Recently, I heard from two friends who live just outside Warwick that a high voltage power line is about to be put through their property. It will pass within 150 metres of their house. It is a family farm, has been so for many years and they have young children. They don’t want to leave but are concerned about the effects of high voltage power lines on their young children. Early contact with the power company and suggestions that the power lines be put underground have been responded to negatively and it appears as though the power company is intent on pushing through its power line despite the protests of residents. My friends will fight and are working on informing and mobilising their neighbours and others in the path of the power line.
At the same time within our region and across Queensland, coal seam gas companies are riding roughshod over landholders and rural communities in their haste to exploit more natural resources; all to provide energy for a massive industrial and economic complex, the by products of which are threatening the long term survival of life on this planet.
This year we, the Slade Lives Again Group, fought a campaign to convince the Southern Downs Regional Council to retain the Slade Campus in community hands for community use. It appears the council is determined to sell the campus.
The common theme across these stories is a disregard for people’s well being in the relentless pursuit of economic growth, exploitation of natural resources and short term financial gain.
We are slowly but surely becoming aware that the cost of this race is outweighing the gains. The results of this imbalance are before our very eyes, everywhere we look – as the impact of climate change and its effects on the environment, food production and our own lifestyles, as social disruption and the growth in disparity across the world, as the current global institutional crisis, as the pain in my friends eyes as they confront a powerful, faceless energy company and worry about the future of their children and their neighbourhood.
The solution to these issues and a way forward for the long term must involve putting people and natural systems first, rethinking our focus on growth and continued economic expansion, valuing what we have in our neighbourhoods, our communities and our natural landscapes. As people we must take heed of the signs, take back our power, fight for what we believe, and start to make the changes, however small.
So, I say to my friends, keep fighting, don’t ever give up! Motivated landholders and concerned community members campaign to bring some sense to the coal seam gas debate and we continue to put pressure on our Council to consider community, to retain Slade.
“A thousand mile journey begins with one step” – Lao Tzu.
Ian Perkins
