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Health professionals urged to join fight against harmful developments in the Northern Territory

More than 300 health professionals have already signed an open letter urging the Prime Minister and his Government to intervene to prevent gas fracking in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory and to withdraw financial support for gas processing at the proposed Middle Arm development.

The Northern Territory Government’s approval of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, along with the proposed development of a large gas and petrochemical hub in the Middle Arm Precinct of Darwin Harbour – just three kilometres from populated areas – will complete a plan that enables extraction, processing, and export of gas from the basin.

Estimates suggest that opening the Beetaloo Basin could result in the release of up to 295,700 petajoules of gas, equivalent to 500 times the annual domestic consumption in Australia. This would result in annual greenhouse emissions equivalent to 117 million tonnes of CO2 (approximately 22 percent of Australia’s current annual total).

Here is a link to the open letter which we encourage all health professionals to sign. This will be presented to the PM in Canberra 8th August. 

For more information please see a summary of the issue written by two of the campaign leads. 

You can read more about the issue below: