Loss Of Coral Reefs Caused By Rising Sea Temperatures Could Cost $1tn Globally

The Guardian - Ben Doherty | Christopher Knaus

Loss of Great Barrier Reef alone could cost north Queensland 1m visitors a year, imperilling 10,000 jobs and draining $1bn from economy

Devastation of world's coral reefs could cost $1tn

The loss of coral reefs caused by rising sea temperatures could cost $1 trillion globally, a report from Australia’s Climate Council has projected, with the loss of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef alone costing that region 1m visitors a year, imperilling 10,000 jobs and draining $1bn from the economy.

The longest global coral bleaching event on record, which began in 2014 and has affected some reefs in consecutive years, has given reefs little chance to recover, and should be a “wake-up call” to act to save the natural and economic assets, the Climate Council’s Lesley Hughes said.
“The extraordinary devastation being experienced on the Great Barrier Reef is due to the warming of our oceans, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas,” Hughes said. “It would have been virtually impossible for this to have occurred without climate change.”
Hughes argued it was a false dichotomy in public debate “to pit the environment against the economy”.
“This isn’t just an environmental issue. The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s greatest economic assets. It’s responsible for bringing in more than $7bn each year to our economy, while also supporting the livelihoods of around 70,000 people. A healthy Great Barrier Reef underpins the tourism industry and the jobs that it supports.”

The $1 trillion figure for the value of the world’s coral reefs is derived from a 2015 report led by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, which found that worldwide, reefs supported 500 million people across 50 nations.
The cooler water temperatures brought by Cyclone Debbie are expected to offer Queensland reefs some relief from the bleaching events of 2016 and 2017, though this is expected to be only temporary, and could be offset by the physical damage caused by the Category 4 tropical cyclone.
Professor Will Steffen, climate councillor and emeritus professor at the ANU, said bleaching events were likely to become more frequent and more severe in Australia over the next two to three decades, which could devastate the long-term health of the reef and its ability to regenerate.
“The only way to protect coral reefs in Australia and around the world is to stop greenhouse gas emissions. Australia is the caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef and we are lagging well behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to doing our part to effectively combat climate change.
“Emissions are flatlining in China and declining in the United States and in other OECD countries. In comparison, Australia’s emissions continue to grow. We’ve got to stop and then reverse this trend and we’ve got to do it now. There is no time to lose.”
Australian emissions grew by 0.8% in 2016, the council’s report says.
Steffen said the opening of new coalmines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin was inconsistent with protecting the Great Barrier reef, and reducing Australian – and global – carbon emissions.
This week the Australian Research Council’s centre of excellence for coral reef studies released the results of its latest aerial surveys, which assessed 800 individual reefs.
The surveys show the 2016 and 2017 mass bleaching events have now affected two-thirds of the reef. Only the reef’s southern third has emerged unscathed. This year’s bleaching event was most intense in the reef’s middle third, while last year’s was further north.
The federal and state governments’ efforts to save the reef have been laid out in a joint long-term plan through to 2050. Combined, they spend about $200m annually to protect and preserve the reef.
Announcing new measures last month – including offering financial incentives to farmers who reduce nitrogen and sediment run-off into the reef – environment minister Josh Frydenberg said the government was working with local communities to improve the reef’s health and maintain it for future generations.
“These new projects complement existing efforts and demonstrate how we can make private investment work effectively alongside public funding to maximise results for the reef from each dollar invested. Collaborative partnerships like the ones announced today are critical to address the threats and pressures faced by the reef.”
Both the federal and state governments support Indian conglomerate Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, which environmental groups and climate scientists have argued will cause massive carbon emissions, and endanger local species and groundwater supplies.

Links

• How did the Great Barrier Reef reach 'terminal stage'? – video explainer
• Australia's politicians have betrayed the Great Barrier Reef and only the people can save it
• This mortal coral: new bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef – in pictures
• Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data
• Cyclone Debbie leaves Whitsundays reefs in ruins
• Experts call for Australia to take lead on saving Great Barrier Reef
• Extreme heat pushes parts of Great Barrier Reef beyond recovery
• Coral Crisis: The Great Barrier Reef Needs Us To Speak Up
• Shed A Tear For The Reefs
• Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming, Study Says
• Year-On-Year Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage Status
• Great Barrier Reef Bleached For Unprecedented Second Year Running
• 'Significant Event': Coral Bleaching Returns To The Great Barrier Reef
• Images Of New Bleaching On Great Barrier Reef Heighten Fears Of Coral Death

Vital Groundwater Depleted Faster Than Ever

Climate News Network - Alex Kirby*

Global use of irreplaceable groundwater is exhausting the supply so fast that researchers say it will drive up food prices and hit international trade.

