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I grew up on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland and I can say that the current state of the reef is almost unrecognisable to what it was 20

I grew up on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland and I can say that the current state of the reef is almost unrecognisable to what it was 20-odd years ago. While a large part of this damage has been caused by rising sea temperatures, another large component is due to the run-off from agriculture, refineries and mining. The latter being a directly contributed by the local population. The region is currently in a economic recession and many of the mines and refineries have either slowed or ceased operation. Anecdotally, the sentiment of the population affected by (un)employment by these industries are either unaware or ignorant towards the damage that the industries are having on this sensitive ecosystem. Instead they are consumed by how they are going to make ends meet. In this environment, it is unthinkable to allow Adani expand their Carmichael mine to further exacerbate the situation. Add to this, that a former Adani board member is appointed to evaluate the environmental impacts of the expansion. Adani is the biggest direct threat to Australia, both environmentally and economically and they are in talks with the government to be provided with a $1 billion tax-payer funded railway line. Adani and the Carmichael mine expansion are rifled with corruption. The issue of the reef and climate-change in general is a fairly untouched issue in Australian politics. I'm not sure that we are going to get anywhere without foreign intervention. If you are interested, I do urge you to read some material on Adani and the Carmichael coal mine expansion and perhaps donate to a "StopAdani" cause. Wish us luck.

