And Here's A Timeline Of Australia's Glidepath Of Lies, Grift And Bullshit As The Reef Began To Die

[hatrack]

EDIT

Ed. - Note - what follows came after major coral bleaching events in 1998 and 2002

In late 2014, the then Abbott government established a dedicated taskforce to ensure the reef was not listed as ‘in danger’, with officials and ministers dispatched around the world to lobby countries on the issue. In February 2015, it acknowledged it had embarked on a “whole of government” diplomatic and ministerial lobbying campaign. The campaign succeeded. In July 2015, the Unesco committee decided against listing the reef as “in danger”, and congratulated Australia on its conservation plan. It gave it five years to halt deterioration of the natural icon.

In early 2016 there was a mass bleaching event focused in the northern third of the 2,300km reef system. Scientists estimated 22% of coral was killed. The damaged natural wonder was hit by another major bleaching event the following year, in early 2017. It was the first time in recorded history it had suffered through back-to-back mass bleaching events. The unprecedented impact had now spread in the central section of the reef, about 500km south of the area affected the previous year. Damage was particularly bad between Cairns and Townsville.

In April 2018, the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and then environment minister Josh Frydenberg announced the government would give a $443m grant to a small business-led reef charity, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, with no tender process. A national audit office report found it had originated from a desire by the government to avoid an “in danger” listing.

In October 2018, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment of the latest climate science found global heating of 1.5C was likely to lead to the disappearance of a majority of tropical coral reefs, and they would be “at very high risk” at a temperature rise of just 1.2C. By August 2019, when the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority released its five-yearly outlook report, the assessment was that it had deteriorated from “poor” to “very poor” for the first time. Coral reefs had declined to a very poor condition, there had been widespread habitat loss and degradation affecting fish, turtles and seabirds, and threats from farming pollution, coastal development and illegal fishing. Water quality was improving too slowly.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/22/great-barrier-reef-timeline-decades-of-damage-and-australias-fight-to-stop-in-danger-listing

[lapfog_1]

1. As a former scuba diving instructor

I started telling my students that if they wanted to see the GBR they needed to go as soon as possible...

That was in the 1990s.

even if we eradicated humanity from the earth tomorrow, it might be 100 years before the reef recovers.

[secondwind]

2. Am lucky to have scuba dived there.... In 2002

[Mickju]

3. I did the same in 1976.

It was magnificent. I was just south of Cairns. It makes me sick that their government will not take the necessary steps to protect it. Of course there isn't a lot they can do alone to prevent the Pacific Ocean from warming. It will take a global effort that I don't see happening.