Gore once again calling for direct action against new coal plants
Last September we reported in the Coalblog about former Vice President Al Gore’s calls for young people to engage in civil disobedience as a means of stopping the construction of new coal plants.
We are now treating the Earth’s atmosphere as an open sewer … I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking
bulldozers … and preventing them from constructing
coal-fired power plants.
In that post we also noted how NASA climate scientist James Hansen
continued in his moves further into a more extreme activist form of
"science" by joining Gore in his calls for direct action.
It seems to me that young people, especially, should be doing whatever
is necessary to block construction of dirty (no CCS) coal-fired power
plants.
At the September 24th meeting for the Clinton Global Initiative, the former Vice President upped the ante by once again calling for civil disobediance and direct action against new coal-fueled plants.
“If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and
looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we
have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to
prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon
capture and sequestration,” he said at the third annual meeting of
former President Bill Clinton’s initiative, which arranges partnerships
between the very rich and the very needy.Mr. Gore said the civil disobedience should focus on “stopping the
construction of new coal plants,” which he said would add tons of
carbon dioxide to the atmosphere — despite “half a billion dollars’
worth of advertising by the coal and gas industry” claiming otherwise. He added, “Clean coal does not exist.”
Gore’s suggestion is reported to have drawn mixed responses, with some applauding and others — including former President Clinton — immediately trying to change the subject. However, these repeated calls from respected political and scientific figures for disruptive direct action appear to be having some effect. As we noted in a Coalblog post yesterday a British jury fully acquited a group of vandals who broke through the security systems at the Kingsnorth coal-fueled plant and caused £30,000 in damage to the plant stack. The group actually argued that they were justified in causing the damage because they were "protecting property" that they believed could be harmed by global warming.