The coal industry is trying to make us illegal
- Details
- Published on Friday, 02 May 2014 11:20
- Written by editor
Australia's coal industry is trying to make our fossil fuel divestment campaign and other boycotts illegal -- and we need your help to push back:
Tell the Australian government that you are against a ban on divestment campaigns.
According to an article in the Guardian last week, "The powerful mining lobby is considering whether to join the push by resource industries to ban environmental boycott campaigns as it battles an escalating grassroots movement calling for banks, superannuation funds [i.e. pension funds] and institutions to ditch fossil fuel investments."
The Minerals Council of Australia went on to call us a “small number of noisy extremists from creating the false impression that the community does not support Australia’s second-largest export sector.”
Well, they got the noisy part right. But we are not small in number. And the real extremists are the fossil fuel companies that are willing to profit from polluting our countries and climate. We think it's pretty reasonable to try to maintain a planet somewhat like the one we were born into -- something that they refuse to do. Now we need to show the coal and mining companies, and the Australian government, that we're not backing down from this campaign. Instead, we are going to turn up the heat.
Let's show them that we're anything but a small group of extremists. The divestment movement is a huge global network of school teachers, religious leaders, students, parents, and regular people who think it's time to invest in a real future and a livable climate.
Click here and stand with the divestment movement in Australia. We will make sure we deliver your comments and bring global pressure to bear on the Australian government.
As Gandhi said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” No longer are we being ignored. No longer are we being laughed at. Now, the fight is on, and they clearly underestimated us.
We can win this, but we need your support to make this happen.
Onwards,
Blair, Charlie, Aaron, Josh, Simon and the whole 350.org Australia team
Sources:
Mining lobby may join industry push to ban environmental boycotts (The Guardian
#AustraliansForCoal is the latest sign of an industry in values freefall (The Guardian)
Australian for Coals campaign
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