Australia's Great Barrier Reef threatened by coal mining

joined the Rainbow Warrior III in Townsville, a city in the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. After catching up with my Australian counterparts on the campaign and tour, I found myself in a small public gathering in the evening comprising of marine scientists, members of local conservation groups, journalists and think-tanks. Everyone was worried about one thing- coal!

From there started my interactions with Queenslanders who are going to be the most impacted by the largescale mining proposed in Galilee Basin. Nine new mega mines have been proposed in the Galilee Basin, two new rail lines to ferry the coal and nine new export coal terminals on Queensland coast to cater to the ferried coal. This will mean dredging and dumping of 113 million cubic meters of seabed for ports and upto 10,000 coal ships crossing the reef every year. Two Indian companies, Adani and GVK, are involved in these mega plans. The Australian government does not seem to be unduly worried about the Great Barrier Reef, nor about the 60,000 people who are employed due to the reef- in tourism, fishing and research industry.

All of these not only threaten the Great Barrier Reef, but also coastal wildlife and habitats such as the mangroves, wetlands, snub-fin dolphins, black-throated finches etc, 10 billion litres of water which will be sucked up from the surrounding environment and serious health impacts for the worried locals from transportation of coal. Furthermore, the coal burnt from Galilee Basin will add 705 million tonnes of CO2 which will surely accelerate world temperatures to beyond 4 degrees or more. So it is natural that many people are worried in Queensland and Australia but everytime people have protested, the government and coal industry in Australia blames them of relegating many poor Indians to energy poverty!