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Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

theguardian.com

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Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#141

Post by M_Grey »

spodek wrote: post #89

Many posts here about how sad and disgusted people are. Not much about people taking personal responsibility. What do people think the carrying capacity of the planet means? Sustaining more humans means sacrificing other life that competes for our resources. It means pollution rising until it doesn't quite kill us but is well above the levels of a pristine, clean environment. Nobody wants to live near the carrying ca…

I'm doing my part, no kids, and I won't be having any. Unfortunately human nature isn't going to change, and we're not going to get out of this one with our civilization intact; we're probably cooked.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#142

Post by CalRobert »

milesrout wrote: post #115
laumars wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't disagree with the facts you presented, I do disagree with the sentiment. Your argument is akin to passing the buck, yet the issue of climate change affects us all. Maybe let's ignore the GP's examples of flying and instead discuss industry. How many of us by pre-packaged foods or have Amazon Prime accounts and use it to order stuff we could just as easily get from our local shops? How many of us support…

No, you're promoting the same fallacy: if something as a whole is bad then you're bad for doing it personally. You can't solve these problems by peer pressuring people into not supporting exploitative systems. Your argument is akin to people saying 'so much for being socialist, you own an iphone, capitalism made your iphone!'. Now I don't use amazon prime to get things that I could just as easily get from local shops…

In Ireland, at least, it's really hard to come by things in the store that aren't wrapped in plastic. It's obscene, and I haven't found a lot of alternatives. Very high end stores sometimes sell items without plastic, but at much greater cost. I mean, who the hell needs individually-plastic-wrapped cucumbers?

I have started growing my own tomatoes, so hopefully that helps, but it's only one item out of many.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#143

Post by jbverschoor »

digitalzombie wrote: post #86
jbverschoor wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a guy in Florida who is growing the florida coral reef at a much higher rate than usual.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/scientists-try-regrow-dying-c... https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/423696/a-coral-reef-... Are you referring to this guy?

Yep!

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#144

Post by scott_karana »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #102
tim333 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem seems to be the water temperature. It's not easy to fix.

Again speaking from zero expertise, would it be possible to genetically engineer coral lifeforms to adapt to higher temperatures?

Maybe, but it's part of an ecoSYSTEM, so do other reef dwellers all need to be modified? How does that affect migration and comptetion? Etc

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#145

Post by Diederich »

flukus wrote: post #15
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.

Most of the damage is part of climate change in general, so real action to protect the reef involves the world drastically cutting carbon emissions. Meanwhile, we can't even prevent things like this happening right next to the reef: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-10/abbot-point-coal-termi...

If I remember correctly, human CO2 emissions has been flat for the past couple of years.

The reason CO2 is going up, at an increasing rate, is largely because the biosphere's ability to absorb CO2 is diminished.

> the world drastically cutting carbon emissions

I believe the grim truth is this: the world's transformation would continue for a long time even if humans stopped producing CO2 tomorrow.

Preparations for the inevitable should be our focus.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#146

Post by Diederich »

good_vibes wrote: post #57

What can we do? Serious question.

If I remember correctly, human CO2 emissions has been flat for the past couple of years.

The reason CO2 is going up, at an increasing rate, is largely because the biosphere's ability to absorb CO2 is diminished.

I believe the grim truth is this: the world's transformation would continue for a long time even if humans stopped producing CO2 tomorrow.

Preparations for the inevitable should be our focus.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#148

Post by ericras »

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'm not worried: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-o...

>> “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,’’ Mr Eade said. “We expected the worst. But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery."

>> “It wasn’t until we got underwater that we could get a true picture of what percentage of reef was bleached,’’ Mr Stephen said. “The discrepancy is phenomenal. It is so wrong. Everywhere we have been we have found healthy reefs."

Also: "Great Barrier Reef: scientists ‘exaggerated’ coral bleaching" http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/great-barrier-re...

>> A full survey of the reef ­released yesterday by the author­ity and the Australian Institute of Marine ­Science said 75 per cent of the reef would escape unscathed.

>> Dr Reichelt said the vast bulk of bleaching damage was confined to the far northern section off Cape York, which had the best prospect of recovery due to the lack of ­onshore development and high water quality.

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#149

Post by fencepost »

ericras wrote: post #148
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'm not worried: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/reef-tourism-o... >> “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,’’ Mr Eade said. “We expected the worst. But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery." >> “It wasn’t until we got underwater that we could get a true picture of what percentage of reef was bleached,’’ Mr Stephen sa…

Any non-paywalled sources? The original article does note that "The Queensland tourism industry raised questions about the reliability of the survey, saying scientists had previously made exaggerated claims about mortality rates and bleaching."

Re: Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage'

#150

Post by FireBeyond »

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.

I went about 20 years ago on a scuba trip to the "Outer Reef" (25 mi offshore). Paid a few hundred dollars for a guided tour of a few reefs.

Blew my mind so much I got off the boat, handed over my credit card and said I'd be back the next day to do it again.

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