Great Barrier Reef will never be as pristine as it once was - scientists

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Great Barrier Reef will never be as pristine as it once was - scientists

By Colin Packham

REUTERS

 

Australia's Great Barrier Reef in seen in this undated aerial file picture. REUTERS/HO/Great Barrier Reef National Park Authority/Files

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef will never recover from the impact of unseasonably warm waters, scientists said on Thursday, as more of the World Heritage Site comes under renewed threat from a recent spike in sea temperatures.

 

Warm seas around the reef killed some two-thirds of a 700 kilometre (496.4 miles) stretch of coral last year after warm water caused the coral to expel living algae, triggering it to calcify and turn white, a process known as bleaching. That was the worst die-off of coral ever recorded at the reef.

 

Even the areas that survived will not recover to full health, scientists from ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrated Coral Reef Studies said in a report, as unseasonable hot water becomes more frequent causing more incidents of bleaching.

 

"Given time, coral can recover from bleaching but the problem comes when you get repeated events. With less time between them, capacity for the coral reef community to recover diminishes rapidly," Janice Lough, senior principal research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, told Reuters.

 

The conclusion is a major blow for Australia's tourism industry, with the reef attracting A$5.2 billion ($3.9 billion) in spending each year, a 2013 Deloitte Access Economics report estimated.

 

Repeated damage to the Great Barrier Reef may also see UNESCO's World Heritage Committee reconsider its decision in 2015 not to put the Great Barrier Reef on its "in danger" list.

 

Academics said the findings demonstrate the urgency in tackling climate change, which climate scientists argue occurs when increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is trapped by heat radiating from earth.

 

The outlook for the Great Barrier Reef has further darkened with evidence of an unprecedented second consecutive bleaching event this year, researchers at James Cook University said.

 

Unseasonably warm waters threatens to cause bleaching of the central region of the Great Barrier Reef, which avoided the large-scale damage from the bleaching in 2016.

 

"We're hoping that the next two to three weeks will cool off quickly, and this year's bleaching won't be anything like last year," said Terry Hughes, director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

 

(Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Randy Fabi)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-16

[steven100]

oh well,    that's mother nature ....    and not global warming do to spray cans or chimneys or some other crap.  It's what happens and thats it ....   thats why Dinosaurs died out, thats why Mammoths died off ....  because nature changes constantly and fire, drought, heat, floods and whatever destroy things in their path. 

[mortenaa]

The water temp here fluctuates quite a lot during the different seasons. Is there any real proof that 2/3's actually die from a centigrade higher than the average temp? 

 

http://data.aims.gov.au/aimsrtds/yearlytrends.xhtml?fromDate=1998%2C2004%2C2007%2C2012%2C2017&dataLevel=1&wind=false

[sanukjim]

2 hours ago, mortenaa said:

The water temp here fluctuates quite a lot during the different seasons. Is there any real proof that 2/3's actually die from a centigrade higher than the average temp? 

 

http://data.aims.gov.au/aimsrtds/yearlytrends.xhtml?fromDate=1998%2C2004%2C2007%2C2012%2C2017&dataLevel=1&wind=false

As the world keeps increasing in population we will continue to use machines for our convenance thus polluting and advancing the normal temperature in the world that would have been slower had we not been advancing our secuity.Parts of The Great Barrier Reef is dying faster then the normal growth that sustained it for so many millennium.Not believing in or finding excuses for our "Global Warming " will not make it go away.

[OZBill]

 

"THIS is not a crime against humanity. This is a crime by humanity. We have sentenced to death the largest living thing on the planet – the Great Barrier Reef. The sentence is being carried out slowly and painfully before our eyes." Crispin Hull SMH - 11 March 2017."
We are shitting in our own nest.

 

[Grubster]

I wish I had an answer but I don't so on with life I go.

[Kabula]

The title is accurate, but the causes are questionable.

 

It's very sad to see the what is happening to our world.

[Pikeybkk]

Yeah, that's because it will be dead!

[boomerangutang]

                         Ordinary people react to this, similar how they react when they hear Siberian tigers or white rhinos are nearly extinct.  They're angered, and justifiably so.  Yet, pandas, blue whales and tigers are like indicator species (there's other terminology, but I can't recall right now).  They're what catches the most attention.  When some beloved prominent natural species is on the verge of extinction, there are also tens of thousands of other species which are also threatened. But because the so-called 'lesser' species aren't as noticeable, they're not given as much consideration.    

[boomerangutang]

Even in little ol' Chiang Rai, where I've resided for nearly 20 yrs, there have been less species.  Here are some of the species I saw when I first moved to this region in the late 1990's, and which are now gone. . . . . . .

 

giant earth worms, light purple with faint yellow stripe. About 10" long by 1" wide.

Dung beetles; I saw one mating pair, small, black

Tarantula:  I saw one being hauled to a hole in the ground by a wasp.  Another was live.

Two types of owls:  One is small with tan markings.  The other is medium, white with gray speckles.

praying mantises

small mouse with long snout.

little hedgehog. I've only found some spines.

Squirrels, black. Any wild mammal larger than a rare squirrel, fogedabowdit.

 

I'm outside each day (unless raining hard) in the countryside for between 3 to 9 hours.

Thais know nothing about such things.   They don't take notice and don't do surveys.  Their natural environment is further degraded week by week, but it's 'mai pen rai' for them.

 

[cncltd1973]

11 hours ago, steven100 said:

oh well,    that's mother nature ....    and not global warming do to spray cans or chimneys or some other crap.  It's what happens and thats it ....   thats why Dinosaurs died out, thats why Mammoths died off ....  because nature changes constantly and fire, drought, heat, floods and whatever destroy things in their path. 

Dinos died out when the large vegetation was killed off from an asteroid impact (less food, so no more big eaters). 7.5billion consumers eating and hacking our way into our resources IS the reason our ecology and climate are changing.

You can pray if it helps you. But science doesn't care if you believe it, and nothing will change unless you change it. The facts are out there. Do you really want to be known as the generation that crashed the world, pedal to the metal?

[mortenaa]

1 hour ago, cncltd1973 said:

Dinos died out when the large vegetation was killed off from an asteroid impact (less food, so no more big eaters). 7.5billion consumers eating and hacking our way into our resources IS the reason our ecology and climate are changing.

You can pray if it helps you. But science doesn't care if you believe it, and nothing will change unless you change it. The facts are out there. Do you really want to be known as the generation that crashed the world, pedal to the metal?

Stop producing plastic then. Or .. CO2 is not a pollutant. Its plants food.

[steven100]

don't believe that global warming is caused by humans ....   it's the worlds lifecycle just changing from year to year.   I do think we need to stop producing plastic bags as the ocean is full of them.

[boomerangutang]

4 hours ago, mortenaa said:

Stop producing plastic then. Or .. CO2 is not a pollutant. Its plants food.

I'll go with consensus of 97% of world's climate scientists, thanks.  They're not saying CO2 is 'a pollutant.' They're saying it contributes to 'greenhouse effect,' which it does.  Methane is many times more effective for greenhouse effect, and methane is being released at ever-increasing levels.  A mega-release of methane will be when millions of tons (which are now 'frozen' at bottom of seas) gets released in a short span of time, and bubble up out of the seas.  Research it with an open mind, and you might learn a few true things.

 

4 minutes ago, steven100 said:

don't believe that global warming is caused by humans ....   it's the worlds lifecycle just changing from year to year.   I do think we need to stop producing plastic bags as the ocean is full of them.

        Not all GW is caused by human activity, but an increasing amount of is.  It's been chronicled on many different levels by many scientists.  Non-scientists are also seeing it first-hand.  Talk to anyone who resides in an icy region:  people in the Arctic, folks living near glaciers, Greenland, Antarctic, Himalayas,  Andes, etc, ......you'll hear their stories about receding ice which isn't being replaced.   Greenland alone is losing 40 to 50 cubic miles of ice each year, and the rate is increasing.  

 

          Part of the issue in Greenland and other snow/ice covered regions is soot.  It usually shows up as black dots on snow/ice, but sometimes is a dark grayish covering.   When snow is white, it reflects sunlight and stays cool.  When its surface is darkened, it melts.  The black dots on the snow become divots, enlarging each sunny day.  Of course, there is a lot more to the dynamics of massive ice loss.  Go figure where most of the soot comes from.  Hint:  billions of tons of coal and fossil fuels are burned by people worldwide.   Each person produces, on average, a ton of CO2 annually.  That's over 7 billion tons of the stuff.  Yes, plants (mostly algae) take in CO2 to some extent, but there's no way they can keep up.  It would be like a person with lungs the size of a thumb.  

 

Look at any color satellite photo of any Chinese city, for example:   You can't see much or any buildings or terrain.  All you see is a thick yellowish-gray cloud of smog spreading for miles in all directions.

[maewang99]

wrong on GW.  they ain't lying.. but just like Al Gore has always done... they ain't telling the whole story either!!!!!
 

positive feedbacks that are not man made have already begun to kick in and dwarf what we have done.... just that the Artic alone could be totally ice free (not all year... but for some of the year) is so simple to understand you can actually think of it intuitively.. without any high mathematics and super computer models. an Ordinary Joe can begin to see it.. as long as they get their head out of....
 

the two feet of snow in Poughkeepsie this week????

 

in March.... well.... it's 2017. 
 

just pray veiling isn't what we end up with... that is why the ridiculous 1.5 was put in along with 2.0 at COP21.

India and SE Asia don't fare well if veiling means reduced global variation in air and ocean currents because it will affect uniformly..... i.e. Rainy Season. and any G7 country... heck any G20 country.. can pull the trigger on that one.  

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by maewang99

[DM07]

don't believe that global warming is caused by humans ....   it's the worlds lifecycle just changing from year to year.   I do think we need to stop producing plastic bags as the ocean is full of them.

Thank God, no one needs to "believe" in it!
There are facts and there is proof!


