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What’s in this newsletter? 

1.  Upcoming Events

2.  Heads in the Sand! Join us on December 7

3.  The Elections – analysis from Jeanette Fitzsimons

4.  The IPCC – and New Zealand’s response

5.  Honey I shrunk the Board!  Bathurst Resources AGM

6. Bathurst extracts its first coal from Denniston

7. Wood energy prospects exciting

8. The “Beyond Coal and Gas Conference,” Australia

9.  Jobs After Coal report

10. From our Blog

11.  seeing off climate deniers

12. A special message from the Flat Earth Society

13. Divestment: decisions building

14. Climate voter march – report from Christchurch

15 Want to get coal news from around the world?

1. Upcoming Events

November 29-30  Step it Up – tools for systematic change (Auckland)

December 6         Ahipara Stop Statoil Concert  – and Ridesharing site from Auckland here

December 7          Heads in the Sand (National). See our Facebook event (and below for more info).

2.  Heads in the Sand – Save the Date on December 7

Our Government, with its relentless focus on minerals extraction policies and addiction to dairy, has got its head in the sand on climate change.  We’ve had enough of its weak, “let everyone else go first” attitude on climate, and its ongoing minerals extraction programme that threatens our beaches, our water, our coastlines and our Maui’s dolphins.

So we’ve decided to organise a Day of Action at beaches around the country on December 7, to send a message to the Government that we think it has its head in the sand on these issues.

The date coincides with the beginning of the second week of the international climate change talks in Lima, when our Ministers will be either there, or getting ready to leave.

We now have events set up in these places (links are to Facebook page events)

Dunedin:           1200 St Clair Beach
Christchurch     1200 New Brighton Pier
Nelson               11.30 Tahunanui Beach
Wellington        11.30 Oriental Bay
Auckland’s West Coast:  Bethells Beach, 1000 am

Invercargill:  meet on Oreti beach from 11.30 a.m. for a midday photo call, which will be followed by a family picnic. Organised by Coal Action Murihiku. Contact Jenny Campbell, 027 351 0180, jennycam@xtra.co.nz or Dave Kennedy 027  258 6686, vickbick.davek@xtra.co.nz

Ahipara:  watch for news of the event on our facebook page.

Lima: a small team of kiwis will carry out this action on Lima’s Miraflores beach.

We’re looking for an Auckland person to be an on-the-ground contact for an event at Mission Bay, because lots activists will be up north in Ahipara. If you can help with this, please email  coalactionnetwork@gmail.com

If you want to hold an event at your own beach, create a Facebook event and post it up on our main event page, and we’ll promote it for you. We’ve set up a Facebook page as an overall event page.   Also please let us know – email coalactionnetwork@gmail.com

It’s a really easy event to do – on our page we have details of the “how to” (with health and safety guidelines, plus media guidelines) and we think it’ll send a strong message.  This event was done in Australia as a message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott but, to be honest, our Government is no better.  We’ll also have a media plan to go with it and instructions to support you.

Please help us promote this event in the next two weeks by sharing on Facebook and with your friends and, of course, taking part.  

3.   The elections  

– Jeanette Fitzsimons

So: the election has come and gone and nothing has changed, except the perception that John Key has a renewed mandate to drill, mine and frack. It’s hard not to despair – so much more harm can be done in the next three years.

And of course he doesn’t really have that mandate. Surveys have shown that a substantial majority of kiwis want government to invest in clean energy rather than in extracting more fossil fuels.

But maybe it has to get worse to get better: to mobilise people to fight back. I’m just back from the Beyond Coal and Gas conference in Queensland where 270 committed activists strategised. They really have a nation-wide movement now, with more than 200 local “lock the gate” groups, a number of successful blockades and divestment campaigns, and traveling across the country to support each others’ actions.

That is not an accident; Australia is one giant fossil fuel mine, and people have reacted by becoming more active, more informed, more strategic and more co-operative. They have great communications and great financial analysis. We are going to need the same to protect Aotearoa from the new coal mines and deep sea oil fields that the Government and their corporate friends will be trying to foist on us over the next three years.

Where do you fit in? Will you join us at the next action?  Heads in the Sand, we hope, will be the first of many actions over the coming year.

4.  The IPCC – and New Zealand’s response

– Cindy Baxter

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now released its final report – and it’s not great news.  The global assessment of more than 30,000 studies concludes that climate change is here, we’re causing it. What’s more, we have to rid the global electricity system of fossil fuels by 2050 – and the world of fossil fuels by 2100 if we want to keep warming below 2degC.  Carbon Brief has a good summary of what’s in the report.

The good news is that IPCC says it’s not going to cost a lot to do this, and renewable energy is on the up, especially in developing countries.   There are so many resources on the IPCC it’s difficult to know where to start.  This video is great.  The Tree (produced by the Global Campaign for Climate Action) has  a full set of resources.

The New Zealand Government “welcomed” the report, but Climate Change Minister went on to say that he didn’t want to hurt the bank accounts of big business by adopting “The Greens Agenda”.  No, Minister, it’s not the Greens’ agenda, it’s a global one, led by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon. New Zealand’s contribution to the global debate so far has been to weaken our Emissions Trading Scheme, and suggest to the international community that the global agreement to be finalised in Paris next year should not include legally binding emissions reductions.  I have blogged on this, and a Pentagon report saying that climate change is an immediate threat to global security, here at Hot Topic.

5. Honey I shrunk the Board!

A team of hardy “faux” shareholders turned out in Wellington on the morning of Bathurst’s AGM on Friday 14 November, armed with reports and faux board members, to hold the “alternative” AGM, one that talked about a real future.  We called it our “Alternative Stakeholder Meeting”.

It was a peaceful affair, with the team managing to get into the legal offices where the meeting was held and get through about half our own stakeholder meeting agenda before one of the law firm’s partners got around to asking us to leave. By then, we’d managed to make a considerable impression on Bathurst shareholders arriving for their AGM.

We then ran through our entire stakeholder meeting on The Terrace .  There are photos and press release on our blog here and more photos on 350.org’s Facebook page.

The blog’s headline refers to the fact that Bathurst is so strapped for money they had to fire two members of their own Board to save some cash.

6.  Bathurst extracts its first coal from Denniston
-Jeanette Fitzsimons

Despite all our best efforts, we have to make the painful announcement that Bathurst is extracting its first coal from the Escarpment mine on the Denniston plateau.

For two and a half years we challenged them in the courts. From the first hearing in Westport, to Forest & Bird’s challenges in the Environment Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal, to a parallel process where we assisted West Coast Environment Network arguing whether they should have to consider the impact of the coal on climate change, which ran in the Environment Court, the High Court and eventually in the Supreme Court.

During all this Rob Morris toured with his stunning photos of the wildlife on the plateau, and Forest & Bird held “bioblitzes” to discover new species in the mine area. Finally they needed a consent to operate from the minister of Conservation who despite his title decided this exceptional biodiversity didn’t matter.

But sometimes when you lose, you win. While all this was going on the international price of coking coal dropped from over $300/tonne to $107, making mining uneconomic for Bathurst.

They have dropped their production target from 500,000 MT/y rising to 2MT/y, to just 75,000 MT in the first year. They plan to use it in the local market and to send some overseas to potential customers to prove quality. We wonder how, at that price, they plan to pay the $40m they will owe to L&M, from whom they bought the mine, once they have extracted 25,000 tonnes.

No reputable analyst expects coal prices to rise in the next few years. They will make a smallish mess of the plateau, and we are sad and angry about that, but most of the coal will stay in the ground at present prices.

Further, the next 6-7 mines they plan on the plateau are unlikely to proceed.

7.  Wood energy prospects exciting
– Jenny Campbell

The focus on using wood as an energy source was the theme at the launch of the Wood EnergySouth project in late October, with about 70 people from across Southland businesses, schools, forestry interests and local and central government intent on learning of the potential.

‘’The target from the project is to deliver 55 000 cubic metres of woodchips being delivered annually to industries such as the meat works as well as smaller businesses and schools,’’ technical support advisor, Venture Southland, Lloyd McGinty says.  The scheme had incentives on offer as well as capital support for projects switching away from coal to wood.

Two highlights of the day were site visits to McCallum Group laundry at Otepuni Avenue, Invercargill with its recycled wood chip boiler and as a contrast, Slinkskins at Thornbury with their new, state of the art industrial heat plant.

Managing Director of McCallum Group, Wayne McCallum spoke to about 30 people at his plant, about their pioneering efforts in converting from LPG and oil.  Buying a lignite boiler from a dairy factory and converting it to a wood chip boiler was a good investment, and had huge benefits in fuel savings, savings on boiler maintenance, health and safety benefits.

People were impressed with the cleanliness of the boiler room and their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint by a further 25%. Support from the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) had been invaluable with their support and advice and they are available on a continuing basis now through this Wood Energy South project, funded by the government.

Information for all the different applications for schools, industrial, commercial and service providers are on the website.

8. The “Beyond Coal and Gas Conference,” Australia
– Rosemary Penwarden

Fighter planes flew low in formation over our heads, adding to the unreality of the Beyond Coal and Gas conference near Brisbane recently; unreal because I had flown over fresh snow on the Maungatuas near Dunedin Airport to arrive in 39 degree heat in the Lucky Country, just as Australian Super Hornets had flown their 43rd sortie into Iraq as part of the US-led operation “Inherent Resolve”. The planes weren’t spying on us – there was an air force base nearby, but despite the heat it sent a chill down my spine.

There’s another war going on in Australia. On one side is a fossil fuel industry displaying all the signs of desperation as it scrapes and sucks coal and coal seam gas (CSG) from below the feet and livelihoods of Australians in a mad rush to meet shareholder expectations, endangering all in its path, including Australia’s most precious natural resource, its water.

On the other side are growing numbers of people from all walks of life, from farms and cities, young and old, black, brown and sunburned white, standing up and saying NO. Many hundreds of arrests, blockades, sit-ins, and all kinds of creative and peaceful direct action have followed community meetings. Australia’s biggest ever social movement is on the rise.

My favourite story from the weekend was of a farmer, at first defeated and depressed about the CSG invasion of his region, organising, blockading his land alongside neighbours, indigenous people and environmentalists, and finally donating 1,000 acres of it back to the local aboriginals, the nation’s ‘first owners’ (who say they do not ‘own’ Mother Earth – she owns them). Before the blockade changed his life, he had never spoken to an aboriginal person.

People power is giving the Australian government and fossil fuel industrial ‘war’ machine a run for its money and in places it’s winning.

For the amazing and inspiring story of the Bentley Blockade in the Northern Rivers, NSW: http://csgfreenorthernrivers.org/about-the-csg-free-campaign/

Front line action on coal to save the Laird State Forest.

Lock the Gate alliance

I felt privileged to meet so many committed, ‘ordinary’ people who understand the science and threat of climate change, who understand what needs to be done and are doing it. They are not defeated. They will win.

9. Jobs After Coal report
– Rosemary Penwarden

Jeanette and I took CANA’s Jobs After Coal report to Australia in the last week of October, to the Beyond Coal and Gas conference where we met up with around 270 campaigners against coal and coal seam gas. Our “Just Transitions” workshop attracted a big crowd and plenty of discussion.

We’re at different stages in the shift away from coal here in New Zealand, with half the coal mining workforce already gone in the past few years, but layoffs and mine closures are now increasing in Australia. Discussions are underway in the Aussie union movement and, as in New Zealand, the transition to renewables is happening despite a backward-looking, head-in-the-sand and hand-in-the-coal-industry’s-pocket government.

One of the really interesting movements taking root there is Earthworker Co-operative – a community-led initiative to provide sustainable, wealth-creating jobs that empower local communities and provide clean energy solutions.

10. On our blog

What you may have missed in our recent blogs:

Why would a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement be bad for the climate? Tim Jones explains.

National’s Mining Agenda Has Failed by Tim Jones: After two terms of promoting mining, and bending over backwards to accommodate mining, and opening up conservation land and the seabed to mining, and removing legal impediments to mining – National has nothing to show for it.

11. Seeing off climate deniers

We were struck with horror on the morning on 4 November when TVNZ’s Breakfast show ran a full interview with the NZ Climate Science Coalition’s Bryan Leyland as part of its IPCC coverage.

They just let him talk his terrible nonsense about how the world wasn’t warming.  A really good blog went up on Hot Topic about how wrong Leyland was, and many of us set about tweeting to TVNZ, commenting on their Facebook post and making formal complaints.  We understand our climate scientists were also pretty upset.

By the afternoon, TVNZ had gotten the message, and took the whole story and video down off its website.  They left their Facebook post up, which links to nowhere, but which has the deluge of outrage.  Thanks to everyone who joined the fray – it was worth it.  Let’s hope TVNZ is a little more careful when considering interviewing climate cranks like this in the future. Leyland is an engineer, and not a climate scientist,  and to let him have such a clear run in the face of a global assessment of 30,000 studies was terrible.

We would like to see TVNZ taking a look at how it covers scientific issues, especially climate science, just as the BBC has. The BBC’s Trust has issued guidelines on science reporting.  Its review says:

“The BBC has a duty to reflect the weight of scientific agreement but it should also reflect the existence of critical views appropriately. Audiences should be able to understand from the context and clarity of the BBC’s output what weight to give to critical voices…. Judging the weight of scientific agreement correctly will mean that the BBC avoids the ‘false balance’ between fact and opinion”

12. A special update from the Flat Earth Society.

There’s this outfit called the Flat Earth Society who want to be friends with those who claim global warming is a conspiracy.  They sent us details of an outing they had in Dunedin on the occasion of a visit by Australian climate sceptic Bob Carter.

“On the 9th day of September in the Year of Our Lord 2014, on the occasion of the noble endeavour of His Eminence the Emeritus Bob Carter to strike down the Conspiracy of those Treacherous Scientists and Greens who have forced our government in the City of Wellington to pay homage to the dark Lords of NIWA, NASA and the veritable nest of vipers that is the IPCC, we, of the Dunedin Branch of the Flat Earth Society, had the great pleasure of welcoming Him and extending the hand of Friendship and Solidarity.

“We rejoice that we have found a like-minded soul battling such a global conspiracy, and rejoice that the esteemed and intelligent University of Otago Vice Chancellor saw fit to allow our Dear Bob to speak in our fair but misguided City. Our arm of Friendship and Solidarity extends to this Dear Lady.

“We await, with usual unlimited patience, a reply from His Eminence Bob Carter, to our humble request to share with us some of the bright fine gold that has come his way in support of his Great Mission from most venerable sources, such as the Heartland Institute and their friends ExxonMobil, Koch Brothers and Scaife Family Foundations.”

13. Divestment decisions building

New Zealand Institutions have been among the leaders of the pack on divestment from fossil fuels.  First, we had the New Zealand and Pacific diocese of the Anglican Church pledged to get out of fossil fuels.  It was followed soon after by the Dunedin City Council voting to endorse divestment.  However Dunedin still has a final decision pending:  please sign here to support Dunedin Councillors to do the right thing!).

Then this month the Victoria University Council made a similar decision.  Every week there seem to be new institutions around the world joining the fray, including Stanford University and the Rockefeller Family Fund.

In Australia, there’s been a huge debate, especially after Australian National University made the pledge, and was greeted with howls of derision from the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Education Minister, no doubt spurred on by the mining industry mouthpiece, the Minerals Council.   But the ANU has held its ground.  The whole story can be found here on The Tree (these alerts are great for people wanting to keep up with climate developments) There will be many more to follow.

We’ve seen ourselves here in New Zealand that investment in the coal industry isn’t exactly returning large sums to its shareholders, including Solid Energy and Bathurst Resources, both of which could be described right now as stranded assets.

The wave is getting bigger and we’re very proud that our institutions are part of it.   Special mention here for CANA’s own Jenny Campbell for her tireless work on the Anglican Church.

14. Climate Voter March – great turnout in Christchurch

– Rachel Eyre

A week before the election, and a week prior to the People’s Climate March that started in New York , we held our own spectacular March for Action on the Climate in Christchurch, organised by a diverse NGOs around the Climate Voter theme. Whilst we only had 300 people in contrast to New York’s 400,000 (!), the day was wet and cold and most people would be forgiven for sitting comfortably at home, resigned to the fate of a predetermined election result.  However a wide range of people did turn out with their signs and their umbrellas. We had young and old, Councillors, politicians (you can guess the colours), professionals, including a group of midwives with their babes in arms, and ordinary folk.

These people were not all your typical hardcore environmentalists. For some it was the first time they’d participated in anything like a march but felt compelled to vent their concerns.

The aim of the march was to be as inclusive as possible and to portray climate change as more than an environmental issue, but a social, health and economic one too.  The unifying message was “We want to see effective government action on climate change.”

The atmosphere was very positive and after marching down Riccarton Rd we gathered in Hagley Park for speeches, photos and the deflation of a giant-sized dinosaur representing “down with dinosaur thinking!”

Christchurch will also be one of the places aiming for a great turn out for the ‘Heads in the Sand’ event on 7 December at New Brighton Beach.

15.  Want to read Coal news from around the world?

• We can heartily recommend subscribing to CoalWire, an international newsletter for people working on coal around the world. This weekly update gives news on everything from local activism in Australia, India and China (and elsewhere) to what’s going on in the world of coal commodities.  Sign up here.
• There’s also an international website dedicated to #endcoal (that’s the hashtag from here on, twitterers).   Endcoal.org hasn’t got any kiwi stuff on it yet, but it will.

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter November 2014 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The last month or so has seen a number of revelations on several of our coal fronts.  From Solid Energy walking away from the briquetting plant in Southland to ongoing developments for Bathurst Resources’ efforts to start mining the beautiful Denniston plateau, it’s been hard to keep up with it all.  Yet still, none of them are digging up any more coal. Let’s try and keep it that way.

What’s in this update?

1.     Lignite briquetting plant

2.     Denniston update

3.     Bathurst, new neighbour in a small town

4.     Bill McKibben tour and divestment

5.     Auckland Coal Action’s fight against Fonterra’s coalmine

6.     Coming up:  Generation Zero’s “What’s the Holdup” Tour

7.     Film about “Bidder 70” coming to NZ

8.      International – and climate science catchup

9.     Other news and resources

1.  Lignite briquetting plant

The trials of the Solid Energy/GTL briquetting plant continue at Mataura, with Solid Energy announcing late last month that it will walk away from the plant.  The media covered little of this announcement, but you can find out a lot more about what’s been going on there from our press release on the day.

Given our network includes locals living near to the plant, we have been able to get a lot more information about what’s been going on there – a lot more than what the media’s been covering.  And none of it’s good.

We also managed to get, through the Official Information Act, a document showing us what we suspected: the GTL plant in North Dakota had a massive explosion and is now being dismantled.  So this technology remains experimental.  Why should beautiful Southland farmland be dug up so that GTL can continue to try out its dirty technology to sell it on to Indonesia?

Solid Energy sponsorship under scrutiny:  You may also have missed this article about the millions Solid Energy spent on sponsorship.  We call it buying out criticism and it’s something that most coal and oil companies do to stop local protest about their activities.

2.  Denniston update

The ins and outs of Forest & Bird’s legal wrangles with Bathurst have been very complicated. But now Debs Martin has set it all out in an update.  Tim wrote a blog about it, but you might want to go directly to Debs’ update.  Suffice to say, the process continues – there are still Forest & Bird appeals in the pipeline and the company continues to struggle financially.

3.  Bathurst, new neighbour in a small town

Meanwhile, down in Southland, Rosemary Penwarden went to see Bathurst’s mine at Nightcaps. This is her account of what she found.

“Open cast mining explicitly turns the soil, it’s a bit like farming, the difference is once mining’s finished you put it back.” – Hamish Bohannan, CEO of Bathurst Resources

Bathurst Resources CEO Hamish Bohannan has never actually worked in the mining industry. He’s been around minerals extraction in Australia.  But Bathurst, his so-called “New Zealand” company that wants to destroy the Denniston Plateau, is actually his first ever coal company. Trust us, he says to Coasters. We know what we’re doing. For example, see how well we are going in Southland.

Last week CANA members went to Nightcaps to see Bathurst’s Southland operation for ourselves. The first thing we noticed, apart from the acrid coal smell that sits in the back of your throat, was that the little historic art deco butcher’s shop on Nightcaps’ main road has disappeared, so mine trucks can turn more easily. At a glance, a few more houses have had a coat of paint this past year. The art deco hotel has been repainted, and is still for sale. The Four Square store is doing a roaring trade, as apparently is the local contractor, Transport Services Ltd, though trucks were all lined up and shiny with nowhere to go at this time of year. Bathurst gives the local school free coal.

Down at the mine, things are not going quite to plan. Last year the hillside above the main pit fell in, sending about four million tonnes of overburden onto the coal. Bathurst paid the farmer about $14 million (one neighbour thought it was $40 million plus payouts) for the $1.1 million property.

The land is on a fault line, so is prone to slipping. That also makes the seams variable in size and the coal variable in quality. As local miners know, the best coal is already long gone. One miner said he prefers lignite to Takitimu coal. (When Mataura briquettes were mentioned, we only got chuckles.)

That has not stopped Bathurst opening a new pit, Coaldale, along the western side of the town, doubling the size of their operation. This is also prone to slipping. When we were there the same sticky mud that foiled 19th century miners was still foiling Bathurst and their contractors, Stevensons. Operations stopped completely the previous week because of snow, and wet weather was slowing work while we were there. “Smoko” appeared to last the whole hour and a half of our visit. What looked like a small waterfall was described as “just runoff” into the pit.

A new and very expensive coal sorter is supposedly arriving soon from Germany to replace the current dangerous (but still in action) old one. Where does Bathurst get the money to pay for this? It didn’t look like they were making much while we were there.

The next phase of Bathurst’s expansion plans would be “hilltop removal” of currently forested land even further to the west, near the town’s beautifully preserved and meticulously kept cemetery. A walk around this cemetery is a peek into a history, common to all mining towns, of tragedies, young men’s lives lost to coal.

4.  Bill McKibben tour: Divestment discussions begin – and campaign takes off internationally

In the wake of Bill McKibben’s tour of the country last month, many people are beginning to discuss divestment campaigns. It’s what Bill was encouraging, and we at CANA are also getting to grips with it.  Standby for updates to come soon.

Meanwhile, Jenny Campbell of Coal Action Murihiku and member of the Dunedin Climate Justice Group, has this news:

Divestment begins in Anglican Church. Good news!

People from Auckland’s St Paul’s Cathedral Climate Change Action group have organised a motion to be presented at their Diocesan Synod (decision making body) in September about encouraging those involved in investing funds on behalf of the church, to be required to divest from companies involved in extraction and/ or production of fossil fuels within 2 years, and not to invest in any new fossil fuel initiatives as part of their commitment through their present ethical investments policies. Their accompanying notes help explain the imperative for this action.

They have plans to spin it around all the other New Zealand Dioceses to get them to action this policy as well. They intend to get the Bishops involved and think there will be a keen interest in doing this because of Anglican’s commitment to ‘Care of Creation’ as one of the guiding principles of the Anglicans internationally. We have a special responsibility here in Aotearoa/ NZ because  ours is a 3 tikanga church involving not only Maori and Pakeha but also Pasifika peoples who are already seeing the effects of climate change on their people, other living things, their way of life and their economy.

It is hoped to appeal to other peoples of faith in our country to join us with this decision and ensure divestments in the places we have influence.

Rangimarie, kia kaha

Jenny.

But there are also very good signs coming out of the US, where President Obama made his first big climate change speech.  Along with talking about needing to stop emissions from coal, both at home and with international US investment banks,  Obama specifically called on people to “divest” from fossil fuels to bring about social change.

The campaign is beginning to take hold.  The massive United Church of Christ has adopted a resolution to divest from fossil fuels.  Dutch bank Rabobank has announced it will not invest in shale gas (will this policy be repeated by Rabobank in NZ?), and a huge Financial group in Norway, Storebrand, has pulled its investments out of 19 companies associated with Canada’s filthy tarsands.

5.  Auckland Coal Action support fight against Mangatawhiri coal mine

The main focus of ACA’s work this year is opposing the new coal mine planned for Mangatawhiri near Auckland. The mine will be owned by Fonterra and is intended to supply its factories for drying milk powder.

Last month we stood along state highway 2, near the proposed mine site in protest as a long line of cars filed back to Auckland after the holiday weekend.

Locals weren’t keen to get out with us in front of their friends and neighbours, but were happy for us to be there. And, make no mistake, they are strong in their opposition to the mine. Last month they held the inaugural meeting of the Coal Free Mangatawhiri group with around 20 founding members.

This week we are busy painting anti-coal signs to go up on Mangatawhiri properties, as requested by some of the locals. For next month we will be organising to get as big a contingent as possible to attend the consent hearings for the mine.

To get in touch with us, or, if you would like to help, please email aucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Our next meeting will be on Saturday 4 August, 1-4 pm at the Quaker House 113 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland. New members welcome.

6. Coming up:  Generation Zero’s “What’s the Holdup” Tour

Coming to a town near you, from next week,  is Generation Zero’s “What’s the holdup tour”.  It’ll be a great opportunity to talk transport solutions, obstacles to climate action and showcase Aotearoa’s opportunities to move beyond fossil fuels.   They’ll have high level experts – and young Kiwis who are working on solutions.

This very positive-sounding tour will be at 13 different towns up and down the country, with the first in Dunedin on Monday 15^th.

Find out more here. Or their facebook page.

7.    Bidder 70 film coming to NZ

Tim de Christopher, a young US climate activist, was recently released from two years in federal prison for bidding at a US oil and gas auction as an act of civil disobedience. Bidder 70, a documentary just released in the United States, tells the story.

Of the film, Tim says: “At this point of unimaginable threats on the horizon, this is what hope looks like.”  He says that his actions of civil disobedience are appropriate to the scale of the crisis we face.

Of the environmental movement, Tim says:

“The way the environmental movement has been, it’s like a football game. And our team is getting slaughtered. The refs have been paid off and the other side is playing with dirty tricks. And so, it’s no longer acceptable for us to stay in the stands. It’s time to rush the field. It’s time to stop the game.”

Climate groups around Aotearoa, including CANA and with the support of Greenpeace NZ, have banded together to bring Bidder 70 to New Zealand, beginning with a first screening in Wellington later this month. We hope to have a local Coal Action presence at each screening, and we want as many people as possible to see this film.

Watch the trailer  And Watch Tim on the David Letterman show 

Share these! Keen to help? Email Rosemary rose.p@ihug.co.nz for details.

8.  International – and climate science catchup

Arctic melt picks up

This year’s Arctic melt is starting to take a nosedive.  While it isn’t yet at the same low levels at this time last year, it’s worth keeping an eye on.  This page gives you daily updates.  Also worth noting that the Arctic tundra is suffering unprecedented fires from a heatwave up there.

Climate consensus

In case you missed it, this new study was released, showing that more than 97% of scientists agree that global warming’s man made, caused by the burning of fossil fuels.   On the back of the study they launched the Consensus Project – do check it out, as it has great graphics you can use in your own work and send to friends.

400ppm milestone reached

Since our last newsletter, the atmosphere reached a scary milestone – of 400ppm of C02 in the atmosphere.  This is not something we were aiming for, unfortunately, indeed even 350ppm is considered not very safe, especially for our Pacific Island neighbours.  This is the highest it’s been since humans walked the planet. Since the Pleistocene, 3-5million years ago.  Of course the NZ media pretty much ignored it.  Scientist Jim Salinger wrote a great piece in the NZ Herald, who then went and “balanced” it with a piece by climate denier Chris de Freitas two days later that was riddled with basic scientific errors. The sooner our media stops treating climate denial as having equal standing with our climate scientists, the better.

NZ and global warming

The wild weather we’ve been having is not going to be an unusual event in the future, warns Victoria University’s Dave Frame.  Indeed, this is the same message delivered by James Renwick after the Wellington storm. While that storm couldn’t be put down to climate change, Dr Renwick noted to Radio New Zealand that actually every storm we get now “has a little bit of climate change in the background” as our warming world loads extra moisture into the atmosphere.

Australia lignite fight:  There’s another fight going on around lignite vs farmland – in Australia’s state of Victoria, where the Government wants to dig up all the lignite (brown coal) under some of the state’s most fertile farmland. This great feature covers it all.

Also, on Australia, Kristin Gillies and Jenny Campbell were lucky enough to spend three days with a bunch of coal activists from across the country.  Read their account of the meeting.

9. news and resources 

RMA “reforms”

We’re all very worried about the impact of the proposed RMA reforms.  The Greens have got an open letter to Amy Adams calling on her to save the RMA.  If you want to support the campaign and sign this, go here.

Coal for Steel

You may have missed Jeanette Fitzsimon’s great editorial in the Nelson Mail about the alternatives to coal for making steel.

Coromandel Watchdog closes down drillrig for 30 hours

While this isn’t about coal, it’s about inspiration – congratulations to our brave colleagues in the Coromandel who shut down a Newmont Gold drilling rig on conservation land for 30 hours last weekend.  See the story on TVNZ. And the full story and photos from the team over at their website.

The post Newsletter July 2013 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Kia Ora Koutou

Welcome to the Coal Action Network Aotearoa’s first newsletter for 2013!

As you are all very much aware, Solid Energy has gone into freefall.  Not only has CEO Don Elder resigned, but the company is now reporting a $389m debt.
But there’s a lot more going on with coal around the country, not least a new proposal by Fonterra to open a mine in the upper North Island at Mangatawhiri.

What’s in this newsletter? 

1.  Upcoming events
2.  Solid Energy’s lost CEO – and its massive debt
3.  Fonterra’s new coal mine
4.  Denniston ruling imminent
5. The Wise Response Appeal on climate change
6.  Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival
7.  What about our drought? Has it got anything to do with climate change?
8 The world hasn’t warmed?
9  International
– Australia’s “Angry Summer”
– Renewable Energy setting records everywhere
– China’s carbon tax

1. Upcoming events:

There don’t appear to be too many events listed here: if you have any coming up for the next newsletter please let us know at coalactionnetwork@gmail.com.

7 March: Meeting at Mangatawhiri for locals who want to oppose Fonterra’s proposed coal mine there (see story below). Speaker on health effects of coal mining, Jim Salinger on effects of climate change on farming; how to make a submission opposing the new coal mine. Organised by local people with support from Auckland Coal Action.

7 March: Wellington “Keep the Coal in the Hole” group meeting, 6pm, CBD Meeting Room 2, ground floor (near stairs), Wellington Central Library. All welcome.

8 March:  Dunedin launch of a new appeal called Wise Response, an initiative calling for Government to investigate the real threats to our way of life and economy.   1.15pm, Otago Museum Reserve, Dunedin/Hutton Theatre opposite if wet.  Public meeting in the evening at 7.30 pm, Castle One Lecture Theatre, Otago University.

2.  Solid Energy’s massive debt

So much has happened since the last newsletter, including the resignation of CEO Don Elder and the news last week that the company is $389 million in the red.

But it was only when board chair Mark Ford was asked on Radio New Zealand about the lignite projects that we discovered he didn’t see the Mataura lignite projects as a “core activity” for the company.

We have been cheering – it does seem, for now, that lignite is dead.  These 3.1 billion tonnes of coal under fertile Southland farmland that Solid Energy has permits for, we hope, will stay in the hole.  (There’s 6.8 billion tonnes in total).

But the future of the briquetting plant is still unclear. There are questions to be answered.  Will GTL, Solid’s partner in briquetting, take it further?  If so, how?  It has to be commissioned first!

What we do know is that the company lost an awful lot of money betting on a coal price that was far too high, and in hopeless coal projects such as the Mataura lignite project, the Huntly Coal Seam Gas project, Spring Creek and Huntly East.  Together, these projects totalled a whopping $116million of write down, whereas the renewable energy projects racked up just $36million in write down.

The spin has been quite something: from Westport Mayor Tony Kokshorn, to Bill English to Campbell Live, they’ve all blamed Solid’s renewables investments.

Solid Energy’s renewable investments were made under the Labour government that placed a biofuel obligation on all motor fuel sales. This was then replaced by National’s subsidy, which National then cancelled.

The 2008 ETS would have made coal and gas more expensive (as it is supposed to), but the Government watered it down.   There would also have been a better market for wood pellets. The company also made the mistake of going for the export market for the pellets, failing to recognise there was a good market here in New Zealand.

We also know that Solid Energy never gave a business plan to Treasury (who didn’t ask for it).

There’s a lot more to say about Solid Energy, and Rosemary has said it very well over on our blog, posted yesterday.

Indeed, sign up to be alerted whenever we post a new blog (this is especially important for those of you who are not on facebook).  It won’t be like spam, as we don’t post too many of them.

3.  Fonterra’s new coalmine at Mangatawhiri 

“Would you like to taste some of Fonterra’s fine products? Here you are – it comes with coal!”

This was the opening line from milkmaids stationed outside Fonterra’s HQ yesterday, offering various dairy products to passers by – dairy products that come with a lump of coal.

Full download of the action, with photos, here at Auckland Coal Action’s website.

Glencoal, wholly owned by Fonterra, has applied for consents for an open cast mine on farmland at Mangatawhiri on SH2.  Planned to produce 120,000 tonnes a year, it would take over from the Kopako 3 mine that currently supplies the dairy factories at Waitoa, Hautapu and Te Awamutu.

With the Kopako coal running out in 2014, it’s a good time to start the phase out of coal in favour of the locally-available waste wood.

A public meeting will be held at Mangatawhiri tomorrow (Thursday).

See Auckland Coal Action’s site for details on submissions and how to make one. Deadline: 28 March.

4.  Legal update:   Denniston  and the Supreme Court. 

The Environment Court’s ruling on Bathurst’s Denniston mine is expected any day now.  Keep an eye on the blog, facebook pages and network emails.

For those of you in Wellington,  Tuesday and if needed Wednesday (12 and 13 March) will see the Supreme Court hearing appeal against the High Court decision that the law prohibits anybody from arguing climate change under the RMA in consent hearings.  This is the tiny West Coast Environment Network up against the might of Bathurst and (well, perhaps a lesser might today) Solid Energy.  The court is in Lambton Quay up near Parliament and starts at 10 am on Monday.

5.  The Wise Response Appeal on climate change
 
A new appeal is being launched this week, calling on the NZ Parliament to act on climate change.  Wise Response is supported by 100 celebrated New Zealanders.  It underlines and stresses the urgency of the issue, the need for economic and energy security, and business continuity.

“The issue: The links between global climate change, fossil fuel extraction and combustion, and a stable economy are deeply concerning.  Climate change (including extreme weather ‘bombs’) and other resource constraints threaten our ability to meet our environmental and social obligations for the next generation.

Today, most scientists believe critical “thresholds” are upon us, that the consequences are likely to be disastrous and irreversible if we do not make urgent fundamental changes. So far, successive NZ governments have failed to truly face up to such unprecedented threats to our collective security. We therefore call on the NZ  Parliament to dispassionately assess the risks in five priority areas and from those recommendations, design cross-party policies to avert any threats confirmed.”

If you’re in Dunedin on Friday head down to the launch at 1.15, or go to the public meeting at 7.30 pm at Otago University’s Castle One lecture theatre.

6.  Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival 

A great team gathered in Southland at the end of January to take part in this year’s summer festival.  This time it was hosted by Coal Action Murihiku, so it’s only fitting that they report back – See this link to their latest newsletter.  For those of us not from the region, we were impressed with the strength of local support gathered by CAM since last year’s festival. Here’s our Press Release from the meeting’s open day on the Sunday. And here is Gareth Renowden’s very useful briefing on the latest in climate science.

7.  What about our drought? Has it got anything to do with climate change? 

What we’re seeing now we can expect to be the “new normal” toward the end of this century, scientists say.  But unfortunately the New Zealand media doesn’t appear to be linking the record drought to this issue, except for a piece by climate denier Chris de Freitas in the NZ Herald last week. Climate scientist Jim Salinger commented on the drought last week in The Herald. 

“Climate scientist Jim Salinger said conditions were following the same pattern as four years ago.

“It’s all over the North Island, apart from Horowhenua to Wellington, which is exactly as it was in 2007-08. 
 He said the North Island could expect hot, dry summers like this to become the norm because of climate change.”

8 The world hasn’t warmed? 

Some of you may have been reading the increasing bleating by climate deniers that the world hasn’t warmed in [16,18,23] years.  This is not borne out by the facts, as explained by this article. You may find it useful when being confronted by this so-called “fact”.  Also, just recently posted in US magazine Mother Jones, is a very helpful guide on how to talk with a sceptic.

9  International 

Angry summer: Australia’s hottest summer on record

Australia’s Bureau of meteorology has now confirmed that they have just suffered the hottest summer on record.  This brought a terrible combination of both heatwaves and floods.  The Bureau’s climate scientists Blair Trwein Karl Braganza explained the links with climate change in this great piece on The Conversation. Some excerpts:

 “the most significant thing about all of these extremes is they fit with a well established trend in Australia — it’s getting hotter, and record heat is happening more often.

“Six of Australia’s ten hottest summers on record have come in the last 11 years, meaning that very hot summers have been occurring at about five times the rate you would expect without a warming trend.”

And

“By the end of the 21st century, the record summer of 2013 will likely sit at the very cooler end of normal.”

The Australian Climate Commission has released its report, “Angry Summer” that sets out the record heat – and rain – in the country.

And while we’re on climate, this story in The Guardian was important in the ongoing battle to reveal the funding behind the climate denial industry. We have our own set of climate deniers here in NZ and they are well-linked to this international network.  Here’s a little map of our lot.

Renewable Energy setting records everywhere 

In January, every single megawatt of new generating capacity added to the US grid was renewable.
Germany set a record in solar installations in 2012.
In Spain, 25% of electricity in January came from wind.

China announces it’ll set up a carbon tax; coal exports to drop

China has indicated that it will include a price on carbon in a new round of environmental taxes to tackle pollution.  And on the back of that, Deutsche Bank is predicting an 18% drop in global exports of thermal coal.

The post Newsletter Feb/March 2013 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Are the lignite projects dead, or just dormant? Why have so many directors left the Solid Energy Board? Who are the keynote speakers at Summerfest? And what went on at the Doha climate talks, where our intrepid Cindy had the real inside story?

This is the last newsletter for the year, compiled by Jeanette, and combines November and December, with the next one planned for after Summerfest, around the start of February. Tim is taking a well-earned break from the newsletter edit while he catches up with other work.

Contents

1. Summerfest
2. Rob McCreath in Dunedin
3. What’s up internationally?
4. What up with Solid Energy?
5. What’s up with Bathurst?
6. In brief….
PCE on fracking
Powershift

1.  Summerfest returns: book now! 

Of course, the best way to update during this period is to come to Summerfest! Registrations are now open.

The link to the registration form is at the bottom of the registration page:
The programme is here.
The festival will be held in Gore, Southland, 18-21 January 2013. This year it’s called “Shaping our Future: we have options”

Key overseas guest will be Rob McCreath, chair of Friends of Felton, who this year succeeded in stopping a giant open cast coal mine and associated Di-Methyl-Ether chemical plant in the headwaters of the Murray-Darling river system, on good quality agricultural land. Come and hear how they did it!

Other great speakers include science writer Gareth Renowden on what has happened to the climate over the last year; ECO’s Cath Wallace on landowners’ rights; Peter Hardstaff from WWF on the BERL report they commissioned into alternative economic development paths for Southland, without the lignite. Workshops, great food, music, networking, strategising and action- based campaigning.

2. Rob McCreath in Dunedin

Dunedin folk are pleased to announce that Rob McCreath, founding president of Friends of Felton will be speaking in Dunedin on his way to Gore – Wednesday 16 January, 7pm at English Language Matters, Level 2, Evan Parry House, 43 Princes St (just south of the Octagon).

3.  International update

Update from Cindy:

I’ve just returned from Doha, from the last round of climate talks.  We didn’t expect to get much this year, and this was confirmed at the end of a long and difficult two weeks.   I was blogging for Hot-Topic – some links below.

The NZ Government proved to be at its most embarrassing yet – and won the dubious “colossal fossil” award for the first time – shared with Canada. My blog on it here.  Our Government backed away from Kyoto’s second commitment period, and tried (but failed) to get new rules that would allow us to trade emissions under the new regime.  Instead, we are now locked out of Kyoto’s trading rules after the end of 2015 and the future of our (already very weak) ETS is in doubt.  Let’s see what happens, but it means that we might actually have to start cutting emissions one day.

The talks also
·      severely curtailed the use of “hot air” in Kyoto’s second phase.
·      Agreed to only “continue talking” about climate finance, where developed countries have promised, by 2020, to provide $100 billion a year for developing countries to adapt to climate change and shift to renewable energy. This was a massive disappointment to the developing world, who have been waiting since these promises were made in 2009.
·      Agreed to keep discussions of “loss and damage” on the table – this was a major win for the developing world. Kit Vaughan at WWF explains.

Meanwhile scientists warned that we still have the ability to keep global warming below two degrees C, but that this window is closing. Waiting until 2020 for this new global agreement that our Minister Tim Groser seems to be trying to stake his reputation on would mean we have few choices left as a society.

4.  Solid Energy update

There is still no sign of the opening of the Mataura briquetting plant – still the same “hoping by the end of the year” statements. There is still no fertiliser partner for the urea plant which remains at the stage of a “feasibility study” (read: papers on a desktop). They are selling some of the 4,000 ha of farmland they purchased over recent years for lignite mining. There is still no prospect of any capital for their Think Big projects as the company is in no state to be privatised.

The chair of the Board, John Palmer, has been replaced by Mark Ford, and three directors have left the Board, before the end of their terms. Neville Snedden, a mining engineer from Australia, is the only replacement so far. Rumour has it that those to go were proponents of the lignite projects and that the shareholding ministers who appoint them may not be hugely supportive of these flights of fancy.

However Solid Energy has, finally and rather late, produced their Annual Report – too late for it to be reviewed this year by Parliament’s select committee, which will now have them in for questioning in February. Read it here.

It contains no major news we didn’t know about, but an interesting view of their priorities: all their 2012 targets for underground coal gasification, a dirty and poorly proven technology, were met, but none of their targets for their wood pellet operation, which they are closing down. So much for their commitment to sustainability.

The report also confirms that they have not achieved their 2012 targets for lignite-to-fertiliser, nor to liquid fuels; and that they have shifted their Coal Seam Gas project from Huntly to Taranaki where there is a much larger deep coal resource, but can’t progress this until they can access more capital. Shows how vital it is to stop the sale of the company – though their current financial woes are helping a lot with that.

It seems employment relations are at an all-time low, with the massive layoffs at Spring Creek and Huntly, and now the Westport News reporting workers have been told if they don’t accept the new work shifts then shortly they will have no choice.

Not likely to help Solid Energy achieve their objective to “continually attract, retain and develop highly competent, motivated and committed staff who ….see us as an exceptional employer.” (Annual Report p20)

5.  Bathurst at Denniston

Bathurst’s plan to open cast mine the stunning ecology of the Denniston plateau is still on hold pending two legal cases. The Environment Court appeal against the resource consent is virtually finished, though there probably won’t be a decision till the New Year.

Quentin Davies, barrister for West Coast Environment Network, succeeded in casting major doubt on the claims of financial benefit, drawing on economics work by Peter Clough of NZIER. The original consent was based largely on the huge financial benefit trumping the ecological disaster; now it turns out a lot of the “benefit” would not go to the Coast at all, but to Bathurst’s overseas shareholders.

Forest & Bird brought a strong case on the ecological values of the plateau that would be destroyed to gain this disputed economic “benefit”. We wait with interest to see how the court will deal with this.

The legal dispute over whether climate change is a valid consideration under the RMA continues. West Coast ENT has gained consent to take the case straight to the Supreme Court, by-passing the Court of Appeal, because of the public importance of the issue. That is likely to occur in March.

Then finally there will be consent for Bathurst to access the mine over conservation land from the Minister of Conservation, acting for the first time jointly with the Minister of Energy and Resources. This is based on the new criteria of the Crown Minerals Amendment Act that, if passed in its current form, will apply retrospectively to applications already under consideration. The Denniston clause, as it is being called.

6.  In brief…

The PCE on Fracking

Where fracking is for oil and gas it is not strictly part of CANA’s field of work, but where it is to obtain gas from underground coal we do take an interest as it opens up yet more fossil fuels to add their carbon to the atmosphere. Many people were disappointed the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment did not support a ban on the technology, but the strict safety conditions she recommended would be enough to stop it in its tracks for some time if they were adhered to. This is not the right industry to be self-regulating!

Powershift

Some 700 young people, mostly 16-30, gathered at Auckland University to get active on climate change. It was organised jointly by Generation Zero and 350.org and the logistics and organisation were a real credit to those involved.

It’s impossible to give more than one person’s experience as there were many simultaneous workshops and panels and hard choices to make every day. But the buzz of enthusiasm and determination were palpable. CANA and Auckland Coal Action joined forces to run an information stall at lunchtime in the quad each day and we think the message about stopping new coal mines was well received.

Campaign Resources

You can find lots of campaign resources in one place on the Resources page of our blog

How to donate to CANA

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter November/December 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

If the New Zealand cricket team needs a new spinner to replace Daniel Vettori, they need look no further than mining industry lobby group Straterra. Perhaps because Solid Energy is in a tailspin and the mining industry has been coming under challenge all around the country in recent months, they have chosen to highlight a survey carried out, in somewhat mysterious circumstances, by Pauline Colmar, formerly of survey firm Colmar Brunton, which purports to show strong public support for mining.

However, on closer inspection, the survey was worded along these lines:

Survey company: Would you swim with sharks – if sharks didn’t bite?
Lots of respondents: Yes
Survey customer press release: “Majority of New Zealanders say they love swimming with sharks”
(notice the lack of options here for a respondent to say “hang on, but sharks DO bite”).

There’s more on that survey below. We have also more on Solid Energy’s troubles and their future plans; more on the forthcoming Powershift conference in December and 2013 Summer Festival in January; and the latest news on Denniston legal action.

Check out our international section that discusses the links between climate change and the horrific “Superstorm Sandy” in the US this week. Our thoughts are with the families of the people who died,  from the Caribbean to the US and Canada, and with those suffering in the devastation Sandy left in its wake.

Editor’s Note: In February 2011, I took on the job of editing a monthly “Supporters’ Update” for the Coal Action Network Aotearoa. That first update had five items. The September 2012 CANA newsletter had fifteen items, including a number of sub-items. This is a reflection of the breadth, depth and growth of our campaigns, but it’s all getting a bit much for your frazzled editor. So I am taking a break from newsletter editing duties to focus on the other work I should be doing for CANA, but keep on running out of time to get around to!

Along with a change of editor, we’re also going to take another look at how we put together the newsletter, aiming to reduce both its length and the effort required to produce it while still bringing you up-to-date news about our campaigns and the coal industry’s manoeuvres.  Please take part in our upcoming survey.

Regards
Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

1. Coming Events
2. More Spin Than Shane Warne
3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips
4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November
5. Powershift 2012
6. International News
7. TPPA Negotiations in Auckland, December 2012
8. Solid Energy: Still Not Getting It
9. Denniston Update
10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite
11. Regional Reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury, Southland
12. CANA Social Media
13. Our Blog And Website
14. How To Donate To CANA

1. Coming Events

November

2: Closing date for submission on the Crown Minerals Act review – see this Forest & Bird submission guide at Greenpeace’s draft submission.
3: Auckland Coal Action meeting, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd
12: Wellington Ka Nui network meeting, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contact michelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

December

3-12: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiating session in Auckland. Seehttp://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details of planned actions.
7-9: PowerShift 2012, Auckland. See http://powershift.org.nz/
8: National Day Of Action Against The TPPA. Keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details.

January 2013

18-21: Summerfest 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore

2. More Spin Than Shane Warne

Tim Jones writes:

I had recently had the dubious pleasure of attending a function at Straterra, the mining industry lobby group that is headquartered on the Terrace, conveniently near the Beehive for those Ministers who don’t like traveling too far from their natural habitat.

Cindy Baxter and I from CANA joined the mining magnates and government officials (surprisingly difficult to tell apart) at the event to hear Pauline Colmar, formerly of Colmar Brunton, discuss the research her firm carried out for Solid Energy.

Her headline message to the miners & their Ministry cheerleaders was that mining was much more popular in New Zealand than the industry thought, and that they should get out and celebrate the fact. But even the most cursory look at the figures she presented shows that the survey achieved its numbers by asking New Zealanders whether they would support coal miningif the environment could be protected, or if it didn’t lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

But here’s the problem: coal mining wrecks the environment and leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. And the survey figures show that New Zealanders don’t want either of those things. So, nice try, wannabe Shane Warnes of the mining industry. But your spin is well wide of the mark.

For more on this, see:

* CANA’s press release: 
* Claire Browning’s column in the Otago Daily Times
* Summer Burstyn’s article on LiveNews, which provoked comments both from pollsters and from the person asked to fill in the survey who alerted us to the whole shebang in the first place:
* Beau Murrah’s piece on how he persuaded the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to take the Straterra press release about the poll down from their site.

3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips

coaltips@gmail.com

Since early 2012, we have been getting interesting tidbits of information from people inside the coal industry. They have tipped us off to health and safety problems which have substantially delayed the opening of Solid Energy’s pilot briquetting plant (see the Solid Energy item below for Solid’s take on this), and also given us some other useful information on Solid Energy’s future plans.

We know that there are a lot of disgruntled people in the coal industry right now, and with good reason. So our message to people inside the industry is this: even if we don’t agree on everything, we might agree that the coal industry and its leading players need to be made accountable to the public.

If you’d like to help us with this process, or if there is some information the coal industry is hiding that you think the rest of the country should know, then all you have to do is drop us an email to coaltips@gmail.com.

You don’t have to give your name or contact details, although of course it would help us if you did. We promise to keep your name confidential if that’s what you want. You can send the message from any email address you like. And, if you’ve got a picture or a document to send us, gmail addresses can handle nice big attachments.

We think the coal industry is in trouble, and we think people inside the industry know it. This is your chance to share what you know.

4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November

In January, the Keep The Coal In The Hole Summer Festival, aka Summerfest, held on Mike Dumbar’s farm near Mataura, was a big success, not least because it led to the formation of a number of regional anti-coal action groups.

The Southland regional group Coal Action Murihiku (CAM) has taken on the job of organizing the 2013 Summerfest. This will be held from Friday 18-Monday 21 January 2013 at Dolamore Park, a beautiful native bush reserve near Gore, just outside the north-western boundary of Solid Energy’s landholdings in the Mataura Valley.

We will be putting the registration form for the 2013 Summerfest up on the website within the next few days. Please look on the site on Monday 5 November for updated information, including the registration form.

5. Powershift 2012

Generation Zero, 350.org and other groups are inviting young people (13-35) to attend the biggest youth climate summit ever held in New Zealand – and you can see all the details and registerhere.

An important part of Powershift 2012 is its outreach to Pasifika youth. 350.org.nz Pacific Outreach Coordinator Koreti Tiumalu takes up the story:

Imagine a community of Pacific youth with the passion, skills and capacity to shape a safe climate future for New Zealand, and speak out for their home Pacific Island nations. 
Over the last six months, we’ve started to make this vision a reality and have run “Pasefika Climate Change Jams” in Auckland and Wellington. Now as we build up to Power Shift NZ-Pacific, our goal is to get 100 young Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand to actively participate in the event. We will harness that energy, to then reach across NZ’s Pacific communities in 2013 and beyond.
It’s time Pacific people found themselves a seat at the table where these things are discussed and tackled – and I am excited to be a part of an organisation who has recognised the valuable contribution that Pacific people can bring to that table. We will bring colour, new ideas, new life and above all else, heart.
I’m really excited, and I’m also daunted by the work ahead. Doing all of this on top of a full-time job is a real challenge, but I’m committed to making it work, as this is just too important for it not to happen.
Your help can make a massive difference. Here’s some of the ways:

• Do you have connections with the Pacific Island communities here in NZ that we can get in contact with? Let me know at koreti@350.org
• Support the Pasefika Climate Change Jam fund – donate $20, $50 or $350 to enable us to keep reaching out to Pacific Island communities through events (or sign up as aregular giver).
• Volunteer with our Pasefika team – we need all hands on deck to build the movement. If you are keen to help us out, just drop me an email to koreti@350.org

6. International News

Superstorm Sandy’s links with climate change. 
Superstorm Hurricane Sandy has left eight US states in a state of emergency, with the death toll in the US climbing, and 39 killed in the Caribbean.  The superstorm shattered records in terms of depth of depression over the US and the storm surges, predicted to peak at 11 feet in New York, reached nearly 14 feet, causing billions in damage. It was a scary night for millions of people, and many of us in NZ were glued to the news as it unfolded, hoping friends and family were safe.  Unfortunately the forecasters got it right this time.  As we said above, our thoughts are with those who have suffered.

But how much of it was caused by climate change? While Sandy wasn’t CAUSED by climate change, there are several things we do know about it:  that temperatures in the Atlantic were higher than normal.  Some scientists suspect that the weather system coming from the Arctic was caused by the melt.
New York Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg have started making the links.

Here’s some links to more in-depth coverage of the issue.
Close Up talked about it with Kiwi climate scientist Jim Salinger.
Hurricane expert, scientist Kevin Trenberth, has a good summary here.  He talks about how all weather is now occurring against a background of a warming world.
The co chair of the US National Climate Assessment Gary W Yohe talks about how this isn’t the “new normal” – because the changes we’re seeing haven’t stopped yet.
Joe Romm at Climate Progress
Chris Mooney, science writer and author of “Storm World” on Mother Jones.
The New Yorker: Watching Sandy, ignoring climate change
You can find much, much more online, but we’ll leave you with this fantastic video, using a “baseballer on steroids” analogy to explain how the background conditions can lead to extreme weather events.

Calls to end the climate silence in the US elections
A growing chorus of NGO’s in the US have been calling for the election race to break their “climate silence” – it’s the first Presidential campaign in the US to NOT mention climate change since 1998. Why? Blame the massive increase in fossil fuel funding of the elections (to the tune of around US$150m), in particular a coal industry-led campaign against Obama’s so-called “war on coal” (never mind that it’s the gas/fracking industry driving down the demand for coal)   It’ll be interesting to see if this silence continues in the wake of Sandy’s wrath.

Australia confirms its Renewable Energy Target
The Australian Government’s newly formed Climate Change Authority has been reviewing the Renewable Energy Target – and has recommended keeping the target at the energy equivalent of at least 20% by 2020, shrugging off intense pressure from the fossil fuel industry. The final decision will be taken in December.

True cost of CCS revealed 
Remember how Don Elder keeps telling us that we can reduce coal emissions to near zero?  Well that would be using CCS – carbon capture and storage – technology. Apparently.  If Don thinks he’s got financial problems now, wait til he faces the cost of CCS.  Australia’s full report on the issue was recovered through official information and it’s not pretty.

UN warns of food crisis
Meanwhile the UN warns of a looming food crisis in 2013 in the wake of record droughts and heatwaves leading to crop failure in the US and elsewhere.

7. TPPA Negotiations In Auckland, December 2012

A parasitic organism is on its way to Auckland in early December. It is designed to grow fat on its hosts and leaves them weakened and more vulnerable.

Sounds nasty? It is. It’s called the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, it is currently under negotiation by 11 countries chivvied along by the US Government, and, if adopted as it stands by the New Zealand Government, it would significantly weaken New Zealand’s sovereignty in a whole range of areas, including our ability to impose environmental standards on foreign-owned mining companies.

The TPPA negotiating circus is coming to Auckland in early December, and a coalition has been organised to protest against these undemocratic negotiations, with a national day of action planned for 8 December. For background on why the TPPA is such a bad thing, and news of planned events and actions, keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/

8. Solid Energy Struggles To Commission Briquetting Plant, But Wants To Press Ahead With Lignite-To- Urea Plant

In the last couple of newsletters, we’ve reported on Solid Energy’s many misadventures. One that hasn’t been well reported in the news media is the delay in commissioning Solid Energy’s pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland.

As mentioned under “Coal Tips” above, we’ve heard from industry sources that serious health and safety issues have been uncovered during the construction of the plant, leading to substantial delays in commissioning it and raising fears for the health and safety of the six workers who will be employed at the plant. Of course, that’s not quite how Solid Energy put it in their recent Quarterly Report:

“Plant construction is essentially complete and the plant is working through initial commissioning procedures.  During this process some minor modifications have been required which will delay the timing of first saleable coal.  This is now expected late this calendar year.   At full production, the plant will produce approximately 90,000 tonnes per annum of briquettes.”

However, this hasn’t stopped Solid wanting to press ahead with the next idea Don Elder scrawled on the back of a napkin, his dream of a lignite-to-urea plant:

“The CTF feasibility study to confirm the economic viability, including environmental and social acceptability, of a Southland-based coal to urea development is underway. This phase of the project includes identifying project partners and selecting our preferred development partner.”

Since Ravensdown pulled out of the joint lignite-to-urea project, Solid Energy says it has been working to sign up a new partner but extensive enquiries have yielded no indication that anyone is interested. Using lignite to do what can be done more cheaply from gas doesn’t sound like a winner even in Solid Energy’s terms. However, we are not taking anything for granted, and we’ll be taking a keen interest in where, if anywhere, Solid Energy goes with this.

Note: It’s still possible to make Official Information Act requests to Solid Energy, and here’s a site that makes it really easy to do so. If you have ever wanted to find out anything from or about Solid Energy, now is a good time to ask.

9. Denniston Update

Lynley Hargreaves reports:

The Denniston Court hearing began on Monday 29 October in Christchurch. Bathurst, the district and regional councils, West Coast Environment Network, Forest and Bird, and a brave individual called Terry Sumner will start presenting their arguments at 10am at the Environment Court on 99 Cambridge Terrace. This is open to the public.

Four weeks of hearing have been planned: 29 October-1 November and 5-9 November (Christchurch), 26-30 November (Greymouth) and 3-7 December (Christchurch again). Going along is a great way to get a working knowledge of the RMA and court system and you can contact wcent@riseup.net if you want more details about when particular issues will be heard.

The case is going ahead without climate change evidence, while that battle continues on a parallel course through the courts, but pest control, landscape, invertebrates, social impacts, and biodiversity offsets will all be argued.

Also, you can read this excellent letter by West Coaster Jane Orchard about the real reason for Bathurst’s troubles.

10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite

Rosemary Penwarden reports from Dunedin:

In 2011 I wrote ‘Just Lignite’, a small booklet about Solid Energy’s Southland lignite proposals published by the Anglican Church Social Justice Commission. 15,000 have been distributed around the country. Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Justice Commissioner, and I were invited to speak on the issue in mid-October in Nelson, Motueka and Takaka. We both really enjoyed speaking with a range of people and exploring this beautiful part of the country.

The issues we face are so big. The association with the Anglican Church brought in some who may have not considered the issues before and was really valuable. Face to face discussions are a big part of what’s needed for change to happen.

Thanks so much to Top of the South group ‘Renewables’ for your hospitality and the fantastic work done in organising the tour, the amazing media afterwards and the other work being done in your region. It was great to put faces to names from the lignite discussion group and make new friends in our work towards a coal free Aotearoa.

Media reports:

Southland Times:  Anti lignite campaign on road 
Motueka online: Lignite mining an ‘international crime’
Scoop: Archdeacon speaks out against coal 

11. Regional reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury and  Southland

Note: A quick way to find contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups is on the website.

Auckland: Auckland Coal Action

Jill Whitmore reports:

We identified in mid-August that the NZ Symphony Orchestra was advertising an upcoming concert tour of major centres as “The Solid Energy Tour”, sponsored by Solid Energy, and decided  to picket the Auckland performance and put our anti-coal message out to the public. We were concerned not to alienate concert-goers, and also to make it clear that we support the NZSO though we abhor their SE sponsorship. We explained this in a letter to the NZSO management before the event.

Most of us attended the picket, including a “Climate change elephant”, and gave out leaflets to people as they arrived. (Banner: “Love NZSO, but coal cooks the climate”.) We felt the actions (2 so far) were successful, good-natured, and well-targeted, and worth repeating at further concerts sponsored by SE.

Fonterra intends to open a new (small) coal mine near Mangatangi, about an hour’s drive south of Auckland. The coal, which will be very cheap for them, is intended to power their dairy factories in the region. Four of our members attended a meeting which Fonterra hosted for local residents, mainly to gather information. We are seeking initially how we might persuade Fonterra to use wood waste instead of coal for drying their milk powder.

In a similar vein, ACA has decided as part of its coal-free Auckland campaign to try to persuade schools still using old coal-fired boilers, to switch to wood pellets/chips or electric.

Next Meeting, all welcome:  Saturday 3^rd November, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd.

Auckland Coal Action was formed in July 2011 following the visit of Dr James Hansen. We recognise that coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and that its ongoing use will lead to catastrophic climate change. We aim to achieve a coal-free Aotearoa by 2030, initially by opposing the expansion of coal mining. We do this work to play our part in sustaining a benign climate for us, our children and grandchildren.

Our website is at http://aucklandcoalaction.org/ and you can contact us ataucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” Gatherings

Tim Jones reports:

Our most recent “Keep the Coal in the Hole” two-monthly gathering in Wellington was on 18 October. Dr Anne MacLennan of Ora Taiao gave us an excellent presentation on coal’s many risks to human health, covering both its local effects and the bigger global health risks of climate change brought on, in large part, by burning coal. We hope to be able to make this presentation available in electronic form soon.

We are currently considering whether to keep these separate two-monthly gatherings going, or bring them under the tent of the wider Ka Nui! network on resource extraction issues that is emerging in Wellington. The current gatherings strike a good balance between education and activism; on the other hand, it makes sense to bring together people working on closely related issues. We expect to make a decision on this after talking more with our friends in the Ka Nui! network.

Next Wellington Ka Nui network gathering: Monday 12 November, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contactmichelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

Top of the South: Clean Energy Future Action Group

The Clean Energy Future Action Group, based in Nelson, has set up a Kickstarter-style fundraising campaign for its latest campaign against coal mining. You can check out the campaign, and help it meet its fundraising goal here.

Canterbury: Canterbury Coal Action

Check out this press release from Canterbury Coal Action, “Court Process Deeply Flawed”:

Some key quotes:

“In New Zealand we currently have a remarkable situation in that our premier piece of environmental legislation, the Resource Management Act, can only consider the effects OFclimate change, but not the effects ON climate change.  So the court is not able to learn how every tonne of coal that might be extracted from Denniston will add to an already pressing problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

As such the court process this week is deeply flawed – it is only hearing part of the evidence.

What happened to “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” ?

Would a murder trial proceed without the key witness?

Would a fraud trial proceed without the accountants?”

It’s well worth reading the whole release. You can contact Canterbury Coal Action atcanterburycoalaction@gmail.com

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

In addition to work on Summerfest 2013, plenty of other things have been going on in Southland, as Jenny Campbell reports:

Coming up 18-21 January Summer Fest at beautiful native bush reserve Dolamore Park near Gore.

Guest speaker Rob McCreath from Queensland who has successfully fronted the ‘Friends of Felton’ will tell us a success story of how they saved their valley from mining and the establishment of a chemical plant there. Rob is keen to connect with local farmers who are being challenged by the possibility of fracking/coal seam gas exploration in Northern Southland. More speakers are being organised to fit in with our theme and as soon as these are confirmed we will enlighten you.

You can find out more about the Felton story here.

Help wanted: we are looking for a person with a passion for organising food for the Summer Fest camp – cooking on gas burners, in a tent…for 120 people – just a wee holiday chore maybe ?

CANA and CAM members are busy organising the programme so hope you are looking at making bookings to come south, make a holiday of it and explore our fabulous scenery and hospitality….

Further information and registrations. 

Briquette plant opening at Mataura: still no date set yet but latest talk from Solid Energy is end of the year. An action is still planned once we get the word.

CAM members went on Solid Energy’s October Newvale mine bus tour. Only one ran as the numbers weren’t as high as expected. CAM member John Purey- Cust reported that on the surface it was hard to see if they were keeping to their conditions – but of course they aren’t taking lignite to the briquetting plant in any quantity yet, so that will change the scale of their operation. We still need to be vigilant.

CAM information stalls were held at Invercargill’s Eco Spring festival 6 Oct and at Gore’s rhododendron festival on Sun 14 Oct. About 400 sign ups were recorded for the Asset Sales petition thanks to keen Green and Labour party members. A few CANA sign ups too.

An excellent front page item appeared in the Gore Ensign with two of our members featuring with local controversial artist Wayne’ Hill’s sculpture about possible fracking and coal seam gas exploration featuring in a paddock at the entrance to Riversdale, close to Gore.
Rangimarie,
Jenny Campbell
Co- convenor, CAM

12. Social Media Rivalry: Facebook Leads Narrowly

In the last month, CANA’s Twitter account has almost closed the gap on our Facebook group. At the time of writing, our Facebook group at
has stalled at 687 members, while our Twitter account has 670 followers.

So, if you’re a Facebook fan, what do you do? You join the group yourself and invite your friends to join!

If you’re in the Twitter camp, then please follow @coalaction, RT our tweets, and encourage your Twitter followers to follow us too.

The race to 1000 is on!

14. Donate to CANA! 

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter October 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Follow us on Twitter  
and on Facebook 

Well, as your newsletter editor, I can officially say that I’m tired out. There are fifteen – count ‘em – separate items in this newsletter, and a number of those have sub-items.

There’s good news:

• We announce a major new information resource on coal mines and coal projects in Aotearoa: the New Zealand section of Coal Swarm.
• The legal system, in the form of the High Court, finally does something good on climate change.
• The country’s alive with action: an occupation in Wellington, a protest in Auckland, stalls and conferences and meetings up and down the country, and two big events to look forward to: Powershift 2012 in December and the 2013 Summerfest in January.

And there’s bad news:

• Solid Energy still wants to build a lignite-to-urea plant in Southland.
• Steven Joyce is a fool, and what’s more, a fool who doesn’t understand the concept of ‘subjudice’.
• Fonterra is planning a new coal mine near Auckland.

Most of all, there’s lots of news. And you’ll find it below.

Regards
Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

1. Coming Events
2. Coal Swarm: A New Resource on the New Zealand Coal Industry
3. Solid Energy Sheds Crocodile Tears, Steven Joyce Foams At The Mouth
4. High Court Throws Out Attempt To Discredit NIWA
5. The New Zealand Petroleum Summit: “Are You Ladies Here For The Summit?”
6. Summerfest 2013 Is On! 18-21 January 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore
7. Powershift 2012: 7-9 December 2012, Auckland
8. Fonterra Is Planning A New Coal Mine Near Auckland
9. Taking A Stand On Otago University’s “Dirty Little Secret”: Lignite-Fired Boilers
10. We Don’t Allow Tobacco Sponsorship. Why Do We Allow Coal Sponsorship?
11. Regional Reports: Southland, Dunedin, Top of the South, Wellington
12. International News
13. Social Media Rivalry: Facebook Takes The Lead
14. Our Blog And Website
15. How To Donate To CANA

1. Coming Events

October

4:    Ka Nui! Enough/Climate Justice Wellington meeting, 7pm – contact Michelle Ducat,michelle@ducat.co.nz, for venue details.
5-7:  Ecumenical Environmental Conference, Wellington. Seehttp://lamenthopeactionconference.eventbrite.co.nz/
6:     Invercargill Eco Spring Festival, with Coal Action Murihiku stall
14:   Gore Rhododendron Festival, with Coal Action Murihiku stall
14-16: “Just Lignite?” Top of the South Tour with Anthony Dancer and Rosemary Penwarden:
Nelson: Sunday 14 October, 7.30pm,Victory Community Centre, Victory Square
Motueka: Monday 15 October, 7.30pm, St Thomas’ Church Hall, High Street
Takaka: Tuesday 16 October, 7.30pm, Anglican Church, Commercial Street
15: South Otago Forest & Bird Meeting, St Andrews’ Church Hall, Balclutha, 7.30pm. Prof Bob Lloyd will speak on “Can a Transition to Renewable Energy Be Made in Time?”
18: “Keep The Coal In The Hole” Wellington gathering, 6pm, at the 350.org offices, 18 Allen St, off Courtenay Place.

November
Is there really nothing going on in November?  We couldn’t find anything, but we’re sure there’s people being busy out there somewhere! Be sure to email us at coalactionnetwork@gmail.comto make sure we get it into the next newsletter.

December

3-12: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiating session in Auckland. Seehttp://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details of planned actions.
7-9: PowerShift 2012, Auckland. See http://powershift.org.nz/

January 2013

18-21: Summerfest 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore

2. Coal Swarm: A New Resource on the New Zealand Coal Industry

One of the calls we heard most often at the Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival in January 2012 was for the creation of a website or wiki that held all our knowledge of New Zealand coal mines, planned coal projects and the coal industry in one place, so people all around the country can find out about projects that will affect them if they go ahead; mines and projects elsewhere; and about the climate, environmental, health, social and economic effects of coal mining.

Now, thanks to a great deal of hard work by many people, kicked off by Cindy Baxter and Bob Burton and then taken up by Jane Young, Jane Mountier and Jeanette Fitzsimons, such a resource has been developed to the point where, although it’s certainly not comprehensive, it is ready for use.

Introduction

This new information source is a New Zealand section of the international Coal Swarm site, which is like a wiki on the coal industry from an activist perspective. At the heart of these pages are the lists of operating coal mines and of proposed coal projects – but there also pages about the major players in the coal industry, opposition to coal mining, and a number of other topics.

As you’ll soon see, the New Zealand section of Coal Swarm isn’t finished – indeed, it will never be finished, at least until we have completed the transition away from coal. Therefore, changes and additions are going to be needed. Our preference is that these changes be handled by Jane Young, who has kindly agreed to act as our Coal Swarm editor, but you also have the opportunity to make changes and additions yourself.

Requesting an addition or change to Coal Swarm

To request an edit or suggest an addition, please email Jane Young, janejimyoung@slingshot.co.nz, with “CoalSwarm” in the subject line.
Please provide the following information:

• To request a change to existing content: please specify the web address (URL) of the page that you think should be changed, the precise change that you think should be made, and a source for the changed information.
• To request new content: please specify in as much details as possible the new information that should be added, and supply a source (including a web address for online information) for the new information.

If you’ve found something that needs changing, please be as specific as possible about what it is: provide the web address of the page that you’re referring to, and say exactly where on the page the problem is.

Making changes or additions yourself

You can also make changes or additions yourself, once you sign up as an editor. Full details of how to do this are provided at http://coalswarm.org/get-involved/how-to-post-information/
If you’d like to help Jane with the editing of Coal Swarm’s New Zealand pages, please email her: janejimyoung@slingshot.co.nz.
I think the New Zealand section of Coal Swarm is going to be a very useful resource for both education and activism. I hope you find it useful too.

– Tim Jones

3. Solid Energy Sheds Crocodile Tears, Steven Joyce Foams At The Mouth 

It’s been another big old month on the Solid Energy front, and not any of it very good news, especially for the workers who have lost their jobs on the West Coast, in Christchurch and Huntly.

We have been in the middle of the debate, and Kristin Gillies’ Op Ed was published in theGreymouth Star and the Southland Times before we put it up on our blog.

The last week has seen some quite astounding reactions from the Government, in particular Steven Joyce’s “look over here” distraction antics when he pointed at the legal challenges around the Denniston mine and climate change as holding up jobs on the Coast.  We put out this press release in response to Steven Joyce.

We’d like to point out that Joyce is undermining Solid Energy’s own excuses for sacking 440 of its staff. Solid Energy CEO Don Elder says the sackings are because coal has become uneconomic, not because he is priming the SOE for selling off to the government’s cronies.

So is the price of coal uneconomic or is it not? The price of coking coal has tanked along with thermal coal, and Solid Energy is not only laying off underground miners; 63 jobs are to go at the opencast Stockton mine, just north of Denniston.  It’s one thing to play with miners’ livelihoods and another to take us all for fools. Miners deserve better. They deserve honesty from their employers and from the government. They should neither bear the cost of Solid Energy’s financial mismanagement, nor the cost of the reality that coal is not sustainable, economically or environmentally. They deserve secure, sustainable and safe jobs, but Steven Joyce chooses to take cheap shots at the ‘greenies’ instead of working for a fair and just transition for workers and their communities.

‘Mr February’ on Hot Topic summed up the legalities of the issue beautifully.

4. High Court Throws Out Attempt To Discredit NIWA 

Cindy Baxter reports:

New Zealand’s climate deniers have been slapped down in a High Court decision against their attempt to sue NIWA over its temperature records.  In his ruling on the case, taken by the Climate Science Education Trust (an offshoot of the NZ Climate Science Coalition), Justice Venning was clearly unimpressed with their actions , and ruled they must pay costs.  One week of High Court hearings would come in at more than $100,000.   See also this NZ Herald feature.

5. The New Zealand Petroleum Summit: “Are You Ladies Here For The Summit?”

Tim Jones reports:

The New Zealand oil and gas industry decided to organise a two-day luxury back-patting session for itself at the Amora Hotel, Wellington on 19-20 September which they grandiosely entitled “The New Zealand Petroleum Summit”. In the event, they spent much of their time trying to figure out how to overcome public opposition to mining, fracking and drilling: and that was because their opponents, not the industry, succeeded in setting the agenda for the two days.

As Energy Minister Phil Heatley was laying out the verbal welcome mat on behalf of the Government, six women from the Ka Nui! Enough! protest coalition formed to oppose the gathering made their way into the conference. According to reports, they were smartly dressed, and upon being asked “Are you ladies here for the summit?”, they truthfully answered “Yes”!

Four of the six women were able to make their way to the stage, disrupt Phil Heatley’s speech, and read out the Ka Nui! Declaration before being escorted out by the event’s security crew who were clearly caught off-guard. You can see video footage here.

Then, at 5pm, around 150 members of the coalition gathered outside the Amora Hotel to let those inside know, loudly and publicly, that they and their agenda of environmental vandalism and climate destruction are not welcome in Aotearoa. The fact that the 5pm conference cocktail party was sponsored by Halliburton, the notorious “blood for oil” purveyors from the Iraq War, summed up how far out of touch the fossil fuel industry is with the values of most New Zealanders.

And what was the reaction of the summit to the disruption of their agenda? They are planning aPR push.

But the reality is that the coal, oil and gas industries are in the same position now that the tobacco industry was in twenty years ago. They can spend all the money they like trying to persuade us that what they do is safe, but more and more people are seeing through their toxic agenda.

6. Summerfest 2013 Is On! 18-21 January 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore

The first Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival, organized by CANA and held in January 2012 on Mike Dumbar’s farm near Mataura, near Solid Energy’s pilot briquetting plant, was a great success. One of the most important outcomes of the first Summerfest was the formation of regional anti-coal groups throughout the country, including Coal Action Murihiku (CAM) in Southland.

CAM have taken on the job of organizing the 2013 Summerfest. This will be held from Friday 18-Monday 21 January 2013 at Dolamore Park, a beautiful native bush reserve near Gore, just outside the north-western boundary of Solid Energy’s landholdings in the Mataura Valley. The Saturday of the Festival will be an organising day for CANA and regional groups involved in the campaign – support, encouragement, updates, planning ahead, NVDA, etc. The Sunday will be an education day for the wider community

Jenny Campbell of CAM says that among the guest speakers will be Rob McCreath from Queensland who has successfully fronted the ‘Friends of Felton’. He will tell us a success story of how they saved their valley from mining and the establishment of a chemical plant there. Come to learn from their strategies and community action to ensure success here with our campaigns.

Also on the Sunday, WWF-NZ reps will explain the BERL report, A View to the South: Potential low carbon growth opportunities for the Southern Region economy, an independent report WWF-NZ commissioned.

Registration details for the Festival will be available soon, and we’ll let people now how to register through our mailing list, blog, Facebook and Twitter. We’ll have lots more information about the programme too. We hope to see you in January – make a holiday of it!

7. PowerShift 2012: 7-9 December 2012, Auckland

Generation Zero, 350.org and other groups are inviting young people (13-35) to attend the biggest youth climate summit ever held in New Zealand. The organisers say:

This isn’t a normal, boring, or expensive, conference. This is something different. It’s a 3-day youth event with entertainment, skills development workshops for our future leaders, fascinating and inspiring speakers, a massive media action on the last day, a place to make connections and network with others, a space to organise for a massive nation-wide climate campaign in 2013 and more. And tickets are only $90.

To outline some background information – over the last 5 years, PowerShift’s have taken place in countries across the world, in the US, the UK, India, and Australia. These events have proved highly effective in powering the youth climate movements.

We’re really excited about the potential this event has to empower and ignite the youth climate movement in New Zealand and to get change happening.

You can also check out our dedicated website www.powershift.org.nz or keep track of what’s happening at the Power Shift NZ-Pacific facebook and twitter pages. Please also feel free to get in touch if you’d like resources to help promote it amongst your networks.

So, if you are in the 18-35 age bracket (or, as the organisers say, older but with a youthful spirit!), PowerShift is the place to be in December.

8. Fonterra Is Planning A New Coal Mine Near Auckland

We reported in our July newsletter that Fonterra decided to use coal to fuel its new Darfield milk drying plant – a very bad decision. But did you know that Fonterra also operates coal mines, and that it is planning a new one near Auckland?

Glencoal, a subsidiary of Fonterra ,  is planning to open a new open cast coal mine at Mangatangi (between the old SH2, Mangatangi Rd, and the new deviation which is now SH2). It is planned to replace the  old Kopako mine which supplies Fonterra’s plants at Waitoa, Hautapu and Te Awamutu, and has only two years’ more coal in it.

Annual production is planned to be around 120,000 tonnes, which makes it not much smaller than Solid Energy’s New Vale lignite mine in Southland at its present level of operation.

It appears as though Fonterra are going to try to get away with applying for a limited or non-notified resource consent for this mine, but if I were Fonterra, I’d think twice about attempting to open a new coal mine so close to Auckland at a time when opposition to mining and fossil fuels is growing rapidly. And, even if I didn’t care in the least about the environment or climate change, I’d think about the PR advantages in switching entirely to renewable sources of heat energy, such as wood. Then maybe all that clean, green Fonterra PR overseas wouldn’t be so easily challenged.

9. Taking A Stand On Otago University’s “Dirty Little Secret”: Lignite-Fired Boilers

Along with our campaigns against new and expanded coal mining, CANA is also campaigning for a transition away from using coal to generate heat, in particular in heat plants (thermal boilers) in factories, schools, hospitals, Universities and so forth. You can find out whether there are such plants in your community using the EECA heat plants database.

According to the Otago Daily Times, there is a growing move away from coal-fired boilers in Dunedin, with EECA working with local businesses and institutions to speed the transition.

You might think that Otago University would be leading the charge towards cleaner sources of heat, but the reality is very different – although some progress has been made, Otago University still uses lignite to fuel a number of its boilers. Otago University students who don’t think that’s good enough got together earlier this month to discuss the University’s “Dirty Little Secret”, anda petition has been set up to tell the University to transition to a coal free campus.

Instead of fronting up to the issue openly, Otago University forbade two staff members from speaking at the meeting and is now pleading contractual obligations as an excuse for inaction.

In complete contrast, Otago University’s near neighbours, Otago Polytechnic, have led the way on the use of wood chips, a sustainable, renewable heat source, to provide heat.

Otago University will continue to come under pressure on this issue until they change their ways. Similarly, if you have boilers fuelled by coal or lignite in your community that you’d like to do something about, please contact us at coalactionnetwork@gmail.com and we’ll see what we can do to help. Experience so far suggests that some organisations will welcome the chance to make the transition to a sustainable source of heat, while others, like Otago University, may take a bit of persuading.

10. We Don’t Allow Tobacco Sponsorship. Why Do We Allow Coal Sponsorship?

Solid Energy spends a lot of money on sponsorship – or, to put it more crudely, on buying off opposition. Most of their sponsorship money is spent in the communities where they mine, or want to mine, but they recently decided to sponsor a tour by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, including a concert in Auckland on Friday 28 September.

Auckland Coal Action has chosen this concert to highlight the issue of coal sponsorship, andmake the comparison with tobacco sponsorship.

Auckland Coal Action had a presence outside the concert and handed out leaflets to concert-goers – as reported and shown here. We love the NZSO and want to see it properly supported by the Government – not forced to rely on sponsorship from Solid Energy. We look forward to the day when coal sponsorship is no more acceptable than tobacco sponsorship is now.

11. Regional reports: Southland, Dunedin, Top of the South and Wellington

Note: This is A quick way to find contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups.

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

In addition to work on Summerfest 2013 (see above), plenty of other things have been going on in Southland, as Jenny Campbell reports:

Solid Energy is advertising regular monthly New Vale mine bus tours, starting 16 October as a result of ‘feedback from Waimumu Field days bus tours proving so popular’! They say: ‘‘We are giving people the chance to see for themselves what lignite mining involves – mining coal, sending it to market, and rehabilitating as we go.’’ As reported in an advertisement in Newslink community paper. CAM members are planning to go to ask strategic questions…

Solid Energy are continuing with feasibility studies to provide a decision on the location of the coal- to-fertiliser plant. This is of concern to those living adjacent to Dolamore Park area so our 2013 SummerFest is very strategic.

CAM information stalls have been held alongside Solid’s public monthly stalls – no one has been visiting theirs, but CAM has had visitors! We are holding stalls at other public events eg Invercargill Eco Spring festival, Sat 6 Oct, Gore Rhododendron Festival  Sun 14 Oct. Green and Labour MPs will be present at this, networking and talking to people about local issues, including lignite mining.

Information was provided about CANA and a motion was moved at Dunedin Anglican Synod recently about issues around asset sales, coal and lignite mining, and fracking — with some positive responses but lots of questions — more education is needed obviously.

Public Access Radio in Dunedin interviewed Tarsh Turner from SACA and Dave Kennedy from CAM about the lignite issues, hopefully informing another audience.

Rangimarie,
Jenny Campbell, Co-convenor CAM

• Coal Action Murihiku issue excellent monthly newsletters. Check them out online here.

Dunedin: Southern Anti-Coal Action (SACA)

Rosemary Penwarden reports on another busy month in Otago – and Southland:

• The Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, MP Michael Woodhouse, some businesses and  city councillors rolled out the red carpet recently for the representatives of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC), who have recently confirmed their plans to drill off the coast of Oamaru in summer 2013.  In response, we gathered at St Clair Beach to roll out the black carpet for Anadarko. As far as we are concerned, they are not welcome here, and they will face opposition.
• Environment Week (9-15 September) saw the launch of the Otago University “Dirty Little Secret” campaign and the showing of the Just Do It documentary.
• Three SACA members recently toured Takitimu coal mine in Southland. Nightcaps is not getting a good deal; the mine is expanding but to no obvious benefit for the town. A townsperson said she’s given up dusting, noise goes from 7am to 7pm daily, and an old art deco building is about to be demolished to make way for the trucks turning. Many, many more sad stories could be told about these mining towns.

Top of the South (Golden Bay, Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough)

A lot has been going on in the Top of the South, as Helen Tulett reports:

1)             Motueka Hui tells Fossil Fuel Industry to Sod Off! 

Over 40 people from across the Top of the South and West Coast gathered for two days at Te Awhina Marae, in Motueka for the 2012 SODOFF (Stop Our Dependency On Fossil Fuels) Hui. The Hui brought together people motivated to take action to stop new fossil fuel extraction and prevent runaway climate change in Aotearoa. People met to build a stronger network across the Top of the South and West Coast, and to organise for greater effectiveness. An NVDA workshop is planned for the coming months.

