IT’s probably the closest thing the coal industry will ever get to actually receiving the word of a god – or rather, a note from several gods as well as other various prophets, spiritual leaders and the like.
Last month religious leaders representing Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and a couple of Christian denominations published an open letter calling for world leaders to “commit to a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy” to avoid “climate-related disasters”.
Some of those religious leaders turned up at the Canberra offices of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), the peak lobbying group for the coal industry, to hand them the letter in person before holding a “multi-faith prayer vigil” outside.
For the purposes of a nice snappy headline, it’s sort of like a fight between Gods and coal (except Buddhists don’t really have gods… but if the Buddhists will forgive me?).
But the response hasn’t been limited to prayers and firm but polite letters. Some religious leaders have also been turning up at coal mining sites. There has been civil disobedience, an arrest and, it seems, there might be more to come.
The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) is a “multi-faith” group that’s been helping organise this spiritual fight against coal.
The group’s open letter kicked off a bit of a back and forth. In response, the MCA wrote its own letter.
The coal lobby said fossil fuels were going to lift millions of people out of poverty (a constant mantra from the industry), that coal plants weren’t as dirty as they used to be and that “the Australian energy production sector does not receive ‘fossil fuel’ subsidies”.
ARCC wrote back. There were some fundamental flaws in the coal lobbyists’ arguments over poverty. It was “simply not true” that fossil fuels didn’t get subsidies. The letter went on:
"The fossil fuel industry has not demonstrated the required moral imagination and courage to set aside self-interest and join the wider community to address climate change for the sake of the common good. In fact it has steadfastly set itself against the direction of the tide and appears to be ignoring its responsibility for the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants."
Thea Ormerod, the chair of ARRCC, says the group has been working to encourage religious groups and churches to divest their money from fossil fuel firms.
She says while the coal industry claims it will be around for many decades, the religious group too is “in this for the long haul”.
The group’s members and associates have also started to engage in civil disobedience, centred on the expansion of the Maules Creek coal mine in northern New South Wales. This misbehaviour continues a long tradition of faith groups getting involved in such acts, Ormerod says.
"If anything, our conviction has been growing that the greatest damage Australia is doing to global climate systems is through our coal and gas exports.
That Australia continues with expansionary plans amounts to willful neglect of our collective moral responsibility. Thus, our resistance must continue. What is at stake is, firstly, the life chances of those in developing countries at the front line of climate impacts and secondly, humanity’s long-term survival. Other species with which we share this planet are also under threat."
While “laws should be respected” Ormerod, a practicing Catholic, says “there are circumstances in which individuals may decide, in good conscience, to peacefully disobey a legal authority”.
In Australia, she says this legal authority was “aligned with forces of destruction”. Options to shift to renewable sources of energy were being consistently downplayed.
"All the world’s religions have teachings about respecting the Earth, and about finding happiness in right relationships rather than material gain. We believe influential people in government and mining in Australia are taking our country in entirely the wrong direction. "
Professor Colin Butler, of the University of Canberra’s health faculty, was arrested last month at the site of the Maules Creek mine. Chains were involved.
Butler, a Buddhist and a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , was at the ARRCC-organised protest at the mine. He’s due in court in January to face charges of trespass and an offence in relation to mining equipment. He told me:
"Conventional academic actions - papers, talks at conferences, editing books etc - are not enough to deeply engage with a sufficient number of the Australian community. Civil disobedience is needed, just as it was for the suffragette movement or to drive the British from India.
My Buddhist belief was central. I took the bodhisattva vows almost 40 years ago, as a young man. That led to my decision to study medicine, then public health, to co-found our NGO Benevolent Organisation for Development, Health & Insight and now this. I see it as all linked. The bodhisattva vows are to try to use one’s life to help others, irrespective of their religion, caste or wealth etc."
Amen, shanti, and all that.