Newcastle-based climate activist and Socialist Alliance member Laura Ealing is an organiser of the Just Transition Tour, a bus trip through NSW coal communities from November 20 to 26. She spoke to Green Left Weekly about the aims of the tour.
What is the Just Transition Tour all about?
Over a week, the Just Transition Tour will travel through coal communities in NSW. It will take place in the last week of parliament before the Copenhagen climate talks. We want to use the tour to send a strong message: to avoid catastrophic climate change we need to start phasing out coal straight away.
Coal is responsible for a third of our emissions, so we can't afford to delay action. We need to confront the problem head-on.
We also want to raise awareness in the communities we visit of the disastrous impacts of coalmining on health, water, agriculture and other local industries.
But we want to see a transition away from coal that protects the people who work in the industry. Those most affected must be guaranteed good quality, well-paid jobs in sustainable industries. That's what the tour is all about.
What will you do on the tour?
The three main areas we'll go through are the Hunter Valley, the Liverpool Plains and the Blue Mountains. We will meet locals, people who work in the coal industry and groups campaigning against coalmining.
We will visit coalmines and major power stations, as well the sites of the two proposed new coal-fired power stations at Bayswater (near Muswellbrook) and Mt Piper (near Lithgow).
We want the Just Transition Tour to open up a discussion with members of these communities about how we can begin to phase out coal while protecting and creating good quality jobs in sustainable industries.
We will take the message to the federal and state governments too. In fact, we are considering issuing a warrant for the citizen's arrest of NSW primary resources minister Ian Macdonald for the government's approval of new coalmines and power stations.
How many people are going, and have you received much support for the tour?
At the moment we expect to have about 30 people on the bus. People from all different walks of life are coming — from students and activists to parents, kids and professionals.
Our tour guide is Graham Brown, an ex-coalminer. We've had support from all sorts of places, including the Mayor of Muswellbrook, Leichhardt Council, Climate Action Newcastle and the student association at the University of Newcastle.
You are meeting with a few anti-mining groups along the way. What are some of the campaigns they are running?
Around Singleton there's a lot of concern over the health impacts of coal dust, so we'll be meeting with community members to hear about that.
In Caroona we'll camp at the site of a blockade that local farmers have kept up for more than a year to stop BHP from drilling to explore for coal on their land. They are concerned that coalmining would undermine underground water supplies and threaten agriculture.
In Mudgee we'll meet people from Save the Drip who are trying to prevent an expansion of long-wall coalmining. The mining has a devastating effect on underground aquifers and river systems.
What responses do you expect to get from the communities you travel through?
We already know we have support from the groups we'll be visiting. But in terms of the general community, we are obviously prepared to get a fairly mixed response.
Right now we know that a bunch of climate change activists coming through the heart of coalmining country talking about getting rid of coal is not going to receive an open-armed welcome from everyone.
That's because you've got the Australian Coal Association (ACA) running a scare campaign that is very manipulative. It has advertisements in local newspapers and on TV telling people the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is going to mean big job losses.
The government hasn't talked at all about a transition away from coal either — its not prepared to face the facts on coal and climate change. So we're raising a pretty new and radical idea.
Having said that, these communities do care about climate change — a 2007 CSIRO survey found that 92% of respondents believed climate change should be addressed by urgent action, and an equal number were for and against the use of coal.
So there is a diverse range of opinions on this issue — not everyone wants to see the coal industry continue, let alone expand.
We're not anti-jobs — we're actually talking about significant job creation in renewable energy. But we need a planned phase-out, supported by the government, to ensure alternative jobs and full compensation for those in the coal industry.
[For more information phone Laura on 0406 793 716 or visit www.transitiontour.wordpress.com.]