Once vibrant corals turning bone white highlights something scientists have been saying for years: the oceans are heating up dangerously.
This week, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a global coral bleaching event. Too much heat is the main cause of coral bleaching — and there are more worrying signs as the latest ocean-surface readings show temperatures are on the rise.
“This is big,” said John Abraham, professor of thermal sciences at the University of St. Thomas. People are realizing just “how important the oceans are as the measurement metric for climate change.”
Every day, for more than a year — barring a tiny blip last spring — the global average sea-surface temperature has been at a record seasonal high in data that go back to 1979. And those historical records haven’t just been narrowly surpassed, they’ve been obliterated.
Hotter oceans matter for all sorts of reasons beyond their impact on coral reefs. They exacerbate sea-level rise as warmer water expands. They restrict the supply of oxygen to marine life and are pushing fish toward the earth’s poles or deeper waters. They’ve been linked to the rise of marine bacteria called Vibrio, which can cause vibriosis in humans, bringing symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and, in some cases, it can kill. And last year, high sea-surface temperatures helped push scientists to raise their forecast for Atlantic hurricanes.
I am old enough to remember when "scientists" predicted that the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia was doomed, dying and would soon be a thing of the past. Guaranteed.
However, a funny thing happened to that prediction. It turned out to be totally wrong. In fact as of 2022, the coral now covers 34% of the sea floor, double what it was as recently as 2012 and covers a greater area than in 1985.
Coral lives and dies. It dies from hurricanes and starfish plagues as well as sudden bleaching events. But, surprise , surprise it grows back.
@IdealisticRatDemocrat2wks2W
@DopeyTortoiseForward2wks2W
Apparently we are going to get the climate we, as a species, truly deserve. I'm past the denial, past the anger, past the bargaining, hurdling towards the bleak oblivion of acceptance...
The ocean for many is out of sight and mind. But Atlantic fish stocks are now between 1/1,000 and 1/10,000 of what they were just 150 years ago.
The continental shelves used to be forests of sponges and corals, critical habitat for fish development.
Trawling has reduced to mud, to parking lot, a greater area of the ocean floor than the area of forests cut down in the history of humanity.
Over hunting and fishing, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and now climate change.
None of these things happen in a vacuum, but there are synergies among them which make the whole vastly greater than the sum of the parts.
We are a water planet and as goes the ocean go we.
@WrathfulEggsDemocrat2wks2W
Coral doesn’t vote, doesn’t spend money on lobbyists, doesn’t have a military.
And while this is happening, Florida’s legislature is passing a law to remove all mention of climate change from the state’s laws and regulations.
@IguanaBobbySocialist2wks2W
Nothing will change until the true cost of environmental devastation is borne by those pepretating the destruction. If the fossil fuel industry were held financially liable through a tax on carbon emissions and associated externalities, they would adapt or die, as is healthy in a well functioning capital market. Right now, fossil fuels are far too cheap - subsidized by governments, self regulated, with externalities left to be handled by those least able to do so.
It's time that fossil fuel costs reflect the real price we pay as a society.
@Ind3p3ndentDanGreen2wks2W
Technofixes like “super corals” will not solve the problem, we know what we need to do. Urgently transition away from fossil fuels, reach net zero emissions and prioritise energy efficiency. Without these, we will have to tell our grandchildren what it was like to live in the age of coral reefs.
If you came home and your house was flooding, the first thing you’d do would be to turn the tap off, not grab the mop and bucket
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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