Great Barrier Reef "At a Crossroads": UN group assesses reef in light of proposed coal and gas projects

Representatives from the United Nation's UNESCO World Heritage Centre's marine program have declared Australia's Great Barrier Reef "at a crossroads," following the group's initial assessment of the condition of the reef. The delegation's statement was in rebuttal to an Australian government position that the reef would be exposed to minimal impact from proposed coal seam gas developments.

Australia has rich deposits of coal seam gas, also known as coal bed methane, but its extraction method, wherein water is either forced into the coal bed or is extracted as a byproduct of the process, can produce pollution along with the environmental impact of the infrastructure (new roads, trucks, ships, etc.) required to support the coal seam gas operations.

According to UNESCO coordinator Dr. Fanny Douvere, the reef needs government protection ''not just for Australians but for humanity as a whole. We are not just talking about any barrier reef, we're talking about the Great Barrier Reef.''

With UNESCO declaring that the Australian government's position - that coal seam gas operations would have minimal impact on the reef - as one that might not be true, the government has now committed itself to an 18-month strategic assessment of future developments on the reef.

One area of concern will be the potential impact of dredging. As part of proposed developments, large areas of shoreline - up to 46 million cubic meters - would be dredged over the next 20 years. Dredging stirs up the bottom, potentially coating the coral with silt and affecting the photosynthesis process that feeds the microscopic zooxanthellae algae that lives within the coral's tissues and provides nutrients.

''We are aware dredging does have a correlation with water quality, and water quality is a crucial component for the conservation of the Great Barrier Reef as a whole,'' Dr Douvere said.

Another issue that will be studied is the increase in shipping anticipated either as part of coal and gas exploration or as a result of when operations are in earnest. The expansion of shipping and the toll it may take on the reef has not been lost on some within the Australian government.

Environment Minister Tony Burke said, "I have been making the argument for some time that shipping activity is potentially the most environmentally sensitive activity in the entire mix here. Any application that is going to have a continued marked increase, if it was successful on shipping movements, needs to be scrutinised incredibly closely and I view that as a critical part of any environmental approval."

Like many other developed nations, Australia is having to wrestle with the demands being made for more energy versus the preservation of its environment - with the Great Barrier Reef considered one of the world's grandest ocean treasures but one that is just as easily threatened as the smallest coral reef. In today's world, it's only as great as we wisely and thoughtfully allow it to be.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Coral Reef Studies: stress the importance of holistic reef management

Was perusing through two articles on coral reefs that addressed the same basic issue - coral health - and had an interesting connection.

First, for those of you who are not familiar with the coral-zooxanthella relationship, within the tissues of coral are forms of algae, zooxanthellae, that provide much of the coral's color. This algae exists in a symbiotic relationship with the coral: basically, the coral generates wastes and nitrogen which the algae feed on and, in return, the algae produces nutrient sugars that the corals require.

Healthy coral exists only within very specific parameters and when environmental conditions are not ideal, as with an increase in water temperature, the algae disappears and the overall health of the coral is weakened, a condition called "coral bleaching" which can often prove fatal for the coral. Coral bleaching can be a naturally occurring event, like lightning-induced forest fires, which nature can withstand or handle. But climate change has been cited as a leading cause of an alarming increase in coral bleaching events worldwide.

A study published in Ecological Applications (Vol. 19[6]), detailed how better coral reef management which would produce clearer and cleaner water can help improve the coral's ability to withstand the effects of temperature change, thereby better resisting coral bleaching events. The article, Improved water quality can ameliorate effects of climate change on corals, cited coral's inability to genetically adapt or to alter the coral-zooxanthella relationship to better resist changes in temperature. The study reviewed data from coral bleaching events occurring in Australia's Great Barrier Reef during 1998 and 2002, examining relationships between heat stress and nutrient flux (what's in the water). Areas of poorer water quality played a significant role in the severity of the coral bleaching event.

So, what kind of factors can impact the water quality surrounding coral reefs and how can coral reef management be of help?

Another study, published in Environmental Pollution (Vol. 157[8-9]), also examined the Great Barrier Reef - this time focusing on pollution, specifically herbicides which, along with insecticides and fungicides, make their way into the coral reef ecosystem as runoff from agricultural areas through rivers and creeks. According to the article, Herbicides: A new threat to the Great Barrier Reef, even at low trace levels, these pollutants can impact the overall health of the corals, thereby reducing their ability to withstand any other adverse changes to the environment, such as temperature change, and making them more susceptible to coral bleaching.

