This is 'The Great Barrier Reef' - please help us.

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The Whitsundays, North Queensland Australia, has long been described as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. The people in the area are all particularly fond of The Great Barrier Reef and are all extremely concerned for its well being. The residents of this area have built their lives around this wonder, and are all reliant on the reef and all it has to offer, it is our bread and butter, our local economy and our lifestyle.

In direct opposition to this lifestyle is another industry that contradicts the health of the reef, and that is mining. Come with me as I tell you about our current struggle with an Indian company named Adani. Adani is a mining company that is baked in controversy. They build and operate mines, power plants, and ports across India, Indonesia and Australia. Their appalling track record threatens our well established and healthy respect for one of the greatest wonders of our natural world.

Coral vs coal …. Sure its one letter different, but it is a diabolical difference. The "R" is for respect, or lack there of.

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History:

I don’t pretend to have any idea how this wonder was created, and nor am I interested in who discovered it, as that is once again a very doubtful history. If you are interested in the history of the reef then I have provided a link to historical information.

History of the Great Barrier Reef

Latitude: S 17° 42.6975'.

Longitude: E 146° 44.4724’

Sir David Attenborough says, “It is one of the greatest, and most splendid natural treasures that the world possesses.”

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JUST IN CASE YOU DONT CLICK ON THE LINKS PROVIDED: Here are some points I copied and pasted from the link below. Please consider these points, and our dire need to do something to save this wonder of the world.

• One of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

• Largest living structure on the planet, so big it’s visible from space.

• World’s largest coral reef stretching 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coastline and covering an area of 344,400 square-kilometres.

• The size of about 70 million football fields or the size of Japan or Italy. It eclipses the world number two, the Caribbean’s Belize Reef, which is a mere 290 km long.

• World Heritage Listed in October 1981.

• World Heritage Listed area spans 348,000 km2, which is slightly more than the 344,400 km2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park area because it also includes some 980 islands, internal waters, intertidal areas and other state waters.

• 7% of the World Heritage area is made up of coral reefs. The rest is an extraordinary variety of marine habitats, ranging from shallow inshore areas – such as seagrass, mangroves, sand, algal and sponge gardens, and inter-reefal communities – to deep oceanic areas more than 250 km offshore.

• Inshore waters average a depth of around 35 metres while on outer reefs the plunge is more than 2,000 metres.

• November, spawning season, is when the corals get busy reproducing. Resembling an underwater snowstorm, the exact timing of the annual spawning release is linked to water temperature and phases of the moon.

• 1975 is the year the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was created.

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Facts about The Great Barrier Reef

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Things to see and do on the Great Barrier Reef

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A recent cyclone that we had here on March 28 2017, named Tropical Cyclone Debbie, has caused a fair amount of damage to the reef. The fringing coral reefs found closer to the mainland, but laced around the surrounding the islands that make up the Whitsunday island group, (and the islands further north), have also sustained a lot of damage. Whilst we can blame the cyclone for the damage, it would be like the asking the age-old chicken or the egg question.

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One week before TC Debbie stormed the Whitsunday, my friend was out spearfishing, and when he returned home he looked totally depressed. When I asked what was wrong, he said that he had really wished that he had taken his go pro with him. He went on to say that he couldn’t believe his eyes, he had never in his 28 years of living here seen such a sight. Every single reef that he went to that day was fluorescing.

Fluorescing is the very start of coral bleaching. This occurs when the reef starts to die, due to the water being just too hot for the coral to survive.

Within a week Tropical Cyclone Debbie reared her head. We can kid ourselves into believing that the cyclone caused all the damage, but I think globally, (the forward thinkers) would agree that our use of coal over the years has contributed massively to the increase in water temperatures.

The water in our Whitsunday area was at 31 degrees Celsius as Debbie came in and minced us for 36 hours, moving at a very slow 6 - 8 km/ph.

Tropical Cyclone Debbie

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Debbie came in slow and hard, and she cooled the water down, there was talk that this may potentially save reef from the total destruction that would have occurred if the water had stayed at 31 degrees. Apparently, this is untrue.

Why TC Debbie's cooling effect didn't help prevent the coral bleaching

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Nature is an amazing thing, the intricacies that all mesh together to create such a perfect ecosystem... Then there is us, part of nature but so egocentric we believe we are above it. We don’t even associate ourselves with the animals, we are above them too. Pfft…. Our involvement in this planet for such a relatively short amount of time has ruined the very fabric of the fragile but brilliant ecosystem. Our lifestyle bears no respect for the world we live in.

Residents of the area are absolutely devastated by the damage we are doing to the world's reef. The narrow-minded continuation of our old and harmful ways solely line the pockets of industries of the fierce and greedy powers in our disgraceful existence. We have alternatives, but no, we continue to allow companies such as Adani to profit as we slowly destroy our natural environment.

So imagine our despair while we are trying to clean up the mother of all cyclones that the Australian people have re-elected a government that is going ahead with introducing a heinous company such as Adani to ship coal through the great barrier reef.

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No one else will fund the Adani coal mine, but the Australian government have stepped in and said they will. Can you believe that.

PLEASE CLICK HERE : Adani environmental disaster history

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We sit here, all the way on the other side of the globe hoping that there will be world wide OUTRAGE at the Australian govt for allowing a company such as ADANI to transport big tanker loads of coal right though the barrier reef. The mere dredging of the sea floor and then dumping it further out at sea, (as it is cheaper than to remove to land), will kick up silt that will smother any regeneration of coral in the area. Not to mention the navigation of such enormous tankers by such a careless company through a fragile World Marine Park. Again and again, money talks and bullshit walks.

It beggars belief that the Australian government is blatantly engaging with this company, it is sickening and very reflective of the pitiful agenda seen all too often in this world. Adani’s track record alone blows my mind. They leave behind them a wake of environmental and social devastations, there are claims of corruption & money laundering, and several other unsavory and questionable antics.

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Disgraceful politicians like Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier of Queensland, and her government should be ashamed of themselves, for what they are risking. It is not just Australia’s reef, it is the world's reef, and its fragile but perfect ecosystem is in grave danger. If I were in her shoes I would be sweating like a Gypsie with a mortgage whilst heading a state government that is allowing the Carmichael mine to go ahead.

The claims that this mine will bring jobs to the area is just another bull shit story. What happens when they've finished with the mine? The reef is destroyed, and our local tourism industry dead… What will we do then? The entire area will be without work, all for a lousy bit of coal that's screwing the world up anyway. Why in any moral person's mind would you allow them to ship coal through the Great Barrier Reef? WTF.... this world, and the powers that be who run it have no thought about anything but money and their own personal kickbacks. It is abhorrent. There is no other word for it.

WE NEED THE REST OF THE WORLD TO EXPRESS OUTRAGE WITH US

The ADANI horror files

ADANI's track record

Alarm bells ring for the Carmicheal mine

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So if you want to see what is left of The Great Barrier Reef, then now is the time to come and see it. If you have never seen it before, you will still think its amazing. It truly is, but wow, it used to be so so much more mind-blowing. Please come and show your support to the people who love and support The Great Barrier Reef… Once she is gone, you will be sorry you missed her.

Please be a part of the voice The Great Barrier Reef needs. The steemit community can be a powerful thing if we speak up.

Sign the petition

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Sign the petition

Here are some of my other posts

The South Island of New Zealand
Hamilton Island, Queensland, Australia

(!steemitworldmap -19.435514 lat 148.875732 long The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia d3scr)

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