[HN Gopher] Barrier Reef doomed as up to 99% of coral at risk, r...
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Barrier Reef doomed as up to 99% of coral at risk, report finds
Author : elorant
Score : 40 points
Date : 2021-04-03 21:48 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smh.com.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smh.com.au)
| bb123 wrote:
| This is so incredibly sad, and I feel so helpless that this is
| slipping through our fingers. I fear I'll never get a chance to
| see a coral reef in real life, and it looks almost certain that
| my children won't. Is there anything we can do as individuals to
| help? I tried looking into conservation efforts but it seems like
| any amount of money we could hope to donate isn't going to make a
| drop of difference to sea temperature change. Coral reefs aren't
| like tigers or pandas, they're just too delicate and complex to
| survive in any human made environment.
| deanCommie wrote:
| What do climate change denialists think about stories like this?
|
| Do they
|
| A) Think it's a complete lie/exaggeraiton, and the Barrier Reef
| will be fine?
|
| B) Think it's happening but not because of human activity (a
| massive die off across thousands of kilometers is totally
| natural, dude)
|
| C) Agree that it's caused by humans, but that it's too late to do
| anything about (probably true), but that also it's not worth
| taking action on the REST of our emissions even though it could
| help prevent extinctions and irreversible ecosystem changes in
| areas we haven't even discussed yet.
|
| D) Agree that it's caused by humans, but trying to do anything
| will destroy the economy, and the livelyhood of people that
| depend on it, so it's not worth doing
|
| E) Agree that it's caused by humans, and renewable energy is
| cheap enough now that the economy will be fine, but trying to do
| anything about it will cause a reduction in corporate profits for
| a couple of companies, so it's not worth doing.
|
| As recently as 10 years ago it feels like most conservatives were
| in Category A
|
| Looking at the statements of most right-wing politicians, it
| seems that we are approaching critical mass of entry into group
| D.
|
| How do people live with themselves knowing the mental gymnastics
| they are doing to remain "right" and never admit their thinking
| was flawed in any way shape or form...
| ghostpepper wrote:
| This is very sad but seems inevitable. Corals are fascinating
| organisms, behaving as both animals and plants, but more
| importantly they are the foundation of the ocean ecosystems where
| they exist. Hundreds of millions of people depend on them
| indirectly.
|
| If you want to learn more about coral bleaching there is a great
| documentary called Chasing Coral, available on Netflix and
| YouTube.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| The documentary:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGGBGcjdjXA
|
| Off to watch it now.
| amelius wrote:
| Perhaps a stupid question, but why wouldn't coral reefs naturally
| move to colder areas (closer to the poles)?
|
| EDIT: turns out they do: https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-
| oceans-warm-tropical-coral...
| I_Byte wrote:
| The problem isn't necessarily that they won't move to colder
| areas (well that is a problem for coastal regions susceptible
| to hurricanes, etc, but I digress). The problem is that the
| waters around those reefs are warming up faster than the reefs
| could ever possibly hope to move. Reefs are built by corals
| excreting calcium carbonate onto their attached surface. This
| process is an incredibly slow one with mature reefs taking many
| hundreds of thousands of years to form. The reefs can't keep
| ahead of water temperatures that are projected to change within
| the next 50 years.
| lmilcin wrote:
| Acidity increases everywhere and does not depend on
| temperature.
|
| Also, coral reefs grow extremely slowly.
| mikedilger wrote:
| Article has no link. Here is the report:
|
| https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy...
| mikedilger wrote:
| The report sites a lot of papers, many of which by one report
| author Hoegh-Guldberg who has been studying reefs and claiming
| they are at risk since at least 1999. One of the latest of
| those papers puts it like this (ideas which the article does
| not accurately represent): "Even if the goals
| of the Paris Climate Agreement are achieved, coral reefs are
| likely to decline by 70-90% relative to their current abundance
| by midcentury." "Although alarming, coral
| communities that survive will play a key role in the
| regeneration of reefs by mid-to-late century. Here, we argue
| for a coordinated, global coral reef conservation strategy that
| is centred on 50 large (500 km2) regions that are the least
| vulnerable to climate change and which are positioned to
| facilitate future coral reef regeneration."
|
| Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove, Kennedy, E. V., Beyer, H.L., McClennen,
| C., Possingham, H.P., 2018. Securing a Long-term Future for
| Coral Reefs. Trends Ecol. Evol. 33, 936-944.
| https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.09.006
|
| They are not "doomed" they are "at risk".
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