Climate Change activists charged after stopping coal train in Newcastle
NEWCASTLE; AUSTRALIA (WEB DESK)
Fifty Climate change protestors have been charged after they stopped a coal train in Newcastle on Sunday morning and started to shovel coal onto the ground in a call to halt the use of fossil fuels.
The train was stopped Newcastle, a major coal export terminal. Protest group Rising Tide said that it was demanding the cancellation of all new coal projects.
Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter, and climate change is a hugely divisive issue there.
The group unfurled a banner calling for no new coal, and began to shovel coal onto the ground while chanting “put it back in the ground it’s time to get with it.
By the early afternoon, organizers said some protesters had been arrested and charged with obstructing a railway and trespassing. Others remained in the rail corridor and atop of the carriage.
Police spoke with a group of 50 people who entered the railway corridor, including some who had climbed onto a train carriage.