This Saturday November 23 has been marked as Australia's National Day of Action for the Fight For The Bight, with paddle-outs taking place in coastal communities all over the country.
These paddle outs are of course in the ongoing protest of Equinor – a Norwegian Energy company – and its plans to deep-sea drill into the Great Australian Bight for oil. Equinor's own estimations show that a worst case oil spill could have devastating impact on coasts ranging from Margaret River to Port Macquarie, (including Tassie) an unfathomably large stretch of coast.
The Eurobodalla Paddle out is registered for Kianga Beach on the Nov. 23rd, 9:30AM
Big Oil Don't Surf offers an explanation of where Australia is at at in this battle:
"Equinor has once again been forced to resubmit their plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight. They have until November 29 to do so. The exploratory well, due to be drilled next year, will be the deepest offshore well in Australian waters and one of the most remote in the world. It is frontier drilling and there are no guarantees it can be done safely. Drilling this well will cross a line in the sand with not just those in coastal communities but all Australians. We’ve made it clear in our hundreds of thousands that we do not want our way of life risked by yet another profit-driven fossil fuel project. These projects are responsible for overheating our home planet and threatening a liveable future for all of us. We need to transition to cleaner, renewable sources of energy. Opening a giant oil basin in a pristine marine environment is an idea that belongs in a previous century. The Fight for the Bight is not over, not by a long shot. The Bight must stay wild and free."
Some stirring words from Sean Doherty, taken from his Instagram, about this Saturday's paddle-outs:
"It’s our line in the sand where we say enough. It’s about saving the Bight but it’s more than that. It’s the people of the coast standing up to huge development everywhere that risks the coast and our way of life. "It’s sending a message that we don’t want huge fossil fuel projects that risk our kids’ future. It’s sending a message that we want leadership that thinks beyond the next election and appeasing the fossil fuel lobby. "We’ve been lucky to enjoy life on the Australian coast, and this is about passing that luck onto future generations. These community rallies and paddle outs are for anyone who cares about the coastline where they live. If we can send Equinor back to Norway it sends a huge message to the next Equinor, the next gas field, the next cruise ship terminal and to those in power that the people of the coast won’t be treated like fools." more info at https://www.coastalwatch.com/
