Yesterday, our activists set out in inflatables and painted slogans on almost 20 coal export ships queued at Hay Point port (near Mackay, Queensland). The message to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was loud and clear – stop the expansion of coal exports.
Watch the video below.
We have just had word that all of our activists have been finally released. Outside, the wind is howling and the swell has picked up, so it will be a long trip back to the Esperanza.
One of the activists, a resident of the Pacific Islands, said of today’s action:
“Its very important that greenpeace does these kind of direct actions because there is so much at stake here. Our government leaders and people in power need to address the issue of climate change as well as find solutions to combat the many problems associated with it such as rising sea levels and the threat to marine life.
Our action today shows to others that we care about our world and its natural beauty which today is being devasted by industrialisation.
We need to reduce using coal as an energy source and switch to renewables as time is running out.”
I’ve just returned to the Esperanza after spending the morning on the water with our activists. It was such an inspiring experience be part of this peaceful but incredibly powerful action, with such a committed group of people.
We are an international bunch, coming from Fiji, Belgium, Canada, USA, Australia, Malta, France, and the Netherlands and we are all committed to the very serious issue of combating catastrophic climate change. We do not think it is too late to make a difference, we believe that there is much that can be done on a personal as well as a political level, and we believe that the time is absolutely right for an Energy [R]evolution.
It is so important to do activities like these, to get the message out, and right at the source of the problem. There were close to 50 ships lined up to be filled with coal this morning. They stretched out as far as I could see, huge bulking masses sitting high up in the water. Day after day ship like these are loaded with coal and then head off, only to be replaced by more. This endless cycle of exporting coal needs to be curtailed, not increased.
While our activists are still in custody, Greenpeace campaigners are down in Canberra attending a round-table discussion with the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, where they will continue to call for a cap on Australia’s coal exports.
Australian leadership on climate change would involve capping Australia’s coal exports and taking advantage of the global bounty of renewable energy opportunities - backing coal is taking Australia in the wrong direction.
This morning in a radio interview, Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, questioned the credibility of our poll that revealed 82% of Australians don’t want more coal exports. Well, Anna, it’s all true. The poll was done by Essential Research, whose polls are statistically confident and use tried and tested methodology.
The truth is, politicians never like unfavourable polls.
The real debate is about Australia’s energy future and the contradiction between what Kevin Rudd and Anna Bligh are saying and doing. They can’t be guardians of the reef while planning to double Australia’s coal exports. This will increase CO2 by 729 million tonnes: equal to 125% of Australia’s total current emissions and the same as the annual CO2 pollution from 104 average sized coal-fired power stations. That’s a lot of exported climate change.
Greenpeace is calling for coal exports from Australia to be capped and reduced. It’s part of an Energy [R]evolution that will create thousands of new jobs and investment opportunities while tackling climate change.
You can take action too: Sign the petition.
Last Friday, Kevin Rudd was in Queensland saying this: “Australia must act locally and globally on the challenge of climate change because if we fail great assets like the Great Barrier Reef will be fatally in peril.”
Today, 10 Greenpeace activists were arrested getting the message out that Kevin Rudd has huge coal export plans for NSW and Queensland that will put the Great Barrier Reef at more risk from climate change. Go figure?
Australia is already the world’s largest coal exporter by far. We deliver 30% of the world’s climate-changing coal exports to the world. We need to reduce emissions, not send them around the world.
Police have arrived on the scene of this morning’s ship painting by Greenpeace activists. (You can see the large white police vessel behind the Greenpeace inflatables in this photo). Police have boarded one of the inflatables.
Take action now: Sign the petition to get Kevin Rudd onboard the Energy [R]evolution!
Find out why we gave the Hay Point coal ships a paint job today.
A new poll shows that 82% of Australians want our export coal industry to be capped or reduced. That makes sense if you’re trying to stop dangerous climate change. But Kevin Rudd plans to double Australia’s export coal capacity. His planned expansions would cause more carbon emissions than Australia’s entire current national greenhouse emissions.
It doesn’t make sense. Kevin Rudd talks about urgently needing to reduce Australia’s emissions, then he plans to double our coal exports. They are still our emissions, Kevin, even if they’re burning in another country!
Read more about the poll on our regular climate blog.
At Hay Point, near Mackay, Queensland, Greenpeace activists are still painting messages on ships waiting to load up with export coal.
This just in from an activist on the water:
“I’m looking out at a sea of over 45 ships. They are sitting high in the water at the moment. These are huge containers ships, lining up to fill up with coal. We’ve now painted 20 of them - we have 3 painting teams out here. The sun is shining but the water is choppy, moving our small inflatables around and making it a bit harder to paint. The letters on the side of the ships we’ve painted are about 1-2 metres high.”
The water police have been notified and our boats will stay out there, painting our climate change messages, for as long we can.
The Rudd Government plans to rapidly expand Australia’s coal exports when the world is trying to cut global emissions. It’s lunacy!
Our shipside messages this morning tell the story of impacts from increasing greenhouse emissions:
“Coal is killing reef”
“Barrier Reef gone”
“Pacific Islands gone”
“Murray-Darling gone”
Our activists have painted messages on 10 of the ships down at Hay Point port, as the ships wait in queue to pick up and export climate-changing coal overseas.
The messages include:
* “Murray-Darling gone!”
* “Stop exporting coal”
* “Rudd exporting CO2″
* “Bligh exporting CO2″
Give your message to the government by signing the petition to Prime Minister Rudd
“STOP COAL EXPANSION”
The first message has been painted by our activists on the side of a huge coal export ship at Hay Point port.