Dr. Jim Hansen gets ready to deliver his message at the Washington DC power plant protest on March 2nd 2009. On February 22nd, WUWT covered Hansen’s announcement that he was endorsing civil disobedience. Now one has to wonder; what hath Jim wrought? (h/t to timbrom)
From the Telegraph UK: More than 100 campaigners arrested over ‘power station plot’
More than 100 people are in custody after police smashed a major plot to sabotage one of Britain’s biggest power-stations.
Officers swooped on environmental protesters as they prepared a mass raid that could have disrupted supplies to tens of thousands of homes.
The demonstrators are thought to have gathered at night in readiness to move on Ratcliffe-on-Soar power-station, Nottinghamshire.
They were rounded up shortly after midnight on Sunday at the Bakersfield Community Centre in Sneinton, Notts, by scores of officers.
Detectives later revealed they recovered specialist equipment that suggested the group represented a “serious threat” to the station’s safety.
Supt Mike Manley, of the Nottinghamshire force, said 114 men and women from across the UK were detained during the dramatic swoop.
They were being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage at Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
Supt Manley said: “In view of specialist equipment recovered by police, those arrested posed a serious threat to the safe running of the site.
“This was a significant operation, with large-scale arrests. There were no injuries during the arrests, and the police investigation is ongoing.”
Witnesses told how officers in more than 20 police vans descended on the plotters’ apparent rendezvous point in the early hours.
Tess Rearden, who lives near the scene, said: “We were woken up by the sound of doors slamming and saw all these police vans and riot vans.
“My son came out of his bedroom and said: ‘Have you seen what’s going on?’ They were all up and down the roads. It was bedlam – real bedlam.”
Another resident added: “I was leaving my house when I saw a line of traffic approaching me, which seemed strange for the time of night.
“It was only when the vehicles got closer and started to pass me that I noticed every single one was either a police car or a police van.
“I counted 20-plus vans, all one after the other, with police cars at the rear. Then they blocked off all the roads around the community centre.”
One resident told how the protesters did not fight with officers during the swoop but signalled their defiance as they were being led away.
She said: “The police jumped out of their vans and ran behind the community centre. The people they brought out were singing: ‘We’ll be back again.'”
It is thought detectives had prior knowledge of the plot but chose to wait till the demonstrators were together in one place before moving in.
Local city councillor David Mellen added: “I understand there was some kind of gathering of people here in connection with the power-station.
“If the police had information that there was a danger to the power supply in the East Midlands then obviously they had to take action.”
The Derbyshire and Leicestershire forces helped in the operation and later provided additional custody facilities for some of those arrested.
Ratcliffe-on-Soar has been the target of a number of protests in the past, including one two years ago in which protesters tried to shut down the plant.
Environmentalists who stormed the site on that occasion later failed in a landmark legal bid to prove they were acting in the interests of humanity.
Climate-change campaigners admitted they attempted to force the site’s closure by chaining themselves to conveyor belts and filtration systems.
But they argued that, because they were saving the planet from global warming, their actions were legal under the so-called “defence of necessity”.
Had they won their case they would have paved the way for campaigners around the country to stage similar protests without fear of prosecution.
At the time Eastside Climate Action, the group involved, said the break-in reflected “the threat climate change poses to the human population”.
A spokesman said: “We argue that the threat to human life is so serious that it is a proportionate and reasonable response to take direct action.”
Giving evidence at the court hearing, station manager Raymond Smith told how production at the site was threatened during the incident.
He said: “People chained themselves to the conveyor system and the filtration system. They were non-violent, but none had permission to be on the site.
“If the protest had continued to the extent that the power station ran out of coal we would have had to shut it down. But we called the police.”
Eastside denied any involvement in yesterday’s events – thought to be linked to plans for a new coal-fired power-station in Kingsthorpe, Kent.
E.on, the power giant behind Kingsthorpe, owns Ratcliffe-on-Soar – allegedly Britain’s second-largest producer of carbon-dioxide emissions.
An E.on spokesman said: “While we understand everyone has a right to protest peacefully and lawfully, this was clearly neither of those things.
