American ice cream giant Ben & Jerry's is supporting the World Wide Fund for Nature's campaign save the Great Barrier Reef. The support has been hauled over the coal related operations by the Queensland Government.

Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the reef is safe. The campaign has been damaging the reef's reputation and has also affected the jobs and tourism business. Powell said he is quite disappointed to see companies like Ben and Jerry's signing the campaign of lies and deceit propagated by WWF.

"Fortunately Queenslanders are smarter than that, Australians are smarter and UNESCO is certainly smarter and will not pander to the scare campaigns that are currently being run", affirmed Powell.

Powell has asked people to boycott Ben and Jerry's. The government and Queensland Resources Council are carrying out their own campaign to convince people that the reef is not in danger.

Powell said he would write to parent company Unilever and would express concerns. Earlier this month, the company withdrew popular flavor Phish Food as an allusion to fish food and as a way to draw attention to the issue of the Reef.

They are also giving out free ice creams to highlight the concerns over the potential damage to the Reef. The brand said that the Reef is at serious risk of destruction from dredging and humping, shipping highways and mega-ports.

To this, Powell said science is clear that the biggest threats to the Reef are from extreme weather events and from the crown of thorn star fish.

In its 35-year-history, Ben & Jerry's said they have always championed environmental causes including opposing drilling in the Arctic. Australia brand manager Kalli Swaik said the acts like dredging and dumping would prove detrimental to the reef ecology.