Coal Train Blockaders Get Their Day In Court
Trainee | 13.08.2010 20:07 | Climate Chaos | Social Struggles | World
Ffos y Fran coal train blockaders sentenced
10 July 2010
13 people who literally put their necks on the line blockading the railway at Ffos y Fran, the largest opencast coal mine in the UK, were sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court today, Friday 13th August. (1) Climate activists from Bristol and Bath Rising Tide chained themselves to the railway on April 26th to stop a train carrying coal from the mine to Aberthaw power station. Extensive safety measures were taken to ensure there would be no danger to anyone. (2)
After lengthy mitigation dealing with the urgent and immediate threat of climate crisis to the global south and the shambolic trampling of local community rights tied up in the "land reclamation scheme" (reclaimed from the community for profit?), all were given 2-year conditional discharges as well as restraining orders for the Ffos-y-Fran mine and the Aberthaw power station that it supplies coal to.
A spokesperson for Rising Tide said, “Opencast mining trashes the landscape, contributes massively to climate change and threatens the health of local people. We need to leave coal in the ground, and that's why we put our necks on the line to stop a coal train.”
“With their hands in the pockets of corporations, it's not surprising that governments failed us at the Copenhagen climate summit. We can't rely on their false solutions anymore. It's up to ordinary people taking direct action to stop climate chaos. Fossil fuel extraction devastates communities and is being resisted around the world, from opencast mining in Merthyr to tar sands oil in Alberta, Canada.”
300,000 people, mostly those living in the global south, are already dying each year from the effects of climate change. (3)
There has been a long campaign opposing Ffos y Fran mine by local residents and climate activists alike. (4) Last August, Climate Camp Cymru set up near the site for a week of sustainable living and direct action training. This year’s action-based camp was set up simultaneously with the sentencing near Nant Helen and Seler opencast mines, elsewhere in south Wales.(5)
Notes for editors
1. Initial charges of Obstruction of the Railway with Intent, which carries a maximum sentence of life, have been dropped. 13 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of Obstruction of the Railway, while all charges against 5 others have been dropped.
2. A full report of the action can be found at -
https://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/23912 3. Global Humanitarian Forum report -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6387208.ece 4. Residents Against Ffos y Fran -
http://www.stopffosyfran.co.uk/ 5. Climate Camp Cymru -
http://climatecampcymru.org/
Trainee
Additions
Photos from outside court
14.08.2010 00:50
One of the local campaigners who turned up in support
As did 4 cop cars, 2 horses and a helicopter
Mr Miller Argent spouting rubbish
and again, just before he lost it
Trainee
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Amazing!
13.08.2010 20:11
anon
Early media
13.08.2010 20:13
Should be interviews etc on BBC and ITV wales tonight
Trainee
(3) is outdated and known to be madeup bollox
14.08.2010 00:20
auditor
@ auditor
14.08.2010 09:53
The 300,000 figure is obviously never going to be the exact figure, but that's not the point. So maybe it's slightly more, maybe it's slightly less. It's never going to be an exact reflection on the impact of climate change, but it's a really useful tool to demonstrate the scale of the problem in the present. The fact that it's happening in the present is the vital thing to communicate at this time.
While most now accept that climate change is happening, too many people still see climate crisis (ie the devastating effects of climate change - deaths, displacement, extinctions etc) as something still in the future. Earlier this year South Talpatti sunk beneath the oceans - this should have been a wake-up call, but instead was barely reported. Fortunately it was not populated - the same cannot be said for Tuvalu and Maldives, both of which will disappear imminently. In fact there is a clear trend emerging that the third world and the global south are feeling the devastating effects of climate crisis while the first world and global north continue to spearhead greenhouse gas emissions and insist that climate change is a myth we can put off with clean coal.
It is a shame that to make a splash (no pun intended) in the modern media you have to come up with large death tolls. It should be enough to point to what is undeniably happening. But given that ... you know, the facts ... don't really get you very far, I have no problem with these guys resorting to mildly contestable figures. The 300,000 may well not be spot on, but it gives a definite feel for what is actually happening, and does it in a way that actually makes the corporate media sit up.
jigsaw
jigsaw
14.08.2010 12:14
>> If it's that well known I'm sure you can come up with a source?
Its in the actual UN report.... The report acknowledges a “significant margin of error” in its estimates. The report was farmed out to a private company Dalberg Global Advisers, a consultancy firm, who collated all existing statistics on the human impacts of climate change. Hence its out of date and inaccurate. THeres plenty of reports based on real up-to-date data that outweight this made up figure.
It also completely ignores the positive benefits of climate change. Thats the trouble with just reading the reports that you like. To say that climate change wouldn't bring positive benefits as well as negative benefits is very blinked thinking. For example projects show that there will be less water shrinkage (NET value) in the world by 2080 due to climate change.
The world is more in the shit simply because of population increases (more people = more deaths) and instable politics.
Historically, the human race has always prospered in warmer periods than the cooler periods.
I understand there are bad points to climate change, but its obvious that there are good points too.
What is important is the net result. Do the positives outweight the negatives.
Its all a side issue anyway. The idea that the climate can only change due to human intervention is rubbish. The climate changes whether humans existed or not. And even if it did, I other countries are more likely to have a bigger effect than UK on emissions. We could all turn to 30 and use energy saving lightbulbs (and so use less fuel), but then China will just buy that fuel (because its slightly cheaper) and use it anyway.
Theres far more pressing things to worry about if you are concerned in saving 300,000 lives a year.
FOr instance 300,000 people die every year from cancer due to exposure to toxic substances at work.
Of more concern to me is the anti-biotics situation. We simply aren't making any new anti-biotics for ages. We've run out of options and bacteria strains are becoming more resistant. In about 30-50 years we'll probably be having to use medieval remedies at the only option. In the UK, doctors hand out anti-biotics less frequently than they use to but in asia you can by them over the counter and not bother taking a full dose.... letting the germs build up immunity. If you want to worry about something realistic, worry about that. Unless some amazing new advances in drug technology are made, we'll be looking at increases in pandemics in the future.
Surely it would be better spending resources on this where we know there is going to be a real problem.
auditor
rubbish dump
19.08.2010 10:21
by auditor