A THREAT of attack by an eco-terrorism group is being taken seriously by Victorian police and the Brumby government.
State Energy Minister Peter Batchelor said a menacing letter left at the home of a power station manager was a dramatic escalation of environmental activism.
The radical Earth Liberation Front yesterday refused to back down from threats against Hazelwood power station chief Graeme York and his family. A US spokesman for the group told AAP Mr York "should consider himself lucky" to have received a hand-delivered warning. And Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland said the letter was being investigated by special intelligence detectives. Although the ELF has not been prominent in Australia, it is responsible for a series of fire-bomb attacks on industrial property and equipment in Europe and the US. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation proscribed the group in 2002 as a serious terror threat.
The letter to Mr York, dropped in the mailbox of his Melbourne home, declared: "You are responsible for the dirtiest power station in Australia and the most polluting in the industrialised world.
"We hold you personally accountable for this assault against our earth. The irreplaceable and precious eco-systems of this earth are worth much more than your manicured lawn, expensive car and opulent suburban house.
"Your property will not remain safe so long as Hazelwood continues to pollute at such an inexcusable level, swallow millions of litres of fresh water every hour and cough out hydrochloric and nitrogen acids in return."
While I unequivocally condemn threats of violence, I am hardly surprised that such threats are beginning to surface.
With so much at stake and so little being done by governments and industry to address climate change, the only thing that surprises me is that it has taken this long for resentment to find an Australian focus.
Ben McNeil recently writing in New Matilda looked at the disconnect between climate change science and the political process during the Howard years and observes; It seems for many years the Australian government reflected a broad and dangerous public misconception about combating climate change: that is it has nothing to do with Australia's long-term economic prosperity or national security.
Perhaps the Rudd Government should reconsider its limited stance on climate change impacts mitigation and factor in the possibility that home-grown political protest may take a violent turn when faced with weak government responses to the urgent need to address long term water/food supply security and resource hungry/polluting industries.
