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The Australian Government Still Doesn’t Seem To Care About Saving The Great Barrier Reef
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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Could Oprah Be Elected President?
I’d like to say celebrate it with a HUGE, YES!
Oprah is one of the most successful moguls of our time.
A self made billionaire who did it all without her daddy’s money.
She’s an icon who has great sway over millions of people across the country, especially in areas where Democrats performed poorly in 2016.
Some even say she’s the reason why Barack Obama became President.
A ubiquitous celebrity with a successful business record?
Sounds like the perfect person to take down Donald Trump in 2020.
But while it sounds like a good idea, there are reasons why it probably will never happen.
We are the same society who lets a rapist off with a slap on the wrist because he also swam on the Stanford swim team.
Then there’s the President.
President Trump had 20+ allegations of sexual assault come out while he was running to be president.
Many people in this country did not care.
America voted for a man with dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct because Hillary Clinton had a private email server.
It is just harder to do it as a woman in this country.
Oprah is everything Trump lied about being, but it still wouldn’t be enough. Photo Credit: aphrodite-in-nyc/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
So the American people spoke and chose the person who has the characteristics and personality traits of a racist, misogynist, xenophobe, homophobe, etc.
So when I’m asked if I think Oprah could ever be president I unfortunately have to think that we as a country have a problem with women in powerful positions.
Not to mention black women in positions of power.
Remember how long it took to confirm Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General?
The United States is not ready to be blessed by Oprah.
She’s a humanitarian who actually gives a great deal to charity unlike our current President who just pretends to.
The country has spoken on how qualified one must be to be President and Oprah certainly fits the new qualifications.
Of course anyone does as long as they were on a middling reality show and are willing to “grab it”.
Many people spoke up and made it very clear they did not like President Barack Obama, of course what specifically they didn’t like about him was never made clear.
The moment President Trump was inaugurated it was clear that President Obama’s blackness was the problem greatly affecting our nation.
The moment he was sworn in “we took our country back” and America became great again.
In their eyes, Obama could never be truly American due to his blackness.
Even for those who don’t take it that far, the idea that Trump and Obama have been treated equally is laughable.
The Trump administration has what is an alarming amount of ties to Russia- not a conspiracy but a fact.
“Fired up and ready to O?” Ok, on second thought, that probably won’t work as a slogan. Photo Credit: aphrodite-in-nyc/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Had this been President Obama he would have been impeached already, and have had 20 different investigations on his involvement with Russia.
So it doesn’t take much stretching to say that Hillary Clinton lost because she was not the right gender for the job, and President Obama’s so called horrific job was due to him being a black man.
So unfortunately, America is not ready for an African-American female president- not even one who was forged in the same 1980s daytime television/ tabloid milieu as the current White House occupant.
The double standard has proven itself true too many times in the past few years for us to ignore it.
Someday, hopefully in our lifetime we are able to see that diversity siting in the oval office.
But it won’t be in 2020.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Alan Light/ Flickr (CC By 2.00
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Harvard Law Might Get Rid Of Its Slavery Inspired Official Seal
Harvard Law School has educated some of the important and impactful progressive figures in our nation’s history.
Barack Obama, the first black President learned the law there, so did the first African-American female Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
But despite its esteemed reputation, Harvard Law has had a dark secret hiding in plain sight since the 1930s.
The law school’s official seal was recently discovered to have been inspired by the seal of a notorious and brutal slave owner- Isaac Royall.
The Royall family seal features three sheaves of wheat, which also appears in the Harvard seal. Photo Credit: Harvard Press
The seal depicts three “sheaves” of wheat, which according to the Boston Globe is a direct derivative of the Royall family crest.
After a racial incident rocked the campus last fall, students started to organize to remove the seal.
On Friday, a commission of students, faculty and alumni recommended to change the official seal.
Here’s what the official seal looks like:
“The Harvard Corporation just received the recommendation from the Harvard Law School faculty committee late this week. It will review the recommendation and make a determination in due course,” Jeff Neal, a Harvard University spokesman told the Boston Globe in an e-mail.
RISE NEWS will continue to follow this developing story.
Cover Photo Credit: Harvard: Royall Must Fall/ Facebook
Do you believe that institutions of higher learning should remove official seals or change names of buildings that were inspired by slave owners? Tell us in the comments below:
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