As I write, 20 student activists are peacefully blockading the Newcastle coal loader to highlight the insanity of expanding the world’s biggest coal port at a time when we need urgent cuts in greenhouse emissions (see coverage on abc and SMH). Yesterday, activists shut down power generation at the Loy Yang power station in Gippsland’s Latrobe Valley for five hours.
There actions are timed to coincide with the APEC meeting and highlight the growing gap between the obvious need to cut greenhouse pollution in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, and the continued growth of the coal power industry. Coal = climate change. If we are to deal with climate change, we need to keep coal in the ground. Simple.
These actions are an encouraging sign that grassroots action on climate change is growing and starting to move beyond personal lifestyle issues to begin tackling the elephant in the room in the climate change debate – coal.
Yesterday, at least four activists from Real Action on Climate Change entered the power station at Loy Yang in the Latrobe valley and locked themselves on to a coal conveyor and an overburden conveyor belt, forcing the shutdown of the 600 megawatt generator, halving production from Victoria’s biggest coal fired power station that supplies 30% of the states power, the dirtiest power supply in the developed world.
For more information about the Latrobe valley action visit http://www.realactiononclimatechange.blogspot.com/
