Roundup: Fracking, Abbott and God, Grayling and God, racism, coalmining

Fracking

The Rev. Robert Buchan, Uniting Church Minister in the Northwest Plains of New South Wales, says there’s growing community concern about the environmental impact of coal and coal seam gas projects in the region.

Coal gets ‘rogue’ status in fight for clean Earth

Australian coalmining has become a ‘‘rogue industry’’ and most of the coal slated for export must stay in the ground if the nation is to tackle climate change, according to prominent US environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Stamp out the cockroach of racism

It is vile, revolting, and it breeds prodigiously. Few things appear capable of eradicating it. It seems always to return, no matter what we do to stamp it out.

The God argument

Grayling offers as a replacement for religion a humanism that is a version of Enlightenment liberalism: self-determination via reason, benevolence, the family of humanity.

Abbott talks of God and Western values

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has vigorously re-entered the “culture wars” debate by decrying the lack of recognition of Australia’s Western heritage and Christian principles in our national conversation.