Drive to make Great Barrier Reef an Australian citizen

Sydney: A campaign was launched in Australia on Wednesday to push for citizenship to be granted to the Great Barrier Reef in order to strengthen protection of the world’s largest living organism. The Change.org petition highlighted that the Great Barrier Reef protects the country’s coastline and contributes about $4.5 billion annually to its economy, as well as supporting 64,000 jobs. The health of the Great Barrier Reef, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, has deteriorated in recent decades due to climate change, which also caused two deadly mass coral-bleaching events in 2016 and 2017. IANS

DiCaprio laments acute water crisis in Tamil Nadu

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio on Wednesday expressed concern over the acute water crisis in Tamil Nadu. The 44-year-old actor, who is one of the most vocal environmentalists in Hollywood, shared a post by news outlet BBC on Instagram with the title, “Only rain can save Chennai from this situation”. “A well completely empty, and a city without water. The southern Indian city of Chennai is in crisis, after the four main water reservoirs ran completely dry. As the water levels depleted, hotels and restaurants started to shut down temporarily, and the air con was turned off in the city’s metro,” DiCaprio’s wrote, sharing BBC’s post. PTI