Letter from one of the "Kooragang 16"

The Newcastle Gerald has found this letter sent by Paula Morrow, one of the Kooragang 16, to a newspaper which calls itself "The Newcastle Herald". Paula is a mother and grandmother and very concerned that she is living in Australia's biggest "infrastructure bottleneck", otherwise known as the world's biggest coal export port and Australia's biggest contribution to climate change, currently undergoing a massive expansion.
The "Herald" declined to print Paula's letter despite a foreword from Paula which said she understood if the "Herald" had to cut the letter down for space reasons. The Newcastle Gerald has decided to publish Paula's letter in full.

Dear Editor,
If you want to sell more papers, can we please open up the debate on coal?
I am one of the 'Kooragang 16'. We trespassed on the construction site of the third coal loader very deliberately, to get everyone’s attention.
Newcastle is the world's biggest coal port. The state government under Iemma, Costa and Sartor is trying to greatly increase the mining and selling of coal.
We are evaporating our coal mines into our atmosphere and therefore, we believe, greatly hastening the onset of climate change.
We have been given a mix of community service directions and fines by the court, those most committed to the environment movement getting the biggest punishments. These were reasonable penalties given the laws. I know that the rule of law is extremely important.
The thing is we already give up a lot of time, of our precious lives, doing community service.
Only about fifty of us went on the original walk-in and only about an extra fifteen came to support us in a vigil outside the courthouse. This is not enough people to save the planet.
It was great to see 3 or 4 ministers and 3 or 4 quakers in a vigil outside the court, people representing god; or at least the human reach for the spiritual.
When I think of the actual activists, I think that we represent conscience, and the ability to see what's coming. Those that walked in and got arrested, are mostly young, in their twenties and thirties. There were only a couple of us older ones. Those young people are all very smart and could be focusing on career.
Our main attributes are that we can add up, that we can see humanity is destroying its nest. We don't want one more bit of our beautiful planet or its creatures destroyed.
If we put the brakes on and are proved wrong, it doesn't matter that lots of energy is saved and pollution prevented. If we don't put the brakes on and we are right about the gravity of the situation, then our children and grandchildren face a terrifying future as our eco-system is de-stabilised; climate will become more erratic, and agriculture unworkable.
Messrs Iemma, Costa and Sartor have a huge responsibility to the people of NSW to curb dramatically the use of coal and to greatly increase the use of renewable energy such as solar, wave, wind, and perhaps, geo-thermal. Or are they going to fiddle while Rome burns, as the the generals are doing in Burma? Do they have other loyalties?
We choose to spend our precious time trying to alert our fellow-citizens while there is still time, in order to try and make a big difference to what happens.
It is not enough. It needs big numbers of people to wake up and step up and make the politicians do what needs to be done, because those in charge of our state government don't, or won't, get it.

Paula Morrow, Tighes Hill

Exclusive: Kooragang 16 tried after successful vigil

Quakers, Buddhists, atheists and members of the Uniting Church were among those holding a climate change vigil in front of Newcastle Local Court this morning ahead of the trial of the Kooragang 16. Seven women and nine men were arrested at a peaceful protest on the construction site of Newcastle's third coal loader on April 19, where close to 50 people successfully stopped work for 90 minutes.
All sixteen pleaded guilty to trespass. Magistrate Michael Morahan sentenced eleven of the arrestees, who had no prior convictions, to community service to be determined at a later date. The other five were fined $200 each and ordered to pay costs of $70 each.
Outside, the group's supporters, young and old, held banners in a festive atmosphere.
Tonight's budget is expected to feature an $18 billion budget surplus, to be invested in reducing "infrastructure bottlenecks", including the massive expansion of Australia's coal export capacity. Australia is already the world's biggest coal exporter, exporting 18% of the world's coal.
In Rangoon, aid organisations are already moving in to help the victims of a recent cyclone which killed over 100,000 people. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that such natural disasters will become more and more frequent as we continue to increase our greenhouse gas emissions.
More nonviolent direct action is expected at the Camp for Climate Action, to be held in Newcastle in July.

Crowd occupies coal loader

The "clean coal" agenda of the 2020 summit was jeapordised yesterday when about 50 people put themselves at risk of arrest by walking into the construction site of the No. 3 coal loader on Kooragang Island, in Newcastle.

Sixteen people of all ages were arrested and charged with trespass, and have been bailed to appear in Newcastle Local Court on 13 May.

The construction of the loader is planned to result in the doubling of Newcastle's coal export capacity, already the largest in the world.

Georgina Woods, spokesperson for Rising Tide Newcastle said that she was very proud of what the community had done. "We are willing to put ourselves at risk of arrest, if it will help convince the Governments of Australia that expanding the export coal industry is putting everyone’s future in jeopardy. We may not get another chance."

The group entered the site at 8am, halting all work on the site and remaining there until 9:15am. According to NSW Police, the walk-in cost the construction company $50-60 000.

"The people arrested today are courageous," said NSW Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon. "Future generations will thank them for taking a stand and alerting Australians and indeed the world to the irresponsible actions of coal companies and sympathetic governments."

Solar researcher David Mills' application for the 2020 summit was knocked back. Mills emigrated to the United States early last year, frustrated at the lack of funding for solar thermal power. The work which Mills has since done in the United States would be able to supply over 90% of Australia's baseload power.

Meanwhile, former Xstrata CEO Peter Coates, who was invited, told the summit that Australia's 2020 renewable energy target should be scrapped and replaced with a "clean coal" target.

Yesterday's protesters were reasonably well treated by police, although several protesters were allegedly denied food because they were vegetarian.

The non-violent campaign against the port expansion will continue with Climate Camp, to take place in Newcastle on July 10-15.