Aussie participants in Sumud Flotilla welcomed home, rallies, markets and a court case kept Nannas busy, being informed about coal-mine blasting and informing others about coal expansions.
Sumud Flotilla
Family, friends and supporters of the traumatised crew of the Sumud Flotilla say welcome home and thank you for keeping hope alive. Three Nannas were at Sydney Airport to greet them on Monday morning 25 May.
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, must now break up their friendship with Israel.
Origin Energy Rally
Nannas gave a free ‘information session’ outside Origin Energy headquarters at Bangaroo on Thursday 21 May to alert their employees, customers and the public to the company’s gas plans in Queensland.
Origin Energy wants to:
- drill 1,695 coal seam gas wells,
- construct 3,623 km of gas and water pipelines,
- build eight large gas processing facilities.
The new project would be across tens of thousands of square kilometres in Queensland – from Miles on the Western Downs to Rolleston in the north, and east of the Carnarvon Highway.
More than 10,000 coal seam gas wells have already been drilled across inland Queensland, including through some of the state’s best farming country. Endangered species, farmland and the water that communities and the environment depend on have all been seriously impacted.
Origin’s Climate Transition Action Plan says it aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% from 2019 baseline within 5 years and reach net zero, including customer emissions, by 2050.
Origin’s employees and their 4.5 million customers may want to tell the company that a new coal seam gas project does not fit with their claims of being an ethical, climate-aware company.
If you are an Origin customer make a complaint here, and/or change to an energy supplier that cares about our kids and our planet.
Thanks to Ellen and Jane of Lock the Gate for supporting us with this activity.
Illawarra Rally to protect Sydney’s drinking water
Illawarra Knitting Nannas Against Greed (I KNAG) and Sydney Nannas joined around 60 other people for a rally outside the Wollongong office of the Planning Minister, Paul Scully, on Saturday 16 May.
Speakers included Cooper Riach of the Sutherland Shire Environment Centre, who spoke against the expansion of the Peabody Metropolitan mine, saying “It has been relentlessly polluting the Royal National Park, Australia’s oldest national park, and simultaneously destroying our drinking water catchment. If they are allowed to expand even further, that’s even more permanent irreversible damage that we simply can’t afford. Our public drinking water is so much more important than the profits of an American-owned coal mining giant.”
Nick Clyde from Lock the Gate wore a T-shirt worn by John Barilaro 15 years ago when he promised to stop coal mining projects because of their irreparable damage and pollution to drinking water catchments and ecosystems. Barilaro moved on to become Minister for Broken Promises in the Liberal-National government and developed its 2020 policy of expanding coal exploration and mining. Barilaro’s policy remained in place after the Minns ALP government was elected, until the launch of a very similar policy in March this year.
Nick explained how calling new coal projects ‘extensions’ or ‘expansions’ hides that some are massive mines that, if approved, will do enormous damage to the natural environment, communities and the climate.
Steph Voltz of the Gardens of Stone Alliance called on Minister Scully to stop coal mining across the entire Sydney water catchment. Coal mining is happening at the Gardens of Stone, near Lithgow, and like the mining in the Illawarra, it is doing permanent harm to our drinking water.
Illawarra Nannas performed their new songs to enthusiastic applause! Lead singer and guitarist Margi Curtis sang We don’t need no longwall mining, in a parody of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. Margi called on NSW Minister for Natural Resources, Courtney Houssos to “leave our creeks alone”.
Watch the videos at Nannas rock Gong with protest songs (The Illawarra Flame)
For Nanna Cherry, the highlights of the rally were having so many Nannas there, wonderful speeches, the invigorating singing and the participation of so many young environmentalists. “It was a good day.”
Petition to the President and Members of the Legislative Council of NSW to protect the Greater Sydney drinking water catchment and more. Download and print here.
Marrickville Markets
Nannas set up on the grassy area behind the Marrickville Markets on a lovely Sunday morning, 17 May.
We chatted to people about coal, collected petition signatures and gave out leaflets on blocking huge coal mine ‘extensions’ in NSW. We helped kids to make koala masks or set them up with drawings of native animals to colour in. We found some young women who were happy to do artwork on our pennants, which we’ll be using in a future display.
We found everyone ready to talk about coal, and nearly all of them agreed that expanding coal mining is a bad policy. It felt like we were leaking NSW government secrets though – no one seemed to know that there are 20 new coal projects in the planning system. Nor did they know that the Minns government has already approved nine coal projects since they were elected in 2023.
Nannas are supporting Lock the Gate’s campaign to inform people about the expansion of coal mining and to ask them to sign a petition to Premier Chris Minns and his Ministers for Energy and Resources – Don’t pour fuel on the climate fire
The people of NSW are already living with the devastating effects of the climate crisis, in the form of fires, floods and heatwaves that threaten our families and communities.
Renewable energy is changing our domestic energy mix and reducing climate pollution, but to seriously address global warming we need to phase out the massive coal export industry.
Environment Protection Authority v Maules Creek Coal Pty Ltd
Some retirees travel, others play golf or garden, but not us Sydney Nannas! We’ve been attending the Land and Environment Court to observe Environment Protection Authority v Maules Creek Coal Pty Ltd. Nanna Bron has been our court artist.
In three weeks, we haven’t dropped a stitch but we’re having a blast learning a whole new vocabulary –
*muck pile
*wet holes
*shot firers
… sound a bit rude? not as rude as what Whitehaven Coal does when it lets off a big one…
Mine owner, Whitehaven Coal, faces eight criminal charges for alleged unlawful blasting events.
Southern Highland Data Campus Power Station
Nakar Property Pty Ltd has applied to NSW Planning to build a gas-fired power station supplying up to around 673 MW of power to support the proposed Southern Highlands Data Campus in Moss Vale. This has been declared a State Significant Development. The proponents have been asked to provide an Environmental Impact Statement. NSW Planning Portal
Cloud Carrier proposes gas-fired power station to power Moss Vale AI data centre (ABC News)
Big Tech says data centres are necessary – here’s why they’re wrong (Friends of the Earth)
Nannas are watching
The long tail: The Iran conflict and its impact on Australia’s energy outlook (IEEFA)
Meeting the Moment: how to win on climate in uncertain times – Webinar (Climate Council)
Nannas are listening to
Annie Close has a show called ‘Climate Community’ on Canberra radio 2XX98.3FM every Friday morning 11.30-noon. The May 15 show was on the High Court case about whether climate impacts should be considered during assessments of fossil projects. Sydney Nannas Cathy and Eury were interviewed. You can listen online here.
Hooting powerful owls – for listening with grandchildren – Noisy by Nature Series (ABC Kids Listen)
Love for your neighbour: how to cultivate radical empathy in a disenchanted world (ABC Listen)
Nannas are reading
Australian oil and gas company Santos offered communities help in exchange for good PR (DRILLED)
Santos writes off $1.5 billion on Australian gas project still on the drawing board (Upstream)
Australia backs landmark UN climate change ruling as others try to block it (ABC News)
‘Disastrous’ plan to allow fracking on South Australia’s Limestone Coast is a broken promise, locals say (The Guardian)
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly (The Guardian)
Forthcoming Events