The biodiverse Scott Reef off the coast of Western Australia is home to much-loved endangered animals like Blue whales and Green turtles.
But Woodside Energy has dangerous plans to drill for gas around Scott Reef and WA's environment watchdog has made a preliminary assessment that it poses an 'unacceptable' environmental risk.
The ultimate decision rests with the Albanese Government. With momentum behind us, we must call on them to act for nature now!
Write to the Prime Minister and Environment Minister and ask them to:
- Reject Woodside's Browse and North West Shelf extension gas plans
- Protect Scott Reef and the endangered animals that call it home
Writing tips
We need to help convince the Albanese Government that Woodside's Browse gas drilling plans are an unacceptable risk to nature and must not be granted approval under Australia's environmental laws. Here are some of the biggest threats to highlight:
- The risk of a gas condensate spill from the Browse gas project would threaten 39 endangered Australian animals, including Pygmy blue whales, Humpback whales and Dusky sea snakes. This information comes from an Environmental Impact Assessment commissioned by Woodside Energy.
- Extracting large amounts of gas from under the seabed threatens to sink nesting areas for endangered turtles.
- Noise pollution from drilling gas wells in and around Scott Reef would impact Blue Pygmy Whales that migrate through and forage for food at Scott Reef.
You may also like to highlight that:
- Browse and the North West Shelf gas extension are major components of Woodside's dangerous Burrup Hub proposal, which would cause lifetime climate pollution that is more than 13 times the size of Australia's annual climate pollution. Unleashing such an enormous amount of new greenhouse gas emissions will put nature across Australia at grave risk from more frequent and extreme heat waves, coral bleaching events, fires and more.
- Woodside's North West Shelf gas extension proposal would lock Australia into burning climate-polluting gas beyond 2070 and impact on nearby Murujuga rock carvings dating back at least fifty thousand years. The proposal has no restrictions so it could help facilitate plans to frack the Kimberley.