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.”
With our stupid government’s climate change bill that stupidly mandates the UK to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, and Hansen coming over here to urge civil disobedience what can we expect? These people are nothing more than terrorists who, as Sam the Sceptic has said, care nothing for the old an poor being deprived of warmth and light.
Most are misguided and know nothing of the scientific debate surrounding the subject of AGW but have been told that Hansen is a brilliant scientist and if he says we are all doomed due to coal fired power stations then we must be. The science is settled
Frankly the man is incredibly dangerous because all our politicians half believe him and give him a high degree of respectability. They have now reached the stage where they dare not say that he is speaking garbage so we have to expect more of this terrorism.
Please all you US citizens demand Hansen’s dismissal. After all you pay his salary.
This is for Mike Bryant (not read all comments…maybe someone did this already..) Comments welcome RE: captions or whatever.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/2/d/8/63987/hansen4-1.jpg
Sam, no need to be ashamed: stupidity knows no national boundary, after all, Hansen is a product of the USA, and has cohorts from around the world, sorry to say.
To any government of the world it has become quite difficult if not impossible to oppose the Green Religion because if they do they are inmediately accused of anything. The NGOs behind have hacked any moves. But whenever there is not any way out the only posiible outcome is violence. Perhaps there is a kind of tanathophylia behind these guys eager to become martyrs.
I would suggest the NGOs not to press the issue too much, more than it is needed to reach their objectives, like selling “carbon credits”,etc., because if they do we will face a third world war.
Thanks, Clive, It’s MUCH better than mine.
Hansen is an international eco-terrorist since he called for civil disobedience. He needs to be arrested and/or put on the no-fly list (after all, flying is far worse than driving a car, bus or train). If he were outside the government, he’d probably have been arrested already. An arrest would go a long way to paint the true picture of his kind – a hollier-than-thou quack.
Sorry O/T:
RADIO STORMS ON JUPITER
http://spaceweather.com/
Most are misguided and know nothing of the scientific debate surrounding the subject of AGW
Actually they do. They’re the ones who go around on the forums calling rational folk deniers, calling businessmen climate criminals, sending hatemail and threats to laboratories, etc.
They’re a mixed bunch of Marxists and students with an authoritarian streak to their personalities. That’s what is forgotten so often. People tend to forget in all debate that we are not all the same. We are different. You can’t convince a person with an authoritarian character set to be a rational free thinker if what drives them is authoritarian politics. Green language has been co-opted by them to achieve a moral and economic victory over their perceived enemies.
The enemies are of course businesses and industries that need to be shut down so that the financiers of these protests can take advantage of the vacuum that is left. If someone is financing wind turbine construction or has a solar panel business then why not fund activists and students who want to shut down coal plants? That’s the power shift that is going on. Businessmen using pawns against other businessmen. The pawns are paid and think they will profit in the long run politically and financially.
So please don’t call them misguided. They are no more misguided than [snip]
Reply: While I personally wholeheartedly agree with that snipped simile, that is a can of worms I will not allow to be opened on this site. So…my apologies for the deletion. ~ charles the moderator
How do these people power their homes?
I’ve always wanted to attend one of these demonstrations and bring along a huge bin marked for “Donations”. I’d setup a table at the entrance. Protesters would be encouraged to deposit their cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players and all other portable electronics on their person before participating.
Then I’d have a sign-up sheet so I could come by their homes and remove all TVs, radios, dishwashers, washing machines, consumer electronics and air conditioners.
Hansen will fly in, defend them in court, and they will be given the comfy chair (oh no, not the comfy chair) and there will be more of this type of action to follow. Do terrorists actually sway anyone to their viewpoint by doing harm? Does someone have to die before this nonsense is prosecuted as a criminal act? Their rationalization for destructive behavior is unbelievable. The end DOES NOT justify the means.
mikef (10:59:18) :
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……. ………..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”.
Only problem is maintaining enough power, particularly in the face of the likely increased (probably vandalistic) demonstrations, during the many years before new nuclear comes on stream. While the public may be becoming more keen on nuclear many alarmists will be doing their best to disrupt progress on that front.
As someone said earlier, many of them want us back, effectively, in the dark ages.
