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| credit: Australian Museum of Natural History |
Australia's conservative government is "getting lively" in its lobbying effort to stop UNESCO from listing the Great Barrier Reef as "in danger". If only it could actually do something about the real threats to the reef's health such as curtailing plans to open huge
new coal mines and expand a coal port at Abbot Point in Queensland adjacent to the reef. The world's largest reef system has lost 50% of its coral over the past 30 years. Australian ministers and diplomats have visited 19 countries that provide members to the UN's World Heritage committee in an effort to stave off the
internationally embarrassing blacklisting. Not only embarrassing but highly problematic for mining companies that want to open a massive underground coal deposit in the Galilee Basin. Most major financial institution have signed the Equator Principles, a set of standards that deter funding of development projects that harm world heritage sites. Eleven international banks including Barclays and HSBC have distance themselves from Galilee projects. Nine mines are planned for the Basin and at capacity could cause greenhouse emissions to top 700m, making it the seventh largest contributor of CO₂ behind the entire nation of Germany.
An Australian Green senator told the
Guardian that what "the reef needs right now is action, not overseas lobbying trips".
US Person agrees. Instead of discussing actor Johnny Depp's dogs avoiding quarantine, Australians should be lobbying their government to stop the carbon bomb at Galilee Basin. To be fair to Australians, there are
fourteen giant fossil fuel projects around the world that if brought to completion will bust any realistic chance of achieving a global temperature rise below a 2℃. They would consume one-third of the budget. Prime Minister Abbot has said coal is "good for humanity". Actually coal
was good for humanity and is still good for profit, although the price of coal has halved since the boom started five years ago. The reef supports a $6.4 billion tourism industry and 64,000 jobs, but he is not talking about that economic fact or the adverse impact on fishing, the region's first industry. All of the development plans are aimed not a domestic energy market, but for export to China and India. Development of the Galilee Basin is Australia's Keystone Pipeline, amplified many times.
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| credit: National Geographic |
To create a deep water port at Abbot Point, 5 million tons of seabed must be dredged. Incredibly the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, created to protect the Reef environment has given approval to dump the spoil on the Reef, smothering sea grasses and corals. Scientists say that even if the limit of 2 degress of warming is met, it will be too much for some corals to survive. At 4 degrees, the Reef will be regretted history. Moreover, some indigenous people are objecting to the mines from a spiritual standpoint. The Wangan and Jagalingou people say their connections to the land goes back tens of thousands of years. A spokesman said all memory of his tribe would be wiped out by mining because nature is inseparable from their cultural identity.
View this Guardian interactive to learn more about the Great Barrier Reef and its endangered future.
