A group of active members gathered in the Running Stream Hall last Friday night to hear from several passionate speakers concerned about the destruction of our land by coal and coal seam gas companies. Michael and Julie McNamara from the Northern Rivers Guardians and the Lock the Gate Alliance presented a slide show detailing the extent of land in New South Wales (approx 30%) currently under Coal Seam Gas and Petroleum Exploration Licences, including vast tracts around the Mid-Western Regional Area. They pointed out that the state government receives 10% in royalties from mining and nothing from agriculture, hence its disproportional support of the industry over farming. Unlike farmers, who pay the government to use water for irrigation, these fossil fuel industries take it for free and pollute it in the process.
The McNamara's dismissed the argument that these industries provide important jobs for communities by saying that only about 150,000 people work in mining compared to more than 500,000 in agriculture. And when farming land is destroyed and the aquifers damaged and polluted, agriculture can no longer operate there. The couple are calling for a moratorium or even a Royal Commission into the coal and coal seam gas industries until an independent assessment of their impacts has been properly conducted.
Following declarations from locals about the stress that they have been experiencing due to Centennial Coal's recent low flying helicopter surveys, Sister Patricia Powell from the Bathurst Sisters of Mercy gave an inspirational talk entitled 'Spirituality for Planetary Citizens'. She explained how the story of the Big Bang had deepened her faith. "It beats the creation story in the Bible," she said, "It's awesome!". The New Universe story alerted her to the fact that human beings are an intrinsic part of the incredible life system of the planet but because of our greedy and selfish actions, that system is now under threat. "I am the planet become conscious of itself," she explained; "God is at the heart of me and of every leaf on every tree, and in every river."
Sister Patricia practices her beliefs at the Rahamim Ecological Learning Centre, which is attached to St Joseph's Mount in Bathurst (www.rahamim.org.au). She believes that the first work to be done is remedial - healing the planet of the damage that humans have inflicted upon it. Then we need to "imagine a future where our institutions are built on a new world view", one in which we respect and nurture ourselves and our environment as an interconnected system. "We have the capacity to create a new reality", she concluded. Let's start creating it!
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