Dear reader, share with us another penetrating piece from Ira Maine, as he takes a snapshot at another piece of Abbott/Turnbull policy. ‘What policy you say’?. The policy you have when you don’t want anything to change policy we say. Read on…
Not all bleaching is bad. Shown here Mrs Coral Barrier at work on bleaching and sterilising her house with cleaning products to keep her family safe from GERMS!! ( Ed.)
The further north you go, the worse the bleaching gets. According to a UN/UNESCO joint report, published a week ago, 93% of the 2,300 km long Great Barrier Reef has been affected, to a greater or lesser degree by bleaching, the worst sections being those in the warmer waters of the north.
This report, ‘World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate’, which included a report not only on the Reef but sections on Kakadu and the old growth forests of Tasmania, was published in tandem with the internationally respected Union of Concerned Scientists, which gives the document considerable scientific clout. Prior to publication, a draft report of this document was forwarded to every concerned continent, including Australia.
Of all of the countries involved in this report, only Australia objected. The Turnbull government insisted that all references to Australia be expunged before the document’s publication. Our Department of the Environment had objected to the fact that certain Australian World Heritage sites were included in a section entitled ‘Destinations at Risk’. The DoE had objected to their inclusion, not because the UNESCO report was wrong, but because they believed that this adverse publicity could affect tourism. These sites included the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the old growth forests of Tasmania. UNESCO sadly did Turnbull’sbidding and all reference to Australia was dutifully expunged.
Will Steffen. Stubbornly resisting the fact that Science is less important than REAL ESTATE in making Australia GREATER than the Lesser Barrier Reef.
Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor at ANU and the head of Australia’s Climate Council finds this action grotesque. He has reviewed the deleted sections and finds their omission ‘astounding’.‘…perhaps in the old Soviet Union you would see this sort of thing…where governments quash information…but not in western democracies…’Less than a year ago, the Australian government lobbied successfully to have the Great Barrier Reef removed from UNESCO’s ‘World Heritage Sites in Danger’ list by offering something called ‘The Reef 2050 Plan’ which presumably persuaded UNESCO of our good intentions’.
Worlds Best Environment Minister.
Larry Marshall CEO of CSIRO. Another documented sign of depletion.
The Australian government’s argument today seems to be that if the Reef was removed from the endangered list last year, how can it possibly be endangered now? This is precisely what George Orwell meant when he spoke about man’s capacity to hold two totally opposed views in his head at the same time and to believe absolutely in both of them. Orwell famously called this ‘double-think’. The logic involved here is of a type to gladden the hearts of both the legendary Sir Humphrey Appleby and perhaps even Franz Kafka. Simply get rid the paperwork detailing the problem and the problem itself automatically disappears. Oh joy…It matters not one whit how much paper-shuffling and lobbying we do, how many conferences and cabinets are convened, or how many international Heads of State meetings are attended, the fact remains that there is not will enough amongst our political masters to radically take up the cudgels to protect the Earth against our own shamefully comprehensible failure of courage. And as if to demonstrate our present government’s contempt for the very idea of global warming, earlier this year our Liberal government blithely sacked one hundred climate scientists from the CSIRO. offering ‘budget cuts’ by way of explanation.
We are all in the end, responsible and must begin to take that responsibility seriously.
This stupidity must stop, simply because the alternative is too horrifying to contemplate.