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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

GreenPeace Protesters Climb the Fisk Generator Plant

Not far from Chicago Astronomer Joe's estate

24 May 2011

I have seen the Fisk Generator tower all my life, bellowing out steam and other matter from coal - providing electricity to the surrounding neighborhoods. I often use the bellowing steam as my wind gauge, showing me if the next day will be warm from south winds or chilly with north gusts.

This morning, I noticed black smoke coming out of the stack - very unusual. Then later helicopters flying about. Checking on-line, I discovered that Green Peace had gained access to the Smoke Stack and commandeered it.

(There has been great concern with the residents on that part of town about health concerns on the release of lead and other toxic particulates unto the neighborhoods. )

Upon hearing the news, I immediately set up a telescope and the Canon Powershot S3 to catch the action....

And damned if I don't catch three of the eight Green Peacers on the cartwalk...

Neighbors stopped by and wondered what I was looking at. Some, already in the know asked if I was catching the protesters. We spent some time looking at the individuals through the 90mm and the C5...but the 90mm gave the best views....

I would be jittery climbing that 450 feet and resting on that flimsy catwalk - and today is rather windy too! I wonder if they got parachutes?

I took a pic of the action before breaking down the set-up through my Smartphone camera...

...and it wasn't too bad.

Let's see what the protesters do next, but I envy their view atop there....

[patrickm]

Awesome timing! Awesome use of grab and go + smart phone.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I think it's quite cool really.

I'll return as the Sun sets for some dramatic lighting of the Green Peace crew.

Just another service from your on-the-spot neighborhood Astronomer.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

From Chicago Breaking News.....

Staff report
11:55 a.m. CDT, May 24, 2011

Eight Greenpeace activists were protesting today atop the smokestack of a Pilsen coal-fired power plant.

Chicago police were on the scene but had not taken any action to take the protesters into custody.


The activists apparently scaled the smokestack at the aging Fisk plant, 1111 W. Cermak Rd., at dawn to unfurl protest banners atop the structure they said was 450 feet above the ground. Police said they were not called to the scene until slightly before 9:30 a.m.

The yellow banners read: "QUIT COAL."

The plant long has been targeted by environmental groups and Chicago aldermen who have been fighting for years to force both the aging Fisk plant and the Crawford plant in Little Village to either clean up or shut down.

The activists scaled the stack at about dawn and plan to stay until the plants' owner, Midwest Generation, hears their concerns, said Edyta Sitko, Greenpeace field organizer in Chicago.

"We want the plants shut down now," she said.

The former ComEd plants also are the subject of anti-pollution lawsuits filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Pollution problems at the two plants have been well-documented. Both are major sources of lung-damaging soot and other noxious chemicals, according to the protesters and a Tribune investigation.

[e-mail]

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The news reports are coming in, but some do a better job than others....

From NBC Ch.5...

WGN Ch.9 did a better job with a on-scene reporter and pretty long segment with many angles...

WBBM Ch.2 was the lamest...

But switching back to NBC Ch.5...they were reporting live on another concurrent protest two communities to my west at another coal firing plant....

Hanging off the Pulaski Rd. overpass bridge with the same message as their fellow crew members at the Fisk Smoke Stack...with Police and emergency vehicles at the ready.

ABC Ch.7, as far as I could tell, did not even cover it.....


For me, as a Pilsen/Heart of Chicago resident, this is of great interest, not only for the health issue GreenPeace is advocating, but to get a close look at the Smokestack that I have been using for decades to test out telescopes and use as a weather indicator.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Graffiti on the Smokestack

Returning back home, I find that the Fisk Generator smokestake now has ugly graffiti on it...

They must have done this overnight and early morning. As I left the house around 6:00 am, the stack was enveloped in clouds...and their activities hidden.

From a different position I could read the entire message, which says, "QUIT COAL". And not a sign of the 8 person crew anywhere....

I understand protesting for a better environment, but this is sheer ugly. And as the protesters pay their fines and leave the area, we are left to look at this.

Not cool.

Laika doesn't think much of it either.

[patrickm]

That's worse than the ugly smokestack belching poison? Guess it's in the eye of the beholder.

The Chevelle awaits!
p

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Pretty soon the hammering, welding and painting begins!

I can't wait!

[patrickm]

I can't wait...for you to be done with it. Welding is fun, but I haven't done it since shop class. For your own sake, keep me far away from your car repairs!

You got quite a bit of mis-spelled retweets yesterday from these posts. Too bad people can't spell astronomer.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Patrick,

Retweets....really?

I haven't seen a single one.

[-=CROMAN=-]

I can understand their message and I do agree to a point but I am totally against that sort of behavior. All they did was make something ugly that much more.

Unfortunately for our planet the world doesn't run on gumdrops and lollipops. We burn coal, use nuclear power, harvest the wind on giant obtrusive wind farms etc... because we have to.

They want this utopian society without borders, fossil fuel reliance, monetary system, etc.... good luck!

The Rapture was our best shot at a new start and that came and went fairly quickly. oh well.... Eventually the earth will shake us off her ass but until that happens its business as usual around here.

Anyway, those green peace guys need those cans of spray paint, with its deadly cfc's, shoved straight up their asses.

[patrickm]

May 25, 2011 15:30:05 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

Patrick,

Retweets....really?

I haven't seen a single one.

Do a search for the TEXT of your Tweet and you will. They misspelled AstronomerJoe so it didn't show up.

