Introduction
State-owned Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd is creating an opencast coal mine at Happy Valley on the West Coast, about 25km northeast of Westport.
Coal is a filthy source of energy. Burning it creates carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, climate change, and weather chaos. Climate change is already causing great destruction and suffering around the world and this will only get worse if greenhouse emissions are not radically cut.
Coal mining is also environmentally damaging in many other ways, causing acid mine drainage, polluting rivers and other waterways, destroying habitats and causing loss of biodiversity.
The proposed coal mine at Happy Valley will destroy the habitat of the great spotted kiwi (roa) and Powelliphanta “patrickensis” snails, as well as other threatened species.
And as if all of this weren’t enough, Solid Energy has an atrocious environmental record and is already guilty of destroying clean and beautiful waterways on the West Coast with its horrendous levels of pollution.
