Opposition to mining and gas extraction in NSW is growing as the industry expands and its impacts are better understood.
NSW residents are watching new mining and gas extraction projects being approved at an increasing rate across the state, and are increasingly confronted with threats to water quality and availability, air quality, health, food production and other productive industries. Mining creates permanent, destructive changes to natural systems, contributing to significant levels of vegetation clearing, land degradation, biodiversity fragmentation, loss of groundwater‐dependent ecosystems and the break down of communities.
Expansion of coal mining and exploration for coal seam gas (CSG) are limiting safe and sustainable jobs and reducing revenue from other more sustainable industries. The short‐term profits and state revenue delivered from mining does not justify the harm to natural resources and ecosystems that provide essential services to our growing communities, such as safe clean drinking water and productive agricultural land.
