Taking real action on climate change: the case for civil disobedience

23rd of Oct, 2009

Imagine that you arrive home to discover that the tap was left running in the laundry and your house is now flooding. What would you do? Most likely you would turn off the tap and then deal with the laborious job of mopping up the mess. Unfortunately, when it comes to climate change, Queensland seems all too happy to keep opening the tap wider and wider and vainly hoping that a few token mopping gestures will make it all go away.

Yesterday morning, dozens of community members from Brisbane set out to deal with the main cause of climate change on the choppy waters of Brisbane's coal port. Parents and grandparents, professionals and students launched a colourful array of kayaks and canoes into the Brisbane River near the port to block coal exports for the day, calling for a movement beyond our state’s coal addiction that is fueling global climate change.

World-wide, coal is responsible for as much atmospheric carbon dioxide as all other fossil fuels combined, coal from a single laden coal ship will lead to the same carbon dioxide production as the annual emissions of 25,000 cars. NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen describes coal as the “single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet” and has demonstrated that only through phasing out its use will we be able to maintain stable atmospheric limits.

Unfortunately for the world, Queensland coal is a fuel that is cheap, plentiful and is in great demand from our main export partners. It also forms the bedrock of our economy, and although providing less actual jobs than employment at our Target stores, coal is both implicit and explicit to our state’s culture and livelihood. So much so, that last month, it took environmentally outspoken band The Herd several weeks to realise that they had signed a contract for a gig at a community festival in central Queensland, a festival exclusively focused on promoting the coal industry.

The Queensland coal industry annually receives billions of dollars in subsidised infrastructure from the State, and the Bligh Government is planning to double the capacity of coal exports by 2030. It is lucky for the Government and industry that as climate action on an international level becomes ever more crucial, the United Nations climate convention attributes responsibility for emissions to the nations where they occur. This means that as soon as coal leaves the port in Australia, a sense of collective amnesia kicks in as to the fact that the atmosphere does not actually correspond to arbitrary political boundaries.

It is obvious that any real action on climate change must take into account coal exports. While promoting household energy saving devices and more sustainable ways of living is a crucial aspect in creating a more livable world, when the Queensland Government focuses on these solutions alone, coal will always remain the white elephant in the room. Despite years of lobbying, environmental submissions and official engagement, the tide of coal remains unabated, and in multiple countries across the globe, communities are beginning to act themselves rather than rely on politicians who appear to have their heads stuck firmly down the mine-shaft.

It has become abundantly clear that climate change is one of the first truly universal issues to have confronted humans in our history. While the struggles for Indian independence or Civil Rights in the USA have been some of the most notable non-violent movements in history, climate change is the first issue that seriously threatens every person on Earth. Climate change, whilst not colonialism or racism, similarly exists due to massive structural inequalities, with some coal companies wielding financial power equaling that of some majority world countries.

Multiple and creative forms of direct community action will be required to shift this power away from coal producers and to revoke the social license that they struggle so hard to maintain. As Australians, to passively state that because climate change does not affect us personally we have no role to play in avoiding it would be to remain complicit in Australia’s role as the world’s largest exporter of coal.

Henry Thoreau said that it is “disobedience that is the true fountain of liberty” and believed that it was sometimes necessary to trespass civil law for the sake of higher laws, including the law of nature. While it is obvious a single day at a coal port will not ensure a transition beyond coal in and of itself, it remains part of a broader community movement towards taking the action our Governments should be taking themselves to ensure a livable future.

Coal is a twilight industry, a dinosaur in a world ready and willing to move towards cleaner modes of production and living. With Government support for this transition and inclusive planning for our future beyond coal, we can continue to live in hope of a sustainable future.

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