[patrickm]

I wish they're at least gotten Banksy to turn it into a giant phallus/cigarette/ICBM/diesel exhaust/something creatively funny.

If this were in my neighborhood, I think I would be happy somebody was trying to raise consciousness to close it down where others have failed. If I was raising my children in that neighborhood, I damn sure would! Whatever other actions the group has taken, I think this one should be evaluated on its own merit. Nobody that I know of was harmed. Something exceedingly ugly was (perhaps) made a little uglier, but if it stirs debate to get the thing shut down and demolished, then it will have served its purpose.

When the mechanism and inertia of the entire global geopolicital system is moving toward and driven by multinational corporations who exist solely for profit, it's hard to be really angry at the relatively smaller, less powerful groups that speak up for green earth, dark skies, clean water, healthy animals and against unwavering corporate control that does more damage in a few months than all of the combined dreams of 18th century robber barons.

And I'd be willing to bet $100 that they did not use spray paint. There aren't enough cans in the Hillside Menards nor hours in the day to spray paint something that big. They had to either have rollers or portable spray guns.

[-=CROMAN=-]

And I'd be willing to bet $100 that they did not use spray paint. There aren't enough cans in the Hillside Menards nor hours in the day to spray paint something that big.

You didn't grow up on the south side of Chicago did you? ;D

[-=CROMAN=-]

Seriously...... What do you think is worse? Coal or Nuclear?

[patrickm]

May 26, 2011 7:25:07 GMT -6 -=CROMAN=- said:

Seriously...... What do you think is worse? Coal or Nuclear?

Without any data, I cannot say for sure. My guess is that it is probably statistically safer to live near a nuclear plant from a cost/benefit analysis standpoint. It does not spew radiation into the environment unless there is an accident, of which there have been relatively few in the history of nuclear power. A coal-fired plant spews toxins into the atmosphere pretty much constantly. Despite their industry marketing, there is no such thing as "clean coal."

Aside from a handful of partial meltdowns, the main problem with nuclear is what to do with the spent fuel—a problem we still have not solved, not contamination from daily functioning of the plant. Again, I have no statistics to back this up, but that is what logic dictates to me. I am sure there are statistics easily attainable, just not by me right now.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

"QUIT COAL" Graffiti all gone....

It's been a rainy and overcast night and day, but the Fisk Generator plant is busy painting over the "QUIT COAL" message that the GreenPeace visitors rolled into the smokestack...

Setting up outside of the garage with the 90mm refractor, I catch the brave solo painter, hundreds of feet up slowly painting over the letters by hand and brush....

I had to do errands in the general direction of the plant, so I get close and take some more....

Amazing how this painter is hoisted up on a small platform, attached with a harness and a bucket of paint...

The bottom part where it said "COAL", was already painted over and all that was left is the "T".

Although I can sympathize with the message and health concerns, I'm glad the graffiti is painted over...and soonest!

And Only here on the Chicago Astronomer - will this Pilsen event be recorded for all posterity.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Putting the faces to the protest

The eight Greenpeace anti-pollution protesters who were arrested Wednesday after climbing down from the smokestack of a Pilsen coal-fired plant were charged this morning with felony criminal damage to property.

The three women and five men were also charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass, police said. They are scheduled to appear in bond court later today.


The criminal damage apparently was their painting of the words "Quit Coal" on the 450-foot smokestack of the Fisk plant, 1111 W. Cermak Road.

Charged were Julie Farris, 31, of Oregon; Kathryn Ogden, 27, of Washington, D.C.; William Rosenwinkel, 22, of Wheaton; Cy Wagoner, 34, of Arizona and John Watterberg, 32, of South Carolina. Also charged were Kelly Mitchell, 26; Gabriel Gerow, 29 and Benjamin Smith, 31, all of California.

A separate goup of eight activists from the same organization were arrested Tuesday afternoon after rappelling off a bridge at the 3700 block of South Pulaski Road. They were charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and performing an aerial exhibition without a net, police said. The group claimed that by dangling from ropes above the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, they prevented a coal barge from passing.

Those activists all were from out of state.

www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/local/chibrknews-greenpeace-activists-handed-felony-charges-in-smokestack-protest-20110525,0,1174205.story

[Paulie pchris00]

I'm sure Greenpeace will pay for their defense, and the DA will probably offer plea deals that drop the felonies, but I would like to see these folks do jail time. I'm all in favor of protesting for a better environment and with it, green jobs, but Greenpeace crosses the line. They can pay all the fines, but they can't serve the jail time for them. And if the prosecution doesn't drop the felonies, the protesters will have to live with that on their record.

[patrickm]

Chicago's 2 coal-fired plants to shut down sooner than expected

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicagos-two-coalfired-power-plants-to-shut-down-sooner-20120229,0,269023.story

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Well....from a health standpoint...it's a victory for cleaner air and a relic from the early 20th century.

But...

I'll miss the plume rising from the stack - indicating wind direction and the next day's weather...

[erikruud]

www.weather.com

www.wunderground.com

www.accuweather.com

Or even better
www.accuweather.com/en/us/saint-charles-il/60174/astronomy/2256025

[patrickm]

Yeah, Joe, that's quite the blunt instrument to use for an astro forecast. You are trading up, man.

As for the Accuweather Astro forecast, I would say, "or even worse."

Whet Moser @whet on Chicago Magazine's blog The 312: Chicago Coal-Fired Power Plants Will Close to Combat the Smoke Horror