Mining

Honduran communities resist mining project

I was in Honduras last October visiting Azacualpa, a municipality under threat from Canadian corporate mining giant Aura Minerals and its San Andres mine in La Union, Copan.

At the time, residents from the rural municipality were successfully holding off the combined forces of the mine management, its security forces, the regional police, the local mayor, the provincial governor, the regional military commander and the Minister for Homeland Security (who arrived in the community by helicopter with his own entourage of state security bodyguards).

A year on, Aura Minerals, with the collusion of the post-coup Honduran regime, is moving to break the stalemate.

Anger at granting of new gas permit in the south west

Communities in south-west Western Australia are angry the state government has granted Bunbury Energy a new gas exploration permit, covering the shires of Capel, Dardanup and Donnybrook-Balingup and parts of Bunbury and Busselton.

Co-convenor of the Gasfield Free South West Alliance, Boyanup landholder Kathy Thomson said the permit was a kick in the guts to the people of the south west.

鈥淭he government promised us a fracking ban before to the state election. We understood the promise meant we would be protected from encroachment by the invasive onshore gas industry.

Turnbull to run electricity grid on NBN model

Seven years after he launched a showing how Australia could re-power with 100% renewable energy by 2020, Malcolm Turnbull, now Prime Minister, has announced a 鈥淣ational Energy Guarantee鈥 (NEG) policy that will have no renewable energy target.

How we organised a human sign to Stop Adani

Thousands of people converged on more than 40 sites around Australia on October 7 to make human signs spelling out 鈥淪top Adani鈥.

The National Day of Action was called by the Stop Adani Alliance, a national grouping of large environmental NGOs. But what made it happen on the ground were the many grassroots groups that had been organising in their local communities to build the mass movement needed to combat climate change.

Scotland to ban fracking

Scotland vowed on October 3 to ban hydraulic fracturing, or 鈥渇racking鈥澛燿ue to 鈥渙verwhelming鈥澛爌ublic opposition to shale gas.

Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said Scotland鈥檚 current moratorium would be extended 鈥渋ndefinitely鈥 through planning powers 鈥 removing the need for legislation.

Voices from the frontline in the campaign to #StopAdani

Activists from all over Australia travelled to be part of the week of frontline action against Adani coalmine. 91自拍论坛 Weekly spoke to Juliette from Gympie in Queensland and asked her thoughts on the protest.

"I have come up to join all these amazing, strong, empowered people to show my opposition to the Adani coalmine because I really care about our planet, I care about our future.

Stop Adani: Voices from the frontline

Activists from all over Australia travelled to be part of the week of frontline action against Adani coalmine. 91自拍论坛 Weekly spoke to some of them to get their thoughts on the protest.

Case against Acland coalmine expansion grows

A new research report from the Queensland Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) has revealed that any move by the Queensland state government to approve the Acland coalmine expansion would represent an unprecedented and radical departure from recent tradition.

NAIF faces conflict of interest allegations

A noisy group of protesters gathered outside the Australian Infrastructure Investors Forum on September 12 to 鈥渨elcome鈥 its keynote speaker, the CEO of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund (NAIF) Laurie Walker. NAIF Board members are the focus of a campaign by the movement to prevent the massive Adani coalmine in Queensland鈥檚 Galilee basin.

Summits set agenda to Stop Adani

More than 350 activists participated in the Sydney Stop Adani Summit on September 2.

Participants came from a range of organisations. Some were part of the Stop Adani Alliance, which includes the Bob Brown Foundation, the Australian Conservation Foundation,聽, GetUp!, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Sea Shepherd and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

Agricultural experts urge a halt to Shenhua coalmine

An open letter from eight former agronomists and soil scientists, including five who worked for the Department of Primary Industries, has urged NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to halt Shenhua鈥檚 Watermark coalmine and protect the Liverpool Plains from mining.

The letter said the agreement the government reached last month with Shenhua to renew its coal exploration licence, paving the way for the mine to proceed, puts at risk 鈥渢he future of one of the major contributors to food and fibre security鈥.

Rio Tinto鈥檚 wrist slapped over dam wall collapse

Mining company Rio Tinto has been fined only $50,000 over the collapse of a dam wall at its Mount Thorley Warkworth mine last year.

It is estimated that up to 4 megalitres of sediment-laden rainwater flowed into the Wallaby Scrub Road reserve from the dam. The company blamed the collapse on several days of continuous rain, which softened the dam鈥檚 earth wall. However the court found the event was not a major storm but "merely what is regarded as a one-in-two-year rain event".聽