Letter writers voice their concern for Great Barrier Reef, and democracy

Letters in today’s Melbourne Age:

Why are we ignoring the warning signs?

I have never been to the Great Barrier Reef but last year I swam in the coral-filled lagoons around New Caledonia. I now understand when people talk about how astonishing are the glorious colours and the diversity of corals, fish and sea creatures; how, just beneath the surface of the clear, turquoise water, is a wonderland that you cannot imagine unless you see it.

In my working life I have seen safety barriers that were disabled because they "got in the way" and warning sirens that were switched off because they were "annoying". Accidents occurred and people were injured or killed. If the canaries began to tweet and the miners still went down into the mine, we would say that ignoring the warning signs was madness. It is an unspeakable tragedy that our actions are leading to the destruction of such a treasure as the reef. We too are ignoring the warning signals. It is madness.

Victoria Cousins, Surrey Hills

The reef is too precious and important to lose

Tourism to the Great Barrier Reef generates about $5 to 6billion annually and almost 69,000 full-time equivalent jobs. More than 2million visitors travel there each year. Now we have the third major bleaching of the coral on the reef in 20 years, and the worst recorded. It is driven by global warming. The Queensland government is investing $100 million into protecting the reef, after approving the Carmichael coal mine and rail project in the Galilee Basin with a promise of 5000 jobs. Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved the Abbot Point expansion – a gateway for Adani to unlock one of the largest stores of climate-wrecking carbon on the planet. The new federal government must reconsider approval for massive new coal mines in Queensland's Galilee Basin and elsewhere, rather than ignoring this environmental threat as has been the case for the past 20 years.

Alla Mayer, Croydon

The climate is warming as we speak

What is happening in Environment Minister Greg Hunt's mind? Why is he denying the reef's ill health, and wiping reference to it from a United Nations report? One imagines that if his aim is to safeguard tourism, then he should attend to the factors that are causing the reef's troubles – hot water and acidification – rather than pretending they do not exist. How on earth do we get our politicians to understand that our climate is warming as we speak? What is wrong with our democratic system that we are so at the mercy of these people we have elected? All I can hope is that something will happen to put the fear of god into these elected representatives, and that their climate message and actions will suddenly become appropriate. But if it is not the reef, then what could this be? Maybe a huge, huge wave of climate-change refugees?

Jill Dumsday, Ashburton