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GBR
Feb 11, 2006 15:51:30 GMT -5
Post by LSDeep on Feb 11, 2006 15:51:30 GMT -5
Climate change threat to reef not overstated: Institute
The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) says the threat climate change poses to the Great Barrier Reef cannot be overstated.
Federal Tourism Minister Ian Macfarlane has been reported as saying the threat to the reef has been exaggerated.
Ray Berkelmans from AIMS says while the reef is generally in good health, climate change poses a significant threat.
"Most scientists as well as the reef managers would agree that in the medium to longer term, climate change is a real threat to the reef, not just ours but to reefs globally but how that impacts on tourism is a totally different thing," he said.
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GBR
Feb 23, 2006 7:51:17 GMT -5
Post by LSDeep on Feb 23, 2006 7:51:17 GMT -5
Risks to the Great Barrier Reef have been overstated and Australians should be more worried about population growth and noxious weeds, a physicist says.
Dr Peter Ridd from Townsville's James Cook University (JCU) today challenged the widely held view that one of the world's most important natural assets is in serious decline.
He said the reef, which other scientists predict could be wiped out within 30 years due to global climate change, was in "first rate condition".
"It's probably one of the best preserved ecosystems in the whole world," Dr Ridd, of JCU's Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology, said.
"I think the only place that's probably better is Antarctica, and that is because it's a long way away from any significant population centre."
His comments came only weeks after scientists warned of a new coral bleaching threat following the discovery of blanched corals off the central Queensland coast.
Dr Ridd said although the reef suffered extensive bleaching in 1998 and 2002, most of it was unaffected and the parts that were damaged "completely recovered".
"I think some of it is a beat-up and I think we've got our priorities wrong," he said.
"We have around the country some serious environmental issues associated with weeds and indeed with things like population and the growing of our cities.
"We're not worried about all these other things which are potentially far more important and definitely there, whereas you can argue about the Great Barrier Reef being in jeopardy."
Dr Ridd, who formerly worked with the Australian Institute of Marine Science - a body which has long sounded warnings about threats to the reef - said coral bleaching was an "adaptation to changing environmental temperature".
Additionally, pollution from sediment and agricultural run-off was negligible given the reef's size and how rapidly it was flushed by tides, he said.
"There's a significant body of people (outside marine biology) who would also be of the view that the overall risk to the reef has been overstated," Dr Ridd said.
AAP
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