jozzas 9y ago
The QLD government is doing some good work on water quality - particularly engaging with farmers, reducing pesticide and fertiliser runoffs, and reducing erosion. But it's all underfunded and therefore not coordinated or widespread enough. The federal government has ignored these issues for decades while we've been burning coal for power and digging it up and exporting it to the biggest polluters. It's disgusting, really.
- nojvek 9y ago
  I lived in Australia for 10 years and got a chance to visit great barrier reef multiple times. It's what started my love for water. Its not the same now. If by the time I have kids and they don't get to have the experience of lush underwater life, I will definitely believe we humans are cancer for the planet. Australia is a rich and educated country. If they can't fix the mess they created I don't have much hopes for the other parts of the world.
  - NamTaf 9y ago
    We are a rich and educated country, however our politics is one that promotes extreme toxicity in the major parties towards any 'difficult' issues. Look at how non-committal MPs are about so many issues when interviewed. Never mind how much of a joke parliament is, especially during question time, where it's more important to score petty points against the other side than debate policy. You just have to look at the UK Commons question time footage for a very eye-opening contrast.
    - NLips 9y ago
      Are you saying that e.g. Prime Minister's questions is an example of good and useful debate? If so, then I am so very sorry for Aussies...
      - flukus 9y ago
        Granted it's mostly from the outside looking in, but your politics does like a bit better than ours. There seems to be a lot less pressure to hold the party line for one thing, which is very rigid here and there seems to be more local engagement. I'd appreciate someone who has experienced both more closely to correct me though. Much of the current trouble in Australian politics though is because we have the senate which is proportionally elected. I'd argue this is a good thing overall, but our two major parties (particularly the current one) don't seem to have realised that they have to negotiate policy to make it pass.
        speeder 9y ago
        I am from Brazil, that theoretically has a fully modern democracy... Parties learned to "negotiate" so well they became meaningless, frequently absurd laws pass that all parties allowed, you see multiparty tickets that include extreme left and right at same time, and when a big corruption scandal shows uo we find out almost all parties were involved... I personally believe Brazil need to copy UK and put at least our monarch back in power, we had less political problems during monarchy (and much more infrastructure investment) and the royal family all live good noncorrupt lives (many run successful law abiding business, some are seen as example of ethics, for example having business that repair environmental damage instead of causing it)
- stuaxo 9y ago
  It would be good if it were possible to directly crowdfund some of this research, since they are obviously starved for cash.
- milesrout 9y ago
  Honestly, there should be no 'engaging with farmers'. There shouldn't be 'reductions' in pesticide and fertiliser runoffs. Erosion shouldn't be 'managed'. This shouldn't be a conversation. It's been conversation and compromise for far, far too long. Governments should be being firm with farmers, they're incredibly damaging to the environment and it's not even a lucrative industry.
  - inopinatus 9y ago
    The often wafer-thin margins in the agriculture sector do not invalidate farmer's demands because food security is a most fundamental national security issue, even more so than energy or border control. Conversely, and unfortunately, the Great Barrier Reef is managed by Australian governments basically as a tourist attraction, rather than a unique and fragile national treasure. There is a (locally) famous quote from the Australian writer Donald Horne: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." (1964). A great many idiot politicians, jingoistic fools, and tourist offices are fond of repeating the first clause of this statement whilst omitting the latter, oblivious to the sharp irony of the full statement.
    - FireBeyond 9y ago
      > There is a (locally) famous quote from the Australian writer Donald Horne: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." (1964). A great many idiot politicians, jingoistic fools, and tourist offices are fond of repeating the first clause of this statement whilst omitting the latter, oblivious to the sharp irony of the full statement. Yup. It's our very own version of "Born in the USA".
    - milesrout 9y ago
      'Food security' is quite irrelevant. Cattle and dairy farming is not a food security issue.
      - jozzas 9y ago
        Biggest pesticide and nutrient culprits are bananas and sugar cane.
Tossrock 9y ago
Sorry, you said the reef looks "indistinguishable to what it looked like 20-odd years ago." which implies it looks basically the same, but that seems at odds with the rest of what you're saying. Did you mean something besides "indistinguishable" ("unrecognizable", maybe?)
- crawrey 9y ago
  Corrected, thanks. I'll put it down to lack of sleep :P.
  - mikelyons 9y ago
    The other one is "rifled" when you mean rife. :)
    - crawrey 9y ago
      You are correct, sir :).
ryankennedyio 9y ago
I grew up in Cairns & think that's a big part of why I'm so fascinated with marine life. I can happily spend a day watching almost any fish tank. My girlfriend has to drag me out of aquariums every time. It completely crushes me to think my (future) kids might not ever know what it was like. I thoroughly urge anyone in the world with the means to do so, to visit and experience it.