Vast quantities of groundwater are used in Pakistan to irrigate crops such as rice. Image: Abbrar Cheema via Flickr

China, the world’s most populous country, doubled within just 10 years its use of irreplaceable groundwater from underground reservoirs that are replenished more slowly than they are drained.
And in the same decade, 2000 to 2010, global use of this non-renewable water resource for irrigation increased by a quarter, according to a new study published in Nature journal.
The research suggests that unless producers and consumers of food make changes, this trend could lead to depleted water reserves, limited availability of food imports, and higher food prices.
Groundwater – from underground supplies, as opposed to water in rivers or lakes – supplies global agriculture with 43% of its crop irrigation needs.
The country exporting the most crops produced using irreplaceable groundwater is Pakistan, with 29% of global non-renewable sources embedded in trade – closely followed by the US (27%), with India (12%) in third place.

Groundwater abstraction
The study’s authors say excessive abstraction of groundwater for irrigation – part of the wider virtual water trade – is leading to rapid depletion of aquifers in key food-producing regions, including north-western India, the North China Plain, central US, and California.
“This depletion of the largest liquid freshwater stock on Earth,” they write, “threatens the sustainability of food production, and water and food security, not only locally, but also globally via international food trade.
“Aquifer depletion can also induce significant environmental degradation, such as land subsidence and seawater intrusion.”
In another example of the way in which climate change works to intensify existing threats, the researchers say the depletion of local water reserves also risks putting large populations at serious danger during emergencies such as droughts, earthquakes or fires, when immediate access to water is needed.
Using UN trade data and estimates of non-renewable groundwater removal, researchers traced the sources of water used to produce agricultural crops. They found that the crops contributing most to the non-renewable groundwater trade are rice (29%), wheat (12%), cotton (11%), maize (4%) and soybeans (3%).

“Under future climate change, droughts may be more frequent in many regions and we may want to keep groundwater reserves for these periods”

The study was conducted by an international group of researchers led by Carole Dalin, senior research fellow with the Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London (UCL), and including scientists at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, at NASA in the US, and colleagues in Germany.
“People are rightfully food shopping with the environment in mind more than ever before – but it is not just about meat versus vegetables, organic or fair trade,” Dr Dalin says..
“Where and how the products are grown is crucial, and basic foods like rice and bread could have a damaging impact on global water supplies.
“Our research shows that unless both consumers and producers agree to adopt strategies that maximise the long-term sustainability of water use, most of the world’s population risks seeing increased food prices or disrupted food supply.

Potentially dangerous
“Under future climate change, droughts may be more frequent in many regions and we may want to keep groundwater reserves for these periods.”
Thomas Kastner, senior scientist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Germany and the Alpen-Adria University, Austria, says: “Our work shows where trade flows are contributing to the unsustainable, and ultimately potentially dangerous, use of water resources. The use of non-renewable water in one place can put food supply in distant regions at risk.”
Yoshihide Wada, a co-author of the report and deputy director of the IIASA Water Programme says: “The products that consumers buy at a supermarket may have very different environmental impacts depending on where they are produced and how they are irrigated.
“In order to help consumers make more sustainable choices about their food, producers should consider adding water labels that make these impacts clear.”

*Alex Kirby is a former BBC journalist and environment correspondent. He now works with universities, charities and international agencies to improve their media skills, and with journalists in the developing world keen to specialise in environmental reporting.

