Is Australian Tourism more important than Climate Change?
The “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate” Report was jointly published by Unesco, the United Nations environment program and the Union of Concerned Scientists last week describing sites around the world at risk from climate change
The new report lists 31 natural and cultural World Heritage sites in 29 countries that are vulnerable to increasing temperatures, melting glaciers, rising seas, intensifying weather events, worsening droughts and longer wildfire seasons. Mechtild Rössler, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre said “As the report’s findings underscore, achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to a level well below 2 degrees Celsius is vitally important to protecting our World Heritage for current and future generations.”
However while the report discusses a variety of sites including Venice, Stonehenge,the Galápagos Islands, the city of Cartagena, the Easter Island statues and coral reefs in New Caledonia, it does NOT mention the worlds largest living colony (the Great Barrier Reef) or anything else to do with Australia because all mentions of Australia were removed from the final version of the report after the Australian government objected on the grounds it could impact on tourism.
The removal has left Australia as the only inhabited continent on the planet with no mentions.
The news comes less than a year after the Australian government successfully lobbied Unesco to not list the Great Barrier Reef in its list of “World Heritage Sites in Danger”
A spokesperson for the Australian environment department said “Recent experience in Australia had shown that negative commentary about the status of world heritage properties impacted on tourism.”
However the Great Barrier Reef is in crisis with 93% of the reefs experience bleaching due to warmer than usual water and increase UV. Coral that remains bleached for long periods dies and In the northern most pristine part, scientists think half the coral is already dead.
It is absolutely criminal that the Australian government is trying to cover up the reality of the environmental degradation occurring in its territory because of a need for short term gain. Its even more terrifying when you account for the fact that Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world and is still a major producer of coal and coal generated electricity.
So what say you NSG?
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... tervention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contribut ... _Australia
