It’s been a fun weekend. On Saturday the people’s blockade of the world’s largest coal exporting harbour was a festive affair. A flotilla of like minded individuals drifted about on a beautiful sunny day enjoying the relatively warm water of a working harbour.
There were several hundred people at the event organised by Rising Tide, double the numbers from last year. Holding it in summer not winter was definitely a good idea. We are so lucky to have a glorious coastline. The opportunity to bob about with a banner for a few hours and get up close and personal with a tanker full if woodchips was a memorable peaceful protest action.
The Greens were well represented with Federal Senator Kerry Nettle on the shores with Charlestown Candidate Jane Smith whilst Upper House MP Lee Rhiannon, Newcastle hopeful Michael Osborne and Maitland’s Jan Davis were onboard a dingy that was kept afloat with ham sandwich plugs. In true Greens spirit they fought against the sea level change, using their No New Coal banners to paddle safely back to shore.
For many urban electorates climate change is a philosophical issue but in Lake Macquarie where there are so many mines and mining proposals keen to extract as much as they can, to the detriment of the local communities and the environment coal is an in your face topic.
Bob Brown’s call for the government to begin the process of developing a plan in the next three years to start the transition out of a coal based economy is a very reasonable request if you want a future for your community as well as the planet as a whole. Thank goodness someone realises that before you do anything you should have a plan. The fact that he was so grossly misrepresented in the media probably means it was a good idea, why else would you not want people to know what was actually said?
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