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‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleached

Unitedwestand13

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.....

The conclusions are in from a series of scientific surveys of the Great Barrier Reef bleaching event — an environmental assault on the largest coral ecosystem on Earth — and scientists aren’t holding back about how devastating they find them.

Australia’s National Coral Bleaching Task Force has surveyed 911 coral reefs by air, and found at least some bleaching on 93 percent of them. The amount of damage varies from severe to light, but the bleaching was the worst in the reef’s remote northern sector — where virtually no reefs escaped it.

“Between 60 and 100 percent of corals are severely bleached on 316 reefs, nearly all in the northern half of the Reef,” Prof. Terry Hughes, head of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, said in a statement to the news media. He led the research.

Severe bleaching means that corals could die, depending on how long they are subject to these conditions. The scientists also reported that based on diving surveys of the northern reef, they already are seeing nearly 50 percent coral death.

“The fact that the most severely affected regions are those that are remote and hence otherwise in good shape, means that a lot of prime reef is being devastated,” said Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian Institution, in an email in response to the bleaching announcement. “One has to hope that these protected reefs are more resilient and better able to [recover], but it will be a lengthy process even so.”

Knowlton added that Hughes, who led the research, is “NOT an alarmist

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...rcent-of-the-great-barrier-reef-now-bleached/
This is the link to the study Only 7% of the Great Barrier Reef has avoided coral bleaching – ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Thoughts?
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

**** happens
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac


This is why we, as a species, are unlikely to hack it in the end. The Earth will regenerate as it always does until the Sun absorbs it, but the lack of consideration of long term damage or lack of concern over how devastating millions of years of ecosystems and the long term impact of things needed for life to exist in the fashion that it does currently is, well, staggering and common amongst homo sapiens. As a species, we're a literal contradiction --we're smart enough to know better, but too greedy and ignorant to care enough to stop ourselves.

What can I say? We evolved on plains to deal with four-legged, feral predators, and then to fend off the ultimate super predators --each other. All in all, I suspect that we will be a tiny, highly destructive blip in the earth's ecosystem. What a shame, intelligence is such an interesting and novel evolution.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

This is why we, as a species, are unlikely to hack it in the end. The Earth will regenerate as it always does until the Sun absorbs it, but the lack of consideration of long term damage or lack of concern over how devastating millions of years of ecosystems and the long term impact of things needed for life to exist in the fashion that it does currently is, well, staggering and common amongst homo sapiens. As a species, we're a literal contradiction --we're smart enough to know better, but too greedy and ignorant to care enough to stop ourselves.

What can I say? We evolved on plains to deal with four-legged, feral predators, and then to fend off the ultimate super predators --each other. All in all, I suspect that we will be a tiny, highly destructive blip in the earth's ecosystem. What a shame, intelligence is such an interesting and novel evolution.

Very touching. But it doesn't explain why I, or anyone else for that matter, should give a crap. Nor does it explain what should be done about it or how it could have been avoided. All you have done is lament the damage supposedly done by you and your fellow man. Want a pristine, unchanging environment? Move to the moon. This planet is in a constant state of change.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

This planet is in a constant state of change.

Let me repeat a question I saw in this very thread.

So what?

Should we just not give a **** about anything because hey, stuff changes? Change can't possibly be bad? Is that what you're saying? No. That's stupid. You couldn't be saying that.

So what are you suggesting?
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

:lamo

Youve gotta be ****ing kidding me.

“This time, the southern third of the Great Barrier Reef was fortunately cooled down late in summer by a period of cloudy weather caused by ex-cyclone Winston, after it passed over Fiji and came to us as a rain depression. The 2016 footprint could have been much worse.”

So...the entire world is supposed being destroyed by man made AGW...but...whew...luckily there were these clouds......

FM
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

:lamo

Youve gotta be ****ing kidding me.

“This time, the southern third of the Great Barrier Reef was fortunately cooled down late in summer by a period of cloudy weather caused by ex-cyclone Winston, after it passed over Fiji and came to us as a rain depression. The 2016 footprint could have been much worse.”

So...the entire world is supposed being destroyed by man made AGW...but...whew...luckily there were these clouds......

FM

Not really sure where you came up with this "entire world being destroyed" business.

Oh wait. Yes, I am.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac


Damned shame, I've dove all over the barrier reef and the coral sea, amazing things to behold. Did a few multi day liveaboards getting in 5 dives a day.

The reefs are a bellweather, climate is changing.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Like others have said... there will be mass extinctions, and humans will eventually join it. Then the earth will recover. All evidence shows we are destroying the very webs of life that we precariously rely upon to keep our species up and running. Humans will be dead before all other life is destroyed, unless we do something really stupid like a worldwide nuclear holocaust.

What angers me is that morons and ignoramuses are making these choices for me, or justifying them as "**** happens", like there's no societal power to ever stop it.

And what saddens me the most is that humans are capable of so much more. We are smarter than this, but we choose laziness.

Sucks.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Let me repeat a question I saw in this very thread.

