Climate activists Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara will be in Massachusetts district court next week with a novel defence: They plan to argue that their day-long, peaceful blockade of a coal delivery to a Somerset, MA power plant was legally justified by the urgency of climate change. “There were no kerfuffles involving authorities and nobody was arrested—the men learned of criminal charges later by mail,” Upton writes. But “the trial’s outcome could have far-reaching implications, with fossil fuel blockades growing in popularity around the world as a form of climate-related protest.” Climate leaders James Hansen and Bill McKibben are expected to testify for the defence.
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