Great Barrier Reef

As a contracted advisor to the planned Carmichael mega-mine, UK-based international bank Standard Chartered must be feeling rather exposed at the moment following a Hong Kong protest and then questions from Greenpeace at its annual general meeting in London.

Scientists made it clear that we have an important choice to make - we can have the Reef, or we can have coal, but we can’t have both.

This Monday, Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler will be on the panel of the ABC’s Q&A programme.

If you’ve ever been diving in the Great Barrier Reef, you know why it’s a natural wonder revered all around the world. The Reef is a massive, vibrant, diverse underwater gem. It’s full of life and colour - and it needs your help.

Right now, there are some sinister plans underway for our Reef. Indian coal giant Adani is hoping to get approval to dredge in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area for their Carmichael megamine project.

Barbara Norman, University of Canberra; Iain McCalman, University of Sydney, and Terry Hughes, James Cook University

The Australian government is running a PR campaign to convince the world that the Great Barrier Reef is fine - most recently inviting international journalists to take a guided tour of the Reef.

As the tropical state of Australia, Queensland is known for its summer storms. We’re used to it being hot and steamy one day and raining buckets the next. This summer, though, was particularly crazy, and the Queensland election last weekend perfectly matched the unpredictable weather.