During the Hui, the group endorsed the recent declaration made at the Ka Nui! Enough! Extractive Industries counter conference held in Rotorua in August. Top of The South groups wanted to send a message of solidarity to those who are also struggling against extractive industries in the North Island. This SODOFF Hui aims to become an annual event, and the organisers are already looking forward to next year. The issue of climate change will only become more pressing and action more urgent as time goes on.

2)             Public loss for private gain? 

People are concerned and outraged about an application to mine the entrance to Kahurangi National Park.

Steatite Ltd wish to mine for steatite (soapstone) in the Cobb Valley. See here for more detailed info. You can sign this petition against the proposed mine – and share it with your friends.

3)            Just Lignite?  Top of the South Tour 

In mid-October, a series of public meetings to discuss the implications of Lignite Mining in Southland  will bring together the Anglican Social Justice Commissioner, Dr Anthony Dancer, and Rosemary Penwarden, Grandmother and author of the Anglican Social Justice Commission’s publication on Lignite mining, Just Lignite, as follows:

Nelson: Sunday 14 October, 7.30pm,Victory Community Centre, Victory Square
Motueka: Monday 15 October, 7.30pm, St Thomas’ Church Hall, High Street
Takaka: Tuesday 16 October, 7.30pm, Anglican Church, Commercial Street

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” and “Ka Nui!” Networks

1) “Ka Nui! Enough/Climate Justice Wellington” Network Meeting Invite

After the early evening protest at the New Zealand Petroleum Summit, many of the participants met up for kai and a strategy session. This resulted in a lot of good ideas for further work on fossil fuel extraction issues in the region and a decision to hold a further meeting on Thursday 4 October at 7pm – please contact Michelle Ducat, michelle@ducat.co.nz, for venue details. All who want to work for climate justice and against fossil fuel extraction welcome!

2) Next “Keep the Coal in the Hole” meeting, Thursday 18 October

Keep the Coal in the Hole Wellington is a network of Wellington-based people and groups who are concerned about the Government’s plans for a massive expansion of coal mining and are keen to share info and plan actions.

We warmly invite you to join our network, and to come along to our next meeting: Thursday 18 October 2012, 6pm, at the 350.org offices, 18 Allen St, off Courtenay Place.

Background: We started meeting after the Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival that Coal Action Network Aotearoa organised in Mataura in January 2012.  We’ve been meeting every two months.  We would love to see more people involved and getting active on coal issues in Wellington.

We spend the first third of each meeting on education and information sharing. At the next meeting, this session will be on “The Health Effects of Coal”. Then we move into strategising and planning actions.

Please note, mining bosses and mining PR firms will not be welcome.  The meetings are for people who are opposed to new and expanded coal mining in NZ and are involved or want to get involved, in campaigning to that effect.

Please email frances.mountier@gmail.com if you need more information, or would like to express interest but can’t make the meeting.

Warm regards
Francie

12. International News

The Arctic summer sea ice shrank to a new record minimum this year, smashing all previous records. On September 16, Arctic ice covered just 1.32 million square miles — the lowest extent ever recorded. For comparison, it’s the size of India.  This minimum is 49 percent below the 1979 average, when satellite records began.

While this article  was written two weeks before the actual minimum (but at the point that a record low had already been reached) , it gives a good account of why it matters.  And here’s a graphic before/after image that shows the melt really well.

New research on ocean acidification 
In the US, following a summer of food price spikes  sparked by extreme weather events, researchers now say that global food supply disruptions are likely to continue for decades due to climate change impacts on fisheries.
New research shows that ocean acidification has and will continue to upset the balance of marine life. The destruction of fisheries will put some of the most vulnerable populations on the planet at risk of food insecurity for decades. In the US, where farmers and ranchers are dealing with the impacts of record drought, oyster farms are already suffering.
This new research suggest that the United States will lose about 12% of its catch potential by within 50 years. Although American fishers will suffer, the Persian Gulf and Pacific Island States as well as Pakistan, Madagascar, and Thailand are likely to see the most severe impacts.

Australia update 
Across the ditch in Australia, Greenpeace has released a report showing that if all the proposed coal mines in one area in Queensland, the Galilee Basin, go ahead, they would produce emissions ranking 7^th highest in global country emissions.  While the industry argued that the same drop in the price of coal that has caused NZ job losses means the mines are now less likely, the plans remain in the pipeline.   All of this coal would go out through the Great Barrier Reef.  This great video tells the story. Share it!

Mining magnate shows her true colours
Meanwhile, the world’s richest woman, Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, showed her respect for the Australian mine workers, arguing that it was getting too expensive to mine in Australia.  It turns out that Rinehart is quite keen on operating in Africa where she only has to pay workers $2 a day.

Grim situation for environmentalists in the Philippines

In the Philippines, anti-mining and climate change activists face the threat of death to prevent their country and their lands being ripped apart by the mining industry. The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment highlights these issue on its website reporting on the torture and murder of indigenous anti-mining leader Genesis Ambason.

Genesis Ambason was the 55^th anti-mining activist killed since 2001. He is the 19th environmental activist and 14th anti-mining activist victim killed since the Aquino administration came into power last 2010.

Just like the New Zealand Government, the Philippines Government doesn’t like the international spotlight falling on it. So you can aid anti-mining activists in the Philippines by emailing the New Zealand Government asking them to condemn such killings (murray.mccully@parliament.govt.nz), emailing the Philippines Government (President Benigno S. Aquino III, op@president.gov.ph), and donating to Philippines Solidarity Network Aotearoa.

Donation by cheque to: PSNA, Box 2450 , Christchurch . Accompany it with your email address.  Or you can deposit your donation directly into PSNA’s bank account – please email us for our bank details c/- cafca@chch.planet.org.nz.

13. Social Media Rivalry: Facebook Takes The Lead

In the last month, CANA’s Facebook group has taken a small but significant lead over its Twitter counterpart in the race to have more followers. At the time of writing, our Facebook group has 688 members, while our Twitter account has 611 followers.

The good news about this little competition is that, whoever wins, CANA comes out ahead. The more followers we can get, the better we can spread the word about anti-coal campaigns and sustainable alternatives. So, if you’re on Facebook and haven’t already done so, please join our group and invite your friends. If you’re on Twitter, please follow @coalaction, RT our tweets, and encourage your Twitter followers to follow us too.

A Facebook page we encourage you to Like is Leave the Lignite, Save the Soil

Say No To Fracking in NZ also has a Facebook group.

14. Blogs to follow 

• Auckland Coal Action
• Canterbury Coal Action

15. How To Donate to CANA

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

The post September Newsletter appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Don Elder pulls down $1.4 million per year as CEO of Solid Energy – about 51 times the average Kiwi income – well paid for his role in the destruction of our planetary civilisation. So it must be galling for him to have to explain why his company is under-performing so badly.  But it’s galling not only for us, but for the climate,  to look at how he is prioritising his review of the company’s operations.

Our full analysis of the latest events at Solid Energy is now up on the blog.  Please read it and share in your communities. 

Meanwhile, all around Aotearoa, people are putting spanners in the works of Don and his mining, drilling and fracking mates. In August alone:

• A major gathering of opponents of the Government’s mining agenda took  place in Rotorua
• An Australian activist toured the country helping tangata whenua and landowners to lock their gates against the mining industry:
• A BERL report, commissioned by WWF-NZ, shows that Southland would benefit much more by NOT mining lignite.

And that’s just in August. This newsletter also carries announcements of a major conference of youth climate activists in Auckland in December, and the second Summer Festival in Southland in January 2013, organised by Coal Action Murihiku.

Not everything went our way this month: in a decision which once again shows the absurdity of the way climate change is (not) taken into account by the Resource Management Act, three commissioners put their hands over their eyes, ignored that proverbial and literal elephant in the room (see our blog on the hearing  and on the consent) and approved Solid Energy’s resource consent application for its planned Mt William North coalmine.

Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

Contents

1. Coming Events
2. Drew Hutton “Lock the Gates” Tour
3.  Ka Nui! Conference reportback
4. Summerfest 2013 Announcement
5. Asset Sales Campaign: Entering the Home Straight
6. BERL Alternative Southland Economic Strategy Report Launch
7. Powershift 2012
8. Mt William North Mine Resource Consent Decision
9. Regional reports: Southland, Otago, Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland
10. Film Review: Bimblebox
11. News and Resources
12. Update from Australia
13. Are You Team Facebook Or Team Twitter?
14. How To Donate To CANA

1. Coming Events

1 September: Auckland Coal Action meeting, Quaker House, 113 Mt Eden Rd, 1-4pm

5-7 October: Ecumenical Environmental Conference, Wellington.

18 October: Next “Keep the Coal in the Hole” gathering, Wellington. Contact frances.mountier@gmail.com for venue details.

7-9 December: PowerShift 2012, Auckland.

2. Drew Hutton “Lock the Gate!” Tour

Drew Hutton from Lock the Gate Alliance in Queensland has been touring New Zealand in August to talk about the impact the coal seam gas industry and fracking has had on communities and the environment in Australia.

An inspiring speaker who likes to tell stories, Drew has met with farmers, environmentalists, and other key decisionmakers on fracking as he travelled around the country.

For those of you who didn’t get to see Drew, we filmed his Ka Nui! Speech on Saturday – it’s worth watching.  Also check this great TV3 piece on UCG and CSG in Huntly.

The Lock the Gate Alliance is a national alliance of over 120 community, industry and environmental groups and over 1000 supporters concerned with the devastating impact that certain inadequately assessed and inadequately-regulated fossil fuel extraction industries are having on Australia’s short and long term physical, social, environmental and economic wellbeing.

3.  Ka Nui! Enough! Conference

Last weekend, more than 100 activists from Dunedin to Northland, Taranaki to Gisborne, converged in our counter-conference to the NZ minerals institute conference in Rotorua.

It was a great weekend of workshops, inspiring speeches and inspiring people. One of the best bits was the incredible hospitality from the Tangata Whenua of the beautiful Mataikotare Marae on the banks of Lake Rotorua.  Their full participation in our discussions was a valuable contribution to the strong declaration that we all signed onto.  If you like it, use it and share it. Send to your MP, to your local councillor, etc.

We also had time to make a little video about our feelings on the drilling, mining, fracking and seabed mining industries.

Lastly, the 20 or so of us left on Sunday evening paid a little visit to the mining conference’s opening cocktail party, complete with the fabulous Radical Cheerleaders and climate elephants (Drew Hutton joined us as well).

The weekend made us stronger as a network of community groups with a common, shared purpose.  As one participant said: “I really got a lot out of working with others over the weekend, who each have different jigsaw pieces of the same bigger kaupapa of stopping these extractive industries.”

4. Summerfest 2013 Announcement

After the success of Coal Action Network Aotearoa’s Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival, we’re pleased to announce that the Southland anti-coal action group, Coal Action Murihiku, has taken on the task of organizing Summerfest 2013. Here’s the initial announcement from Coal Action Murihiku:

Good news for those of you who missed our initial Summer festival at Mataura last year – that was CANA’s ‘Keep the Hole in the Hole’ Summer Fest, held in January 2012 at Mike Dumbar’s property – the farmer who has held out against Solid Energy’s plans to buy up land for mining lignite in the Mataura Valley.

Coal Action Murihiku is taking up the challenge of organising another family Summer Fest around lignite and coal issues- focusing on education, fun, forward planning, networking and supporting each other.

Dates: Fri 18 Jan to Mon 21 Jan 2013

Venue: Dolamore Park camping ground and native forest reserve north-west of Gore.

Please put these dates in your diary and plan to come. More details about how to register and programme theme will be advised soon.

5. Asset Sales Campaign: Closing in on the Signature Target

By the end of July, over 200,000 people had signed the petition demanding a Citizens’ Initiated Referendum on the Government’s planned state asset sales.

Approximately 310,000 valid signatures are needed on the petition to ensure that the referendum goes ahead. In that sentence, the word “valid” is the key: signatures will be checked, and because the signatures of people who are not enrolled to vote or whose details do not match their details on the electoral roll will be excluded, the petition needs close to 400,000 total signatures to allow for the expected proportion of invalid signatures.

So there is still plenty of work to do to gather signatures – and you can help by getting involved in collecting signatures and publicising the referendum campaign.

6. Report Launch: A View to the South: Potential Low Carbon Growth Opportunities for the Southern Region Economy

One of the main arguments made by proponents of lignite mining in Southland is that this is Southland’s only path to economic prosperity. So WWF-NZ commissioned BERL Economics to report on low carbon growth opportunities for the Southland economy.

The report, “A View to the South:  Potential Low Carbon Growth Opportunities for the Southern Region Economy” addressed the following questions:

• What options are available for developing the Southern region’s economy?
• What employment prospects are available given the wide range of options in the area?
• How can we thrive and create jobs while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions?

BERL found that hundreds of new jobs and tens of millions of dollars could be generated for the people of Southland without developing the polluting coal industry.

Download the full report from WWF

7. PowerShift 2012

PowerShift 2012 is a conference, jointly organized by Generation Zero and 350, that will bring together 1000 young people (ages 16-30) from around Aotearoa and the Pacific to learn about climate change in a local and regional context and embark on a major climate change campaign. It’s in Auckland from 7-9 December 2012.

Find out more about the conference, to register, or to share information about it with young people you know.

There is a 30% discount on early bird registrations received before 31 September, so get in quick!

8. Mt William North Mine Resource Consent Decision
Lynley Hargreaves writes:

Solid Energy has been granted consent this week for the next in its line of mines marching down the Waimangaroa Valley, Mt William North. At the resource consent hearing the company admitted that it’s future plans for the area would destroy 17 percent of the remaining coal measure ecosystems – irreplaceable sandstone erosion pavements and habitat for threatened species in an area that is almost naturally predator free.

The Hearing Commissioners didn’t take this cumulative impact into account, because they only consider the 243ha mine area currently being applied for. So Solid Energy and Australian company Bathurst Resources can chip away at the Stockton-Denniston Plateaux, applying for a new mine every few years, while openly admitting to thousands of hectares of planned destruction which would compromise the ecological integrity of the entire area.

Two other issues the Commissioners chose not to consider were climate change and ocean acidification. There is an ongoing legal argument over whether climate impacts are excluded from Resource Management Act considerations and because of this the Commissioners chose not to hear about 11.5 million tonnes of CO2 from burning coal from this mine (they could, however, see the prominent elephant in the room).

Ocean acidification, the effect of the ocean’s uptake of CO2, is not part of the legal wrangle over climate change and submitters at the Mt William hearing presented extensive evidence on the issue. The Commissioners chose to disregard this, stating in their decision that ocean acidification is ‘similar in principle’ to climate change and so lies outside the RMA. Groups or individuals have 15 working days to appeal the decision.

West Coast Environment Network would like to thank all those who have made generous donations to help finance the legal fight to include climate change in our overarching environmental legislation. We’re still working to reach our fundraising goal, so if anyone else has spare change for a good cause, please donate to West Coast ENT Incorporated, Kiwibank, 38-9012-0009759-00.

9. Regional reports: Southland, Otago, Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland

Note: A quick way to find contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups is here.

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

Coal Action Murihiku has continued its hard work in opposition to the lignite, coal seam gas (CSG) and fracking proposals Southland is currently facing. In addition to the announcement that Coal Action Murihiku will be organizing the 2013 successor to the January 2012 Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival – as reported above – Jenny Campbell reports on all the other developments in Southland:

On 14 August, the Riversdale Community Centre was the venue for a community briefing about the Government’s tender process for oil and gas exploration permits in Northern Southland organised by Environment Southland. It was intended to give locals the chance to listen and ask questions about the process and what might follow. About 100 people gathered to hear geologist Brad Ilg, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Petroleum, Strategy, Planning and Promotion Manager, attempt to address concerns by farmers. It was reported that they were unhappy to learn they would have no control over exploration on their land.

A proposed action at the pilot briquette plant opening has CAM members formulating an appropriate response to remind Solid Energy and others that we are serious, will not go away and that their schemes are meeting growing opposition. We are watching them. Commissioning appears to be meeting some obstacles so the date seems to be being pushed out till September.

Rangimarie,

Jenny Campbell, Co- convenor CAM

* Coal Action Murihiku produce excellent monthly newsletters. Check them out online.

Dunedin: Southern Anti-Coal Action (SACA)

Rosemary Penwarden reports on a busy month in Otago, but first, Tarsh Turner has news of a new initiative from CANA and Generation Zero:

CANA and Generation Zero are joining forces in Dunedin to launch a drive to raise awareness about the big plans for Southland lignite, and take action by pressuring the University of Otago to commit to moving away from coal for heating their campus. We have been shocked to learn that the boiler that heats the University often burns lignite, but the good news is there is a report soon to be released, detailing the viability of change and possible alternative heating and power options.

In order to ensure that this report doesn’t slip by unnoticed, we want to show the University Council that the student body is in support of transitioning off coal. We will be kicking this off in September with an event during OUSA Environment Week, and we aim to collect 2,000 signatures supporting our asks. For more info, contact Tarsh at climateninja@gmail.com, or keep an eye out on CANA’s blog!