“We will be assisting police in their investigations into what could have been a very dangerous attempt to disrupt an operational power-plant.”
Errata: please read NGO where I wrote ONG. Thanks
Have no fear, Jimmy-on-the-spot will be there to help defend these mindless climate terrorists. Apologies in advance to you Brits. Can’t you find something to arrest him for while there? You’d be doing us a big favor.
Actually, pirates cause global cooling: clicky
How many of those protesters and potential saboteurs had “degrees in climatology” — so they could know by their own studies the truth or falsity of AGW?
Seems the pro-AGW clan decries “skeptics” without PhDs in Climatology — but welcomes “clueless” and “misguided” protesters into their ranks. Hansen, in fact, exhorts and glorifies them.
What kind of place is this English “community center” at which people can stay overnight? If it were an American city park facility, the police would have arrived hours earlier when people didn’t leave at closing time.
Her’s my take on Hansen:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37345961@N05/3438219051/
Hmmm. Nothing in the news about this. A possible terror plot involving hundreds to disrupt power to Britain. Would this be different if they were Muslims instead of AGWers? Hopefully this won’t be snipped, because it is a valid point. If they would have been Muslims, headlines would be shouting about the disruption of a possible terror threat, but since they are just ‘fighting the good fight’, not a peep.
12 Monkeys was right about these nutters.
Oddly enough I can see this power plant from my home, and whilst this event took place we had three power cuts the last of which lasted several hours.
Could be coincidence?
Doubtful, though still breaking news.
If people want to attack the infrastructure of our country they could by law be treated as any other terrorist organisation that puts lives at risk.
Could Hansen be guilty of incitement?
Under our, UK laws, I suspect he could, though I doubt we have the political will to do this.
And who provided the “specialist equipment”?
Who organized this, what did they know and when did they know it.
Rhys Jaggar (08:21:55) :
This kind of activity is the 21st century equivalent of the medieval church describing sex as dirty and immoral.
Stupid idiotic rubbish in other words………
Agree with the sentiment. Hoever, I think Medieval Witch Hunts is the more accurate analogy, since it has the connotation of unthinking superstition.
I’m sorry, but I see this as eco-terrorism and they should be treated as such. Any attack on an economic infrastructure with the intention of shutting it down and causing distress to the public is terrorism. Lock ’em up and throw away the key.
Has anybody ever read Hansen’s bio? I was shocked to read:
The hardest part is trying to influence the nature of the measurements obtained, so that the key information can be obtained.
Hmm. influence the measurements means influence the results in my view.
From:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/jhansen.html
Wilson Flood (09:24:51) :
The UK Government has done nothing to quell climate change hysteria.
You are right, but the government is in a cleft stick, because as you say, they themselves are promoting the issue. Why do you think there was no attempt at a scientific defence against Hansen and the vandalism at Kingsnorth. By not building a heavy prosecution in that case, the government have allowed a precedent to be set. And have they tried to appeal that decision as you would expect? Have they …..! They were so short sighted that they could only see that they would be contradicting their own warming credentials, if they fought that vandalism as they should. Not appreciating the problems that losing that case would bring in the longer term.
It makes the case for bringing a balanced view of how climate changes to our representatives the more urgent. Just wish I could find a way how. I have battled the BBC’s bias up to the BBC Trust, but I’m not expecting much from there.
Incidentally, slightly OT, UK readers, don’t you think it is strange that you cannot appeal possible BBC bias to Ofcom; It’s all in house?
Last week I heard on the BBC radio news an item which included interviews with young school-children about what they were learning. I heard with deep dismay one little girl, aged 7 or 8 regurgitating the AGW mantra of how she was going to save polar bears by switching off lights, the TV and video etc. etc.
Her teacher then came on and lauded the girl for having paid attention in class and having learned matters of great importance.
Elsewhere in the world this brainwashing of children would be illegal. Here in the UK it is mandated by the Government.
It’s this official teaching of blatant propaganda which inspires idiots such as those wanting to raid the Radcliffe-on-Soar power station.
Jack Green (10:25:49) :
Has anybody ever read Hansen’s bio? I was shocked to read:
The hardest part is trying to influence the nature of the measurements obtained, so that the key information can be obtained.
