The Observer, 19 April 2015
You state that there is “only a limited amount that Australia can do on its own” to save the Great Barrier Reef (Destruction of the great coral reefs is a problem for us all, April 12) Well, it could start by changing the policies of its own prime minister.
Tony Abbott, who describes climate change as “absolute crap”, abolished the Climate Change Commission and the following year scrapped Australia’carbon tax. Already Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal, but Abbott has sanctioned the construction of new ports near to the Great Barrier Reef to supply China. Undoubtedly he will be one of the main obstacles to progress at the climate change summit in Paris later this year. When the Great Barrier Reef has been destroyed, Tony Abbott will be remembered as the rogue Prime Minister who finished it off.
Dr Robin Russell-Jones
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire