Greens MP slams pollution levels, calls for renewable energy

Tuesday, 20th November 2018

Greens MP Robin Chapple has raised concerns that any further industrialisation of the Burrup Peninsula would accelerate pollution levels, potentially making the air quality of the Karratha area one of the worst in Australia.

According to a recent report by the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Karratha based post code area of 6714 currently has 38741283.97 kg of emissions in the air, from 31 polluting facilities.

This places it as the 10th most polluting post code in all of Australia.

Alongside Newman, which ranks 2nd in Australia with 199441803.1 kg of emissions from 15 polluting facilities, the Pilbara area is one of the most heavily emitting regions in the nation.

Mr Chapple said that not only was the Burrup Peninsula under threat, but that WA is disproportionately contributing to climate change.

“The IPCC report recently released says that we have around a decade to act to avoid catastrophic climate change, and meanwhile the McGowan Government is championing further industrialisation in the North West.

“It is environmental vandalism of the highest degree. We are quite literally trashing the climate for future generations.

“Due to fossil fuels, pollution is so bad along the Pilbara coast that weather radars often show rain even on the sunniest of days. This is absolute madness.

“We simply cannot afford to further shirk our responsibilities to combat climate change, and with a truly incompetent federal Government it is even more urgent for the State to up their game. Instead, the McGowan Government are pushing on blindly ahead with climate wrecking projects.

“We need action on climate change and air pollution now. There is simply not enough time, we must rapidly transition to renewable energy or face the consequences of people dealing with not only polluted air but an extremely volatile climate too.”

Media contact: Liam Carter – 0449 151 490

Report: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5115779/ACF-Pollution-Report.pdf

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