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Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

theguardian.com

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Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#61

Post by ckastner »

flukus wrote: post #55
erikpukinskis wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mankind is absurdly resilient. We are like rats or cockroaches but a hundred times more adaptable. Billions of people could die. We might lose 99% of species. But human extinction is out of the question. We could live in bubbles of air under the ocean huddled around nuclear reactors if we needed to. Roaches couldn't do that (without our help).

> Mankind is absurdly resilient. We are like rats or cockroaches but a hundred times more adaptable. Are we? We've been around for a fraction of the time and nearly gone extinct at least once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory ). We also have a tendency to build absurdly interconnected systems so a single failure has ripple effects, we see this in things like the late bronze age collapse where mo…

You just listed two incidents which, on the face of it, support the grandparent's argument.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#62

Post by crawrey »

Tossrock wrote: post #51
crawrey wrote: post #47

I grew up on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland and I can say that the current state of the reef is almost unrecognisable to what it was 20-odd years ago. While a large part of this damage has been caused by rising sea temperatures, another large component is due to the run-off from agriculture, refineries and mining. The latter being a directly contributed by the local population. The region is…

Sorry, you said the reef looks "indistinguishable to what it looked like 20-odd years ago." which implies it looks basically the same, but that seems at odds with the rest of what you're saying. Did you mean something besides "indistinguishable" ("unrecognizable", maybe?)

Corrected, thanks. I'll put it down to lack of sleep :P.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#63

Post by riffic »

flukus wrote: post #55
erikpukinskis wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mankind is absurdly resilient. We are like rats or cockroaches but a hundred times more adaptable. Billions of people could die. We might lose 99% of species. But human extinction is out of the question. We could live in bubbles of air under the ocean huddled around nuclear reactors if we needed to. Roaches couldn't do that (without our help).

> Mankind is absurdly resilient. We are like rats or cockroaches but a hundred times more adaptable. Are we? We've been around for a fraction of the time and nearly gone extinct at least once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory ). We also have a tendency to build absurdly interconnected systems so a single failure has ripple effects, we see this in things like the late bronze age collapse where mo…

We must repeat

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#64

Post by psynapse »

This really saddens me.

I spent a week or so on Lady Elliot Island more than a decade ago, snorkelling every day. Because it is a protected area, the fauna are unafraid of people. I would dive down into these cavernous bowls of coral and be surrounded by schools of fish, rays, turtles. It was amazing.

I live in Europe now, but I always hoped to take my children there to see it one day. Seems there won't be much to see.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#66

Post by huckyaus »

H4CK3RM4N wrote: post #4

Sadly I can't remember the last time we had any real action to protect the reef, and our current government is all too willing to put businesses above the environment.

See my comments elsewhere in the thread for an example of people/organisations that are involved in some fairly serious activism around these issues. They do exist.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#67

Post by rosege »

simonrobb wrote: post #26
Stratoscope wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who haven't seen it, cyberferret is referring to this interview with an Australian government official about an environmental disaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg Edit: Spoiler alert below... ;-)

John Clarke is a satirist, who played the role of whichever government official was topical at the time for decades. Not an actual government official.

John Clarke was a satirist :-(

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#68

Post by sundvor »

ryankennedyio wrote: post #58
crawrey wrote: post #47

I grew up on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland and I can say that the current state of the reef is almost unrecognisable to what it was 20-odd years ago. While a large part of this damage has been caused by rising sea temperatures, another large component is due to the run-off from agriculture, refineries and mining. The latter being a directly contributed by the local population. The region is…

I grew up in Cairns & think that's a big part of why I'm so fascinated with marine life. I can happily spend a day watching almost any fish tank. My girlfriend has to drag me out of aquariums every time. It completely crushes me to think my (future) kids might not ever know what it was like. I thoroughly urge anyone in the world with the means to do so, to visit and experience it.

Travelled up to Cairns from Melbourne last year and visited the reefs on a day trip.

Whilst amazing, the bleaching had clearly started although not fully set in. It was as such a bitter sweet experience. I regret not going earlier, having been in Australia for over a decade - yet grateful to have seen it in some semblance of its glory before it's gone. And very sad - and angry - that it is going.

I am angry because we have direct control over the mining that contributes directly to this calamity. However the going rule is that politicians must bend over backwards to accommodate them; or I guess that's just what they pay for? It certainly feels as corrupt as.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#69

Post by altstar »

huckyaus wrote: post #60

My cousin Sam[0] runs the environmental side of things at GetUp and is putting a lot of time and effort into raising awareness about the reef. They're currently fundraising[1] for a targeted campaign in 12 Liberal electorates with the aim of encouraging MPs to break their silence and listen to their constituents on the issues surrounding Adani and the GBR. Full disclosure: GetUp is a politically partisan organisation…

Why only Liberal electorates? Queensland government is Labor. Why not target them?

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#70

Post by flukus »

ckastner wrote: post #61
flukus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mankind is absurdly resilient. We are like rats or cockroaches but a hundred times more adaptable. Are we? We've been around for a fraction of the time and nearly gone extinct at least once ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory ). We also have a tendency to build absurdly interconnected systems so a single failure has ripple effects, we see this in things like the late bronze age collapse where mo…

You just listed two incidents which, on the face of it, support the grandparent's argument.

Being on the right side of a knifes edge event (Toba example) doesn't prove we're resilient, it shows how susceptible we are to forces beyond our control, just as retrospectively guessing a coin toss doesn't mean we can predict the future, that's the anthropic principal at work. The second example shows how susceptible Civilization is.

For more examples look at our closest relatives which survived on earth longer than we did but ultimately went extinct.

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