Coral decline warns of Great Barrier Reef extinction

When the largest living organism on the planet is dying - it's time we all started paying more attention to our lifestyles & help figure out how to stop such an ecological disaster.

Another reason to conserve and do your part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Humans are such dicks.

Good news is that at least whenever you actually start cleaning the environment, it responds with open arms.

I want my two year old nephew to grow up knowing what a coral reef is!

We, the human race, are a virus infecting the Earth...
As a result of this infection we have made the Earth sick.
Like many viruses we are killing the host...
The effects of this infection are in part septic oceans, weeping sores (urban sprawl), and the many manifestations attributed to global warming.
Only a mass reduction in the viral population might reverse this infection unless it's already too late.
Perhaps the Earth will rise up and shake off the infection by massive storms and other ecological disasters that break down the food chain.
Equilibrium will be attained with or without the human race.
Hopefully, if a few humans survive they will have learned the lessons from the past... but I rather doubt it.

Maybe all those old ships we've been sinking will help some. Many have already begun their own eco system.

What can WE do to help the coral reefs?

Instead of sending bibles to countries Send Tree's
we can make a difference.

Maybe we should raise money to by some trees for Haiti. It would save hundreds of lives stopping mudd slides and generate green for planet
What and Idea for a TV show!

Tree's for Haiti
Plants and Animals
Clearing forests for farms and wood for charcoal has stripped Haiti of most of its valuable native trees. Only some pine forests at high elevations and mangroves in inaccessible swamps remain. Semidesert scrub covers the ground in drier zones. Environmental deterioration has had a severe impact on Haiti's plants, animals, soil, and water resources. Tropical reefs surrounding the country are threatened by the large quantities of silt washed down from the eroding mountainsides. Coffee and cacao trees spread across the mountains in scattered clumps, while sugarcane, sisal, cotton, and rice cover most of the good farmland. Most of Haiti's native animals were hunted to extinction long ago. Caiman and flamingo are the most common wildlife seen today. Haiti's large population and the degree of deforestation already present seem to preclude the reestablishment of wildlife, although the climate would be hospitable to any tropical plants or animals.

Get a church organization, corporation, or your own blog to help.

Meditation Live Love Learn
http://www.wehaitians.com/environmental.html
http://www.tulane.edu/~guillory/veve/haitifacts.htm

I posted something similar...
http://current.com/items/89677827/hot_southern_summer_threatens_coral_with_massi...

This isnt news, its ancient history, coral reefs have been dying since 2005 and people havent done dick about it. Its too late to save them now, mostly because any action will be delayed by legislation, lobbyists, red tape and bureaucracy.

I'm not saying we should ignore the death of these coral reefs, but is this some sort of hypothetical report? I'm sure scientists didn't have tools to measure these thermal temperatures or w.e. in the 1750s

the mother giveth and the mother taketh away.

Get ready for some non-stop, insanely powerful hurricanes ravaging North America.

The consequences of our careless habits continue to unravel.

From the article:

A sharp slowdown in coral growth on Australia's Great Barrier Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world's oceans may be imminent, scientists said Friday.
Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers reported.

"The data suggest that this severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at least 400 years," said Glenn De'ath, principal author of a paper published Friday in the international journal Science.

The research shows that corals on the reef have slowed their growth by more than 14 percent since the "tipping point" year of 1990 and on current trends the corals would stop growing altogether by 2050.

"It is cause for extreme concern that such changes are already evident, with the relatively modest climate changes observed to date, in the world's best protected and managed coral reef ecosystem," said co-author Janice Lough.

Coral skeletons form the backbone of reef ecosystems and provide the habitat for tens of thousands of plant and animal species and more acidic oceans will affect many sea creatures, not just coral, a statement on the report said.

"All calcifying organisms that are central to the function of marine ecosystems and food webs will be affected, and precipitous changes in the biodiversity and productivity of the world's oceans may be imminent," it added.

The findings are based on analyses of annual growth bands -- like rings on trees -- extending back in time up to 400 years.

Rising sea temperatures are blamed on global warming caused by the build-up in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide -- which is also blamed for higher acidity in sea water.

A UN report warned in 2007 that the Great Barrier Reef, described as the world's largest living organism, could be killed by climate change within decades.

The World Heritage site and major tourist attraction, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometres (133,000 sq miles) off Australia's east coast, could become "functionally extinct", the report said.

The journal Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.