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'Huge Wake Up Call': Third of Central, Northern Great Barrier Reef Corals Dead (smh.com.au)
iONiUM quotes a report from The Sydney Morning Herald: More than one-third of the coral reefs of the central and northern regions of the Great Barrier Reef have died in the huge bleaching event earlier this year, Queensland researchers said. Corals to the north of Cairns -- covering about two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef -- were found to have an average mortality rate of 35 percent, rising to more than half in areas around Cooktown. Bleaching occurs when abnormal conditions, such as warm seas, cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae. Corals turn white without these algae and may die if the zooxanthellae do not recolonize them. "It is fair to say we were all caught by surprise," Professor Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, said. "It's a huge wake up call because we all thought that coral bleaching was something that happened in the Pacific or the Caribbean which are closer to the epicenter of El Nino events." The report says, "The northern end of the Great Barrier Reef was home to many 50- to 100-year-old corals that had died and may struggle to rebuild before future El Ninos push tolerance beyond thresholds."
Coral is already dead. Rock is dead.
I wish a third of niggers would die off. I mean they shoot each other over tribal gangsta bull shit all the time! In fact one of the leading causes of death for young black males is: getting shot by another young black male. But sadly their breeding rate is so high - it's not like they care about fathering their children or paying for them or any other mundane concerns like that.
until there is more plastic in the ocean than FISH
Some corals tolerate heat much better than others. We should identify the genes that make that possible, and clone them into other coral species. Some research is being done.
We're debating bathroom peen inspectors in red states as a top priority.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
UNESCO had drawn up a list of world heritage sites that were in danger from climate change, and Australia had the reefs removed because it would hurt tourism.
Between this and WHO saying there's no real risk to spreading zika so please go the the Olympics, it's obvious that it's all about the money.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
If only sea levels were 10 feet higher these corals would have been well protected from the Sun's rays. The fact is that sea levels are dropping despite what global warming alarmists would have you believe.
So:
- why is it happening? ...
- why are the individuals/groups pulling the strings and the press allowing this to happen without yelling and screaming?
(are the "protesters" considered lunatics?)
Maybe dreamland: nothing happens to us, we can afford it... elysium-style
Or - afraid of taking risks to go outside the "normal", loosing the comfort zone
- does not concern me
- too busy making ends meet
It's really bad - one just can wonder what's causing it in human brains to let this happen.
I recently met a guy: global warming does not exist and a huge waterfall of words arguing for why this is the case, impossible to even touch the subject - extremely determined.
I just classify it as religious believe system - no real proof, continuous repetition burns the PROM and it runs forever, if you touch it, it may explode.
Paul Allen throws a heckuva party!
http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/great-barrier-reef-death-in-five-years-is-laughable/news-story/7f0de36647f172815f55ebfd3a2e9df1
So who's on point?
The Climate Change deniers will continue to deny it. You can't change their minds – they know what they know, and no amount of science will change their minds. Logic? That's a shibboleth to the deniers. If you use logic on them they just dig in their heels.
Everyone else is already awake.
(This is not climate change denial, please read the whole post)
We (as in the population of this planet) need to stop freaking out just because something changed. Earth has never been a static environment and will never be a static environment ... save for the very unlikely chance that it survives the suns transition to a white dwarf. Assuming that it is or, worse, trying to force it to be so is a waste of resources. A perfect example of this is the severity of forest fires, especially in North America. Many people point to this as an example of the dangers of global warming. That may be one cause but the primary cause is humanity actively preventing regular, smaller forest fires that were a natural part of the environment until we gained the ability to stop them (accepted as scientific fact, google it).
The problem is they don't know what caused the bleaching. The assumption is that it is warmer weather but the overall contribution of weather might play a major part, a minor part or no part at all (it could be caused by unknown dumping, a new parasite, etc.) Automatically chunking everything into the "global warming" bin leads us to be lazy (scientifically) and ignore other possibilities that should be explored until a scientifically founded conclusion is reached (or the closest approximation that's possible). And I understand that this is exactly what many scientist are doing, the problem is the media, pundits and celebrities who think they have an understanding of the situation but really don't and try to fit all problems to the one solution they know. It severely damages the chances of examining problems critically and coming to a complete understanding of what's going on and the best solution for addressing it. Scientist need to stop pandering to this and click-bait sound bites (but then they lose out on funding and have no chance to complete their research... which is another rant entirely).
