{"id":19582,"date":"2016-04-06T11:09:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T16:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19582"},"modified":"2016-04-06T11:09:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-06T16:09:11","slug":"as-the-great-barrier-reef-bleaches-white-queensland-government-approves-australias-biggest-coal-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19582","title":{"rendered":"As The Great Barrier Reef Bleaches White, Queensland Government Approves Australia&#8217;s Biggest Coal Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2016\/04\/05\/great-barrier-reef-bleaches-white-queensland-approves-australia-biggest-coal-mine\" target=\"_blank\">As The Great Barrier Reef Bleaches White, Queensland Government Approves Australia&#8217;s Biggest Coal Mine\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-10473 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header>\n<p class=\"submitted desktop-only\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Coral%20Bleaching%20at%20Lizard%20Island.jpeg?itok=j9xECI9x\" alt=\"\" width=\"826\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">The Queensland government\u2019s approach to protecting the Great Barrier Reef seems a bit like that of a hypocritical anti-drugs campaigner who preaches the evils of heroin and cocaine while running a meth lab and bong factory in their basement.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s left-wing Labor Government has been simultaneously regretting the lack of global action to cut greenhouse gas emissions that damage the reef while granting approvals for the biggest coal mine in Australia\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>As oxymoronic statements go, some of the political rhetoric coming out of the Australian state of Queensland in recent days takes some beating.<\/p>\n<p>Mining minister Anthony Lynham said the approvals for Indian-owned miner Adani\u2019s Carmichael mine were \u201ctangible evidence\u201d of his government\u2019s \u201ccommitment to the sustainable development\u201d of the massive but as-yet-untapped coal reserves in the state\u2019s Galilee Basin.<\/p>\n<p>But as the government was drafting its statements, there was some \u201ctangible evidence\u201d elsewhere of the damage the fossil fuel industry is causing to the state\u2019s iconic reef.<\/p>\n<p>The approvals for Adani\u2019s mine came as large sections of the 2300 kilometre (1430 miles) reef, mainly in the northern sections, were turning white.<br \/>\n<strong>Mass\u00a0bleaching\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The reef is currently suffering what is likely to be its worst mass coral-bleaching event since the phenomenon was first reported in 1998 by scientists on reefs around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Bleaching happens when the algae that gives corals their colour and much of their nutrients separates from the white skeleton beneath. Corals do not always die from bleaching, but those that survive can take years to recover and are weakened as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Coral scientists say record-high sea surface temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef region\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/planet-oz\/2016\/mar\/30\/link-between-fossil-fuels-and-great-barrier-reef-bleaching-clear-and-incontrovertible-say-scientists\" target=\"_blank\">have driven the current bleaching event<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This long-term trend of warming ocean temperatures, mirrored globally, is clearly linked to rising levels of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As The Great Barrier Reef Bleaches White, Queensland Government Approves Australia&#8217;s Biggest Coal Mine\u00a0 The Queensland government\u2019s approach to protecting the Great Barrier Reef seems a bit like that of a hypocritical anti-drugs campaigner who preaches the evils of heroin and cocaine while running a meth lab and bong factory in their basement. The state\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,1043,5317,11559,1414,386,1273,665],"class_list":["post-19582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-australia","tag-coal-mining","tag-desmog-blog","tag-graham-readfearn","tag-great-barrier-reef","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-ocean-warming","tag-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19583,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19582\/revisions\/19583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}