Slashdot Mirror
Australia OKs Dumping Dredge Waste In Barrier Reef
An anonymous reader writes "Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has approved the dumping of 3 million cubic meters of dredge waste in park waters. The decision has been blasted by environmentalists. 'This is a sad day for the reef and anyone who cares about its future,' said WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Richard Leck. 'The World Heritage Committee will take a dim view of this decision, which is in direct contravention of one of its recommendations.'"
This might help:
https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/coal-seam-gas/unesco-great-barrier-reef
It's absolutely disgraceful that politicians can be so short sighted as to allow this to happen. It makes my blood boil.
And by "reef", they mean a patch of silt 25km away from the actual reef.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
It's dredge waste, not spent fuel rods.
They are moving rocks from one part of the sea bed to another part of the seabed.
'This is a sad day for the reef and anyone who cares about its future,' said WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Richard Leck
He then proceeded to hit Paul Hogan with a steel folding chair and pinned him.
I'd like to say I'm categorically not OK with dumping waste here.
Sadly the state and federal governments are completely ignoring what the majority of the people want.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
And like most other pronouncements made by a government authority which are expected to attract negative publicity, this decision was made and released on a Friday afternoon.
Had it been something for which the government authority wanted maximum publicity, they would have made the announcement at the start of the week. (Sunday. Monday.)
I hate it when government departments work the news cycle ... it feels dirty.
to call myself Australian since the LIberal government takeover. They're doing the complete opposite to everything I want and believe in. Who wants to trade citizenship? Preferably a Canadian. I DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS DICKS!!!!
*didn't* vote for.
If you voted for Tony Abbott you neglected to do any research at all into the man. You failed your due diligence as a member of a democracy.
Could both sides please put their research/models on the impacts to the reef out publicly and allow an independent/international to verify? Over the Christmas break I happened to talk to an environmental scientist that works on such reports for that region of the reef. They told me that as far as they could see in the numbers the risks to the reef were non-existent and that certain environmental groups basically threatened that unless the report said what they wanted it to say that they would cause a stink that would ruin reputations and jobs of individuals. The mainstream media has certainly jumped on the hysteria (as they usually do). I don't know who is right but can we put the science - the numbers and models to the front of the discussion rather than outrage over what people with vested interests (on both sides) tell us what to think via the media.
I understand what dredging is, but what is the composition of dredge waste? Non-native soil/rocks/sand? Percentages of whatever they're doing?
You don't get to vote for him at all, unless you lived in his electorate, which is a safe seat anyway.
It is the inner party who chooses the PM. Sounds bad, but do you really want a direct-election system like the US?
I think its kind of nice when the government can actually pass laws.
I guess the Australian Government also joined the list of governments who knows that the people can't do shit about anything.
If you don't want a party leader to be prime minister, don't vote for the party.
If you don't want a party leader to be prime minister, don't vote for the party.
You are far more likely to affect the result in your local seat than in the nation.
Would you vote for Craig Thomson because you dislike Abbott?
My comment didn't happen in a vacuum, it's a reply. Read the reply, get the context. Idiot.
The election of the President and the Vice President of the United States is an indirect vote in which citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the U.S. Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.
Emphasis mine.
Are you suggesting that a Giant Groper does not have the interests of the reef at heart :)
For those that missed the reference, they didn't call him the "Mad Monk" because he prayed every now and again. He got that nickname by behaving a bit like Rasputin. Wild doesn't cover it. Up before the Judge twice does. If it wasn't for powerful connections he'd be on a sex offenders register.
Abbot Point is about exporting massive amounts of coal. The Abbott Government is the most anti-environmental I have seen in my life of 62 years. He himself is a climate change skeptic and he was elected on a platform of repealing the Carbon Tax. We are only in the first year of this vandals office. After 3 years he will have done untold damage and the apathetic voters will probably vote him in again. We love economic growth and we don't want the party to end. Environmental stuff is just a party spoiler. I'm ashamed of so much that is going on here.
I wouldn't vote, since I'm not Australian.
If I didn't want any of the local candidates representing me, I wouldn't vote for any.
You don't have to tick all the boxes on the voting paper, you just need to be registered to vote.
They have chosen a safe dumping zone where the movement of silt won't cause problems. But the entire east coast of Queensland, however, is the marine park, so all the safe dumping zones are inside the 'park'. So that means that GBRMPA has to check the details and make sure that what the engineers have worked out is a safe dumping zone is actually one, and that the currents won't take large quantities of fine silt onto reefs. They have done so, worked out that it is, and the world moves on.
Now whether anyone should be digging up coal and shipping it to places where it will be burnt is another matter. But the placement of the dredge spoil is simple engineering.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
The waste is just sand and a bit of mud (not toxic at all) and they are *not* dumping it on the reef. They are dumping it in a barren stretch of sand that doesn't even have any seagrass or notable life. It is far enough away from the actual reef to not be an issue and they have a maximum amount per year they can dump and a window that they are allowed to do it in (outside of spawning season).
If environmentalists want to be taken seriously they should not cry wolf.
You've got your location wrong. The tidal range at Abbot Point is less than 4 meters.
http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanogr...
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Now here's the unsurprising news about the money trail - The project we are discussing is a joint venture between "mining magnates" Gina Reinhart, and you guessed it, Senator Clive Palmer.
I'm sure they can find somewhere suitable.
Yes, and that place is the open ocean beyond the reef or as clean landfill, but "doing the right thing" would mean Clive and Gina (world's richest woman) would have to spend the money they thought they could save by socialising the risks involved.
At the end of the day it's really quite simple, parks are not created for use as cheap landfill sites for the mining industry, why such an application would even be considered is beyond me. Worse still if the government were to reverse the decision, they will probably be sued for the extra costs and several million mugs like me will end up paying their costs anyway.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
if you were Australian, you'd know that we don't tick boxes when voting, we number them.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_Australia#Preferential_voting
There is so much uranium already present in seawater, there since millions of years, that if the market price of U were to increase 10x it would be profitable to extract it for human use. So what effect is that puff of Fukushima particles going to have around the world?
I'm surprised they don't just induce a coma as a treatment.
Yes, they "impacted" it.
Now put your big boy pants on, stop reading sensationalist bullshit and read on what impact those concentrations actually have. Because the answer is there. None. We needed the most modern of the modern equipment to find those few atoms of cesium 137, which is what they test for because it's the one compound that is not naturally found in seawater, and they found a few atoms in a cubic meter.
To all life on this planet that has to deal with radioactive potassium in its cells which is required to sustain life, this concentration is not something they will ever notice.
Harbour. Big ships need to sail in and out. Dredging is the standard procedure ever since humanity started building ships bigger than dinghy.
There are no shallow water harbours at barrier reef. As a result, it's not inconvenient to move the soil there.
How is this technology related?
It appears to just be click spam posted during Australian daytime fishing for hits.
Keep looking for that new low, /.
This ia sad reflection of the lack of understanding of the new government on environmental issues. For them, rewarding their mates and campaign donors in big business is more important than anything else.
Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.