the picture alone gave me chills

Before we have a guteral heaving lets follow this to get accurate information over the long haul.

The scientist also had this to say:
"Berkelmans said the Keppels had previously bounced back from bleaching once the waters had cooled."

Another said this:
"Time will tell whether there was large-scale mortality or not," said Professor Robert Van Woesik from the Florida Institute of Technology in a statement issued by Australia's Queensland University. He said corals did have some ability to bounce back but that this was an unusually warm event.



This is happened before and may happened regularly throughout history. We have been visiting coral reefs for a VERY short period of time, scuba has been what, 50 years? Seems like over speculation to immediately assume "global warming".

Not trying to start a controversy, but lets follow this story instead of having an emmotional ejaculation. Most likely, the corals will rebound and we will never hear about it because it won't be deemed wothy news. But, if the corals die there will be genuine cause for concern. Then, I will join in the cause, but please lets get the fact proven over time before we have reaction.
 
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It is a shame We as a people will do nothing to stop the causes of global warming. Big business just wants a profit and does not care about the environment. And if bleaching is not bad enough the Great Barrier has to deal with The Outbreak of the Crown of Thorn starfish which is killing the reef. Due to agricultural fertilizer washing into the streams and then into the ocean the Crown of thorn is surviving past its larval stage in greater numbers and then devastating the reefs.
 
Re: the picture alone gave me chills

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6950400#post6950400 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by _ShotgunShrimp_
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060314/sc_nm/environment_coral_bleaching_dc

i hope someday that this will return to normal :(

Thanks for the good reading Tim. Unfortunately, In my opinion, it will never return to normal. As Kent has said, we've only been watching the reefs for 50 years, but burning fossil fuels is also a relatively new industry. Compared to 100 years ago, the use of fossil fuel has probably increased 100,000%
We are just starting to see the effects of this increase.

I do think that corals can be very resilient. If the oceans waters do continue to warm, coral reefs will migrate away from the equator. That will take some time, but there are already findings of corals in Northern Atlantic waters, where none had been found in earlier years.

Like the saying goes,
"Nothing good happens fast in a reef tank."

The same goes for the ocean.
Time will tell.
 
lol, it's a good thing global warming is natural and not man-made.....otherwise our great country would be doing something about it:rolleyes:
 
It is pretty easy to blast big business and the gov for not doing anything about global warning dont forget the average 2,000 + watts of power we are using to keep our reefs.
 
i know for a fact that every one of us is taking up a great deal of power in running our setups. I've also negated that by switching every bulb in my home to a 18 watt replacement flourescent bulb, instead of the 60/75 watt incandescent that were in them.
My point was that the ignorance of saying "it's natural" and that they in no way caused it is just insane.


and back on the story. I wonder how well some of the other big ones are being monitored (keys, belize......places like that)
 
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not for nuthin

not for nuthin

not for nuthin but we assume being intelligent beings that we rule the earth.. no matter who causes it or why.. its still sad to see a forest of white corals... no matter how you slice it or whats the cause.. thats why it bothered me not cause of any other issue.. yah it may bounce back this time and the next but one day it may not bounce back.. and who r we to blame then.. dont matter cause its past... just wanted to share my sadness and a good article.. nothin was ment to point fingers.. cause if anything.. if its ment to be it will survive.. if its not it wont.. hopefully IMHO one day itll come down to the ocean ruleing and we are the ones dieing off (bird flu??) who knows... just my 2 cents
 
We should all try and minimized our power usage, however, it is ultimately governments who decide how that energy is produced. Coal power generation accounts for about 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Governments have the opportunity to eliminate 50% of all air pollution as there are many other viable methods of power generation. None are perfect but all are vastly more environmentally friendly than coal. But coal is by far the cheapest and thus things will not change until the situation is dire. In 50 years people like GWB rejecting Kyoto will be remembered as fools. No one will care about Iraq or New Orleans, but kids in school will learn about our generations' failure to adapt.
 
a lot of the problems come down to the Not In MY Back Yard notion People want to do alternative energy and other people cry and the town passes laws so that it cant be done . things like windmills ect I am not trying to start a fight I use outragous amounts of electricity my self I just think personaly living in a glass house I don't want to throw stones.
 
Boy I was wondering when the next semi annual Global Warming debate was going to begin....Seems like its been awhile. I think I will avoid this one.

Debate on it makes for good reading.

Scott
 
I think the best situation would be if it was a cyclical thing and the corals normally indure some hardship and then recover. Like us being layed off from a job, its inconvienent and difficult but there is another on the horizon. If corals have been in the ocean for millenia, I'm sure that reefs have switched places, from warmer to colder places and vise versa.

Please don't get me wrong fellas, It is sad. But we don't have enough info on this yet, I suspect we might have a much better handle on it in 20 years. Unfortunately, science does take that long or even longer. I do plan on being in the hobby at that time and caring.

What if it isn't governments fault, and not industrys fault and then we needlessly villified them. I think its just too easy to point the finger at some large conglomerant.

Bosborn this isn't a debate but a discussion. If there was only one viewpoint very little would be accomplished in the world. I hope this is a healthy dicussion, because that would be good, even if we disagreed. In the longrun we will know better hopefull know how to address it properly.
 
Side note.

Pangea, when the continents were all together. They moved

Iceland was once icy, and Greenland was once green. they switched. This may mean that ocean invironments may change as well. If that is true that means that corals species have somehow moved from location to location. I don't know how but they do colonize ship wrecks. Corals may be more hardy than we realize but I don't want to say for sure because its not proven.
 
The global climate has undergone vast changes throughout history (ice ages) but these have all occurred over tens of thousands of years. To have temperature trends changing in just 100 years is waaaaay off. I'm sure the corals will either adapt or move but global warming is real.
 
these have all occurred over tens of thousands of years. To have temperature trends changing in just 100 years is waaaaay off.

How do you know that? How long have we been keeping records? Entire cities that only a thousand years old are buried under 50 feet of sediment (ephesis and countless others). For all we know this planet could be in constant continual flux. I have been told that the place in which I live has been a mile under ice and that there was once an ocean here, both are very likely.

Concern is one thing, which I think this thread should be about, Not speculation. I'll hop off, I don't want to upset people any more than I have. My whole point is that we have observed the reefs for 50 years let's have a attitude of concern but not jump to assumptions.
 
Good point Kent.
I'm concerned.
If it's awareness first, what can be done?

I can't help but wonder; that if coral reefs were more visible (like trees) and ___% of them were dying for ____ reason if it would make a change in people's priorities on ensuring the survival of them.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6958868#post6958868 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fat-tony
We could end up with Acan's growing in NY harbor LOL!!!
I lived on Staten Island for over 25 years.. I don't think ANYTHING will every grow in NY harbor lol.
 
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