Over the weekend, four activists from Greenpeace Australia occupied the top of a 140-metre high smokestack for 33 hours enduring near freezing temperatures overnight. They began the two-hour descent yesterday, at Swanbank B coal fired power plant near Brisbane, leaving a message for Australia's leaders - "Go Solar!"- painted on the side of the smoke stack.
Activists abseiled off the side of a 140-metre coal smokestack and painted the message "Go Solar".
Upon descending, Greenpeace energy campaigner Julien Vincent,
who was part of the climbing team, said they sent the message that
the situation is urgent and we have to act fast on climate change.
This means revolutionising the way Australia generates energy.
The activists climbed the stack at dawn on Friday, 11 July and
spent a night up the top in near-freezing temperatures.
Why did we do this?
We did this to get the message out that Australia urgently needs
to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They must start replacing old and
dirty coal fired power stations, like this one at Swanbank, with
true clean renewable energy, like solar. It is tragic that
Queensland, with the best solar resources in the world, is not a
leader in the booming global renewable energy industry.
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33 hours for a renewable energy future
The activists' occupation of the 37-year-old Swanbank B
coal-fired plant began at 5.30am on Friday 11 July. Of 13 activists
who entered the plant yesterday morning, nine were arrested before
they started climbing the stack. The remaining four were arrested
after 33 hours up top of the major climate changer.
Swanbank B is responsible for more than two million tonnes of
carbon emissions a year - that's the annual pollution of 300,000
cars.
The world's best solar resource
If every home in Queensland switched to solar water heating,
Swanbank B could be switched off. We want a commitment from
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to close Swanbank by the next
election.
Australia is way behind many other countries in developing
renewable energy. In the next 18 months Spain will roll out enough
solar thermal power to replace Swanbank B power station four times
over. If Australia makes the right choices it could become a
powerhouse for renewable energy manufacturing and technological
development, creating thousands of new jobs and investment
opportunities.
The Australian Government's climate change advisor, Professor
Ross Garnaut, says that if Australians do not successfully combat
climate change, theGreat Barrier Reef will die and they will lose
50,000 jobs and $5 billion in tourism dollars each year.
Jobs in coal can be replaced by jobs in renewable energy. There
is no way to replace the Great Barrier Reef.
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