Recently Unesco has threatened to list the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage in Danger site, due to a controversy over a plan to dump dredged sediment. Reef authorities granted permission for the dumping of dredged sediment in January as part of a project to create one of the world's biggest coal ports and allow several companies to export coal reserves. But scientists have warned that the sediment could smother or poison coral. However Queensland's Environment Minister Andrew Powell, meanwhile, said he was confident that ongoing work would mean the reef was not listed as endangered.
Do you think Australia should still allow this sediment to be dumped in the ocean? Do you think it is right to benefit off of this even though it may put the reef in danger? What are your overall thoughts in regards to situations like this that may harm nature in exchange for raw materials?
-- Edited by tannermartinez on Thursday 1st of May 2014 06:04:52 PM
Austrailia should not allow the sediment to be dumped because it puts the natural reef in danger. The only benefit would be that it would help ships come closer in shore to transport.
No more dumping. Simple as that. Plus Austraillia is mostly desert so I don't see why if they have to dump, they can't do it in an inhabitable spot for most life forms on earth.
It is not okay to dump anything that puts our environment at risk. We need to find alternative solution that will be less harmful, such as landfills that do not directly endanger animals.
I don't know why they have to dump the sediment on The Great Barrier Reef like why cant they just dump it in some other part of the ocean. I think The Great Barrier Reef is just as important ecologically as the Amazon Rain Forrest and we need to treat it as an irreplaceable part of this earth that we should cherish,respect and, care for it. This sucks that they're doing this to such a gorgeous part of the world. It makes me sad...
They should not be able to dump these sediments into the ocean. There has to be a lot of other solutions that would be far better than what they have planned now.
Every single time humans intervene in nature things go wrong. It is impossible for us to accurately predict the effect that this coal sediment will have on the Great Barrier Reef. Because this is such an ecologically diverse ecosytem, it will not only harm those specifically in the ecosystem, but may cause biological magnification, which can have a severe effect on the animals of higher trophic levels. This "small" change in the content of the barrier reef can snowball into a huge problem for the entire ocean.
-- Edited by GigiFrag on Friday 2nd of May 2014 05:36:56 PM
I don't think they should allow anything to be dumped in the Great Barrier Reef because our ocean is already polluted enough and doesn't need more of this sediment in it. The Great Barrier reef is a beautiful work of nature and should be protected by the government.
The Australian government should stop the dumping, its obviously damaging the coral. Its not right that they are benefiting off of that and at the same time damaging the coral. That tooks hundreds or thousands of years for that to be created we should protect it.
I think that this is pretty ridiculous. The Australian government should keep their environment clean and safe. It's very greedy to put nature at risk just to make money.
I don't think that they should let the dumping go one because it can hurt the environment and the ecosystem there. There are only a few species of fish that only live there and the dumping could kill them off.
This is a really difficult, because especially in regards to conserving nature, people are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The thing is, if we all strive to secure a bright future for the earth, then we neglect the present, and vice versa. I think that we need to really find some safe, efficient way to dispose of waste that doesn't involve dumping it into the ocean, which is what we usually do.
I do not think at Australia should allow sediment to be dumped in the ocean. They should not be putting the reef in danger even if they will benefit from this. They should try to preserve the reef and not try to destroy nature.