/soapbox
We have heard this all before. Warm water associated with El Nino causes coral bleaching, ( and cold water from El Nina events also causes coral beaching. The world is coming to an end unless we change our sinful ways is proclaimed across all lands.
Meanwhile the corals adjust their symbiotic alga, recover and go back to what they have been doing for the last 250 million years.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvu17UxX4LkA68IPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=1997-1998+El+Nino+Coral+Bleaching+Great+Barrier+Reef&fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_003&hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003
So much for the wake-up call.
... save for the very unlikely chance that it survives the suns transition to a white dwarf.
Long before that happens, the sun will transform itself to a red giant and balloon out to about Saturn's orbit. Even though most of the volume of a red giant is simply a red-hot vacuum, it's unlikely that the Earth will survive until the sun collapses into a white dwarf.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
We know exactly what is causing it. Rising average temperatures mixed with a short term heat wave.
Average temperatures = climate change.
Short term heat wave = El Niño.
This particular El Niño wasn't so bad, or very long lasting, but the increase in the baseline tipped its effects into the catastrophic bucket.
Ps. Congratulations on getting me to read your whole comment. Next time I won't pay attention to your clearly fallacious assertion that it wasn't going to be an anti science rant.
(Your anti science rant was the typical: we don't know anything!! The science we are looking at that perfectly explains everything might be some other unverified unexplained unexplored unfounded theory that I just listed off the cuff because I don't know fucking shit about climate, or science and clearly I'm so smart that no one else ever once thought of any of this!! )
Sounds like a fine place to build port for coal exports.
You global warming flunkies should write more articles like this. It is an objective measure of how fucked up the planet is getting. This is in alternative to the usual left leaning /. study that says: "9 out of 10 global climate scientist say man made global intergalactic climate change is a fact, and if you don't believe them you are a racist, a white, a southerner, a science denier, and a faggot"
Jesus loves everyone and wants them to enjoy an eternal paradise, except for homo's [sic]
Rubbish ... It's Saul of Tarsus/Paul the Apostle who was hung up about homos (he likely was one).
Look at the link you provided:
"[T]here are at least three passages that may refer to homosexual activity: Romans 1:26–27 [author: Paul], 1 Corinthians 6:9–10 [author:Paul], and 1 Timothy 1:9–10 [author: Paul] ... None of the four gospels [the bits of the NT that purport to record Jesus' ministry] mentions the subject directly."
Next time read the article. Even the scientist said they're not exactly sure what's causing it but they think warming is playing a major part. Thank you for perfectly illustrating outcome bias, you read what you wanted to read... not what was actually written. Also, NOAA ranked this El Nino as tying for the strongest on record (and one of the current headlines on their websites is "El Nino is still around"). The complete opposite of "wasn't so bad or very long lasting". So yes, I have no problem believing you don't know fucking shit about climate.
For all you dick-head climate deniers, you missed out.
I went up to Cairns a few years ago and snorkelled out on the reef, it was awesome.
I have known for a long time it was going to happen.
All the fuckwit redneck farmers up there allowing farm run-off onto the reef - crown of thorns.
Chopping down the bush faster than anywhere else, silting up the reef.
All the happy little coal burners - climate change.
Australia is full of fucking stupid sheep.
Go well
Seriously, it amazes me that china will be allowed to continue growing their emission.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
In the 1980s, protecting the environment was a major concern, along with pollution. Then John Howard got elected and things that couldn't be owned, like the environment were ignored. It's been that way ever since.
i can already see it
cooooooorallllllll
Let's ignore the fact that the earth has been significantly hotter, by several degree; had significantly higher CO2 levels, by several times. And TOTALLY IGNORE...the fact that we are leaching tons and tons of pesticides and herbicides into the water. Which have already been shown to cause harm to many micro-organisms and arthropods.
Pesticides and Herbicides are the likely true reason our reefs are dying. These reefs have endure far greater temperature and CO2 variances over the millions of years.
http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work...
As for the global effect, it's probably happened hundreds of times over the span of Coral populations
"The geological record indicates that ancestors of modern coral reef ecosystems were formed at least 240 million years ago. The coral reefs existing today began growing as early as 50 million years ago. Most established coral reefs are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old."
