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The 3000-candle giant wind turbine art installation by well-known Hervey Bay artist Jorge Pujol, who was helped by local Cairns residents.
Enlarge imageHundreds gathered to help build the twilight monument, which epitomises the message we, and the 7000 people who visited the Esperanza during its 2000km tour from Sydney to Cairns, are sending to Prime Minister Rudd: Australia needs an energy revolution – renewable energy, not coal, is the only way to prevent catastrophic climate change impacts.
Scenario for a renewable energy future
The tour began in July with the launch of Greenpeace’s Australian Energy [R]evolution Scenario, which showed that we could have a future powered by renewable energy and phase out coal by 2030. The Scenario was presented to politicians and widely covered in the media. Thousands of people took copies of the report home after visiting the Esperanza’s open boat days in NSW and Queensland. Visitors spoke with us about the problem of climate change and the huge potential of renewable energy, as yet unharnessed in this country.
Putting the brakes on coal
As the Esperanza docked in Newcastle, 27 activists, including an ex-coal miner, blockaded Eraring coal-fired power station, Australia’s most polluting plant a few hundred kilometres away in the Hunter Valley. Sixteen activists locked onto the conveyor system, forcing the station to cut output and stopping 10,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
Their actions came just days before the Rudd Government’s advisor on climate change, Professor Ross Garnaut, presented his Draft Review to a packed Canberra Press Club. Our message was clear – we need to cut emissions and we can only do this by backing renewables and phasing out coal-power. Our report, A Just Transition to a Renewable Energy Economy in the Hunter, showed how the Hunter coal region could be a renewable energy Silicon Valley with renewables replacing coal power and creating tens of thousands of local jobs.
“Go solar”
The next few days saw an fantastic national collaboration of climate change civil disobedience! While the Esperanza attracted record numbers of visitors in Brisbane, a massive 1000 people attended a climate camp protest in Newcastle, with 50 people arrested for blocking coal trains.
Meanwhile, four Greenpeace activists dominated the news with their protest at the top of a 140 metre smokestack at Swanbank coal-fired power station in Ipswich, near Brisbane. Braving near freezing temperatures, the four stayed up the stack for 33 hours, abseiling off to paint a message to Mr Rudd and Premier Anna Bligh to “Go Solar”. Ms Bligh was forced to respond to our action, in which she said we had a legitimate point to make!
The weekend’s climate change protests in Brisbane and Newcastle made national news pushing the “renewables not coal” message further up the political agenda.
Highlighting threats to the Reef
Heading through the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, the Esperanza was greeted by a flotilla of 90 vessels as it arrived in Airlie to support the local community’s fight to stop a the construction of a oil shale mine, which would devastate both the local environment and emit vast amounts of greenhouse gas pollution.
The proposed shale oil mine is just 10 km from the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, on the internationally significant Goorganga Wetlands. If approved, the mine will need huge water supplies and cause toxic leaching and air pollution from waste rock and water. Greenpeace worked with local campaigner Suzette Pelt of Save Our Foreshores and world-renowned coral reef scientist Charlie Veron to help raise awareness of this environmental travesty threatening one of Australia’s gems and a World Heritage site.
Stop coal expansion
Even at coal town Mackay, the Esperanza had a fantastic welcome with 600 people coming to the open boat day. But just outside Mackay, in Hay Point coal port, the irony of almost 100 coal export ships lined up, with the stunning Whitsunday Islands as their backdrop, could only be lost on the most hardened of climate change cynics.
The Rudd and Bligh Governments are planning to more than double Australia’s already huge coal exports, but at the same time they promise to cut domestic emissions. We wanted to highlight the contradiction between rhetoric and policy, and show what these coal ships are really exporting: CO2 and climate impacts. Activists from the Esperanza’s international crew painted messages such as “RUDD EXPORTING CO2”, “BARRIER REEF GONE”, “MURRAY DARLING GONE” and “STOP COAL EXPANSION” on 20 coal ships. Greenpeace will be continuing to embarrass Bligh and Rudd for putting profit over long-term solutions when 82% of Australians want Australia’s coal exports capped or reduced.
The Revolution has just begun
The power of the coal lobby seemed to loom as we approached Townsville, with the Port Authority placing restrictions to prevent the Esperanza from docking. Happily the issues were amicably resolved and we held our penultimate open boat day in the town before our final port of call in Cairns.
Our six week ship tour gained national media attention and put key politicians on the hotspot. But, more importantly, we had fantastic conversations about climate change with hundreds of you and, so, end the Energy [R]evolution tour feeling positive about the effect all of us together can have on the future of our planet.
View key highlights of the tour in the video
Take action: sign the petition asking Prime Minister Rudd to switch to renewables
