Great Barrier Reef declared 'in danger' by UNESCO

 

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Australian gov't commits 379 million USD to save iconic Great Barrier Reef

The Australian government has allocated 500 million Australian dollars (379 million US dollars) to save the Great Barrier Reef from climate change, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced here on Sunday.

UNESCO omits Great Barrier Reef from 'danger' list, but has concerns

A UNESCO committee omitted Australia's Great Barrier Reef from its list of world heritage sites it considers to be in danger, a move the government welcomed but conservationists questioned.

Damage to Great Barrier Reef Could Cost Australia Billions in Lost Tourism

Ongoing coral bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could cost the region more than a million international and domestic tourists a year -- and up to 1 billion Australian dollars ($760 million) in lost revenue.

Japanese tourist dies at Australia's Great Barrier Reef

An elderly Japanese woman has died while snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, in the fourth tourist death at the Australian attraction in a month.

2016 set to be hottest year on record - WMO

The world is set to notch up a new heat record in 2016 after a sizzling 2015 as global warming stokes more floods and rising sea levels, the UN weather agency said.

Great Barrier Reef begins to show signs of recovery from coral bleaching

One of the most popular reef spots at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has almost fully recovered from the worst coral bleaching ever known in recent history, a NewsCorp report said on Monday.

New video captures coral bleaching process. The filmed experiments were conducted in an aquarium

What exactly happens to coral during a bleaching event?

Recently, researchers in Australia employed a microscope, camera and smart tablet to find out how the organisms respond to heat stress. It's the first time scientists have filmed the behaviors specific to bleaching.

Smell of death hits Australia's Great Barrier Reef: WWF

The smell of death has inundated Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists and environmentalists say, as the ghostly white bleached coral is inundated by an algal slime.

Study: A Third of Parts of Great Barrier Reef 'Dead or Dying'

Mass bleaching has destroyed more than a third of the northern and central sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists said Monday.

Australia: Ocean temperatures up after extreme summer

Water temperatures in the Australian state of Tasmania have been up to four degrees Celsius hotter than average over the past three months, and scientists have blamed the region's on-going extreme weather on rampant climate change.

ApriEco Gea Headlines (April 2016)

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Scientists warned that low level coral bleaching are occurring on Australia's Great Barrier Reef due to high sea surface temperatures, and it could be exacerbated if the area continues to experience still and calm conditions for the next few weeks.......Great Barrier Reef hit by coral bleaching

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March 2016

2015 was Australia’s fifth hottest year on record, while coral bleaching looms for Great Barrier Reef

As Australia braces for a potentially devastating coral bleaching event in coming months on the Great Barrier Reef, the Bureau of Meteorology has today confirmed that 2015 was the country’s fifth hottest year on record.

Coral-eating starfish numbers could reach 60 million, Great Barrier Reef outbreak on track to be worst on record

A new publication commissioned by WWF-Australia says if the current outbreak of crown of thorns Starfish (CoTS) follows previous patterns it will likely be the worst on record.

Australia bans waste dumping on Great Barrier Reef

Australia has ordered a ban on dumping dredge waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef, the environment minister said on Saturday (Jan 24), as part of a push to stop the UN declaring the site in danger.

Poor outlook warned for Great Barrier Reef (five-yearly review to address UNESCO)

Australia's Great Barrier Reef remains under threat despite efforts to rein in major sources of damage to the World Heritage-listed icon, the government said on Tuesday.

Canberra released a five-yearly review of the reef and moves to protect it, to address concerns raised by UNESCO and persuade the world body not to put the key tourist attraction on its "in danger" list next year. "Even with the recent management initiatives to reduce threats and improve resilience, the overall outlook for the Great Barrier Reef is poor, has worsened since 2009 and is expected to further deteriorate," the government said in its outlook report.

Australia hails Barrier Reef deferral. Environmentalists call UNESCO decision "final warning"

Australia Thursday called a decision by UNESCO to defer listing the Great Barrier Reef as in danger "a win for logic," but environmentalists said it was a final warning.

The UN cultural agency on Wednesday said the reef could be put on a list of endangered World Heritage Sites if more was not done to protect it.

It voiced alarm at a "serious decline in the condition" of the reef, and said "a business as usual approach to managing the property is not an option."

Australia was given until February 1 next year to submit a report on what it was doing to protect the natural wonder. The Queensland state government saw the deferral as "a tick of approval."

UNESCO to decide if Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in danger

The United Nations world heritage body UNESCO will decide on Wednesday whether to list Australia's Great Barrier Reef as "in danger."

Concerns were raised in May over the decision to allow dredging near the reef, the ABC reported.

UNESCO recommended adding the reef to the World Heritage in Danger list in 2015, unless the Queensland Government took further action to protect it.

The committee is meeting this week in Doha and Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell is also there to convince UNESCO the reef is not in danger.

UNESCO condemns dredge waste dumping in Barrier Reef waters

UNESCO on Thursday condemned a decision to allow the dumping of dredge waste in Great Barrier Reef waters and recommended the Australian marine park be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage in Danger list.

The decision in January to allow three million cubic metres of dredge waste to be disposed of in park waters followed a decision by the government to give the green light to a major coal port expansion for India's Adani Group on the reef coast in December.
Conservationists warn it could hasten the demise of the reef, which is already considered to be in "poor" health, with dredging smothering corals and seagrasses and exposing them to poisons and elevated levels of nutrients.

The battle for Tasmania's wilderness

Could the government have the 2013 addition to the Tasmanian World Heritage Area revoked, asks John Pickrell.  
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AUSTRALIA’S WORLD HERITAGE areas are having a tough time. In 2013 it was revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had lost half its coral cover since the 1980s. Now, due to a series of port developments for coal and gas exports, it is hanging under the threat of ending up on the “List of World Heritage in Danger”, the precursor to World Heritage status being removed.

It would be embarrassing for this to happen in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, one that holds under its guardianship perhaps the most famous natural World Heritage Area (WHA) on the planet.