Going To The Green Extreme

[Bulldog_916]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008...banksy-saboteur
"No new coal - the calling card of the 'green Banksy' who breached fortress Kingsnorth
<h2 id="stand-first">• Saboteur breezes in to shut 500MW turbine
• Act single-handedly cuts UK carbon output by 2%</h2>

• John Vidal, environment editor
• The Guardian, Thursday December 11 2008
• Article history

The £12m defences of the most heavily guarded power station in Britain have been breached by a single person who, under the eyes of CCTV cameras, climbed two three-metre (10ft) razor-wired, electrified security fences, walked into the station and crashed a giant 500MW turbine before leaving a calling card reading "no new coal". He walked out the same way and hopped back over the fence.

All power from the coal and oil-powered Kingsnorth station in Kent was halted for four hours, in which time it is thought the mystery saboteur's actions reduced UK climate change emissions by 2%. Enough electricity to power a city the size of Bristol was lost.

Yesterday the hunt was on for the man dubbed "climate man" or the "green Banksy". Climate activists responsible for hijacking coal trains and breaking on to runways said they knew nothing about the incident.

Even veterans of some of the most audacious direct actions, such as the scaling of the Kingsnorth chimney, are mystified. The station operator E.On professed astonishment that a lone activist would be daring enough to try to do something so potentially dangerous. Medway police said they had no suspects but were still investigating the incident, which took place on November 28.

"It was extremely odd indeed, quite creepy. We have never known anything like this at all, but it shows that if people want to do something badly enough they will find a way," said Emily Highmore, a spokeswoman for E.On.

Should "climate man" ever show up, he will be feted for what activists say was the most daring individual action of the year. "We have no idea who he is - but we really want to know. Everybody's asking 'where were you on Friday November 28'," said Ben Stewart of Greenpeace, one of six people arrested for climbing the 76 metre (250ft) chimney of the Kingsnorth station early last year but found not guilty of criminal damage in November. "We would never act anonymously," he added.

Yesterday the full story emerged of what happened. "It was about 10pm, very dark indeed," said Highmore. "It looks from the CCTV like he came in via a very remote part of the site by the sea wall and got over the double layer of fences."

The intruder then crossed a car park and walked to an unlocked door. But instead of going to the power station's main control room, where about eight people would have been working, he headed for its main turbine hall, where no one would have been working at that time.

Within minutes, says E.On, "he had tampered with some equipment" - believed to be a computer at a control panel - "and tripped unit 2, one of the station's giant 500MW turbines".

"This caused the unit to go offline," she added. "It was running at full 500MW load and the noise it would have made as it shut itself down is just incredible. CCTV shows that he then just walked out, and went back over the fence.

"It could be that no one has taken responsibility because they were so frightened by the noise it would have made. It's probably taken them a week just to get over the shock."

E.On, which wants to demolish the station and replace it with Britain's first new coal-fired power station in 34 years, said it was reviewing security, but doubted it was an inside job or the work of a big environment group. The intruder may have had some experience at one of Britain's other major power stations, insiders say.

"He left a banner but it was a real DIY job. It was really scrappy. This was an old bedsheet with writing done out of gaffer tape. It was very crude," said Highmore

"People at the station are gobsmacked," she added. "This is a different league to protesters chaining themselves to equipment. It's someone treating a power station as an adventure playground. You have to be trained to work here. People do not just wander about on their own. He could have killed himself. We do not have a problem with public protest but this was reckless. Whoever it was has crossed a line they should not have gone over. Power stations are dangerous places."

Kingsnorth was the site of a week-long activist camp in August which saw about 1,000 climate change activists try but fail to get into the station."




Now, I posted this article to pose a question and give an opinion. We all know that the earth is warming. We all generally know that human activity is either causing the warming or magnifying it. My question: is extremist action like this the correct way to go about changing the power-generation dynamic? Is this the only way to get real attention put on environmental issues and get coal off the table as a power generation source?

I know in the PETA thread earlier on, I said that extremist action wasnt warranted by PETA activists against people wearing fur. It wouldnt bring any real attention to the issue and would make PETA look like a bunch of assholes. I still think that about that particular issue. PETA is still a terroristic group in my opinion. Same with Green Peace.

This action though strikes me as somewhat effective. You get that much attention put on an issue by doing one action, also getting real results at the same time, measurable results, it changes the dynamic. I agree with the doer here that no new coal plants should be brought online world-wide. The only exception, if they have effective measures of capturing the emissions released by the plant and sequestering them effectively. Most people (a slim but significant majority) believe we have to stop burning coal and fossil fuels. I think this wont necessarily get the companies to think about what they are doing. But I think it gets the public aware of everything the companies are doing. That in turn forces government to act aggressively if they want to keep their jobs.

What do you guys think? Is this action going to work? Why? Why not? What could be done otherwise?

[gaia.plateau]

In short, because this is only a brief procrastination from my paper...

I think that sometimes we need extreme examples like this to wake us out of our complacency.

In all likelihood, the ecological stability necessary to support human existence on this planet is going to be irreversibly and irrevocably compromised within a decade, if it hasn't been already. It may very well be that we're too late, we're fucked, and there's nothing that anyone can do about it. I think that even if it isn't too late, we won't take adequate action until it absolutely is.

So given our impending environmental doom, I agree with the actions of this individual more than I disagree. Edited December 11, 2008 by gaia.plateau