What do Queenslanders want for their future and for their grandchildren who will live in a radically changed world damaged by climate change and environmental degradation?
The future will be determined by whether we rapidly change our ways and heal our threatened life support systems, a stable climate, availability of clean water, biodiversity and their ecological services to grow food. All three support systems are already failing in large regions of the Earth.
Authors
- Professor David Shearman AM PhD FRACP FRCPE, E/Professor of Medicine, University of Adelaide, South Australia; Co-Founder, Doctors for the Environment Australia
- Professor Melissa Haswell PhD, Professor of Practice (Environmental Wellbeing), Portfolio of the DVC (Indigenous Strategy and Services), University of Sydney
Apart from climate, what about the two equally important life support systems, water and food to keep us alive and healthy?
At the recent UN Water Conference, Antonio Guterres noted “Humans have broken the water cycle, destroyed ecosystems and contaminated groundwater.”
Currently there is not a country in the world without a fresh water crisis, and demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% by 2030.
It hard to imagine this outcome in recently flooded Queensland, but we must ask if we managing water resources prudently? The answer is emphatically no. Most of us take water as a ‘given’ and government water reports are all about economics of water use. Human health and sustainability are rarely mentioned.
Even our major river system, the Murray Darling, upon which millions of us depend, is a management fiasco with an agreed Plan besmirched by rorting, political expediencies and current water markets.
So, is Queensland respecting its responsibility for maintaining the integrity of Australia’s main underground water resource for the future, the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), which lies under much of Queensland and South Australia?
The Great Artesian Basin also lies under the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) which covers an incredible sixth of the land area of Australia and is shared mainly with SA.
The Lake Eyre Basin is a unique arid land with an intermittent river system flowing internally from Queensland to Lake Eyre in SA. GAB water comes to the surface via aquifers to nourish rare plants and animals at the Mound Springs which have sustained a rich Aboriginal life and culture for centuries.
The Springs are a refuge for species of plants which have survived extreme climatic changes for centuries- they have needed to adapt as they could not spread because of their isolation from alternative water resources. Currently science recognises that they are likely to carry secrets of how other plants, for example food crops, will need to adapt to survive in this rapidly warming climate.
So let us consider the increasing threats to the sustainability of the LEB.
Pressure of water in GAB is decreasing and the Mound Springs are drying, causing loss of biodiversity which sustains their ecological health. A prudent Queensland would make the GAB a national reserve for human and agricultural use based on its slow recharge rate.
However the oil and gas industry is using an increasing amount of water from the GAB and its extensive activities place the region at risk of land and water pollution with toxic long acting polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals and endocrine disrupting chemicals which harm the health of humans and animals.
So let us consider how these affect sustainability of the LEB.
In the USA there have been hundreds of scientific and health studies of the toxics emanating from unconventional gas extraction. These threats are poorly researched and are discounted in Australia.
Shale gas mining involves drilling hundreds to thousands of wells that will pass through the waters of the GAB to obtain gas. It involves propelling a cocktail of hydraulic fracturing chemicals at high pressure to release the gas, and bring to the surface enormous quantities of contaminated water. The lining of these wells may decay, leak and release toxins into underground water of the Basin.
The contaminated wastewater is placed in evaporation ponds; these may overflow or leak, and chemicals can evaporate into the air, allowing these chemicals to enter the living environment.
The LEB has an inland drainage system, therefore any toxic chemicals from gas mining released into the water of the Channel country of Southern Queensland will accumulate in Lake Eyre in SA and also be released around Mound Springs.. We know that the monitoring and regulatory burden required to make this industry safe is enormous, and often beyond the capacity of regulatory agencies.
Despite these hazards, regulatory authorities frequently reassure us that “the issue can be managed” which really means “don’t worry, she’ll be right”. However, it is clear from the vast experience and research in the United States and elsewhere that the industry is causing grave, irreversible damage.”
Why is this suddenly an issue?
In December 2021 the Queensland Government granted new oil and gas leases in the Channel Country of LEB. Already there are 831 production and exploration wells predominantly in the Cooper Basin section of the LEB in SA.
New gas mines are being approved elsewhere in Queensland, for example in the last few days 570 new wells in the Bowen and Surat basins where agriculture and water is already under threat. The portents for more mines are bad, particularly as the government is determined to export even more gas.
Professor Ian Lowe of Griffith University has indicated that Queensland’s domestic emissions will increase by 60% from Channel Country gas output. Queensland already emits 32% of Australia’s total GHG emissions, and methane emissions from gas mining are notoriously underestimated. This increase would be totally incompatible with Queensland’s targets, even without counting emissions from leakages and burning of exported gas.
A intergovernmental review of the Lake Eyre Basin with inadequate public consultation underway and a Strategic Plan for the Basin will soon be available and more gas approvals seem imminent. Clearly gas industry endeavour will be made more difficult by the new Safeguard Mechanism but offsets will still offer opportunities.
Queensland and SA governments must recognise that their actions will significantly influence our local and planetary future. We must question whether income from expanding gas development is more important than the unique and important resources it places at risk, our climate and future. Alternatively we can look to a safer, healthier future and trade on the beauty of environmental treasures, productive agriculture and technological expertise. It is time for realistic decisions to preserve our life support systems for future generations.
