ABSTRACT
The frustration of the undersigned scientists was unmistakable; their desire to link the relation between fossil fuels, climate change, and the Reef was explicit. The scientists’ actions follow a history of environmental activism to save the Reef using media to mobilize the public for political action since the 1960s. The Reef as a site of environmental and, more recently, climate change protest illuminates key characteristics of mediatization, which takes different forms in different domains, and with implications as a societal “meta-process” yet to be articulated clearly and/or tested thoroughly. Climate change communication in a nation so ensconced in the mining and fossil fuel industry represents a considerable challenge. Global environmental consciousness and transnational industrialism have become inextricably intertwined. The chapter concludes with critical questions about the power of media to communicate the Reef in ways that will foster action on climate change.
