Australia’s plans to protect the Great Barrier Reef are inadequate, shortsighted and will not prevent its decline, the country’s pre-eminent grouping of natural scientists said yesterday.
The draft plan, released for consultation last month, was supposed to allay concerns by the UN about the reef’s health after UNESCO threatened to put it on the World Heritage “in danger” list.
Australian Minister of the Environment Greg Hunt has said the proposal reflects an effort to balance the priorities of protecting the reef, which is teeming with marine life, and long-term sustainable development.
However, the Australian Academy of Science warned that the plan ignored the impact of climate change and failed to address problems with poor water quality, coastal development and fishing.
“The science is clear, the reef is degraded and its condition is worsening. This is a plan that won’t restore the reef, it won’t even maintain it in its already diminished state,” academy fellow Terry Hughes said.
“The plan also seems overly focused on the short-term task of addressing UNESCO’s concerns about the reef’s World Heritage listing, rather than the longer-term challenges of restoring the values of the reef,” he added.
Hughes said while the plan identified targets for reducing harmful agricultural runoff, any improvements would likely be lost in the unprecedented amount of dredging for coal ports and the Queensland state government’s plans to double agricultural production by 2040.
The survival of the reef depended on a reduction in pollution from runoff and dredging, less fishing and a decrease in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, he said.
A spokesman for Hunt said the “Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan” states the government’s vision to improve the health of the reef over successive decades.
The draft, prepared by the Australian and Queensland governments, calls for greater coordination between authorities in relation to the reef, a proposal welcomed by environmentalists.
It also urges a 10-year ban on dredging to develop new ports or to expand existing ones both inside and next to the World Heritage site — apart from in priority port development areas.
It bans future port developments in the Fitzroy Delta, Keppel Bay and North Curtis Island near Rockhampton — areas of the reef described by environmentalists as key incubators of marine life.
However, environmentalists have criticized the draft as not setting high enough targets for cutting agricultural pollution or providing the billions of dollars required to restore the health of the reef.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS