20 February 2022

Mr Ben Morton MP

Member for Tangney

PO Box 6 Aveley Street

Willetton WA 6155

Dear Mr Ben Morton,

I am writing to ask you for your support/insight on the increasing coral bleaching in the great barrier reef and to improve this issue.

I am a resident of a Fremantle electorate; I care very passionately for the Great Barrier Reef, and I am extremely concerned for the health of our largest living ecosystem.

As you are aware over the past two decades the great barrier reef has experienced several mass bleaching events, including the one happening now, due to the warming planet. As you may know the coral reef is home to thousands of species of marine life, including marine life that are only found in this location and many of these species are on the road to extinction. In the great barrier reef there are 360 species of coral and 22 of them are predicted to become extinct. This is 16% of our coral that will be gone in the years to come as well as several diverse types of turtles, whales, crocodiles, fish and dugongs. Due to this coral bleaching 90% of the coral has lost its colour and been bleached and scientists predict that the coral may not be able to recover because of each passing day becoming hotter.

I understand that climate change is a huge problem, but we must learn to tackle the coral bleaching if we would like our Great Barrier Reef, a world heritage site, to remain alive and healthy. Fossil fuels are becoming a huge and upcoming problem that we would have to solve fast if we would like to see our reef in its bright beautiful colours. Because of the mining and burning of fossil fuels this contributes to our warming climate, trapping heat in our atmosphere and causing ocean temperatures to rise, leading to coral bleaching.

I understand this is a huge problem to solve all at once, but I am asking for Australia to start taking some more actions towards this issue. There are three easy precautions that Australia can make that will lead to a cleaner, healthier, and brighter future. One of these things is using more renewable energy. For example, you could invest in more solar and wind power. This could be providing Australians with solar panels, free of charge on their houses or building more windmills to help climate change.

Another solution to help this matter is to lower the prices of electric cars. Electric cars are extremely expensive around 10,000 dollars more expensive than a regular car. This makes majority of people not being able to afford an electric car. Only 23,000 Australians own electric cars. This an extremely small amount of people compared to our 25million population. All the other millions of cars are producing gasses that are horrible and are part of the cause that is leading to the extinction of our great barrier reef. By lowering the prices of electric cars, it will give more Australians an opportunity to be able to afford them, meaning there will be less pollution in our air. Leading to a brighter future with more colour in our coral.

To conclude, I ask you to take into consideration about the problems I have stated and how they are affecting our Great Barrier Reef greatly.

Yours sincerely,

Saya