By Katie Medlock / Source: Inhabitat

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It should come as no surprise that Australia is feeling the effects of climate change as much as the rest of the world, but the United Nations doesn’t want people to know about it. A UNESCO report on the impact of global warming on world heritage sites suspiciously failed to mention Australia, even though an earlier version of the report did. Heavily redacted emails between the agency and the country’s government indicate a cover up.

The Guardian reported on UNESCO’s report, which came from a partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme and the Union of Concerned Scientists. An earlier version contained scientific information about Australia’s multiple sites impacted by climate change, including The Great Barrier Reef. No mention of the continent was in the final release, including mentions scrubbed from the introduction.

Emails sent between UNESCO and Australian government agencies, acquired under freedom of information, are heavily redacted, as revealed by Climate Home. These suspicious communications aren’t sitting well with Australian Climate Council member William Steffen, who peer reviewed the missing sections on The Great Barrier Reef. He told The Guardian, “One would assume they would report on the science – you can do what you want with the science once it’s reported. But what gets us really concerned is when we see the science itself suppressed. That starts ringing alarm bells in scientist’s minds. That’s something that shouldn’t be happening in a western democracy.”

Read more @ Inhabitat