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Adani and the War Over Coal by Quentin Beresford & The Coal Truth by David Ritter

by
October 2018, no. 405

Adani and the War Over Coal by Quentin Beresford

NewSouth, $34.99 pb, 416 pp, 9781742235936

Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600)

The Coal Truth: The fight to stop Adani, defeat the big polluters, and reclaim our democracy by David Ritter

UWA Publishing, $29.99 pb, 200 pp, 9781742589824

Adani and the War Over Coal by Quentin Beresford & The Coal Truth by David Ritter

by
October 2018, no. 405

Who can forget the image of Scott Morrison, as federal treasurer, juggling a lump of lacquered coal in parliament on 9 February 2017? Appearing pretty chuffed with his own antics, Morrison urged people not to be afraid. Eighteen months later, the jester is now prime minister. His ascension results from one of the most undignified and ill-conceived political coups in Australia’s political memory. The Liberal Party clambers from the rubble of its bitter internal ruptures with the same foot soldiers of big coal even more prominent.

In Adani and the War Over Coal, Quentin Beresford provides detailed analysis of each policy switch and deal struck by politicians and mining corporations to advance the coal industry. Politicians with personal interests vested in coal radically deploy the power of their office to smooth and broaden the reach of resource corporations. Pugilistic audacity and naked entitlement characterise a war conducted on behalf of big coal against Australian citizens and environments.

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Comment (1)

  • 'Coal dust afflicts the health of miners. It gathers on window sills and washing as it blows through regional communities bought up and socially fracked by big coal…'
    Ms Reid omits the very serious health impacts on people in coal regions; with our modern massive open cut mines and the correspondingly enormous overburden mountains, it is no longer only miners who suffer. Coal dust is a visible annoyance but it's the invisible finer particles, from PM 10 to PM 2.5 and smaller, that enter people's lungs and blood streams.
    See the chapter, 'What price a life?' in my book, "Rich Land, Wasteland" (Pan MacMillan /Exisle 2012)
    Posted by Sharyn Munro
    02 October 2018

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