EndemicEarthling<p>Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) on the western coast of the Australian continent is home to the world's largest collection of paleolithic petroglyphs (rock carvings), an ancient art gallery containing around one million images carved into the rocks, some dated to at least 45,000 years old. Many of the images depict Australia's distinctive fauna, including extinct creatures like the thylacine, as well as the oldest known representation of a human face. The rocks are themselves noteworthy as coming from some of the oldest igneous bedrock in the world (around 2.7 billion years old). And the region is home to five <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/Aboriginal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Aboriginal</span></a> nations who are the inheritors of fifty thousand years of continuous human occupation and culture.</p><p>The place is an obvious candidate for <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/UNESCO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UNESCO</span></a> World Heritage protection.</p><p>However...</p><p>The Burrup peninsula is also the location of the <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/NorthWestShelf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>NorthWestShelf</span></a> gas hub, a massive piece of <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/DirtyEnergy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DirtyEnergy</span></a> infrastructure that has played a significant role in placing Australia at or near the top globally of liquefied natural gas exporters. <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/LNG" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LNG</span></a></p><p>Over the last forty or fifty years gas industry activity on the peninsula has measurably degraded the artworks, which have survived intact for forty or fifty thousand years.<br><a href="https://todon.eu/tags/Auspol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Auspol</span></a> <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/FossilfFuelIndusrty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FossilfFuelIndusrty</span></a> <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/CulturalHeritage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CulturalHeritage</span></a> <a href="https://todon.eu/tags/Aboriginal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Aboriginal</span></a></p><p>1/2</p>