Press release – 29 February, 2016Brisbane, 1 March 2016 – Today’s announcement issued by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority that the reef is suffering a level 1 bleaching event is a clear signal that Queensland must move away from coal.Level 1 bleaching categorisation is for widespread but minor bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
“Last month the Queensland environment minister Steven Miles granted environmental authority for the Carmichael mega coal mine. Today the reef is bleaching. This government cannot continue down the path of approving new coal mines,” said Shani Tager, Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s Reef Campaigner.
“Scientists are adamant. We can have a coal industry or we can have a healthy reef, we cannot have both.
“Our reef is on the brink. We know reefs can recover from bleaching but only in the right conditions. Dredging at Abbot Point to expand the coal port, and any industrialisation of the reef coast, must be ruled out to give our reef the best chance of recovery.
“We’re in the middle of the third ever global coral bleaching event. Bleaching on the Reef is considered minor for now but it’s stretching from Heron Island in the south to Lizard Island in the north and is a worrying sign of things to come with warming waters from climate change.
“As Australia’s largest coal mine, Carmichael will add to the global warming that is threatening the Reef. It will mean expanding Abbot Point port, dredging in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and sending more ships through this delicate ecosystem,” she said.
If it ever got to full production, the 28,000ha Carmichael coal mine would put 121 million tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere each year, driving climate change and contributing to warmer sea waters, leading to more coral bleaching. It will also ship 60 million tonnes of coal directly through the heart of the Reef.
ENDS