Beth Stratford whinges in the Groan about the unfair court system that found her guilty of hijacking a train, but didn’t allow for her defence of AGW.
When it’s our turn, the first one of us to act as a witness is Paul Chatterton – an embarrassingly over-qualified senior geography lecturer from Leeds university . He has barely finished his first sentence when Judge Spencer interrupts: “I’m afraid, Mr Chatterton, that climate change is of no relevance to this court.”
Uh oh, we’re going down. If the jury are told climate change isn’t relevant, how are they going to reach a verdict that considers the urgent necessity of stopping carbon emissions from coal? Would it have been “irrelevant” if there had been a child on the tracks to Drax on that day? Because that’s how I feel about it.
Okay, where to start? Firstly, the judge is perfectly correct – the “why” is not relevant to the court; merely the facts of the matter. Did the defendants commit the crime for which they are being tried? That is all the court is concerning itself with; quite correctly.
Secondly the parallel with a child (think of the chiiiiilllreeeen!!!!!); in such an instance, then there would be imminent danger to life. There was no imminent danger to life – these people were conducting a protest. They were doing so illegally. They knew this and still went ahead. If their religious belief demands that they break the law of the land for the benefit of that religion, so be it. Take the consequences with good grace and don’t whinge like a spoiled child.
But as I try to explain my motivations to the jury – of imminent tipping points, of much of my home county of Lincolnshire being lost to the sea – a lump rises in my throat. The ushers look flustered, waving some tissues my way. Smiling like a kindly grandad, Judge Spencer warns me, “That is what happens when you stray from the issues at hand.” I reply, “Your honour, this is what happens when you reflect on the facts of climate change.”
Yes, right. She’s been reading the Groan or watching the Beeb and swallowed their bunkum whole. There’s probably a comment in there about the state of our education system and the ability for people to think for themselves. When I was at school we were were regaled with dire warnings of global cooling and the new ice age. I ignored it – and, oddly enough, it went away.
Those facts are why we are here, and the prosecution could not contest a single one. A recent report by a thinktank run by Kofi Annan estimates that climate change kills 300,000 people a year. So, by ratio, that would make Drax responsible for 180 deaths.
Good Lord! The prosecution was not there to contest climate change – it was there to present the Crown’s case against the protesters holding up a train. As for taking anything that Kofi Annan has to say, well, frankly, you’d have to be delusional. Drax being responsible for 180 deaths is hysterical and risible.
In a recess, I step outside into the baking heat. I am reminded of the artificial divide between reality inside the court and reality outside – just as the air conditioning keeps the heat out of the court, the judge is determined to keep climate change out of our case.
Oh, there’s a reality divide here alright, it’s just not the one dear Beth thinks it is.
Beth Stratford; childish, spoiled and delusional. Hardly the martyr she’d like us to believe she is. If you are passionate about your cause, sufficiently so to break the law, then you accept that it may mean prosecution and prison. If you can’t take that without writing a hysterical CiF article complaining about your lot, then don’t go on the protest.
Beth Stratford; childish, spoiled and delusional.
And how many of them there are these days – it’s frightening.
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“In a recess, I step outside into the baking heat. ”
Obviously nobody taught her about the seasons when she was at school.
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Summer is caused by global warming don’t you know?
Time was when protesters with just cause were rightly proud of whatever convictions and punishments were put upon them. I guess Stratford is just a whinging arse instead.
Presumably there is a court transcript that can back up her story of her “[realising] the only hope of way of salvaging the situation is to disregard the judge’s instructions.”. If the judge told her defence that climate change was irrelevant to the case then why would he let her ramble on?
Drax is almost certainly responsible for a lot more than 180 deaths.
Nothing to do with global “warming”, of course – just go and research the safety record of the coal-mining industry. And especially check out the kinds of countries we import our coal from, these days.
Oh, yes, I think you will find 180 is a very low estimate indeed.
Andrew – fair cop, guv. I should have been more specific with my wording. What was clearly risible was the figure derived from Kofi Annan’s report that has nothing whatsoever to do with science and everything to do with PR.
If you want to discuss health and safety and the coal industry, well, different matter… Indeed, our current H&S legislation and some of the key precedents come from accidents in the coal industry.
Quick back of a fag packet calculation:
World consumption of coal apprx 5.5 billion tonne. Max coal consumption at Drax 11 million tonne. So if Drax were responsible for 180 deaths per year, this implies 90000 coal mine deaths per year. Even with China’s help the coal industry does not come close to this number (and the UK does not import any significant tonnage, if any at all, from China).
(Beth doesn’t say 180 deaths per year but a quick assessment of world power generation compared to Drax generation suggests that is what she means).
Of course, it then comes down to what you mean by responsible. Perhaps, Andrew, you should add those killed by electrocution at home, those killed in electric train accidents and those run over by a Prius (when operating in electric mode).
A rich vein of nonsense here:
http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/index.php?id=109
“Autonomous Geographies was a two year action research project . . . . . funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The project has now officially ended and has been judged ‘Outstanding’ by the ESRC’s evaluation panel.
We used the term ‘autonomous geographies’ to define
…those spaces where there is a desire to constitute non-capitalist, collective forms of politics, identity and citizenship, which are created through a combination of resistance and creation, and the questioning and challenging of dominant laws and social norms.”
The man is a publicly funded arse!
“an embarrassingly over-qualified senior geography lecturer”
Reminds me of the old adage: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, lecture.
I’ve got a post up exposing the links between the ‘expert’ (Paul Chatterton) who testified at her trial and the extreme left (+ contacts if you’d like to object to the University of Leeds partnering with crazies.
http://www.jonathannewton.net/?p=816
From his page at the University of Leeds website: “Dr Paul Chatterton’s research interests include urban culture (focusing on youth cultures of resistance, and regeneration policies), protest and social movements, and sustainable and international development (with a focus on the Argentinian popular rebellion and the Zapatista uprising in Mexico).”
Geography has changed since my day… Sounds more like Agit-Prop.
Leaving aside whether we should be burning coal, if we are going to burn it, power stations like Drax make sense. As a single unit, it is polluting, but per unit of carbon emitted, it’s one of the more efficient plants. The protesters appear to have chosen it because has the highest headline figure for carbon emitted, ignoring the amount of electricity it generates.
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