Links

• Maldives tourist haven faces new threat
• Costs of coastal climate damage set to climb
• Companies hit by rising water costs
• Rock-solid carbon storage hopes rise
• Climate poses conflict threat in South Asia
• Climate threat to vulnerable islands
• Scientists calculate our debt to the Earth

Girl, 9, Sues Indian Government Over Inaction On Climate Change

Reuters - Rina Chandran

India is home to four of the 10 worst ranked cities in the world for air pollution

Security personnel stand guard in front of the India Gate amidst the heavy smog in New Delhi, India, October 31, 2016. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

MUMBAI - A nine-year-old girl has filed a legal case against the Indian government for failing to take action on climate change, highlighting the growing concern over pollution and environmental degradation in the country.
In the petition filed with the National Green Tribunal (NGT), a special court for environment-related cases, Ridhima Pandey said the government has failed to implement its environment laws.
"As a young person (Ridhima) is part of a class that amongst all Indians is most vulnerable to changes in climate, yet are not part of the decision making process," the 52-page petition said.
The petition called on the tribunal to direct the government "to take effective, science-based action to reduce and minimise the adverse impacts of climate change".
The tribunal has asked the Ministry of Environment and the Central Pollution Control Board to respond within two weeks.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Environment told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they would respond as directed by the tribunal.
India is home to four of the 10 worst ranked cities in the world for air pollution. Along with China, India accounted for more than half the total number of global deaths attributable to air pollution in 2015, according to a recent study.
Despite several laws to protect India's forests, clean up its rivers and improve air quality, critics are concerned that implementation is poor, and economic growth often takes precedence over the environment.
Flash floods and landslides in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where Ridhima lives, killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands homeless in 2013.
The devastation affected Ridhima, the daughter of an environmental activist, said Rahul Choudhary, a lawyer representing her.
"For someone so young, she is very aware of the issue of climate change, and she is very concerned about how it will impact her in future," he said.
"She wanted to do something that can have a meaningful effect, and we suggested she could file a petition against the government," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Ridhima is not the first child in India to take the government to task over inaction to protect the environment.
Last year, six teenagers filed a petition with the NGT over air pollution in New Delhi which has the worst air quality in the country.
India is taking some action to mitigate the damage. As a signatory to the Paris agreement on climate change, it is committed to ensuring that at least 40 percent of its electricity is generated from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030.
In her petition, Ridhima asked the court to order the government to assess industrial projects for climate-related issues, prepare a "carbon budget" to limit carbon dioxide emissions, and create a national climate recovery plan.
"That a young girl is doing so much to draw the government's attention is something. We hope the case puts some pressure on the government to act," said Choudhary.

Links

• This Young Girl's Lawsuit Highlights The Issue With Climate Change Inaction
• US states challenge Trump with climate lawsuit
• 'Biggest Case on the Planet' Pits Kids vs. Climate Change
• 21 kids aged 9 to 20 are suing the Trump administration for failing to prevent climate change
• The climate change lawsuit the Trump administration is desperate to stop going to trial
• The Teen-Agers Suing Over Climate Change

Adani: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Meets With Chairman, Reiterates Support For Mine

ABC News - James Bennett


Malcolm Turnbull says there is 'very strong support' for changing Native Title legislation (ABC News)

Key points: A Senate inquiry threw into question more than 100 mining and pastoral agreements with Native Title holders — including one covering the Carmichael project PM Turnbull met with Guatam Adani and senior executives of the Adani mine Adani is seeking a $900-million Federal Government loan for a railway link to the port; Mr Turnbull said the loan is outside his control

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told the Adani Group chairman the issue of Native Title in Australia will soon be resolved, which could clear the way for the controversial Carmichael coal mine.
Mr Turnbull met privately with Gautam Adani and senior Adani executives for approximately half an hour last night in New Delhi, during the Prime Minister's three-day state visit to India.
The meeting came as Mr Adani prepared to make a final investment decision on the $21-billion Carmichael mine in Queensland's Galilee basin — which, if built, would be Australia's biggest.
A recent federal court ruling threw into question more than 100 proposed land use agreements with Native Title holders, including one covering Adani's Carmichael project.
The Federal Government is trying to pass legislation which would reverse that court ruling and make it easier for the deals to be registered.
It is understood Mr Adani asked Mr Turnbull during their meeting for a resolution to uncertainty over Native Title.
"Mr Adani noted that this is an issue for his development, but frankly it's an issue for just about every development in Australia where native title issues are involved," Mr Turnbull told reporters in New Dehli.
The Coalition and Labor agree the recent court decision needs to be reversed but will not be able to pass changes until Parliament returns next month.
The Wangan Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council, which claims the project impinges on their rights, questioned Mr Turnbull's assurance of a fix to Native Title uncertainty.
Marrawa Johnson, a spokeswoman for the tribe's governing council, said the Government was attempting to register a spurious Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA).
"So I guess what he's promising is that there will be a legislative change that could allow for Adani's fake ILUA to be registered," Ms Johnson told The World Today.
"But at the moment with other legal cases we have running Adani can't just rely on the Australian Government to change the law for them and think that they can build the largest coal mine in the world in our country and destroy who we are as people.
"Adani only has seven out of the 12 signatures that they need. So at the moment while the amendments have not been passed through the Senate to the Native Title act, Adani's ILUA is dead.
"They don't have what they need to even be considered for registration with the Native Title Tribunal."

