Up to six kilometres of vegetation was cleared prior to having environmental management plans approved for a pipeline network linking coal seam gas fields in the Surat Basin with a proposed liquified natural gas plant on Curtis Island near Gladstone.

“QGC’s failure to have these plans approved by the federal government and in place prior to commencement of the clearing of vegetation contravened conditions attached to the approval granted in October 2010,” said a departmental spokesperson.

“Matters of national environmental significance are unlikely to have been significantly impacted by the vegetation clearance in this case.”

The pipeline project was approved with 67 strict conditions to minimise the environmental impact of the building and operation of the pipeline network.

“In issuing notices imposing penalties totalling $19 800, the department considered the technical nature of the breach and level of co-operation given by the company during the investigation.
QGC was issued with the penalty infringement notices on 15 April 2011.

“The notices given to QGC send a strong signal to companies that the department takes compliance with national environment law very seriously with penalties and breaches enforced,” said the spokesperson.

What is Coal Seam Gas?

Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a natural gas consisting of around 98 per cent methane and is formed from the degradation of plant matter over millions of years. CSG is trapped by water and ground pressure against the surface of coal in underground coal seams and is also located within pores inside the coal. The spaces between the coal are known as fractures or cleats. Some of the fractures are interconnected and permeable which allows water and gas to move between the fractures. (source: No Gas Mining in Sydney)

Often referred to as Unconventional Gas, CSM (Coal Seam Methane) or CBM (Coal Bed Methane) and not to be confused with Natural Gas, it is methane gas found in coal seams. The coal seam normally acts as a water aquifer. The methane gas is trapped in the coal by the water. Methane gas has no smell, it will asphyxiate and is highly explosive, which is why coal miners are fearful of it. Methane gas is a greenhouse gas more than 20 times worse than CO?. When burnt, methane produces 40% less greenhouse gas than coal, however the process of removing it from the coal seam sees a large amount of fugitive methane escaping into the atmosphere, so any perceived benefit is nullified. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

How is Coal Seam Gas extracted?

CSG is extracted via CSG wells that are drilled into the coal seams to release the gas trapped within the coal. For economic extraction of CSG, coals seams in Australia are generally between 200metres – 1,000m metres deep. The CSG wells are cased with steel and cement to prevent loss of water from aquifers above the coal seam. An aquifer is a seam of permeable rock such as sandstone that holds water. In situations where coal seams are very deep and of low permeability, the use of hydraulic fracturing or ‘fraccing’ may be employed to increase permeability. This process involves pumping fluid comprising water, sand and other additives such as BTEX (BTEX is an acronym for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene compounds – also read Fraccing with BTEX chemicals banned: Hinchliffe ) at high pressure down the cased CSG well and into the coal seam. This action fractures the coal seam and provides a pathway to facilitate gas flow through the coal. source: (No Gas Mining in Sydney)

The gas companies say that the gas wells don’t leak

The Gas wells do leak. QLD Government have tested many wells and found many of them leaking – however they only report leaking wells against a standard known as LEL. LEL is shorthand for the ‘Lower Explosive Limit’, or point at which methane becomes explosive. A total of 58 wells were tested around the Tara region. Of those 24 leaked (some of those were found leaking on more than 1 testing occasion).  (source: No Gas Mining in Sydney)

How could this affect me?

In a number of ways. You will discover that your legal rights are very limited, that the fossil fuel industry is determined to extract as much of the resource as there is under the ground and that our governments actively encourage the industry giving no regard for community welfare nor the health of the environment. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

Your neighbourhood - Coal seam gas mining is not limited to the middle of Australia, out of sight and out of mind… it’s happening in rural farming communities, close to towns, in people’s backyards, and there’s even plans for it in St Peter’s in Sydney!

Noise and infrastructure - Lots of heavy machinery is needed to drill gas wells. The cost of hiring drilling rigs makes it necessary for them to operate 24/7 where they can. Lots of trucks will come and go carrying equipment, delivering supplies and carting away toxic water. Pumps will operate. A large cement pad will be laid and a security fence installed at each well head. Lights will be on continuously. Pipelines will be laid down connecting each well head to a main gas pipeline which will flow to compressor stations. A compressor station is very large and noisy; apart from maintaining pressure in the gas pipeline it also separates out unwanted hydrocarbons from the gas which are then vented into the atmosphere. Many hydro-carbons cause cancer. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

Your health and safety - There are many hazards involved with CSM extraction. The water taken from the coal seam is toxic and must be handled with extreme care. After the water has been removed from the coal seam, the dynamics of the coal seam have been changed causing the methane to be freed up and migrate; the hope is that all the methane will find its way up to the well head, however rocks can and do have fault lines by which the methane can find alternate avenues to the surface. There are many instances of methane coming out of peoples taps. CSM wells and pipelines are fire hazards; over 50 per cent of wells tested in Queensland leak methane. CSM wells do sometimes catch fire and explode. Once the methane has been freed up from the coal, nothing will stop it flowing. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

From Tara, site of the Kenya gasfields, are stories of inexplicable nose and ear bleeds and other health problems in residents (adults and children) who have previously been fit and healthy. There is also evidence that the gas company there uses chemically-contaminated water (a by-product of the drilling and fracturing process) to settle dust on the dirt roads in the area. You can form your own conclusions…

Water tables - CSM mining poses a serious risk to fresh water aquifers. The huge volumes extracted from the coal seam can then lead to a major depletion of connected aquifers which would be used for drinking water, agriculture and fire fighting. The large assortment of chemicals used for drilling and fraccing cause serious contamination to fresh water aquifers and running groundwater streams and rivers. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

Food security - Often, this gas mining is in areas of largescale agriculture… the source of a lot of the food we take for granted. By depleting the groundwater, risking chemical contamination of it, and crisscrossing the land with gas pipes, the future of viable farming is very doubtful. This may lead to increases in food prices and scarcity of certain crops, food with high levels of toxic chemicals present; and an increased need to import food and crops from other regions.

