With news that the start of the Adani Carmichael coal mine and rail project is imminent, miners, politicians and environmentalists alike, are scrambling to have their way.
Adani has announced it will proceed with its mega coal mine in the Galilee Basin and will reportedly self-finance its mine, after failing to secure finance from any Australian or international banks.
‘Adani now says it will self-fund the mega-mine,’ said Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie. ‘The company made the announcement on a day when large parts of Queensland are burning and when the state is experiencing drought made worse by climate change,’
Ms McKenzie says that Adani has put the ball firmly in the court of the major political parties. ‘Do they support a coal mine that is fundamentally at odds with protecting Australia from the worst impacts of climate change?’
‘Adani Mining CEO Lucas Dow claimed today that the project stacks up environmentally. This is ludicrous. In the face of intensifying climate change, no new fossil fuel project stacks up,’ she said.
Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) spokesperson Imogen Zethoven says it defies belief that Adani is hell bent on pushing ahead. ‘This is a climate-wrecking mine,’ she said. ‘Queensland is experiencing record breaking heatwaves, bushfires are burning across the state and our beautiful Reef could suffer another major bleaching event this summer.
‘The world’s climate scientists have made it abundantly clear that to save our Great Barrier Reef we must have no new coal mines and shut all coal plants by 2030.
‘The Morrison Government and the Labor Opposition must stop this dirty coal mine, which will accelerate dangerous climate change and risk a safe future for Australia.’
Climate Council’s Head of Research, Dr Martin Rice says the project has the potential to be a carbon bomb. ‘If all of the Galilee Basin coal was burned, it is estimated that 705 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be released each year – that’s more than 1.3 times Australia’s current annual emissions.’
‘Coal is a risky business. Company directors who do not properly consider climate change-related risks may be held legally liable for breaching their duty of care,’ says Dr Rice.
‘The most pressing challenge Australia faces is how to phase out existing coal mines well before their reserves are exhausted. We simply cannot open any new mines,’ he said.
‘The development of the Carmichael coal mine and the Galilee Basin also threatens the Great Barrier Reef. We should be protecting the reef and Queensland’s tourism industry, rather than opening new coal mines.’
Maybe those wonderful people who oppose mining should shut their electricity off and join me using only off-grid solar and battery power. It only cost approaching $100,000 including batteries. Set aside say $100 a week for maintenance. They should also repay all their loans right now as the country won’t have the money to repay the trillions the banks have borrowed without coal exports.
I won’t mention ridding the awful polluting motor car as I still have one.
Saving hard for a Tesla.
Then I will be able to really sneer at all you two-faced hypocrites.
You paid that much for your solar system Kieth? Gee whiz, you could have bought a politician for that.
For full off grid you need a reliable generator first then batteries to keep everything on at night these cost over $20,000 and need replacing, 3 charge controllers @ $1500 each The generator transformer to charge the batteries cost thousands the computer things that run it all plus the panels.
It still goes off at night if we use too much power.
A very grave & great pity that none of our politicians – read parties – will
make a stand against Adani. As has been suggested, the polly power
players who care more for votes than people, country or environment
should now face the wall & be ‘locked-in’ until the numbers are known
to the public who employ them. Who’d have thought Australia’s limping
leaders would become such spineless wonders. I turn my back on the
lot of them.
Now we have an example by a mining expert who’s put
things the way he sees them. Make use of freedom of
speech by all means. If it wasn’t for ‘the sneer’ throw-in
I’d have given him the benefit of the doubt & believed
that he was a for real reasoning person. It’s no wonder
the younger Aussie lot are worried about their future.
Bull & drama from the left? You bet.
Recent scientific reports state that we are at the cross roads with climate change regarding our ability to prevent climate warming above 1 1/2 to 2 centigrade which is the threshold for the beginning of severe consequences for mankind.
Runaway climate warming above that level could actually happen which means we are pretty much stuffed as a race along with many other species and the scientists now say we actually need to find a way of removing billions on tons of CO2 from the atmosphere instead of just reducing what we currently emit.
A big problem is there isn’t any easy technology to remove billions of tons of CO2 yet.
Scientists say, why are we prospecting for more fossil fuels when we can’t even burn all that we’ve found already without ruining the worlds climate.
Einstien said madness was keeping on doing the same thing and expecting a different result
It’s also been said very recently that the current generation will be the last generation with the ability to make climatic change before it is out of our control.
How bad do things have to become before governments act ? my guess is when it is too late.
‘The Age of Stupid’, it was a movie, is now reality with the announcement by Adani.
Why are we surprised …of course a billionaire can fund his own mine…..but yes the question is why does anyone anywhere want more coalmines and power stations…..
Oil is another thing because until we can drive cheap E..V. ‘s we sure as hell are going to keep driving our fossil fuel monsters.
Gas now…..we could all have our own poo digestors to make methane and use less water but where are they? Not here tho widely used in 3rd world already.
The trade deficit is about $80 billion where are you going to get the money to buy the imported frozen beans from Belgium for $2 a kilo?
Grow them ourselves?
Paying Aussies $25 an hour?
We import all our petrol now.
All our cars and parts.
As problems go climate change probably isn’t in the top hundred.
The biggest problem is debt.
That is huge.
Then deficit.
Government,
State,
Personal.
The trillions the banks have borrowed internationally to lend on the million dollar homes.
The candle in the wind time? Yes Keith. I know & deal with ordinary + extraordinary
Janes & Joes & the carpenter who has managed to power a 3 bedroom house plus
essentials quite reasonably. No, it hasn’t cost the family the earth.
Your tally doesn’t remotely meet the average use.
What we need:
Few – if any – banks [lock the listed offending lot up] since they’ve stolen enough so far.
Credit Union options. Share holders can keep them honest.
Transport; pushbikes, more public transport, car-sharing.
Tightening of the debt-belt for several years.
Understanding that climate change is no joke., so accept what’s real.
Set the million-dollar-plus-home-people free to live in other countries or encourage them
to invest in the many power options already here. Horse-sense is needed. Try riding one.