UK Protestors Occupy Coal Train - wanna chain yourself to a bull dozer?

[kgrandia]

NICE!!! We need to do more way of this in North America - remember when Gore asked why we weren't chaining ourselves to bulldozers at coal plant sites? Well, why aren't we?

Protestors who halted a coal train carrying fuel for Drax power station in Yorkshire, the single biggest source of CO2 in the UK, are settling in to make sure supplies of coal to the power station remain cut off. 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.

Dressed in white overalls and canary outfits, they 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.

http://www.coal-is-dirty.com/protestors-coal...

Anyone want to buy the chains? I know a few bulldozers...

[ben_meyers]

1. Maybe because we need coal right now

so you can plug in your computer. Are you running that thing on "magic fairy dust"?

[Zachstar]

2. Bingo!

For those supporting the people think about this.

Right now a few companies are getting solar down to a price competitive with modern coal prices.

So for gods sakes don't do anything to drop the price of coal!

[bananas]

3. Sourcewatch: Nonviolent direct actions against coal

Sourcewatch: Nonviolent direct actions against coal
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Nonviolent_direct_actions_against_coal

Sierra Club: Coal Victories Across the Nation!
http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/coal/victories.asp

I posted those links a while back in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x131211

[Zachstar]

4. Coal NO Wind YES eh?

You paying for it?

[bananas]

5. You're pro-coal?

[Zachstar]

6. Nope just anti-stupidity

On top of the extreme price and construction time of wind power.

Coal needs to remain high in price so than thin film solar can get under it and eat away the market from under it.

If these idiots had some success the damn price would drop and then its back to square one.

Just let it go. Besides China is building one every week. You wont put a dent in the Co2 output of world industry anyway.

[bananas]

8. I thought you were pro-stupidity.

My bad.

[Zachstar]

7. Sorry I was slow to read this. DUMPING the Coal?!

WTF?

#1 Where is the police? Why are these people able to stop a train and unlawfully remove product? How is it not piracy?

#2 Do these idiots have ANY idea what is going to happen once that crap gets into the local environment?

[Nihil]

9. Sitting on the fence until I know more about this specific event.

> #1 Where is the police? Why are these people able to stop a train and
> unlawfully remove product? How is it not piracy?

We don't have "train marshals" on goods trains in the UK. I expect the
police will have dispatched cars as soon as the alert came in but that
would still have given the protesters time to unlatch the hatch on a few
hoppers.

I'm sure that the rail authorities are investigating how to avoid such
unscheduled stoppages in the future but the fact is that if the signal
says "Stop", the driver will stop. There have been too many deaths in
the past by drivers who have failed to do so that no (intelligent) driver
would consider moving past that signal until clearly instructed by the
appropriate authority with recorded cross-references.

BTW, it's not piracy as it took place on land but I suspect that
hijacking is just _one_ of the crimes that the perpetrators would be
charged with along with trespass (rail corridors are private land),
breaking a slew of safety/public harm laws and littering!

> #2 Do these idiots have ANY idea what is going to happen once that crap
> gets into the local environment?

It's far easier to manage in that state than if it had reached its
destination. Besides, if the dumping point was anywhere near Drax
then there is little that it could have done to harm the environment
that Drax is not already doing 24x7.

:shrug:

FWIW, I haven't read any more on this event than was posted here so
I don't know if this occurred on the private spur to Drax or elsewhere
on the network. If the former, it sounds like a good move as it will have
interrupted "normal operations" at the largest coal-fired power station
in the UK (possibly in Europe?). If the latter then it was incredibly
dangerous from the risk to other rail traffic that an unexpectedly
stationary goods train would form.
:yoiks: