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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."
Not sure if joke or you're ignorant of the fact that corals are actually animals and not rocks.
Probably educated in the USA.
Or Australia
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
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.
Long live rock!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
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.
Hmmm. Too close to call. I suggest an international spelling bee to decide.
Idiot. They're rising, it's obvious in places like Tuvalu. But the rise is slow - it'll never reach 10 feet any time soon, it's only risen one foot in the last century. But it's got a lot warmer, and that's the real problem. You did read the article, didn't you? Oh no: of course you didn't, you just leapt to make an ignorant comment based on your own stupid belief system. Business as usual, in other words. You should run for office.
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.
The only one waving away the risk to the Reef is this guy, who just happens to be the "science coordinator" for a business-funded denialist group. I think it's clear from TFA how real the risk is.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
So much for the wake-up call.
But the satellite measurements say sea level is rising. Aren't satellites the gold standard? They appear to be when it comes to temperatures.
... 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.
There are exchange corals in US schools nowadays?
Ezekiel 23:20
Tuvalu, really? Plotting the data and running a linear fit results in a 0.3mm change per year, at best. That's about 1.2 inches per century/ I guess that's an obvious rise?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
You're obviously very easily baffled.
nonsense. if the water rose one foot in tuvalu it should have risen the same one foot across the entire planet which it clearly has not.
Right, just like the tides raise by the exact same amount (2 feet) all over the world. Oh, wait, they raise by up to 50 feet in the bay of Fundy and by close to zero feet in other locations... Maybe you just have no idea what you're talking about.
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.
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.
The force of gravity is not equal across the planet, which is also spinning and subject to ocean currents which means that sea level rises are not the same on all points of the globe.
Meanwhile the corals adjust their symbiotic alga.
I would be very interested in a cite to show that corals can do this, and the mechanism by which you claim corals perform this adjustment.