Kentucky resident Bruce Watson writes with some comments in answer to a recent letter from Geoff Swain.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Carroll farmer, Geoff Swain is “appalled and dismayed at the attitude of some farmers and others and their behaviour towards the coal mining issue in our region”, (Soapbox, NDL, March 19).
Mr Swain wants a “fair go” for establishing diversified enterprises in the Gunnedah area.
This is thoroughly laudable as a general desire.
However, Mr Swain makes a number of debatable assertions that require further consideration.
His memory of the campaign against the spraying of organo-chlorine insecticides in cotton crops is flawed.
The “anti” people were totally vindicated by scientific evidence about such products as endosulphan.
Other farmers, many in the Gunnedah area, who had fed cotton trash to their starving animals during drought, had their animals rejected for slaughter and they lost large sums of money.
Nevertheless, and despite all the evidence, it took until 2010 for the insecticide to be banned.
The early practices of cotton farmers were dangerous and harmful to the wider community.
These have changed for the better.
The problems were not just with cotton.
I remember hearing ABC Radio reporting that the dirtiest, most unhealthy, air conditions outside metropolitan areas in NSW, were around Gunnedah, while the cleanest were around Glen Innes.
I wondered why I was living in Gunnedah at the time – when Gunnedah had its coal loading facility, a tannery and the abattoir.
There were increasing issues with increasing numbers of school children having to combat asthma.
Some operations are not very helpful if you want a healthy community.
But, while farming practices take a creative view and adapt to better ways of operating, coal mining and CSG totally rely on chemically dangerous and physically destructive ways of doing things.
The threat from such operations is harmful for all living things, not just human beings trying to make a living out of it all.
The threat to the region’s water resources, created by mining/CSG, is one of everlasting destruction – for all human activities.
Mr Swain should think about this.
If we really do desire a “better place for our children and grandchildren and [are] looking to provide opportunities for theirfuture”, we can do a lot better than coal mining.
“A fair go” is not a general truth applying to every human desire.