Environment - The pollution of water tables and rivers leads to the mass death of all types of living creatures and plants. The installation of full scale industrial machinery scares away wildlife. The uncontrolled venting of fugitive methane emissions poisons the atmosphere. (source: CSM Fact Sheet)

What sort of chemicals get used in the fraccing process?

There’s simply too many to list here… but the list includes chemicals known to cause respiratory illness, brain and nervous system dysfunction, birth defects, developmental defects, and cancer. These chemicals are pumped into the ground, and mining companies have admitted to only being able to recapture 30-70 per cent of them. This leave an unacceptable amount of uncontrolled chemicals in the ground, freely able to move into groundwater.

Won’t extracting Coal Seam Gas make energy generation cheaper for me, and provide Australians with cheap gas for years to come?

No! The Australian Industry Group expects to install infrastructure to export our gas overseas. Other countries get our gas, the international mining conglomerates get all the money – we get left with a damaged environment. (source: No Gas Mining in Sydney)

What can you do?

For the instant gratification:
- Lobby GetUp to take on a national campaign against coal seam gas mining and voting in their Campaign Ideas Forum.

- Sign the Queensland Parliament Petition calling for caution in allowing the development of the coal seam gas industry (closes  20-5-11)

These two are easy!! Just a few mouseclicks and you’re already making a difference! Now, read on…

For the financially secure:
- Donate to fund the campaign against coal seam gas mining. There are a number of regions around Australia facing this threat, but Tara in Qld is one particular hotspot. You can help the residents and campaigners out there by visiting the Western Downs Alliance website to make a donation – small or large, it all helps. Campaigning on a large national issue such as this is expensive and time-consuming, so your support to the key campaign groups is hugely appreciated.

For the literary:
- Write letters of objection on coal seam gas mining to key politicians (state members, state premiers, federal environment minister, etc)… request a moratorium on the coal seam gas exploration and mining until all the health and environmental risks have been fully explored. Ask them to ensure the protection of productive farmland, food security, protection of waterways and the great artesian basin from chemical contamination, amongst many other issues. Check out the Lock the Gate fact sheets for some information to base your letter on.

For the politically persuasive:
- Get in touch with your local, state and federal parliamentary members, ask their personal and party position on coal seam gas mining, and if you don’t agree with it, make it clear that you think it is a political issue, and that their stance may guide your voting choice at election time.

For the social networkers:
- Join the Lock the Gate Alliance group on Facebook then share videos, news articles, posts & images with your Facebook friends. Spreading the word is a huge contribution!

For the frontline activists:
- Get yourselves out to Tara (near Dalby, Qld) ASAP to join a committed crew of front-liners blocking the expansion of the Kenya gas fields into neighbouring properties. Visit Western Downs Alliance for more info and to contact the camp coordinators.

For the news hungry:
- Set up a Google news feed about the issue, so you never miss a headline. Go to google alerts for coal seam gas, add your email address to the online form and you’ll get the latest coal seam gas news from the major media sources direct to your email inbox.

- Whenever you see a coal seam gas article in the media, comment on it (or phone in, if it’s talkback radio)… doing this sends a message to the media and governments that the issue in gaining momentum and public objection!

- Join the Friends of the Earth mailing list.

For the community-minded movie buff:
- Organise a local screening of the coal seam gas exposé film ‘Gasland‘ in your community, to raise awareness and grow support and how to arrange a screening.

For the Easter campers:
- Join the Tara 2011 Festival and Lock the Gate Convergence from April 29 to May 3 at Tara in Qld. A three-day event, including displays, forums, entertainment, camping, workshops and direct action.

For the dog walkers:
- Print off some copies of a coal seam gas fact sheet and pop them in random letter boxes while you’re out walking… you never know how much interest this may spark.

For the ethically invested:
- Check your share portfolio and rethink any investment in coal seam gas mining – it’s not the clean green industry they’d like you to think it is!

Films and documentaries

Check out these films, doco’s and news items for some background -

- 60 Minutes story ‘Undermined‘ http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/undermined/xslwxn0

- ‘Lock the Gate‘ – Ian Mackay & I hit the road and head to the Darling Downs to check out the coal seam gas mining threats in Queensland.

- ‘Gasland’ – the coal gas threat in the USA, and a chilling preview of what could happen here, if we let it.

- 6 Degrees ‘Coal Seam Gas documentary trailer‘

image: stoppress.com.au

Over the past few months, a little film Gasland has been doing a round of screenings on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane and drawing good crowds.  It tells the story of American banjo player and filmmaker Josh Fox’s gradual discovery of the ominous extent of the underground gas industry in the US, how it had somehow, during the George W Bush/Dick Cheney era managed to make itself exempt from The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other protective legislation.

Click the image to watch the video on YouTube

It tells of groundwater so contaminated with gas that it could be ignited with a cigarette lighter and of the toxic nature of many of the chemicals used to fracture underground rock and allow gas to move to the surface.  It alarmingly portrayed the health impacts from both air and water pollution by the more than 500 chemicals in the fracking fluid (or fraccing), many of which enter groundwater or even become airborne when contaminated water (the industry calls it “produced water”, it sounds nicer) is misted to enhance evaporation.

The film had won a major documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. Its pre-publicity described it as “incredibly inspiring”. I found it ominous and disturbing.  While all the audience were horrified at the American situation, there was a dangling question as to what was happening right here, in southeast Queensland.

It seemed the best way to find out was to do exactly what Josh Fox had done…. hit the road, a three-day information-gathering and film-making trip that my daughter Arkin and I hoped would shed some light on the local situation.

First stop was Kingaroy, the agricultural hub of the South Burnett.  We caught up with John and Therese Dalton who live 10 minutes drive out of Kingaroy and adjacent to the Cougar Energy Trial Underground Coal Gasification plant, UGC as we would come to know it.

