GREAT BARRIER REEF TO GET BACKYARD MUD DUMP AFTER AUSTRALIA COAL PORT EXPANSION

Vast quantities dredged sand and mud will be dumped right by Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef to create a multi-billion-dollar coal port – the world’s biggest. The authority watching over the UNESCO World Heritage site just gave the green light.

 

What the dumping permit awarded by The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority does is allow two Indian firms and an Australian billionaire miner Gina Rinehart to expand the country’s port of Abbot Point in order to tap into the coal-rich inland Galilee Basin.

 

UNESCO declared the place a World Heritage site in 1981. It supports a fantastic array of marine species and plant life and it's the size of Montana. But UNESCO, in consultation with the Australian government, has decided to hold off on its decision to classify the place as “in danger”.

 

Many believe that the idea of having guidelines is very dubious, given the lessons of history, including sediment leakage at other sites. Jon Brodie, a senior researcher at James Cook university added in an interview to ABC News Online that the three million cubic meters of sludge, mud and sands will have a dangerously cumulative effect on the surrounding areas as well, setting a precedent for harmful developments along the Queensland coast.

Source - http://rt.com/news/barrier-reef-coal-mud-448/

********************************************************************************