By Nat Isaacs and Tara Hunt, Co-CEOs, 1 Million Women
When 1 Million Women asked Sir Richard Branson to support our campaign to ensure the long-term protection of the Great Barrier Reef we were appealing to him in his role as a global Ocean Elder.
In all of the oceans of the world covering 70 percent of planet Earth there is no greater natural treasure than 'The Reef'.
Last Thursday, May 7th, Sir Richard went public on his personal blog with a post headed Saying the Great Barrier Reef is 'in danger' could be just what it needs.
Since then his post has gone around the world with thousands of shares, and has unleashed a vicious 'shoot the messenger' response in Queensland aimed at both 1 Million Women and Sir Richard.
The whole world knows that Sir Richard is the founder of the Virgin Group brand, the many assets of which include a 10 percent stake in its Australian airline namesake Virgin Australia - which is based in Queensland.
Another Page 1 story in The Courier Mail was headed Branson paddles away from Reef fracas. The allegation by the newspaper in the first paragraph of the story was that: 'Globe-trotting billionaire Sir Richard Branson has been suckered in to backing an activist group's economically damaging campaign to change the Great Barrier Reef's environmental status.'
The mining industry lobby group the Queensland Resources Council also launched its own extraordinary attack on Sir Richard - and by inference if not by name 1 Million Women - alleging that: 'Virgin founder Richard Branson has joined the list of celebrities duped into promoting an irresponsible campaign to have the Great Barrier Reef placed on UNESCO's world heritage "in danger" list.'
So there you have it. 1 Million Women stands accused by media and mining industry critics of being 'activists' who are suckering or duping one of the world's most high-profile businessmen, adventurers and environmental champions.
These allegations don't actually fit the bill. 1 Million Women is a movement of nearly 160,000 women and girls who take practical action in our daily lives to fight climate change. Sometimes, when the cause warrants it, we also raise our collective voice to demand action from governments and big business. The Reef without doubt is such a cause.
Nobody is being duped. The danger to the Reef is very real. The concern of many Australians and other citizens of the world is plain to see.
It doesn't seem to occur to our attackers that the Reef truly is 'in danger', especially from climate change, and that no amount of sugarcoating this message or hiding from the grim reality will protect the Reef for future generations. Nor will denial protect the $6 billion-a-year tourism industry that relies on maintaining a healthy-beautiful Reef.
That's why 1 Million Women has taken the position that 'in danger' listing is needed to pressure the Australian and Queensland governments into greater action, and that means a lot more action than anything currently on the table. (Sadly, what ever the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decides to do in regard to the Reef's status, it will still be 'in danger' unless Australia and the world take decisive action to avert dangerous climate change.)
That's why we've also produced a special animated video featuring environmental scientist turned model Laura Wells to highlight's the Reef's plight. The production of the video was crowdfunded by over 500 of our members. You can see the clip here.
For ourselves, we are happy to stand by every bit of information that 1 Million Women has provided about the Reef.
In the interests of transparency, we have included below the points that we made about the Reef, the World Heritage process and 1 Million Women's campaign:
- Climate change is one of the biggest threats to the survival of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs all around the world. Climate change and its destructive power includes heat-driven bleaching that kills corals, ocean acidification that prevents coral formation, and turbo-charged tropical storms that tear through reefs and coastlines.
- On top of this, the massive industrialisation of the Queensland coastline for coal and gas ports is growing, which will only help fuel more CO2 entering into the atmosphere and waste to pollute our waters.
- In June 2015, the UNESCO World Heritage committee will meet in Bonn, Germany to decide if our precious Great Barrier Reef should be put on the 'World Heritage in Danger' list.
- Since being listed as World Heritage in 1981 for its 'outstanding universal value' an estimated half of the reef's coral mass has already been lost.
- This formal 'in danger' listing will expose the reckless development around the Reef and put immense pressure on our government to ensure its protection for generations to come.
- We already have over 36,000 signatories* to our open letter. We want to get to 100,000 before the decision in June.
- We've lobbied the heads of the World Heritage Committee and we've been commended for our 'impressive advocacy' from the World Heritage Committee Chair and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
*As of today about 47,000 signatories