No promise of loan for Abbot Point rail link

Abbot Point is located about 25 kilometres north of Bowen on the north Queensland Coast, near the vast coal reserves of the Galilee Basin

Adani is also seeking a $900-million Federal Government loan for a railway linking the mine to port, from the Government's Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund.
It is understood Mr Adani acknowledged to Mr Turnbull that the loan needed independent approval.

Wetlands: Before & After

Satellite imagery appears to show sediment-laden water flowing from the nearby Abbot Point Coal Terminal prompting an investigation.

"The funding, were it to be made for part of the railway, is only a relatively small part of the total capital that is required for this coal mine and associated infrastructure," Mr Turnbull said.
Earlier yesterday Mr Turnbull said while he was "looking forward" to meeting Mr Adani, the loan was outside his control.
Mr Turnbull also said he supported exporting Australian coal and other resources to India to assist with India's "enormous need" for more electricity.

"We play a big role as a coal exporter of course and [we are] now in a position to export uranium," Mr Turnbull said.

Environmental activists have threatened to disrupt construction if the mine goes ahead, arguing the emissions from burning coal will drive climate change and threaten Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

Trade talks to be resuscitated
Separately, following a lengthy one-on-one meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, last night Mr Turnbull re-iterated the two leaders' decision to work out what stood between them on trade.
"That is a very important prime-ministerial commitment to getting on with it and dealing with it and identifying where the parties are close, where they're apart," Mr Turnbull said.
"The process needed some energy, and it has been re-energised today."
Former prime minister Tony Abbott visited India in 2014 and set the ambitious target of signing a free trade agreement by 2015, but since then there has been little, if any, progress.

Planning Australia's biggest mine

Step through the key events in the planning of Australia's biggest mining project, the Carmichael coal mine in remote central Queensland.

At a speech on India-Australia education links last night, Mr Turnbull praised Mr Modi for agreeing that progress had been "too slow" and that the talks should be resuscitated.
"We have agreed to direct our chief negotiators to meet as soon as possible," Mr Turnbull said, describing the development as an "important prime-ministerial commitment to getting on with it".
The Prime Minister's comments last night reflect a change of attitude from his criticism of Indian protectionism ahead of his meeting with Mr Modi.
"It will take some time," Mr Turnbull warned when asked about progress on the deal.

"India has a long tradition of protection, particularly for agriculture."

Neither side has committed to a timeframe for concluding a deal.
Adani's complex corporate web (ABC News)

Links

• Black wetland photograph 'misleading', Adani says
• Before and after: Wetlands near Abbot Point Coal Terminal turn black
• 'Tremendous opportunity' for Australia as India seeks power in its own right
• The $6b-a-year asset that is dying on our watch
• Great Barrier Reef tourism on the rocks 
• Adani coal mine: green groups fume over plan for $1b federal loan
• 'Irreversible consequences': Adani coalmine granted unlimited water access for 60 years
• Anti-Adani activists vow 'direct action' against mine contractor Downer
• Adani mine leases and national parks in doubt after native title court decision
• Most Australians oppose government's $1bn Adani loan for coal railway line
• Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’
• Voters near proposed Adani mine oppose public loan for rail line, poll finds
• Barnaby Joyce endorses loan for Adani's Carmichael coalmine
• Adani Carmichael mine: Australia Institute demands answers from Turnbull in full-page ad
• Opposition to public funding for Adani rail link outweighs support, poll finds

Great Barrier Reef: Severe Coral Bleaching Hits Two-Thirds Of Reef, Aerial Surveys Show

ABC News


Aerial survey shows extent of coral bleaching

Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has now been devastated by severe coral bleaching, with damage occurring further south this year, Queensland scientists say.

