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Scientists Race To Save Miami Coral Doomed By Dredging
An anonymous reader writes "Miami scientists are scrambling to rescue a crop of coral at the bottom of one of the world's busiest shipping channels that they say could hold clues about climate change. 'The coral, which may hold clues about how sea life adapts to climate change, is growing in Government Cut. The channel, created more than a century ago, leads to PortMiami and is undergoing a $205 million dredging project — scheduled to begin Saturday — to deepen the sea floor by about 10 feet in time for a wave of new monster cargo ships cruising through an expanded Panama Canal starting in 2015. Endangered coral and larger coral have already been removed by a team hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the dredging work. But the remaining coral, deemed "corals of opportunity" in Corps lingo, can be retrieved with a permit. The problem, scientists say, is they only had 12 days between when the permits were issued last month and the start of dredging, not nearly enough time to save the unusual colonies thriving in Government Cut.'"
Look, let's cut the crap. We know that global warming exists. We know that humans are responsible for it. Those are facts. Intelligent left-wingers realize this. Intelligent centrists realize this. Intelligent right-wingers realize this. There's nothing to debate! There are no "clues" needed!
And we already know what happens to animal life that's subjected to climate change: it dies out, sooner or later.
Save the coral, for crying out loud, but don't pretend that it's being done to preserve evidence of global warming. There is so much evidence already that even if these coral were harmed, it would have no impact.
Save the coral because the coral deserves to be saved.
Slashdot Beta will only be a stone around the neck of an already dwindling user base. It's time to tell the powers-that-be that this will not be tolerated.
Boycott Dice!
Boycott ThinkGeek!
Boycott Beta!
> Please define "significantly".
How about you define what doesn't qualify as significant. You are the expert after all.
> Further, you seemed to miss the point that coral evolved in conditions of MUCH higher CO2 concentrations
Yes millenia ago, since then theyve continued to evolve such that they have adapted to current conditions which have been relatively static for millenia. The level of intellectual dishonesty on your part is mind-numbing.
They do work against each other, but our CO2 emissions are so rapid that they overwhelm the solubility effect. Once again [slashdot.org], what you're dismissing as "alarmism" is actually mainstream science. Temperatures are going up, and dissolved CO2 is also going up.
And once again, you are distorting my comment, which was an admission that I did not know the answer, and characterizing it instead as some kind of denial.
You have deserved this at least a hundred times: fuck off, until you figure out how to actually have a discussion with someone rather than insulting them and claiming they said something they didn't.
You sorely lack social skills, man. I mean the minimum kind needed to have a rational debate.