Proper coral management must be a far-reaching holistic approach encompassing activities, such as agricultural development in developing countries, that can contribute to a compromised marine ecosystem already beset with worldwide issues like climate change. Healthy coral reefs provide home and food for a variety of sealife, a natural barrier to protect island communities from weather-inspired wave action and, at the very least, serve as a barometer for the overall health of the oceans.

To learn more about coral reef conservation:

• The Nature Conservancy's coral reef program
• Oceana PSA on coral reefs and bottom-trawling
• Reef Check's coral monitoring program
• Coral Reef Alliance's web site
• NOAA's coral reef conservation program
  

Of Regulations & Reefs: U.S. and Australia consider climate change effects

In the United States, the Obama administration is considering ordering all federal agencies to evaluate any major actions to be taken by considering either their impact upon or how they would be affected by climate change.  As reported by Jim Tankersley in the Los Angeles Times, the order would expand the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act and represents a step forward in recognizing the impact of global warming in the U.S. and is considered a victory for environmentalists.

"The act already requires federal agencies to consider environmental impacts such as land use, species health and air and water quality when approving projects.  By formalizing a requirement to consider effects on climate -- a step some agencies already take -- the administration would introduce a broad new spectrum of issues to be considered."


But it's not a done deal yet.  According to Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the decision is not yet final.  This will provide time for climate change opponents and business interests to get their lobbying efforts into high gear.  Admittedly, the current environmental impact report process is a drawn out one that has delayed more than a few projects in the past.  Having to make the additional consideration as to whether a shoreline road project might impacted by rising sea levels or whether rising temperatures might mean that different species of trees would replace trees cut down in a clear-cutting project - as was cited in the Times article - will provide environmentalists with additional reasons to question certain federal agency plans.  So, expect the battle lines to be drawn.

But if the current administration is going to hold true to its concerns about addressing climate change, then this step is probably a good one.  

The article quoted David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club as saying, "People will think longer and harder and smarter about what they build when they understand that the environment around them is changing." 

Read the LA Times article. 

On the other side of the globe, in Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has dismissed claims from some local scientists that the corals of the Great Barrier Reef are currently not at risk from climate change.  GBRMPA chairman, Dr. Russell Reichelt said there is strong scientific consensus, research and fieldwork to confirm that the increase in ocean temperatures brought on by global warming poses the greatest risk to the future health of Australia's coral reefs.  This refutes the contrary position taken by Dr. Peter Ridd, who believes the threat is greatly exaggerated.

According to an article in the online Cairns.com.au, Dr. Reichfelt says that coral bleaching is the most compelling evidence of the effects of temperature change and that the incidence of coral bleaching and its severity have been increasing over the past two decades.

"You’ve got animals and plants there that are adapted to withstand up to the normal [temperature] limits," Dr. Reichfelt said. "If you’ll take it above what they’re adapted to, they’ll die." 

Read Cairns.com.au article.

   

Australia: microcosm of global warming today

There's a very disturbing article in today's Los Angeles Times regarding the current impact of global warming on Australia. When we think of the impacts of climate change, we often think of the polar regions or maybe a few isolated regions affected by heavy rains or drought. But here is an entire continent showing negative impacts on agriculture, water supplies, wildlife, and even social effects that include higher rates of suicide.

Southern Australia is showing definite signs of a warmer, drier climate that has been devastating to many of the country's agriculture industries. Fruit orchards are showing drastic signs of reduced output and farmers are not able to afford to make the investment in shifting to different crops - removing orchards, planting new crops, waiting for a sufficient new crop to begin to pay off. This has led many farmers to economic collapse and even an increase in suicide. And all throughout the southern region, water supplies have become precious to meet the demands of farmers, cattlemen, and urban cities.

In Northern Australia, climate change has produced heavy, monsoon-like rains and more cyclones - one of the topsy-turvy affects of temperature, wind, and ocean current changes. Throughout the country, temperature change is having an impact on wildlife, with species fighting for dwindling space as they migrate to better climates or dying out if favorable conditions cannot be found. And Australia's Great Barrier Reef continues to show the dramatic effects of temperature-induced coral bleaching to the extent that the reef could be "extinct" in 40 years.

"Something is happening in Australia," firefighter Dan Condon of the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade wrote in an open letter. "Global warming is no longer some future event that we don't have to worry about for decades. What we have seen in the past two weeks moves Australia's exposure to global warming to emergency status."

A royal commission is being convened to address the problem, but Australia's political response has been somewhat muted because to seriously address global warming means the nation must rethink the foundation of its economy: coal. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and depends on coal for 80% of its electricity. This nation is a microcosm of what the world faces today. The shift to alternative energy sources, the steps needed to be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - these will not be easy and, more and more, we are seeing anecdotal and empirical evidence that it must be done now and in a big way.

Read the entire Los Angeles Times article with excellent video.