Two of the world's leading experts on coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef said aerial surveys they conducted this year along the reef's entire length showed an accelerated rate of bleaching in the central section.
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies undertook the aerial surveys in both 2016 and 2017.
In 2016, bleaching was most severe in the northern third of the Reef, while one year on the middle third has experienced the most intense coral bleaching.

The main areas of coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017. (Supplied: ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies)

Dr James Kerry from James Cook University in north Queensland, who was one of the scientists involved in the surveys, said the latest damage had occurred in a stretch from Cooktown to Townsville.
"Last year we saw severe bleaching in the northern third, and this year we have seen severe bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef from about Cooktown down to Townsville, so we are calling that the central third," he said.
"So about two-thirds of the reef now in the past 12 months have had a fairly serious bleaching event."
He said there was little doubt that bleaching was being caused by record-breaking temperatures driven by global warming.
"It is fair to say that this is extremely concerning for the long-term health of the reef," he said.
"It is facing a number of stresses, but I think the outside stress is coral bleaching, and we have now seen two major events in two years, which we have never seen before - that is unprecedented."
He said it was the fourth time the Great Barrier Reef had bleached severely.
"In 1998, 2002, 2016, and now in 2017 - bleached corals are not necessarily dead corals, but in the severe central region we anticipate high levels of coral loss," he said.

"It takes at least a decade for a full recovery of even the fastest growing corals, so mass bleaching events 12 months apart offers zero prospect of recovery for reefs that were damaged in 2016."

Coupled with the 2017 mass bleaching event, Tropical Cyclone Debbie struck a section of the Great Barrier Reef in March.
Scientists said the intense, slow-moving system was likely to have caused varying levels of damage along a path up to 100 kilometres in width.
Researchers said any cooling effects related to the cyclone were likely to be negligible in relation to the damage it caused, which unfortunately struck a section of the reef that had largely escaped the worst of the bleaching.

Footage shows areas of the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsundays devastated by Cyclone Debbie (ABC News)

Links

• Cyclone Debbie leaves Whitsundays reefs in ruins
• Experts call for Australia to take lead on saving Great Barrier Reef
• Extreme heat pushes parts of Great Barrier Reef beyond recovery
• Coral Crisis: The Great Barrier Reef Needs Us To Speak Up
• Shed A Tear For The Reefs
• Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming, Study Says
• Year-On-Year Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage Status
• Great Barrier Reef Bleached For Unprecedented Second Year Running
• 'Significant Event': Coral Bleaching Returns To The Great Barrier Reef
• Images Of New Bleaching On Great Barrier Reef Heighten Fears Of Coral Death

'Barbaric': Adani's Giant Coal Mine Granted Unlimited Water Licence For 60 Years

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

The proposed Adani coal mine, which will be Australia's biggest, has been granted unlimited access to groundwater by the Queensland government in a move farmers fear will drain huge amounts of water from the Great Artesian Basin.
According to a copy of Adani's water licence signed last Wednesday and obtained by Fairfax Media, the $16 billion Carmichael mine merely needs to monitor and report the amount of water it extracts under a permit that runs until 2077.


Great Barrier Reef's coral crisis

The Great Barrier Reef is on track for another year of coral decline, this year affecting prime tourism areas.

The mine – one of nine proposed for the Galilee Basin west of Rockhampton – can conduct its own review of its groundwater model without independent or government oversight.
There are also no impact levels specified that will trigger a halt to mining, and the company is able to offset any significant water loss elsewhere, the licence shows.
"It's bloody-minded and barbaric," said Bruce Currie, a grazier who lives in the region and has joined legal action against Galilee mines. "This is going to definitely impact on the integrity of [the Great Artesian Basin]."
According to a supplementary environmental impact statement, the mine will draw 26 million litres of water a day from its pits by 2029 as it ramps out annual production to as much as 60 million tonnes.
"In granting this licence, the Department of Natural Resources and Mines has carefully considered a broad range of information," a spokesperson said, adding modelling shows that as much as 4.55 gigalitres of groundwater could be taken per year.
"Adani will also need to establish make-good agreements with groundwater users who could potentially be affected by changes to water availability or quality," the spokesperson said. Some 100 conditions are in place to ensure water resources are protected.

