Is your backyard safe?
Greens Upper House candidate Jeremy Buckingham and Monaro Greens candidate Paul Cockram are joining forces to present a screening of the award winning film, Gasland in Jerrabomberra tonight.
This film highlights the lengths to which the fossil fuel industry will go in the USA to make a profit from coal seam gas.
Now it’s happening here in NSW and Queensland as documented in a recent Four Corners program on ABC TV. Farmers on whose land this is taking place are concerned that arable farming land is being taken over and there are serious questions about the water table being depleted or contaminated.
“We may not have any gas seam gas exploration going on in this region yet,” said Paul Cockram.
“But as oil supplies dry up and gas becomes a substitute energy source, the search will intensify.
“The search for coal seam gas gas shows the dangers of land-use conflicts. Mining especially has been allowed an uncritical run to ride rough-shod over existing land uses. It’s not just coal and gas exploration either.
“Just outside Braidwood, residents in the Araluen Valley and Majors Creek are being threatened by a gold-mining operation that could adversely affect their water supply and completely change their quiet village life,” said Paul.
“This operation threatens land that produces local food. Fruit growers in the Araluen Valley have grave concerns over the future of their businesses. As they rightly say, we can’t eat gold!
“The Greens are not opposed to responsible mining but we are opposed to the wholesale plunder of our resources for quick profit at the expense of prime farming land and the disruption of our communities.
“No-one should be complacent about this. If it can happen in a small rural community like Majors Creek, it can happen anywhere and we need governments that impose stringent evaluation of mining exploration to consider the broader community interest,” Paul concluded.
