This threat to tourism is the devil in the detail. While the Coalition and state Labor government have sought to welcome the expansion of the coal industry, the risks to the reef and its tourism and its 4,800 direct jobs have been growing by the week.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/coalitions-great-big-climate-hoax-turns-to-outri...


Besides having the world’s largest coral reef, Australia also is the world’s fourth largest coal producer. Coal-fired power plants provide about a third of the nation’s energy, and coal exports to China, Japan, South Korea and India bring in billions of dollars annually. The country has been described as “Asia’s quarry.” But of course the coal plants, some old, are spewing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

So it’s coral versus coal, the earth’s health against a big industry, and science versus the Abbott-inspired denial gang. As if to illustrate Australia’s divisions, Queensland’s environment minister, alluding to climate change, warned last month of the need to “reduce as many pressures” as possible on the Great Barrier Reef just after the state approved leases for what would be Australia’s largest coal mine.

Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Party prime minister who replaced Abbott and faces a tight election in early July, knows exactly what’s at stake. In 2010, he called for moving to a situation “where all or almost all of our energy comes from zero or very near zero emissions sources.” He described forecasts of the devastating effects of climate change as likely erring “on the conservative side.” He called for “expenditures today so as to safeguard our children.” He advocated concentrated solar thermal power, calling it “a more proven technology than clean coal.” Global warming, he declared, would lead, if unchecked, to “truly catastrophic consequences.”

The state of the Great Barrier Reef is one such consequence. Yet, Turnbull, beholden to Abbott’s right wing of the Liberal Party, has, as leader, done his best to forget what he said six years ago. Climate change? What climate change? “I’ve known Turnbull for 30 years, I know what he believes, but he’s fallen victim to his tribe,” Flannery told me.

That’s a great pity. The reef is as irreplaceable as this planet. Australia has overcapacity in electricity generation. It should close several of its old coal-fired plants. Rich in renewable and clean-energy sources, Australia should be a leader, not a laggard, on climate change. Reputations, like the reef, are easily bleached.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/opinion/coral-vs-coal.html?_r=2&mc_cid=a016d08...

The Coalition and Labor have sided against 4800 Reef and Tourist Jobs

How does this fit with the three word slogan they have : jobs and growth. Or did they leave out the first word "selective"

What's your recommendation ... a slogan title like 'Jobs and Growth' ?

Ajax wrote on May 28^th, 2016 at 2:58pm:


Just send the gollywog back to it,s island home Replace the bone in it's nose and tell it to sit under a palm  tree