http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/no-one-country-can-save-the-reef-says-tim-flannery/story-fn59niix-1226061500198

SLASHING Australian greenhouse gas emissions will not, on its own, save the Great Barrier Reef, and its future will depend on an international agreement among the world's biggest emitters.

Julia Gillard's key climate-change adviser, Will Steffen, has warned that nothing short of securing an effective global agreement to tackle climate change can save the reef, while one of the world's leading reef scientists, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, has said Australia will be left with "the great weedy reef" unless the world cuts emissions.

The warnings follow the release of a Climate Commission report that found that unless global emissions began falling within a few years, the world would face a near-impossible task to limit global warming to 2C by 2050 - the target scientists say will limit damage to the reef and avert dangerous climate change.

As the Prime Minister yesterday invoked the welfare of the reef as a reason to introduce a price on carbon, the scientific comments show that the nation will remain dependent on a global response to avoid the worst ravages of global warming, even if it manages to slash its own emissions.

But advocates of Australian action on climate change, including climate change adviser Ross Garnaut, say that if the nation fails to do its proportionate share in cutting emissions, it will act as a drag on international efforts.

Professor Steffen, the executive director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University, said it would be extremely difficult for the Great Barrier Reef to adapt to higher temperatures and only global action could rescue one of the nation's key tourist and marine attractions. He said the best unilateral action that Australia could take was to focus on reducing other stressors to the reef, including minimising fishing pressures and toxic run-offs into the ecosystem. If the reef continued to deteriorate, scientists could be forced to consider the costly and risky task of trying to transplant some coral south to re-engineer the reef.

Chief Climate Commissioner Tim Flannery said "no one country" alone could rescue the Great Barrier Reef. "This is a long process, no one country or action can solve it," he said. "The point is, this is the first step in a long trajectory of change."

Speaking on the ABC's 7.30 last night, Professor Flannery added: "What needs to happen is the developed countries need to get their emissions trajectories going down this decade, the larger developing countries need to follow the next decade and then the very poorest countries the decade after that."

Amid the dire warnings about the reef's future, New Zealand tourist Donald Heckler, who snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns yesterday with his wife, Nicola, and their son Oscar, 5, said it would be a "huge shame" if the tourist destination was affected by climate change.

Mr Heckler said he was taken aback by the beauty of the reef.

"What we saw today, it looked magic, really", he said.

The Prime Minister yesterday sharpened her rhetoric on the dangers of climate change, warning that it could affect the Australian lifestyle and endanger the reef, which generates $6 billion revenue from tourism and sustainable fishing. She said the study confirmed "the Great Barrier Reef has already sustained significant damage and the report says ocean acidity is expected to increase, which will have severe consequences for marine life".

It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies

Not much news here, time to move on.

Maqqa wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 8:11am:

It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies

I came to this country in 59...what a different place it was then... haaaaaaaa... anyway the barrier reef then was always in the news.. then of course it was the crown of thorns that was killing it.. however it has always been under threat from what little I know of it..its very fragile and I would imagine the mearest change would harm rather than improve it..

how you protect something under an ocean I will never know..

maybe a TAX will fix it.

cods wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 8:43am:

Maqqa wrote on May 24th, 2011 at 8:11am: It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies I came to this country in 59...what a different place it was then... haaaaaaaa... anyway the barrier reef then was always in the news.. then of course it was the crown of thorns that was killing it.. however it has always been under threat from what little I know of it..its very fragile and I would imagine the mearest change would harm rather than improve it.. how you protect something under an ocean I will never know.. maybe a TAX will fix it.

A tax can only help if it destroys our coal mining industry (the one that no one wants to destroy, sometimes), and of course, providing that this famous tax, is also a system of stealing from hard workers, and giving the "proceeds" to bludgers, this would protect the reef.

The tax that does nothing except make slaves.

cods wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 8:43am:

Maqqa wrote on May 24th, 2011 at 8:11am: It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies I came to this country in 59...what a different place it was then... haaaaaaaa... anyway the barrier reef then was always in the news.. then of course it was the crown of thorns that was killing it.. however it has always been under threat from what little I know of it..its very fragile and I would imagine the mearest change would harm rather than improve it.. how you protect something under an ocean I will never know.. maybe a TAX will fix it.

A good tax cures everything cods if we were to swallow the tripe served up by the scam artists.

chicken_lipsforme wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 8:51am:

cods wrote on May 24th, 2011 at 8:43am: Maqqa wrote on May 24th, 2011 at 8:11am: It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies I came to this country in 59...what a different place it was then... haaaaaaaa... anyway the barrier reef then was always in the news.. then of course it was the crown of thorns that was killing it.. however it has always been under threat from what little I know of it..its very fragile and I would imagine the mearest change would harm rather than improve it.. how you protect something under an ocean I will never know.. maybe a TAX will fix it. A good tax cures everything cods if we were to swallow the tripe served up by the scam artists.

I was being sarcastic.. as the reef is under an ocean!!... wait a Minute I keep forgetting we can control that with a TAX cant we.. silly me!

anyway I have long realised that Taxes are a necessary evil..we need them and thats fine with me..

how ever its inexcusable for us in my opinion to TAX the hell out of every one in this country.. for daring to use anything thats associated with coal...

whilst at the same time the govt is making a fortune from selling it [coal]overseas..

I cant get my head around that sorry gillard but thats it..

cods wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 8:43am:

Maqqa wrote on May 24th, 2011 at 8:11am: It's sad to see the likes of Garnaut and Gillard (highlighted in red) continue to spread lies I came to this country in 59...what a different place it was then... haaaaaaaa... anyway the barrier reef then was always in the news.. then of course it was the crown of thorns that was killing it.. however it has always been under threat from what little I know of it..its very fragile and I would imagine the mearest change would harm rather than improve it.. how you protect something under an ocean I will never know.. maybe a TAX will fix it.

Constant focus on the reef would have to be advertising for tourism.... go advertising!