No doubt the global mining corporations are spending big bucks to counter environmental concerns over mining. No doubt there a few unsubstantiated claims about the extent of damage, but on the whole poorly regulated mining operations have devastating effects on this poor planet Earth. I don't think, for one example, that the wrecking of the Fly River in PNG by BHP Billiton's OK Tedi mine was a figment of someone's over-heated imagination, though no doubt the companies will be paying people to cast doubt on all such realities by presenting them as dubious nonsense spouted by irresponsible greens. We have to ask, who writes in this vein and who pays them ?? If anyone is interested in documentary evidence about the appalling damage mining is doing to river systems round NSW, come to a free launch of the film "Rivers of Shame" at the Parliament House, Macquarie St, Theatre at 1 pm, Wed. November 29th. Judge for yourselves the escalating damage to water resources in a time of severe drought.

No need to wonder Kang, the Institute for Public Affairs is one of the busiest talk shops in Australia. They endlessly recycle the neoliberal 'consumer capitalism is good for you' dogma that Margaret Thatcher made famous, funded by the larger corporations (which in Aus has to include miners like Newmont - care to deny the IPA funded in part by Newmont, Ms Marohasy?)

If only Ms had a scrap of evidence that Western miners operating in Majority world nations have ever brought anything other than bulldozers, prostitution, STD's, drugs and a handful of Mcjobs. Mining corporations frequently fund brutal 'policing' operations against locals who don't respect mining licences signed far away by corrupt officials (funny how corruption is always the fault of the politicians, not the corporations who pay the bribes) or who complain about land, labour or enviro rights. Outsourcing the killing, either to business-friendly police & soldiers, paramilitaries, or the straightup mercenaries of Blackwater Sandline et al, does not absolve miners, their shareholders, or their highly paid apologists like Ms Marohasy.

Its no surprise to see the IPA jerk into life upon the release of this corporate propaganda, be interesting to time the films descent down the neoliberal digestive canal: the IPA today, The Australian tomorrow, Andrew Bolt by Monday?

Both the above posters are correct in their views, Chis Shaw's article wasn't disputed to any great extent by anyone if you recall.
Earth is like a block of cheese you can eat it until it runs out, then there is nothing left, which is what mining is doing to our planet, we will have nothing left for our grandchildren if we don't act now to end this lunacy.

It's great for company's like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, their C.E.O's and other executives grandchildren may well be able to afford a space flight to an inhabitable planet found in the future, sadly though for our grandchildren it will be more like the Mad Max senerio.

1,600 eminent scientists half of them Nobel prize winners signed a letter to the U.N titled "Warning to the World" in 1992 predicting exactly what we see today, force 5 cyclones in North Queensland, snow in Tasmania in October etc, and many more examples around the globe. The time to act is now, not next year or in 10 years - NOW.

All three posts above are correct in their views.

Yes, the IPA is a right wing think tank.

The other organisation the author heads is the front group The Australian Environment Foundation - do not confuse it with The Australian Conservation Foundation - which was recently established by high flyers and corporates to broadcast a conservative perspective on environmetnal issues.

Sometimes it pays to take a peek at the author's credentials before bothering to read the (very predictable) text.

People,

The points in the article are-

Have Enviromentalists lied in the above example. Yes so far.
Has this caused a man to be falsely imprisoned. Yes so far.
Was the mining legal. Sounds like it so far.

Therefore the NGOs are wrong so far. This could lead to the Environmental lobby losing their moral high ground and therefore possibly losing credibility in the face of a real disasters (the boy who cried wolf.

As for the film topic its is good for people to realise that there are human faces involved in the mining/industry in other countries wanting to survive in the world

Who exactly are these 'environmentalists' you claim lied, Pewee?

Marohasy's article talks about a NYT article and unnamed protesters in Indonesia - sorry, noone who works for the NYT could be counted as an environmentalist given its long pro-neoliberalism/pro-war bias. And i'll take the testimony of anyone willing to protest within rifle range of the TNI over that of highly paid PR flacks any day.

One man is falsely imprisoned? At least he hasn't been hung like Ken Saro Wiwa for fighting Shell or shot dead like the Indymedia journalist in Oaxaca last week. I see the Newmont exec's son has already got a campaigning website up, ah money is a great thing.

It might be 'legal', Pewee, (in one of the more corrupt countries in the region) for Newmont to dump all that toxic waste but that doesn't make it moral, just, or even very smart.

If only mining companies would stop wasting lying-money on the IPA and put the same funds into getting their act together, then greenies might give them a rest. Anyone thinking Marohasy's puff-piece has any basis in reality might want to check out the Mineral Policy Institute archives, they've been documenting dirty work by Aus miners for years.
http://www.mpi.org.au

As soon as Marohasy answers my question about Newmont funding the IPA (bad habit of skipping her homework this woman) i'll ask about water use at Lake Cowral mine. There, in worst-drought-in-a-millenia Western NSW, Barrick Gold is apparently paying $1 per 20 million litres of water. http://abc.net.au/news/items/200610/1766644.htm?nsw
See http://sydney.indymedia.org/node/39662 for unanswered questions from local farmers desperate about their plunging water table.

If Adelaide dies of thirst as NSW gold production grows, well thats just the wisdom of the market, eh Marohasy?