The Cougar operation had just been shut down by the QLD’s Environmental Protection Agency. We needed to know the background.

John and Therese put us up in their beautiful strawbale cottage and while the full moon rose over the expansive Kingaroy skyline John outlined the local situation.  He explained that the Cougar operation involved burning coal underground and collecting the gas produced and that, being a “trial”, it had not even required an Environmental Impact Assessment.

While the potential was there to burn some 20 000 tonnes of coal in a deposit that reached right to the outskirts of Kingaroy, the plant, after months of setting up, only actually ran for five days before it was stopped by John described as a “catastrophic incident”.

There is mixed scientific opinion as to whether this was an explosion or an underground collapse, but the result was that benzene and toluene found their way into the groundwater as well as into the fatty tissue of cattle grazing nearby. The EPA has stepped in and ordered the mine to shut down although Cougar Energy has appealed this decision.

John’s neighbour Damien O’Sullivan explained his incredulity at finding that the Environmental Protection Agency had approved the trial without even having visited the site. He explained that the underground coal gasification process had even been banned in the US and described it as “a dirty filthy process which should not be used”.

Although the Cougar operation had been stopped, listening to both John and Damien didn’t exactly fill us with confidence about the role of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency. It was as if they’d been asked to look the other way!  I couldn’t help feeling that Cougar might have been a sort of sacrificial lamb and bigger operations might be causing problems elsewhere.

Further west, particularly around Tara and Chinchilla , a different process, CSG, coal seam gas, was moving from the exploratory stage  into production. I’d interviewed Friends of the Earth campaigner Drew Hutton after the Gasland screening in Maleny and he’d sent shivers down my spine when he told me that the situation in Australia, southeast Queensland in particular, was every bit as alarming as what had been portrayed in Josh Fox’s film.

Drew had set up an office just north of Tara, some 300km west of Brisbane, and was predicting that coal seam gas and underground coal gasification would become the biggest environmental campaign in Australia’s history,

Outside Tara we caught up with Michael Bretherick who’s part of the Western downs Alliance, strong local opposition to the under-regulated spread of the coal-seam gas industry. He told us that locals were engaged in a confrontation with the British Gas-owned QGC that intends to establish a gas field on the Tara rural residential estates, home to more than 2,000 people.

We drove past QGC’s huge headquarters, offices and Camp on the old Kenya station not far from Tara and realised the enormity of what was being rolled out.

The massive activity in coal seam gas harvesting is being felt at diverse locations across Australia. For that reason, Drew and Michael and others are organising a convergence of support in the Tara Showgrounds on the Labour Day long weekend at the start of May.

As we headed home I reflected on the last three days, the rich agricultural country we’d travelled through, and the new conflicts posed by its lying above underground coal and gas, and all that that entailed.

We’d focussed on gas but I couldn’t help thinking of the people of Felton, south of Toowoomba or Aldershot near Maryborough facing the prospect of new open cut coalmines.  The night after we arrived home, ABC’s Four Corners went to air with a full program The Gas rush devoted to coal seam gas, CSG, both around Tara and Chinchilla and in the Hunter Valley.

I’d been right to have an uneasy sense of foreboding after I’d first watched Gasland. In fact Josh Fox had been to Australia to film a piece for inclusion in the forthcoming Gasland 2. The American experience, chronicled so disturbingly in Gasland- and echoed in another film Split Estate, looked soon to be rolled out over many parts of Australia.

Four Corners had shown dropping well levels, bubbling gas… the longer-term health effects of fracking fluids would take longer to show up. But then Damien’s cattle had shown benzene and toluene in their fat after a relatively short exposure.  The consequences would be dire –for both present and future generations, an enduring millstone left as a legacy for short term financial and political gain.

And that’s exactly why an unlikely alliance of farmers and environmentalists are joining together to advocate Lock the Gate. If Drew Hutton is right it’ll be the largest environment campaign in Australia’s history.

Tara convergence details

When: Fri 29th of April – Tues 4th of May 2011

Where: Tara Showgrounds (300km west of Brisbane)
What: 4 days of workshops, forums, displays, entertainment and direct action
How: to register your interest or for more details.

Email tara2011@lockthegate.org.au or phone 07 4669 4864

 

About the Author

Ian is a regular contributor to ECO and has been active in Conondale Range and Mary River campaigns and is long-standing president of the Conondale Range Committee. He is also a Life Member of SCEC.

Arkin’s photography was an essential ingredient of the campaign to stop the now-defunct Traveston Crossing Dam and was recognised when she received a special Environment Award in 2009.

You can’t keep a good campaigner down. Drew Hutton has joined Queensland farmers in the fight with the government and the massive coal and coal seam gas industries. Brian Rickards talks to the man who fears no one in the cause for justice and a fair go.

Appearing at the GREENhouse: Mining our Food, 10am, Thursday, December 30, 2010.

Drew Hutton is a tall, lanky man with a ready smile. At first glance he seems an easy-going sort of bloke, but beneath that endearing exterior is a fighter, a man who holds social justice to his heart and is prepared to go to jail for any cause he thinks just.

He has a long history as a protester – but he was never a violent one.  He believes civil disobedience campaigns of passive resistance and non-cooperation to ‘bad laws’, regulations or policies are the most effective.

Drew remembers facing off the constabulary of former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen on many occasions back in the 70s and 80s when many regarded Queensland as a police state if you were inside it and a target for jokes if you were outside it.

Drew Hutton

“I got thrown into prison many times for one thing or another in the Joh period. But I have been protesting since I was 21, starting with the Vietnam War when I was a student in the 60s.

But now at 63, the man who went on to co-found the Queensland Greens party, has had the calling again – and he’s joined a large group of farmers and rural residents in an alliance that is taking the fight to the Queensland State Government and Queensland Gas Company, one of the world’s biggest energy companies, over the exploration and development of coal seam gas resources.

