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
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