Step into the cathedral hush of the ancient Tarkine rainforest. Stand beside trees older than our great-great-grandparents. Their limbs block out the sky. Their roots search deep below the carpet of moss on the forest floor.
These Myrtles have siblings fossilised beneath the ice in Antarctica -- from a time when the earth had just 2 continents and this forest stood on Gondwanaland.
It has survived tectonic shifts, wildfires, climate changes, and human intervention for 65 million years. Now is our time to protect it.
This week Tony Burke, the Environment Minister, has to decide whether to fast-track approval for two huge open-cut mines in the ancient forest.
So here's the plan: a national full-page ad on Tuesday, showing Mr Burke in the Tarkine during his recent visit with GetUp members. Another huge ad the week after, when his decision is made, to let the nation know which way the Minister went. That's accountability, GetUp style. Can you chip in now to make it happen?
www.getup.org.au/ancienttarkine
Media pressure is mounting on the Minister after last weekend's front page coverage of our campaign, and yesterday's story on page 5 of The Australian.
But even those stories were too easy to miss, too complicated, to make this an issue most Australians will know about. If we can raise $60,000 together, we can run these huge, colour ads before and after Mr. Burke's decision to make sure he's accountable to all Australians, not just mining lobbyists who follow the issue carefully.
www.getup.org.au/ancienttarkine
How could anyone get approval to strip-mine this place?
Venture Minerals have a plan. If the company's three mines are considered separately, rather than together, they can argue that each alone isn't worth serious scrutiny. No detailed, federal approval required, they argue. Just a quick rubber-stamp by local authorities. Then, they plan to use the profit from these "short-term mines" to finance further exploration and mining in the area.
In other words, it's a step-by-step plan to turn huge tracts of Australia's largest temporate rainforest into what Venture Minerals describe as a "province of tin."
The effect would be devastating. Minister Burke said it well himself, in our recent video of his trip to the Tarkine: "The extent to which you have connected, continuous rainforest here, in the Southern Hemisphere you won't find... It's very easy to undervalue the importance of things being connected."
That's how the Tarkine supports the unique life it does, including the world's most important communities of the endangered Tassie Devil.
This week, let's work together to make sure the Tarkine stands for many years to come.
www.getup.org.au/ancienttarkine
With hope,
the GetUp team.
