Hats off to Greenpeace - six of their activists just persuaded a jury to acquit them of criminal damage for the graffiti to the left, on the chimney of the coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth. The best bit about this is that the jury effectively said "this criminal damage was an attempt to stop a more serious crime, the criminal damage caused around the world, by coal plants like this, through climate change".
It's the same sort of defence we used in our anti-GM case, but we had to wait for the appeal to get off, not least because Kingsnorth was heard by a jury, but we just had a sheriff.
If Labour or the SNP press ahead with more coal plants, they know they will be on thin legal ice now, and the potential protesters know it too.
The witnesses for this case notably included NASA's Professor James Hansen, an absolute star of early climate change science, and more detail on his evidence, including his written statement, is available here.
Greenpeace planned to write "Gordon, bin it", but I actually prefer the shorter version. Like Dennis Potter christening his cancerous tumour Rupert, after Murdoch, they renamed a grossly polluting chimney Gordon, after Brown. It's not just the dirtiest form of power generation, aside from nuclear, it's actually criminal.
Climate scepticism - denial in the face of overwhelming evidence. The Bush administration has been responsible for quashing evidence for climate change, casting doubt, putting pressure on scientists and re-writing scientific reports. These actions are more akin to totalitarian regimes than to democracy and bring shame on the US. Now we have Sarah Palin, Republican number two, claiming that climate change is not related to human activity. In the UK we have the likes of pitiful Jeremy Clarkson trying to ridicule anyone with a care for the environment and applauding Palin's beliefs. Meanwhile, the ice sheets are disappearing from the Arctic Circle at an alarming rate, we have increasing species extinction, a population explosion and clear evidence that the climate is changing rapidly all around us. Whilst no-one who understands and cares about the environment will take any notice of people like Palin and Clarkson, they are dangerous because they receive widespread media coverage and have an influence on people's views. Climate scepticism is nothing more than denial in the face of overwhelming evidence but it is made worse by high profile ignorance and apathy.