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'Unprecedented' Bleaching Damages Two-Thirds Of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (bbc.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the caring-about-coral dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Unprecedented coral bleaching in consecutive years has damaged two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, aerial surveys have shown. The bleaching — or loss of algae — affects a 1,500km (900 miles) area of the reef, according to scientists. The latest damage is concentrated in the middle section, whereas last year's bleaching hit mainly the north. Experts fear the proximity of the two events will give damaged coral little chance to recover.

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. I'm honestly blown away... by ckatko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...by the amount of willful blindness in Australia's government.

    I mean, I thought for sure, once serious, real, things started dying on the planet, people would start caring. But I'm proven wrong every year.

    1. Re:I'm honestly blown away... by dwywit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And every time someone mentions agricultural runoff (specifically from sugarcane), the lobbyists hit up the national party, and we're all reminded that natural resources and agriculture are untouchables.

      No, it can't be the farmers, they're all "generational custodians" who couldn't possibly do anything harmful to the environment.

      Apologies to those farmers who actually give a crap.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  2. If you haven't seen it... by tezbobobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...then you're already too late.

  3. An excuse for every season by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We gotta do something or the corals will be dead!"
    "The corals are fine, look, they're thriving."

    "The corals are gone, everything's dead!"
    "Well, then we can as well continue when it's too late to change anything anyway"

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.