THE Examiner's March 12 edition included a one-page advertisement apparently compiled by a body entitled "NSW Mining", authorised by the "NSW Minerals Council".
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The message of the advertisement seems to be that to "hurt mining" is to "hurt the Hunter."
What about the following statistics from a recent Climate and Health Alliance report Coal and Health in the Hunter?
Health costs associated with pollution from five coal-fired power stations - $600 million per annum.
Health costs associated with coal fine particle pollution - about $80 million per annum in the Hunter.
Behind each of those figures is a huge amount of human distress and suffering.
The message of the advertisement is that we, the public, must support the coal extraction industry and simply pretend that all the downside aspects are not there.
Really?
Today when global warming due to greenhouse gasses, to which coal is the greatest contributor, is recognised as a huge threat to our society and way of life, when we have a choice to continue electricity generation from coal with all its associated unavoidable environmental damage, or alternatively generate from static, renewable sources which only awaits investment comparable with the investment and subsidy directed now at the coal industry, to promote coal mining into the indefinite future is to engage in fantasy of the highest order.
John Kelly
Nelson Bay
