Why the Climate?

Climate change is already resulting in more extreme weather events, and, if it reaches the tipping point that many scientists fear, our children will be living in a very different world from the one we grew up in. Rising sea levels, acidified oceans, drought and extreme weather are violent disruptions that scientists predict will result in mass extinctions and massive displacement of people. It’s serious. And we have a rapidly closing window to make deep cuts in greenhouse emissions.

At this point, we don’t just need energy efficient light bulbs. We need a radical and urgent transition plan to a sustainable and democratic future. We need to ban new coal-fired power stations and coal mines. The transition away from destructive industries and their replacement with efficient, sustainable alternatives needs to be the basis of the next industrial revolution. And what do we have? We have governments are taking us in exactly the opposite direction, with both major political parties supporting a massive expansion of the coal industry.

 Actions Speak Louder...

It's simple. The government says they care about the climate, they are securing our water supplies and protecting jobs. Yet the expansion of coal, and in particular Metropolitain Collieries is the polar opposite of these statements, with greenhouse gas emissions set to increase, our water catchments damaged, employment in sustainable industries stiffled. Below our the cold hard facts.

The Metropolitan Collieries at Helensburgh
•The Metropolitan Collieries has been operational since 1886 making it the oldest continuing coal mine in Australia.
•Currently, Metropolitan mine produces 1.5 million tonnes of coal per annum [Peabody Energy] which, when burnt, spews 4 320 000 tonnes of CO2 pollution every year [calculated with National Greenhouse Accounts, June
2009, Australian Government Department of Climate Change].
•The recently approved expansion will up production to 2.8 million tonnes of coal per annum, the equivalent of 9 246 800 tonnes of CO2 every year [calculated with National Greenhouse Accounts, June 2009, Australian Government Department of Climate Change].
•The Metropolitan Colllieries produce coking coal used for steelmaking using a process called longwall mining. The NSW Scientific Committee declared longwall mining processes used at Metropolitan as a ‘key threatening process’ to the water catchment area that supplies 20% of Sydney’s reliable drinking water. “Impact of Longwall Coal Mining on the Envrionment in NSW”, The Total Environment Centre, January 2007.
•Metropolitan Collieries are owned by American company Peabody, their CEO is American Greg Boyce. Greg Boyce earns an annual salary of (USD) $1, 053, 750. Including stock awards, other compensations he took home (USD)
$11,950,858 in 2008.
•In 2005, Chairman of the Board and Executive Advisor, Irl Engelhardt: earnt $4,894,420 in compensation. A miner earning (US)$25.00 an hour and working a 40 hour week would have to work over 94 years with no vacations
to earn Engelhart’s 2005 compensation (Source)
•Peabody has 10 mines in NSW and Queensland and employ 1000 people
•On August 14, Greg Boyce came and met NSW Premier Nathan Rees, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, the Shadow Minister on Emissions Trading Andrew Robb and Qld Premier Anna Blight
•The Peabody CEO lobbied Australian politicians stall action on climate change and prolong profits from coal. Boyce told them “[B]y making coal companies pay for their greenhouse gas pollution during the mining process that this would have a serious effect on the profitability of some coal mines.”
•A thinly veiled threat, Greg Boyce said the $750 million dollars in handouts in the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction scheme is not enough money.
Boyce claimed it would be more profitable to ship coal from the US to Asia rather than from Australia.
•This year. Peabody has been embroiled in a range of scandals disrupting deomocratic processes. This year in the United States, Peabody has donated $297,000 to a lobby group attempting to defeat the American climate change
bill. Bonner And Associates, lobbyists employed by Peabody and other fossil fuel companies were recently exposed for sending fraudent letters to Democratic Senators in a bid to prevent the climate change bill from passing. Despite Peabody’s efforts this bill has since passed in the Senate.
•In August 2009, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that lobby firm Bonner and Anderson hired by Peabody’s lobby group American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity had been forged 12 letters, supposedly on behalf of community
groups to Democrat Senators telling them to vote against the US climate change bill.
•In July 2008, Peabody reported that “second quarter income from continuing operations rose 143% to a record $242.6 million compared to the year before. Revenues for the quarter were also a record at $1.53 billion.

•In June 2009, NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen said “CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual,” said esteemed NASA climate
scientist Jim Hansen this June, twenty years after first he testified before Congress on the threat of global warming. “In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. Conviction of ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal CEOs will be no consolation, if we pass on a
runaway climate to our children.”

White Energy Website:
•Peabody earnings from Australia in the March quarter jumped to $US83.2 million tonnes from the $US 7 million in the second quarter to lobby on energy, climate change and coal industry issues according to a recent disclosure report Associated Press
•Earnings from Australia in the March quarter jumped to $US83.2 million tonnes from the $US7 million tonnes earned in the same quarter of 2008. The Expansion of the

