Coal

The 'Quit Coal' tour in the Philippines

Posted by jossc — 20 June 2008 at 12:10pm - Comments

Greenpeace activists paint the message 'Quit Coal' on the driveway of the Department of Energy today in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Philippines

Taking the message to the Philippines Department of Energy

Mareike, web editor aboard the Rainbow Warrior, give us an update on from the Philippines about how the 'Quit Coal' tour is progressing.

Burning coal accounts globally for over 70 per cent of CO2 pollution from power generation and is the greatest single threat to our climate.

That's why the Rainbow Warrior is on a global tour from New Zealand, via the Philippines and Thailand, to the UN climate panel meeting in Poland at the end of this year, promoting a massive uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency and the phase out of coal.

An open (cast) and shut case?

Posted by jossc — 18 June 2008 at 5:48pm - Comments

Leave it in the gound: climate campaigners occupy Lodge House open cast mine site

Hot on the heels of Friday's 'Great coal train action' which halted coal shipments to Drax power station for the best part of two days, comes news of more anti-coal activity. Early this morning climate campaigners from 'Leave it in the Ground' occupied UK Coal's Lodge House site in Derbyshire where a new open cast coal mine is planned, and the rural lanscape is about to be devastated by huge earth-movers.

Leave it in the ground!

Posted by jossc — 13 June 2008 at 4:21pm - Comments

Coal protesters stop a train of the black stuff on its way to Drax, the UK's largest coal plant

Thirty climate campaigners today stopped a coal train on its way to Drax power station in Yorkshire, Britain's single largest source of CO2 emissions. Dressed in white overalls and canary outfits, they used safety signals to stop the train at a bridge on a branch line used exclusively by the power station, before jumping aboard and shovelling coal off onto the tracks. Some used climbing ropes to suspend themselves under the bridge from the train, making it impossible to move the train while the protest continues.

Update: Rainbow Warrior ends peaceful protest at Pagbilao

Posted by jossc — 27 May 2008 at 1:37pm - Comments

Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior passes by the coal ship Sam John Spirit as it exits the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant pier in Quezon Province, 150 kilometers south of Manila.

The Rainbow Warrior's protest at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in the Philippines has ended on a high note. Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri sent a message of support to the crew saying, "I will file a resolution in the Senate seeking a halt in the construction of new coal fired power plants in the country."

The action ended on the eve of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in Japan, where the richest industrialised countries in the world gathered at the weekend to discuss solutions to climate change. Ending the use of coal needs to top the agenda.

More information on our international site »

"Quit coal" tour gets underway in Philippines

Posted by jossc — 23 May 2008 at 11:58am - Comments

The Rainbow warrior blocks coal shipments at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon province, 150 kilometres southwest of Manila.

The crew of the Rainbow Warrior kicked off a month long "Quit coal" tour around south-east Asia today when they blocked a coal shipment at the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon province, south-west of Manila.

When is a coal plant not a coal plant?

Posted by jossc — 21 May 2008 at 4:23pm - Comments

Drax from a distance: the UK's biggest source of CO2 pollution

Drax from a distance: the UK's biggest source of CO2 pollution

Silly question I know. A coal plant is a coal plant is a coal plant - still the dirtiest form of power generation known to us, no matter which way you look at it. But now that more and more people are uneasily waking up to the fact that the government are about to sanction a new generation of the things, suddenly we're knee-deep in spin about how environmentally friendly they could become. How surprising.

First there's been a great slew of CCS 'clean coal' stories. Carbon capture and storage may be theoretically feasible but it's expensive (up to twice the cost of unabated coal), technically complicated (involving deep cooling the CO2 into liquid form and creating a network to pump it out back under the North Sea where our oil and gas reserves originally resided) and commercially untried (so far no one is keen to pay for it themselves).

Greenpeace podcast: Aldermaston and airports on the airwaves

Posted by bex — 4 April 2008 at 1:08pm - Comments

Welcome to our very first Greenpeace podcast! It's going to be a fortnightly affair, so make sure you subscribe.

In this episode, we head down to Aldermaston's nuclear weapons factory on the 50th anniversary of the first legendary march - and meet a few of the folks who were there the first time around. Greenpeace's James Turner joins hundreds of flash mobbers at Heathrow's Terminal 5 on its opening day to find out why so many people are saying "enough's enough" when it comes to airport expansion. And climate change writer and campaigner Mark Lynas tells Joss Garman what he thinks of new runways, new coal, new mayors and the need for mass action. The podcast is presented by our very own James Turner.

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Want to find out more about the issues in this podcast?

Aldermaston, 50 years on »
Terminal 5 flash mob »
The new coal rush »
Mark Lynas »
Stop Heathrow expansion »
Say no to new coal »
Take action for peace with CND »

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