A recent news report has indicated that a research team led by renowned coral biologist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg has affirmed the serious threat ocean acidification – caused by increasing greenhouse emissions – has on the Great Barrier Reef (and presumably coral reefs elsewhere).

 

They have used four experimental underwater chambers – two with current levels of carbon dioxide, and two simulating water with the predicted levels of carbon dioxide in the year 2050.  

 

A member of the research team, David Kline is quoted as saying: ”If people’s CO2 emissions continue as they have, the future of the reef is very grim. I would suggest that coral reefs will be highly altered and perturbed ecosystems by 2050 if we do not make a massive effort to curb our emissions.”

 

In the course of 2010, the federal Labor government’s commitment to act urgently to reduce Australia’s greenhouse emissions was jettisoned – an action which most observers believe was pivotal in the subsequent unprecedentedly rapid decline in support for the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In one of those ironies which politics is so prone to producing, the woman who replaced Rudd as leader, Julia Gillard, was one of those who urged him to defer plans to put a price on carbon. Yet due to the closeness of the subsequent election, and the fact she was only able to form government with the support of Independent MPs and a Green MP, who all believe action on climate change is urgent, she has now recommitted to attempt to implement a price on carbon in the term of the new Parliament.

 

With the future of the Great Barrier Reef at stake, which is not only an environmental wonder but directly generates tens of thousands of tourism industry jobs and export income, public support for stronger action on climate change is likely to grow once again, assuming there is strong enough political leadership this time around.