We need to break the coal habit, now
YOU might have read about the protest outside the coal mine in Southland earlier this week (ODT, 3.5.22).
At the most recent United Nations conference on climate change (COP26) we were told that ‘‘coal was being consigned to history’’.
But here in ‘‘clean green’’ Aotearoa we keep burning the stuff like crazy. Based on the latest available data (2018) our gross greenhouse gas emissions were the sixth highest in the world per capita. Dairy company Fonterra uses about 500,000 tonnes of coal each year at its manufacturing sites to turn liquid milk into powder.
This produces over one million tonnes of CO2, which, according to a recent article in the respected scientific journal Nature Communications, is enough to kill 225 people by 2100 due to heatrelated causes. The past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history.
Islands are beginning to submerge, crops are failing, there are widespread fires and storms and soon there will be wars as humanity fights for the remaining resources. This is why we need to break the coal habit and why I found myself standing in front of the gate of the Takitimu coal mine in Southland on Monday at 6am on a cold autumn morning. Takitimu produces the coal that Fonterra burns at its Clandeboye milk factory in Canterbury. Coal from the mine rolls through Dunedin almost every day so that Fonterra can continue to cut costs. Some people have criticised environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion for stopping KiwiRail’s coal trains rather than protesting outside the mine itself. Well, now we’ve done that. Why do we take these risks? Personally, it’s not for my sake but for the sake of my children (and yours) and to try to quieten the doomed voice of the natural world that keeps me awake every night. Coal has to go. Now.
Central Dunedin