23.2.2009
At 9am today a group of eco-activists began to disrupt the operations of Scottish Coal at the Rosewell open-cast coal mine in the Midlothians. Some of the 10 activists stopping work today are local residents.
They climbed onto digging machinery to prevent works and climbed onto trucks to prevent coal from leaving the Rosewell site for 2 hours this morning. Then police arrived but no-one were arrested.
One activist said “the burning of coal to generate electricity is one of the most polluting and destructive of all human activities. We cannot deal with climate change while companies like Scottish coal continue to profit from coal exploitation.”
A local resident said “With a government committed to expanding opencast, deep mine and new coal power generation across Scotland, asking politicians will achieve nothing. Peaceful direct action is the only way people are going to stop coal expansion.”
Another said. “We are opposed to this climate disaster of an energy policy and to the scarring of scotland’s countryside with these horrible open-cast coal mines, Rosewell and Scottish Coal’s other operations have and will continue to be met by resistance from local people taking direct action.”
This action was done by individuals who are not affiliated to any particular group.
This is another example of the growing resistance to new coal in scotland. For more general info on how people are stopping new coal in Scotland, check out www.coalactionedinburgh.noflag.org.uk