Global Support On Board

Ben Jones reports the following in this week’s Broome Advertiser (23 December, 2010) – what amazing international support to have, and it’s growing all the time.


Global Gas Hub Worry

 

Environmental groups from around the world have thrown their support behind Kimberley groups fighting the proposed LNG precinct at James Price Point with a “statement of global concern” being delivered to Broome last Wednesday.


The statement was signed by 25 conservation groups representing about five million people, including the Sierra Club, Turtle Island Restoration Network, Friends of the Earth and the Cetacean Society International. Comparing the Kimberley with the Amazon and the Great Barrier Reef, the groups warned of the risk of “severe and irreversible impacts” on a range of species if the “massive polluting gas refinery and industrial port” goes ahead.


The group claimed the project would have “severe and irreversible impacts” on humpback whales, flatback turtles, dugongs and snub-nosed dolphins, as well as severe impacts on the “social fabric and economic future of the region.”


Program director for the Turtle Island Restoration Network Teri Shore was in Broome for the handover and said if the development at James Price Point went ahead it would provide a “green light” for other industries to target resources in the region.


Ms. Shore said the handover was the first step in mobilising international groups against oil and gas exploration in the Kimberley.


“We’ll take the lead from the Australian conservation groups,” she said. “Where they tell us to apply pressure, we will.”


Save the Kimberley co-chair Neil McKenzie accepted the statement on behalf of Australian environmental groups and said it was another step in the battle against the precinct.







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