On this day, November 28, in 2008 someone broke into a coal-plant and shut down one of the turbines.
As the Guardian puts it –
The £12m defences of the most heavily guarded power station in Britain have been breached by a single person who, under the eyes of CCTV cameras, climbed two three-metre (10ft) razor-wired, electrified security fences, walked into the station and crashed a giant 500MW turbine before leaving a calling card reading “no new coal”. He walked out the same way and hopped back over the fence.
All power from the coal and oil-powered Kingsnorth station in Kent was halted for four hours, in which time it is thought the mystery saboteur’s actions reduced UK climate change emissions by 2%. Enough electricity to power a city the size of Bristol was lost.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/dec/11/kingsnorth-green-banksy-saboteur
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 386ppm. At time of writing it was 417ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
This was in the midst of wave of climate action (2006 to 2010), with coal power a significant focus. The third climate camp had happened there that summer.
Why this matters.
What’s that line by Tom Hardy in Inception “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”
What happened next?
They never caught the person…