How the Adani mine and its consequences are pictured

images

issues

Dead Reef

Polluted planet

‘Dots joined’ between actions and consequences, creating a ‘picture’ of where responsibility lies

Governments risk ‘stand[ing] guilty of a shocking failure to protect our Great Barrier Reef and the 70,000 jobs that depend on it’ (AMCS, 2017).

Reef in danger

Government as (failed) protector

Huge swathes of the Reef are now dead (350, 2016).

The mine ‘will trash the already besieged Great Barrier Reef ’(350, 2017).

Dead Reef

Trash

Siege

“The Premier and the Reef Coast mayors should be back in Australia, to confront this Reef emergency Australian Marine Conservation Society

Opportunities to invoke imagery of emergency services and align Stop Adani with their work

Absence from duty to address emergency

“another mass bleaching event is currently underway. The health of the Reef is a national emergency. The Federal and State governments must reject Adani’s mine, or be accountable for locking in the death of the Reef over coming decades”. Imogen Zethoven AO, Great Barrier Reef campaigner for AMCS, 2017).

(2) The Adani project

‘…this deathly project…’  (AMCS, 2017)

Death

Almost Adani as horror movie

‘If the Carmichael mine were to proceed it would tear the heart out of the land…. It would literally leave a huge black hole, monumental in proportions, where there were once our homelands. These effects are irreversible. Our land will be “disappeared”’ (Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council, 2015).

Tearing

Heart

Monumental black hole

Disappearing

Violence

Continuation of colonisation

Authoritarian actions

‘Coal is a dirty, dying industry and polls show the majority of Australians are appalled that Adani is getting a $1 billion handout of public money to finance a project banks won’t touch’ (Australian Conservation Foundation 2017).

Dirt

Death

Handout

An industry of the past

Adani as welfare recipient

Government taking actions that banks would refuse to take

(3) Tourism consequences

‘My business is already impacted by global warming, killing the coral that makes the Great Barrier Reef one of the seven wonders of the natural world. Queensland’s tourism industry can’t afford to stand by silently and allow projects like Adani’s Carmichael mine put our livelihoods and future at risk’ (AMCS, 2017).

‘Global warming puts at risk the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Queenslanders who work on the Reef”

Whitsunday tourism reef operator Dr Lindsay Simpson queried the accuracy of the Qld Premier’s claims the mine would create 10,000 jobs and made clear to her of the damage from climate change to her tourism business and others, risking 70,000 jobs’ (Australian Marine Conservation Society, 2017).

(4) Impact on farmers

Queensland grazier Bruce Currie: “Agriculture is key to the nation’s economy and my farming business is 100 percent dependent on groundwater. Palaszczuk and Turnbull are blind to the importance of our groundwater resources. It is a disgrace that Adani will get free access to unlimited water, with the associated risks to the Great Artesian Basin” (Australian Conservation Foundation 2017).

[Adani] Robs our water… Adani’s mine will: • suck out at least 270 billion litres of groundwater over the life of the mine • Risk damaging aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin – the sole water source for much of rural Queensland (Stop Adani, 2020).

(5) Aboriginal rights

The W&J people have said No to Adani’s Carmichael mine, time and again, yet our Governments have overridden our rights and are giving it their approval. This mine would obliterate our country and drain and poison our waters. It would destroy ancient and irreplaceable cultural landscapes and heritage sites. It would sever our deep and abiding connection to our ancestral lands. And it would play a massive part in detonating ‘a carbon bomb’, fueling run-away climate change’ (Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council, 2015).

(6) Ethics

“Basically, the government is using the drug dealer’s defence — the argument that if we don’t dig up this coal and burn it, somebody else will,” said ACF’s CEO Kelly O’Shanassy. “This drug dealer’s defence is unethical and mocks the efforts of countries that are working to reduce global climate pollution, as Australia agreed to do under the Paris Agreement (Australian Conservation Foundation, 2017).

‘Despite the differences in our faith, we all regard addressing the climate emergency as our shared moral challenge. We stand together for our common home, the Earth’. (Open letter the the Australian Prime Minister from Australian religious leaders, 2019)

Governments need to ‘find their moral compass’ (AMCS, 2017).

(7) Climate consequences

‘If this mine goes ahead it will spell more heatwaves, more climate bleaching and the end of our Reef’ (350, 2016).

“The mining and burning of coal from the Carmichael mine will see 4.7 billion tonnes of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere over its lifespan, super-charging dangerous global warming (AMCS, 2017).

‘Coal Kills… Pollution from burning coal is the single biggest contributor to dangerous global warming, threatening our way of life. Coal mining drains and pollutes our water supplies, harms our health and destroys our natural landscape. Coal is not safe. It is killing workers, communities, and our planet’ (Stop Adani, 2020).

(8) Prominent  Australians opposed to Adani

Eminent Australians who have signed the open letter include senior business leaders, sporting legends, Australians of the Year, authors, musicians, scientists, economists, artists and community leaders. Names include Ian and Greg Chappell, Missy Higgins, Tim Winton, Peter Garrett AM and businessmen Mark Burrows, John Mullen and Mark Joiner (Australian Conservation Foundation, 2017).