Federal Labor’s decision to extend Woodside’s North West Shelf until 2070 sends a clear signal to the gas industry that it will not let the concerns of scientists, Traditional Owners and ordinary working people stand in the way of corporate profits.
The North West Shelf is one of four critical parts of Woodside's culture, climate and ecology-destroying Burrup Hub project, near Karratha. Traditional Owners vehemently oppose it, saying it will devastate more than 1 million pieces of rock art. The petroglyphs were carved into the rock up to 40,000 years ago, in Murujuga National Park.
The Western Australian government’s own report warned of the possible consequences.
If it is allowed to go ahead (environmental plans are pending), Woodside’s project would be the largest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere. It would be responsible for more than 6 billion tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.
Environment minister Murray Watt made his decision just one day after archaeology professor Benjamin Smith went public with concerns about missing details on the effects of chemical emissions on the ancient petroglyphs in the executive summary of the Western Australian Labor government-commissioned report.
Smith said the 800-page report had found the petroglyphs closest to industry had been the most degraded by recent activities, not those from the 1970s. However, the graph with these critical details had been altered for the summary report, despite scientists’ objections, to make out that the current level of pollutants are “lower than the interim guidelines levels”.
Other scientists involved in the monitoring program have confirmed that the executive summary presented a false conclusion.
Curtin University scientists had included two lines on the graph indicating early warning thresholds for possible damage to rock art. But the line presenting a lower threshold had been deleted from the summary document, despite the scientists insisting it be included. Meanwhile, WA Premier Roger Cook continues to deny the ancient petroglyphs have been harmed by Woodside’s industrial processes.
WA Labor had been sitting on the report since June last year, only releasing it days before Watt decided to grant Woodside its LNG extension. The clearly massaged report, designed to influence Watt’s decision, and the fact that it was kept behind closed doors until now, highlights the lack of integrity.
Weak federal environment protection laws mean that future emissions are not factored into approvals of fossil fuel projects.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the party faithful on May 3 that his government “will support reconciliation with First Nations people”. He also claimed it would represent “every Australian who knows that climate change is a challenge we must act together to meet”.
But Labor’s decision on Woodside will lead to more deaths from extreme weather; it will also destroy the largest collection of ancient rock art in the world.
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There is no getting away from the science. A recent study, published in Nature, looking at deaths from extreme heat due to carbon emissions, found that one excess death would occur for every 4000 tonnes of carbon emitted.
This means that a completed Burrup Hub would lead to at least 1.5 million excess deaths — just under the number of people who died worldwide due to COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic. WA Labor is hoping to keep these deaths out of our minds by focusing on efforts to make the economy “more resilient”.
Certainly, the majority of these deaths will be in the Global South and, no doubt, made worse by Labor’s inhumane policy of turning back climate and other refugees.
The fact that most deaths will be elsewhere will be no comfort to the loved ones of those who died in the recent flooding in New South Wales. Nor will it provide much comfort to those who may lose their livelihoods, homes or loved ones in future extreme weather events that Labor is attempting to lock in.
As the destruction of the affluent Malibu area of Los Angeles in the unseasonal fires showed, being rich does not necessarily protect you from the effects of global warming.
To curtail this existential threat, the climate movement must re-energise and rebuild. We cannot give in to despair or accept that federal government decisions can never be overturned.
From the battle for civil rights in the United States to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa, history shows that mass movements can have a decisive impact.
This is what we need to remember as coral reefs are bleached, ancient forests are being logged, our Pacific neighbours face an existential threat, and culture and Country of the oldest living civilisation in the world is being erased.
Despair is a privilege we cannot indulge. If you agree, become a Green Left supporter, get active in the climate movement and come to the Ecosocialism 2025 conference in September in Naarm/Melbourne.