World's biggest coral ecosystem suffers its most severe bleaching in recorded history due to warming sea temperatures Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It is a far more complicated process than just saying the sea came up a few inches over the last 30 years (verified by tide gauges) and ignore the much more significant natural processes that build and erode beaches. the sceptical members of society including scientists are given the right to be sceptical. Sydney Harbour sea level has supposedly been rising at a few mm per year for the past 150 years and guess what? Great Barrier Reef is better than expected: Ley. The growing combination of rising water temperatures, poorer water quality from sediment run-off and pollution, as well as more severe cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, are just some of the threats creating a perfect storm for our Reef and the marine life that depends on it. C Mark Eakin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States explains, “Climate has warmed rapidly in the past years, first making El Ninos dangerous for the corals, and now we’re seeing the emergence of the bleaching in every hot summer.”. Dr G: Oh yeah. The Red Sea is in the northern hemisphere, so the amount of CO2 in the air is probably slightly more than the GBR area. If it weren’t for the coronavirus pandemic, this would be front page news. The Great Barrier Reef is officially in critical condition. The Great Barrier Reef, the only living structure visible from outer space, took hundreds of thousands of years to develop and is home to one of Earth’s most complex ecosystems. For permission, contact us. I am one of a small and dwindling band of people who have observed the GBR [intermittently] for >60 years. “Human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels, are driving climate change,” states the council. The tour operators were helpless, as they could, and would go out to the reefs every day and saw that the reefs were doing just fine. Just another opinion…and we all have one. Except, those children who are immaturely hung-up about other people using coal and fossil fuels never seem to give up all of civilization’s benefits themselves. The Great Barrier Reef is 2,300 km long and can be seen from space from its position off the coast of Queensland, Australia. AtB. As they told us in 1989, by next year, Europe will be uninhabitable. Not those guys. should take a leaf from the IPCC’s playbook. Can you explain how sea levels magically rise in one place and not others? She might not be a gullible fool, but I know someone who is. With the claimed warming over the twentieth century to today is so small most people and wildlife are unable to detect it. For unexplainable reasons, the Queensland government has continued to support expanding coal mines and ports. Using beach erosion to judge sea level rise is a poor method. UNESCO has criticised the Australian Government for not taking greater steps to preserve the Reef since it was placed on their watch list in 2015. So you are saying that the minister should not believe her lying eyes? To validate your claim to possess a sentient brain, can you please explain for us how it was that multiple phyla of marine calcified organisms, both free living and sessile, evolved, thrived and spread around the world during the Cambrian era when the atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 20 (that’s twenty) times higher than it is now? How the Great Barrier Reef was formed – Twenty thousand years ago. in the last 13,000 years? That means it was a once a fringing reef at the edge of the continental shelf which grew to the sun as the ice melted. You mean the islands that are not disappearing? Put that in your third grade bubble pipe, and swallow soap. Storms even eliminate beaches and sometimes create barrier islands. Not giving the funds to the likes of the JCU may well have happened over the Peter Rudd matter, serves them right. Must be a grade school weekend project; sign onto skeptic websites and spout foolishness. if the reef dies, it will be felt throughout all australia, animal populations will die off and ocean quality will drastically decrease. Every goddamn animal in the ocean incorporates it for their skeletons! Well apparently those “scientists” aren’t very good at their job, so yeah. Is that a flock of Gloucester Old Spot* overhead? rises for ten years then goes flat for five years, then drops for 5 years) then correlation can be a helpful hint at where cause and effect might lie. Right – ignore scientists that have been studying it for decades and go and have a look over the side of a boat in a few places and make your decision based on that. Or people who claim it’s dead based on an article in the Australian MSM while sitting in their arm chairs and have never actually been to the reef, any part of it. Keeping in mind, that those allegedly renewable energy sources kill bats and birds by the multitudes and have reversed populations recovery of large raptors and carrion birds. … It helps to read the first sentence. Coal is considered a dying industry and it also damages the Great Barrier Reef’s health.The craziest part, though? I suspect bleaching impacts further South were even less. Ever walked the beach on an idyllic tropical island? Sorry. hard to tell what’s sarcasm these days. With an alleged warming anomaly that is impossible to calculate reliably or accurately. of robotic lil devices that cruise around autonomously and inject them with something to kill em in situ. He captured the Great Barrier Reef during its latest—and most devastating—mass die-off, and documented how coral off the coast of Belize had partially recovered thanks to a no-fishing zone. Maybe she actually did pull her head out of the sand. They also demean Ms. Ley and claim absurdities; “one lay person takes a quick look at one small reef”. in order to get elected, leftists sold the death of the barrier reef as a dire consequence of global warming, and as a result tourism stagnated. I red that Susan Ley actually got into the full diving gear over three days of different locations on the GB R . The Polar Bears are doing nicely, sea level rise isn’t accelerating, Tuvalu isn’t drowning and now the Bloody GBR is thriving. The real world, as you call it, is a sick and dangerous place. You are a glaring example of the irrational elitist. it’s an attempt to untangle the web they have woven. – Fred Pearce The Climate Files: Loss or accumulation of sand on a beach is only affected very slightly by the small amount of sea level rise over the last 30 years, but mostly a factor of changes in currents, local structures, sea walls, storms, dams, etc. As we speak we are cruising in Alaska; also subject of alarmism. theyre still there but decades of volunteers killing them has helped, now they have some? Although this rule is true, if this is Rule #1 in science then there are many Rule #1s. “The Reef supports a huge variety of marine biodiversity and an estimated 69,000 Australian jobs, and provides $7 billion to the Australian economy every year,” reads a report from the Australian Climate Council. None of this was by accident. we need to save the reef or our environmental quality will quickly plummet. 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