Metropolitan Collieries and Coal-mining in NSW
•Currently the mine produces 1.6mega tonnes of coal each
•The NSW Government just approved a $50 million expansion of longwall mining at Metropolitan Collieries.Peabody plan to produce 2.8 million tonnes
of coal each year and extend the mine’s life by a further 23 years.
•The expansion of the Metropolitan Collieries will result in an additional 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
•According to Peabodys website " Around 90 percent of coal produced at the mine is exported under contract to customers in Japan, India, South America and Europe”.
•The Longwall mining involves a removal of coal from long shafts then allowing the mine roof to collapse. Underground longwall mining causes large areas of surface to crack and tilt as coal is removed and the earth settles back to fill
the empty space. In the Southern Coal Fields waterways and water catchments are collapsing. The bed of Lake Woronora will be cracked by the expansion of the Metropolitan Collieries
•“Parts of the Princes Highway are expected to sink a metre into the ground, and road bridges may need to be reinforced, under plans for a huge expansion of longwall coalmining south of Sydney.” Ben Cubby, SMH October 24, 2008.
•NSW Government is proposing a major expansion of coal-fired power: with expansions planned at Eraring and Munmorah power stations on the Central Coast, at Bayswater in the Hunter Valley; and two new coal-fired power stations at Mount Piper(Lithgow) and Bayswater (Hunter Valley).
•This will create an extra 30 million new tonnes of C02 every year. It will mean a 52% increase on NSW Electricity emissions, and will be the biggest expansion of coal-fired power in NSW in 30 years.

Metropolitan Colliery and water
•The Department of Environment and Climate Change states in the budget papers that its priorities include "progress on greenhouse gas emissions" but its own budget figures show the state's emissions are predicted to rise over the next year by about 1.5 million tonnes to 165.4 million tonnes. (June 17, 2009, SMH)
•Longwall mining at Metropolitan Collieries has caused rivers to run dry, a drop in water level pools of three metres, swamp damage and iron oxide pollution of waterways.
•The Sydney Catchment Authority in its submission to the Southern Coal Fields Enquiry in 2006 detailed concerns over the “loss of surface flow”, “emerging evidence to suggest that disruption to groundwater from mining may be affecting water inflows to some dams” and “loss of water and changes to water quality” in Waratah Rivulet, which supplies around 30% of the water in the Woronora storage dam.
•While 20% of Sydney’s water supply from the Woronora Dam is in jeopardy, taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill of the NSW Government’s $2.5 billion desalination plant and an additional $100 per year to pay running costs.
The recent water-saving campaign cost the Government 2.5 million dollars in TV advertising.
•The Total Environment Centre said in their report that longwall mining in the Waratah Rivulet in 2004 caused the stream to run dry, and the Sydney Catchment Authority described nearby swamp ecosystems as “totally compromised”.
•“Large-scale coalmining south of Sydney is damaging the natural environment and attempts by companies to repair cracked rivers and drained swamps often fail, an independent inquiry commissioned by the State Government has found.” SMH, July 12, 2008.
•The NSW Government has approved modified plans for a massive expansion of coalmining under Sydney's drinking water catchment. (Moore, Matthew and Cubby, Ben, SMH, June 26, 2009)
•The Metropolitan Colliery’s expansion means a massive expansion of coalmining under Sydney’s drinking water catchment
•Peabody’s initial expansion proposal was scaled-back after “the Government found it would cause unacceptable river damage but yesterday it accepted a scaled-back plan as a trade-off between the environment and jobs”
•“The company will be able to mine under Woronora Dam, which supplies drinking water to the Sutherland Shire and Wollongong, but will leave buffer zones around sections of the Waratah Rivulet and other catchment rivers.”
•Waratah Rivulet was affected by longwall mining in 2004, when subsidence caused large cracks to open, draining the water away. There is uncertainty as to whether the damage can ever be fixed.

Metropolitan Colliery and Jobs:
•Since the 1980s, and the introduction of longwall mining – a largely mechanical process which requires less skilled labour – 18,000 Australian coal jobs have been
lost. Over the last decade 600 jobs have been lost in the Southern Coal Fields alone. Meanwhile Industry analysts believe Peabody could generate more than $800 million
in free cash flow in 2010: “[Peabody] should profit handsomely in the next two years, for it controls the largest portfolio of non-fixed price production in the thermal coal space.’ http://industry.bnet.com/energy/1000172/dirty-profits-at-peabody-energy-...
•The expansion of the mine will create no new permanent jobs, nor guarantee existing jobs. Peabody states on their website that the workforce is "expected to remain
stable at 320". 50 short-term construction jobs will be created.
•There a long history of coal miners protesting against Peabodys treatment of workers in the U.S http://www.justiceatpeabody.org/

Links to further information

This just in. Human-caused Arctic warming overtakes 2000 years of natural cooling reports the latest study that sheds further light on the reality and impacts of climate change. This links to an overview from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who coauthered the study published in Science.  

Climate Code Red gives a chilling overview of the latest science, and outlines a clear and urgent programme for cuts in greenhouse pollution.

The International Panel on Climate Change is the leading international scientific research body on climate change. Their reports represent the most comprehensive consensus of climate science.

Teaching climate change is a great new website developed by the Australia Institute aimed at high school students. It covers the basics of climate science, impacts and solutions.

Energy Science is an independent non-governmental organisation established as a collaboration of concerned scientists, engineers and policy experts to present information to people on the issue of sustainable energy. energyscience.org.au combines rigorous research from leading academics and other experts to promote informed public debate and to foster dialogue between policy makers and their critics.

Rising Tide Australia has a fantastic resource on so-called "clean coal" and why it is being promoted.