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Pictures from Drax train action

thecoalhole | 13.06.2008 12:19 | Climate Camp 2008 | Climate Chaos | Sheffield

Protest halts Drax coal train as summer of discontent against coal continues…












Protest halts Drax coal train as summer of discontent against coal continues…

Media - Interviews are available with protestors: call 07944 367755
Photos from the protest at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sitefeed/

Protestors have halted a coal train carrying fuel for Drax power station in Yorkshire, the single biggest source of CO2 in the UK. 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.

The train has been stopped on a branch line used exclusively for delivering coal to Drax. Protestors have used a network of climbing ropes to suspend themselves under the bridge from the train - meaning any movement while the protest continues is impossible.

thecoalhole
- e-mail: media@thecoalhole.org
- Homepage: http://thecoalhole.org

Additions

Today

13.06.2008 15:42

Great show guys! The power station is just across the fields from our school, so we've seen all the rapid response units from the police an everything, they even had the cheek to use our car park!
Not that it makes a difference but I had a row with several teachers who think this is a stupid idea, and i'm pretty sure I got my point across, but some people ar so damn stubborn.
That said I've seen plenty of support as I spread the news, so way to go all of you, wish I was there.

Beth

info on campaign to stop new open cast coal mines in the UK

13.06.2008 17:35

Absolutely brilliant action! For further info: this links in with a new direct action campaign "Leave it in the ground! " to stop the proposed massive new open cast coal mines to open up all over the country.

Actions have started to take place at a new coal mine in Derbyshire and at UK coal headquarters. More are certain to follow. Check out  http://www.leaveitintheground.org.uk and  http://www.earthfirst.org.uk and contact Derby Earth First! ( http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/derby) for how to get involved.

Action reports
Noise Demo at UK Coal headquarters 9 June
 http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20879

Mass Trespass at coal mine 26 May
 http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/20727


well done
- Homepage: http://www.leaveitintheground.org.uk

Next public event - noise demo at UK Coal, 14th July

15.06.2008 18:12

Following our last successful noise demo, there's another one on Monday 14th July - details the same as for last, but meeting outside Doncaster train station at 3:30, or outside UK Coal at 4pm.

More details to follow...

Check out our website

make coal history
- Homepage: http://leaveitintheground.org.uk

Comments

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Damn

13.06.2008 13:02

No one told them the wagons have their own unloading chutes below, think you just turn a wheel that releases them, saves shovelling. That said, nice effort!

Nobody

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Carry on

13.06.2008 14:04

Now you are there, Why dont you empty the full train, That will keep you occupied until next year. Oh and then I would make you put it all back in the wagons. That would be far better than fining you wasters cos I would end up paying that anyway. Dont you use electricity?

Paul R

good training

13.06.2008 16:57

fucking beautiful. More of this sort of thing.

chuffed

:-)

13.06.2008 17:11

you nutters! well done!

moose

Respect!

13.06.2008 22:31

Absolutely fucking wicked guys!

X

its ironic

14.06.2008 00:55

its somewhat ironic that the sort of people protesting against Drax power station burning fossil fuels to generate electricity would probably 22 years ago have been protesting in support of the striking miners.as an ex employee of the NCB/BRITISH COAL i always had in the back of my mind a certain unease about what the industry i worked in was doing to the environment....clean technology allegedly exists in the STATES although no one has yet convinced me that it works.

josh
mail e-mail: premiermaple@hotmail.com

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idiots

14.06.2008 16:02

I hope they throw you in jail as terrorists

thinfourth

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Excellent

14.06.2008 16:04

We must crush these nasty killers of the environment.

Its a big business out to destroy us all for profit

eco man

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CO2 is not responsible for climate change

14.06.2008 16:21

Human emissions of CO2 are not responsible for climate change. There is no human signal in climate change data. Variations in CO2 level come after variations in temperature, not before.

We need to burn coal in power stations in order to provide the supply of energy on which the economy depends. If it's not coal it's going to be nuclear. Only thanks to other whiners and moaners we don't have a decent nuclear infrastructure and can only look enviously at the French, who generate about 80% of their electricity from nuclear sources - and buy our electricity from them.

These people are not "heroes", they are criminals, they have committed several criminal offences in the cause of protesting about something which if they switched their brains on they would realise is completely pointless to protest about as it is not doing any harm. Why are the police not out in force arresting them and enabling the railway to return to normal operation?

Pigeon
mail e-mail: blogcomments@pigeonsnest.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.lucy-pinder.tv/

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Im laughing my ass off!

