14/02/2021

It wasn’t exactly a bunch of red roses that awaited Adani contractor BMD as they went to work on Adani’s mine project on Valentine’s Day.

Instead, it was 65-year old Craig from the burnt-out Blue Mountains that welcomed them. Craig was locked on to a cattle grid, preventing workers reaching the BMD work camp and continuing work on the railway corridor that is critical to Adani’s Carmichael mine.

Craig’s action was driven by his concern about fossil-fuel driven climate change.

“In the 1980s I worked as a scientist at the Pollution Control Commission. Even then, we knew that coal-fired power stations were a menace. For the last three decades I’ve campaigned ‘within the system’ for real action on climate change. I’ve written letters, signed petitions and met with politicians. But still our reefs are dying and our forests burning”, Craig said.

“It’s time for everyday Australians, and that’s all I am, to step up and take peaceful direct action to shut down the mining and burning of thermal coal. Climate change isn’t something coming, it’s here now, so act!”

A spokesperson for Frontline Action on Coal (FLAC) stated, “The Australian government continues to claim that concerns about climate change and Australia’s dangerous coal industry, are coming only from the ‘outliers’ of our population. Craig’s action shows that, more and more everyday Australians are turning up on the frontline, refusing to be quiet and demanding their government listen to the demands of the nation and the world. Companies that decide to collaborate with Adani’s climate-destroying mine will continue to be a focus for nonviolent direct action. Come join us on the frontline and, in the meantime, Happy Valentine’s BMD!”