Australia’s breathtaking Great Barrier Reef, visible from outer space, is quickly dying.
Instead of protecting it, the Queensland and Australian federal governments have traded the crown jewel of the Seven Wonders of the World for exporting more heat-trapping gas and coal, and more poisonous mercury vapor.
Fifty percent of the Great Barrier reef is dead — that’s a vast area much larger than the size of England.
To expand the gas and coal port at Abbot Point, the Australian federal government intends on dumping 494 million cubic feet — equivalent to 5,600 Olympic swimming pools — of slurry spoil from the harbor onto 440 acres of the exquisite Caley Wetlands.
Caley Wetlands is nature’s protective barrier preventing land-based pollution from entering the Pacific Ocean and seeping onto the Great Barrier Reef. Caley Wetlands is home to 40,000 birds including 52 species, of which 15 kinds are migratory birds. By destroying the Caley Wetlands the Australian government is killing tens of thousands of mangrove forests and sea grass ecosystems — crucial food source for the critically endangered dugongs and sea turtles.
It’s time to protect the Great Barrier Reef, not plunder it!
Please support the Bob Brown Foundation, Sea Shepherd Australia and Rally for the Reef because they are protecting 1,500 kinds of fish, 134 species of sharks and rays and at least 30 species of whales and dolphins that rely upon a healthy Great Barrier Reef for their survival.
Join Earth Dr Reese Halter on his crusade to protect nature by watching Earth Calling SOS. His latest book is Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.