We all support the call and the need to protect Indigenous culture and heritage sites - absolutely we do.
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And now everyone including, The Nationals, supports net zero carbon emissions by 2050 - absolutely we do.
But on both counts protection of Indigenous culture and heritage sites and net zero by 2050 are we all prepared to say change our ways, habits, lifestyles and even wear financial costs to achieve both aims?
Now that is the question we all have to answer because it is so easy to say yes to both propositions as long as doing so has no impacts on us.
Are any us of prepared to forgo flying and abandon our four wheel drives, air freighted food you know the out of season cherries and asparagus, fast fashion and take-away food?
Basically the desire to have everything we want instantaneously without thinking of the environmental consequences.
On the Indigenous front are we prepared to say no to a coal mine expansion, in this case the Glendell Coal Continuation Project near Singleton, that will swallow the Ravensworth Estate - site of Indigenous massacres in the 1820s and also the Ravensworth Homestead a serious white fellas heritage place of significance to colonial history.
To protect that site we have to be prepared to allow the sterilisation of around 135 million tonnes of coal. Should the site gain protection that would be a milestone whereby Indigenous culture and heritage in the Upper Hunter is given the respect it deserves.
Being a good global citizen doesn't come cheap or easy but failure to becoming that person could result in catastrophic climate change and continuing alienation of and loss of the worlds oldest living culture and heritage.
The choice is ours and now is absolutely the time to make the right choice to believe that welcome to country has meaning more than the mere gesture of saying those words and consuming less is better for us all and the planet we share we so many other living creatures.
Today our national energy grid reached 35 per cent renewables - this milestone was painless.
Maybe if we planned more and pushed political lines less imagine the milestones we could all achieve. This has to be the decade for change but are we all willing to embrace it wholeheartedly?
Louise Nichols
From cattle to coal. Once a specialist agriculture writer today its about community, in particular, the Upper Hunter. I have lived and worked in the region for more than 30 years. Land use issues and the future direction of our region. But you cannot take ag out of the picture - our food and how we grow it is the basis of all life. Covering the Hunter and Mid North Coast rural issues is now part of my role with ACM.
From cattle to coal. Once a specialist agriculture writer today its about community, in particular, the Upper Hunter. I have lived and worked in the region for more than 30 years. Land use issues and the future direction of our region. But you cannot take ag out of the picture - our food and how we grow it is the basis of all life. Covering the Hunter and Mid North Coast rural issues is now part of my role with ACM.
