UPDATE: Next Wednesday lunchtime in Wellington (13/11), help us tell Westpac to stop funding coal mining on the Denniston Plateau: https://www.facebook.com/events/218849471621945/
Press Release
In the wake of the Environment Court’s approval of Bathurst’s opencast mine on the beautiful Denniston plateau, 350 Aotearoa and Coal Action Network Aotearoa today renewed their call for Westpac Bank to drop its support for the mine.
Already, more than 800 people have sent letters to Westpac as part of the “Westpac dump Denniston coal” campaign, launched last week in Auckland. This week saw a temporary “climate change crime scene” outside a main Westpac branch in Wellington catching the eye of lunchtime passersby, and many similar protests are expected to roll out across the country in the coming weeks as the campaign picks up.
“Westpac prides itself on its so-called ‘sustainability’ policy, but a growing number of people aren’t buying it. If Westpac continues to lend money to Bathurst for its dirty, climate-changing mine at Denniston, its sustainability claims will be exposed as pure greenwash,” said Kristin Gillies of Coal Action Network.
“The government has given its resource consent, but that’s far from the same thing as New Zealanders giving their stamp of approval to digging up the Denniston Plateau and putting 218 million tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. We’re calling on Westpac to listen when its customers say they don’t want to be financing climate change,” said Ashlee Gross of 350.
The groups took issue with comments from the Buller District Mayor Garry Howard who has been arguing that Denniston coal is more environmentally responsible than Indian or Chinese coal. They noted that “unfortunately there is no such thing as environmentally responsible coal.” The Mayor also deliberately confused coking coal with thermal coal.
They highlight that the resource consent process takes no account of climate change. As the recently released IPCC report confirms, we need to peak global emissions within the next few years in order to have a credible chance of keeping global warming to 2 degrees C, our best chance to avoid major climate tipping points. That means taking a serious stance on seeing out existing coalmines, but saying no to new ones.
Write to Westpac www.westpacdumpcoal.org.nz
The greed of big business will eventually wreck our environment.
Our only hope is to slow them down and hope the next few generations will have a reasonable life before Earth becomes uninhabitable.
There’s so much happening behind the scenes and we will never hear about it.
Here’s a different angle to think about . . . . . .
http://cartoonmick.wordpress.com/editorial-political/#jp-carousel-721
Cheers
Mick
nice one Mick – love it.
I think you are all fools. Fantastic decision that court ruling. If you hate the thought of coal being used for power then do something constructive, refuse to use the benefits of coal burned power and make a stand. Stop going to work, or the shops, or the schools or playgroups for your children, or absolutely anywhere where you can get this dirty electricity. Until you do this then you are all talking nonsense and just blowing more socialist/green hot air than 95% of the real world wish to hear.
Thanks for posting the Westpac link ……I’m sending them a thank you for financing a project NZ needs.
greens ruled australia for 4 yrs under the gillard govt giving into them to gain power
cost australia billions and labour a landslide victory to abbot and the libs
All Theory sometimes we forget who controlls the universe
Amazing that people still believe in “Man Made Global Warming” Greenies use to call it global warming, then temperatures were steady for the last 16 years so they change it to “Climate Change” The F@@@ weather has been changing before man had feet !!! Everybody believes in climate change, if you don’t you aren’t too bright !!! Co2 saturation of our upper atmosphere has nearly doubled in the last 30 years and the temperature is increasing at the same rate it did prior to the industrial revolution. This years sea ice in Antarctica was the biggest since man was taking records…. Global Warming .. Really …
End of discussion !!!
I win !!!
HaHa Stupid greeny losers. I love it when commonsense rules and the sandal wearers get a hiding. A buch of hypocrites who still need every thing the real world offers, yet want to destroy the highest standard of living that man has ever experienced. More lives saved than ever before and climbing. Go energy. Go industry. Go life.
The legislation was enacted by governments elected by the majority. The Bathurst case has been before numerous courts who have all ruled in their favour. The green lobby used the system and very simply lost. F&B etc need to stop behaving like a three year old throwing a tantrum because they did not get their way. If F&B want to make a real difference, stop driving (CO2 emissions), buying products that use steel and grow your own food etc. Accept that F&B are losers.