By Adam Hushin
The Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is home to thousands of species of various sea life from sharks and whales to, of course, coral. Tourists flock to the reef to behold, with their own eyes, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, while they still can.
According to The Guardian, the reef has lost 50 percent of its coral due to a barrage of threats including “rising sea temperatures, increasing ocean acidification, swelling numbers of cyclones in recent years, pollution problems triggered by fertiliser and sewage run-offs from farms and cities, and damage caused by the development of ports on the east coast of Australia.”
The Australian government has done little to face the crisis and has only recently seemed interested in getting involved as the potential economic impacts have become so stark- the country earns £2.6 billon per year in tourism money associated with the reef according to The Guardian.
The International community has made efforts to fight the ecological disaster however.
The International community has made efforts to fight the ecological disaster however.
In June 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee, met in Bonn, Germany to discuss the state of the Great Barrier Reef.
The committee ruled that the Australian government must report back to UNESCO in 18 months on it’s progress towards preserving the reef.
Coral in the Great Barrier Reef, Eddy Reef off Mission Beach. Photo Credit: Paul Toogood/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
The Australian government has announced the “Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability plan” as their primary effort to accomplish the goal of protecting the reef.
However Greenpeace, the global environmental agency believes this plan is an overwhelming disappointment, and will not be the solution that the reef desperately needs.
“Until the plans for the massive coal mine and port expansion are dropped, it’s impossible to take Australia’s claims that they are protecting the Reef seriously,” the Greenpeace Political Advisor for Australia Pacific, Jess Panegyres said in a press release. “The government’s Reef 2050 Plan has loopholes so big you can drive coal-carrying ships through them. The plan has effectively carved out a space for massive coal mines and port expansion that will create a highway for coal ships straight through the Reef.”
One key concern that Greenpeace has is that the Reef 2050 plan still allows coal mine and port expansion.
This allows for something called ‘dredging’ to continue. Dredging means digging up the sea-bed to deepen channels for ships entering ports.
Dredging, runoff, and other polluting elements will now not only be allowed to continue, but will expand because of the Australian government’s choice to put their coal industry above the protection of the reef according to the thinking of Greenpeace activists.
Moreover, lack of action like in this case is killing the reef ecosystems according to the group.
Greenpeace activists protest the coal industry in Australia in 2013. Photo Credit: FusionVision/Flickr (CC By 2.0)
“We need to protect reefs from the individual and cumulative impacts of poor choices on the land, the sea, and in the atmosphere,” Louise Fraser, a spokesperson with Greenpeace Australia Pacific said. “We also need to ensure that politics and industry are not hindering reef protection, or the science that studies it.”
Greenpeace is campaigning for 100% renewable energy by 2050 and in Australia they are also campaigning against the expansion of the coal industry in Queensland.
Greenpeace isn’t the only one who recognizes the negatives in the government’s plan.
“The government wants to have coal mines operating in 60 years’ time, and still hopes to have a healthy reef,” Terry Hughes, Professor of Marine Biology at James Cook University wrote in a piece for The Conversation. “The science says otherwise: either we plan to adequately protect the reef and transition away from fossil fuels, or we abandon the reef and develop the world’s largest thermal coal mines. We can’t possibly do both.”
As awareness of this issue rises, so does the demand for the reef to be protected.
As awareness of this issue rises, so does the demand for the reef to be protected.
Overall, the stability of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as dozens of other endangered ecosystems around the globe, is a major problem that is not getting the attention that it critically needs.
This unfortunate fact begs the question, how long can we afford to ignore these problems?
If you would like more information on the Great Barrier Reef, or on efforts to help preserve it, go to www.takeanotherlook.gp, or www.greenpeace.org.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for you us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Cover Photo Credit: gjhamley/ Flickr (CC By 2.0
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One Loss Alabama Ranked In Top Four Of First College Football Playoff Ranking
In a surprising decision, the College Football Playoff Committee put Alabama into the top four in their first rankings of the season.
Alabama has one loss and was not expected to be ranked so highly in the first week.
The SEC has six teams ranked in the top 25 in the CFP rankings.
Alabama and LSU face off this Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Undefeated Clemson and Ohio State would also be in the playoff if the season ended today.
