Extract from ABC News
Australian and international scientists have warned ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef will not recover from the effects of climate change unless fossil fuels are reduced within the next decade.
Key points:
- The Climate Council's first oceans report says temperature change is happening ahead of schedule
- Chris Bowen's office says "crucial reforms" will reduce emissions
- Scientists say new fossil fuel projects need to stop and environmental laws need updating
The Climate Council on Wednesday released its first oceans report, which said the rate of climate change was happening much faster than predicted.
The council said Code Blue: Our Oceans in Crisis, which borrowed from the hospital term for a medical emergency, was based on a "highly targeted online survey" last month of 30 international ocean scientists.
Report co-author, and Climate Council research director, Simon Bradshaw, said to prevent the oceans warming further, the Australian government must end fossil fuel developments to reduce emissions.
"Right now, our national environmental law, which is meant to protect the Great Barrier Reef and all these other incredible wonders that we rely on, it doesn't even consider climate change and the impact of new coal and gas developments on our climate and the damage that causes," Dr Bradshaw said.
"It's absolutely essential that our government — and they have promised to do this — updates our national environment laws urgently and really puts climate change at their heart so that we stop green-lighting new coal and gas projects."
He said fossil fuel projects had to "plummet" in the coming decade to give the Great Barrier Reef and everything that depended on it "a fighting chance".
"Our ocean and climate scientists say changes are happening very quickly, faster than a lot of models that project projected."
'Crucial reforms'
A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said he acknowledged the global impacts of climate change.
"That's why the Albanese Government has legislated ambitious emissions reduction targets and reformed the Safeguard Mechanism to ensure Australia's largest emitting facilities reduce their emissions," she said.
"These crucial reforms will reduce more than 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to 2030 – equivalent of taking two-thirds of the nation's cars off the road."
Progressive warming
But that may not come soon enough for James Cook University marine biology professor Jodie Rummer, who studies the effects of warmer water on coral reef fish at her lab in Townsville.
"In my career, what I've been noticing is progressive warming on the reef," she said.
"We're getting more frequent and more severe heat waves in the marine environment that's causing a lot of stress to all of the organisms that depend on these ecosystems for survival."
She said while fish could migrate to cooler waters, their food may not be available in a new location.
"They increase their metabolism," she said.
"That means they're hungrier, that means they need more energy to survive.
"And that's not a sustainable pathway."
Dr Rummer said numerous regeneration projects on the reef brought awareness to climate change, but more work could be done.
"They're not scalable solutions to the problem that we have," she said.
Inspired action
On Snow Reef, an hour east of Port Douglas, Wavelength Cruises senior marine biologist Casey Barnes secures coral "out-plants" to rocks to help regeneration.
Out-plants are pieces of coral found on the seabed which are reaffixed — in under a minute — to rock in the hope they survive.
Ms Barnes says sites affected by coral bleaching in 2016 have been slow to recover.
"It is just one small action we are taking for what is a really large system," she said.
"It is important to keep the coral cover high at our sites … so that people [who visit] can see that corals are still able to thrive and survive into the future.
"And of course, that inspires action."
Fear and worry
Great Barrier Reef Legacy managing director Dean Miller said he was collecting coral species because he feared they may become extinct.
"We always think of climate change as maybe happening in 10 or 15 years," Dr Miller said.
"But in actual fact, what we're seeing is climate change taking place right now."
He said it meant mass coral bleaching could happen on the Great Barrier Reef again.
"And with an El Nio weather pattern, it could be coupled with mass coral mortality," he said.
"What we're seeing is the most vulnerable corals and reefs starting to disappear."
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