Drew says he will draw on seasoned city-based environmental activists to join forces with the farmers and ‘blockies’ on the Western Downs in an unprecedented battle group. It will fight a determined campaign against a resource development seen as a danger to underground aquifers, rivers and community health, and a threat to the environment and one of the nation’s food bowls, by destroying huge tracts of fertile farmland and farmers’ livelihoods.

Some say much of this beautiful brigalow country, beef cattle country and strategic cropland will be reduced to a devil’s playground of well heads, pipelines, salt ponds, storage dams, massive gravel pits, compressor stations, generators, pumps, earth moving monsters, big workers camps and chemical contamination.

“This will be the biggest campaign this country has ever seen,” said Drew who has taken on the role of campaign strategist.

“It’s the biggest one I have ever been involved in, by a long way, and probably the most important. I will be happy to go to jail in this campaign and there are plenty of farmers and blockies who are prepared to so, too.”

Taking up this campaign has required Drew to drop the several official positions he had with the Greens.

“I then teamed up with the 6 degrees campaigners from Friends of the Earth organisation. They’re young and terrific. My job is to be liaison person or glue between the city and the country, keeping all the groups together, plotting the strategy and going out to hit the government as hard as I can on these issues,” he said.

Drew’s direct involvement began about nine months ago just when he was considering retirement from the political and campaigning argy bargy.

“I thought I had finished. I was getting a bit grumpy and thought it was time for me to bow out. Then I heard about some blockies out at Tara who were protesting in Dalby about coal seam gas,” he said.

At that point Drew’s wife Libby Connors, who is also Queensland Greens spokesperson, alerted him to the issue.

“You should be doing something about it,” she told him.

And that was it!

“So Libby and I went out to Tara, sat on some one’s back verandah and were told about coal seam gas and what it was doing to their community. They showed us a map of the residential estate outside of town; at least a 1000 people were living there close to a couple of hundred experimental gas wells,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe it. Then they gave me a DVD of a documentary to view when I got home to Brisbane – it was focused on the shale gas industry in America and the devastation of communities that lived in those areas.”

Drew was aghast at what he saw and immediately had even greater concern for the Tara families, realising that CSG capture was a similar process with similar community side effects – fracking (the hydraulic fracturing of subsurface rock strata and the use of complex chemical cocktails to release the gas), the contamination of underground water and health problems caused by leaking carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene and toluene.

It wasn’t long before Drew returned to the Western Downs to form a city-country campaign alliance with farmers and blockies.

“I was taken around to see farmers in the area and spent three weeks learning about the issue. I’d had 30 years experience as a campaigner and I still had a bit left in the tank,” he said.

Years ago many farmers hated Hutton with a passion after his campaign against land clearing ended with legislation not favourable to them. But now he’s the farmers’ friend and in some ways apologetic for that land clearing decision which did not include any compensation for them.

“We are all good friends now and our alliance is a respectful one.

“I am outraged at the treatment of farmers by this government and by the companies. They’ve treated them with complete contempt.”

Drew believes the government is only concerned with being returned at the next election and jobs are the big ticket item on the agenda.

“They would like to go to it saying ‘we created all these jobs and we’ve got so much in royalties coming through’,” he said.

“This is the construction phase when most of the coal seam gas jobs are created, but in five years that figure will drop 80 per cent when it’s in the maintenance and production phase. At the next election, for instance, they can say ‘we created 10,000 jobs or whatever from coal and coal seam gas industries.

“But they won’t tell that they’ve lost so much agricultural production and some of that land will go out of production permanently. They will never be able to rehabilitate it. They they’ve lost the skills of all those farmers for the next generation.

“They don’t care. It’s just about the next election. It’s not about future generations and it’s not about farmland. Sadly, the Opposition is exactly the same.”

Already, the farmers and blockies have taken their protest beyond words, beyond the pleading for justice which falls on deaf ears. Drew and his Friends of the Earth colleagues have spurred them to action and the gloves are now off in the fight against the gas companies for a fair go.

Together, they recently launched a ‘Lock the Gate’ campaign where hundred of farmers have upped the ante and vowed to keep the gas companies off their properties by using blockades. In tandem demonstrations, representatives of eight farmers’ and residents’ organisations joined environmental protesters outside the Queensland Parliament building and on the Darling Downs.

While the gas program is in a pilot phase, the farmers are facing the prospect of up to 40,000 coal seam gas (CSG) wells and massive new coal mines devastating their rich agricultural land.

At the moment, the companies, protected by state legislation, have extraordinary rights to enter land for exploration and mining, disrupting farm operations. And in the longer term, say the farmers, mining will irreparably harm underground aquifers including the Great Artesian Basin and degrade land.

“We are going to lock the gate to all coal and gas industries; we’ll blockade them and we’ll go to jail if necessary – we’ll blockade them with people, people from the city and family farmers standing shoulder to shoulder,” said Drew.

“It is already happening. At Felton an energy company was told not to bother coming round to check bore samples; at Tara the residents told QGC not come anywhere near the estate and that if they did they would be blockaded. A seismic crew was stopped from doing tests and blockaded in for four days. The same thing is happening at Cecil Plains and Kingaroy.

“When these gas and coal companies have to engage with farmers and their wives and kids at the front gate and being barred the way, they then have to decide whether or not to take a frontloader or a bulldozer over the top of these people and on to their properties.

“They may succeed in getting on to some properties, but they’ll have to do it in full public view and the government will have to wear the opprobrium that will come from allowing multi-national corporations to bust on to family farms and  destroy them.”

Drew’s research shows that these companies are being given approvals to commit unlimited environmental harm – with no limits to how much water they can take out from the underground aquifers and that it would be the ‘biggest land clearing exercise since the 1990s.

“All this will last for just 20 years. For 20 years of coal and gas production we will lose all that agricultural productivity for ever.”

Dr Ben McNeil

The passion is palpable, so is the sense of frustration and underlying anger. Yet like a seam of silver there’s healthy gleam of humour occasionally exposed.

