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Comment by callamdelaney | Hacker News Reader

What has coal got to do with reefs?

One of the largest coal ports (Abbott Point Port) is right in the middle of the coast bordered by the reef, which is currently approved for expansion.

Coal ship grounding on Great Barrier Reef blamed on fatigue

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/14/coal-shi...

From what I understand: Coal produces lots of CO2. CO2 is part of the global warming. Global warming also raises the temperature in the Great Barrier Reef. The GBR cannot handle the sudden temperature increase and dies off.

Or it is the massive tourism with all the boats and people touching and contaminating the reef.

Also CO2 absorbs into the oceans and makes them more acidic. This prevents corals from growing properly.

https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/scientists-iden...

If it's as responsibly managed as Australia claims, I guess a sizable part of the reef is off limits to tourists, so it should be easy to find out if there is significantly more damage in areas where diving is allowed?

Typically there is less damage in the areas where tourists dive. As the reef experiences more bleaching events and dies, the tourism operators cherry pick the parts that aren't bleached.

The reef has pretty well had it due to climate change. It's only a matter of time, so better management of local effects such as runoff from land will delay the death, not avoid it. [1]

Apart from the climate change denying Federal Government [2], the opposition is being driven by tourist operators, who are afraid that people will write the reef off as not worth seeing [3]. Maybe they should be running a huge "Last Chance to See" campaign?

[1] https://ecos.csiro.au/coral-reefs-need-cooler-water/

[2] https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/barnaby-joyce-sets-u...

[3] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-22/great-barrier-reef-to...

How does [2] evidence “climate denying”. They just want to protect rural jobs.

Australia is not a leader. They represent a tiny fraction of CO2 emissions and it doesn’t make sense to tank the economy if the big emitters like China don’t actually take action.

And how do you convince china, being on average way poorer than australia - to abolish coal, when rich australia is not?

And as far as I know, china is big on reneawbles. Australia is not, despite having top conditions for it.

Australia is a much bigger emitter than China on a per-capita basis and is much wealthier. I don't see how we can convince China that they should cut emissions if places like Australia and the USA won't.

Yes, coal is one of the biggest CO2 problems globally, and it has been for decades. Unfortunately, globally we are increasing its usage, well, because more people still need electricity

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas_emissions#/me...

This coal is shipped abroad so they build deep water ports near the reefs [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/01/-sp-grea...

Direct pollution at coal loading sites. Indirect pollution from coal waste, run-off and AGW effects

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