SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

On September 10th, a jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace protestors who had admitted to carrying out £35,000 damage to Kingsnorth power station, on the grounds that the campaigners acted to prevent much greater damage from climate change.

The jury agreed with the defence, that they had a lawful excuse for the damage because the threat from global warming is so severe and urgent. James Hansen, formally of NASA , dubbed by many as the worlds preeminent climate scientist was one of the witnesses that gave evidence to this effect during the eight day trial.

The six had been charged with criminal damage after they climbed a chimney at Kingsnorth back in 2007, painting ‘Gordon’ in giant letters on its side and sending a giant message to the PM to reject the proposed new generation of coal power stations. The jury’s decision suggests that the tide of public opinion is turning in favour of the no coal protesters’ arguments- although the jury’s still out on what the government will do next.
For other stories on this topic visit:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/12/activists.kingsnorth

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cleared-jury-decides-that-threat-of-global-warming-justifies-breaking-the-law-925561.html

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