08 May 2006

Carbon crimes: Sydney airport to Anvil Hill



I wake up.. where am I? I was on a plane.. then got a lift in the back of a van..then I crashed out. Now there is no one here. Well I know a kinda where, I'm at the greenpeace warehouse, and I'm in Sydney. .. but WHERE am I?

I can hear planes taking off, so I'm not far from the airport. I find a map. Right somewhere in 'this radius'. Hmm, I could go for a walk down the street till I find a sign, no.. no... there is an easier way.. Mail. I find some, ahh an address.. now we are getting somewhere. Right, find and ethernet cable..plug in the laptop in.. Sweet, I have net access.. find an Australian street-finder online.. chuck in the postcode.. great. Location pinpointed. That's where I am. Sweet.

So to step 2. Need sustanance. First acquire local Currency. Then locate shops.... Why is my life always like this??

So I've caught up with myself blogging my climate destroying tour.. whoops I mean tour of climate destroying projects of the world.. In the last 12 months I've been to:. Mayo, Gas, (IE), Happy Valley, Coal(NZ), , The Paradise forest, Rainforest (PNG & West Paua).. And last weekend: Anvill Hill Coal (OZ).



Anvil Hill is another proposed coal mine, in yet another amazing rare ecological area, very like Happy Valley - but a little more accessible, and has people living close-by, mostly resisting the mine..

Read more about the campaign from Newcastle Rising Tide's web site here, and the Anvil Hill web site here.

It really is another stunning forest wilderness - and again so different, there are even wild kangaroos hopping about everywhere! I was totally excited to see kangaroos! boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boingboing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing!

Sadly the first few 'roos I saw were roadkill, somehow harder to see when they were so big, like they had just laid down to sleep by the side of the road. Very disturbing.

I facilitated some of the workshops I adapted from the those created by the fab Trapese It's amazing what a difference half an hour sat with some of the project reports can do to make your workshops tailor made to a campaign you don't really know much about! PopEd is really great for that as its about drawing on the experience and knowledge of the group, with some help along the way.

Later we all sat in the dark, dark night under the stars around the fire.. and in the usual strange juxtaposition of ancient and new I got my laptop out.. I showed the Anvil Hill folks, and the Greenpeace fronties I was there with, some photos from Happy Valley and gave them on overview of what's happening there. Its so great to be able to link up these projects and bring the most important message to those resisting: you are not alone.

After a night sleeping out under the overwhelming, mesmerising bright stars watching thunder storms flicker in the distance we took a walk around the site and see aboriginal artefacts, beautiful forest and of course those roos! See the pics on my flicker 'Anvil Hill' set

Next stop: The Tasmanian ancient forest,where trees are being dynamited and forests practically napalmed.. Oh and its almost winter. Its already colder than the UK right now, at Equinox. Welcome to exrteme protest camping.. Can it beat the madness of the Rossport Camp Mayo, Ireland in a force 9 gale?

*flashback to fin clinging onto a marquee pole in the gale with the wind howling around us and the turbine making the scariest I'm about to come off and chop your head off noise, ankle deep in cold wet peat bog" and Fin shouts over the cacophony "Feck em!, feck em and their Newbery fecking Bypass...we were at MAYO!") *

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