Antinuclear

IPCC report strengthens activisim against coal and gas industries

Australian activism reaches fever pitch as IPCC warns on climate, Guardian, 1 April 14  New South Wales campaign group is harnessing community support to confront oil and gas companies over drilling As George Bernard Shaw put it: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Australia‘s coal and gas operators may not agree with Shaw, but it is the power of these unreasonable people that new campaign group Our Land, Our Water, Our Future hopes to tap.

John Krey is one of these people. The resident of Bulga, New South Wales, says the tiny town is “teetering on the brink of obliteration” as multinational miner Rio Tinto pushes for regulatory approval of coalmine expansion plans. Now Rio’s chance of success is thought to be very high, since politicians have changed the rules, he claims

A Rio Tinto spokesperson says Rio is applying for permission to continue “normal operations” at the open-cut operation. The expansion is “essential to provide ongoing employment for 1,300 workers, who depend on this mine to put food on the table for their families”.

Increasingly frustrated with the intransigence of the company and regulators, Krey and his Bulga Progress Association cohorts have turned for support to Our Land, Our Water, Our Future.

The campaign group, which claims four-fifths of the state is covered bymining licences and applications, wants legislative reform that would see no-go zones put in place to protect farmland and rural industries, water resources, special wild places, and residential communities from coal and gas.

It has solid community backing, according to pollsters, who found 73% of NSW residents want coal and gas banished from water catchment areas and near rivers. Two-thirds want fossil fuel extractors kicked off all productive farming land……….

Campaign coordinator Holly Creenaune says the campaign was launched by farmers from the north-west, aboriginal people from the Northern Rivers, and business people from the Southern Highlands. “Their communities are behind them and the NSW Minerals Council should take their concerns seriously,” she warns………

Environmental activism reached fever pitch today. At the Newhaven Coal-owned Maules Creek site in NSW 30 protesters, including a 92-year-old, were arrested for walking onto the open-cut coalmine. Protesters oppose clearing part of the Leard State Forest for the new A$767m mine near Boggabri. In Lismore, NSW, protesters from the 200-strong Bentley Blockade chained themselves to concrete blocks at the Metgasco-owned site.

News of the protests comes as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts in its fifth report that freshwater resources in far south-eastern and far south-west Australia could decline up to 70%, due to the reduction in precipitation. In other parts of Australia heavy rainfalls may lead to intense soil erosion, negatively affecting agriculture, drinking water quality and ecosystems…….

with the IPCC’s proclamations today – providing for the first time extensive data on Australia’s precipitation – it appears that people can begin to demand the kind of adaptation that George Bernard Shaw referred to in his 1903 Man and Superman.http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/australia-ipcc-climate-confront-oil-companies

April 1, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change - global warming, New South Wales