To assay Dr Ben McNeil is an interesting task. He’s in the stop strata of the academic rocks of intelligence that deal with climate change research and he has an urgent job at hand.

But Ben is different from most of his research colleagues. He doesn’t shun the limelight and shut himself away in the halls and laboratories of academia. He has a message to spread and he gets it out there whether through writing a book or speaking at community forums.

His message, while targeted at anyone who wants to listen, is essentially a come-on to politicians and business people to understand that in his view building environmental sustainability promotes economic prosperity at the same time. He writes in depth about it in his acclaimed book Clean Industrial Revolution.

“I can’t just be an academic. I have to be on the ground with it to do things.” Ben confesses as we meet at his mum’s place on the Gold Coast.

For him, it’s one of his visits back from his work as a Senior Fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. It’s back briefly to his old stamping ground, having grown up in Southport and been a student at the highly-regarded The Southport School.

While it was seen as a very conservative school, Ben says he was one of the rebels, and it was there that he became inspired and motivated by his geography teacher who was ‘of the environmental world’. Ben became known as ‘The Greenie’.

He even formed a group to push for cleaning agents that the school cleaners used to be replaced with more biodegradable and less harmful ones. “We got things done at that school,” said Ben.

It was while he was in Year 9 that the Exxon Valdez oil spill catastrophe took place off Alaska’s coastline. It was a moment in history that affected Ben and spurred him to take a greater interest in environmental matters.

“I saw how human action – inappropriate action could severely damage ecosystems through pollution or wasteful use of resources,” he said.

“It encouraged my belief in why it’s important for us to conserve the environment generally and resources for future generations.”

And so Ben put his head down studying, even though he loved sport and had heaps of friends to distract him, and won a place at Griffith University to do an environmental engineering degree. His qualification eventually led him to Hobart to work with the CSIRO at the University of Tasmania. He was there for four years doing oceanography research, particularly looking at ‘greenhouse cycling’ in the ocean.

His broad base of friends meant that many of them did not share his core environmental beliefs. Indeed, his best man, a solid Liberal voter, became a derivatives trader in the City of London.

“I am always trying to persuade people, but I think having such friends gives you a better perspective on how others think,” he said. “You can talk about an issue like the environment in ways in which they can respond to.”

Ben said that there’s a host of opportunities for businesses to make a buck in investing in or providing innovative technologies and environmental solutions. “I call these people accidental environmentalists,” he said.

“They may not have the environmental ethos or upbringing or thinking that I had. It’s not necessarily their core thinking, but they make some money and it’s not in conflict with ensuring a good environment.

“I don’t like the old thinking of left, right and environment versus economy. It’s nonsense and gets nowhere.” Ben’s life alternates between hope and despair, but hope is gaining ground.

“Even though we can be pessimistic about our federal leaders and politicians, there’s a lot of stuff happening that hives me optimism,” he said.

Ben and his wife Nathalie have a young family of littlies – two sons and a daughter. It means he has had to reduce his profile on the ‘climate change’ speaking circuit for a while, but he is now gearing up for another educational onslaught and perhaps to convert a few more sceptics.

However, he finds it too tough a battle with hardcore denialists.
“You can’t reason with them. It’s like Bin Laden. You can’t argue with Bin Laden that there are some good things about Australia. He thinks we’re all infidels all should die. It’s a similar thing with these sceptics – you can’t argue with a closed mind,” he said.

Once Ben is in full flow, you know he’s one of the people who can make a difference. He knows his subject intimately and is able to identify some real solutions to get the planet back on track. He also has a wealth of energy and commitment His book also brilliantly puts the argument on how to make a huge positive out of perceived negatives.

But he can get wound up when some people try to take a poke at the climate science community.

“There’s this nonsense being promoted out there that there’s some grand conspiracy among thousands of scientists to dupe the world. It’s all been politicised. It’s frustrating – their type of thinking is like that of the Flat Earth society, or else they just don’t want to believe things,” said Ben.

He is not happy with much of the mainstream media either, including some TV channels, which give air time and space to sceptics under the pretence of an evenly-balanced debate.

“When you have some non-scientists coming on talking about climate change, for example, and how it’s somehow wrong. That is an affront to every element of reason. It’s like your plumber coming to diagnose your brain tumour,” he said.

“The mainstream media are just like politicians. They thrive on sensationalism. The media also don’t want to be viewed as one-sided.

“Even the ABC doesn’t want to be seen as one-eyed, even though the science is compelling and all evidence-based and reasoned. But the other side – the denialists, non science, non climate science voices — want to have a voice. So the upper two echelons of the ABC think ‘isn’t there a debate about this?’

“Well, actually there’s not in the climate change community. There’s just a debate on the magnitude – whether the temperatures will rise 2 degrees, 4 degrees or 7 degrees and how soon. On the fundamentals there is no debate.

“Also, on the policy side there is debate – is it better to go for a carbon tax or the ETS? How do we best achieve the best outcomes of reducing emissions? That’s a valid debate.”

But back to the media. Ben says the way much of television and radio reduces everything, including the complexity of the climate change issue, down to sound bites, short timeframes and within media cycles, makes getting the truth out really difficult.

He also refers to the time earlier this year when, at the last minute, Channel 7’s Sunrise breakfast program brought him face to face with one of Britain’s leading sceptics, Lord Monckton, in what they labeled a ‘debate’. It was a mistake, Ben having been persuaded to fill in for Penny Wong.

“It was a lose situation, because people expected a debate. And there wasn’t a debate. There was no perspective of the intricacies — it was simplicity versus complexity and it was in the wrong format,” said Ben.

“To discuss such a subject you would need six hours – even Ian Plimer could do a spiel of nonsense for six hours. Apart from that, all of my senior colleagues would never have tried to debate some non-climate scientist.

“I had already taken the view that I was not going to talk about my research or any of the science.”

