Climate change protesters blockade rail construction site at controversial coal mine
Protesters have tried to blockade a rail construction site at the controversial Carmichael coal mine project in central Queensland.
The group of health workers called Health On The Frontlines is protesting the mine due to the impacts of coal mining and climate change on human health.
A group of about 20 people tried to block vehicles entering a rail construction site off the Gregory Hwy on Wednesday morning.
Protesters have tried to blockade a rail construction site at the controversial Carmichael coal mine project in central Queensland
Bravus said the attempted blockade had not affected work at the Carmichael mine and rail project.
‘Police have been notified and are on their way,’ the company told AAP in a statement.
University of Queensland Associate Professor Liza Fitzgerald said climate change was the number one public health issue for the current generations and those to come.
‘I have to do his protest as a role model for my daughters and my students – we cannot have any more climate destruction, we cannot have more coal coming out of the earth,’ she said in a statement.
The group of health workers called Health On The Frontlines is protesting the mine due to the impacts of coal mining and climate change on human health
UQ senior research assistant Troy Combo also took part in the protest.
Mr Combo, a Bundjalung man, said he was protesting climate change and the impacts on Indigenous health.
‘I know that for aboriginal people, health and wellbeing and connection to country are inseparable,’ he said in a statement.
‘So to hear about native title being extinguished here made me realise the need to come to the frontline and address climate change directly.’
Frontline Action on Coal, which is promoting Wednesday’s protest, noted that the The Australian Medical Association had declared climate change a health emergency in 2019.