Yarra Climate Action Now!

Dr James Hansen, one of the world’s most respected climate scientists (who raised the alarm on climate change in the US Congress 20 years ago) was arrested together with a 94 year old former congressman, Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah and around 30 others at a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining on the 22nd of June.


The protesters sat down and blocked a road near the Goals Coal Plant in West Virginia, demanding that this destructive form of mining be stopped, due to the direct ecological damage it is causing and the urgent need to stop burning coal in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen," said Hansen, who is the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

"Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient," Hansen told a crowd of about 350 people gathered at Marsh Fork Elementary. "Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished."

Thank you Dr. Hansen.

For those of us that want to follow Dr. Hansen’s brave example, sign up at beyontalk.net and come along to the peaceful community protest at Hazelwood Power Station on 12-13 of September this year.