The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is gathering in Japan to explore the effect of climate change on the natural world .As a recent resident of North Queensland and it's coastline the Great Barrier Reef is a place I have read about and seen images of countless times but never visited including now that I live here. I would like to imagine that it is a place I and my descendents could interact with in the future and thinking with my stomach the seafood generated by its ecosystem but this thought is diminishing.
The IPCC recent report outlines that there is now obvious changes in Earth's reef ecosystems and health and it is no longer speculation that things are changing due to climate changes created by emissions. To paraphrase some of the links here the Reef is now under serious threat and radical change is now needed to stop it being destroyed. This includes continuing local protection and expanding legislation via amendments (read an article from The Australian from February 2014 ) to have legal mechanisms to intervene in development that affect it. Radical change may include curtailing the role Australia's mining activities affect the reef both immediately and later via emissions generated by power stations far away in other countries. JCU has been involved in reports about dredging at Gladstone and its impacts important considering the Abbot Point development.
An interesting interactive article is located online at the newspaper The Guardian The Great Barrier Reef: an Obituary. JCU has a connections to this via Terry Hughes, Centre Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies which is headquartered at JCU. Also the author Iain McCalman makes an appearance and we hold a copy of his title The Reef: A passionate history in our collection at 994.3 MACC.
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