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March 6th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Greenpeace activists have painted “reef in danger” on the hull of a coal carrier in Gladstone ahead of a visit by UN officials.
A team from the UN’s environmental arm, UNESCO, is in Australia to assess threats to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area, and they are due in Gladstone on Wednesday.
Greenpeace spokeswoman Julie Macken said she and seven other activists used inflatable boats to paint the message on the ship around dawn.
She said the group had been detained by police, who were deciding if they would be charged.
“With the UNESCO team arriving in Gladstone today, we wanted the message to be very clear,” she told AAP.
She said police detained the group as they were returning from the dawn mission.
“So far we’re not sure if charges are going to be laid, and if they are if people will be taken into custody.”
She said all of the images taken of the protest were with the detained activists.
The UNESCO team will spend two weeks in Australia, assessing threats to the reef including coal and gas-related port developments, and an expected spike in export traffic passing through the World Heritage listed area.
Last week, Greenpeace released a report showing coal mine expansion planned in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin will result in a six-fold spike in coal ships moving through the ramp.
It said the expansion would also result in enough material being dredged to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground 67 times.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Julien Vincent said the UNESCO visit was looking at a range of threats, including resource-related port expansions.
He said federal Environment Minister Tony Burke was three weeks away from giving approval to expand Queensland’s Abbot Point port, which would make it the world’s biggest coal port by 2020.
“And this, in a World Heritage site,” he said in a statement issued after the protest.
He said Mr Burke had announced a strategic assessment of the Great Barrier Reef only after pressure from UNESCO.
“If Minister Burke had a shred of regard for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area he would put a halt to all major industrial approvals while this assessment is underway,” he said.
Patricia Julien, the coordinator for Mackay Conservation Group in northern central Queensland said coal mines in the Galilee Basin would be the biggest in the world.
“They will be producing between 20 to more than 60 million tonnes a year of coal exports, compared to most mines in the Bowen Coal Basin which range from three to 10 million tonnes a year of coal exports,” she said in the statement.
“It means more dredging, pollution and shipping impacts on the reef from huge new coal ports at Abbot and Dudgeon points.”
“The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area is unlikely to be unaffected by this increase in scale,” she said.
“The significant increase in world carbon emissions from the burning of Galilee Basin coal exports will contribute to increased ocean acidity and ocean temperatures in the reef. There is no cap on more Queensland coal mines or reef ports so the situation is likely to get worse.”
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