The Ocean Elders, an influential group of highly experienced international experts, has written an open letter to Australia’s Prime Minister to urgently tackle global warming to help protect the Great Barrier Reef:
“Dear Prime Minister,
We, the Ocean Elders, are deeply alarmed about the rise in global temperatues, due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels, and the consequent severity of coral bleaching in the vast northern stretch of the Great Barrier Reef…
Recent reports have revealed that 95% of the reefs along the northern 1,000 kilometre coastline are almost all severly bleached and half the corals could die in the next month…
We believe it is clearly in the world’s and Australia’s national interest that prompt, decisive and effective action be taken to arrest the causes of global warming. As the custodian of the Great Barrier Reef on behalf of all humanity and future generations, we urge you as Prime Minister of Australia to do your utmost, as soon as possible, to establish national emission reductions consistent with limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees of global warming, the target of the 2015 Paris climate summit, and shift national energy policy to phase out coal, the leading contributor to Australia’s emissions, and become a renewable energy based nation…
Warm regards,
April 25, 2016”
Please write to your local politician urging them to put pressure on the Australian Government to put the future of the Great Barrier Reef and the world’s ecosystems as a top priority.
