Stand together against new coal

January 22, 2011
Issue 
Patrick Harrison.

The article below is based on a speech by Socialist Alliance upper house candidate in the March NSW state elections Patrick Harrison. He spoke at the 'Carols at the Colliery', an action held on December 21 in Russell Vale (near Wollongong) to protest a proposed coalmine expansion.

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The Socialist Alliance opposes all new coal development and infrastructure. It's what the science demands we do, and the alternatives to coal are ready to go.

The expansion of the Gujarat NRE No.1 colliery is a threat to local residents' health and safety.

It's a threat to precious water supplies throughout the region, and it will lead to a big increase in coal trucks on our roads, further threatening health and safety as well as adding to the pollution generated by the mine.

The need to cut carbon pollution is becoming clearer each day. The world's climate scientists agree that global warming is happening, and that to steer us back towards a future in which the environment remains relatively unchanged, we have to aim for an atmospheric carbon concentration of less than 300 parts per million as soon as possible.

That not only means cutting pollution, but drawing down the carbon that's already in the atmosphere. Yet in contrast to this, big multinational companies like Gujarat NRE are determined to dig as much carbon out of the ground as they can.

The writing should be on the wall for fossil fuels. Yet so long as there's profit to be made, these companies are determined to make it.

This is the result of our global economic system, in which a tiny minority makes the big decisions that will impact the lives of billions for generations to come.

But we can't leave it up to the market to deal with climate change. The drive for ever-increasing profit inherent in a capitalist system is at odds with the needs of a planet, which is a closed system of finite resources.

Despite this, the corporate media is largely backing calls from industry for a transition from coal to gas and/or nuclear power — neither of which will cut emissions by enough, or in time, to do anything about climate change.

We need to demand that our government takes real action against the greenhouse mafia and in defence of ordinary people. If elected, that is what the Socialist Alliance will do.



The Socialist Alliance calls for a halt to new coal projects, and supports public investment to build a grid powered by 100% renewable energy.

With the right combination of solar thermal, wind and biomass, we could do away with burning fossil fuels for energy.

The same goes for coking coal; alternatives already exist in the forms of Direct Reduced Iron (being developed in India, the home of Gujarat NRE) and biochar-fuelled blast furnaces.

The alternatives are out there, and we need to demand that our government mandate these measures.

If the big multinational companies refuse to clean up their act, then we should take the mines, power plants, factories and steelworks back into public hands. Other industries will need to be renationalised, such as the recently privatised NSW power stations that were sold by NSW Labor for a fraction of their value.

The transition to renewable energy would create many more jobs than would be lost from other sectors. And the transition must be just: workers in fossil fuel industries must be first in line for new green jobs as well as retraining on full pay.

These things are part of the Socialist Alliance’s wider commitment to the struggle for a sustainable future, a better world, and for putting people and the planet ahead of profits.

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