Industrialist Andrew Forrest has accused fossil fuel giant Woodside Energy of being engaged in a "death race to the finish" of humanity over its decision to commence seismic testing for its massive $16.5 billion Scarborough gas project off the Pilbara coast.
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Dr Forrest, chief executive of Fortescue Metals, said the seismic testing, involving the use of powerful sounds blasts to detect gas deposits below the ocean floor, was not only enormously disruptive and destructive for the marine environment, but showed Woodside's lack of regard for the damage its activities caused the global climate.
Woodside was last month given clearance to begin seismic testing for its controversial project and an expedition mounted by the Minderoo Foundation, founded by Dr Forrest, before Christmas confirmed testing had commenced.
The testing involves firing blasts of air at the ocean floor, which Minderoo said occurred every eight to 15 seconds for up to 80 days.
Dr Forrest said the testing was sending "sonic explosions" into the water, and the resultant sounds shocks reverberated through the ecosystem, affecting the hearing of mammals and fish, including rare and endangered whale species that traversed the area as part of their annual migration.
The Minderoo Foundation said the cumulative fossil fuel emissions from the Burrup Hub, of which the Scarborough project is a part, could reach up to 13 times Australia's annual carbon output over 50-year lifetime of the project.
Dr Forrest, who led the Mindaroo expedition, said the project would "easily [be] Australia's biggest carbon dioxide bomb ... impacting everyone on earth".
"It will become a feeding fest, a furious zone of oil and gas development, completely ignoring what's happened at COP28 [the UN climate change conference in Dubai], completely ignoring the fact that Australia has called for the phase down then phase out of fossil fuels," the business leader said.
Dr Forrest accused the oil and gas industry of doubling down on its activities rather than heeding the evidence about the impact its activities was having on the climate.
"Instead of backing off and saying, 'okay, let's go renewable'...what they've done is amp up what they have always done, and that's oil and gas," he said.
Dr Forrest warned the results could be catastrophic.
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"Projects like this jam us up through 2 degrees global warming," Dr Forrest said. "That's when humidity becomes so intense that it shuts down the body's miraculous ability to cool itself. Projects like this are destroying our planet."
But Woodside has rejected criticisms of its seismic testing program and has emphasised the need for additional gas supplies.
The company has said the seismic testing would be undertaken in a way that prevents injury to whales and minimises disturbance to marine life, and the gas produced by the project would help avert a gas shortfall for Western Australia later in the decade.
