New Greenpeace chief: "civil disobedience appears to be the only way"

Watch Kumi Naidoo, the new executive director for Greenpeace International, address climate change in his "inauguration YouTube video":

"After several years in the anti-poverty movement I came to see how the struggles against poverty and the struggle to reverse catastrophic climate change are two sides of the same coin. All our different struggles are linked together."

That reminded me of my Blog Action Day 2008 post: Pollution, poverty, war, lights, camera... action!

"If we are able to understand the moment we live in and respond with the courage to create a green economy, to push for an energy revolution and to fundamentally ensure that we can share this planet in a more equitable way we can reverse the dangerous path that humanity has started on. [...] at a time where civil disobedience appears to be the only way we can actually push our governments Greenpeace's methodology offers us the most promise."

Found via Lara Smallman's Put Humans First at TH!NK.

The fight against dirty energy

December 2008: Activists pledge 'all-out war' to block power plant

Environmentalists are vowing to block a proposed $6 billion coal-fired power plant in Surry County, saying it would increase air pollution, would contribute to global warming and is not needed.

Late September 2008: Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants

Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.

Early September 2008: Climate Change a Viable Defense in British Court

A group of Greenpeace activists dubbed the “Kingsnorth Six” were found not guilty of criminal damage by a British jury earlier this month, despite fessing up to defacing a coal-fired power plant in an attempt to shut it down. Their creative legal team argued that the damage was justified under a law that excuses property damage inflicted to prevent greater property damage, which the defense said would occur as a result of climate change.