Stop 91 new coal mines from being built in Australia!

I know coal is one of our resources. It always has been, ever since we invaded this place. I'm not stupid. But 91 NEW mines? REALLY? I thought we were all supposed to be moving away from coal. AWAY!

I'm not going to bother the Care2 community with ~91 separate petitions; here's an example of just one of the proposed coal mining projects for the Leard State forest in NSW, Australia.

Why not create jobs in more sustainable industries? We've got more land area and sun than anybody on this continent. Why is our government still even fucking about with coal in this decade? Coal is so... 1986.

What's that you say? We're SELLING the coal. Oh I seeeee. So we might not be burning the coal, China or India will instead. That's really great. Good plan that.

We do have the same atmosphere as them you know. And it's only about 10 kilometres thick. Most people drive more than that to work every day. Don't they? Just to put that into perspective— you can walk that same distance horizontally in a single day. And we know the air is unbreathable up there. Because if you keep going, it fast becomes the vacuum of outer space, doesn't it?

And what do those silly greedy coal mining buggers do? Cut down forests to get at the coal. That's really smart that is. Cutting down what are essentially a load of self-assembling, self-regenerating, self-automated oxygen factories that do all their work for us for free. And pretty oxygen factories they are too! People like to look at these natural oxygen factories. It's good for us!

Let me think of an analogy... how can I put this... cutting down a forest to build a coal mine in its place is like throwing a pile of shit into perfectly good and nutritious supply fresh food. No. It's worse than that. It's so bad, it should be a crime.

Do people even stop to consider this when making such important decisions about our future?

The world doesn't really want coal power. Or nuclear. Do we? No, we don't.
We want 100% sustainable energy. We want wind farms. We want solar power.
I think we're all completely sick of seeing exhaust pipes and smoke stacks. Do people that work for coal mining companies even like them? Probably not.

If this tiny Spanish Island can achieve 100% renewable energy NOW, then so can we.

Aboriginies have lived here for over 40,000 years. Did they have coal mines? No, they didn't. And that's one of the reasons they're still around, isn't it?

Let me ask you one question. Just one, I promise:
DO WE WANT TO LIVE IN A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD, OR DON'T WE?

BECAUSE THE RATE MOST CORPORATIONS + POLITICIANS ARE GOING, YOU'RE GOING TO FUCK IT UP [real fast] FOR EVERYBODY!!

If you stupid bloody bean counters [accountants] knew anything at all about science you'd start working out the financial worth of a single tree. And how much does oxygen cost to generate without trees and plants? Well, it costs so much that we generally don't do it that way. It's not 'economical'.

It turns out that some people have already taken a stab at these kinds of calculations. And do you know what sort of figures they came up with? The eco services that this planet provides are valued at $16-64 trillion per year.

Is it any wonder that people are depressed nowadays? You've got all these conservation groups with alarm bells ringing all over the damned place, thousands of species on the IUCN red list that are critically endangered, and you fools keep doing things the same way you've always done them! You damned fools!

I don't even care anymore if people don't take me seriously. Really. Maybe if people from all around the world see this ridiculous petition, they'll be less likely to visit Australia as a tourist destination. And then you lot down in parliment house will realise that pursuing coal and coal seam gas (and all the other types of carbon that you have to burn to get any energy from) is just not going to be worth it in the long run...

What is the true value of biodiversity?
– provides our air, food and water supply
– eco services valued at $16-64 trillion
– global food security / nutrition $
– photosynthesis
- oxygen production $$
– climate regulation $$$
– drought/flood control
– soil formation & fertility
– reduced disease risk
– air & water purification
– protection from erosion
– recovery from natural disasters
– waste management
– natural & traditional medicine
– tourism & recreation industries
– textile, timber, fishing, agriculture industries
– aesthetic value
– improved mental health
– impossible to recover extinct species
– evolution depends on biodiversity
– moral obligation to protect biodiversity

I want the whole world to know my country is completely selling out.
"Ka-ching!"
Did you hear that? That was the cash register. Money lining the pockets of people who apparantly don't care enough for the only planet they live on.

As I always say, if we all lived on the planet Mars and 'found' Earth –even the way it is now– I'm sure we'd try a damn site harder to save our biodiversity.