'Strictest conditions in Australia's history' seen by some as a disaster

T

he nation's largest coal mine has passed a significant hurdle after Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved it with "the strictest conditions in Australian history", in a decision environment groups have declared "a disaster".

The proposed railway lines leading across
Queensland to Abbott Point
 close to the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Hunt on Thursday said the Carmichael coal mine proposed by Indian mining giant Adani has been given the green light after the Federal Court in August set aside the previous approval.

Read The Age story - “Adani Carmichael: Australia's largest coal mine free to proceed after Greg Hunt gives approval”.

(Coal is unquestionably the villain in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and for Australia to be the source of this commodity on the eve of the UN Paris climate talks is a strangely discomforting conundrum. The mining of this “ancient sunlight” will of itself be the source of significant emissions, while the burning of the estimated resource, probably in Indian and Chinese power stations, will alone be sufficient to push the world into the catastrophic climate change zone. The massive coal resource at the Carmichael Mine will, of course, not be burned overnight, but locked up in that coal are carbon-emissions sufficient to bequeath the world serious climate difficulties. Beyond that, shipping of the coal from Abbott Point and through the nearby Great Barrier Reef, which is already registering damage because of climate change, faces the possibility of further damage from the increased heavy shipping.

Greg Hunt’s approval of the mine is, by any measure, simply wrong)