It’s a perfect afternoon in Perth, lingering afternoon warmth under a cloudless blue sky. I’m sitting in a shaded beer garden on the edge of the city centre, there’s a hum of conversation as tables of relaxed, t-shirt wearing locals kick back over pints of cold beer.
Opposite me is a young environmentalist, Lucas. He’s tall and blond with a huge smile that rarely leaves his face. We’re recording a podcast, but something has me perplexed, because I have a nagging feeling that there’s a contradiction at play.
We’re talking about the ocean, surfing and how important it is for us to step up and mitigate climate change.
But Lucas works for… a mining company.
I must say, I don’t like mining companies. They rip up the earth in favour of profits. Their influence and wealth frighten Governments and can stall meaningful change.
I’m wondering how someone so openly passionate about the environment could work in mining?
So I ask him about it.
Lucas considers his beer for a moment then asks:
“When you were flying to Perth from Sydney, what did you pass over?”
That’s easy. Once you leave the coastal fringe, almost all of Australia either desert or is divided up into a patchwork of farmland. Out the window of the plane it’s a neat expanse of green, brown and yellow rectangles of all sizes.
“And how many open cut mines did you see?” Lucas
asks.
I hesitate: Umm, none.
I feel our conversation, and my attitude, shift.
Lucas’ company doesn’t dig up coal. It mostly digs
up the raw materials needed to create both bulk and precious metals. “Metals” Lucas says “That we need to build the wind turbines and solar panels for the energy transition that is so urgent”.
He then explains the detailed restoration planning that goes into working out how to close a mine… before the first truckload of earth has been moved. He tells me how good ideas to protect the environment are rapidly adopted, faster than any government could ever move. And he shares how his generous salary allows him to donate money to environmental causes that are important to him.
“When people think of mining, they picture a dirty open-cut hole in the ground,” he says, “When they think of farming, they picture a happy cow chewing on grass in a meadow”
“Yet farming is responsible for 100x more land clearing than mining, and huge volumes of emissions… but we don't treat farming as bad”
I know he’s right. Billionaire mining magnate, Andrew Forrest, has become one of Australia’s leading green advocates… and he’s got the resources to back it up with action.
Yes, we urgently need to move away from coal and gas. But we also need the right types of mining companies, with the right approaches, to help do that.
I raise my glass. “Thanks for helping my attitude to evolve” I say to Lucas and he nods. Clearly he’s been thinking about this in detail for a lot longer than I have.
And it turns out I was right – there was a contradiction at play: it was a contradiction between my expectations and reality.
