Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Open letter to Labor Cabinet - reject the polluting destructive Adani coal mine.

TO: Labor Cabinet

The massive Adani Coal mine must not proceed.  It will contribute to the death of the Great Barrier Reef and the coal produce will contribute to climate change when it is exported and burnt.

When burned, the coal will generate greenhouse gases
equivalent to 4.49 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The open cut mine will also destroy the Queensland environment in the region.  Very few full time equivalent jobs (1464) will be created, contrary to company claims.

Adani has been granted unlimited volumes of water for 60 years from the Great Artesian Basin, which will compromise other users of this water.  Around 200 small towns draw their water from the basin’s aquifers.

A significant portion of the remaining habitat of the endangered black-throated finch is within the bounds of the Carmichael mine site. The mine will remove the best remaining habitat, and fragment the good quality habitat that remains.

The vulnerable squatter pigeon’s habitat is much larger, but the entire Carmichael mine site is within its territory.

The yakka skink is another vulnerable species that was part of the court case that saw Adani’s mine approval briefly overturned in 2015. The mine and connecting rail are directly within its habitat.

Shipping the coal to the international market also requires a huge expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal (which is also owned by Adani).  This means dredging 1.1 million cubic metres of the seabed and dumping it near the Caley Valley Wetlands.

Your decision on this will go down in Australian environmental history.

I will strongly consider voting for Labor in the next federal election if you withdraw support for the Adani coal mine.

Please reject this polluting and destructive coal mine.

Our future is in your hands.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Campbell

You can send your letter to the Labor Cabinet from a link here