Greenpeace activists block loading operations at BHP terminal in Australia
07 Aug 2009
Greenpeace protesters, in a bid to focus attention on the need to ramp up action on climate change, spent 36 hours chained and dangling from the top of a coal terminal in Queensland, Australia.
The protesters stopped production at the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance's (BMA) Hay Point Export Terminal in Mackay for more than 36 hours. They then returned to the ground and were arrested by the police.
According to a Greenepeace spokeswoman the protesters returned to the ground as their largest ship the Esperanza, a 72-metre former firefighting vessel was then obstructing the Hay Point loading port. Greenpeace dispatched the ship to support the protests by blocking entry of ships for loading shipments.
A Greenpeace spokeswoman said the protesters decided to return to the ground because the organisation's largest ship, the Esperanza, a 72-metre former firefighting vessel, was now obstructing the Hay Point loading port.
The protests had been staged to go with the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns which closed on Thursday.
According to Greenpeace the Australian government was not taking adequate action on climate change even as the Pacific Island Forum leaders called for major emission cuts from Australia and New Zealand to save their homes from rising seal levels.
