Carmichael coal mine threatens irreversible damage to Doongmabulla Springs and local ecology says new study

Doongmabulla Springs threatened by Carmichael mine

New hydrology research from Flinders and Darwin Universities highlights the Bravus (formerly Adani) Carmichael Coal mine being develeped in the Galilee Basin of Central Queensland may permanently damage the Doongmabulla Springs and the acquifer water it depends upon, and with it local ecosystems.

The natural springs are environmentally significant and are also of great spiritual and cultural significance to the Wangan and Jagalingou Indigenous nation.

Groundwater scientists warn more research is needed to measure and fully understand the aquifer sources that feed the springs.

“Even if the springs’ source aquifer is partially dewatered for mining operations, there is a serious threat of permanent damage,” says Flinders University PhD candidate Mr Robin Keegan-Treloar, the lead author of a new paper in the international Journal of Hydrology.

ALP conference acknowledges climate emergency and IPCC 1.5C report, but not the need to Stop Adani and phase out coal

Federal ALP conference has adopted a climate change motion that highlights the IPCC Special Report on 1.5C and that we are in a climate emergency. Labor MP for Batman (being renamed Cooper), Ged Kearney, moved the motion on climate change at the ALP national conference.

The contemporary challenge:

There is no longer any credible or serious scientific doubt that human-induced climate change represents a massive risk to Australia and the world. The recent IPCC report indicates that we are experiencing a climate emergency and, as a result, meaningful action on climate change is urgent, at home and internationally. Labor will take strong action on climate change to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change on Australian society and economy, and to take advantage of the opportunities transitioning to a low pollution economy represent for workers, businesses and Australia more broadly.

The motion was carried, without a vote from the floor.

Stop Adani raised at COP24 in youth climate action side event

17 year old Toby Thorpe, from Hobart, a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), raised the need to stop the Adani coal mine in a press conference at the United Nations Climate Conference COP14 on Thursday, as the climate conference was drawing to a conclusion.

He was one of four youth activists at this press conference speaking on the need to increase climate ambition and targets, to include climate justice in the writing and final negotiations of the Paris rulebook.

He sent a message to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to stop Adani, to stop the politicisation of acting on climate change.

"So right now I am calling on my Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, to stop politicising this issue and accept this threat to our future, and our descendants future."

School kids occupy Australian parliament foyer demanding 100% renewables, #stopAdani

Students involved in the National School Strike for Climate Actionjoined First Nations leaders from Seedmob, youth leaders from AYCC and climate experts to hold a peaceful occupation of approximately 100 people in the foyer of Federal Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday 5 December.

This follows a climate strike involving over 15,000 students and supporters on Friday 30 November in all capital cites and some 20 regional cities and towns.

The students are demanding:

• 1. Stop the Adani coal mine
• 2. No new coal or gas
• 3. 100% renewable energy by 2030

and requesting:

• 1. Host a climate change forum for school students in your electorate before the Federal Election
• 2. Take a photo with us and a StopAdani sign to demonstrate your opposition to the mine and support for our future.

Funeral for Our Future - Time to #stopAdani

Funeral for Our Future - a Service conducted by Stop Adani Melbourne and friends, officiated by Uniting Church Minister Rev Alex Sangster.

Included a Processional march by Riff Raff Marching Band, Songs lead by the Climate Choir, Eulogy for the Reef by Alan Cuthbertson from Stop Adani Melbourne, Eulogy for Nature by Joseph Birckhead and Audrey Cooke, Euology for Children's Future by teenager Marco Bellemo, Call to Action by Rev Alex Sangster and Marco Bellemo.

The IPCC 1.5C report and a visit to Bill Shorten to #stopAdani

In this photo I am making a short speech outside Labor MP and Opposition leader Bill Shorten's office at Moonee Ponds on the major transformation necessary if we are to meet the 1.5C Paris climate target, as detailed by the recent IPCC 1.5C report (which I am holding up in the air). The climate science report says unequivocally that there is no physical or chemical impediment to us limiting climate change warming to 1.5C, the problems are entirely political and would entail at this stage massive social transformation of our energy, transport, agriculture and social systems.

We have at most perhaps another decade to start significantly on the path of this social transformation. Actually, I think we need to be well on the path to deep decarbonisation by 2020.

Large and vocal protest to Stop Adani outside Queensland Labor conference in Townsville

Photo by StopAdani

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten talk about addressing inequality inside the Queensland State Conference of the Labor Party in Townsville. Yet one of the greatest drivers of inequality is climate change driven by fossil fuels and coal mining.

Outside the state convention about 200 people turned up on Saturday morning to press the point that developing more fossil fuels, especially the Adani Carmichael coal mine, will further drive climate change. Climate change is a driver of political destabilisation, food insecurity, and inequality at a global level.

Queensland's commitment to 50 percent renewables by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050 mean little if coal and gas is continued to be exploited and exported overseas. Politicians often say that if we don't export it , then some other country will. But this is an immoral defence, with this justification known as the Drug Pusher's defence. That's what Premier Palaszczuk is arguing: an immoral case that if Queensland doesn't drive climate change by exporting coal, then some other nation will do so.

But even the Drug Pusher's defence for developing the Adani mine falls flat when you take into account there is a global energy transition occurring, and the global coal market is in structural decline. Developing any new coal mine risks becoming a stranded asset, failing at plain economics.

Stop sitting on the fence Bill Shorten on Adani coal

Photo by Julian Meehan Copyright: Creative Commons CC-by-SA

Bill Shorten has been sitting on the fence regarding the Adani Carmichael coal mine. Well, it doesn't stack up according to any social justice morality, or on it's economics or according to environmental and climate criteria.

