Australia drought: The 'unlikely' group calling for climate action

"Who better than capitalist conservative farmers to push the government on climate change?" asks Verity Morgan-Schmidt, who grew up on a farm and now heads lobby group Farmers for Climate Action.

Farmers travelled to Parliament House in Canberra to protest in September.

It's an issue that has rapidly shifted opinions in recent years and according to cattle producer Will Graham, farmers are emerging as somewhat unlikely campaigners in this space.

"Five, 10 years ago, no farmers would've believed in climate change - they were saying these are just weather cycles," he says. "Now they accept it, they talk about it - and they want action.”

The shift, they say, is because farmers are seeing the devastating impacts of extreme weather on their land, as a prolonged drought cripples vast swathes of the nation.

Read the story from the BBC  by Gary Nunn - “Australia drought: The 'unlikely' group calling for climate action.”

Farmers join fight against Adani coalmine over environmental concerns

A group of Australian farmers have joined the large coalition of groups fighting against Adani’s giant Carmichael coalmine, after they became concerned about the affects the mine would have on groundwater, biodiversity, rural communities and climate change.

 Longreach farmer Angus Emmott launched a petition
 calling on the Queensland government to rescind its
 commitment to give Adani unlimited free access
to groundwater used by farmers.

Farmers for Climate Action – a group of more than 2,000 farmers and agriculture leaders concerned about climate change – became the newest group to join the Stop Adani alliance last week, at the same time as one of its members attracted more than 30,000 signatures to a petition calling on the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to rescind her commitment to give Adani unlimited free access to groundwater used by farmers in the region.

Longreach farmer Angus Emmott launched the petition last week; a few days later he had an accident on his farm and had to be airlifted to hospital. When he checked on the number of signatures on Wednesday, he was shocked to see there were nearly 30,000.

Read Michael Slezak’s story on The Guardian - “Farmers join fight against Adani coalmine over environmental concerns.”