Government Heads in the Sand Over Coal Seam Gas

Undoubtedly, and to the surprise of some, it seems Tim Flannery has come out in support of mining and in particular Coal Seam Gas (CSG) exploration. It’s surprising to the extent that this stance appears to be against his environmentalist position of the past. But I’m not sure Flannery has all that much credibility anyway so let’s not get too excited.

The real issues related to the CSG ‘experiment’ as I understand it, is the out-of-control access these miners are receiving to prime agricultural land and the negative effect this will have on our food production, which is already under threat as a result of drought and other environmental issues.

Secondly, there is a concern that science has not produced a satisfactory answer as to what effect CSG will have on the underground water table, and our ability to tap into these courses in the future. I think we need some thoroughly researched answers on these issues before we go charging off down yet another half-cleared path and put the Country further on the road to self destruction. Heavens above, Gillard and Co are doing enough on that without help from the miners.

It is also somewhat mind boggling that, in our search for clean energy, we continue to ignore the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes. This was starting to get a new airing until the recent Japanese disaster when it was suddenly swept aside as too much of a hot a potato for either the Government or the Opposition.

The fact is that Japan stuffed up. It put a nuclear reactor on the shoreline when it knew the Country was on a fault line and subject to regular and severe earthquakes, and that a major quake would trigger a tsunami. I know it is fine to be wise after the fact but really, one would have thought the Japanese would have been smarter than that.

Anyway, Japan’s ‘stupidity’ should not cause Australia to run away from this source of clean energy. We have an abundance of Uranium, which we gleefully export to other users to use for peaceful purposes; why not us. Nuclear energy would solve our so-called greenhouse gas problems without the need for a carbon tax, it would provide energy at a sustainable and predictable price and provide a reliable supply for forever and a day.

We need to get our heads out of the sand, put the Nuclear bogey man to bed and get on with it. Then we can leave our food producing land alone to be used for what it is best suited.