‘The reef needs action now’: Whitsunday’s Tony Fontes

‘Science has made it crystal clear that if we do not hold the future temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, the reef as we know it now will cease to exist.’

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands.

The Australian Government is great at playing political games with our Great Barrier Reef.

Thanks to unprecedented political pressure from the Australian Government, UNESCO has postponed its decision to list the reef “in danger” until 2022.

Unfortunately, there are no winners in this shameful political game, only losers.

Sadly, the biggest loser is the Great Barrier Reef.

Whether the government likes it or not, the reef is “in danger” and postponing that decision does not change a thing.

Tony Fontes worked on the Great Barrier Reef as a diving instructor for 40 years and is now a spokesman for the Whitsundays Conservation Council. Picture: Supplied

Decades of poor water quality has reduced the resilience of the reef.

Over the past five years three mass bleaching events, powered by unprecedented underwater heatwaves, have destroyed up to 50 per cent of the reef’s hard coral cover.

The reef needs help now.

Shamefully, another loser is the Australian government which has clearly shown us that it is more interested in saving face than saving the Reef.

They claim any decision to list the reef “in danger” is a politically influenced Chinese conspiracy.

Should we laugh or cry? This is simply smoke and mirrors to hide decades of inept government reef protection policy and a total lack of climate policy.

UNESCO has made it clear that Australia needs to urgently lift its efforts on climate action this decade.

Tony Fontes worked on the Great Barrier Reef as a diving instructor for 40 years and is now a spokesman for the Whitsundays Conservation Council. Picture: Supplied

We are ranked last for climate action among UN member countries. UNESCO has given the Australian government until February 2022 to upgrade its climate policy.

But the reef needs action now. Science has made it crystal clear that if we do not hold the future temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, the reef as we know it now will cease to exist.

Australia’s current policies are consistent with a 2.5 or 3 degrees of global warming.

To have any chance at all to meet this goal, we need immediate action to reduce our carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2035.

The Great Barrier Reef is Australia’s reef. To save it, we must become world leaders in the fight against climate change.

Tony Fontes, Jubilee Pocket