When US president Barack Obama brought up the Great Barrier Reef in an address to students at Brisbane University, many Australians felt as though their government had been called onto the carpet and scolded. The rest of the world, it appeared, was more concerned than Australian citizens about the Australian government’s laid-back attitude towards the ongoing destruction of the reef.
While government officials looked the other way, half of the coral has disappeared from along the length of the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, vast areas of the reef’s coral have suffered serious degradation. It isn’t surprising that the area’s unique level of biodiversity is being threatened by the damage as well.
Although Australians naturally feel possessive about the reef, the rest of the globe recognizes it as an
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If the reef is declared endangered, the effect on the country’s tourism industry could be devastating. In fact, the ordinarily slow-moving federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, secretly raced to Europe to make a last-minute plea against the WHC’s ballot initiative.
Hunt’s promises of ecological responsibility may have convinced some UNESCO ambassadors that declaring the reef endangered is unnecessary. However, Australian conservationists remain unconvinced, especially since the government has since approved more of the same kind of major projects that caused the damage to the reef.
Conservationists accuse the Australian government of downplaying the new projects when it made its conservation report to the World Heritage Committee. They also say the government overstated its conservation efforts.
The WHC came to similar conclusions, issuing a dismal report on Australia’s spotty preservation record. However, it agreed to delay the vote on endangerment pending the preparation of a new report detailing the Australian government’s compliance with its obligations to the
Australia is in debt to The Great Barrier Reef as it has brought economic and environmental stability not just to Australia, but the World, from a business and ethical standpoint everyone must put an end in this growing issue.
The Great Barrier Reef is under threat due to many human impacts and natural impacts. These impacts lead to other consequences that may harm our society as well. For example, if the Great Barrier Reef was to be damaged by pollution, tourism levels would decrease, which can lead to a drop in the economic stance of Australia. For these reasons, it is important to keep our ecosystems safe and protected. Some of the human impacts towards the Great Barrier Reef include:
The GBRMPA as an organisation strives to protect the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by ensuring all human interactions with the reef are ecologically sustainable and maintain it’s natural
First of all, biodiversity is one of the main sectors Australia is well-known of, as it has more than one million species (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010). Unfortunately, these species can be easily affected by climate and environmental change as they have low adaptive capability. Greet Barrier Reef particularly Coral Reefs is one example of these threatened species
there are numerous ways individual Queenslanders are ruining the single largest organism on Earth. With every part of the problem such as oil spills, global warming, coral bleaching. Nonetheless plastic should not be one of them. If the rest of Australia does not care then they will only be 6 wonders of the natural world left, correspondingly studies from 2013 have shown that the great barrier reef has provided Australia
By quoting Vernon by the end of the article, some straightforward emotion is finally shown. The first devastating fact comes in the first paragraph, Jacobsen (2016) says “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old,” (para. 1). The shock is real; wait what? The Great Barrier Reef is dead? Exactly. When giving the history behind the reef, some happiness is seen. For example, Kerry (2016) says “ The reef was born on the eastern coast of the continent of Australia during the Miocene epoch. Its first 24.99 million years were seemingly happy ones, marked by overall growth,” (para. 3) and as well concluding that the Great Barrier Reef will be sorely missed. When Kerry (2016) quoted Veron once again, what he says is just sad, “‘The whole northern section is trashed,’ Veron told Australia’s Saturday Paper. ‘It looks like a war zone. It’s heartbreaking.’ With no force on earth capable of preventing the oceans from continuing to warm and acidify for centuries to come, Veron had no illusions about the future. ‘I used to have the best job in the world. Now it’s turned sour... I’m 71 years old now, and I think I may outlive the reef,’” (para. 11). Veron words and emotions make the reader see that the Great Barrier Reef isn’t so great anymore.
In 2015 the World Heritage Committee met in Bonn, Germany and agreed not to place the Reef on the “in danger” list. They praised the establishment of the 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, and particularly the government’s reconsideration of their Abbot Port development plans. They did, however, have a number of conditions to this. The government must continue to send 5- yearly reports on the progress of the reef. If the progress is not deemed satisfactory, the status of the reef is up to
Environmentalists raised concerns over emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) that poses significant threat to the world heritage site is carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions emit from burning of coal that produced from Adani mining company. The concerns were happened when minister of environment of federation, Mr. Greg Hunt approved on the coalmine investment to Indian mining company that worth 16.5 billion dollar. Queensland premier and Adani company claimed that the investment of coalmine would create 10,000 jobs for local residents and inject 22 billion dollar for the Queensland state’s economy.
Because the GBR is such a highly visited tourist attraction for snorkeling and diving, there has been a large number of human structures that have been built in natural areas. Every five years, the Australian government publishes an Outlook Report that examines the Great Barrier Reef’s health, pressures, and likely future. “The report is required under Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 (section 54) and aims to provide a regular and reliable means of assessing reef health and management in an accountable and transparent way.” The report shows the actions that have been taken since 2009, including the focus on improving the quality of water that runs off the land. The increased freshwater run-off is in direct relation to the coastal development that has occurred since the major bleaching events have begun. The report released in 2009, states that the greatest risks to the Reef are still climate change, land-based runoff, coastal development, and some remaining impacts of fishing and illegal fishing and poaching. The report points out climate change as being the main cause of the destruction or bleaching of the reef (Department of Environment and Energy 2017). Most observers conclude that the climate change is a direct result of human
The Great Barrier Reef is iconic. It has a central place in Australian culture and psyche, and a visit to the reef is reliably rated among the top three must do experiences in international surveys. The Great Barrier Reef has continued to evoke wonder and awe in visitors, from the earliest European explorers negotiating the “monstrous labyrinth of coral” by sailing ship, to the thousands of tourists who arrive annually to experience one of the natural wonders of the world.
The environmental issue I chose for this presentation was the bleaching of the coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching has been monitored by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) since the early 1980s and major bleaching events have occurred in 1980, 1982, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2016.
The Great Barrier Reef is a huge, complex ecosystem located off the east coast of northern Queensland and is considered as an ecosystem at risk. It stretches approximately 2300km from Papua New Guinea’s Fly River in the north (8⁰S) to Fraser Island in the south (24⁰S) and has become the largest World Heritage site in the world. It has 1500 of the worlds 13 000 fish species in it area, 200 bird species, 5oo species of seaweed, 600 species of echinoderm, 125 species of shark and ray and around 360 species of hard coral.
The large heat wave that happened early in March 2016 has continued to kill the reef. Scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, Charles Vernon, has agreed that The Great Barrier Reef was “on death row” back in 2009. It has been declared dead by the environmental stress impacts, meaning
Big chunks of the Great Barrier Reef are dying and it is causing a big impact in Australia. For example, Australia gets billions of dollars for tourism per year, but if the reefs keep on dying the economy will be affected. Since Australia is the largest coal exporter, the last thing that they don’t want to do is make the situation worse. Also, scientist warned that if they keep on burning fossil fuels, it will expose greenhouse gases, causing the ocean to warm. Whenever the water is two or three degrees Fahrenheit of too much warming can sometimes kill the reefs. Fish sometimes use coral reefs as protection from predators.. Many people get their protein from reef fish, but with the loss of that food source it could become a humanitarian problem.
The Great Barrier Reef is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is believed to be one of the most incredible places on this earth. This reef is the largest living organism on this planet and the only living thing on earth visible from space (2011). The warm waters of the southwest Pacific Ocean are the perfect environments to create the world's largest system of coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef is in such pristine condition that it was listed by the World Heritage Trust as a protected site and is therefore, managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to ensure that its beauty is maintained for many travelers and sightseers (Edgar 2010). Due to the complexity of this natural phenomenon, human practices have led