Climate criminal complicity in SA algal bloom disaster
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 5 Aug 2025
Seven XR SA rebels have been arrested after a die-in inside the Adelaide Santos HQ lobby – the latest in a series of XR SA actions to highlight fossil fuel industry and bank complicity in the climate-induced SA algal bloom disaster.
The protest on August 1st made clear the connection between extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and the massive toxic algal bloom in the ocean off the South Australian coast, which is destroying marine life and causing dead sea creatures to be washed up on SA beaches. Marine scientists have expressed serious fears for the many unique creatures of the Great Southern Reef, for the fishing industries and for SA beach-side locations with economies reliant on visitors.
Australia sells high volumes of coal, oil and gas overseas, and plays a massive role in climate heating. Newcastle is the world’s largest coal port, and Australia's liquid gas exports are the second largest in the world.
The science is clear that the climate crisis, fuelled by gas, oil and coal, is driving the unprecedented marine heatwave and other conditions that have allowed the Karenia mikimotoi algal bloom to explode.
“Like many South Australians, our hearts are breaking as we witness ecological collapse along our beloved coastline,” said XR SA spokesperson Gemma Weedall.
“While Santos continues to recklessly expand its oil and gas operations in the midst of the climate crisis, it is complicit in this marine devastation.
"We're here today to hold Santos accountable for the harm they have caused and call them out as climate criminals.
"There is no future in fossil fuels. To have any hope of preventing further marine deaths, we need to stop approving fossil fuel expansions, stop subsidising fossil fuel companies, and stop enabling them to profit from climate catastrophe."
In the same week, XR SA rebels occupied the Glenelg branch of Westpac Bank to protest Westpac’s relaxation of its lending rules, enabling it to fund fossil fuel companies such as Woodside and Santos, and rake in the resulting profits.
The activists wore ghostly masks of dead sea creatures, and brought a formal letter for the bank manager, demanding the bank resume its previous lending rules, that required coal, oil and gas corporate lenders to produce a 1.5°Celsius-aligned transition plan. The action followed similar visits to Norwood and Central Market Westpac branches.
XR SA spokesperson, Catherine Cox said: “Westpac bank continues to lend money to the fossil fuel industry, supporting new gas exploration and expanded coal mines. We will not remain silent while Westpac is aiding and abetting climate crimes, becoming, in effect, Merchants of Death.”
During this year's Illuminate Adelaide Festival, a group of XR SA activists gathered on an intersection of the city's North Terrace and held up a black banner: "CLIMATE CRISIS = OCEAN DEATH."
Two years ago the SA Government rushed through increased penalties for protesting after XR and other activists disrupted traffic on the same road outside the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference. See the News item on this website XR SA at APPEA: a week protesting State sell-out to oil and gas corporations
Though South Australia is a world leader in its transmission to a renewable grid, the state government is clearly in the pockets of the fossil fuel lobby.