Toban Black

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In this post, I’ll be sharing photos, videos, and a write-up about Switch Off Hazelwood anti-coal campaign rallies and interventions in Australia, earlier in September. I also will be offering a little commentary.

(This post isn’t about breaking news. But I happen to think that we should remember and continue to talk about previous actions — well after a couple of weeks have passed.)

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“COMMUNITY DECOMMISSION ORDER”

(Like the other images in this post, that photo is from the “hazelwood2009″ pages on Flickr — where you can see a lot of other photos.)

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A campaign video -
“Switch off Hazelwood - Coal Fired Power Station Action”

That video is an introduction to the overall campaign — in relation to a wider movement against fossil fuel consumption (which activists are just beginning to bring together — in Australia, and elsewhere). The video calls for proactive activist responses to mounting global warming threats — above all.

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“DIRTY COAL”

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“Flowerpower” on the Indymedia Australia web site -
“Switch off Hazelwood Coverage”

That post is a straightforward overview — with writing, photos, and web links.

(I’m not going to pick apart that article to indicate what I happen to think of the word choices, and the other framing.)

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So far, the Switch of Hazelwood campaign basically has been that day of action. Evidently the gathering and interventions that day were interlinked with prior organizing though (as the video indicates).  Hopefully the pressure and the rallies will continue (regardless of whether or not they will collaborate more under the “Switch Off Hazelwood” banner).

I also hope that the campaigners haven’t been suggesting that we can avert global warming and related climate changes just by setting up “renewable” alternative energy sources (which actually entail non-renewable materials for the equipment which is used, at this time). Obviously we should be setting up a lot more alternative energy equipment to replace coal stations (and nuclear stations, and natural gas stations), but we also should be scaling back our energy demands — if only for the immediate future, while we reverse mounting climate crises, and while we cope with interconnected peak energy crises (including worldwide peak oil). Scaling back our energy demands is another way to avoid fossil fuel consumption. There’s no need for us to take greater risks by pinning all of our hopes on alternative energy equipment, alone. Slogans like “take action for renewable energy” and and “switch on renewables” don’t entail excessive hype about alternative energy systems — as the one and only solution to those energy and carbon problems — but those slogans could be interpreted as oversimplistic proposals, along those lines.

There are people out there who seem to think that our energy and carbon problems can be solved if we just get alternative energy gadgetry in place.  (”Hydrogen economy” rhetoric probably has been the most extreme and absurd form of that over-simplistic techno-hype.)

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A Climate Camp TV video posted by Sean Bean -
“Switch Off Hazelwood: The Kick Off”

Like the other video I’ve posted above, this one promotes civil disobedience.

Sean introduces this video by saying that
“One of the lamest criticisms of actvists in the Climate Change Movement is that they’re making The Wrong Effort. But that’s Armchair Warriorism for you - it’s always looking for a new ways to not get amongst it.”

I’ve mentioned that video in a comment about issues raised in this post about environmental activism -
“What if environmentalists wrote Star Wars?

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“Silence equals Acceptance”
“Speak Out”

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Update -

After I had finished this post, I realized that the Switch off Hazelwood campaign was interlinked with other organizing highlighted on the Camp for Climate Action Australia web site.

For instance, on the 11th of October (about a month after the Switch off Hazelwood rallies and actions), there was an anti-coal civil disobedience action at a Peabody colliery in New South Wales.