Stop the dredge spoil dump off Holbourne Island National Park - GBR Marine Park.:
Why this is important
Port expansions at Abbot Point coal port will require upwards of some 3 million cubic metres of dredging which will then be dumped 10km south of Holbourne Island National Park. Holbourne Island is mapped as a Conservation Park Marine Zone and is designated as a future climate change refuge area for wildlife within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Some 4 km to the south of Holbourne Island is Nares Rock, which is a popular recreational fishing spot thanks to its abundant marine ecosystem. Its surrounding waters are mapped as a Habitat Protection Marine Zone in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park conservation area.
We call for a range of scientific studies to be done to ascertain the effects of this dump on such a sensitive conservation area of the Great Barrier Reef. Presently we do not know what the potential impacts of the dumping of this dredge material will be on:
Photo Damian Kelly
ACTION OF THE DAY
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A MAJOR national bank has been forced to remove more than 100 misleading out of order signs from its ATMs after being targeted by anti-coal activists.
A score of ANZ Banking Group machines sprawled across six capital cities were plastered with "out of order" signs on Sunday after campaigners launched their latest bid to draw attention to the bank's funding of the coal industry.
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We all know politics in this state have hit new lows,but is this the future for Perth?
ReplyDeleteWith Barnetts ludicrous visions for WA it could well be!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-29/jakarta-sinks-as-water-supplies-dry-up/4447022
Experts in Indonesia are preparing to build a huge wall to stop the ocean from swamping parts of Jakarta.
Some suburbs in the capital already go underwater when there is a big tide but the problem is expected to get even worse.
Jakarta is sinking by up to 10 centimetres a year and Indonesia's national disaster centre says with oceans rising, large parts of the city, including the airport, will be inundated by 2030.
Flooding and high tides are already causing problems for some residents in the city of 10 million people.
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In 2009 the council built a small sea wall, but the ocean still pushes its way up through the drains and into homes.
But while some suburbs still go under and the roads are rivers, residents across town have the opposite problem.
Juriah lives next to a new development, one of the many pushing skywards as Indonesia's economy booms, but the water supply to her suburb has disappeared.
"Because the development project next door sucks up all the water, the water stopped since the project started - about three months ago. That's what caused it I think," she said.
"I use a small water pump, and no water flows.
"In the beginning there was a little water but in the end it just stopped."
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'Extensive flooding'
As developers suck up the watertable it dries out and the city slumps into the empty cavity.
"From our observations, since the 1960s the ground water has declined around 30 metres," the head of water resources at Indonesia's energy and mineral resources ministry, Dodid Murdohardono, said.
"The decline of ground water causes pressure in the groundwater lining and that's why Jakarta is sinking."
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, an expert hydrologist with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, says if the problem is not remedied, it could have massive consequences.
"If this continues, the area will have permanent flooding will increase especially with the additional increase of sea level in Jakarta Bay or the Java Sea, which is around seven millimetres per year," he said.
"If our efforts aren't fast enough compared to the causes, more than five million people could be affected."
The city's given itself less than 20 years to sort it out.