mining

Protesters disrupt coal Champion

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:22:16 +1000

Media Release

11th August, 2009

Climate change protesters disrupted a speech by Rio Tinto Coal Managing Director Bill Champion in Newcastle today.

Half a dozen protesters from Rising Tide Newcastle were removed from the premises by police after arriving at the speech with banners and a megaphone.

Scam awards to honour mining industry

admin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:47:29 +1000

Winners announced this morning - see below.

The Environment and Community Scam Awards, attended by members of coal affected communities from around NSW, will be held outside the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Terrigal this morning, to recognise and denounce the irreversible impacts of coal mining on communities and the environment.

The awards ceremony is a protest against the NSW Minerals Council’s Environment and Community Conference, which will be held inside the hotel, for $1000 per ticket.

Anvil Hill approved: Iemma gutless on coal and climate change

admin — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:45:56 +1000

The Iemma Government's decision to approve the massive Anvil Hill coal mine shows that they have no intention of fighting climate change, and are incapable of saying 'no' to the coal lobby; said the Newcastle activist who took the mine proposal to court and won, Peter Gray.

“The Iemma Government has conducted 10 months of consultation with the community about the Anvil Hill coal mine proposal, and then ignored it all. They have received thousands of public submissions demanding that the Anvil Hill mine be rejected due to the major amounts of greenhouse pollution it would create – the equivalent of the entire NSW transport sector. They were told by the horse breeding and wine making industries that the coal mine should not go ahead, because it would threaten other industries in the Hunter. They have ignored all these concerns, because they are too gutless to say 'no' to the coal lobby.”

NSW Coal Action Alert

admin — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:08:24 +1000

This year will see the beginning of a rolling direct action campaign to pressure the State Government to take control of the coal industry, stop the acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions from export coal, and lead NSW forward into a post-coal economy. In Sydney this month, major NSW and international environment groups resolved to take a series of actions to stop the expansion of the coal industry in NSW, and the grassroots movement against export coal has been steadily building momentum over the last two years.

NSW coal will run out before "clean coal"

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:29:21 +1000

The Hunter Community Environment Centre has revealed that if the NSW coal industry continues to expand at the rate it has for the last 10 years, the coal reserves will be exhausted in just 35 years. At that time, so-called "clean coal" technology will still be in its infancy .

Clearly, the promise of "clean coal" is irrelevent to the debate about the future of the NSW export coal industry.

Minerals Council backs down from legal action

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:55:25 +1000

The NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) has backed away from threatened legal action against Rising Tide Newcastle.

Labor party policy is condemning NSW to catastrophe

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:52:57 +1100

Rising Tide Newcastle has hit out at the Labor party this week for what it says is misleading and cowardly greenhouse emissions policy that will condemn NSW to accelerated climate change.

NSW is directly responsible for 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent entering the atmosphere every year. Carbon dioxide released from exported NSW coal which is burnt overseas, comes to an additional 220 million tonnes per year. Neither figure shows any indication of falling in the foreseeable future.

“The trajectory NSW is following is going to devastate the ecology of this state. The Labor Government’s plan does not cut emissions by anywhere near the degree necessary to avoid a 2ºC warming scenario, which will lead to nearly 80% loss in coral reef systems globally and an up to 70 per increase in forest fires in the coming decades.

NSW Election, March 24 – Make some demands.

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:01:09 +1100

There's an election on in NSW this month, and the major parties are both telling us that they are doing what it takes to tackle climate change. So, since coal exports from Newcastle are our state's biggest contribution to climate change*, that must mean that the major parties have a plan to cut back coal exports, right?

NSW Minerals Council attempts to silence critics

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:41:06 +1100

A satirical website created by climate action group Rising Tide Newcastle has twice been shut down this fortnight by powerful coal industry lobby group, the NSW Minerals Council.

The website was conceived as a response to the Minerals Council's “Life. Brought to you by Mining” advertising campaign. The Minerals Council campaign, which argues that mining is inextricable from modern luxury can be viewed at www.nswmining.com.au. Rising Tide members created a parody website at www.miningnsw.com.au in order to present the other side of the story and address the damage wrought by mining to the local and global environment and to the local community.

Coal miners are not to blame

steve phillips — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:33:07 +1100

A slightly edited version of this article was originally published in the Newcastle Herald.

I am a Newcastle climate change activist, campaigning full-time against the expansion of the world's biggest coal port. I believe that climate change is the most urgent and important problem facing humankind, and that here in the Hunter Valley, we have a moral duty to begin the move away from coal and into sustainable alternatives, starting now. But neither I, nor any other activist or environment group, has ever laid the blame for climate change at the feet of coal mine workers.