- sundvor 9y ago
  Travelled up to Cairns from Melbourne last year and visited the reefs on a day trip. Whilst amazing, the bleaching had clearly started although not fully set in. It was as such a bitter sweet experience. I regret not going earlier, having been in Australia for over a decade - yet grateful to have seen it in some semblance of its glory before it's gone. And very sad - and angry - that it is going. I am angry because we have direct control over the mining that contributes directly to this calamity. However the going rule is that politicians must bend over backwards to accommodate them; or I guess that's just what they pay for? It certainly feels as corrupt as.
  - jackgolding 9y ago
    I'm not sure to what extent WA has been affected but I grew up on the Houtman Abroholas Islands off Western Australia (500 km north then 50 km west of Perth) which are extremely beautiful and secluded (need to hire a plane to take you over and you are limited to one very beautiful large island.)
    - sundvor 9y ago
      That sounds like a great place to grow up! I'll put this on my list of places to visit for whenever I have (a fair amount of) spare cash again. :-) I've yet to be in WA so should definitely do it at one stage.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  I went about 20 years ago on a scuba trip to the "Outer Reef" (25 mi offshore). Paid a few hundred dollars for a guided tour of a few reefs. Blew my mind so much I got off the boat, handed over my credit card and said I'd be back the next day to do it again.
hannob 9y ago
> The issue of the reef and climate-change in general is a fairly untouched issue in Australian politics. I'm not sure that we are going to get anywhere without foreign intervention. I'm surprised by you saying this. I was in australia last year and saw TV news a couple of times. And multiple times climate change was mentioned as one of the election issues. Of course mentioning the issue doesn't mean it's being taken seriously or that politicians will do something about it. But I felt this seems to be at least a topic that is talked about. Just to give you some contrast: Hillary Clinton completely stopped talking about Climate Change at all once Bernie Sanders was out of her way [1]. In Germany, there was a statistics about the topics of TV talk shows recently, which was picked up by a number of media outlets, because it had an overwhelming bias towards having the refugee crisis as the major topic. Talk shows about climate change? Zero. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-dropped-climate-change-from-speeches-after-bernie-sanders-endorsement https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-...
- crawrey 9y ago
  You are right that it is an issue that is talked about and it was discussed in the lead up to the the 2016 election. However, since the election there has been very little attention paid to climate change and there is some evidence that Australia is on-track to be in violation of the Paris Agreement[1]. Australia chose to elect a party with policies that target greenhouse gas emissions the least, 26-28% 2005 levels by 2030, where the next most popular party has target of 45% 2005 levels by 2030. The former Labor government introduced a tax on carbon emissions[2] and a mining resource rent tax[3] in 2012. These taxes were later repealed in 2014 by our current Liberal/National government. Since the repeal, our emissions have been steadily increasing[4]. Talk is cheap and when push comes to shove on climate change, the majority of Australian's give into the scaremongering of conservative politics. [1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/australias-energy-policy-cant-meet-current-targets/8105386 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/australias-energy-poli... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Australia [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Resource_Rent_Tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Resource_Rent_Tax [4] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/australia-greenhouse-gas-emissions-increasing-environment-report/8143110 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/australia-greenhouse-g...
ericras 9y ago
I'm not worried: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-operators-find-less-than-five-per-cent-of-coral-dead-under-extreme-bleaching/news-story/79247a63aa8166da0920d6af6567e642 http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-o... >> “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,’’ Mr Eade said. “We expected the worst. But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery." >> “It wasn’t until we got underwater that we could get a true picture of what percentage of reef was bleached,’’ Mr Stephen said. “The discrepancy is phenomenal. It is so wrong. Everywhere we have been we have found healthy reefs." Also: "Great Barrier Reef: scientists ‘exaggerated’ coral bleaching" http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/great-barrier-reef-scientists-exaggerated-coral-bleaching/news-story/99810c83f5a420727b12ab255256774b http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/great-barrier-re... >> A full survey of the reef released yesterday by the authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said 75 per cent of the reef would escape unscathed. >> Dr Reichelt said the vast bulk of bleaching damage was confined to the far northern section off Cape York, which had the best prospect of recovery due to the lack of onshore development and high water quality.
- fencepost 9y ago
  Any non-paywalled sources? The original article does note that "The Queensland tourism industry raised questions about the reliability of the survey, saying scientists had previously made exaggerated claims about mortality rates and bleaching."

