Foremost authority on climate change arrested at mountaintop removal protest.
By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / June 25, 2009
For those who follow the climate issue, a top NASA scientist, James Hansen, foremost authority on climate change, was arrested at a non-violent protest of mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. (Actress Daryl Hannah was also arrested at the protest.)
For an account of the action organized by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), go here, and here(from Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network:
…I can’t remember a more charged atmosphere. The majority of people surrounded one-half of the stage, supporting each speaker calling for an end to mountain blasting. Separated by police, the remainder crowded around the rest of the stage, wearing Massey t-shirts and shouting their disapproval.
I spoke shortly after Ken Hechler, the 94-year-old former Congressional Representative who has decried the effects of mountaintop removal in his region for more than three decades. “I want to thank Don Blankenship for inviting me to this rally,” I began, to a mixture of catcalls and applause. I told the crowd that mountaintop removal isn’t just a local issue, it’s an American problem — brought to us by Massey Energy and other coal companies…
The latest New Yorker has a long profile on James Hansen, the climate scientist arrested for civil disobedience. If every scientist had such a conscience, the world would be in a whole lot better shape. You can read it here:
http://hectocotylus.blogspot.com/2009/06/catastrophist-by-elizabeth-kolbert.html
Hansen has issued the clarion call that the current American Clean Energy and Security Act, as it enters the fray in the Senate, is deeply flawed and should not be the law of the land. He favors a concept called “cap-and-dividend,” which neither entangles the U.S. in more of a derivatives market (through cap-and-trade), nor provides freebies for fossil-fuel companies. Too bad Congress isn’t listening to this true public servant.