Coal is the unquestioned villain in relation to greenhouse
gas emissions.
And now again it appears as if the economy has trumped good
sense with the Australian Government planning to capitalise on Victoria’s
Latrobe Valley coal.
 |
Latrobe Valley coal - again the
economy has trumped good sense. |
Today (April 19) it was reported that a senior Gillard
Government Minister saw the Latrobe Valley with its abundant coal becoming an
export hub on the scale of Western Australia’s Pilbara region or New South
Wales Hunter Valley.
The export of coal may seem relatively benign in relation to
carbon dioxide emissions, but it is not.
The burning of coal anywhere on the planet is inappropriate
and so exporting does not absolve you of responsibility, it simple means you
have foisted the accountability upon another country, allowing you smile as you
pocket the profits.
Maybe the cash from the coal will be comforting, but with
the assurance that a snowflake would not survive in the Pilbara, we will need
every cent to help the nation deal with the extreme weather events that climate
change worsened by the continued burning of coal, anywhere in the world, will
bring.
We might profit from the sale of coal, but we will pay
dearly as extreme weather events sweep around the world.
Individually, we must use our voice to limit the damage to our
atmosphere and so in whatever way we can discourage the exploitation of the
Latrobe Valley coal.
