Australia Debates: Does Warming Planet Really Need More Coal?
Bruce Currie, a cattle farmer who lives near the site
and has traveled to India to investigate Adani’s record, said he is worried the mine will drain too much groundwater, calling it "yet another burden our small business has to bear." Several hours drive north in Collinsville, one of the area’s oldest mining communities, Roderick Macdonald, 57, a retired miner, said Adani had come to the town promising to build mining camps and employ local people.
people can live a reasonable life." Adani has said the project will create as many as 10,000 jobs in the region.
that offering that thing of hope, hope for a better life, secure employment and better wages so
New infrastructure to support the mine — a rail line to the coast
and an expanded port — would also make it economically feasible to extract coal from at least eight additional sites in the Galilee Basin.
A host of Australian celebrities — including the rock band Midnight Oil — and international groups have urged Mr. Turnbull to kill the project, arguing
that such a large mine would violate Australia’s commitment in the Paris climate accord to work to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
But if Australia agrees to subsidize the mine — even though several commercial banks have shunned
it — the project would demonstrate the lasting allure and influence of the coal industry.