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Hanrahan @slrpnk.net

Labor and Coalition accused of being on fossil fuel ‘unity ticket’ as thermal coal exports hit record high

www.theguardian.com

Labor and Coalition accused of being on fossil fuel ‘unity ticket’ as thermal coal exports hit record high

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21579593

The head of research at the fossil fuels campaign group Lock the Gate Alliance, Georgina Woods, said global heating caused by burning fossil fuels was “already affecting Australian businesses, community wellbeing, household bills and national security” and damaging “our extraordinary natural heritage”.

Gavan McFadzean, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the country’s thermal coal exports were an “appalling contribution” to the climate crisis and a “major handbrake” on global efforts to cut emissions. He said the major parties were running on a “unity ticket” of trying to get the Australian public thinking “there’s nothing to see here”.

As Thoreau pointed out long ago, what use a home with no livable planet. :(

Both major parties have argued that there remained a global market for fossil fuels and if Australia reduced its sales they would just be replaced by coal and gas from other countries in a way that would lead to no overall gain but would hurt parts of the local economy.

This is like arguing if we don't sell weapons to Russia, North Korea will and then being ok with that.

I get it's the "drug dealer problem" but neither the LNP or the ALP would suggest dealers are ok ?

Vote Green

3 comments

  • This is like arguing if we don’t sell weapons to Russia

    Not at all the same, coal is still used everywhere, cutting our economy off to make no dent makes no sense

    those same coal royalties are also going towards us building out our renewables

    • Not at all the same, coal is still used everywhere, cutting our economy off to make no dent makes no sense

      That's literally insane :( it assumes the laws of nature can be subsumed by human entitlement.

      The emsision reductions needed to have a livable biosphere necessary mean abrupt emissions reductions in the range if 10-15% a year (way more then seen during Covid and every year for over a decade) There are no choices left anymore. We chose not to undertake gradual reductions by starting 30 years ago, there are now no choices left.

      Now I agree we've chosen to ignore that as you've indicated but that comes with the collpase of civilisation and an unlivable biosphere, a high price indeed, way beyond any nonsese from coal royalties.

      those same coal royalties are also going towards us building out our renewables

      No they aren't. They're being used to build roads and make the everything worse.

      Just last week 80% of reefs around the world suffered a bleaching event. The first bleaching event was 1998.

      To climb down the emissions reduction cliff now (attached) , we need to; stop driving cars, close aiports , stop using fossil fuels and only build small medium density well insulated homes, stop meat eating pet ownership etc and thats just the easy low hanging fruit thats not even close to enough but it's a decent start.

      "I see no way out of revolutionary changes to how we live today .... it is too late for non-radical futures" - Professor Kevin Anderson

      • heh you think like i used to

        imagine we are in a car driving off a cliff you are in the back seat

        there is nothing you can do to stop the car driving towards the cliff, there is an invisible wall between you and the front seat

        this is like those nightmares where you run but the monster keeps getting closer

        you’ll have to accept this part

        the second part is that you can help with solar panels, solar batteries, ev, and heat pump and vote for politicians who put renewables in

        but you cannot stop the car driving towards the cliff

        not only that but we aren’t anywhere near to the biggest contributor, even if in the absolute best case scenario Australia goes to net zero tomorrow, india will increase its co2 by the same amounts if not more within a year

        china outputs our yearly emissions in like a week

        we can only do what the rest of the australia will let us do, stopping all car driving for all of australia to make no impact to co2 emissions is not gonna happen

        No they aren’t. They’re being used to build roads and make the everything worse.

        https://arena.gov.au/funding/ begs to differ

        we are world leaders when it comes to solar deployment and i’m pretty certain with the battery rebate we’ll soon be world leading there too