It's hard to say whether there were more or fewer nerves on the way to court today. On the one hand all the defendants now feel - visibly - more comfortable with the court surroundings than they were at the start of the proceedings yesterday.
On the other hand, today was the day some of them were going to take the stand for the first time. Either way, listening to the Star Wars theme tune blaring over the radio as we made our way to Maidstone in the minibus could only be a good thing for morale.
We filed into the court room at around 11am. By 11.30 - after circulating some documents to the jurors - the prosecution had closed; it was the turn of the defence.
The defendant's QC, Michael Wolkind, is a pleasure to watch at work. He started by introducing six "of the nicest people... accused of saving the planet".
Just a quick blog to break the news: the world's leading climate scientist, Professor James Hansen - a director of NASA - is going to appear tomorrow afternoon as a defence witness in the Kingsnorth trial.
Professor Hansen is Al Gore's science adviser and a former adviser to the White House on climate change. I'll be reporting on his statement to the court tomorrow.
This morning, the Kingsnorth Six - plus a few hangers on like myself - made their way from a rural Kent retreat to Maidstone Crown Court for the start of the Kingsnorth trial.
I've spent the day watching the proceedings from the public gallery. (It's my first time in a Crown Court and I'm pleased to report that it's all true: the court really does all rise, there are curly wigs, and barristers really do look up the finer points of law in thick legal compendia.)
Actually, the whole experience is fascinating; the careful negotiations, the nuances of argument and the hints of theatricality have all left me a little agog. And having a friend's-eye view of the defendants and their motives makes it pretty poignant too.
Kevin Drake
Kevin
Drake is 44 and lives in a Wiltshire village with his wife and daughter.
He is a freelance industrial rope access safety supervisor. Kev is a
proud father and values humour and family life, and enjoys being outdoors and likes interacting with the
natural world through activities such as caving, camping, rock climbing and body
boarding. He has been volunteering for Greenpeace for ten years.
In October last year, they took a personal stand to protect the environment and climbed to the top of the smokestack at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent.
Now, the Kingsnorth Six (Ben Stewart, Emily Hall, Huw Williams, Kevin Drake, Tim Hewke and Will Rose) are being prosecuted for criminal damage.
The science of climate change is unequivocal – to avoid catastrophic impacts, industrialised countries like the UK must make steep and urgent reductions in their carbon dioxide emissions. This means that it is unacceptable to build new unabated coal-fired power stations in the UK.
This joint statement from Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB calls on the government to:
Posted by jamie — 21 August 2008 at 11:12am
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Slightly later than planned (blame summer holidays and technical snaffus) but in the latest edition of our podcast we take a trip to the recent Climate Camp. Somewhere in the region of two thousand people pitched up for ten days in the shadow of Kingsnorth power station in Kent, where plans to build a new coal-fired plant are afoot - with climate change in mind, this is probably not the wisest thing to do.
In between helping with activities like shifting hay bales and washing up, we talked to some of the other people from all over the country to find out what brought them to the camp. We also caught up with Dave Douglas of the National Union of Mineworkers who was there with Arthur Scargill to get involved in the debate, plus we hear from Jim Footner, one of our campaigners working on the issue, to find out why a coal-powered future is unrealistic.
Not one, not two but at least three climate change-related happenings popped up around the country yesterday, many of them carried out by Climate Camp attendees. Although the camp is primarily focused on coal and the proposed new power station at Kingsnorth, today's activities also highlighted other climate threats such as aviation and biofuels. Here is just a taste of what's been happening:
While I've been stuck at my desk following the debates about Climate Camp police tactics, activists’
intentions and whether environmentalists are mostly ‘filthy
adulterers’ (Julie Burchill, bless), the Climate Campers have been busy
turning a quiet field into a living/working space powered by renewable energy,
and debating the future of coal, the climate change movement and the planet.
Defendent Ben Stewart
Kevin Drake