Here’s Rosemary’s report on a very busy August:

1 August: Oil giant Anadarko Petroleum has delayed drilling in the Canterbury Basin until the summer of 2013. More time to organise!

4 August: A line of people, big and small, held hands along St Clair Beach to say NO to drilling off our coast, in solidarity with other groups all around Aotearoa.

13 August: A large and motivated group of students and helpers met to hear the joint Gen Zero/CANA/SEA launch of the campaign to end coal (and lignite) use by University of Otago. We hope this campaign will grow to eventually include all users of coal in Dunedin – and further.

15 August: Rosemary Penwarden presented an update to Sustainable Dunedin City on Southland lignite, including latest climate science, its relevance to Dunedin, and a few ideas about what we can do.

28-29 August: A group from Dunedin travelled Southland to catch the launch of WWF’s alternative economic strategy for Southland in Invercargill and Drew Hutton’s Lock the Gate talk in Gore.

Wed 12 September:  Just Do It documentary will be screened during Otago Uni’s Environment week.  7pm at The Lounge on Dundas St, next to the church.

“This documentary gives an insiders look at climate change activists in the UK as they employ direct action tactics to stand up to power and make their voices heard. It is funny, personal, and deeply inspiring, and will make you want to get out there and ‘Just Do It!’”

Canterbury: Canterbury Coal Action (CCA)

Rachel Eyre reports:

On 1 August we watched the Australian film Bimblebox at the WEA Centre. (Note: John Adams’ review of the film is below, following the regional reports.)

The CD was provided to our group to watch, courtesy of CANA.

We don’t have a next meeting to promote at this stage but are quietly planning some lobbying of local MPs on coal and climate change issues.

In the meantime if people are interested in getting involved here in Canterbury they should contact Canterbury Coal Action through our gmail: canterburycoalaction@gmail.com

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” Gatherings

Tim Jones reports:

The latest “Keep the Coal in the Hole” gathering in Wellington was held on Thursday 16 August. It was a good opportunity to catch up about the wide range of events in August, including the Ka Nui! Enough! Conference which a number of Wellington people went to, Drew Hutton’s “Lock the Gate” tour and the PowerShift Conference for young climate activists being organized by Generation Zero and 350, and the WWF-NZ/BERL report on alternative economic strategies for Southland.

We arranged to meet again on Thursday 18 October at the 350 Office, 22 Allen St. To get updated meeting details, please contact frances.mountier@gmail.com.

New Zealand Petroleum Summit protest

The New Zealand oil and gas industry has organised a back-slapping session for itself called the New Zealand Petroleum Summit.

A coalition of groups has formed to oppose this summit and its climate-wrecking, environment-despoiling agenda, and they have organised a protest to leave the assembled delegates in exactly no doubt how unpopular their plans are. Here’s the initial announcement – watch out for further details:

Calling everyone to protest against the NZ Petroleum Summit. Wednesday 19th September, 5pm, outside the Amora Hotel, 170 Wakefield St.  Please watch this space for further details.  Noise makers, placards and children welcome.

Auckland: Auckland Coal Action

Jill Whitmore reports:

This month Auckland Coal Action has worked on developing a PowerPoint presentation on coal and climate change, and those thinking of speaking are preparing their talks to which it can be adapted, as we are planning an outreach information campaign. We will also campaign for a coal-free Auckland, first analysing which organisations in the Auckland area (besides the Glenbrook steel mill – we’ll leave that till later!) are still burning coal in boilers etc, and will then try to persuade these organisations to switch away from coal to more sustainable fuel e.g. wood pellets.

One of our members has succeeded in getting a number of good letters published in the Herald.

On Friday 17 August we ran another film evening, showing the very interesting Australian documentary Gas Rush, with Jeanette Fitzsimons talking about the dangerous potentials of further unrestrained fossil fuel development. The audience this time was fewer, mainly members and known supporters, but we enjoyed the evening in a pleasant venue and the refreshments. The proceeds of over $400 will be shared between the Denniston appeal and ACA’s own needs.

Next meeting, all welcome: Saturday 1 September, at the Quaker house, 113 Mt Eden Rd, 1-4pm.

About Auckland Coal Action

Auckland Coal Action was formed in July 2011 following the visit of Dr James Hansen. We recognise that coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and that its ongoing use will lead to catastrophic climate change. We aim to achieve a coal-free Aotearoa by 2030, initially by opposing the expansion of coal mining. We do this work to play our part in sustaining a benign climate for us, our children and grandchildren.

Join our Facebook group:

Subscribe to our monthly email update – contact: aucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Regards

Jill Whitmore

10. Film Review: Bimblebox

Canterbury Coal Action screened the documentary Bimblebox on 1 August. John Adams of Canterbury Coal Action has kindly reviewed the film for us:

Bimblebox is a challenge.  It’s a documentary movie based on Australian coal and coal seam gas expansion and the community responses to that expansion.  If that sounds dry, then you need to watch the film, because it’s surprisingly emotional.

Bimblebox itself is a nature reserve in inland Queensland, described by an ecologist as being indicative of wilderness Australia.  The family that farms nearby has an agreement with the Government that the reserve will be managed in perpetuity for its wildlife values.  But the agreement is worthless now that coal has been found.  The whole area is in line for open cast mining.

The action shifts to the Hunter Valley and to the Darling Downs where communities and food-growing land are threatened by the expansion of mines.

Further afield the film shows the effect on the corals of the Great Barrier Reef and on Aboriginal sacred sites that stand in the way of the diggers.

Any Kiwi audience would be quick to draw parallels with Denniston (indicative of wilderness New Zealand) and Mataura (communities and food growing land) as well as tangata whenua concepts of turangawaewae and “sense of place”.

So it’s not just an Aussie film – it’s for us all.

What is frightening is the scale of the proposals and the power of the developers – they appear to have the support of the governments in Australia and in China.  Against them is a small, informal coalition of farmers, mothers, students and tribal leaders.  What hope can they have?

I was lucky enough to watch the film at a screening organised by Canterbury Coal Action, so I knew I was surrounded by like-minded people.  What hope can we have?

The answer, from the film and from our own knowledge is that we have hope because we know that what we are doing is right.  The film gives us something more:  one person in the audience, with a tear in her eye, said “It makes me so angry!”  Maybe some anger is what we gain from watching Bimblebox.

So Bimblebox is a challenge.  It’s challenging to watch because you want to cry, or to help.  But it challenges us to step up our efforts for a just transition to a coal free future.

John Adams

Note: if you want to screen Bimblebox in your region, email us at CANA and we can get mail it to you.

11. News and Resources

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is investigating the link between climate change and increased earthquakes and vulcanism. That should concern New Zealanders – and it’s a great prompt for Letters to the Editor:

•  In case you missed it, the summer ice melt in the Arctic has broken all records, already.  There’s still a couple of weeks left before the summer minimum, so this year’s low will be even worse.  Check out the daily updates at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)  The Guardian’s George Monbiot’s take on it is pretty good.

• Meanwhile, if you weren’t clear on the climate science, we suggest you read the American Meteorological Society’s latest update, adopted on August 20:  “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth’s lower atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; sea level is rising; and snow cover, mountain glaciers, and Arctic sea ice are shrinking. The dominant cause of the warming since the 1950s is human activities.”

• There are lots of resources available on the Coal Action Network Aotearoa website. Check out our Video/Audio page at  and our Resources page.

12.  Australia update

While Australia is facing a much bigger onslaught on coal, it’s inspiring to know what’s been going on over there.

Output from coal-fired power stations is down 10 per cent.

The Government has pulled funding for a new HRL coal plant proposed for Victoria, after a concerted community campaign.  Renew Economy has a good summary of Australia and new coal.

Possibly off-topic (fracking), but so inspiring:  locals this week finished a nine-day blockade of Dart Energy’s coal seam gas plant at Fullerton Cove, Newcastle.

But all is not great over there:  mining magnate Gina Rinehart has just received go-ahead for her Alpha Coal mine in Queensland – a mine that will produce 30 Megatonnes of coal a year, shipped out through the Great Barrier Reef.

13. Are You Team Twitter Or Team Facebook?

The section of the newsletter where we list our social media channels might be seen as a little boring, so why not spice it up with some spurious Twilight-style competition? Right now, it’s a close race between CANA’s Facebook group and Twitter account to see who can gain the most followers. At the time of writing, our Facebook group and our Twitter account both have 549 followers!

Who’ll win? CANA will, as we build up the reach of our social media channels.

The good news about this little competition is that you can be on both sides. If you’re on Facebook and haven’t already done so, please join our group and invite your friends. If you’re on Twitter, please follow @coalaction, RT our tweets, and encourage your Twitter followers to follow us too.

A Facebook page we encourage you to Like is Leave the Lignite, Save the Soil.

Say No To Fracking in NZ also has a Facebook group.

Visit our Blog

14. How To Donate to CANA

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network

Kiwibank

38 9011 0484435 00

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter August 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

As we know, the Government and the mining industry have launched a coordinated assault on New Zealand’s environment and on the land, health and water of communities and iwi around the country.

A coordinated assault requires a coordinated response, and that’s what will be happening in August. First, people opposed to mining in its various guises will be gathering in Rotorua on 25-26 August for Ka Nui / Enough!, a counter-conference to the mining industry conference also happening in Rotorua. If you want to be there, email kanuiconference@gmail.com for details.

One of the participants in the conference will be Drew Hutton of Australia’s Lock the Gate Alliance. If you can’t make it to Rotorua, Drew will be touring the country in late August – check out the dates below.

Our campaign continues to build all around the country, and we welcome a new group, Coal Action Waikato, to our roundup of news from regional groups.

Enough of introducing the news – time to let you read it!

Regards
Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

What’s in this newsletter?

1. Coming Events 2. Ka Nui / Enough! Conference in Rotorua, 25-26 August 3. Drew Hutton Tour: Lock the Gate!
4. Asset Sales Campaign: The Big Push for Signatures Is On
5. Thermal boilers update: EECA heat plant database and Fonterra’s very bad decision in Darfield
6. Climate Change and the Resource Management Act: An Update and a Fundraising Plea
7. Regional reports: Waikato, Auckland, Wellington, Motueka, Takaka, Christchurch, Dunedin and Southland
8. Just Transition: Moving Away from Coal
9.  News and Resources
10. CANA online: Blog, Facebook and Twitter
11. How To Donate To CANA

1. COMING EVENTS 

1 August: Canterbury Coal Action Bimblebox film screening, 7.30pm, WEA, Gloucester St.Bimblebox website.

4 August: Hands Across the Sands (nationwide/worldwide)

4 August: Hands Across the Sand action at the Janie Seddon Shipwreck, Motueka Quay, noon

5 August and 19 August: Nonviolent direct action workshops, Takaka. Contact rojoanna@ihug.co.nz or see below under “Regional Reports” for details.

16 August: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” meeting, Wellington, 6-9pm, 18-24 Allen St

22-29 August: Drew Hutton Tour

25-26 August: Ka Nui / Enough! Conference, Rotorua

5-7 October: Ecumenical Environmental Conference, Wellington.

2. KA NUI / ENOUGH! CONFERENCE IN ROTORUA, 25-26 AUGUST 

Coal Action Network Aotearoa is proud to be one of the groups organising a counter-conference to the New Zealand mining industry conference in Rotorua in August. The counter-conference takes place in Rotorua on 25-26 August, and its name sums up its purpose: Ka Nui / Enough!

This will be a weekend of inspiring speakers and workshops on the issues faced by communities on the resource extraction frontlines and the alternatives to the mining and fossil fuel industries.

We’ll bring details of speakers and venue to you soon, but in the meantime, start making your plans to attend, and email kanuiconference@gmail.com for more details and to register.

3. DREW HUTTON TOUR: LOCK THE GATE! 

Drew Hutton from Lock the Gate Alliance in Queensland is coming to New Zealand in August to talk about the impact the coal seam gas industry and fracking has had on communities and the environment in Australia.

The Lock the Gate Alliance is a national alliance of over 120 community, industry and environmental groups and over 1000 supporters concerned with the devastating impact that certain inadequately assessed and inadequately-regulated fossil fuel extraction industries are having on Australia’s short and long term physical, social, environmental and economic wellbeing. See Lock the Gate website.

Drew will be speaking in the following centres. Venues and times are still to be confirmed – check the CANA blog for further details:

Drew Hutton Tour dates, August 2012
Wed 22  Wellington pm.
Thu 23   Dannevirke (Lunch/early afternoon meeting), Hastings pm.
Fri 24    Gisborne
Sat 25   Ka Nui / Enough! Conference, Rotorua
Sun 26  Rotorua Conference workshops
Mon 27  Waikato Uni, Hamilton
Tue 28  New Plymouth
Wed 29  Gore, evening

4. ASSET SALES CAMPAIGN: THE BIG PUSH FOR SIGNATURES IS ON 

The campaign against the Government’s planned sale of state assets is going ahead on two levels. One level is the succession of national days of action, hui and protests all around the country which show the level of public opposition to the Government’s asset sales plans — including protests in at least 16 centres on Saturday 14 July.

The other is the continuing process of gathering signatures for the petition calling for a Citizens’ Initiated Referendum on asset sales. A great deal of work has been done by the political parties, the NZCTU, Grey Power and the other groups involved in this campaign to get valid signatures, and the numbers are stacking up – but more are needed! You can get involved in collecting signatures and publicising the referendum campaign here.

Oh and, it seems, Solid Energy CEO Don Elder can’t get to speak at a rally.

5. THERMAL BOILERS UPDATE
– EECA heat plant database and Fonterra’s very bad decision in Darfield

a) EECA’s new heat plant database shows where coal is used in your community
If you don’t live in an area menaced by coal extraction, it’s easy to think that the problem is a long way away from you. But it’s all too likely that coal is being used in a school or hospital or factory boiler in your community. The bad news is that this helps to provide coal miners with a reliable local market. The good news is that boilers come up for replacement – and that’s when you can push for the replacement of coal with a renewable source of energy, wood.

If you want to know where coal is used in your community, then a good place to start is EECA’s heat plant database, recently updated. You can download it from the EECA website.

If you find a coal-fired heat plant that you want to do something about, contactcoalactionnetwork@gmail.com, or one of the regional group coordinators. We’re keen to do what we can to get coal-fired boilers out of our communities.

b) Darfield milk drying plant – a huge missed opportunity

Of course, while we’re taking steps to oppose coal-fired boilers, our opponents are busily lobbying for more of them. As Jeanette Fitzsimons reports, Fonterra, no stranger to environmental crimes, has just committed another one:

We are disturbed to learn of a huge new coal burning plant that will use 90,000 tonnes a year of thermal coal.

Fonterra is in the process of building a two stage milk drying plant at Darfield with 2 coal fired boilers totalling 75 MW of heat. It will be the largest milk drying plant in the world. This is ten times larger than the Waiouru Defence Force plant which recently won an award and much acclaim for a successful conversion from coal to wood – the largest pellet burning plant in the country.

At 90,000 tonnes a year, this Fonterra plant is equal in fuel consumption to Solid Energy’s new briquetting plant, currently being built at Mataura. The sub-bituminous coal will be sourced from Giles Creek mine near Reefton, operated by Birchfield Coal Mines, a local family-owned company. The greenhouse gas emissions will be more than 150,000 tonnes/year of carbon dioxide, along with local emissions of sulphur dioxide and various heavy metals found in the coal. The consent sets limits on these, but they could have been avoided altogether.

The application for council consents makes it clear that using biomass fuel from wood was an option that was considered.  If fired completely on wood pellets it would have required more than the total South Island production, but wood chip was also possible, and would have required only 15% of the locally available wood, competing with MDF and export logs.

We understand that wood chip was a serious option, and no serious problems seem to have been raised, but the company makes clear in its consent application that it was a little nervous about continuity of supply and didn’t have experience of operating a wood fired boiler.

This is exactly the sort of situation a price on carbon is meant to assist. So why didn’t the ETS make the difference?

The answer is that we don’t really have a price on carbon. First, the National Government amended the initial scheme which would have required all new projects to pay in full for their emissions. Fonterra as an exporter will qualify for the majority of its carbon obligations as free credits, even for this new project. This could be 90% or 60% depending on the Minister.

Second, for the remaining small obligation, the Government has just extended the “two for the price of one” scheme indefinitely meaning the price in NZ is capped at $12.50 per tonne rather than the $25 in the legislation.

Third, Government is accepting cheap CDM (“Clean Development Mechanism”) credits as payment rather than requiring companies to buy from NZ foresters within the NZ market, and the price of those has slumped to about $7/tonne. Fonterra will be paying hardly anything for its emissions, while the government pretends we have a world-leading Emissions Trading Scheme.

We believe that if Fonterra was paying $25/tonne for all its greenhouse emissions the obvious choice would have been wood. The other likely consequence of a real price on carbon would be action to plant fast growing coppicing trees for a reliable supply of biomass energy in the future.

6. CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RMA:  UPDATE AND A FUNDRAISING PLEA 

Jeanette Fitzsimons writes:

You will recall that our ability to argue climate change in RMA hearings is being tested in court. The Environment Court (Judge Newhook) in May confirmed the Commissioners’ decision on the Denniston mine that climate change arguments were not allowed.

West Coast Environment Network and Forest & Bird have appealed this judgement to the High Court, and the miners have appealed to have the case moved to the higher Court of Appeal. There was general agreement that this would save a step and some costs but the High Court has denied consent for this.

So the High Court hearing of the appeal against the Environment Court decision is set down for 30 July. The substantive hearing against the Denniston consents, in the Environment Court, is set down for late October. It is unlikely that the legal issues around climate change will be finally determined by then, so the case may go ahead with no discussion of the climate change effects of burning 6.1 million tonnes of coal. In this case it would turn on the biodiversity and landscape arguments.

We will keep you posted as these cases are heard.

Lynley Hargreaves of West Coast Environment Network adds:

West Coast Environment Network is now fundraising for these next rounds of both cases. The group has had some extremely generous donations, both from fundraising events by the Auckland Coal Action group and large individual donations. Thank you everyone! Now money is needed specifically to pay for court fees, security of costs for the upcoming High Court case, and our legal costs for the main Environment Court case. We’re hoping to raise $4000 in the next four months and are planning a raffle and other local fundraising activities, but any help would be appreciated:

West Coast ENT Incorporated, Kiwibank, 38-9012-0009759-00

7. REGIONAL REPORTS:  WAIKATO, AUCKLAND, WELLINGTON, MOTUEKA, TAKAKA, CHRISTCHURCH, DUNEDIN AND SOUTHLAND

Note:  quick link to contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups.

Waikato: Coal Action Waikato

Welcome to the newest regional anti-coal group, Coal Action Waikato! Dawn Shapira sets the scene:

We have begun a Coal Action Waikato Group.We have the same aims as Coal Action Network Aotearoa, with a focus on our immediate area, the Waikato.

There is a Coal Seam Gas (CSG) project roughly 7 km northwest of Huntly town, where it has been running the last 5-10 years on a non-notifiable consent, which is why the public at large did not know. Fracking has been used on this project and consent was given to use known toxic chemicals.

Further to this an Underground Coal Gasification plant (UCG) has been in operation for the past few months, almost alongside the CSG wells — also on a non-notifiable consent.

These are Solid Energy projects in partnership with Ergo Exergy. Both of these projects are part of the greater Huntly area coalfields, which include Huntly East and Huntly West underground coal mines and Rotowaro opencast mine.

Among the eventual issues of the CSG and UCG projects of pollution and emission of toxins in the air, should full scale plants go ahead, there is the absolute danger of polluted waterways and toxic waste water that can never be used again, along with the possibility of UCG plant catching fire, and health issues to local people and stock.

Our first project as part of the group is to raise awareness and educate the public, Federated Farmers, Waikato Regional Council, local council and iwi.

If you are interested in working with us, please contact me at Dawn.Bera@xtra.co.nz and we can set up a meeting. Networking can then be done via email, phone, Facebook etc.

Alongside this is the importance of working against the sale of assets by our government. The sale of Solid Energy will take any chance we have of negotiation out of New Zealand hands and the prospect of a large UCG plant will be even higher than if it stays with Solid Energy.

Please note that aside from Hamilton and other minor town centres, the whole of the Waikato is under permit to prospect to explore in some form or another, with fracking expected at Ohura, near Taumaranui!

Also, L+ M have a permit next to Solid Energy and their website states they are awaiting Solid Energy’s findings to drill for CSG.

Dawn Shapira
for Coal Action Waikato

Auckland: Auckland Coal Action

During recent weeks Auckland Coal Action has got together with members of Generation Zero and350.org to prepare submissions to Auckland Council on the Auckland Energy and Climate Change Mitigation Strategy.

On 7 July our regular members attended an all-day meeting, facilitated by Tanya from the Kotare Trust, with the purpose of refining ACA’s objectives and agreeing upon strategies for achieving them.  An ambitious programme for one day, but the meeting was productive.

Our monthly planning meeting on 14 July was brought forward to the morning so that we could attend the Aotearoa Is Not For Sale march. ACA had a good turnout for this march, including a large grey elephant with a sign around his neck that said “Climate Change is the Elephant in the Room!” We signed up several new members.

We are now planning our participation next month in the Ka Nui /Enough! Conference in Rotorua in August.

About Auckland Coal Action

Auckland Coal Action was formed in July 2011 following the visit of Dr James Hansen. We recognise that coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and that its ongoing use will lead to catastrophic climate change. We aim to achieve a coal-free Aotearoa by 2030, initially by opposing the expansion of coal mining. We do this work to play our part in sustaining a benign climate for us, our children and grandchildren.

Join our Facebook group.

Subscribe to our monthly email update – contact: aucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Regards
Jill Whitmore

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” meetings

We had an excellent “Keep the Coal in the Hole” meeting in Wellington on 28 June. Among the highlights were presentations on the history, activities, and operating style of Solid Energy, and on alternatives to coal. Both of these presentations have led to work which we now have underway, and which we’ll be making available publicly soon.

We also discussed a range of campaigning opportunities. One of these has been presented to us by the New Zealand petroleum industry, which plans to strut its stuff in Wellington on 19 and 20 September.

We think the petroleum industry needs to get the message that their activities do not have public support. And we’re planning to do something about that at our next meeting. Here’s the meeting invitation from Frances Mountier:

We’ve heard that the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) are presenting the NZ Petroleum Summit this September 19-20 here in Wellington.  A number of us thought Yukkkk! And that there’s no way that’s going ahead without us protesting.  So, we’re calling a Wellington planning meeting to organise how we might like to respond.

The planning meeting will be:
7:30-9:00pm.
Thursday 16th August
Venue: 350.org offices, 18 Allen St, Wellington CBD (If you are late, the door is locked, sorry – there will be a cellphone number on the door so please text to get let in)
Please bring food to share if you are able to.

Facebook event

We hope many of the climate change, climate justice and anti-mining groups can make it along.  We haven’t got plans yet for what we might do – so please bring your thoughts.

The meeting is preceded by a Wellington Keep the Coal in the Hole gathering from 6.00-7.30pm. These are two-monthly networking meetings of groups and individuals working to phase out coal mining, and they grew out of the Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer Festival – anyone working for the phase out of coal mining is welcome.

Hope to see you on 16 August
Francie Mountier

Please note, this is NOT a public meeting; it is for those who want to organise against the NZ Petroleum Summit.  Mining bosses and PR reps will most definitely not be welcome.

Top of the South

a) Motueka: Hands Across the Sand

There is another international Hands Across the Sand action coming up on the 4th August. Motueka is planning to participate. Anyone else across the Top of the South or on the West Coast planning an event? You can register your event on the website.

Here is the invitation to the Motueka event:

Unite with friends and neighbours in joining Hands Across The Sand at the Janie Seddon Shipwreck, Motueka Quay, Motueka, at noon on Saturday 4 August.

On this day people from all walks of life worldwide will gather on their local beaches, joining hands to create a line in the sand, sending a powerful visual message to our nations’ leaders. We will join hands to keep oil drilling out of our waters, urging our leaders to adopt policies that protect our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife and fisheries. Exploration permits are being granted around New Zealand for dangerous deep sea oil drilling. Frequent oil spills continue to happen worldwide and often go unreported.

Kiwis said no to racist sport. We said no to nuclear powered ships in our ports. Now is the time to stand together and say NO to oily beaches. We will join hands to show our support for the phasing out of fossil fuels, and for putting all of our human ingenuity behind creating a renewable energy future.

For more information contact “The Renewables”, email: no.oily.beaches@gmail.com

b) Takaka: Nonviolent direct action workshops, 5 and 19 August

Civil Action: disobedience through non-violent non-compliance

Facilitator:  RoC Piekarski

Dates & times:  Two Sundays, 5 and 19 August, 2-5pm
Venue:  Benfys Co Creative Space, 4 Commercial St, Takaka
Number of participants:  minimum 4

Description: Abusive authority must always be questioned and never be tolerated. From Gandhi to the Occupy Movement, non-violent non-compliance has demonstrated the empowerment of the people.  Come share an enthusiasm for humanity to reach its greatest potential by understanding the history and methods of civil disobedience and non-violent action.

Participants will explore successful civil actions then match them to present-day reasons to take civil action locally, regionally, nationally and globally.  The plan is to select at least one civil action campaign and design a strategy to implement it.  The tools of positive activism are within all, and participants will find expression of their need to stand up and disobey.

Please bring: Non-violent action exploration tools, such as laptops, writing implements, the kind word and clear laughter. Tasty dishes (finger foods) will be arranged.

Cost:  20H/$ (10H + $10) (up to half HANDS, no early bird discount). Will be applied to venue hire, HANDS costs for printing and advertising, snacks and the Community Enterprise and Economic Development Services (CEEDS) Trust.

HANDS website.

Tutor’s background: More than three decades ago Ro found Gene Sharp’s Ph.D. thesis, Non-Violent Political Action, on a university library shelf.  This weighty two-volume treatise intrigued a novice, who then hunkered down to scan and wow over this thorough exploration of the philosophy and strategy of civil action.

Over the years Sharp expanded his work and added more juice to the practice of non-violent political action.  Recently the Occupy Movement and Arab Spring have successfully applied Sharp-inspired non-violent actions to empower the people to stand up to aggressive authority for real improvement in social/economic/environmental justice and equality.

These issues and more are possibilities that participants engaged in non-violent action can explore.  We will share our intense need, emanating from the force within, to help create the best world and to allow humanity to reach its highest potential.

Other information: Please put your HANDS up early to receive emailed information to review before the first session.  Your participation includes an exploration of human potential and participants can look to extract decayed or sickening cavities that impede living in a peaceful and harmonious world.

To book: email rojoanna@ihug.co.nz
Christchurch: Canterbury Coal Action

Rachel Eyre writes:

Film Screening on 1 August

On the first of August, we are proud to be promoting and hosting the screening of a movie:Bimblebox. What, I hear you ask, is Bimblebox? Well, all I’ll say now is that it’s the story of a reserve in Australia and it documents their battle against a coal mine – as well as similar battles being waged across the country by tiny communities against Big Coal and Coal Seam Gas. To see the film, come to the WEA on Gloucester St at 7.30, Christchurch on the 1st of August 2012 – and for more details on Bimblebox, see this link. 

We’ve also been involved with the 350.org Climate Connections Day, hosting a meeting for local groups to discuss what they’ve been doing to combat climate change and what they’ve learnt works well and not-so-well. A great afternoon was had by all!

Dunedin: Southern Anti-Coal Action (SACA)

Rosemary Penwarden reports:

SACA met on 20 July for a catch-up. We discussed:

•  A time and venue for holding the Just Do It DVD screening– details to be finalised shortly.
•  Dunedin having our own “climate” elephant (Climate Change is the Elephant in the Room) – could be useful around the geology department and other places…e.g. at Council meetings? – ideas welcome!
•  The possibility of holding a large public talk/forum focused on lignite – similar to the Denniston one.
• Showing more films – Bimblebox and Surviving Progress – in the near future.
• Tarsh Turner reported a successful Socialist Saturday event on July 14.

You can contact SACA via rose.penwarden@gmail.com.

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

a) NVDA (Nonviolent Direct Action) Reflection: CAM NVDA weekend, 22- 24 June at Te Tomairangi Marae, Invercargill

Jenny Campbell reflects on the hui:

It was exciting to have about 20 people participate enthusiastically in the NVDA hui weekend ably and sensitively lead by Kristin Gillies, assisted by Niahm O’Flynn and Rosemary Penwarden.

Hospitality given generously from Te Tomairangi marae hosts, scrumptious food, an awareness of the needs of others as we explored what NVDA means for us made this a special time together as we built up bonds of support and care within this huge campaign we have embarked on with CAM.

Reflecting on other protest actions – which had taken many forms – carried out over the centuries in various cultural settings, along with our involvement in some, started the conversations and listening. The theory of NVDA, definition clarifications, ways of dealing with emotional and local issues, strategising and storytelling all helped inform our perspectives, took away some of the scariness and focused our energy.

Personal experiences, passions, learnings and practice along with the facilitators being adaptable meant the local group was able to formulate a proposed action for a possible opportunity for some NVDA responses. Amid much laughter, fears, listening, stories and offers of help, a positive way forward was agreed upon. Even though the proposed plans for the weekend training could have been seen as having been ‘hi-jacked’, it seems that the strengthening of the group and feeling a sense of empowerment in the face of some despair, were all positive outcomes.

We thank Kristin in particular for his adaptability and positive engagement with our group which has enabled us to move forward on our NVDA journey. Kia kaha.

I recommend a NVDA workshop for all groups as an awareness raising exercise and for group building and bonds.

b) Coal Action Murihiku News – July 2012

Kia ora e hoa ma.

June has seen our main event as the NVDA workshop and the formulation of an action around the proposed opening of the pilot briquetting plant at Mataura – date yet to be announced. There has been general follow up from the postings of the billboards with messages about our loss of farmland in the Mataura valley.

Our second CAM newsletter has just been published with an increasing readership. If you’d like to contact or join CAM, please email me at jennycam@xtra.co.nz

Members are continuing to collect signatures for the Citizens’ Initiated Referendum.

At a recent meeting in Auckland I heard that Southland has the highest number of signatures collected to date/ head of population! Kia kaha! Tumeke!

I used the excellent stall kit resources at the national Forest and Bird conference in Wellington, as well as at a 3 Tikanga Anglican Women’s Hui in Auckland, a Trans Tasman Rural Ministry Conference south of Cairns and at the 3 Tikanga Anglican General Synod in Fiji. As well as the general resources, items specific to Southland were distributed along with the ‘Just Lignite’ booklet which has been reprinted.

In all these places concerns about the present impacts of climate change, coal mining, health issues and the need for more clean green energy uses were some of the conversations I had with people, as well as people signing up to the CANA network, eager to learn more and be involved.

The next Southland event is Australia’s ‘Lock the gate’ campaigner Drew Hutton’s talk in Gore on Wed 29 August, hopefully meeting with farmers, landowners and concerned public (see Item 3 above for more details).

CAM members are very appreciative of the support they received from members of CANA around the country in making submissions to Environment Southland for the recent Proposed Southland Regional Policy Statement. Ideas about what to include in submissions helped Southlanders with their efforts and our continuing need to use every method to stop Solid Energy’s plans for Southland lignite. We noticed our helpers and fellow submitters had all been to the Summer Festival in Mataura so knew the issues and are prepared to continue their support – even from afar! Sincere appreciation.

Rangimarie, Jenny Campbell, Co- convenor CAM
8. Just Transition: Moving Away from Coal

This report from the labour movement in the US discusses how a just transition away from coal can be made in the USA.

Its conclusion is well worth reading, and just as applicable to Aotearoa:

“Today we face a global climate crisis and at the same time a global economic crisis. The horrible result can be to pit jobs against the environment. But the  transition to a clean, climate-friendly, environmentally sound economy and society is the solution to both. The issue of coal-fired power plants is a perfect example. It can—and often has become a battle over jobs versus the environment. That often translates into a battle between trade unionists and environmentalists. But this issue also provides a perfect example of how to move beyond that futile polarity. The solution is to create an energy and economic development alternative that creates jobs, putting our world on a sustainable basis.

Ultimately that will require a global green New Deal, in which the nations of the world cooperate to put millions of women and men to work, eliminating the threats to our common future. We are creating the building blocks of that new model locally as we transition from coal to renewable energy in a way that creates jobs, reconstructing our community energy systems and economies.”

9. NEWS AND RESOURCES 

• At last, the Flat Earth Society has found a group that shares their worldview – New Zealand’s climate change deniers. They turned out at the High Court on 16 July to support the deniers’ case challening NIWA’s temperature records. :  More coverage onHot Topic and, more seriously, the  sciblogs podcast that has a good interview with Gareth Renowden on the case and Jim Renwick on the state of the NZ climate.

•  A report from Australia on how an influx of miners affects local communities

•  Sharyn Munro talks about her book Richland, Wasteland: How Coal Is Killing Australia

• Climate Change is hitting the US – hard.  The US Dept of Agriculture has declared a state of disaster in 26 states.  The price of corn and soya hit record highs, sparking fears of a global food price crisis.  The US media is finally picking up on the connections with climate change, which is most unusual. There’s been a lot written about it, but, to us, one of the best pieces we’ve seen is by 350.org‘s Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone Magazine 

10. DONATE TO CANA

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going.  A big THANK YOU to those of you who are already contributing:  hugely appreciated.

Here are the account details:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

11.  FEEDBACK PLEASE! 

What do you think of this newsletter? It has grown with us and we’d appreciate your feedback.
Is it too long?
Too short?
What would you like more of?
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Please send feedback to coalactionnetwork@gmail.com with “newsletter” in the subject line.

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter July 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.