This week saw a small step taken towards the energy revolution in Australia as Munmorah, one of the oldest and dirtiest coal power stations in the country, announced its closure.
The mining industry may run slick advertising campaigns but when activists get together the real stories come out. Julie Macken spoke with June Norman, a 72 year-old woman with a unique method.
Big mining projects need community approval as well as government licences. It's a sign of a healthy democracy when politicians respect a community's social licence, writes Julie Macken
When Minister Burke described the environmental assessment of Gina Rinehart’s controversial Alpha Coal Project as “shambolic”, he wasn’t joking. But now he has given his own rubber stamp to the project, revealing the profound failure of the regulatory system in Australia.
Last November, twelve Greenpeace activists were arrested after taking action at the site of the proposed HRL power station at Morwell in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. The action was part of a long-running campaign to have a $100 million grant to the proposed HRL brown coal power station cancelled.
Few countries can boast a national animal with the status as India. The tiger, as a symbol of India, is as recognisable as the Taj Mahal and as loved as Mahatma Gandhi.
Here’s a question for you: how much of a masterpiece can you remove, before it loses its value and beauty for which it is recognised? That’s the question the Australian government is wrestling with as the coal industry makes greater and greater inroads into the masterpiece that is the Great Barrier Reef.
Last Friday, the Environment Minister Tony Burke effectively told UNESCO, ‘don’t worry, be happy’, in response to grave concerns about the future of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Australian continent might be about 4,000 km wide from east to west, but even the far west coast cannot escape the winds of Cyclone Rusty and the alarming impacts of climate change caused by coal mining, such as the planned Galilee Basin project, in the nation's east.
Amid all the news about coal and pollution problems in China you might have missed this one: According to new statistics from the China Electricity Council, China’s wind power production actually increased more than coal power production for the first time ever in 2012.