Don’t quit on Nice Barrier Reef but, Qld tourism business says

Governments must do more to address climate change to ensure the Great Barrier Reef is not fatally bleached.

A report from the Australian Academy of Sciences found that the Great Barrier Reef will suffer even if the world stays in target for a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Bleaching in up to 90 percent of its corals.

Queensland’s Top Tourism Authority is calling for more to be done to protect the reef and the tourism jobs it supports.Recognition:Eddie Jim

When the temperature rise reaches 2 degrees, only 1 percent of the reef is expected to survive, and while more heat-resistant corals may colonize the reef, this could only happen if the temperature is stabilized.

Daniel Gschwind, chairman of the board of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, said they had long campaigned for governments to do more to reduce the effects of climate change, and this latest report was another warning bell.

“The scientific evidence has categorically urged us to do more to combat climate change,” he said.

“This is what we are committed to. As an industry, we are committed to doing everything we can to mitigate, adapt and demand political measures in support of comprehensive measures at national and local level.”

The Great Barrier Reef has an annual tourism value of $ 6 billion in Queensland alone, Gschwind said, while a 2017 Deloitte report said the reef was “too big to fail” as it is estimated to be an estimated US 29 billion -Dollars to contribute to tourism at the federal level.

The reef also supports about 50,000 jobs in Queensland’s tourism sector, with many people struggling over the past year due to the effects of pandemic lockdowns.