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[daveAustin]

21 hours ago, steven100 said:

oh well,    that's mother nature ....    and not global warming do to spray cans or chimneys or some other crap.  It's what happens and thats it ....   thats why Dinosaurs died out, thats why Mammoths died off ....  because nature changes constantly and fire, drought, heat, floods and whatever destroy things in their path. 

Oh dear.  It's this brainless it's all down to nature attitude that is screwing us. Yes, mother nature (the sun especially) plays a huge part and there are ups and downs, but our input into the current equation is school kid science 101 stuff. Never mind, we don't deserve it anyway. With a bit of luck mother nature really will step in and do her thing in wiping us out before we mess it up for everything.

[daveAustin]

1 hour ago, DM07 said:

Thank God, no one needs to "believe" in it!
There are facts and there is proof!

Save your breath. Some people are beyond reach. What's the saying?... ah, yes, you can't educate pork. 

[ilostmypassword]

9 hours ago, mortenaa said:

Stop producing plastic then. Or .. CO2 is not a pollutant. Its plants food.

And salt is a necessary nutrient for life. Therefore, you should eat a big mouthful every day.

And fertilizers are plant food. Therefore, you should put truckloads of the stuff into your garden.

 

[Stargeezr]

With all mankinds efforts to try change the global wold climate change, it will be all for not. One more astroid hit, or a series of volcanoes going off, as well as earth quakes with tsumanis, natural causes can and will likely wipe us out. Lets not break countries with foolish stuff, like carbon taxes, until countries like India  and China are charging their people taxes. As for the Great Barrier Reef, I hope to be able to see it before the ocean heats up enough to wreck it all.

Geezer

[canuckamuck]

We have been fortunate to be around to see the Great Barrier Reef. As we are recovering still from the last ice age and the conditions were right to make it what it was. As it gets warmer new things will happen. It wouldn't matter if we were here or not. They have found dinosaur bones in the arctic and the antarctic. I wonder what the climate of that period did to the Barrier Reef?

Several influential groups find the climate change hysteria very useful. Anti capitalists, tax seeking governments, grant seeking scientists, grant seeking institutions, leftists, socialists, liberals, the media, and those who seek a one world government...

[Ahab]

Believe that GW is completely caused by man or not because it does not matter. The simple fact is that according to the theory (IPCC official documents) we have already put too much manmade CO2 into the atmosphere and the results from just the CO2 already in the atmosphere are going to be severe. However the fix is to reduce CO2 levels to limit the severity of the damage.  The problem is that the fix is likely more costly than just adjusting to the changing climate, and many developing countries have already rejected decreasing CO2 emissions. So the bottom line whether you believe in this or not is that CO2 levels will continue to rise no matter what the USA and Europe do to cut emissions.

 

It would also help if Al Gore and DiCaprio would stop flying all around the world in private Lear jets to tell us ordinary people that we should not fly economy coach class. One other question that I have not figured out yet also is why do people like DiCaprio and other GW/GCG believers own oceanfront homes?

[funandsuninbangkok]

Hey, we're all getting older 

[mortenaa]

On 3/17/2017 at 5:36 AM, boomerangutang said:

I'll go with consensus of 97% of world's climate scientists, thanks.  They're not saying CO2 is 'a pollutant.' They're saying it contributes to 'greenhouse effect,' which it does.  Methane is many times more effective for greenhouse effect, and methane is being released at ever-increasing levels.  A mega-release of methane will be when millions of tons (which are now 'frozen' at bottom of seas) gets released in a short span of time, and bubble up out of the seas.  Research it with an open mind, and you might learn a few true things.

 

        Not all GW is caused by human activity, but an increasing amount of is.  It's been chronicled on many different levels by many scientists.  Non-scientists are also seeing it first-hand.  Talk to anyone who resides in an icy region:  people in the Arctic, folks living near glaciers, Greenland, Antarctic, Himalayas,  Andes, etc, ......you'll hear their stories about receding ice which isn't being replaced.   Greenland alone is losing 40 to 50 cubic miles of ice each year, and the rate is increasing.  

 

          Part of the issue in Greenland and other snow/ice covered regions is soot.  It usually shows up as black dots on snow/ice, but sometimes is a dark grayish covering.   When snow is white, it reflects sunlight and stays cool.  When its surface is darkened, it melts.  The black dots on the snow become divots, enlarging each sunny day.  Of course, there is a lot more to the dynamics of massive ice loss.  Go figure where most of the soot comes from.  Hint:  billions of tons of coal and fossil fuels are burned by people worldwide.   Each person produces, on average, a ton of CO2 annually.  That's over 7 billion tons of the stuff.  Yes, plants (mostly algae) take in CO2 to some extent, but there's no way they can keep up.  It would be like a person with lungs the size of a thumb.  

 

Look at any color satellite photo of any Chinese city, for example:   You can't see much or any buildings or terrain.  All you see is a thick yellowish-gray cloud of smog spreading for miles in all directions.

97% "consensus".. Haha. You been fooled my friend

 

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by mortenaa