Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#1

Post by CurtHagenlocher » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 2:23 AM UTC

Obituary: Great Barrier Reef
outsideonline.com

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#2

Post by aplomb » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:43 AM UTC

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#3

Post by XJOKOLAT » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:46 AM UTC

aplomb wrote: post #2

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

I admire your optimism.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#4

Post by kyriakos » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:52 AM UTC

aplomb wrote: post #2

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

The issue is that we caused the death, it didn't come naturally.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#5

Post by rvense » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:56 AM UTC

kyriakos wrote: post #4

aplomb wrote: post #2

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

The issue is that we caused the death, it didn't come naturally.

Yes... but for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#6

Post by functoriality » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 8:59 AM UTC

kyriakos wrote: post #4

aplomb wrote: post #2

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

The issue is that we caused the death, it didn't come naturally.

What is the difference?

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#7

Post by Angostura » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 9:05 AM UTC

aplomb wrote: post #2

All living things have a beginning and end. If humans are around in 25mm years, there will no doubt be other forms of life to celebrate and enjoy.

We sit here causing mass extinctions, destroying beautiful complex ecosystems comprising interconnected relationships that that have taken billions of years to evolve and the the response is 'something will possibly crop up in a few more billion years?'

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#8

Post by infradig » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 9:09 AM UTC

The Reef is doing just fine, folks.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#9

Post by triplesec » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 9:10 AM UTC

This article commits a grave rhetorical error. The reef is not all dead (about 25% irreversibly I believe) but will be soon unless we stop most emissions. They don't make this clear at all. This leads readers to ignore and shy away from the issue further because we think it's too late. Humans like to pretend bad news isn't there and will jump on any excuse for cognitive avoidance.

Re: Obituary: Great Barrier Reef

#10

Post by sirtaj » Fri, Oct 14, 2016, 9:16 AM UTC

triplesec wrote: post #9

This article commits a grave rhetorical error. The reef is not all dead (about 25% irreversibly I believe) but will be soon unless we stop most emissions. They don't make this clear at all. This leads readers to ignore and shy away from the issue further because we think it's too late. Humans like to pretend bad news isn't there and will jump on any excuse for cognitive avoidance.

The ocean reacts to temperature changes in the order of decades. The effect of things we do today will only really be apparent in approx. 20 years. Even if by some stroke of universal good sense we stop global warming today (this is not going to happen, of course), this only gives us hope for whatever's left unbleached at that time.