Greenpeace - Making Waves: Activists aquited for action against coal plant

Five of the Kingsnorth Six.

[ Five of the 'Kingsnorth Six' at the top of the 200m chimney. ]

From our press release (with small edits):

The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent last year by scaling the chimney and painting the Prime Minister’s name down the side. The defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ and relied in court on the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ – claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change.

The Court heard testimony from Professor James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, an Inuit leader from Greenland and the environment adviser to the head of the UK's Conservative Party.

The jury was told that Kingsnorth emits 20,000 tonnes of CO2 every day - the same amount as the 30 least polluting countries in the world combined – and that the Government has advanced plans to build a new coal-fired power station next to the existing site.

The ‘not guilty’ verdict means the jury believed that shutting down the coal plant was justified in the context of the damage to property caused around the world by CO2 emissions from Kingsnorth power plant.

Add to that some annalysis from The Guardian (emphasis mine):

In the last decade cases involving genetically modified crops, new roads and nuclear, chemical and arms trade companies have all collapsed after protesters argued that they had acted according to their consciences and that they were trying to prevent a greater crime.

But this was the first time that climate change activists have been cleared of using a "lawful excuse" defence.

The increasing number of acquittals has led to protesters acting openly and accountably, rather than covertly, and seeking court cases. A court gives them a stage on which to present complex scientific and ethical arguments.

Protesters can play up the amount of damage they have done in order to have their cases heard by juries.

In this case, Greenpeace did not question the high cost of £30,000 estimated by Kingsnorth's owners E.ON to clean up the damage done to the chimney. The paint in which they daubed the prime minister's first was water-based and would probably have washed off within weeks.

The government is also thought to have wanted the Kingsnorth case to go the highest court possible to deter many expected future protests against coal.

Meet the "Kingsnorth Six".