Research from climate change experts released this week shows that coal mines and subsequent carbon emissions will accelerate the loss of the Great Barrier Reef resulting in jobs losses and massive impacts on the Queensland economy.

“The Great Barrier Reef is beautiful and its tourist dollars are the life blood of Queensland’s coastal cities and towns with total tourist expenditure in 2009-10 amounted to $5.9 billion” said Dr Bradley Smith from Friends of the Earth.

“Allowing development of the Wandoan Coal Project and its 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide will prove disastrous for the reef, and this means job losses from Bundaberg to Cairns”, Said Dr Smith.

Evidence from Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a climate change expert at the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland, was this week presented to the Land Court in the Wandoan Coal Mine case.

A landmark case in Australia’s environmental history will begin in Brisbane on Monday when environment group Friends of the Earth take on global mining giant Xstrata in a bid to have a proposed mega coal mine in Queensland rejected. The court case will be the first ever in Australia to argue exclusively for outright refusal of a coal mine based on climate change impacts.

DAVID vs GOLIATH CASE STARTS IN QUEENSLAND

Environmental group Friends of the Earth takes on one of world’s largest mining companies in climate change first

“If not rejected, Xstrata will be given the green light to build the biggest mine in the southern hemisphere,” Friends of the Earth spokesperson Dr Bradley Smith said.