North Queensland’s magnificent coast is under constant threat from agricultural, industrial and urban development and NQCC works with other groups, local and national, to defend it. In recent years a major threat has come from the expansion of coal mining in Queensland, since port expansion and increased freight traffic through reef waters would have direct impacts on the Reef, while the acceleration of global warming due to burning all that coal would affect the reef through coral bleaching and ocean acidification.
The Reef is also degraded by outbreaks of Crown-of-Thorns starfish (encouraged by the nutrients in run-off to the ocean), climate change (driven by the burning of coal and other fossil fuels) and cyclones (the intensity of which is increasing with climate change). Our work in protection of the Great Barrier Reef is therefore bound up with our campaigns on climate change, coal and vegetation management, and many of our blog posts will be found under these issues. Click here for all our posts relating to the Reef and Marine Issues from the most recent to the oldest.