Farmers from the Felton Valley in Queensland's Darling Downs occupied Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's Office in West End in order to prevent the destruction of irreplacable farmland from the ravages of an out-of-control boom in coal mining, coal seam gas extraction and coal liquefaction. The protest was typically ignored by Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper which is far more interested in drumming up enthusiasm about the claimed prosperity that the coal industry will bring to the Darling Downs.

See also: www.friendsoffelton.blogspot.com, YouTube broadcast of (Oct 2008(?)) "Coal Mines To Replace Farms in Australia", "Darling Downs community fights farmland for mine move" in Sunday Mail of 1 Nov 08 (Friday's protest not reported), "Coal vs cropping fight widens" in Stock and Land of 15 Oct 08, "Lone stand as coalminers poised to bulldoze Acland" in the Courier Mail of 18 Oct 08, "Darling Downs farmers vow to resist coal miners" in the Courier Mail of 5 Oct 08.

Greens flag legal loophole and aim to ensure coal multinationals don't privatise profits and socialise risks with geosequestration.

Whilst the Bligh Government has scrapped the environmentally damaging shale oil mining project in the Whitsundays, a rural community further south faces the threats of an open cut coal-mine and coal-to-liquid plant in their midst. These projects could devastate one of this country’s most beautiful & fertile valleys, pollute the Murray Darling river system, destroy nationally significant populations of rare & endangered species, and produce huge quantities of Greenhouse gases.

See also: www.friendsoffelton.blogspot.com, Qld farmers want new rules for mining in Sunshine Coast Daily of 2 Sep 08.

Demand that former protest singer and former President of the Australian Conservation Society Peter Garrett use his ministerial powers to prevent the tripling of Australia's coal exports by 2030 and prevent the destruction of Shoalwater Bay.

Why is Queensland Premier Anna Bligh threatening Shoalwater Bay, which was saved from sand mining in 1994 by vigorous community protests, with a new coal terminal?

What you can do: attend public meeting at Yeppoon Town Hall, Wednesday 30th July at 7pm. Phone 07 4938 1818.

The locally based Shoalwater Wilderness Awareness Group expresses its concerns about the harm that the proposed now coal terminal will cause to the RAMSAR wetlands in Shoalwater Bay.

See also: www.shoalwaterbay.org, www.cccqld.org.au, Capricornia Conservation Council fights expansion of Queensland coal industry, Coal port proposal another insult to Queensland's biggest wilderness region.

What you can do: attend public meeting at Yeppoon Town Hall, Wednesday 30th July at 7pm. Phone 07 4938 1818.

In a joint media release Friends of the Earth, the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia and Peace Convergence call upon the Queensland Government to abandon plans for the expansion of the coal export industry and the construction of a new port at Shoalwater Bay.

A public meeting is to be held at Yeppoon Town Hall at 7PM on Wed 30 July to save Shoalwater Bay and fight Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's plans to expand Queensland's climate-changing coal industry.

See also www.cccqld.org.au, About Coal

Economic growth

Australia's contribution to runaway global warming through its accelerating rate of coal exports has been acknowledged in part by the Garnaut report. However, whether this will lead to a reduction, rather than an increase in exports is not yet clear.

Dr. James Hansen, a leading NASA climate scientist in a letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 27 March 2008 called for the phasing out of Australia's currently coal exports in order to halt further damage to our global life support system.

The Newcastle group Rising Tide (www.risingtide.org.au has called) upon Mr. Rudd to respond to Hansen's letter.

State Premiers must recognise that continued economic growth is not sustainable and give precedence to the environment recognising that the size of the economy is bounded by Nature's ability to sustain it, say conservationists in the wake of the Garnaut Report on Climate Change economic impacts.

The Newcastle group Rising Tide, who took practical action to stop global warming by blocking a coal train in Novermber is planning a community walk-in this coming Saturday 8 December to protest against plans to build a new coal terminal.

Two days after the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the effects of climate change will be even worse than previously anticipated the group Rising Tide in Newcastle Australia has taken direct action against the threat, setting an example for the rest of us to follow.

Environmental laws don’t apply to mines is the message from Premier Bligh’s promise to pass special laws to override yesterday’s Court decision against Xstrata Coal, said the Greens today.