Coal rail terminal shut down by local residents and Climate campaigners
CAS | 15.12.2008 21:46 | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis
This morning thirty campaigners from Coal Action Scotland together with local residents peacefully blockaded the entrance to the Scottish Coal-operated Ravenstruther coal rail terminal in South Lanarkshire. Having stopped its reopening after the weekend, this action is currently preventing the delivery of thousands of tonnes of coal to power stations across Scotland. Protestors intend to stay in place as long as possible.
With Scotland’s CO2 emissions increasing significantly, continuing the consumption of coal will make it impossible for Scotland to meet its 80% target reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Angus Mcloud said “The fact is that the government will not meet its own targets. This confirms what climate protestors have believed all along – that the Scottish government is paying lip service to the dangers of climate change.”
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The action is aiming to disrupt the operations of Scottish Coal and Scottish Power in the region. The protestors are acting to oppose the five open cast coal mines that deliver coal to the rail terminal and in resistance to the thirteen new open cast coal mines due to open in Scotland.
Protestors erected and scaled a 15ft scaffolding tripod, blocking trucks from entering the terminal. Others are locked by their necks to a conveyor belt and a bulldozer, preventing coal stockpiles from being loaded onto trains.
Tilly Gifford who is at the site said: “In the face of dangerous runaway climate change, increasing our dependence on coal – the most polluting of the fossil fuels – is simply unacceptable. We urgently need to make the transition to renewable energy and close existing mines. We shouldn’t even be thinking about new ones.”
The demonstration today is in support of communities opposing new open cast mines. Rebecca Mackenzie, a local resident said: “We’re here today to send a clear message that we don’t want parts of Scotland such as South Lanarkshire to become the most heavily mined areas in Europe, as they will be if permission is granted for all the new open cast coal mines currently being proposed. If sites such as Mainshill near Douglas can’t be stopped through legal avenues, then action will have to be taken to make sure these last remaining areas of un-mined countryside aren’t destroyed”.
Beth Whelan, the campaigner perched on the scaffolding tripod, said: “Local authorities, the Scottish government and companies such as Scottish Coal and Scottish Power are ignoring the scientific evidence on climate change. We have to take responsibility for our climate and our future, and stop the coal industry and its expansion. This is what we doing today: acting responsibly”.
It is estimated that 6,380 tonnes of coal were stopped from being transported from the coal mines to power stations, equivalent to 11,675,400 kg CO2 (11,675.4 tonnes) released into the atmosphere.
Coal Action Scotland apologizes to any workers affected by today’s demonstration, but in recognizing the desperate need to stop burning coal sees no other choice but to target the companies responsible for mining it.
The action lasted over 8 hours and resulted in 6 arrests and not a single chunk of coal was transported from the terminal.
CRW_6086 copy
The action is aiming to disrupt the operations of Scottish Coal and Scottish Power in the region. The protestors are acting to oppose the five open cast coal mines that deliver coal to the rail terminal and in resistance to the thirteen new open cast coal mines due to open in Scotland.
Protestors erected and scaled a 15ft scaffolding tripod, blocking trucks from entering the terminal. Others are locked by their necks to a conveyor belt and a bulldozer, preventing coal stockpiles from being loaded onto trains.
Tilly Gifford who is at the site said: “In the face of dangerous runaway climate change, increasing our dependence on coal – the most polluting of the fossil fuels – is simply unacceptable. We urgently need to make the transition to renewable energy and close existing mines. We shouldn’t even be thinking about new ones.”
The demonstration today is in support of communities opposing new open cast mines. Rebecca Mackenzie, a local resident said: “We’re here today to send a clear message that we don’t want parts of Scotland such as South Lanarkshire to become the most heavily mined areas in Europe, as they will be if permission is granted for all the new open cast coal mines currently being proposed. If sites such as Mainshill near Douglas can’t be stopped through legal avenues, then action will have to be taken to make sure these last remaining areas of un-mined countryside aren’t destroyed”.
Beth Whelan, the campaigner perched on the scaffolding tripod, said: “Local authorities, the Scottish government and companies such as Scottish Coal and Scottish Power are ignoring the scientific evidence on climate change. We have to take responsibility for our climate and our future, and stop the coal industry and its expansion. This is what we doing today: acting responsibly”.
It is estimated that 6,380 tonnes of coal were stopped from being transported from the coal mines to power stations, equivalent to 11,675,400 kg CO2 (11,675.4 tonnes) released into the atmosphere.
Coal Action Scotland apologizes to any workers affected by today’s demonstration, but in recognizing the desperate need to stop burning coal sees no other choice but to target the companies responsible for mining it.
The action lasted over 8 hours and resulted in 6 arrests and not a single chunk of coal was transported from the terminal.
CAS
Homepage:
http://coalactionedinburgh.wordpress.com/
Comments
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Great action...but
16.12.2008 02:28
"We urgently need to make the transition to renewable energy and close existing mines. We shouldn’t even be thinking about new ones.”
The transition to renewable energy NEEDS coal because it needs steel, it needs copper to be extracted and manufactured and it needs plastics, which are better refined from local coal than from oil shipped from distant places. Wind gennies, solar panels, bikes and small local hydro schemes all need materials which either can only be produced with coal or should only be produced from coal to reduce their impact on the planet. Recycling scrap metals (such as those cans you put in the council bin) also needs coal.
Please remember, not only your bike, your wind gennie and your pelton wheel, but your spade, the fork you eat with, the tools you build with, the needle you sew with, the syringe from which you might need an injection, were all made with coal. OK, some of the steel might have been made in an electric arc furnace (about 30% of world production), but that takes eye-watering amounts of power and isn't a sustainable process.
What we DON'T need is coal extracted by opencasting and the ecocidal madness of burning it to generate power. That's why I support this action, even if some of the rhetoric is a bit skewiffy. I'd be there if I didn't live 400 miles away.
Certainly, close all the existing opencast mines. However, thinking about new mines is exactly what we SHOULD be doing. Much reduced in scale to meet only the needs above and a few other sensible ones, these should be DRIFT MINES. Drift mining is the responsible way to extract coal from the places now being opencast. It allows the land above to continue as farmland, woodland or whatever without being destroyed. Only a small area is required for the entrance to the drift and associated facilities. There used to be numerous drift mines as well as deep mines, some of them small, family-run operations. Opencasting is just the cost-cutting, profit-maximising way to get at coal which would have been drift mined in the past.
Naturally, if coal production was reduced to just the amount needed to create and maintain renewable energy production, cycling, recycling, and other ecologically sound uses, many fewer sites would need to be worked. New drift mines could be sited only in places where removal of the coal would not impinge on local people or amenities and should be chiefly by rail.
Having done some campaigning and direct action against opencasting in the '90s, I DO support what you're doing. I just ask you to think about the slogans. "No New Coal" is viable only if all hard or semi-hard metals are eliminated from life. You can have gold, silver, copper, tin and lead if you chop down lots of trees for charcoal, but that's about it. Back to the bronze age! Ooops -can't do. Not enough forests left for felling now.
Unfortunately, lots of anti-coal / renewable energy campaigning is as inconsistent and muddled as people who say they're vegan whilst wearing leather boots.
NO OPENCAST! NO NEW COAL-FIRED POWER!
Stroppyoldgit
Coal fired power stations in Scotland
16.12.2008 11:09
There are only two coal fired power stations in Scotland at the moment, though Longannet is one of the largest in Europe. Cockenzie tends to only be used when necessary. Coal is taken to both by train.
The nationalists want to add coal fired stations at Hunterston and Peterhead.
If they were fitted with carbon capture from day one then they would be a stopgap, but that is not the intention.
A N other