Four Greenpeace activists have been arrested after shutting down a coal mine used to help power a Fonterra dairy factory. According to The New Zealand Herald, up to 12 protesters were involved. Four people were arrested and charged with trespassing shortly after 6.30 a.m. The activists had chained themselves to equipment and blocked the entrance but given the “swift response” from police the coal mine was back up and running. The activists had unfurled a 40 m2 banner reading “Fonterra Climate Crime” at the New Vale mine, near Gore in Southland. Greenpeace said lignite coal was one of the “dirtiest fossil fuels” and Fonterra’s use of it to power milk dehydrators at its Edendale milk processing plant was a “climate crime.”
