Activists marked World Environment Day (WED) — June 5 — with a protest in Bourke Street Mall that highlighted corporate plunder of the planet.
The protest was organised at late notice by Resistance after it became apparent that the usual NGO-organised WED rally in the city would not go ahead this year. The crowd ranged from 40 to 100 people during the course of the protest. Speakers included the Australian Conservation Foundation's Dave Sweeney; Adrian Whitehead from climate campaign group Beyond Zero Emissions; and representatives from the Stop the War Coalition, the Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative and Nuclear Free Australia.
"Australia must not be allowed to become the world's uranium quarry and nuclear waste dump", urged Sweeney. Whitehead said that Australia could either capitalise on, or miss out on, being a major regional supplier for a transition to renewable energy as part of a global effort to stop runaway climate change. He said that there is enormous potential for job creation in this area. Margarita Windisch from the Socialist Alliance described the radical emission reduction target in the alliance's platform of at least a 60% cut in overall Australian emissions by 2020.
Some 60 people attended a WED protest in Sydney. Elizabeth Drake reported environmentalists demonstrated outside the front gates of state parliament. A focus of the protest was opposition to the proposed Anvil Hill coalmine.
Support for renewable energy solutions as alternatives to coal and nuclear power was another focus of the protest, with chants of "No new coal!"
The action was initiated by the Sydney University Environment Collective. Participants included members of the NSW Greens, Save Anvil Hill Alliance, University of NSW Environment Collective, Palm Oil Action Group, Australian Student Environment Network, Mudgee District Environment Group, Resistance and the Socialist Alliance.
Christine Phelps, representing the Save Anvil Hill Alliance, attempted to present a petition to NSW planning minister Frank Sartor but was refused entry into parliament. The petition requested that the state government formally deny the expansion or approval of any new coalmining facilities in the Anvil Hill region. An assistant to Sartor received the petition. A miner from Musselbrook at the protest spoke-out against the expansion of coalmining, citing as a reason the massive wastage of water involved in the industry.