Nine coal mines are planned for Queensland's Galilee Basin. Photo: Glenn Hunt

The licence, though, would not be subject to the new Water Act Referral Panel set up to ensure "the sustainable management of water in Queensland".
The opening of mining in the Galilee Basin is shaping up to be one of country's big environment battles. Proponents say it will generate exports and bring jobs to a depressed part of the state, and even reduce carbon emissions if it displaces the use of dirty coal in India or elsewhere.

Protesters gathered as Adani's local mining chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj spoke at a business lunch in Brisbane last week. Photo: Supplied

Opponents, though, argue the coal is largely poor quality and the basin will require huge subsidies to become viable. Burning the fuel will also release a "carbon bomb" that will contribute to harming the Great Barrier Reef, which is already being hammered by unprecedented coral bleaching blamed on global warming.
Fairfax also sought comment from Adani Mining, the local subsidiary of the Indian company.

Limited scrutiny
Unlike other controversial mines, such as the New Acland coal mine planned for the Darling Downs, Adani's water usage is not subject to public submissions and appeals, said Jo Bragg, chief executive of Queensland's Environmental Defenders Office.
Groundwater evidence is often the most controversial feature and public scrutiny is often the most significant aspect of any review, Ms Bragg said. "It's a matter of grave concern that there's not that opportunity."
It was "absolutely anomalous" that the Carmichael mine – which will dwarf New Acland's output of about 7.5 million tonnes a year – should go through with a less vigorous process for its water licence, she said.
Carmel Flint, a campaigner for anti-mining group Lock the Gate, said the open-ended water licence for Adani amounted to a "free kick" to take water from important aquifers such as the Dunda Beds and Clematis Sandstone formations.
Water from the Great Artesian Basin "is just essential for farming communities", Ms Flint said. "Without the water, their businesses are basically finished."
Mr Currie, who runs about 1700 head of cattle "in a good season" over his 25,000-hectare property, said Adani was "the linchpin" to the basin's mines.
If it proceeded, "a lot of the others will go ahead", worsening the groundwater disruption, he said.

Links

• The $6b-a-year asset that is dying on our watch
• Great Barrier Reef tourism on the rocks 
• Adani coal mine: green groups fume over plan for $1b federal loan
• 'Irreversible consequences': Adani coalmine granted unlimited water access for 60 years
• Anti-Adani activists vow 'direct action' against mine contractor Downer
• Adani mine leases and national parks in doubt after native title court decision
• Most Australians oppose government's $1bn Adani loan for coal railway line
• Adani coalmine activists gear up to fight: ‘This will dwarf the Franklin blockade’
• Voters near proposed Adani mine oppose public loan for rail line, poll finds
• Barnaby Joyce endorses loan for Adani's Carmichael coalmine
• Adani Carmichael mine: Australia Institute demands answers from Turnbull in full-page ad
• Opposition to public funding for Adani rail link outweighs support, poll finds

Australia's Politicians Have Betrayed The Great Barrier Reef And Only The People Can Save It

The Guardian - David Ritter

The big lie propagated by government and big business is that it is possible to turn things around for the reef without tackling global warming

How did the Great Barrier Reef reach 'terminal stage'?

Once upon a time, in the distant 60s and 70s, the Great Barrier Reef faced imminent destruction. Tenement applications for drilling and mining covered vast swathes of the reef, with both government and industry enthusiastically backing the plans for mass exploitation.
In the face of the reef’s impending doom a motley collection of ordinary Australians shared a common determination that something had to be done. But the odds didn’t look good. The poet turned campaigner Judith Wright wrote that “if it had not been for the public backing for protection of the reef that we knew existed, we might have given up hope”.
The optimism of the poet was well founded. First in the hundreds, then in the tens of thousands, a people’s movement grew to defend the reef. Everyday Aussies turned activists and campaigners. Scientists and lawyers came forward with vital expertise. At a crucial moment the Queensland Trades and Labour Council approved a total black-ban by all affiliated unions on oil drilling on the Great Barrier Reef.
As hard as is now to believe, the Murdoch-owned Australian opined that the ban would have an unprecedented measure of public support and would probably succeed. It deserved to. Only finally did the politicians follow the will of the people. Through the power and determination of the Australian people, the greatest marine park in human history was established and the Great Barrier Reef lived to fight another day.

