US drops unarmed bombs on Great Barrier Reef

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


Okay, and on that note...I think there is some home improvement work I've been putting off for the afternoon heat. Hi Ho, Hi ho, it's off to burn like a turkey I go. lol

(Hops off mumbling something about how it *CAN* be that big..in real amazement )

Originally posted by Zaphod58
This is the third thread on it, and I'll say the same thing here I did in the other two.

I searched with the thread title and headline and was given a return of zip,zilch and nada.
I really do not like the new SEARCH funtion it seems to pick and choose then fail to find
relevant correlations to the words entered

The exercise was coordinated with the Australian military, which means safe zones were agreed upon and designated by the Australians. The weapons were two BDU-45s, which are 500 lb casings with a marker cartridge in them, that leaves a puff of smoke to see where they hit, and two unarmed GBU-12s, which are laser guided 500 lb bombs.

reply to post by azureskys


One is in breaking news, so no harm no foul. The other lasted like two replies, so yours is the more active one.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by deltaalphanovember

 

Okay, and on that note...I think there is some home improvement work I've been putting off for the afternoon heat. Hi Ho, Hi ho, it's off to burn like a turkey I go. lol

(Hops off mumbling something about how it *CAN* be that big..in real amazement

)

Best response ever!

Originally posted by Hushabye
In my opinion, that reef and the waters it lives in are more important than the planes, and the crews' lives.

But eh- humans are the most precious thing on the planet, huh?

What
You are serious?
What kind of damage would the Harriers have done to the ,Oh lets say.. Reef,
land beyond the reef or maybe poulation in the area??
Come on be realistic.

The choir thread . Lalala ..your silly little responses mean nothing in the grand scheme of things . Bluggers taking money for being on forums

reply to post by azureskys


It's difficult to grasp even for greenie weenie hippy like some people like to refer to my kind as (we just simply call ourselves smart). To weigh human life against the great barrier reef sounds ridiculous unless understand what the great barrier reef actually does for humanity, more human lives will be lost once we lose it than those pilots and crews.

Coral reefs are among the oldest ecosystems on Earth.
Coral reefs support a phenomenal diversity of species and provide irreplaceable sources of food and shelter. Tropical rainforests play a similar role on the land.
Coral reef ecosystems support a variety of human needs. They are important for subsistence, fisheries, tourism, shoreline protection, and yield compounds that are important in the development of new medicines.
Corals are an integral part of the reef and are especially vulnerable to human activities and to climate-related threats, such as mass bleaching and disease.
Human activities such as trampling, destructive fishing techniques (e.g., poison, dynamite), and anchoring can physically destroy or kill the coral, resulting in reef death.
Upland activities such as deforestation and fertilizer use can smother and kill downstream corals.
Corals have shown remarkable resilience through major climate events and sea level changes, giving hope for their continued survival.
Coral reefs form natural barriers that protect nearby shorelines from the eroding forces of the sea, thereby protecting coastal dwellings, agricultural land and beaches.
Coral reefs have been used in the treatment of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, and other ailments.
Although coral reefs cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, they are home to 25% of all marine fish species.1
At least 500 million people rely on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, and livelihoods.2
It is estimated that coral reefs provide $375 billion per year around the world in goods and services.
Estimates are that 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been effectively destroyed in the last few decades and an additional 20% or more are severely degraded, particularly in the Caribbean Sea and Southeast Asia.3

Source

All that said... it seems like these 'bombs' can be retrieved and won't be left to rot there and cause problems.

reply to post by Kali74


Please believe that I fully understand the substance of TGBR and how essential it is to life on this planet,
as are many other life giving ecosystems that are being systematicly destroyed by man.

I do however give credence to the fact that no malice was intended with this emergency action taken
in the situation presented to the Military at the time.

reply to post by azureskys


I agree, there was no malice to it at all.

it is not like they lost a nuke in the water ??? o yes they have .

i saw that on t.v years ago still never found it

It says they were low on fuel. Dont they have fuel gauges & mathmatical equations to determine this type of stuff? Of course it is the govt, so we'll never have all the info, but something smells fishy here. (Pun intended)

reply to post by HwBandit


Of course they do, but they're limited to how long they can fly. They were waiting for the range to open up, and they reached the point where they had to go back to the ship (known as bingo). You can't land on a ship with bombs hanging off the wings, so they had to get rid of them. Once you reach bingo fuel you have enough to reach your landing area, and a reserve to get to another area, in this case, they had enough to reach the ship, and a reserve to reach a land base. You don't mess around once you hit bingo.

The AV-8B isn't the most fuel efficient plane in the world, so you have to be even more careful with it. It would take one tanker, with over 100,000 lbs of fuel to take two of them 2500 miles. Normally one tanker, with the same fuel load, could take 6 fighters, farther than that.

Do you think it would be a bit of a different story if another country "accidently" dropped bombs in the Grand Canyon?

The bombs were jettisoned in the reef "away" from the coral structures, but in the reef itself.

Makes my blood boil what human activities have done there. The coral bleaching and Ocean acidification is leading to the destruction of a world heritage site and will have far reaching impacts on the worlds largest living organism.

Dropping bombs 50 feet deep, does not help, inert/disarmed or not. The Australian and US military should be nowhere near this site. Don't kid yourselves that the bombs were NOT in the reef, they were released into the marine park itself, just not on a coral structure.

reply to post by azureskys


Definite unfortunate accident but i have to say in the scheme of things, it is nothing like as threatening to the Barrier Reef as the large amount of huge ships that now pass through the reef every single day that travel back and forth from the huge mines on the coast there.

How many do you think try it on their own without waiting for the pilots to navigate them? I bet quite a lot. Expect to start hearing of more and more ships running aground there in the immediate future (next few years).