Rising Tide Australia

This article was written for the December 2006 edition of the Hunter Community Environment Centre newsletter (which actually comes out in January).

 

2006 has been somewhat of a turning point for the closely related issues of climate change and the NSW coal industry. Various extreme weather events and tangible changes to the climate, the release of mainstream calls-to-action such as An Inconvenient Truth and the Stern Review, and the ongoing awareness campaigns of many groups and individuals, have culminated in a definite tipping-point in public consciousness of climate change in Australia.

The role of of the NSW coal industry in fuelling global climate change is also receiving unprecedented criticism and debate. The HCEC and Rising Tide Newcastle, and many others, are campaigning hard against the massive increase in coal exports from Newcastle – already the world's biggest coal port and a significant source of global greenhouse pollution. The export coal industry, despite the best efforts of coal companies and politicians, is fast becoming the focal point for the climate change debate in NSW, and to a lesser extent Australia.

2006 has been a landmark year on the path leading to a transition away from coal for Newcastle and regional NSW. Some significant events of the year are described below, although bias and/or forgetfulness may have omitted some important things, so you'll have to forgive us.

7^th March – Anvil Hill Alliance launched

The Anvil Hill Alliance is launched at Parliament House, Sydney, amid almost zero media interest. Within the space of 9 months, the campaign to keep the Anvil Hill carbon in the ground and out of the atmosphere has grown huge, to become a major headache for the NSW Government, receiving national and even international attention. Finally, the global impacts of Hunter coal are being given the attention they deserve.

28^th May – Kelly Hoare forwards anti-coal letter

Federal Member for Charlton, Kelly Hoare, routinely forwards to the Federal Environment Minister the opposition of one of her constituents to the expansion of coal mining in the Hunter, particularly at Anvil Hill. In response, she is publicly and severly roasted by both major parties, and the CFMEU. Why are the CFMEU so vehement in their defense of a mine that as yet employs no-one?

5 June – People's Occupation of the World's Biggest Coal Port

World Environment Day sees about 200 people descent on Newcastle Harbour, aking to the water or cheering from the shore, to protest the planned expansion of the world's biggest coal port. For crap weather and barely a month's organising, it is a great demonstration of mass community opposition to more coal exports. Keep your ears peeled for the next one, which may be in March.

10 June – Anvil Hill rally outside ALP conference

The usual grab-bag of demonstrations greets delegates to the annual NSW ALP get-together. While the recreational fish-killing lobby takes a few prizes today, the award for best banner goes to the Anvil Hill Alliance, who's beautiful four-metre-high green banner makes it's debut. It is the first time most ALP apparatchiks had heard about the Anvil Hill climate change campaign, no doubt, but certainly not the last.

28 June – Melbourne protests Hunter coal

BHP Billiton are swamped with phone calls, faxes, and emails demanding they cancel plans for a new Coal Export Terminal at Newcastle, while students stage a protest against the plans in the foyer of the global mining giant's Melbourne headquarters. The message was clear: Hunter coal is a global issue, its impacts, and its opponents, exist far beyond the boundaries of the region. This was surely not the last protest of this kind.

10 August – Planning Department blockaded over greenhouse omissions

The Environmental Assessment for the proposed new Coal Export Terminal at Newcastle is released late in the afternoon of the 9^th August. On the morning of the 10^th, Rising Tide Newcastle blockade the entrance to the Sydney headquarters of the NSW Planning Department, for failing to require the climate impacts of the new coal loader to be assessed. It is the first exposure many bureaucrats have to rising community opposition to more coal exports and climate change, and results in a high level meeting between RT and senior bureaucrats, including the Director General. They are put on notice...

20 – 21^th September – Protest at Gunnedah Basin Coal Conference

An industry conference at Gunnedah entitled “The New Coal Frontier” is met with a crowd of about 60 protesters. Most are local farmers, but some have come from places as far as Coonabarabran, Newcastle, and the Illawarra, to demonstrate opposition to more coal mining because of damage to land and waterways, destruction of communities, and climate change. The industry might have thought moving into the “new frontier” was a piece of cake, but they are in for a shock.

4 – 8 October – Anvil Hill Action Camp

A three day long Non-Violent-Direct-Action training camp at Anvil Hill generates major media interest, with scores of people from 5 states of Australia pledging to “take whatever action necessary” to stop the Anvil Hill mine from going ahead. The camp coincides with the historic conversion of shock-jock Alan Jones to the cause (probably due to his links with the thoroughbred breeders rather than an appreciation of NVDA).

4^th November – 900 attend Nobbys Beach action

An astonishing 900 people brave miserable weather to join the Newcastle leg of the international day of action against climate change, organised in just a few weeks by the new group Climate Action Newcastle. Participants spell out “Beyond Coal” in human-formed letters, at the mouth of the world's biggest coal port. Such a huge number in such circumstances is surely symptomatic of a consciousness shift taking place in the Hunter.

7 – 9^th November – Coal Dependent Export Panel begins deliberations

The government-appointed “Independent Expert Panel” (also known as the Coal Dependent Export Panel) to assess Newcastle's proposed new coal loader, begins deliberations. The government has received 800 submissions against the loader because of climate change, but climate change remains outside the panel's brief. The panelists sit through two and half days of community presentations against the loader proposal, nearly all of them about climate change.

7^th November – Newcastle City Council calls for a moratorium on coal

Perfectly timed to coincide with the Coal Dependent Export Panel, Newcastle City Council passes an historic motion, calling for a moratorium on new coal mines in NSW, a cap on coal exports at existing levels, and a plan for a way out of coal for the Hunter Valley. While it has no practical effect, it is a brave and visionary move by the council. It is met with mindless vitriol by the coal industry and their friends in politics.

24^th November – Sandgate Flyover and Centennial AGM targeted by protests

The Sandgate Rail Flyover, designed solely to increase coal exports from Newcastle, is officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile and other dignitaries. The party is crashed by climate protesters. On the same day, the Centennial Coal (Anvil Hill mine proponents) AGM in Sydney is met by 60 protesters, a dozen of whom break in and shut down the AGM temporarily.

27^th November – Historic climate court judgment

After two days of hearings in September, Justice Nicola Pain of the NSW Land and Environment Court hands down an historic judgment – the Anvil Hill coal mine assessment was inadequate, as it did not include the climate change caused by the burning of the coal – wherever in the world it is burned. The industry and politicians turn themselves into knots, and some truly ridiculous quotes are uttered. In reality, it is a common sense decision that is long overdue. The true ramifications of the judgment are yet to play out, so watch this space.

It has been a year of much progress in the campaign to address the major role of NSW in global climate change, through our coal exports. But it is early days yet, and an industry which has been caught largely off-guard will be souping up its PR machine in a big way, be assured.

Politicans and industry are already spending a great deal of time and money convincing us that they are acting against climate change, while doing nothing of the kind. False and inadequate solutions to climate change, like emissions trading and “clean coal”, threaten to steal the debate. While the climate crisis alarms ring ever shriller, and while domestic emissions and coal exports explode, support for emissions trading and piss-weak renewable energy targets apparently counts as “tackling climate change”.

The battle for us in the environment now is to make sure the urgency of the situation is gasped by the public and the politicians, and that the debate remains focused on the cause of the problem: fossil fuels. Or more specifically (for NSW), coal and coal exports.