NATION: Reef will be ‘slaughtered’: scientists dismiss Julie Bishop’s claim reef not at risk

World-leading scientists say the Great Barrier Reef will be “slaughtered” this century as seas warm and become more acidic, dismissing comments by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop that Australia’s natural icon was not at risk.

Ms Bishop told Sky News on Friday her office had sent the White House a briefing outlining the Australia’s efforts to preserve the reef after US President Barack Obama’s warning in Brisbane last weekend that its “incredible natural glory” was threatened by climate change.

Scientists have dismissed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s comments that the Great Barrier Reef was not at risk.

“Of course, the Great Barrier Reef will be conserved for generations to come. And we do not believe that it is in danger,” Ms Bishop said.

Mr Obama told the University of Queensland audience on the sidelines of the G20 meeting he wanted the reef to still exist “50 years from now” so his grandchildren could visit.

While Ms Bishop and other Coalition leaders have criticised the US President’s intervention, leading scientists have come to his support.

Scientists say rising temperatures and acidity are two long-term threats to the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Obama was “right on the money”, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the university’s Global Change Institute, said. “He was stating a fact.

“We have one of the jewels of the planet in our possession and we should care a lot about climate and he wasn’t getting that from our leader [Prime Minister Tony Abbott],” Dr Hoegh-Guldberg said.

Peer-reviewed research published by Dr Hoegh-Guldberg in 2012 said the global agreement to limit CO₂ concentrations to 450 parts per million in a bid to keep global warming to under 2 degrees from pre-industrial times would not be enough to protect the reefs.

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