America bombs Great Barrier Reef

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Cu455

Cu455

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 8, 2011
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Two American fighter jets dropped four bombs on Australia's Great Barrier Reef after a training exercise went wrong, it has emerged.

The two AV-88 Harrier jets launched from aircraft carrier USS Bonhomme Richard each jettisoned an inert bomb and an unarmed explosive bomb in the World Heritage-listed marine park on Tuesday, the US 7th Fleet said in a statement.

Senator Larissa Waters, Greens party spokeswoman on the Great Barrier Reef, described the dumping of bombs as outrageous and said it should not be allowed.

She said: "Have we gone completely mad? Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?"


http://news.sky.com/story/1118492/great-barrier-reef-anger-after-bombs-dropped
 
Its not a big deal. People are reading the title of the article and freaking out. You need to read it before you get mad for no reason. They were non explosive dummy bombs for a flight exercise and they weren't dropped on any rock or coral. They were technically dropped in the great barrier reefs park waters boundary far away from the actual reef. They are inert and can be recovered if need be. If nothing else stuff will grow on it and add to the reef.
 
With that title you'd think the op is a journalist working to get emotions going.
 
This is a terribly misleading article and a huge overreaction

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There were 4 bombs. Two of the bombs were inert. Two were unarmed laser guided bombs. There are now 2 unarmed 900 lb bombs at the reef. I'm sure if they were in someones neighborhood there would be some excitement.

I don't normally get excited over the destruction of natural irreplaceable habitats, so I'm not upset if these explode or not. Luckily, a 16 trillion dollar economy saved a couple jets.
 
Drstrangelove said:
I don't normally get excited over the destruction of natural irreplaceable habitats, so I'm not upset if these explode or not. Luckily, a 16 trillion dollar economy saved a couple jets.
Click to expand...

I think you forgot the negative sign in front of the 16 trillion.
 
Two jets each dropped a pair of 500 pound inert rocks 16 miles away from the reef.

This isn't a big deal.

Moved to the lounge.


EDIT- As for the protecting the environment spin that the OP's article put on this, there was as much a chance of these bombs blowing as there was a giant clam exploding and taking out a section of the reef. Also on the environmental issue, the Navy had recovery operations in progress before the jets were even jettisoned.

The Australian Defense Force stated that "the bombs were a 'minimal risk or threat to the public, the marine environment or civilian shipping transiting the reef area', and added that Australia was investigating the incident with the U.S."

The OP's article is nothing but a politicized, typical anti-American spin article with quotes from citizens who are pissed about the words "bomb" and "Great Barrier Reef" being used in conjunction with one another.

Read an impartial article from the UK here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...er-Reef-fuel-emergency-training-exercise.html
 
I agree the title was very mis-leading, i thought they had actually bombed the GBR for a second...
 
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