Coral makes comeback on Great Barrier Reef

The reefs off the American Florida Keys have apparently been deteriorating for some years now. A study was done by researchers at a Florida university on why, with the expectation that the primary cause would be global warming. It was not. The main cause was apparently nutrient-rich runoff from south Florida agriculture and fertilized lawns. (Nutrients lead to increased growth of algae and other non-coral things, things which are not good in large quantities for coral.) And the good news is that this kind of runoff is easier to fix than global warming.

My fear is that when everything can so easily (and semi-plausibly) be blamed on global warming, no one will look for other causes. ICO coral reefs, those might include runoff, but also over-fishing, over-touristing, dumping or leakage of sewage and trash and oil off boats, and even reportedly sun screen worn by those tourists. And studies like the one above will not get done, because everyone "knows" what the problem is, so the environment--the reefs, in this example--will get worse when they could get better.

Isn't that comeback proof enough that all this environmentalism is hoax and we can do whatever we want to this planet and it will be fine? Also you sure don't want people to freeze and earn a living..

(Sorry, was just missing such a comment here yet.)

AFAIK not a lot of cotton farming going on in reef catchment areas. There is lots of sugar cane and bananas however. Also lots of deforestation for grazing. Plus major resource export ports (LNG, coal). Regardless, runoff remains a major topic and there is some progress being made in the space [1].

Regards the article. If you look to the report itself[2] you'll see that this isn't a "she'll be right" triumph of science over scare campaigns. Climate change sits at the top of a growing list of concerns. The summary specifically mentions increased frequency of both marine heatwaves (that lead to bleaching) and major destructive weather events like cyclones. The other serious concern is crown-of-thorns starfish (a sea star that eats coral) ... and while the jury may still be out on the cause of their outbreaks (overfishing of predators? excess nutrients? changing environment?), the effect of this single species on the broader ecosystem is beyond frightening to witness.

It's extremely difficult to have a meaningful conversation about the threats to the reef without getting into the weeds. The "scare" campaigns may be light on detail, glossing over (or ignoring) much of the important nuance, but (for the most part) they aren't wrong.

[1] https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/threats-to-the-reef/decli... [2] https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co...

Because humans are inherently selfish.

Are rich countries like US/EU etc. going to just allow tens/hundreds of millions of Africans to immigrate into their country when large parts of their continent become uninhabitable ?

Or are we going to quietly just let them die like is happening now.

> I suspect I'd wager my life on that (here in winter at least) before some of your African scenarios.

There isn't any "life wagering" going on.

Please don't buy into the hyperbole. With a little planning and prep, Australia is extremely developed and safe. The chances of dying are very slim, unless a person really tries. Sat beacons and phones are cheap and easy to carry, and the family that recently got stuck in the Simpson had to wait all of 4 hours for a chopper to show up when they hit the button after getting hopelessly stuck in the mud.

Africa is also not what you're making it out to be either. Don't take my word for it, talk to people that have spent a lot of time there. Good friends from Cairns drove right around like I did for 2 years, they went to 30+ countries, West Coast, Southern and all of East Coast. They loved it. In fact, they loved it so much they are right now shipping their Australian-plated vehicle back to Africa for another two year tour. They are perfectly middle class in Australia and live a great life there, but choose to spent another two years touring Africa. That should tell you a lot about what it's really like there.

got two flat tyres with one spare as the sun set

What tyres are you running, at what PSI, at what speed and with what load? Were they just punctures in the tread, or a failure of the sidewall?