Thursday, 11 September 2008 01:00 | and posted in Environment
In a remarkable turn of events a jury decided yesterday that global warming constitutes such a serious threat that it justifies breaking the law. Six Greenpeace campaigners on trial for causing £35,000 of property damage to the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent were given a not-guilty verdict by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court. Jurors accepted the defendant's argument that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at the power station in order to prevent even greater damage being caused by climate change.
The defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage - such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire. However, this is the first case where preventing property damage from climate change has been used as part of a 'lawful excuse' defense in Crown Court.
Last year, the six defendants from Greenpeace scaled the 630ft chimney at Kingsnorth Power Station, near Hoo, to campaign against the government's plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power plants. They had planned to paint "Gordon, bin it" in huge letters across the chimney, but only managed to paint "Gordon" before they descended. They temporarily shut down the station and caused E.ON a £35,000 payout to remove the graffiti.
During the trial the six defendants claimed that they had acted lawfully as they honestly believed that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth power station would prevent further damage to properties worldwide caused by Global warming. They said that their aim was to rein back CO2 emissions while also bringing urgent pressure on the Government and E.ON to change their policies. They insisted that they had deliberately tried do the minimum amount of damage necessary to close the plant and that this constituted a "proportionate response" to the increasing environmental threat caused by coal-fired power plants.
Speaking outside court after being cleared yesterday, one of the six, Mr Stewart said: "This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement. When a jury of normal people say it is legitimate for a direct action group to shut down a coal-fired power station because of the harm it does to our planet, then where does that leave Government energy policy? We have the clean technologies at hand to power our economy. It's time we turned to them instead of coal."