Two-thirds of Great Barrier Reef hit by back-to-back mass coral bleaching

Inherently democratic in its size and closeness to the shore, the Great Barrier Reef is truly the people’s reef. Looking back on the first great struggle for the reef between the Australian people and the fossil fuel industry, Wright wrote that “if disasters in the shape of weather, accident and climate change lie ahead, the work done already has shown what can be done to shield it from such dangers and has proved that people will agree, in the event, to supplying the help it needs”.

Unhappily, those disasters are now upon us. Global warming brought the great bleaching of 2015-16 and the dreadful and unprecedented sequel over the summer that has just finished. Our reef is in dire trouble.
But while the people’s reef is grievously wounded, it is still very much alive. And life fights for life. Innumerable animals are now doing what creatures do, navigating the hazards of life as best they can to survive and reproduce in the warming waters. Given time and the right conditions, the people’s reef can recover and life will flourish again.
So how this time around do we supply the help the reef needs? The big lie propagated by Australian government and big business is that it is possible to turn things around for the reef without tackling global warming. As scientists have made clear, it isn’t – we have to stop climate pollution to give our reef a chance.
It is true that Australia can’t save the reef alone because climate change is a global problem. But that does not mean we are powerless to act and we should not be deterred. Because when you love something deeply – as we Australians cherish our people’s reef – then you do all that is within your power to save that thing which you hold so dear. And there is much that is within our power to do.
So what is to be done? The answer does not lie in false techno-fixes or the faux-democratic farrago of the government-business funded Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef. Australia’s greatest contribution to global warming is through our coal, exported and burned in foreign power stations. So our most determined Australian efforts to save the reef must be directed to closing down the coalmining industry, while ensuring decent new jobs and fair transitions for all affected workers and communities.
Again, the balance of power seems loaded against us. First the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and now the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, have betrayed both the reef and the trust of the Australian people by snivelling across the seas, pledging allegiance to the Carmichael coalmine. All too often, the rest of big business is complicit in the crisis by explicitly or tacitly supporting the coal industry. Financial institutions such as CommBank continue to invest in the fossil fuel projects that are bringing disaster to the reef.
But, once we are roused, never underestimate the power and determination of the Australian people to defend our iconic animals and the natural beauty of our lands and seas. The extraordinary success of the Stop Adani Roadshow – which sold out across the eastern Australian capital cities reaching an audience of thousands – is just a glimpse of the popular will to fight the coal industry for the future of our reef.
We have the opportunity to write our own story, not of despair but of defiance. If we, the people of Australia, stand determined together against coalmining and the rest of the fossil fuel industry then the future of our reef is not bleak but hopeful.
The roadmap to full recovery for our reef will be decades or even centuries in the making. And it is going to get worse before it gets better. But we, the Australian people, can again agree to supply the help it needs, to give the reef we love the best chance of future flourishing. Now is the time to get involved.

Links

• Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data
• It’s either Adani or the Great Barrier Reef. Are we willing to fight for a wonder of the world?
• This mortal coral: new bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef – in pictures
• Cyclone Debbie leaves Whitsundays reefs in ruins
• Experts call for Australia to take lead on saving Great Barrier Reef
• Extreme heat pushes parts of Great Barrier Reef beyond recovery
• Coral Crisis: The Great Barrier Reef Needs Us To Speak Up
• Shed A Tear For The Reefs
• Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming, Study Says
• Year-On-Year Bleaching Threatens Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage Status
• Great Barrier Reef Bleached For Unprecedented Second Year Running
• 'Significant Event': Coral Bleaching Returns To The Great Barrier Reef
• Images Of New Bleaching On Great Barrier Reef Heighten Fears Of Coral Death