Did Greenpeace Help Planet By Defacing U.K. Coal Plant?
That’s the can of worms opened up by a British court case involving a half dozen Greenpeace protesters who defaced a coal plant, causing more than $50,000 in damage, but who were acquitted because they said they were acting to prevent even bigger damage from a warming planet. It was the first time climate change was used as a “legitimate defense” in a British court case, the Guardian says. Greenpeace targeted the Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant because coal plants produce more emissions of greenhouse gases than other kinds of power; Kingsnorth alone produces more emissions than many poor countries, the protesters say. The campaign is part of a wider battle in Britain over the future of coal, as the country’s medium-term needs for electricity collide with environmental concerns like greenhouse-gas emissions. The court heard testimony from U.S. climate-change scientist James Hansen, an outspoken opponent of traditional coal, who warned that adding more coal-fired plants would just brin
