I recently came across news that Australia has pledged AUD 1 billion to protect the Great Barrier Reef. For reference, Australian and Singapore currencies are very similar in value. This massive investment, pledged in late January this year, will fund efforts to tackle the effects of pollution and climate change which have been threatening the survival of the reef system. Being the world’s largest reef, it has been home to a diverse variety of marine biota. Its beauty is world-renowned and is a major tourist attraction, with an economy worth AUD 6.4 billion and 64,000 jobs that depend on it according to Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
AUD 579.9 million (a little over half of the funds) will be allocated to improving water quality. A key source of pollution at the reef comes from agriculture; sediments, pesticides, fertilisers, nutrients etc. are washed from inland farm soils into waterways which flow into the sea over the Great Barrier Reef. But despite the great efforts and resources being allocated to address pollution, this is likely a case where it is insufficient to save the reef’s ecosystem.
The elephant in the room, as many of us are well aware, is that the Great Barrier Reef has been experiencing mass coral bleaching as a result of global warming increasing sea temperatures. 6 mass bleaching events have occurred since 1998, whereas bleaching events should only occur every 27 years or so. Half of the reef system has been declared dead from bleaching since 2016. There is some hope in new science where transplanting lab-grown corals is being researched. Natural recovery is possible, though it is slow and certainly looks improbable given how global temperatures are expected to keep rising. Climate change is the fundamental cause of the Great Barrier Reef’s destruction.
The fact of the matter is that Australia will be limited in their efforts to protect the reef system even if their solutions successfully address the water pollution. Firstly, the expensive plans do not tackle the pollution’s point source: practices by inland farms. Granted, that would be difficult to do, as it often is with agriculture, since the livelihoods of many are intricately tied to the continued existence of the farms, and because agriculture is a prominent sector in the Australian economy. Secondly, the government’s intended solutions are on a local/regional scale, but rising temperatures is a global phenomenon.
I doubt that this billion-dollar investment will do much to address the overall harm being done to the reef, but I suppose it may be the best that the country is able to do in the face of the greater global climate problem.
Refer to the infographic in this article which explains how mass coral bleaching occurs:
References:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Barrier-Reef
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/27/australia/australia-great-barrier-reef-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.pm.gov.au/media/billion-dollar-reef-investment-backs-queensland-communities
