked over though we may be, we're sitting pretty cushy right now.
Climate change fucks the poor hardest (generally the poorer the harder) both in this country and abroad, so 'underclassrising', why don't you crawl back to whatever student digs you discovred your working class fetishism in and snuggle up for another lonly night with that picture of Ian Bone you keep under your pillow!
(A) Sab x
greengrass
14.06.2008 09:10
i need not to state my activism in my community and with The Green Party, climate change is a load of bollocks and like the old left of yesterday when asked some questions you become aggressive and dismissive oh there is another working class yob with no thought or intelligence.
How fucking patronizing's and condescending you sound greengrass, and if Armageddon is going to deal with people like you then bring it on, we can not morn the death of the innocent we are fighting for a better world, where we do not have the time to morn.
underclassrising
Homepage:
http://pretentiousartist.com/
(A) Sab x
14.06.2008 10:14
Climate change is not part of the class struggle as it is a lie told to us, there are many thoughts and reasons as to why this might be and for a more in depth view on this goto
Watch this
underclassrising
Homepage:
http://pretentiousartist.com/
reply to underclass rising
14.06.2008 10:59
Have you read it - all I mean?
here is a gem:
"The second, and more fundemental danger is that the global salvationist movement is profoundly hostile to capitalism and the market economy. There are already calls for green protectionism - for the imposition of trade restrictions against those countries which fail to curb their carbon dioxide emissions. Given the fact in which the only way the world's poor will ever be able to escape from their poverty is by embracing capitalism and the global market economy, this is not good news."
So in short what Nigel Lawson is trying to do in his piece is to discredit the enviromental movement with some not very well researched science (similar garbage that came out in the channel 4 documentary "the great global warming swindle" which BTW, does not stand up to even the smallest piece of scrutiny (scientists interviewed for the film have issued statements stating that the maker has in effect lied by taking parts of the interview out of context), and in a quite amusing twist lay the blame of 3rd world poverty on the enviromentalist movement.
As pointed out already, if developing countries had unfettered access to all the oil and natural resources thay wanted, do you think that would alleviate poverty? All that would happen is the elite would become richer. E .g: China and India have entered the oil market bigstyle, oil barrons feign an oil shortage, hike the price up, the poor in developing countries like India, remain poor as the cost of everythig rises, suddenly that new opportunity in a call centre has not changed their position at all, still poor.
Nigel Lawson is a free market captialist, anything that is a barrier to trade, or should I say, the rich getting richer, he will oppose as he has done in this paper.
Fly Posters
for underclass rising
14.06.2008 12:03
Earhling
underclassrising
14.06.2008 13:16
squatticus
Activists arrested...?
14.06.2008 14:23
Does anyone have any info on where they are being held, if anyone has been bailed and if they are all ok?
barefoot stomper
well done people!
14.06.2008 14:40
It looks amazingly well organised.
s
you lot are stupid
14.06.2008 14:52
Hamster power, trust me it don't work you ever been on pistonheads on a friday night
thinfourth
So what should we use
14.06.2008 15:54
What should we use
Hamster power?
It don't work on pistonheads
thinfourth
Section 35 Malicious Damage Act 1861
14.06.2008 19:00
penalises the placing of wood, etc, on a railway, taking up rails, turning points, or showing or hiding signals, and requires evidence of an intent to obstruct, upset, overthrow, injure or destroy any engine, tender, carriage or truck.
Indictable only; punishable with life imprisonment.
The BTP
to underclassrising
14.06.2008 20:47
treehugger
fuked
15.06.2008 02:07
see all the hiden comments, what is it with the left and the issue of class strugle?
a note to indymedia you have now pissed of the person who could have given extensive help advice and support in reprogramming here, you know what ill forget the offer of free advice and support and keep charging the people who desire to pay, in words you have pissed over 1 grands worth of free advice and work up the wall due to fact you are not open to debate..
watch this comment be hidden,,
underclassrising
Homepage:
http://projectsheffield.wordpress.com/underclassrising/
oh please
15.06.2008 14:10
A giant Indian company that has bought up famous British firms such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley Tea is to get hundreds of millions of pounds in “green” subsidies to build one of the world’s biggest coal-fired power stations.
Tata will receive huge sums from the West for building the power station in India, thanks to the carbon trading system established by the Kyoto treaty. Critics say the system makes a mockery of attempts to combat climate change.
When the plant near the port of Mundra, in Gujarat, becomes operational in 2011 it will emit 25.7m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – more CO2 than any power station in Britain.
Yet it will be classed by the United Nations as a source of “clean power”. That means Tata will be able to sell surplus “carbon credits”, established under the Kyoto treaty, to firms in the West. Energy groups will be able to buy the credits as an alternative to reducing CO2 emissions.
Related Links
* Drax to burn imported wood to cut CO2 emissions
* EU signals retreat over green pledges
It is estimated Tata could earn £30m a year from such sales. It has already received more than £230m in soft loans from the World Bank to build the plant.
Tom Picken, head of international climate at Friends of the Earth, said: “This plant exposes how the World Bank’s attempt to get involved in combating climate change is nothing but a farce.
nosey
Homepage:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4138295.ece
comments?!
15.06.2008 14:45
show & tell
'an interesting discussion'
16.06.2008 07:54
All it appears to be is a feeble attempt to promote Mozaz's latest blog.
This is a newswire, not a bulletin board.
IMCista
Re: Section 35 Malicious Damage Act 1861
30.07.2008 11:08
The more probable offence is s36 of the same Act, as used against DSEi protesters:
"Whosoever, by any unlawful act, or by any wilful omission or neglect, shall obstruct or cause to be obstructed any engine or carriage using any railway, or shall aid or assist therein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years."
streetlawyer
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