Methinks our elected politico’s are not quite the fools we think they are sometimes, they take advice from all quarters lest they be led into doing something that will stop them getting elected next time around…
So….’CO2 Bad’ is allowing them to tax us a bit more, bit annoying, but c’set la vie. Where it becomes awkward is when companys have to add it as a cost, no problem if they are trading internally as they add it on and its just an inflationary thing, bad if the trade externaly. And this is where it gets clever – our politico’s want to tax imports to compensate – ie if China/India do not implement our ‘highest standards of CO2 angst’ then we tax their imports, so ‘theoreticaly’ protecting our own industry. Its all a circle of taxation, and the UN can play banker in the middle.
Personally I think its a load of twaddle but it is indeed all about money. The actual facts of AGW are irrelevant.
What will happen when the AGW boys realise they have been suckered by politics and big commerce I do not know, but my guess is that as they are a tiny fraction of peeps, and once the MSM has been diverted away, they will just wither on the vine.
Maybe I’m too cynical…..
Any “denier” lawyers out there?
A provision in a House Bill allows for lawsuits over Global Warming.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/10/report-climate-provision-allow-global-warming-victims-sue/
If the drafters of the provision had the usual AGW blinders on, they probably didn’t contemplate the possible use of this provision to, say, sue over Cap-And-Trade when the scientific evidence shows COOLING.
If this bill passes, I wonder what a Federal District jury in say the Eastern District of Texas would make of a case like that??
mikef (12:02:56) : Hope so! If not we are all doomed to fishing, hunting and recollecting..
OT:
My vote for next week’s quote:
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) “The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
Hi
I recently started the “Fire James Hansen” FaceBook Group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53080958739
We need more members and only have 300 so far, please spread the word.
Current member include Joe D’Aleo, Richard Courtney, Tom Nelson, Paul Biggs & Jennifer Marohasy to name just a few.
Kind Regards
Gabriel
Why would somebody chain them self to a conveyor belt? The risk of life or limb comes to mind because if somebody turned it on…
Gabriel:
I’m a member… have been for a while…
I can understand Gore and the head of the IPCC not having a clue. They’re not technical. Hansen is another matter. He is (supposedly) a scientist. Has to have some physics and math background. How can he ignore the non-linear aspect of absorption? Or not know that CO2 is at or near saturation? Or all the siting problems the surfacestations project has documented?
This blog has touched several times on mistaking malice for stupidity. (Hanlon, or more properly Heinlein). With Gore, the answer is obviously the latter. With JH, I fear the former. And that worries me.
It’s not like we don’t have any other problems to worry about.
(I think taking away the protestors cell-phones and iPods would be enough. That might violate the Geneva Convention 🙂
Retired Engineer (12:39:52) :
He is (supposedly) a scientist. Has to have some physics and math background.
He is a physicist, actually.
As for the rest: cognitive dissonance.
Mark
I just moved away from the UK after six years there. I ended up in SF, with Nancy Pelosi as my representative. I’m a progressive liberal (don’t groan–I know Heinlein’s work better than you do ;)) and I’m completely skeptical about the catastrophic claims regarding global warming.
This is not a right vs. left issue–it just looks that way because of the idiots who are promoting it. (I’m not speaking of Hansen, who I don’t really think is as bad or insane as he’s portrayed–I think he’s backed himself into a corner…) I do wonder if Al Gore and Gordon Brown have ever been seen in the same room at the same time, but I wonder the same about Russell Brand and Captain Jack Sparrow (just to keep the pirate meme running).
I’m a global warming skeptic. These protesters should cool their heels for a few days in the clink. Jim Hansen should be sent home post-haste. But I also agree with Obama’s energy plan–and so would a lot of Republicans if it were presented by a Republican with the label ‘preserving energy independence.’ As noted on Climate Science, we are affecting the climate–just not in the ways that AGWers think.
Come tell me I’m wrong–or right… http://newsfan.typepad.co.uk/liberals_can_be_skeptics_/
Gabriel Rychert (12:29:42) says:
“Hi
I recently started the “Fire James Hansen” FaceBook Group – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53080958739”
[snip personal ad homs]
Bob, P.E. (Ret.)
Carbon shares falling like autumm leaves:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601207&sid=a6t1H_sinpzA&refer=energy
I think their strategy of targeting power plants on a mass scale is not working. The protesters need to switch to targeting end users like Hospitals, nursing homes and the homes of elderly people. There would be no need for mass meet ups since they could all start locally with their own parents and grandparents houses and local hospitals.
James Hansen had a counterpart that was active during Roman warm period, who held meetings to warn people that the earth was going to Hades in handbasket. His name was Nefarious Purpose, ….. ;^)