The past week has seen quieter reflection from the stoush over the carbon tax and more oxygen going to the fight by our food producers against the coal seam gas (CSG) invasion.
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The farmers are campaigning to stop the destruction of arable farm land and the contamination of the water table.
The CSG industry argues that the methane they can release by fracking underground is not only a new fuel bonanza but also a low emissions alternative to coal and oil-based energy.
Capturing it is, however, energy and fuel intensive, meaning CSG also fails on the low emission energy score card.
The damage in US farmland and water supplies caused by the industry was graphically illustrated in the film Gaslands with flaming faucets, sick families and wasting animals.
France, where farmers are famously favoured, has just banned fracking.
The Darling Downs in Queensland was the first region in Australia locked into the CSG conflict, with 40,000 bore holes planned.
NSW farmers are locking gates and horns to protect their land and our food supplies.
The problem being: they are powerless in the face of overarching mining rights and wield less political clout than the mining company royalties.
The NSW Government has agreed to hold CSG exploration licensing while investigating the fracking process.
Meanwhile, the issue of compensation is also now muddying the CSG waters.
Concerns have also been raised about publically held and protected lands like the Travelling Stock Route network which could also come under threat from mining, development and/or neglect.
An alliance for the improved protection and management of the TSRs gathered in Orange last week.
The cross section, from farmers and Aboriginals to shooters and biologists, maintain the value of the TSR network, which links water sources across the inland and are steeped in both natural and cultural heritage, should be protected.
Our rural history locked the TSRs away from the impacts of heavy machinery, chemical spraying, over grazing and mining.
These corridors of biodiversity have now become fundamental to the migratory needs of inland fauna and flora facing changed climatic conditions.
Also this week, the Government’s carbon package is now estimated to generate double the savings in carbon emissions.
Treasury’s figure of 58 million tonnes by 2020 becomes 133 million tonnes when abatements from all parts of the package are added.
What they didn’t include was the 38 million tonnes of abatement from investment in carbon farming and 12 million tonnes from energy savings initiatives.
These domestic abatements bring Australia to 83 per cent of the five per cent national reduction target we signed up for when there was bipartisan support for climate action.