We have been through this before. I think the consensus 🙂 was that he was talking of what to include on the pay load of the satellites. Badly expressed english .
Shawn F., Power Engineer, Mrs. Whatsit, et al:
Look, ya’ll. I KNOW pirates cause glabal warming in spite of what the data says. The sciance is settled. The debate is over. The Pirates vs. CO2 graph looks suspiciously like a hockey stick, hmmm…?
Besides, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is taking names in preparation for the final reckoning (LOL! Power Engineer. Thanks!).
Oh. I am NOT in the pay of or a shill for Big Pirates.
Aaarghhh!!!!
H.R.
This situation reminders of certain professors that protested the Vietnam war. They would agitate a bunch of students and naive young faculty members who would chain themselves to the recruiters offices and got arrested while the instigators was catching it all on TV from the comfort of their homes.
Maybe Hansen will get himself arrested but I think not.
For the protesters, let them do some hard physical labor, put them on a chaingang and clean up the woods and forests using no power tools. They might come to appreciate the comforts of modern life provided by fossil fuels.
Guys…these are the useful idiots the government rely on to push through the nuclear agenda. As a brit, its as plain as the nose on your face that both main political parties (I exclude the Lib-Dems here as they are just la-la land silly on this issue) don’t believe a word of the AGW theory, but it suits the political necessity of our time. For you ‘off islanders’ out there who don’t get how anti nuclear this country has been, you maybe will not quite understand how this “CO2 is bad” stuff is manna from heaven to our country, a country which is facing a massive energy deficit in the next few years. Both parties when in government have sat on their hands and not faced up to the issue of what to do when our north sea oil & gas runs out…well its happening now. So you hear lots of stuff about how clever the French have been to produce 80% of their electricity from nuclear, and how we should copy them “now that nuclear is safe”…
So anti carbon is encouraged, these guys are useful tools. For the first time in years a majority of the british public are saying 2yeah build nuclear power stations like the French did”. So they will be sheparded into keeping the the propaganda going, whilst making sure they do no real serious damage to ongoing power. And they are blissfully unaware they are being played, bunch of idiots.
Sad to say though, if I were in government (come the glorious day…) faced with our energy problems and need to go nuclear I would prob do the same.
Mrs Whatsit (09:38:48) :
Actually, H.R., I believe it is the lack of pirates which causes global warming. Conclusive proof is seen in the recent falling-off of global temperatures, which has occurred AT THE VERY SAME TIME AS pirates have been getting back to work off the coast of Somalia.
See? Climatology is easy!
Indeed… 🙂
Specialist equipment? Bombs? If Ratcliffe-on-Soar had have been knocked out the National Grid would have been in the unenviable position of either entirely isolating Notts/Leics/Derbyshire from the rest of the grid or dropping most of the country onto low power with possible brownouts. I am unsure whether there is sufficient reserve power generation capacity to compensate for the loss of this particularly big station. I know one thing – the food company I work for has no in-house power generator for its admin side, and the computers would be down and stay that way. Still, it’s nothing important which we would be unable to deliver.
If I was the judge at the trial of these protesters, any found guilty would be fined, given a restraining order preventing them within 100m of any power production facility and placed under house arrest, with their electricity and gas supplies turned off for a month.
As for the Ofcom comment, it is much like the government itself – even if they get caught out being less than honest they ignore any protest and carry on as before. Government culpability seems to be a thing of the past in Britain, you only have to look at Whack-a-Mole-Mandelson to see that.
I was quite surprised to see that he agreed to a guest weblog on Pielke, Sr’s site. Good on him for engaging in the discussion of land use forcing.:
http://climatesci.org/2009/04/11/guest-weblog-by-james-e-hansen/
I wish I knew what to think of Hansen – true believer, useful idiot or cabal member? OK, he could be gauged as being all three, but in what proportions? Most old fossils in academe can’t stand to see their life work get upturned and revised some more.
How susceptible are academics to flattery and pressure from politicos with other interests? Considering how Gore made certain to narrow the RFP channels to AGW topics is the academic community immune? Publish or perish …