I’ve often felt calls to ‘stop all coal exports’ were far too unrealistic. But it is just as unrealistic to think we can even begin to make the necessary cuts in greenhouse emissions while governments continue to invest large amounts of money into “maximising coal exports”. So it’s no surprise that climate change campaigners like Friends of the Earth in Brisbane are focusing more and more strongly on coal.
They marked World Environment Day in Brisbane by labelling the offices of the Premier, the Environment Minister and the Resources Minister as “global warning crime scenes.”
Friends of the Earth declare the Premier's electorate office in West End a "global warming crime scene"
I fear that if the Copenhagen conference on climate change at the end of this year does not bear much fruit, and no strategies start to appear in Australia to reduce the reliance on coal, we will start to see direct action much stronger than a few photo opportunities.
Those who believe there is no threat from climate change are less of a barrier to effective action that those who believe there is a threat, but are either not willing or not able to confront the changes necessary to credibly meet the threat.
4 Comments
Ha, that got a laugh out of me.
Honestly honestly honestly CAN’T we get a higher level of protest happening? At the very least, some bad street theatre?
It’s such a crucial issue and yet this is all people can come up with!!
You can really see Bligh et al saying, “Well, that’s got me thinking.”
Except they wouldn’t even know it happened.
Because people tend to enjoy having electricity cheap and plentiful supply, the way it should be to be honest.
The exports don’t appear on our greenhouse accounts. Don’t worry!
We can still ‘cut emissions’ and continue to dig the black gold out of the ground.
That’s the perversity of the current accounting racket.