jozzas 9y ago

The QLD government is doing some good work on water quality - particularly engaging with farmers, reducing pesticide and fertiliser runoffs, and reducing erosion. But it's all underfunded and therefore not coordinated or widespread enough. The federal government has ignored these issues for decades while we've been burning coal for power and digging it up and exporting it to the biggest polluters. It's disgusting, really.

nojvek 9y ago
I lived in Australia for 10 years and got a chance to visit great barrier reef multiple times. It's what started my love for water. Its not the same now. If by the time I have kids and they don't get to have the experience of lush underwater life, I will definitely believe we humans are cancer for the planet. Australia is a rich and educated country. If they can't fix the mess they created I don't have much hopes for the other parts of the world.
- NamTaf 9y ago
  We are a rich and educated country, however our politics is one that promotes extreme toxicity in the major parties towards any 'difficult' issues. Look at how non-committal MPs are about so many issues when interviewed. Never mind how much of a joke parliament is, especially during question time, where it's more important to score petty points against the other side than debate policy. You just have to look at the UK Commons question time footage for a very eye-opening contrast.
  - NLips 9y ago
    Are you saying that e.g. Prime Minister's questions is an example of good and useful debate? If so, then I am so very sorry for Aussies...
    - flukus 9y ago
      Granted it's mostly from the outside looking in, but your politics does like a bit better than ours. There seems to be a lot less pressure to hold the party line for one thing, which is very rigid here and there seems to be more local engagement. I'd appreciate someone who has experienced both more closely to correct me though. Much of the current trouble in Australian politics though is because we have the senate which is proportionally elected. I'd argue this is a good thing overall, but our two major parties (particularly the current one) don't seem to have realised that they have to negotiate policy to make it pass.
      - speeder 9y ago
        I am from Brazil, that theoretically has a fully modern democracy... Parties learned to "negotiate" so well they became meaningless, frequently absurd laws pass that all parties allowed, you see multiparty tickets that include extreme left and right at same time, and when a big corruption scandal shows uo we find out almost all parties were involved... I personally believe Brazil need to copy UK and put at least our monarch back in power, we had less political problems during monarchy (and much more infrastructure investment) and the royal family all live good noncorrupt lives (many run successful law abiding business, some are seen as example of ethics, for example having business that repair environmental damage instead of causing it)
stuaxo 9y ago
It would be good if it were possible to directly crowdfund some of this research, since they are obviously starved for cash.
milesrout 9y ago
Honestly, there should be no 'engaging with farmers'. There shouldn't be 'reductions' in pesticide and fertiliser runoffs. Erosion shouldn't be 'managed'. This shouldn't be a conversation. It's been conversation and compromise for far, far too long. Governments should be being firm with farmers, they're incredibly damaging to the environment and it's not even a lucrative industry.
- inopinatus 9y ago
  The often wafer-thin margins in the agriculture sector do not invalidate farmer's demands because food security is a most fundamental national security issue, even more so than energy or border control. Conversely, and unfortunately, the Great Barrier Reef is managed by Australian governments basically as a tourist attraction, rather than a unique and fragile national treasure. There is a (locally) famous quote from the Australian writer Donald Horne: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." (1964). A great many idiot politicians, jingoistic fools, and tourist offices are fond of repeating the first clause of this statement whilst omitting the latter, oblivious to the sharp irony of the full statement.
  - FireBeyond 9y ago
    > There is a (locally) famous quote from the Australian writer Donald Horne: "Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck." (1964). A great many idiot politicians, jingoistic fools, and tourist offices are fond of repeating the first clause of this statement whilst omitting the latter, oblivious to the sharp irony of the full statement. Yup. It's our very own version of "Born in the USA".
  - milesrout 9y ago
    'Food security' is quite irrelevant. Cattle and dairy farming is not a food security issue.
    - jozzas 9y ago
      Biggest pesticide and nutrient culprits are bananas and sugar cane.

Tossrock 9y ago

Sorry, you said the reef looks "indistinguishable to what it looked like 20-odd years ago." which implies it looks basically the same, but that seems at odds with the rest of what you're saying. Did you mean something besides "indistinguishable" ("unrecognizable", maybe?)

crawrey 9y ago
Corrected, thanks. I'll put it down to lack of sleep :P.
- mikelyons 9y ago
  The other one is "rifled" when you mean rife. :)
  - crawrey 9y ago
    You are correct, sir :).

ryankennedyio 9y ago

I grew up in Cairns & think that's a big part of why I'm so fascinated with marine life. I can happily spend a day watching almost any fish tank. My girlfriend has to drag me out of aquariums every time. It completely crushes me to think my (future) kids might not ever know what it was like. I thoroughly urge anyone in the world with the means to do so, to visit and experience it.

