Great barrier Reef ok for destruction by Australian government

[Gooders1002]

One of the natural wonders of the world is about to have 3 million cubic metres of seabed dumped on top of it.

Who could forget, back in 2009, the launch of the "Best Job in the World"?

The campaign by Tourism Queensland generated global interest in the Sunshine State and the role of park ranger and "caretaker" of Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. Ben Southal was the inaugural winner, a Brit by birth and native of Hampshire, he beat 35,000 applicants for the coveted role.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/s...-greg-hunt

This is unacceptable. For those interested here is a petition to try and stop it.

[Chad32]

Who the hell would want to bury the Great Barrier Reef? I would expect that to be one of the best tourist attractions around Austrailia, not to mention all the other stuff someone could surely list if they were an expert on stuff like this. Surely this is just some kind of publicity stunt.

I heard a story once about people doing a project to dig out some stuff at the bottom of Niagra Falls, in order to maintain it. How about we put people like that in charge of the other greatest natural wonders of the world.

I don't even need to read the linked stuff to say WTF?

I'm not sure why we're still using coal. I thought that was about the worst source of energy we got, and had a big health hazard to workers.

[Doubting Thomas]

Yeah, I can't understand why anyone would want to dump 3 million cubic meters of sand on the Great Barrier Reef. Were people just sitting around one day asking, "Are there any natural, beautiful spots in the world which haven't been totally fucked up by man yet? Jimmy, what do you got?"

"Ah, there's the Great Barrier Reef... we could, oh I don't know, bury it in sand or something."

"I love that idea, let's roll with that."

[Crossless2.0]

This pisses me off no end. Is there any place left we haven't used to wipe our asses? At moments like this I'm misanthropic enough to say that we deserve whatever we get, but of course "we" won't reap the whirlwind. It will be our descendants, who didn't ask for this shit.

[Minimalist]

This expansion is further proof that the Abbott government is hell-bent on turning Australia into a reckless charco-state that solely represents the interests of fossil fuel and coal companies.

Ah...crooked energy companies. That explains everything.

[The Valkyrie]

This expansion is further proof that the Abbott government is hell-bent on turning Australia into a reckless charco-state that solely represents the interests of fossil fuel and coal companies.

Ah...crooked energy companies. That explains everything.

Crooked Government owned energy company . . .

[Minimalist]

Even worse.

[Darth]

Lets look around see if anybody else in the news, non guardian sources, give us a better idea of what's going on.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/p...z2ngnXD06d
"It is important to note that each of these sites is already heavily industrialised and that the processes were highly advanced at the change of government," Mr Hunt said. (mr hunt is our new environment minister

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-10/no...ns/5147916
"For Abbot Point, perhaps the most important condition is that any dredging would be limited to 1.3 million cubic metres of sediment a year. That is down from a 38 million cubic metre proposal under the previous government, so a radical decrease in what was going to be the case." (The abc is our BBC)

So that's the other side of the story. I'm just wondering why this is a news story now (now that we've just gotten a conservative government) rather than during those previous, larger proposals, seems fishy to me.

[Cinjin]

This expansion is further proof that the Abbott government is hell-bent on turning Australia into a reckless charco-state that solely represents the interests of fossil fuel and coal companies.

Ah...crooked energy companies. That explains everything.

"All hail the almighty dollar! Neither flesh, blood, nor global catastrophe shall keep us from fattening our bank accounts and destroying anything that stands in the way of our undying greed.

[KichigaiNeko]

Don't take media seriously....*coughfoxnews*cough