Something needs to be done about Adani

ENVIRONMENTAL neglect in Australia continues despite increased awareness of the effects of pollution on water, land and the air.

Air pollution causes millions of deaths a year in India and China.

Concern for the very survival of the Great Barrier Reef is increasing as global warming continues.

The world’s hottest years on record have occurred in the twenty-first century.

Coal-seam gas activities have polluted hundreds of square kilometres of arable land near Chinchilla.

Mining is causing draw-down of Queensland’s greatest underground water asset - the Great Artesian Basin.

Yet the Queensland Government is considering allowing the development of the huge Adani mine in central Queensland.

It argues that many jobs will be created. Is the Government ignoring increased use of driver-less trucks and trains, and larger and larger machines to replace man-power?

Jobs in the mines may be created but at the cost of those in agriculture, tourism and manufacturing.

Where will the majority of profits go from the Adani mine? Overseas to India.

How many more people will die of pollution in India from the burning of Queensland coal?

What dangerous legacy will result if this mine goes ahead? Pollution of Reef waters? Irreparable damage to underground water resources?

Degradation of huge tracts of land?

Massive loss of mature trees that store carbon? Huge soil disturbance? ‘Final voids’ that accumulate unusable water? And more cases of black lung disease?

This company is seeking a huge loan from the Australian Government to build a railway to the coast to export the mined coal ..... and a royalties ‘holiday’ from the Queensland Government.

For what? Why should Australian taxpayers contribute towards what may end up an environmental disaster?