Farmers join fight against Adani coalmine over environmental concerns

Over two thousand farmers and other people from the area of agriculture voiced their worries about Carmichel coal mine since it could influence groundwater, climate, and biodiversity.

A significant number of farmers from Australia has joined the group against Adani’s massive Carmichael coal mine after they expressed concerns about its influence on biodiversity, groundwater, and climate change.

A group which includes more than 2000 farmers and workers from the fields related to agriculture have formed a group called Farmers for Climate Action which has already managed to collect more than 30000 signatures for their petition to the Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to change her decision to give rights to Carmichel coal mine to use groundwater used by the farmers in the area.

Farmer Angus Emmott who started the petition said that he was amazed at the support the petition has gotten and that he thought that the maximum number of signatures they were going to get was around 1000. Even though he has recently had an injury, Emmott wanted to deliver the petition the premier in person but before he does that he says that he seeks to reach the number of 50000 signatures.

Verity Morgan-Schmidt, CEO of the Farmers for Climate Action, said that she and the rest of the group decided to join the Stop Adani initiative because they were afraid of what would happen to the groundwater, but also to the biodiversity, rural communities, and climate. As of today, the number of groups who have formed the Stop Adani alliance has reached the number 13.

The primary concern of the alliance as Verity Morgan-Schmidt says is that they don’t really know how much damage can be made to the water supplies from underground aquifers since the government isn’t going to conduct any sort of surveillance over the works and there isn’t defined any trigger point after which the mining has to stop. It was announced in April by Palaszczuk that the mine has got an unlimited water usage in the area for the 60 years period. The license admits that underground water in the area is going to be profoundly affected both before and after the Carmichel coalmine’s years of using it.

But not only the water will be endangered but also the threatened black-throated finch which lives in the area will be wiped out. Experts on the matter from the James Cook University in Townsville agree that the habitat for the finch can’t be compensated since the best habitat for it to live will be affected by the works of Carmichel coal mine.