An extraordinary verdict! September 17^th

We are living in an extraordinary time and because of that extraordinary things take place on the planet these days. A couple of days ago an extraordinary verdict were announced in Britain. 

Six Green Peace campaigners had been accused for damaging the chimney of Kingsnorth Power station and were cleared of charges.

According to The Independent - the story is that the energy giant E.O.N are planning to built a successor to the existing power plant - the first of a new generation of coal-fired plants.

Last year the protestors managed to express their protest by painting Gordon Browns name on the plants chimney. Their handiwork cost 35.000 pounds to remove.

As coal produces more of the carbon emissions causing climate change than any other fuel, the campaigners point of view were that a new station would be a disastrous setback in the battle against global warming, and send out a negative signal to the rest of the world about how serious Britain really is about tackling the climate treat.

The defence argued that the six activists had a lawful excuse to damage property at Kingsnorth power station to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down a door of a burning building to tackle a fire.

During the eight day trial, the worlds leading climate scientist, Professor James Hansen of Nasa, who had flown from America to give evidence, appealed to the Prime Minister personally to “take a leadership role” in cancelling the plan and scrapping the idea of a coal-fired future for Britain.

Professor Hansen, who first alerted the world to the global warming threat in June 1988 with testimony to a US senate committee in Washington, and who last year said the earth was in “imminent peril” from the warming atmosphere, asserted that emissions of CO 2 from Kingsnorth would damage property through the effects of the climate change.

He was one of several leading public figures who gave evidence to the defence, including Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park and director of the Ecologist Magazine, who similarly told the jury that in his opinion, direct action could be justified in the minds of many people if it was intended to prevent larger crimes being committed.

The defendants said they had acted lawfully, owing to an honestly held belief that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth would prevent further damage to properties worldwide caused by global warming. Their aim, they said, was to rein back CO 2 emissions and bring urgent pressure to bear on the Government and E.O.N. to change policies. They insisted their action had caused the minimum amount of damage necessary to close the plant down and constituted a “proportionate response” to the increasing environmental threat.

Speaking outside the court after they were cleared one of the activists said: “This is a huge blow for ministers and their plans for new coal-fired power stations. After this verdict, there is only a few people left in Britain who thinks those new plants are a good idea and its time for the Prime Minister to step in and embrace the clean energy future for Britain.

Well things are moving I think – what will be next?