It’s Getting Hot In Here

Rising Tide Australia leads the way again. Now they begun an pre-emptive shutdown of Australia’s dirtiest coal plants using direct action.

The government won’t do it, so the people have to.

UPDATE-29 arrested in total.  Most on the coal piles and four locked onto conveyor belt.

From their media release:

“Four people have chained themselves to the main
conveyor belt at Bayswater power station this morning to stop coal
feeding into Australia’s largest coal fired power station. They are
joined by more than thirty other protestors who are occupying the
stations coal stock-piles.

Protestors, from climate action group Rising Tide Newcastle, are
locked onto machinery, stopping the conveyor belts that carry coal to
Bayswater’s furnaces in protest against the Federal Government’s
failure to stop Australia’s greenhouse pollution rising.

Spokesperson, Georgina Woods, said, “Australia’s greenhouse
pollution is still increasing and our addiction to coal-fired power is
the main cause. We are here because every day we hesitate, we are
killing the Great Barrier Reef.”

In 2006/07, Bayswater Power Station created approximately 14
million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, making it equal greatest
single source of greenhouse pollution in the country and among the top
100 polluting power stations in the world.

The Federal Government is expected to announce medium term
greenhouse emission reduction targets at the end of the month, but
protestors say that 2020 is too late, and want a commitment that 2010
will be Australia’s “peak emissions” year.

The Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter
and the adjacent Liddell power station together supply around 40% of
NSW’s electricity.

The protestors say power stations like Bayswater will need to be
shut down over the next few years: “Where is the plan to phase out
facilities like these? Why are we twiddling our thumbs?”

“The nation and the world are watching and we will not get another
chance. The people that are here today are parents and grandparents,
professionals and tradespeople. We are demanding a commitment from the
Government today: Australia’s greenhouse emissions must start dropping
from 2010, we must do whatever it takes to save the Barrier Reef from
wipe-out and the world from devastating runaway climate change.”

The fight for the climate is far from over; the need for people to
protest our failure to reverse greenhouse pollution is greater than
ever.”