By Adam Currie (Rangatahi Climate Justice Activist)
This has been an unusual Easter for me. Instead of going to church with my whānau or hanging out with friends, I’ve been hanging in a coal bucket in the pouring rain, blocking the biggest coal proposal in New Zealand’s history.
And as I sat in the coal bucket on Monday night, in our protest against a mine that would add to the climate crisis, we received the sad news that Pope Francis had died.
Pope Francis was a climate champion, recognising the urgency of the issue. He released his first papal letter, Laudato Si’; at a crucial moment in 2015 ahead of COP21 where the Paris Agreement was concluded, urging governments to take action, and activists to push them to do it:
“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,” he said.
“Many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms, simply making efforts to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change.”
His second letter came just ahead of COP28 held in Dubai in 2023. These communications launched climate action across the world.
The sad death of the first Pontiff to address this global issue head-on has added to my resolve – to continue to take the climate action he called for.
I’ve been here up on the Denniston Plateau because Bathurst Resources, the largest coal company to operate out of New Zealand, has a terrifying plan. With the help of new “fast-track” legislation, Bathurst hopes to export 20 million tonnes of coking coal from one of the most ecologically unique landscapes in Aotearoa. The size of the proposed mine is difficult to comprehend, and it will emit 53 million tonnes of carbon pollution, equivalent to New Zealand’s entire annual emissions. According to a Nature journal article on the mortality cost of carbon, that amount of pollution could cause over 100,000 excess deaths globally.
After I found this out, I knew this could be no usual Easter. Along with over 70 others, I spent Easter weekend camping in the middle of the proposed mine footprint on the Denniston Plateau. This is an early warning shot to Bathurst – if they try to mine this special place, they will face opposition every step of the way.
The area they want to mine at Denniston isn’t a wasteland. It’s teeming with life that we’re only just beginning to understand. Great spotted kiwi, giant snails, green geckos, and delicate lichens cling to sandstone boulders millions of years old. If this mine goes ahead, all of that – plants, birds, reptiles, and the quiet stories they carry – could be bulldozed, blasted, and buried. In their place: a new road for mining trucks through pristine waterways, a coal washing plant, and the kind of devastation we already see at nearby Stockton, where even freshwater insects can no longer survive.
And for what? Less than 1% of Bathurst’s revenue goes back to the region. Fewer than 10% of its profits stay in the country. In exchange, locals get a few insecure jobs, toxic runoff, and housing shortages as contractors are squeezed into prefab dorms. The rest of us inherit the emissions.
This isn’t a fair trade. It’s a theft of land, of our future, and of any honest claim that we’re addressing the climate crisis.
We’ve known for decades that coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, contributing more to global heating than any other energy source. Burning it releases sulphur, mercury, and fine particulates – airborne toxins linked to thousands of premature deaths in Aotearoa each year. And yet we continue to mine, to export, and even to subsidise it.
So yes, I’ll stay here in this cold, wet coal bucket for as long as I can. Not because I want to, but because someone has to. Easter is a time of rebirth and renewal – so let’s renew our society away from dangerous coal and towards stable, clean energy that we can rely on for decades to come.