But we'd rather blame CO2 and Global Warming for every environmental problem, even though most true science disproves it as the cause of the environmental damage and points far more to chemical poisoning from agricultural production.
From 2014:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-22/global-warming-blamed-for-pacific-coral-bleaching/5983718
The Marshall Islands is experiencing its worst-ever coral bleaching as global warming threatens reefs across the entire northern Pacific, scientists say.
http://www.planetexperts.com/severe-coral-bleaching-reported-throughout-pacific-ocean/
According to Dr. Mark Eakin, the coordinator for Coral Reef Watch, “[W]hat’s happening is, as global temperatures increase and especially as the ocean warms through the increase of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases in the atmosphere, it’s warming the ocean so that it doesn’t take as big an El Niño to have the same effect on water temperatures.”
From 2012:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2012/10/02/why_the_great_barrier_reef_could_lose_almost_all_its_coral_in_the_next_decade.html
Researchers from AIMS, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, say the Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral in little more than a generation. And the pace of damage has picked up since 2006....Globally, reefs are being assailed by myriad threats, particularly rising sea temperatures, increased ocean acidity and more powerful storms, but the threat to the Great Barrier Reef is even more pronounced, the AIMS study published on Tuesday found. “In terms of geographic scale and the extent of the decline, it is unprecedented anywhere in the world,” AIMS chief John Gunn told Reuters....Between 1985 and 2012, coral cover of the reef area fell from 28 per cent to 13.8 per cent. “Coral cover on the reef is consistently declining, and without intervention, it will likely fall to 5 to 10 per cent within the next 10 years,” the researchers write in the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They called for tougher curbs on greenhouse gas emissions as a crucial way to stem the loss.
Granted, their model was off by three times, but they knew it that the reef was dieing at a significant rate. And this is from someone that only casually follows news about that reef.
It's all from those China boats spewing their exhaust into the ocean as they ship their crap around the world.
The oil tankers too. Where does their exhaust go? Right into the ocean.
Just saying...
Joking aside, let's face the facts, the majority of the population of the WORLD, not just the USA (although we definitely have far more than our fair share of complete morons), are idiots. We (as a species) are very good at responding to disasters, and terrible at planning to prevent them. Part of the issue is probably deeply-rooted in our subconscious "reptilian" brain. Could we overcome it? Sure. Sometimes we do. But usually we don't. Usually we wait for the disaster to happen, or make pretend "attempts" to prevent disaster by taking half-assed measures (often because "there isn't enough money". Money really is the root of all evil. It's easy to prove. Take any major issue and why it doesn't get dealt with properly when a) we know what needs to be done, b) have the ability to do so, c) have the people willing (and often needing) to do the work, and d) have the willpower to actually do the work but e) can't do it because "there isn't enough money." Our current societies are a fucking joke; a grand almost-universally-accepted delusion. But I digress...)
These issues will be taken care of sometime when the Soylent Green scenario, as silly as it seems, it literal reality. When the oceans are dying and when we are forced to eat recycled dead humans (assuming we still have enough oxygen in the atmosphere to support our existence after the oceans die). Even then it won't really be addressed until it directly threatens the families of the 1 percenters and the politicians in power at the time.
These are the sorts of comments which destroy my karma...because nobody wants to hear the voice of reason, nobody has any memory, or is able to do a simple google search.
These reefs have been "in danger" and scientists have been "caught by surprise" every 2-3 years for the last 20 years. Just do a simply google search and you'll see when the greenies were worried about dredging in 2014:
http://www.ibtimes.com/great-b...
Then, UNESCO took the reefs off the endangered list in 2015:
http://www.ibtimes.com.au/unes...
And that was after the reef supposedly lost "half it's coral" in 2012:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/03/...
And that was after the other "wakeup call" in 2011:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/03/...
And so on, and so on, and so on.
In truth, the reefs are growing and shrinking, as they always have, for hundreds of thousands of years. All this is is more fearmongering for the green religion, because they have "demands" they want met. Just like we've been hearing about the "thousands of acres" of rainforest being destroyed since the early 90s - which has far exceeded the actual acres of total rainforests twice over - yet there seems to still be quite a bit of rainforest left. It's all just fearmongering. It's really that simple.
Professor Hughes continued "We expected this in the near future as everything continues to snowball but not earlier this year, this is months ahead of schedule!