A dozen members of Auckland Coal Action were at the Town Hall again this evening to protest Solid Energy’s sponsorship of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Forbidden Love. Just like all those dirty tobacco companies, coal company Solid Energy is promoting itself as one of the ‘good guys’ through association with our national orchestra.
We were there to let orchestra patrons know what kind of company was sponsoring the event, giving them copies of our open letter to the NZSO in which we urged the orchestra to ditch Solid Energy.
If we can ban sponsorship by tobacco companies because of the damage caused by their product, then it is high time we banned sponsorship by coal companies. The threat caused by burning coal to our climate is far more serious than tobacco.
Climate change is the elephant in the room when we talk about coal mining, but this evening our very own Climate Elephant was barred from entering the room by security guards.
The elephant, and the urgent problem he represents, are too big to ignore and won’t be going away any time soon.
- The Climate Elephant is barred from the room.