Everyone's at it: climate change activists have once again utilised the humble power of the superglue as a method of protest. Protestors glued their hands to the glass at the headquarters of coal giants BHP Billiton in Victoria, to demonstrate against further use of coal as an energy source. Fellow fans of the pun Oxford and Thames Valley Climate Action also held up signs reading 'BHP Billiton: undermining the future', in a peaceful protest with no arrests. Less daring than a Plane Stupid activist's attempt to glue himself to Gordon Brown last month, yesterday afternoon's action nonetheless caught the eye of the press.
Nine people took part in the demonstration, following a larger-scale day of action on Saturday in Kingsnorth, Kent, where over 1500 people joined George Monbiot and others to object to energy corporation E.On's plans to build coal-burning power stations at the site. Climate Camp argue that more coal plants are a bad idea - burning coal is responsible for around one quarter of our global CO2 emissions and our government are planning on building, er, six more. Together these would emit 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
BHP Billiton's website says they remain committed to 'using energy as efficiently as possible'. Phew. That's ok then.
Image courtesy of Greenpeace Southeast Asia's Flikrstream under the Creative Commons Licence