Ben had reasoned that if he went into detail, it would go over most viewers’ heads, especially at that time of morning when people were getting ready for work. Also a ‘snapshot of palatable nonsense’ was hardly going to be meaningful. It wasn’t the forum to talk about something so serious.

“All you could say was ‘No, the science has not changed, but the evidence has got worse’,” said Ben.

Ben says that it’s the older generation people who are sceptics and are more fearful of social change in bringing solutions to the climate problem. Most are white males. However, Ben does draw comfort from the younger generation especially school students, a group where environmentalism is not on the fringe as it was when he was growing up.

“It’s actually part of their core belief, so it’s not something that is seen to be weird. It means that with social awareness issues and social changes issues, the baseline change will be generational,” he said.
In other words, better things to come.

But Ben’s message is primarily aimed at the ‘swingers’. He says preaching to the converted is fine to create enthusiasm, it’s virtually a waste of effort talking to the unreasoning ultra sceptics, but climate change campaigners can have a reasoned dialogue with the swingers, the people who are still thinking ‘what’s the truth?’.

The most difficult argument concerns perceived loss in the standard of living.

“That’s the biggest change inhibitor,” said Ben. “It’s a perception that is nonsense.”

His argument is that when tariffs on manufacturing and textiles were reduced in the 1980s, there was a growth in other sectors of the economy. He said that people thought the industry was going to die and there would be fewer jobs in the Australian economy. However, other sectors grew and provided even more jobs.?“It’s the same argument now in the carbon-intensive part of the economy which will decline if we put a value on carbon. Other sectors will grow at a greater rate – whether it will be energy efficiency, water conservation or renewable energies,” is Ben’s assertion. So what’s on Ben’s agenda now?

“I wrote Clean Industrial Revolution to really try to promote what’s been happening around the world in terms of clean energy, environmental products and services and the boom in the low carbon economy that’s happening now. There are a lot of figures in it,” said Ben.

“We highlight the fact that while Barack Obama has set aside $60 billion to promote low carbon energy solutions and the Chinese invested $90 billion to shake off their coal dependency, Australia is still firmly sticking to coal, a carbon intense commodity.

“It’s like us producing a lot of VHS cassettes and trying to export them to a world that is moving to iPods. It’s a stupid strategy.” Ben’s aspirations are to keep promoting the argument ‘what’s good for the environment is good for the economy’.

“If we keep making that argument over the coming 10 years we’re going to be in a place that’s very different to where we are today,” he said.

A recent opinion poll commissioned by WWF of 4000 residents showed that 79 per cent of respondents believe Australia should either begin reducing carbon pollution before other countries, or start reducing regardless of when other countries choose to act.

Rudd has duped the electors by refusing to take action on climate change despite exit polls at the last election showing climate change was a major issue in electors dumping the coalition. It appears that Rudd and Abbott have come to a silent agreement to take climate change off the agenda for the upcoming election.

This is despite the science continuing to mount of the need to take urgent action and that the world needs a stabilisation by 2015 followed by significant reductions. Economic research has also continually shown that the longer we forgo action the greater will be the detrimental impacts on our economy.

“Australia’s carbon pollution keeps going up and up. The longer we delay setting a price on carbon, the more it is going to cost Australian households and Australian businesses,” said Mr Bourne, CEO of WWF.

The Australia government continues to ignore the wealth and job creation opportunities of embracing the “clean industrial revolution” in favour of opening up more coal mines and becoming increasingly more economically dependent on a risky carbon pollution based economy.

“Since October last year more than 150 new measures have been announced globally to reduce climate pollution and 32 countries now have emissions trading schemes. Around US$200 billion is expected to be invested in clean energy solutions, in 2010.” Mr Bourne said.

Barack Obama, said in his State of the Nation address: “Providing incentives for energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future, because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.”

The way government policy is going it is certainly not going to be Australia.

Even proposals to promote major energy efficiency initiatives also appear to be rejected by the Rudd government.

Greens Senator Christine Milne said: “Minister Ferguson and his government have rejected Greens’ proposals for mandatory efficiency programs for large energy users, and recommended that the Senate oppose the Greens’ bill for energy efficiency in office blocks, shopping centres, schools and hospitals.”

So what are some opportunities for a way forward?

Abbott and the coalition have successfully sidelined themselves from any credible solutions to the climate change debate.
This leaves the Greens trying to convince the government to support Professor Garnaut’s option of an interim fixed carbon price. The proposal would see a carbon levy of $20 a tonne growing at CPI plus 4 per cent each year. The levy would raise $10 billion annual revenue to support household, commercial, industrial and transport emissions reductions.

This is similar to another proposal by James Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for a flat fee collected from fossil fuel companies at their mines or wellheads. Obviously fossil fuel based energy costs would rise but householders would be compensated from the fund for those increases.

The issue has to be addressed now and with some goodwill and longer term vision solutions can be found to have climate policy aligned with the science and the economic opportunities that can be created.

Ian Christesen is Climate Change Policy Officer, Sunshine Coast Environment Council

• World Environment Day Festival news
• Outrage over Sustainable Planning Bill
• Latest Group Profile – PAGE
• Eco Adventures – A tale of two mountains
• Carbon, climate and koalas
• Eco watch – clean coal
• Exploring the past – climbing Mount Coolum in 1927
• Whales and eco tourism
• Other articles
• How to contribute
• The latest print edition
• Past print edition downloads
• Help promote Eco online

For our Queensland readers: Catch up on all the latest news on the Sunshine Coast’s World Environment Day Festival.

Outrage over Sustainable Planning Bill

“Major amendments to the Integrated Planning Act 1997, carrying implications for local planning powers and the critical assessment of applications, have become yet another hallmark of the Bligh Government’s mantra of growth at all costs.

Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe said the Sustainable Planning Bill 2009, approved by Cabinet on June 9, will result in the biggest reform to planning approvals in over a decade.” Sunshine Coast Environment Council Manager, Narelle McCarthy reports. Read the full story.

