James Hansen

Update 5 March: watch a highlights video from the Capitol Climate Action

Yesterday was a momentous one for the climate movement in the US. Over 2,500 clean energy activists came to Washington DC to participate in the largest act of civil disobedience on global warming in American history. Former coal miners, ministers, mothers and students - all members of Capitol Climate Action - successfully shut all five entrances to the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant, which is used to heat and cool the Capitol building, for over four hours.

James Hansen in conversation outside Maidstone Crown Court © Rezac/Greenpeace

I blogged bits of Hansen's spoken testimony on the day he gave it, but here's his written witness statement in full (pdf).

If you don't want to read through the whole thing, here are the summary facts (known, as Hansen writes, "by the UK government, by the utility EON, by the fossil fuel industry, and by the defendants at the time of their actions in 2007"):

Jubilant climbers on top of the chimney at Kingsnorth power station in October

I've been so busy with the launch of EfficienCity (our blueprint for a climate-friendly town) that I haven't had a chance to update you on all the goings on in our coal campaign since we delivered our alternative energy speech at the government / industry shindig last Wednesday.

On Friday morning, listeners of Radio 4's Today programme heard a withering attack on the proposed new coal plant at Kingsnorth from top Nasa scientist (and the world's most eminent climate scientist) James Hansen. The plans for the UK's first new coal plant in 30 years were, he said, a "terrible idea" which “will destroy the efforts of millions of citizens to reduce their carbon emissions”.