In April Bill Shorten, interviewed for the ABC 7.30 Report, opposed the NAIF loan while hedging his bets on support for the mine. He said "I support the Adani coal mine so long as it stacks up. I hope it stacks up, by the way. But it's got to stack up commercially. It's got to stack up environmentally."

I attended Bill Shorten's Moonee Ponds office to give him a message to stop sitting on the fence over Adani's Carmichael coal mine. I met with Bill Shorten with other members of civil society during COP21 in Paris, so he knows how serious climate change is, and how important it is to reduce emissions.

Reports Adani's Abbot Point coal terminal exceeded pollution limits 8 fold

Remember that story on Adani's Abbot Point export coal terminal contaminating the Caley Valley wetlands next door? And the ruckus of denial from Adani, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and Queensland Resources Council CEO Ian MacFarlane?


The latest update is a news report on the ABC that reveals that at one monitoring point the contaminated liquids and sediment from Abbot Point were at 8 times the legal limit.

Adani had applied and was issued an authority to release contaminated water, but with a limit of total suspended solids up to 100 milligrams per litre. The report provided by Adani Abbot Point Bulkcoal on the water release advised that the water discharged on 30 March from a licensed point on the northern side of the terminal contained 806mg/L of sediment.

Mark Butler endorses Westpac's policy assessment that excludes Adani Project while ALP policy remains mute on export coal

Shadow minister for Energy and Climate Mark Butler was on ABC Insiders program on Sunday and was critical of the Government criticising Westpac over a business policy decision, when the Government has refused to implement a Banking Royal Commission to look at financial practices that hurt lots of ordinary Australians and small businesses.

It was a very competent interview and attack on the Government, while adroitly not answering the question of opposing the mine if Adani does manage to get the financial investment required sorted. (19 international banks have now ruled out financing the mine)

All Butler's points were valid and important facts: that the demand for thermal coal imports from Australia is in decline, that the Adani project would hurt coal jobs in both Queensland and New South Wales, and that the economics of the mine simply don't stack up.

Then there is the climate risk which Butler did not emphasise but is at the heart of Westpac Bank's business climate policy and future investments in coal.

I don't fully agree with Westpac's policy, but it is a nuanced approach to supporting only new investment in metallurgical coal or high quality Newcastle benchmark thermal coal from existing basins. The Adani coal from the Carmichael mine fails the energy benchmark, and has a high ash content. It is a low to medium quality thermal coal.

I read the ALP's climate policy it took to the last election in 2016. It was a positive policy overall, but one of it's huge failings was the silence on coal and fossil fuel export, particularly the low grade Adani coal in the Galilee Basin, unconventional gas, and offshore oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight.

The ALP are happy to play both sides of the coal equation and leave the outcome as a commercial decision as they think this resolves them from responsibility of good policy.

It may be good politics, but it is bad policy when the science says we need to keep 95 percent of Australia's coal unexploited.

The fact is Westpac's climate business policy (PDF) on export coal is now more aligned to the Paris Agreement climate targets, and superior to both the Government and opposition parties policies on export coal.

That is a sad state of affairs. Here are the interview snippets from Insiders between Barry Cassidy and Mark Butler.

►@Mark_Butler_MP: the demand for thermal coal imports from Australia is actually in decline #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/BKGwz6s4ax

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 29, 2017

►@Mark_Butler_MP: The economics of the Adani project don’t stack up #Westpac #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/25VEolokJn

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 29, 2017

►@Mark_Butler_MP: the assessment of Westpac I’ll back any day over the assessment of Matt Canavan #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/yHvr0WeWzh

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) April 29, 2017

Resources minister Matt Canavan's Jobs, jobs, jobs Adani coal mantra is bullshit

Jobs, jobs, and more jobs, that's the mantra by both the Liberal National Coalition Federal Government and the Queensland State Labor Government, and bugger the reef and the rising temperatures of climate change.

On Friday Westpac Bank released their climate change Position statement and 2020 action Plan. This effectively rules out any funding of Adani for the Carmichael coal project.

Matt Canavan, and Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce on Lateline, continue this mantra, to peddle the myth that 10,000 or more jobs will be generated, when in court Adani admitted only 1464 jobs would be created. In fact, Adani hope to fully automate much of the mining and transport, so jobs could be even less than stated in court.

If the Adani Carmichael coal mine proceeds, it is also likely to hurt existing coal jobs in Queensland and New South Wales.

New Westpac climate policy rules out financing Adani Carmichael coal mine

Westpac have released their climate change Position statement and 2020 action Plan. This effectively rules out any funding of Adani for the Carmichael coal project.

Westpac becomes the 4th and last of the big 4 Australian banks to rule out financing the Adani project, and makes it the 19th bank globally to have either ruled out funding Galilee Basin coal export projects directly, or through the introduction of a new policy.

Westpac came under intense pressure from community organisations to rule out funding for Adani, with numerous protests outside bank branches, questions at AGMs, and a campaign urging customers to divest. Without this community social pressure Westpac's climate change position may have been much less rigorous.

Stop Adani climate protest occupies Downer EDI office: Don't get into bed with Adani

About 20 Activists this morning occupied the Melbourne offices of Downer, an infrastructure company, to protest participation in developing the Adani Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin of Queensland, widely seen as a climate carbon bomb with no social license.

The Adani Carmichael coal mine is a climate carbon bomb that would push temperatures well past the 2 degrees C limit that countries set in Paris UN climate Conference in 2015 at COP21. Research shows that Australia needs to leave 95 percent of it's coal in the ground unexploited and unburnt to stand a reasonable chance of not exceeding the 2C target.

In January 2015 it was announced that Downer EDI had won a $2 billion contract for works at Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, according to Australian Mining.