All articles
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Minister wrong about toxic mine-water release
Press release – 7 November, 20128th November, 2012: Greenpeace says Queensland Environment Minister, Andrew Powell, is wrong when he says new laws being rushed through Parliament won’t allow the release of stagnant, toxic flood water from Queensland coal mines into Queensland drinking water.Minister Powell told the media on Monday that new powers in the Economic…
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The coal industry’s Great Illusionist Brief
Here’s a question for you: how much of a masterpiece can you remove, before it loses its value and beauty for which it is recognised? That’s the question the Australian government is wrestling with as the coal industry makes greater and greater inroads into the masterpiece that is the Great Barrier Reef. This blog first…
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The Australian Government approving more destruction of the Reef
In the fight to save the places we love there are always swings and roundabouts, but the last two weeks have felt more like a wipe-out than either a swing or a roundabout. Last week the media focus was on the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, doing deals with India so they could import our uranium…
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Burke delivers body blow to the Reef
Press release – 9 October, 2012Sydney 10th October, 2012: In apparent contravention of a World Heritage Committee decision, Environment Minister, Tony Burke, has approved a massive new coal terminal in the Great Barrier Reef. The decision, published by his Department yesterday, was signed off by the Minister last Thursday.T3, owned by Hancock/ GVK will, at…
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Tough action needed to stop Reef coral death
Press release – 1 October, 20122nd October, 2012: Greenpeace is calling for tough action by the Australian and Queensland Governments after scientists revealed the Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in 27 years, and may lose half again in the next ten.“This is alarming new evidence that decisive action is needed to…
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Cooking the climate: Wrecking the reef
Everything about the Galilee Basin is epic. Its name, its size and sparse beauty, the enormous amount of coal buried just under the soil and the scale of mining being proposed to dig it up. But eclipsing all of this are the epic consequences if this coal is dug up and burnt – and that…
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As the Arctic melts Australia’s Galilee Basin remains a ticking carbon time-bomb
Press release – 19 September, 2012Sydney/London/India 19 September, 2012: Mining industry numbers reveal that by allowing coal mining in the untapped Galilee Basin in Queensland, Australia could create more carbon pollution than the entire United Kingdom or Canada.The numbers, revealed in a new Greenpeace report, Cooking the Climate and Wrecking the Reef, are the first…
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Mega mine, mega catastrophe
When Minister Burke described the environmental assessment of Gina Rinehart’s controversial Alpha Coal Project as “shambolic”, he wasn’t joking. But now he has given his own rubber stamp to the project, revealing the profound failure of the regulatory system in Australia. Blogpost by John Hepburn The project is big by global standards, with a 30…
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The Risk Of Cashing In On The Reef
Last Friday financial analysts across India opened their copy of the Financial Times and saw a full-page advertisement asking if they were going to “sink your profits on the Great Barrier Reef”. The ad was an investor alert suggesting the GVK/Gina Rinehart Alpha mine proposed for the Galilee Basin in Queensland may be a riskier…
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Standing up in a crowd
2012 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The book, perhaps for the first time, put a very public spotlight on the devastating impact of chemical pesticides on the environment, particularly the aerial spraying of DDT in agriculture. Blogpost by Ben Pearson, orginally posted on ABC Environment Carson’s book…