sundvor 9y ago
Travelled up to Cairns from Melbourne last year and visited the reefs on a day trip. Whilst amazing, the bleaching had clearly started although not fully set in. It was as such a bitter sweet experience. I regret not going earlier, having been in Australia for over a decade - yet grateful to have seen it in some semblance of its glory before it's gone. And very sad - and angry - that it is going. I am angry because we have direct control over the mining that contributes directly to this calamity. However the going rule is that politicians must bend over backwards to accommodate them; or I guess that's just what they pay for? It certainly feels as corrupt as.
- jackgolding 9y ago
  I'm not sure to what extent WA has been affected but I grew up on the Houtman Abroholas Islands off Western Australia (500 km north then 50 km west of Perth) which are extremely beautiful and secluded (need to hire a plane to take you over and you are limited to one very beautiful large island.)
  - sundvor 9y ago
    That sounds like a great place to grow up! I'll put this on my list of places to visit for whenever I have (a fair amount of) spare cash again. :-) I've yet to be in WA so should definitely do it at one stage.
FireBeyond 9y ago
I went about 20 years ago on a scuba trip to the "Outer Reef" (25 mi offshore). Paid a few hundred dollars for a guided tour of a few reefs. Blew my mind so much I got off the boat, handed over my credit card and said I'd be back the next day to do it again.

hannob 9y ago

> The issue of the reef and climate-change in general is a fairly untouched issue in Australian politics. I'm not sure that we are going to get anywhere without foreign intervention. I'm surprised by you saying this. I was in australia last year and saw TV news a couple of times. And multiple times climate change was mentioned as one of the election issues. Of course mentioning the issue doesn't mean it's being taken seriously or that politicians will do something about it. But I felt this seems to be at least a topic that is talked about. Just to give you some contrast: Hillary Clinton completely stopped talking about Climate Change at all once Bernie Sanders was out of her way [1]. In Germany, there was a statistics about the topics of TV talk shows recently, which was picked up by a number of media outlets, because it had an overwhelming bias towards having the refugee crisis as the major topic. Talk shows about climate change? Zero. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-dropped-climate-change-from-speeches-after-bernie-sanders-endorsement https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-...

crawrey 9y ago
You are right that it is an issue that is talked about and it was discussed in the lead up to the the 2016 election. However, since the election there has been very little attention paid to climate change and there is some evidence that Australia is on-track to be in violation of the Paris Agreement[1]. Australia chose to elect a party with policies that target greenhouse gas emissions the least, 26-28% 2005 levels by 2030, where the next most popular party has target of 45% 2005 levels by 2030. The former Labor government introduced a tax on carbon emissions[2] and a mining resource rent tax[3] in 2012. These taxes were later repealed in 2014 by our current Liberal/National government. Since the repeal, our emissions have been steadily increasing[4]. Talk is cheap and when push comes to shove on climate change, the majority of Australian's give into the scaremongering of conservative politics. [1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/australias-energy-policy-cant-meet-current-targets/8105386 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-09/australias-energy-poli... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Australia [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Resource_Rent_Tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerals_Resource_Rent_Tax [4] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/australia-greenhouse-gas-emissions-increasing-environment-report/8143110 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-22/australia-greenhouse-g...

ericras 9y ago

I'm not worried: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-operators-find-less-than-five-per-cent-of-coral-dead-under-extreme-bleaching/news-story/79247a63aa8166da0920d6af6567e642 http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-o... >> “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,’’ Mr Eade said. “We expected the worst. But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery." >> “It wasn’t until we got underwater that we could get a true picture of what percentage of reef was bleached,’’ Mr Stephen said. “The discrepancy is phenomenal. It is so wrong. Everywhere we have been we have found healthy reefs." Also: "Great Barrier Reef: scientists ‘exaggerated’ coral bleaching" http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/great-barrier-reef-scientists-exaggerated-coral-bleaching/news-story/99810c83f5a420727b12ab255256774b http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/great-barrier-re... >> A full survey of the reef released yesterday by the authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said 75 per cent of the reef would escape unscathed. >> Dr Reichelt said the vast bulk of bleaching damage was confined to the far northern section off Cape York, which had the best prospect of recovery due to the lack of onshore development and high water quality.

fencepost 9y ago
Any non-paywalled sources? The original article does note that "The Queensland tourism industry raised questions about the reliability of the survey, saying scientists had previously made exaggerated claims about mortality rates and bleaching."