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Gore: 'Civil disobedience' needed to halt coal plant construction (4 posts)

  1. truthmod
    Administrator

    Good for him. Of course, Bill Clinton got uncomfortable and had to change the subject.

    http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gore_Civil_disobedie...

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/gore...

    Former vice president Al Gore urged young environmental activists to engage in "civil disobedience" to halt the construction of coal plants that do not mitigate their carbon emissions.

    Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his environmental activism, was speaking to a gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative, created by the former president he served with, Reuters reports.

    "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore told the Clinton Global Initiative gathering to loud applause.

    The audience at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, which was composed of hundreds of heads of state and chief executives, as well as representatives of philanthropic groups, reacted with scattered applause. There was a lot of shifting in seats.

    Mr. Gore did not elaborate on his call for action. And almost as soon as the words “civil disobedience” were out of his mouth, Mr. Clinton, moderating a panel that Mr. Gore shared with the singer Bono, the president of Liberia, the chairman of Coca-Cola and Queen Rania of Jordan, turned to the queen to ask whether Middle Eastern countries might ever become “models of clean energy usage.” The discussion continued in a less-fiery vein from there.

    Posted 16 years ago #
  2. chrisc
    Member

    And in the other corner we have far-right, nationalist, "truthers" attacking people like James Hansen for helping activists get off for activities of this type:

    http://www.ukcolumn.org/2008/09/11/global-warming-...

    Found via Truth Action...

    http://truthaction.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=21769...

    Posted 16 years ago #
  3. truthmod
    Administrator

    I wrote a reply on that truthaction thread. I am so sick of doing this that it may be time to create a new document (like the 2008 Declaration) that can act as a standard response to ignorant anti-environment "truthers." The 2009 Declaration on Truth Activism and the Environment?


    Good precedent.
    Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law

    http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-c...

    The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

    Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

    Posted 16 years ago #
  4. chrisc
    Member

    The 2009 Declaration on Truth Activism and the Environment?

    Yeah good idea, it seems that we are heading for nothing short of the destruction of the biosphere and I'm totally sick of those on the right who are trying to ensure that people who become "9/11 aware" are then led off down the road of nationalist business-as-usual -- this is far worse than a dead end...

    Posted 16 years ago #

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