Environment

Uncertainty and confusion now surround the Apex/Ormil coal seam gas (CSG) project in the Illawarra. The project includes 16 CSG wells scattered across two Petroleum Exploration Licences (PELs). But according to the project’s conditions, drilling and operation of the wells must take place within three years and before the expiry of one of two relevant licences, unless the director-general of the planning department steps in.

Labor and independent councillors in Marrickville decided on June 19 against holding a poll on coal seam gas at the same time as the local council elections. This is despite the fact that the council has had two unanimous votes against coal seam gas exploration. Non-binding polls are available to all councils and have been used to gauge community opinion on a variety of topics. Greens councillor Cathy Peters put the urgency motion, inspired by Lismore City Council’s decision to poll its local residents about coal seam gas production and exploration.

The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre released the statement below on June 21. * * * Michael Mansell today said the forest Bill introduced into the Tasmanian Parliament “is a straight betrayal of Aboriginal people”. Mansell said: “The Bill represents a rejection by the government and the Greens of the proposal put by Aborigines for ownership and management of the reserved areas. The Government talks of land rights, but talk is cheap.

Criticism of Latin America’s radical governments has become common currency among much of the international left. While none have been exempt, Ecuador’s government of President Rafael Correa has been a key target. But a problem with much of the criticism directed against Correa is that it lacks any solid foundation and misdirects fire away from the real enemy. Correa was elected president in 2006 after more than a decade of mostly indigenous-led rebellions against neoliberalism.

Coal and gas developments proposed in Queensland are putting Australia's Great Barrier Reef at risk, says a report by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Tony Abbott is right: we can't allow a “Green veto” to hold back a huge expansion in the Queensland coal export industry.

Forest conservation campaigners in the Yarra Valley, east of Melbourne, released the statement below on June 15. * * * The blockade to halt logging in the mountain ash forests of Mount St Leonard continues with protesters planning to lock themselves to log harvesting machinery to delay logging for as long as possible. The blockade is strongly supported by Toolangi and Healesville residents and business owners, more than 120 of whom turned out for a public meeting three weeks ago to ask VicForests managers why they were logging the loved and iconic mountain.

Australian mining companies, already ravaging the traditional land of Indigenous peoples in the Philippines, are now pushing for ratification of a military agreement that would allow Australian troops to enter the Philippines for "combined training, exercises, or other activities mutually approved by the Parties". Protests broke out in Manila on June 6, 2012 as the Philippines Senate was deliberating the ratification of this controversial 'visiting forces' military pact with the Australian government, signed by the disgraced former President Gloria Arroyo in 2007.

Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom & Australia's Future By Paul Cleary Black Inc., 2011 156 pages, pb, $24.95 Paul Cleary’s book Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom and Australia's Future, published last year, raises important questions, and provides much useful information for answers. But the real elephant in the room, coal mining, is largely left untouched.

India exports food while millions go hungry “At a time when [India's] total food stocks are likely to swell to a record 75 million tonnes by June 1, out of which nearly 25 million tonnes of the stocks will be piled up in the open for lack of storage space, the demand for allowing exports [of wheat, which is now banned] is already growing. Ministry of Commerce has already started an exercise to know how much quantity of wheat can be allowed for exports.

If Australia were a democracy and governments had no choice but to carry out the will of the majority, we’d be well on our way to a 100% renewable power grid. Recent polling organised by climate action groups around the country found that 94% of 12,000 people polled said they wanted big solar power stations built in Australia. And 93% of those polled said the government should invest public money to make that happen.

“One spill could kill our country” Muckaty traditional owner Penny Phillips told 100 people at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on May 30. The meeting was organised by Anti-Nuclear NT to condemn legislation passed by the federal government on March 13 that names Muckaty station, 200km north of Tennant Creek as the site for a proposed nuclear waste dump. The meeting was opened by Larrakeyah woman Donna Jackson whose traditional lands cover the East Arm Wharf, which is one area the waste could be taken through to get to the Muckaty site.