Regular readers of the blog know that Australia exports one billion kg of coal per day.

Funnily enough, Australia is also living through the best test-run yet of what a climate apocalypse looks like.

Imagination is no longer required.

Sometimes the evacuations have been like Dunkirk with selfies.

One sign of how deep Australia is in denial about this is that its “leader” ScoMo still has a 37% approval rating.

With all the smoke, other stories get buried behind mirrors.

Like this one.

Adani is currently building a massive new coal mine in Australia.

It turns out they can’t do it on their own. They need other companies to help them build it.

Like Siemens.

Siemens has a contract for the signalling system on the railway to the mine.

Protesters have turned on companies like Siemens to pressure them to stop helping.

For the last few weeks, Siemens’ President and CEO Joe Kaeser has been besieged by protesters urging him to reconsider the contract.

“The decision on the contract, reportedly worth $30m, comes as Australia is in the grip of an unprecedented bushfire crisis that has claimed at least 27 lives, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and likely pushed several species towards extinction, scorching millions of hectares of unique habitat and killing more than a billion animals”.

Then, yesterday:

“President and CEO of Siemens, Joe Kaeser, announced Monday that after reviewing the rail signalling contract the company had “a legally binding and enforceable fiduciary responsibility.

“He said: “While I do have a lot of empathy for environmental matters, I do need to balance different interests of different stakeholders, as long as they have lawful legitimation for what they do.”

Followed by this poo-flavoured pearl for the ages:

“He added that the company “fundamentally shares the goal of making fossil fuels redundant to our economies over time”.

Excuse me for a moment while I vomit in my own mouth.

Right, I’m back.

So, to summarize what may come to be seen as a high-point of human civilization on Earth: Parts of Australia are literally living a climate apocalypse pushed by human CO2 emissions, and Siemens did not cancel a contract with a new coal mine in Australia, because: 30 million dollars.

If you can feel the vomit pooling in your own mouth, feel free to email Siemens’ CEO using this ready-to-go form from StopAdani. Bonus points for using the German word for shit (Scheisse) in your email.

Have a nice day.

[PS: Funny story: Siemens is also the company building the new night trains for Austria.]

[Cover photo: Christina Simons for the New York Times]