Group profile

PAGE – the useful acronym doubling for the Powerline Action Group Eumundi and People Advocating Green Energy – was formed in 2007 in response to a proposal which threatens the communities west of Eumundi with high voltage powerlines and pylons marching across an idyllic landscape. Read all about their struggle to protect their local environment.

Eco adventures

Mount Coolum and Mount Ninderry are two very striking peaks visible from many parts of the Sunshine Coast, close to each other – only 10 kilometres as the crow flies – but very different in character and offering very different experiences for the eco adventurer. Read more about John Burrows’ latest adventure.

Carbon, climate and koalas

Recent findings by the Australian National University show that the Eucalypt forests of Australia are some of the richest carbon sinks in the world. The greater the size and density of these koala food trees and the forests they are found in, the greater the carbon sink and the more carbon dioxide that is absorbed. Read the full article by Sophia Walter.

Eco watch

Federal Environment and Climate Change Ministers jointly announced that there was less than 8 hours to submit solar rebate applications before they were stopped 3 weeks before schedule. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett is now clearly in the running as the most disappointing and underachieving environment minister in recent years. Guest writer Lindsay Holt reports.

Exploring the past

Climbing Mount Coolum in 1927. In this breezy account of a clamber up Mount Coolum, Vance Palmer, one of Australia’s most significant writers of the time shares his experience. The story is selected by Dr Deborah Jordan, and is taken from a newspaper cutting held in the Palmer Papers.

Whales and eco tourism

Sunshine Coast Environment Council President, Dr Valerie Lewis takes a look at the growing tourism industry built around whales.

Other articles …

Other articles are available to read online,with more being added in the coming weeks. Read the latest stories from our wildlife carers, green loans and more.

Contribute

If you would like to contribute a story, an image, or a story idea, then feel free to contact us. Contributor’s guidelines are available online.

The latest print edition

The mid-winter print edition, Eco news Issue 12, is now out on the streets. For our readers living outside the distribution area, the digital version will be available for download in July.

Past print edition archives

We are constantly adding more print edition archives for download.

Available for download now are: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3 and Issue 11. Visit our Past Print Editions page for details and download links. If you have any problems with downloads please let us know.

Help promote Eco online

Have your own website or blog? Perhaps you would like to promote Eco online? We have now provided some graphics for you to download and use on your site.

For decades we have repeatedly seen the environment sacrificed on the altar of the unholy trinity of the economy, growth and jobs.(image: stock.xchng)

As governments around the world throw trillions of dollars into ever desperate bids to prop up failed financial institutions and businesses, there is real concern that so called “economic science” may in fact be only a “black art”.

It is increasingly clear that this ‘economy’ which we have been protecting and nurturing as the centre piece of our way of life has become a combined casino, Ponzi and Pyramid scheme. A stack of cards tenuously held together by greed.

There appears to be no magical levers that can be pulled by government or business with this thing called the ‘economy’. It will take years to amend and may never be put back together. But still the chants continue that doing something tangible about the greatest challenge facing the planet, climate change, could hurt the economy.

For decades we have repeatedly seen the environment sacrificed on the altar of the unholy trinity of the economy, growth and jobs.

Queensland has had a succession of State Governments from Bjelke Petersen to Bligh committed to growth as the answer to the State’s economic prosperity.  A continuing influx of people into the State causes economic activity in the form of property speculation and development, creating huge profits for the wealthy elite while destroying the environment. No surprises that developers over took the unions as the largest donators to the State ALP.

Relying on population growth and coal mining has made the Queensland economy extremely vulnerable. This dependence has been a lazy economists’ dream as successive Treasurers sat back and watched as coal drag lines and population migration increased the State’s coffers. The lack of investment in a truly diversified “smart growth” economy now sees Queensland unravelling as it slides into deficit with demand for coal and new development on the decline.

A truly alarming aspect is that the Opposition appear to be even more devoid of vision around sustainable alternatives  – a case of “tweedle dumb” or “tweedle dumber”.

Queensland’s economy is addicted to coal yet we know the world can no longer keep burning this dinosaur inefficient fuel source if climate change catastrophe is to be avoided.

The Queensland Government assistance to households to implement energy efficiency is to be commended. However, it is estimated that if we all switched entirely to energy efficient light bulbs the Queensland coal industry would wipe out those gains in just 32 hours. One could be excused for thinking that the government is more intent on spin than tackling the hard issues.

A recent Essential Research poll found 82 per cent of Australians want coal exports capped or reduced. Yet Queensland plans to almost double its export coal capacity by 2030, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions, reportedly equivalent to 80 per cent of Australia’s current national total.

A growing number of experts (New Scientist 16 October 2008) are questioning the ability of the earth to continue to sustain exponential growth. With mass species extinction, resource depletion, population growth and spiralling greenhouse gas emissions the earth’s life support systems are shutting down.

What is clear is the economy is anything but secure and at best based on questionable theories. The most recent International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, peer reviewed by over 1000 of the world’s brightest climate scientists, identify the immediate need for dramatic cuts to carbon if we are to avert a global climate catastrophe. However, the way some Australian political and business leaders are talking, it is as if the economy is robust science and climate change science is mere fiction.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a recent address to the World Future Energy Summit, called on world leaders not to lose sight of the urgency of the climate crisis.

“The decisions of 2009 will determine the world in 2029 or 2049. Let us put economic growth and combating climate change in alliance, not opposition.”

President Obama also called for funding to modernise the nation’s electricity grid and make 75 per cent of all federal buildings and up to 2 million American homes more energy efficient.

“In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain,” Obama said recently in a speech at George Mason University.

Contrast this with infrastructure and stimulus packages being proposed in Australia.

The Federal budget allocated $1.5 billion to the construction of four large solar power stations however also gave $2 billion to the coal industry to try and find the ever elusive “clean coal” solution.

Following the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garret’s approval of the $1.3 billion Gladstone coal port  expansion, in 2008 the Federal Government promised $20 billion for infrastructure — most to be spent on increasing coal rail and port capacity.

Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the export revenue from coal is predicted to increase by around $20 billion to $43 billion in 2008/9.  This increase is totally contrary to reducing emissions.

Governments at all levels need to be investing in infrastructure and projects that deliver not only economic outcomes but also social and environmental ones. Prior to the approval of any investment of tax payer money into major projects a publicly available triple bottom line assessment needs to occur. Government investment decisions need to be smarter as after all it is your money.

By Guest Writer, Lindsay Holt

When it comes to government spending, coal continues to eclipse solar and other renewables

Federal Environment and Climate Change Ministers jointly announced that there was less than 8 hours to submit solar rebate applications before they were stopped 3 weeks before schedule. Environment Minister, Peter Garrett is now clearly in the running as the most disappointing and underachieving environment minister in recent years.

The rationale for suddenly stopping the $8000 rebate was that it was so popular that the budget blew out to $700 million, which according to Garrett was four times its original commitment.

Contrast this with the government allocation of $2.4 billion of your taxes for so called “clean coal”.  So what do you get for this outlay?  By 2018 not even one commercial scale “clean coal” plant!  The reality is that “clean coal” is a big lie and an expensive excuse for keeping us stuck in the old dirty economy.

If $2.4 billion had gone into renewables instead, it would kick start a true green revolution creating new jobs and diversifying our economy.

Guest writer for Eco watch, Lindsay Holt

The Climate Change mafia that former Liberal Party advisor Guy Pearse exposed under Howard is obviously alive and well and prospering under the Rudd Government.

The Queensland Government is also keen on keeping the love affair with coal going.  In Professor Weller’s independent review of Queensland Statutory Bodies it recommended that the Queensland Government clean coal project, Zero Gen Pty Ltd “be wound up or handed over to the private sector.” Weller described the project as “highly technical if not speculative”.  The Queensland Government has refused to implement the recommendation. So what do Queensland taxpayers get for their $100 million investment – a goal to have a small scale clean coal demonstration plant operating by 2012.

Contrast this with the Western Australian State Liberal Government’s implementation of a 60 cents a kilowatt hour gross feed in tariff for renewable energy sent into the grid. Under the scheme all the solar electricity your panels generate gets paid at the higher rate of 60 cents and you purchase the balance you need at 16 cents a kilowatt hour.  The pay back is over 10 per cent and will drive WA’s green renewable industry.

It is about time we collectively told the Queensland and Federal Labor Governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels and invest in our future not our past.

From the makers of “Fargo”, “O Brother Where Art Thou” and “The Big Lebowski”.  Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen have directed a short video for The Reality Campaign dispelling the myth of clean coal with their advertisement “clean coal air freshener”. The Coen Brothers get the point across as only they can.

“The Queensland government sees a long-term future for coal, as long as we can ensure that it becomes a low-emissions technology,” she said in Brisbane recently.

This is despite a recent Essential Research poll which found 82 per cent of Australians want coal exports capped or reduced. Yet Queensland plans to almost double its export coal capacity by 2030, resulting in greenhouse gas emissions, reportedly equivalent to 80 per cent of Australia’s current national total.

Following the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garret’s approval of the $1.3 billion Gladstone coal port expansion, in May this year the Federal Government promised $20 billion for infrastructure” most to be spent on increasing coal rail and port capacity.

Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the export revenue from coal is predicted to increase by around $20 billion to $43 billion in 2008/9. This increase is expected to greatly jeopardise the government’s reduced emissions requirements.

Dr Chris Reidy, from the University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Sustainable Futures said responding to climate change was urgent and suggested the government should look at other cost-efficient alternatives.

Dr Reidy believes public subsidies for the production and consumption of fossil fuels discourage investments in energy efficiency improvement and the development of alternative, low-greenhouse energy supplies.

“There is lots of sunlight and wind that can be potentially developed and could rival the export of coal,” he said.

University of the Sunshine Coast Research Coordinator of Science, Health and Education and Director for Regional Sustainability Research Group, Dr Tim Smith said Australia was not positioning its economy for the future.

“Focus on economical growth is unsustainable,” he said.

Dr Smith said the question of how important coal is to the economy should be reversed and instead posed as: “What are the implications to the natural environment”.

Despite other alternatives such as wind, solar and geothermal the Government is continuing to invest large amounts of money into the coal industry. Dr Reidy attributed this to the lobbying by Australia”s entrenched coal industry. “They can afford to pay people,” he said.

Premier Bligh said expanding coal exports was an economical multiplier for both the region and the state, estimating that another 500 jobs would be created in the construction stage and a further 130 jobs at the terminal when fully operational. However Dr Reidy disagreed and said the same argument could be used for renewable energy.

“Equally a solar thermal power station would build jobs. There are more jobs in renewable energy,” he said.

Dr Reidy said unfortunately there was not enough support in Australia for renewable energies, which is why people such as Australia’s leading solar-power innovator David Mills, are heading overseas to places like California.

“Every time solar gets government support it is taken away,” he said. Referring to the federal Government’s introduction of solar rebate means test. Dr Smith said we should be aiming to transform society towards sustainability and conserving power, instead of promoting power industries.

“Australia has a potential market niche (solar and wind). But of course we are putting our heads in the sand,” he said.

“We should explore new technologies but we are exporting technologies overseas rather then looking at it commercially.

“The whole focus is on centralised provisions centralised power feasibility of things is a flawed approach,” he said.

Dr Smith, formally a senior research scientist with the Resource Futures Program of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, is currently focused on a systems approach to regional climate change and adaptation strategies and new teaching programs to transform society towards sustainability.

Dr Smith said the questions that should be asked when it comes to coal include: “Does the (coal) subsidy result in significant social and environmental gains?”

“Are we representing democracy and our ability to represent these issues? He would like people to ask, “Why do we need extra power?” and “Why can’t we conserve power?”