Top Ten:
- Clemson
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Notre Dame
- Baylor
- Michigan State
- TCU
- Iowa
- Florida
Like this piece? Rise News just launched a few weeks ago and is only getting started. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with global news. Have a news tip? (No matter how big or small!) Send it to us- [email protected]
Cover Photo Credit: Matthew Tosh/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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With ISIS, The West Is At War With Brazen Thuggery And Not Islam
Look at the coverage of most mainstream news outlets in the wake of the recent Brussels terrorist attacks and you’ll hear the words “Islamic extremists” or “radical Islam” multiple times.
The importance of terminology to define ISIS has been critically analyzed by professionals since the group eclipsed al-Qaeda as the foremost terror threat to the West in 2013.
The mainstream media has made ISIS synonymous with Islam without further investigation into who exactly is deemed a prime candidate for ISIS recruitment.
The brothers linked to the Brussels attacks were well known to the Belgian police for their long rap sheets of organized crime, not only because of their religious beliefs.
Seasoned criminals, the brothers were never linked to any terrorist cell or vocalized Islamic aggression prior to the Paris attacks.
Multiple media reports depict the attackers as young criminals initially looking for an illegal outlet that eventually found them emerged to deep in the terror cell, much like previous attackers whose criminal history has been recently brought to light.
Thus, the question being posed is if Islamic extremists or radical criminals accurately depict ISIS’ target recruit.
Examining ISIS methodology, one will find that Western society is directly targeted as being the reason the Middle East has endured suffering in the past.
To combat the years of self-described oppression they will commit brutal mass killings under the “convert or die” mentality in an attempt to create a worldwide Islamic State.
In juxtaposition to the religious backings behind the gruesome terrorist attacks, many Islamic leaders and followers alike have urgently condemned ISIS.
To understand that ISIS represents the Islamization of radicalism and not the radicalization of Islam, is to gain a greater understanding of whom ISIS is and why terminology matters.
The Obama administration has taken a definitive stand against defining ISIS as religious warriors for Islam.
“The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie,” President Obama said last year when urging countries to view the terrorist group as rampant militants and to reject the idea this is a clash of civilizations.
ISIS is a youth revolt that attracts criminals and thugs the world over, and not just very religious Muslims. Photo Credit: rachaelvoorhees/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
To further these sentiments CIA director, John Brennan talks about ISIS members in a interesting way:
“Most — many — of them are psychopathic thugs, murderers who use a religious concept and masquerade and mask themselves in that religious construct.”
Falsely personifying ISIS members not only does a disservice to Muslims but it also feeds into the doctrine of the terrorist organization.
The more the West ostracizes Islam as a whole, the more power ISIS gains in recruiting young people in need of a purpose, and who want to watch the world burn.
Lately, waves of young Muslims have joined ISIS in search of a place of refuge in what analysts call a youth revolution.
The characterization of ISIS members as Islamic extremists walks a dangerous line between stigmatizing Islam as a religion and fueling the recruiting tactics of the terrorists.
Shifting the terminology widens the public’s knowledge on ISIS as an organization and demeans the terrorist organization’s underlining schemes of correlating Islam with their gruesome acts of violence.
We should consider it.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
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So You Want To Send Some Amazon Packages To Croatia? That Will Be $1 Million
David Beslic just wanted to send a few items back to family in his native Croatia from his home in Toronto.
So he went to Amazon, purchased what he wanted (A blender, one laptop case and two keyboard covers) and listed an Croatian address as the place of delivery.
Sounds simple enough in this ever connected globalized economy. Nothing that Amazon can’t handle.
Yeah, not so much.
Yep. The shipping and handling was 1,000,000 for the four items that only cost $59.96.
Beslic took his surprise and frustration to Facebook where a friend of his who works for Amazon became aware of the situation. The friend is apparently bringing it to the attention of higher ups at the company.
Beslic, a regular Amazon customer is taking it all in stride however.“It would be more I guess if [I were] not a regular customer,” Beslic said. “A billion or so.”Like this piece? Rise News just launched a few weeks ago and is only getting started. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with global news. Have a news tip? Send it to us- [email protected]
Photo Credit: David Beslic/ Facebook
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