About Six Degrees

Who we are

Six Degrees is a campaign collective of Friends of the Earth Brisbane (FoE), which is committed to addressing the root causes of climate change and phasing out the coal industry in Queensland. This includes not only open cut coal mining, but also underground coal gasification and coal seam gas mining. We are made up of a diverse group of researchers, community organisers and students.
 

What we do

Our campaign is grounded in the belief that broad-based community action is necessary to exert the political pressure needed to break the bond between the coal industry and the State Government. We see non-violent direct action as a strategic and powerful method of social change. Six Degrees has and will continue to be involved in non-violent direct action against the coal and coal-seam gas industry.
 
 
While Six Degrees is campaigning on Queensland coal, particularly in relation to its contribution to climate change, we recognise that this is not the only problem that coal use generates. We are working with traditional owners and landholders who are losing their land to coal mines and other infrastructure. We see the need for a just transition away from coal dependency to ensure that jobs in the coal industry are replaced by jobs in renewable energy industries and we will work with unions and community groups to this end.
 
Six Degrees:

1. oppose the development of any new coal mines in Queensland or the expansion of existing coal mines;
2. oppose the expansion of coal handling infrastructure;
3. support the measured and timely phasing out of Queensland’s involvement in export trade of coal;
4. support the implementation of a just transition away from the coal industry and towards renewables;
5. reject the promotion and public funding of so-called "clean coal" by politicians and coal lobbyists as it is unable to deliver the necessary greenhouse gas emission reductions in time to avoid catastrophic changes to the earth’s climate, in addition to being expensive, risky and limited by availability of appropriate burial sites;
6. oppose the production of oil or other liquid fuel from coal.

Where we came from

The Six Degrees campaign collective formed in early 2008 to address Queensland’s number one contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions – coal. We saw the need for a stronger link to be made between the localised campaigns against the expansion of the coal industry in Queensland and the broader climate movement.

What’s in a name?

The name Six Degrees stands for what lies ahead, both the immense challenges the earth is facing and the opportunities this presents for transformation. Six degrees is the worst case scenario predicted for global temperature increase this century; it’s a trajectory we’re still on and a future we are staring in the face. But six degrees is also the connection between us all, non-human and human; six degrees of separation, between those on the frontline and those most responsible, between those just learning and those already coming together to forge alternatives and take action in solidarity with those affected. It is the six degrees of connection between those of us around the world who are working together for climate justice.