14.06.2008 17:35

"Us", meaing mankind, have no impact at all on the climate lol! We are at the end of an Ice Age. All the Lentil munching, Big Pants wearing, not washing tactics in the world will make no difference at all.
You guys just give us normal people something to laugh at and take the pi** out of.
All your safety gear and protective gear is plastic, so comes from the ground as Crude Oil is the base ingredient.
All the pictures you take will need Fossil Fuel supplied energy to develop.
Do you use electric at home?
You are ALL a bunch of Hypocrites. Keep it up though, as the rest of us need a laugh.
Off to drive around in my nice big uneconomcal V8 now. Why? Because I can, and I know it upsets you "Greenies". I get a perverted sort of pleasure from that.

Myself

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And all because.......

14.06.2008 17:44

No one realised that it's easier to destroy something, than ever it is to create it.
The hypocrisy here is just crass.
There is no reason to think that we need to be a third world country, but actions like this will cause it.

Drax is far more efficient, and cleaner than the 50 million or so wood fires that would be required to replace it and it's like. Said fires would never make our homes as warm as an economy seven heater. Moreover we have already burned the majority of our woodland so to the greatest extent this is simply crying over spilt milk.

In practice the woodland clearings have been converted to farmland, and now support a greatly enlarged population.

The real energy problem is too many people, and it behoves me to consider that we could never use genocide, to resolve the real root of the problem.

Get real! All this action does, is to add to the inefficiency that is so uncomfortable for them. Personally I feel that the protesters see it as a bit of a laugh, much as the brownshirts did.

If these protesters wish to hurt themselves because of their beliefs, then that is their business, but it is wrong that they should hurt others.

No-one Special

absolutely brilliant

14.06.2008 18:25

SO MUCH RESPECT FOR THESE GUYS!!!!
Attention to the severity of climate change is essential and these people are putting their necks on the line to do so. my hat is firmly off to you and all peaceful, intelligent, empassioned protesters who use direct action. You carried it off with military precision.

To the people who seem to be against this action, i'm baffled to know why you don't see that without people who are willing to break the law to try and improve ours and our grandchildren's lives, we would be a lot worse off than we are.
Please don't slag off the 'criminals' and activists that similarly stood up years ago to create your freedom to sit in your cosy home on the internet on your day off with a computer in front of you. If we all did that we'd have consumed the planet and each other a long time ago. And to the pigeon who doesn't believe CO2 causes climate change, i'm sure Bush would employ you to spread the word for him once he's finished in the white house, provided you can breath the air in Washington.

rant over.
WELL DONE GUYS!
EVERYONE I KNOW AND HAVE TOLD ABOUT THIS THINK YOU ARE AMAZING!

keiros

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Juice

14.06.2008 19:21

Out of interest, where does the electricity come from that powers the server for this website?

How did the protesters get from their homes to Drax? Did they walk or did they use some sort of transport?

Could the protesters please give a realistic alternative to fossil or nuclear power generation for this country.

385g/km
mail e-mail: moreemisions@yahoo.co.uk

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what the **** coal not dole

15.06.2008 22:00

fuck you bloody idiots the miners well whats left of them need to make a living don't they its bad enough the tories in the 80's and 90's hammering their industry why don't you try reading lucy pinders posting and how many of you switch your lights on use a fridge a cooker radio tv hi fi you two faced idiots.
coal not dole
rich eagle

crying eagle

re: its ironic

16.06.2008 22:55

not really - we can't shut all coal (& nuke) power station tomorrow, for a host of reasons. it's about a just transition, and that includes for miners or power-station employees - meaningful employment and training provided, choices and the other things that go with equal investment in renewable energies - read the news today about the German sector that employs many many, and the British that's tiny, and why.

anti-scab

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re:its ironic

17.06.2008 09:51

well it is ironic actually....employment rights and the protection of the right to work used to be a big big issue with the campaigning left.the "no nukes"/anti nuclear power lobby always use to talk up the role of coal within the national power requirements as a way of discrediting the government's nuclear fuel policy.
i think the removal of the postings that criticized this action is absolutely disgraceful and is another example of the ridiculous censorship imposed by the editorial staff/webmasters who oversee this site.when the hooligan violent actions of members of the ANL are left on this site when the postings openly brag about the behavior of the ANL which affects women,children and the innocent neighbors of BNP members and activists its shows what this site is all about left wing bias for the sake of bias no balance whatsoever.

josh
mail e-mail: premiermaple@hotmail.com

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open to criticism

17.06.2008 13:49

Is it true that some comments have been removed? If so, is it possible for them to be restored?

bob

we need the coal and the jobs

21.06.2008 11:48

coal is not always just burned to produce energy/electricity.it is often used to produce things like plastic/tar/bitchumen and so on.how many wood fired power stations do you think it would take to replace Drax...how do you think the public's (and that includes you) energy requirements are to be met do you think it is right that we have to buy our energy from abroad and pay inflated prices investing in coal again helps make Britain more energy self sufficient.

ex NCB/BRITISH COAL employee

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