Australia
The Great Barrier Reef Continues to Draw
the Short Straw
Climate change is the elephant in the room according to Professor Terry Hughes, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, who headed a panel earlier this month on the future of the Great Barrier Reef in the face of climate induced coral bleaching.
According to Professor Hughes there are three main causes for the damage being done to the Great Barrier Reef. Pollution and water quality, over fishing and harvesting and climate change. Professor Hughes believes that in Australia over harvesting is being dealt with adequately with pink and green zones set up to prevent fishing in areas on the Great Barrier Reef. Water quality and pollution require more attention but the biggest issue is climate change.
With a proposal for the Adani Groups’ new coal mine, the Carmichael coal mine, the future of the Great Barrier Reef is looking bleak. “Bleaching is a response to corals suffering thermo stress,” said Professor Hughes. He explained that the key is to keep tropical ocean temperatures as low as possible. The most efficient way to do this is to transfer away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. “We know enough about the implications of climate change and global warming to know that fossil fuels are bad,” said David Ritter, CEO of Green Peace, Australia Pacific. He said the expansion of mining is producing one of the greatest threats to the environment Australia has seen.
If the Carmichael coal mine goes ahead the number of ships passing through the Great Barrier Reef will double or potentially triple over the next 20 years. There will be further dredging and more traffic on the ocean. This will cause a higher probability of ship collisions, oil spills, an increase in ship noise and a greater risk of introduced species into Australia’s oceans. The water temperature of the reef will rise making coral bleaching more frequent. Professor Hughes expressed that coral bleaching does not need to occur every year for it to be extremely damaging.
The Great Barrier Reef is unable to be placed on UNESCO’s endangered list as its Northern third has been qualified as pristine. However, in a study done by Professor Hughes in 2016 it was found that 81% of the Northern sector of the Great Barrier Reef had been severely bleached and 67% of corals had died. Professor Hughes said that the 2017 results have not been released yet but they are predicated to be far worse than 2016.
“The kind of bleaching we’re seeing now is an entirely modern phenomenon,” said Professor Hughes, “coral bleaching has changed the Great Barrier Reef forever.”
Words: Alice I’Anson 2016
Cover Image: Ivan Bandura Via Unsplash
Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Sydney, Maria Byrne, said that Australia is an “international embarrassment” on the topic of climate change. She believes that the Great Barrier Reef can be a catalyst for change in addressing the issue in Australia. In doing so it will promote the country to become an international leader for environmental advocacy.
The panelists agreed that the Australia government is not addressing the issue adequately. “Investing in better water is good but they [the government] need to invest in climate change as that is what is actually killing the reef,” said panelist Iain McCalman, Co-Director of the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI).
“The warming of the ocean is like ten cyclones holding hands and going to the reef together,” professor Byrne articulated this frightening analogy to convey the impact climate change is having on the Great Barrier Reef. Across the globe reefs support the livelihoods and provide food security to hundreds of millions of people. In Australia the Great Barrier Reef is at the heart of the tourism industry, which is now being seriously implicated as a result of the government's bid to hide behind water quality and over fishing as the most prominent causes of coral bleaching.
As well as being at the center of Australia’s tourism industry the functionality of the Great Barrier Reef is important for other reasons said Professor Hughes. It shelters the coastline from the impact of storms and the mangroves absorb a vast amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere helping to regulate the emissions. These are natural systems that need to be kept intact in order to fight climate change and minimise global warming.
According to Professor Hughes we are facing a closing window of opportunity. Climate change cannot be denied and the panelists remained adamant that it’s all about the ability of the people. It is humans who can end this crisis, The Great Barrier Reef can be saved, we just have to try harder.