In 1998 I spent 3 days on a boat, diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Truly amazing – a memory that will stay with me always. It was clear even then that the Reef was threatened by climate change and polltion. Now it is a disaster:
UN warns Great Barrier Reef in danger
The Great Barrier Reef could be named as endangered by the UN’s World Heritage Committee next month.
A long-awaited assessment of the reef by UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), released on Friday said decisive action must be taken to avoid a listing. The report said the federal and Queensland governments had failed to improve water quality or halt coastal developments that could affect the reef, AAP reports. …
The report also said there has been no clear commitment by the either federal or Queensland governments to limit port developments near the reef. Instead about 43 proposals are under assessment.
“The World Heritage Centre and IUCN … recommend that the committee consider the Great Barrier Reef for inscription on the list of World Heritage in Danger … in absence of a firm and demonstrable commitment on these priority issues, ” the report said.
The reef has lost more than half its coral cover in the past three decades due to storms, poisonous starfish and bleaching linked to climate change.
Here’s what it should look like:
We are leaving the next generations a world without wonders. A poorer world.
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