Stop Polluting Our Air!
Posted by feww on August 11, 2008
Direct action protesters try to stop UK coal-fired power plant for a day
About a 1,000 climate protesters, who aimed to stop the output at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station for a day, demonstrated outside the plant in southeast England on Saturday.
Nearly 2,000 police and civilian security personnel surrounded the protesters. Police in riot gears brandishing batons charged at the protesters and arrested about 50 people.
“We just want to try and send a message to people that we don’t want any more new coal … it’s something that’s not going to help our future at all,” said Helen Atkinson, 26, a medical photographer from Cumbria, northwest England. (Source)
Kingsnorth power station is a 1,985-megawatt dual-fired coal or oil power station in Medway, Kent, England, on the Hoo Peninsula. Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Credit: Clem Rutter; via Wikimedia Commons.
E.ON the German owned company that operates Kingsnorth is planning to construct two new “cleaner coal” units on the Kingsnorth site, which it claims will be 20 percent less polluting than conventional power stations. They would be the first coal-fired power stations to be built in Britain for 24 years. AFP reported.
Police surround protesters during a sitdown protest at the gates of Kingsnorth Power Station near Rochester in Kent, southeast England August 9, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor. Image may be subject to copyright.
Police and private mercenary agents confront protesters in front of of Kingsnorth Power Station near Rochester in Kent, southeast England August 9, 2008. UK Indymedia. Image may be subject to copyright.
In police heavy-handedness we trust! UK Indymedia. Image may be subject to copyright.
I need clean air! Why are you arresting me? (Photo AFP). Image may be subject to copyright.
[I’ll give you clean air, you basta*d!] Police restrain a protester in front of the gates of Kingsnorth Power Station near Rochester in Kent, southeast England August 9, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor. Image may be subject to copyright.
Fire Earth 
PTD said
Not here!
Reclaim Power: Block the System « Fire Earth said
[…] I’ll give you clean air, you basta*d! […]
msrb said
Recent Air Pollution Headlines:
Growing pollution leads to “global dimming”: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52B6VT20090312
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Visibility on clear days has declined in much of the world since the 1970s thanks to a rise in airborne pollutants, scientists said on Thursday.
They described a “global dimming” in particular over south and east Asia, South America, Australia and Africa, while visibility remained relatively stable over North America and improved over Europe, the researchers said.
Aerosols, tiny particles or liquid droplets belched into the air by the burning of fossil fuels and other sources, are responsible for the dimming, the researchers said.
“Aerosols are going up over a lot of the world, especially Asia,” Robert Dickinson of the University of Texas, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.
Dickinson and two University of Maryland researchers tracked measurements of visibility — the distance someone can see on clear days — taken from 1973 to 2007 at 3,250 meteorological stations worldwide.
Aerosols like soot, dust and sulfur dioxide particles all harmed visibility, they said in the journal Science.
The researchers used recent satellite data to confirm that the visibility measurements from the meteorological stations were a good indicator of aerosol concentrations in the air.
The aerosols from burning coal, industrial processes and the burning of tropical forests can influence the climate and be a detriment to health, the researchers said.
Other pollutants such as carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases are transparent and do not affect visibility.
The data will help researchers understand long-term changes in air pollution and how these are associated with climate change, said Kaicun Wang of the University of Maryland.
“This study provides basic information for future climate studies,” Wang said in a telephone interview.
The scientists blamed increased industrial activity in places like China and India for some of the decreased visibility, while they said air quality regulations in Europe helped improve visibility there since the mid-1980s.
The aerosols can have variable cooling and heating effects on surface temperatures, reflecting light back into space and reducing solar radiation at the Earth’s surface or absorbing solar radiation and heating the atmosphere, they added. (Editing by Maggie Fox). Copyright the author or news agency.
The Right to Pollution-Free Air « Fundamental Human Rights said
[…] Stop Polluting Our Air! […]