Ningaloo Reef on Australia's west coast is an iconic marine ecosystem, home to breathtaking coral reefs, vibrant fish, and threatened species like whale sharks, green sea turtles and pygmy blue whales.
But in the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere, World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef is experiencing its worst ever mass coral bleaching on record, as weeks of hot ocean temperatures have turned vibrant coral white.
At the same time, an unprecedented climate-driven algal bloom across Australia's southern coast has caused a marine disaster on a scale never seen before. Over the course of weeks and months, countless numbers of sharks, rays, fish and seahorses have washed ashore, devastating industries like tourism and fisheries who rely on healthy oceans. Underwater, the once vibrant seafloor alive with sponges, corals and seaweeds are a dead zone, devoid of life.
Soaring ocean temperatures around Australia has fuelled dangerous marine heatwaves, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas. The costs of these disasters are already in the tens of millions - meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry in Australia is doubling-down on coal, oil and gas extraction, raking in profits.
Bleaching, dying Ningaloo Reef
Stepping off the beach and allowing the current to gently drift me along an abundant coral reef is one of the special experiences of my life. It is one I share with many Australians and the tourists who regularly flock to visit the Ningaloo, the world's largest fringing reef that runs along the coast in Australia's north west.
Having such natural beauty so close is breathtaking. It's a largely hidden and tranquil corner of the globe - a secret aquarium of abundance. It has sustained local Indigenous communities for millennia, people who have an unbroken connection to 'Nyinggulu' spanning up to 60,000 years. But now, it's edging closer to death than to life. And it is devastating. Divers, scientists, and local community members are in shock.
A massive marine heatwave has lingered off the north west coast of Australia for months, fuelling the extensive coral bleaching event we're seeing unfold before our eyes. Coral formations hundreds of years in the making are bleaching and dying, reduced to colourless rubble. It is hard to imagine the impact of losing Ningaloo Reef altogether. It is an ecological hub of biodiversity that feeds and nurtures countless species. Formed over tens of thousands of years, fossil fuel corporations' greed is destroying it in mere decades.
Red alert for our oceans
From the Great Barrier Reef to Ningaloo and the Southern Ocean, Australia's oceans are blaring warning signals of dire consequence to the world. But are we listening? We know that these disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity, fuelled by a rapidly heating climate. The culprit? Fossil fuel companies.
Profit-hungry fossil fuel corporations, in Australia and around the world, are drilling our oceans for gas and oil, piping it to shore, and burning it or exporting it overseas, while our oceans, wildlife and communities pay the price.
Our oceans support all life on earth, regulate our climate, and provide food and livelihoods for billions of people around the world. All of this is under threat as greedy corporations seek to plunder and destroy our oceans for profit.
It's time to Make Polluters Pay
From marine heatwaves to floods, from fires to severe heatwaves, the human and economic costs of climate disasters are soaring. Fossil fuel corporations are making billions of dollars in profits and raking in government subsidies, while communities and nature are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
It's time that governments around the world hold Big Polluters to account by making them pay for the climate destruction they cause.
Demand the governments take action to ensure fossil fuel corporations polluting our climate have to pay their fair share.
Sign the pact, record your story. Join the global movement to make polluters pay.
Geoff Bice is a WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific
