Coal Seam Gas
Dear Coal Seam Gas,
I had high hopes, I really did. My friends told me you were the clean and safe energy source of the future. You promised heaps of new jobs. Best of all, you promised to co-exist peacefully and profitably with farmland. I couldn’t wait to meet you.
But things started to go wrong as soon as you arrived. I had imagined maybe some dinner and some conversation, a chance to get to know you. But instead you just marched into Queensland and started drilling, without answering even half my questions. In fact, there are still questions you haven’t answered.
Continue reading "Dear Coal Seam Gas, this thing just isn’t working out…" »
There’s a meaty little stink out of northern New South Wales this week which is dividing a community in two, and which could easily have, ahem, high steaks for the entire country.
After this May’s annual Beef Week parade in the NSW town of Casino, the Beef Week committee voted unanimously to ban protestors from future parades. This, despite just three of the 60 floats being protest floats.
Two floats protested the threatened closure of small local hospitals. A third opposed the coal seam gas (CSG) extraction industry. By all accounts, many townsfolk supported its sentiments. The president of Beef Week was less hospitable. It just so happens he is employed in the CSG industry.
Continue reading "The small town and its big beef with gas protestors" »
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norally says:
Interesting that so many have a lot to say, and in the same breath say they don’t know much about CSG. I’d say to everyone do some homework this industry will not just give those on the land health, water, air problems it will also give those in towns and… Read more »
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I’ve been told that some people don’t associate the Greens with money, people or facts. So I’m starting this piece on the Great Barrier Reef with some facts about money and people:
5.1 billion dollars. This is how much Great Barrier Reef tourism contributes to the Australian economy every year.
54,000. That’s how many people are employed full-time in Great Barrier Reef industries, mostly tourism.
3 million. That’s the number of visitors who come to see this World Heritage icon every year, about 2.1 million domestic and nearly 900,000 international visitors to gateway towns.
5 billion dollars. This is the Government’s estimated value of the “ecosystem services” the Reef provides every year – cleaner air, cleaner water. And we get it for free.
Extraordinary, isn’t it? And this awesome economic powerhouse is just sitting on the doorstep of Queensland. Here are some more Great Barrier Reef numbers, which you might find extraordinary for different reasons:
Continue reading "Finding Nemo will be much harder if we mine the reef" »
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Andrew Jeremijenko says:
Thanks Larissa for writing this and for providing supporting evidence. I like to ask questions when I read an article like this. I don’t have all the answers. Why did UNESCO visit Gladstone harbour and criticise the project (report due on 1st June)? Why is there a 20 million dollar… Read more »
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R says:
You are correct that floods can carry acid sulphate (a little arsenic but mainly pyrite/sulphur compounds and toxic methane gas) and it sure has caused red sores before in other rivers but this has always been seen when soils have been recently disturbed by man. It is why it is… Read more »
At the moment, we’re all spending a lot of time debating gay marriage and climate change. Meanwhile, other issues aren’t being debated as vigorously as they might be.
Today The Punch team has each selected two issues which get us hot under the collar, and which we feel deserve more airplay.
What are your thoughts on the issues we’ve chosen? And what other issues do you think we should all be talking about?
Continue reading "12 bigger issues than gay change and climate marriage" »
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Taylor Jay says:
If Magic Johnson has had AIDS for over 20 years, he must have spent most of it in hospital. AIDS itself is more an umbrella term for several different criteria that a patient may meet in regards to the progression of their HIV infection; usually signifying a highly advanced stage,… Read more »
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LC says:
As for the possible solution proposed by ThePunch’s team “Insurance companies are severe on drivers under 25. Their premiums are often double that of older drivers. Maybe the penalties should be twice as hard for under-25s too.” This does more harm than good. The through-the-roof premiums for newer, SAFER cars… Read more »
This week’s mess in the Pilliga Forest of New South Wales, is the latest evidence of an extremely messy industry.
Communities remain divided over coal seam gas. Especially in Queensland, where it’s splitting votes in the lead up to the state election.
A Newspoll published in The Australian last week found that two-thirds of voters were completely opposed to coal seam gas, with 35 per cent of people claiming that how the state chose to handle the issue would have direct impact on the way they vote in on March 24.
Continue reading "We need some cold hard facts about coal seam gas" »
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Donald says:
This is all wrong people , there is another way to extract methane . I have been a plumber for 30 years and discovered a way to transform a house into its own system of heating , cooking , hot water , 240 power and fuel your car , this… Read more »
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Caroline Marriott says:
The fact is there is alot of uncertainty about the industry. The greenhouse advantages are far from clear - largely due to leakage of methane - and this continues to be hotly debated in academic and industry circles. Fracking has not been proven safe as many communities in the US… Read more »
Watching a Test match is a great teacher of the virtues that make for success in life: determination, strategy and simply keeping your eye on the ball.
Anyone watching India knows that they are beating Australia hands down at all three. India is set to win while the complacent, lucky country seems sure to waste its natural advantages.
Obviously, after the events at the MCG yesterday, I am talking not of cricket, but of energy security.
Continue reading "Clean bowled in cricket, but they’ll clean us up in energy" »
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beatlyReabe says:
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Brian says:
Read the article…the key word in the whole thing, the one you seem to forget is in there Dan…..here it is Dan, COULD, I note the article never uses the word Would or WILL, but the instead use the word COULD, so is it true that India’s solar dream (your… Read more »
Roma, some 600km west of Brisbane, used to be a country town where you could drive your car onto the airport tarmac to pick up friends arriving on the few flights servicing the place.
It had a small motel many years ago when I lived there but most travellers stayed at pubs with names such as The School of Arts.
The population back all those decades ago when sheep and cattle ruled was nudging 5000. Compared to some of the neighbouring towns such as Injune and Wallumbilla, it was a big place.
Continue reading "Coal seam gas a blast of hope for rural communities" »
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Roo says:
No, He didn’t. He sold to a coal company because there wasn’t much choice - if he stayed he’d have been surrounded by a coal mine. No-one in their right mind would buy in a csg field - no meaningful compensation, ruined equity and 24/7 noise & disruption when they… Read more »
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Annie says:
@bananabender Have you been bending a few too many bananas? How does that even make any sense? Do you have any links or information to support this statement? Perhaps you need to do some investigation.They are mostly the same companies, they have conventional and ‘unconventional’ gas. Santos, Shell, Billiton, British… Read more »
You get the feeling not much happens on a Saturday morning in Merriwa. The sleepy country town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales just hums along quietly. Except for its proud and tidy RSL, where the front bar opens at 10am, horse races flash across the television screens and tickets pump out of the Club Keno machine.
In a stuffy back hall, on neat rows of red vinyl chairs sit the Merriwa Healthy Environment Group; a group of local farmers and landowners who came together in February to unite against the coal seam gas companies as they rode into town. Seven months later, they feel under attack.
Their enemy? PEL 456, PEL 468, PEL 4 and PEL 433; coal seam gas exploration licences for Merriwa and its surrounding areas of cattle, sheep and cereal farming land, up for sale to the highest bidder.
Continue reading "Community is the real cost of coal seam gas" »
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Brian says:
Methane is not highly poisonous. There is no exposure limit, and other than the risk of catching fire it is considered no more dangerous than nitrogen - the only way it can harm you through inhalation is by displacing oxygen, and with the exception of a cylinder being opened in… Read more »
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Kheiron says:
Romans and Normans and to an extent Vikings can make the claim of British conquest and occupation. French, British and Spanish can do the same for America. All this in, or before, the Age of Sail when the sea was a much more daunting barrier then it is today. Britain… Read more »
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