Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Woodside Petroleum

When the Taliban destroyed the Bhuddas of Afganistan we all condemned it as an act of cultural terrorism, now we are doing the same in the name of economic progress or at the very least at the behest of one of the largest donors to political parties, Woodside Petroleum. Would we complain if 15% of Paleolithic cave art at Lascaux were scrubbed out to make way for a new highway or 10% of the Sphinx were relocated to make way for a new hotel?

Well thats just what we are doing, the W.A. government has approved it, even though the relocation and destruction has already started, and Malcolm Turnbull, our erstwhile Uberfuher of the Enviroment, has taken the line that a study needs to be completed before he will make a decision, even though this report was promised by the yellow belly parrot Ian Campbell last year and has yet to surface (it was meant to take 2 months as of October 2006) or as far as I know done anything besides consult Woodside Petroleum.

Ian Campbell, then minister for the enviroment: You need the benefit of good, clean West Australian natural gas going to North America, going into China, going to Korea, going to Japan, replacing oil and coal burning fire power stations to massively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the world. And that will take place up on the Burrup in the future, and it can take place in a way where a majority of that rock art can be protected in perpetuity.

With freinds like these looking after the enviroment who the fuk needs that pagan whore, nature. But then his friends are equally as caring, from Woodside:
In the 1980s, when we began construction of gas facilities near Karratha, we made considerable efforts to avoid high-density and significant areas. At the time, we recorded about 9500 engravings on our North West Shelf leases, many of which remain undisturbed today. About 1800 were relocated. Today we are doing it differently.

As a result, Pluto will avoid more than 90% of rock art and we are working with local Aborigines to minimise impact on the remainder. Of the estimated one million engravings on the Burrup, fewer than a dozen sites may be lost due to the Pluto development.

There are a million or so art engravings on the Burrup. The Western Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs estimates that between 2% and 5% of the rock art on the Burrup Peninsula may have been affected by development of the port and the industrial estate.

Most of the affected art has not been destroyed.

So 10% will either be relocated or bulldozed. Most of the ancient rock art has not been destroyed, considering that even Woodside admits that there are "possibly" a million peices of rock art or more, thats a hell of a lot of destruction, considering that these are only estimates and there is yet to be a final report on the full scope of the rock art, it is cultural vandalism on a scale not seen outside of Taliban era Afghanistan or present day Saudi Arabia. And what percentage of the art that is destroyed is most, 51%, 60%, we will never know, its already been destroyed.

To add to the destruction woodsides own figures on emissions from already existing plants in the regions (which will be added to when the new plant is built) are:

The Karratha Gas Plant emits about 12,000 tonnes of NOx to atmosphere each year from gas turbine and furnace exhaust stacks. The plant emits very little (about 8 tonnes) of SO2 a year, and about 18 tonnes of hydrogen sulphide (H2S).

The rock art faces an uncertain future due to these chemicals eating away the outer coating of the rocks, without the need to resort to bulldozers.


To our eternal shame


http://www.petroglyphs.us/article_burrup_peninsula_rock_art.htm

Sign it and hope it aint a front company for Woodside

http://www.petitiononline.com/dampier/