On the 29th of August, the chairman of the Indian mining conglomerate Adani Group, Gautam Adani, announced the beginning of the company’s new, $16.5 billion “Carmichael” coal mining project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. On Saturday 7th of October hundreds of environmental activists in Australia came together across 45 different locations from Melbourne all the way up to North Queensland’s Port Douglas to protest the government’s approval of the project.
Each group united their supporters to coordinate a ‘human sign protest’, where those who turned up to protest would stand and form a ‘human sign’ reading “STOP ADANI” in an effort to persuade the Australian government to disallow the mine to proceed and to show them that the Australian community is not on board with their mine approval.
The spokesperson for the Stop Adani Gold Coast crew Shane Primrose was ecstatic with the support from the Gold Coast community, with around 350 people turning up to protest. “We’ve had great numbers turn out today, the movement is building, we’re putting pressure on our politicians so we’re hoping that they will start to take notice and start to take climate change seriously.”
Primrose also shared concerns about the effects that the mine will have on the local environment and the negative impact it will have on the world’s largest coral reef system and an Australian icon, the Great Barrier Reef. “We know this project threatens our reef, our climate, our water and our farmers and it’s also a massive violation of Indigenous land rights.”
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Shane hopes that their efforts will attract the attention of the Gold Coast’s local Member of Parliament Steven Ciobo. “‘We want to call on our local Member of Parliament Steven Ciobo to actually stand up and listen to the people of the Gold Coast, we do not want this mine and we do not want one billion dollars of public money going to Adani.”
CEO of the clean energy activist group, 350.org, Blaire Palese also voiced concerns:
“While the Queensland and Federal governments staunch supporters of this dirty mine, new polling shows the Australian community is angry that $1 billion of public money could be handed to Adani for a mine which will wreck the climate and the reef.”
Gemma Borgo-Carattie, the National Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition raised concerns about Australia’s current environmental issues and how the Adani mine will make matters worse. “Australia just sweltered through the hottest September on record, with the hottest days more than 16 degrees celsius warmer than average.” She believes that the the time to act against climate change is now and that Adani’s coal mine would take Australia in the opposite direction.
It’s time to upgrade to 100% renewable energy. Young people are demanding that our politicians stop getting in the way of that vision. They are skilled up and ready to do whatever it takes to stop Adani.” – Gemma Borgo-Carattie
Recent polling from ReachTEL shows that the majority of Australia do not want the mine to proceed, with 56 percent of Australians now against Adani’s coal project. A further 66 percent of Australians do not want to financially support it and want the government to use its power to veto the one billion dollar loan.
According to the Stop Adani Alliance, membership has more than doubled since it was launched in March 2017 and now boasts 31 member organisations and an astounding 160 local Stop Adani groups.
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Adani’s mining project is expected to negatively impact the Great Barrier Reef, which is already suffering due to rising ocean temperatures. According to the documentary film Chasing Coral, 29 percent of the Great Barrier Reef was killed last year due to climate change. Its demise expected to accelerate if the Adani “Carmichael” coal mine becomes fully operational.
The Stop Adani National Day of Action is now over but the fight is only just beginning. Want to stand up and help #stopadani? Sign the change.org petition: Annastacia Palaszczuk: No billion dollar handout for billionaire Adani!
To learn more about this issue or join the movement, visit stopadani.com.
Title image courtesy of Stop Adani Gold Coast.
