'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."

Comments

Re: News FLASH

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if joke or you're ignorant of the fact that corals are actually animals and not rocks.

Australia had the UNESCO report censored.

[BarbaraHudson]

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.

Re:Australia had the UNESCO report censored.

[Layzej]

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.

To top it off, Australia has just gutted the research arm that studies this.

See no evil. Hear no evil.

Re:Australia had the UNESCO report censored.

[aXis100]

It's just appalling.

To further highlight the farce, 3 months ago the Australian environment minister Greg Hunt was awarded "Best Minister in the World".

Meanwhile under his watch we've:
- Abolished the Carbon Tax
- Increased our Carbon emmissions
- Approved the biggest coal mine in the country
- Approved additional dredging to allow for increased coal exports
- Passed legislation to prevent environmentalists from legally challenging his rulings.
- Did nothing whilst big chunks of the Great Barrier Reef died.
- Called out the opposition leader on not offering support for communities that depend of reef tourism. I mean, WTF??

Re:Australia had the UNESCO report censored.

[Namarrgon]

A carbon price is a proxy for the missing external costs of coal power, so it helps raise the wholesale price to better reflect its true cost (which is around double current wholesale prices). This alone encourages alternatives - both demand for carbon-neutral alternative power, and investment in further renewable generation.

But of course, the revenue from that didn't vanish; it was funneled back into industry adaption schemes and consumer tax cuts. And it worked, driving emissions down significantly, until it was repealed in 2014 (at which point they immediately started rising again.