Barely a few hours after the Minerals Council of Australia launched a PR campaign aimed at painting the coal industry as a key employer and taxpayer, hundreds took social media to spread their own views on the fossil fuel.

The new TV advertisement of the Minerals Council of Australia that explains the “endless possibilities” of coal in providing “light and jobs” has been labelled “ludicrous” and “desperate” by environmental groups.

The campaign provoked even greater ire from the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The captivating video ad features a pan of what looks like another planet but is actually an extreme close-up of a lump of coal. “Isn’t it fantastic what this little black rock can do?”

The coal sector is having a hard time at the moment. She added that she was glad that the Minerals Council had “woken up to the 18th century potential of coal” saying that she could not “wait until they see the 21st century potential of renewable energy”.

But it fails to mention that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology techniques that have been developed to cut down the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders. In a statement, chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy said: “The toxic substances that are released when coal is burned make people sick and of course it’s making our climate hotter and more risky”. But a major analysis by the University College London in January suggests that to avoid drastic climate change, 82 percent of coal must remain unburned.

The advertisementclaims that coal mining can deliver $6 billion in Australian wages and injects $40 billion into the economy each year.

And according to reports there is only one CCS-enabled plant operating globally – in Canada – around 9,000 miles away from Australia.

Australia is heavily dependent on coal with around 76 per cent of the country’s electricity being supplied by the fossil fuel. The council said it is committed to provide “informative and rational discussion” about coal, in which the campaign will also appear in newspaper and radio ads.