Coalition approves Great Barrier Reef as dumping ground for India's Adani Group

[nothinghead]

 

The Australian government approved Friday, the dumping of three million cubic meters of dredge waste at a deepwater location in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's nod to the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to dump dredged silt in the iconic site is subject to "strict conditions," GBRMPA said in a statement.

Conservationists, including those from the World Wildlife Fund Australia, have said that the move by the Australian federal government will damage an iconic site and the unique coral ecosystem.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/5847/20140201/australian-government-approves-dumping-dredged-waste-great-barrier-reef-marine.htm

 

Is Tony Abbott's Australian administration the most hostile to his nation's environment in history?

In Western Australia, endangered great white sharks are being slaughtered. In Queensland, dredging spoil is to be dumped on the Great Barrier Reef. In Tasmania, ancient forests – harbouring some of the planet’s tallest trees – are in danger of being stripped of their World Heritage listing.

Australians could be forgiven for wondering if the federal government they elected last September is the most conservation-hostile in living memory.

Critics warn that moves by Tony Abbott and his Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, will not only degrade the country’s most outstanding natural assets, but make Australia an international laughing-stock. The UN has already threatened to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” when its World Heritage watchdog committee meets in Qatar in June.

Compounding the right-wing government’s apparent disregard for Australia’s unique environment, say conservationists and scientists, is its resistance to any meaningful action to tackle climate change.

Mr Abbott has axed three key agencies, including one which supported private investment in renewable energy. So contemptuous is he of the science behind climate change – of any science, for that matter – that he has not even bothered appointing a science minister...

(read the rest here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/is-tony-abbotts-australian-administration-the-most-hostile-to-his-nations-environment-in-history-9107534.html)

Edited February 4, 2014 by raketemensch

[Leaves]

The Great Barrier Reef has been getting hammered more than people think, I once zoomed up & down that reef from Cairns to Thursday Island & our boat did 30knots & we used to get overtaken by full oil tankers/cargo ships on the inner reef! At 2am or so every night oil slicks can be seen all across the reef, the slicks are from leaky engine/gearboxes etc dripping oil into the bilge which either has to be sucked up & processed in a oily water seperator (which takes time & the oil in water sensor constantly clog) or more often it is just pumped over the side of the ship in the early hours when no one can see. All the barrier reef is for most ships is a highway.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Leaves

[DiscoStu]

nah, they wrote a letter to the UN saying everything's fine, everyone's mistaken. I believe them, who wouldn't?

[Halcyon Daze]

Well Rudd and Gillard turned into evil villains. So we HAD to vote for the Coalition. There was no other option but to put the country's destiny in the hands of these pillaging C##ts.

Hook, Line and Sinker!

[tarenna]

Well I for one welcome our new reptilian overlords.