UN: Great Barrier Reef should be on heritage 'danger' list
A United Nations-backed mission is recommending that the Great Barrier Reef be added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, sounding the alarm that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action the world’s largest coral reef is in peril
washingtonpost.comUN: Great Barrier Reef should be on heritage 'danger' list
A United Nations-backed mission is recommending that the Great Barrier Reef be added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, sounding the alarm that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action the world’s largest coral reef is in peril.
Australia pledges $704 million to save Great Barrier Reef
The Australian government has pledged to spend another 1 billion Australian dollars ($704 million) over nine years on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef after stalling a UNESCO decision on downgrading the natural wonder’s World Heritage status.
Australia avoids UNESCO downgrade of Great Barrier Reef
Australia on Friday garnered enough international support to defer for two years an attempt by the United Nations’ cultural organization to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status because of damage caused by climate change. UNESCO had recommended that its World Heritage Committee add the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem off the northeast Australian coast to the World Heritage in Danger list, mainly due to rising ocean temperatures. In the meantime, a monitoring mission will visit the reef to determine how the impact of climate change can be managed.
news.yahoo.comUNESCO chides Australia over Great Barrier Reef proposal
The Chinese host of this year’s meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee is defending its proposal to label the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” against Australian government suspicion that China influenced the finding for political reasons.
UNESCO chides Australia over Great Barrier Reef proposal
The Chinese host of this year's meeting of the U.N, World Heritage Committee on Sunday defended the body's proposal to label the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” against Australian government suspicion that China influenced the finding for political reasons. The committee, which is meeting both virtually and in the Chinese city of Fuzhou for the next two weeks, will consider the draft decision on Friday. “Australia, as a member state of the World Heritage Committee, should ... attach importance to the opinions of the advisory bodies and earnestly fulfill the duty of World Heritage protection instead of making groundless accusations against other states,” said Tian Xuejun, the Chinese vice minister of education and the president of this year's session.
news.yahoo.comClimate change tipping points are upon us, draft U.N. report warns: 'The worst is yet to come'
A draft report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that unless drastic and immediate action is taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperatures from rising further, life on earth is poised for a catastrophic reckoning.
news.yahoo.comAustralia blames China for UN move to put Great Barrier Reef on endangered list
The Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of "in danger" World Heritage Sites, a UN committee recommended on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Australia which said it had been blindsided by the move and blamed political interference. The long-term outlook for the world's biggest coral reef system had deteriorated and action was needed to counter the effects of climate change, said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization committee, which sits under UNES
news.yahoo.comReport: Climate change damaging more World Heritage sites
A leading conservation agency is warning that climate change is damaging the U.N.' most cherished heritage sites. Sixteen World Heritage sites have deteriorated since the last World Heritage Outlook was released three years ago, while only eight improved, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature, made up of governments and civil society groups and advises UNESCO on natural threats to those sites. “Natural World Heritage sites are amongst the world’s most precious places, and we owe it to future generations to protect them,” IUCN Director-General Bruno Oberle said. It said while 63% of the heritage sites are classified as “good” or “good with some concerns,” 30% are of “significant concern” and 7% are in “critical” shape. ___Read all of AP’s stories about climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate.
Shark bites off tourist's foot, mauls another at Australia's Great Barrier Reef
Canberra, Australia A shark bit off a British tourist's foot and mauled another British tourist's leg on Tuesday as the men snorkeled on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, officials said. The men, aged 22 and 28, were on a snorkeling tour in the Whitsunday Islands when they were attacked, tour organizer ZigZag Whitsundays said. This image shows a helicopter and ambulances in the rescue of two tourists attacked by a shark near Airlie Beach, Australia. A shark killed a man in November last year in a Whitsunday Island harbor where two tourists had been mauled a month earlier. In September last year, two Australian tourists were mauled on consecutive days, one a 12-year-old girl who lost a leg.
cbsnews.comGiant pumice stone could help heal Australia's Great Barrier Reef
We could just see the edge where it went back to regular water -- shiny water -- at night," Michael added, saying they could see the rock from every direction. The pumice, which is filled with holes and cavities, floats like an iceberg does, with about 90% underwater and 10% above water, the pair explained. When the pumice makes its way to the Great Barrier Reef, the sea life attached will travel too, potentially bringing diverse new colonies of barnacles, corals and more. "This is a way for healthy, young corals to be rapidly introduced to the Great Barrier Reef," he said. In 2016 and 2017, marine heat waves caused by climate change resulted in mass bleaching, which killed about half of the corals on the Great Barrier Reef, along with many others around the world.