'When I heard about the Queensland coal mine, it felt like a stab in the back’

From Australia's half-hearted attempts of increasing renewable energy to the 141,000 tonnes of nitrogen flowing into our rivers each year from agriculture, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Our nation is sixteenth in the world for domestic CO2 emissions, and per capita we are close to the worst offender. But I don't want to talk figures at you. I'd actually like to bring to your attention why we need to stop the new Carmichael coal mine from commencing construction in August this year.

Protesters gathered as Adani's local mining
chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj spoke at
 a business lunch in Brisbane.

The new Adani mine will produce enough coal to fuel the needs of 100 million people in India. It will create jobs in the region of Townsville, Queensland. But that's where the benefits stop. Using the coal produced by the Carmichael mine would produce four times the fossil fuel emissions of the whole of New Zealand. It is a catastrophe for the climate.

Read the comment by Sofia Berlin in todays Melbourne Age - "‘When I heard about the Queensland coal mine, it felt like a stab in the back’.”