Tuesday March 6, 2012, Sydney: In response to articles in today’s Australian Financial Review and The Australian, Greenpeace is welcoming a public debate on the need to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the global climate from the excesses of the mining industry.
Gladstone, 7th March 2012: Greenpeace activists have painted the message “Reef in Danger” on the side of a coal ship - the Panamanian-flagged Chou Shan- berthed at Gladstone RG Tanna Coal Terminal, as a United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) team arrive to inspect the harbour.
If approved, it would result in an extra 550 coal ships passing through the reef each year – on top of the more than 10,000 coal ships expected each year.
9th March Abbot Point, Queensland. As the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) mission took a final flight over the controversial site of the proposed coal port, Abbot Point, they were reminded that the eyes of millions of Australians will be on them as they decide whether to pronounce the Great Barrier Reef ‘in Danger”.
Sydney 11th March 2012. Greenpeace was relieved to see Environment Minister, Tony Burke, is beginning to listen to the broader Australian community in deciding to extend the deadline approval of the massive expansion of the coal port at Abbot Point until December 2012. However we are concerned this delay doesn't go nearly far enough to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
20 March, 2012: First up, Greenpeace does not accept funding from the CIA, nor from any other secret service for that matter. Neither do we accept money from any government or corporation. Our campaigns are funded mainly by the many tens of thousands of individuals around Australia who share our desire to protect the environment.
Australia’s largest environmental organisations have today united in support of landowner Paola Cassini in her opposition to plans by Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal to build an open cut coal mine on the Bimblebox Nature Refuge.
23.03.12: Greenpeace today welcomed the announcement from Anna Bligh that she would protect nature refuges from mining, including the stunning Bimblebox nature refuge in the desert uplands region of central Queensland.