It’s the worst crisis ever to hit the Great Barrier Reef and the extent of the devastation is only just coming to light. The reef is in the middle of the worst bleaching event ever seen, with unusually warm water killing as much as half the corals in the northern sections, with the trend set to continue for the next 20 years.

Who’s to blame for this destruction? And which businesses are profiting from the activities that are causing this havoc?



The coal industry is the single worst culprit. Climate change is the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and the burning of coal is the biggest driver of climate change. The recent catastrophic mass bleaching of the reef was made 175 times likelier by human-caused climate change, according to a study from the University of Melbourne.

So, every dollar that the coal bosses make ultimately comes at the cost of dying coral. And the same applies to every part of the fossil fuel industry – coal, oil and gas – everywhere in the world.

Then there are the businesses that service the fossil fuel industry. As Guy Pearse pointed out in his book Greenwash “the carbon lobby’s hired help”, including accountants, lawyers and consultants, are too often overlooked. Fee-hungry lawyers, for example, are happy to advertise their experience in advising reef-destroying fossil-fuel miners. “Our knowledge of the Australian mining, electricity, minerals, gas and coal industries is extensive,” boasts one Queensland law firm.

Next come the banks and other lending institutions. Every time one of the banks lends to a coal-mining company, they are contributing to the damaging of the Great Barrier Reef. (Hey, Westpac bosses, rather than social media boasting about your corporate philanthropy to reef research, why not just stop lending to the fossil fuel industry?) Leading insurer QBE has also recently been targeted for its role in the perpetuation and expansion of the fossil fuel industry.

At worst, what we are seeing is the political economy of extinction at work; the very real possibility that the Great Barrier Reef will be destroyed because it does not fit the business model to save it.

There can be no mistake: to be in business with the coal industry in 2016 is to knowingly profit from the destruction of our Great Barrier Reef. Any enterprise that doesn’t want to risk being dubbed a “reef destroyer” as part of their business profile in this brand-sensitive age would be well advised to leave the work alone.

One step removed from those directly profiting from the activities causing the destruction are the businesses that are keeping silent. As Queensland’s daily rag, the Courier-Mail should be fearlessly documenting the epic story unfolding on its doorstep. Instead, the paper has been widely criticised for the poverty of its efforts. Prof Justin Marshall, of Queensland University, told Media Watch that the Courier-Mail had “been cherry picking the positive and ignoring the negative” in a “gross misrepresentation of what’s happening”. It’s as if the Dallas Morning News had decided to run the story of the assassination of JFK under the headline “President as handsome as ever”.

The tourism industry is in a particularly conflicted position. The first time I met a bloke from the Queensland tourism industry to talk about the reef some years ago was very illuminating. Given the significance of the reef to Queensland tourism, I had assumed he would want to speak out. Instead, he lowered his voice to say that he knew the reef was in deep trouble, but didn’t want to talk publicly about it. “If we talk, people will think the reef isn’t worth visiting any more”, he said.

Some tour operators still clearly feel this way, reportedly even routinely refusing to take media and politicians to see coral bleaching. But as Guardian Australia has reported, an increasingly vocal lobby of tourism businesses are now speaking out to demand action on climate change, including an end to coal expansion.

And the government needs to get behind those businesses that see a better future. Instead of a grim vision of black coal and white coral, what Queensland needs is a plan to ensure future flourishing.

What is required is government leadership, not only to go coal free and get on with urgent action to reduce global warming pollution, but also to guide the necessary economic transformation. Effective training and community-led enterprise development are essential to enable coal workers and others most affected to transition to good jobs outside the fossil fuel sector. Small businesses, coal industry workers and the like should not pay the price for the failure of politicians and the greed of big corporations.

Indeed the transformation may be already under way. According to an Australia Institute report, despite job losses in the coal industry, employment in Queensland is growing strongly with service industries – which are often low carbon – leading the way. The Palaszczuk government’s Advance Queensland initiative with its stated intention of economic diversification to take advantage of the new tech and knowledge economy may also be potentially another step in the right direction.

More public investment in science and robust institutions and services to respond to the threats posed by the increase in extreme weather events should also be part of the plan. Investment in the public sector not only directly creates real and meaningful jobs but also strengthens resilience in the face of such rapid change.

The choice is stark and the clock is ticking very fast. We can have Queensland’s magnificent necklace of coral or lose the reef forever to the greed of the fossil fuel corporations and their friends. It’s time to go coal free.