More than 100 climate campaigners have been arrested after staging a floating blockade of Australia’s largest coal port, police said yesterday, including five children and a 97-year-old reverend.
A fleet of kayaks blocked shipping traffic over the weekend at the Port of Newcastle on Australia’s east coast, imploring the government to end the nation’s long reliance on fossil fuel exports.
Authorities agreed to let the protest run for 30 hours, but police boats started closing in when the deadline passed and crowds of protesters refused to leave the water.
Photo: Screengrab from Rising Tide FB
Among the 109 people arrested was Uniting Church reverend Alan Stuart, who said he wanted to stave off climate disasters for his “grandchildren and future generations.”
“I am so sorry that they will have to suffer the consequences of our inaction,” he said in a statement ahead of his arrest. “So, I think it is my duty to do what I can and to stand up for what I know is right.”
Protest group Rising Tide, which organized the blockade, said that Stuart, 97, was the “oldest” Australian ever arrested in connection with a climate change demonstration.
“We chose to risk arrest because scientists are warning that to avoid catastrophic climate collapse, we must urgently phase out fossil fuels,” the group said in a statement.
New South Wales Police said five juveniles had also been arrested, but did not give their ages.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said Australia needed to keep selling coal if it wanted to fund a clean energy revolution.
“We sold A$40 billion [US$26.4 billion] worth of coal last year and we need this if we’re going to transition our economy to renewable energy,” he told local radio station 2GB. “In fact, it is not possible to do it without getting coal royalties as a result of exports.”
Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt said that nationwide protests would continue to swell if the government did not take the climate crisis seriously.
“People understand, students and older people understand, that it’s coal and gas that are fueling the climate crisis,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
A succession of Australian states have passed strict laws in recent years targeting climate protests, drawing condemnation from civil rights organizations and UN investigators.
Climate protester Deanna Coco was jailed for 15 months late last year after blocking traffic on Sydney’s famed harbor bridge, although her sentence was later quashed on appeal.
Australia has long been one of the world’s largest coal producers and a string of new coal mines, oil fields and gas projects are in government planning pipelines.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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