You may remember that climate science guru James Hanson recently came out in support of six Greenpeace activists who were charged with damage to a coal power station. His, and their, contention was that the damage was justified to stop the greater damage that the plant was doing to the world and the six were duly freed.

Now look who’s jumping on this bandwagon.

“I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration,” Al Gore told a meeting at the Clinton Global Initiative (various, eg Reuters).

The NY Times quotes Gore saying civil disobedience should aim to stop construction of new coal plants, adding “Clean coal does not exist.”

As someone else might have put it:

How does it become a man to behave toward the coal power station today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.