So what?

Should we just not give a **** about anything because hey, stuff changes? Change can't possibly be bad? Is that what you're saying? No. That's stupid. You couldn't be saying that.

So what are you suggesting?

Why care about things over which you have no control? Do you get angry at the sun when it melts your popsicle? But to answer your question, I am not suggesting anything. I am simply mocking the moronic liberal desire to wring their hands and engage in self loathing every time a cloud passes over head.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Like others have said... there will be mass extinctions, and humans will eventually join it. Then the earth will recover. All evidence shows we are destroying the very webs of life that we precariously rely upon to keep our species up and running. Humans will be dead before all other life is destroyed, unless we do something really stupid like a worldwide nuclear holocaust.

What angers me is that morons and ignoramuses are making these choices for me, or justifying them as "**** happens", like there's no societal power to ever stop it.

And what saddens me the most is that humans are capable of so much more. We are smarter than this, but we choose laziness.

Sucks.

I suspect you are now going to tell me how you are not a member of the human race that you so despise and see as responsible for all things bad. Next, I suppose you will pretend you aren't just as guilty as the next guy for the 'horrors' you see happening to the planet around you. As for choosing laziness, speak for yourself. And no one who claims to be 'smarter than this' would type out a post like the one you just did. Let me help you out because I feel sorry for you: humans are smart and will adapt to any climate change just fine. The lazy and the stupid will not perish. They will be carried on into the future by their intellectual betters. So fear not. Someone will protect you.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

climate is changing.

Wow. Who knew? Perhaps you might point to a time in the 4.5 billion year history of this planet where the climate wasn't changing. Do you liberals howl at the changes that have occurred over time? Do you miss the dinosaurs and the trilobites too? and curse the changes that made them vanish? Oh, I know. You are going to tell me that those things were the result of natural changes. Well, Earth to liberals: man is a part of nature every bit as much as a comet. So any changes brought about by man are natural changes. So you know what has to happen now? The same thing that has always happened. Creatures will have to adapt or go the way of 99% of the creatures who have ever inhabited the planet.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Why care about things over which you have no control? Do you get angry at the sun when it melts your popsicle? But to answer your question, I am not suggesting anything. I am simply mocking the moronic liberal desire to wring their hands and engage in self loathing every time a cloud passes over head.

And I am mocking moronic conservative posters who think we have no effect on the environment!
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

The corals are bleached, not dead.

The smart corals are those that started growing elsewhere where there was less publicity, and they will benefit as the band of warmer temperatures that stressed out their cousins, becomes less stressful for them as "prime" temperature water comes closer to them. Their stressful temperature band become less stressful.

So while things may change they will also adapt since things have to live in a range of temperatures or they won't be around for long. When the temperature pendulum swings back, the coral will be happy as clams again!
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Does anyone know if the water temperature on the Great Barrier reef has changed?
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Does anyone know if the water temperature on the Great Barrier reef has changed?
All except that part with cloud cover. Mankind is so destructive that we are killing the planet, but luckily...that particular part of the reef has cloud coverage for a few weeks and luckily...the ocean that is absorbing all that heat from AGW wasnt impacted in that little area. Because of cloud coverage.

CLOUD COVERAGE.

And they say AGW isnt a religion....
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

All except that part with cloud cover. Mankind is so destructive that we are killing the planet, but luckily...that particular part of the reef has cloud coverage for a few weeks and luckily...the ocean that is absorbing all that heat from AGW wasnt impacted in that little area. Because of cloud coverage.

CLOUD COVERAGE.

And they say AGW isnt a religion....
I was asking because it the temperature has not changed, something else could be the problem.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

I was asking because it the temperature has not changed, something else could be the problem.
I know. Or it could be a naturally occurring phenomenon.

They COULD try starting with being honest about the headlines. Scientists DID NOT SAY 93% of the great barrier was now bleached. What the article ACTUALLY SAID was that they found some evidence of bleaching in 93% of the overall reef.

1 drowned polar bear + all the worlds polar bears are dying. Same bull****, different day.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

And I am mocking moronic conservative posters who think we have no effect on the environment!

Who would that be? Certainly not me since I have made no such claim.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac


Yawn...

It's another cyclical feature of nature.

CoralreefpH_zps1cb6434e.png
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

All except that part with cloud cover. Mankind is so destructive that we are killing the planet, but luckily...that particular part of the reef has cloud coverage for a few weeks and luckily...the ocean that is absorbing all that heat from AGW wasnt impacted in that little area. Because of cloud coverage.

CLOUD COVERAGE.

And they say AGW isnt a religion....

...I'm not sure what you are freaking out over about clouds. Clouds do affect local temperature, you know.
 
Re: ‘And then we wept': Scientists say 93 percent of the Great Barrier Reef now bleac

Who would that be? Certainly not me since I have made no such claim.

I'll show you that as soon as you show me someone "engaging in self-loathing every time a cloud moves overhead."

See, I was just mirroring your absurd hyperbole.
 
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