
Half of the Great Barrier Reef Is Dead - lisper
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/08/explore-atlas-great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-map-climate-change
======
tomhoward
Yes it's worrying and sad. But there are some signs of recovery, and there's
at least a little cause for a little optimism - and important reasons to
maintain at least some optimism - according to this recent report:

[http://coralseafoundation.net/coral-sea-news---
vol-3-2018.ph...](http://coralseafoundation.net/coral-sea-news---
vol-3-2018.php)

From that report:

 _While it is important that mainstream media is used to make the public aware
of large scale disturbances such as bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, it is
concerning to me that our young people and many millions of others are viewing
those media reports and concluding that the GBR is “dead” or “dying” and
hardly worth visiting. Contemporary journalism that neglects to mention the
different susceptibilities of corals to bleaching stress, or the ecological
adaptation of the reef to disturbance and its inherent recovery potential, are
not helping to present an accurate picture of the current situation and they
present an obvious risk of instilling a sense of hopelessness in our younger
generations, right at the time when we need that generation to be inspired to
take action to help protect ecosystems such as coral reefs._

~~~
Cthulhu_
> and concluding that the GBR is “dead” or “dying” and hardly worth visiting.

Isn't that a good thing? A while ago, the death of the coral reef was blamed
on damage by tourists.

~~~
tomhoward
I don’t think the right approach is to pretend it’s more dead than it is just
to keep the tourists away. That kind of dishonesty doesn’t pay off.

That aside, damage due to tourism is minor compared to bleaching and is easily
abated through government supervision, and the fact that tourism operators
have a commercial incentive to prevent damage in order to stay in business
long term. That system has always worked well on the GBR, which is why it has
continued to be an international tourism destination for decades and not
sustained serious harm.

Every time i’ve visited the reef (and I’ve done it a few times), clear
instructions are given on how to behave to avoid damaging the coral (not
standing on it etc), and everyone there, being nature lovers in the first
place, is most willing to oblige.

------
Freak_NL
There was a set of articles in the newspaper yesterday in this aftermath of a
month of tropical heat in temperate Europe. Climate scientists are now more
inclined to publicly link this extreme weather type (and many other structural
changes in the weather) to climate change. Good, because for a lot of people
it stopped being some abstract thing.

But a painful observation made in the op/ed pages is that the general feeling
is that this is just how it is; we can't do anything about it. That sense of
being able to tackle problems and shape the world and society in a way that
benefits us — it is gone.

Many people just submit to the notion that they can't do anything about it.
Usually because 'doing something about it' on a personal level means
sacrificing luxuries (consume less, buy less, stop flying half way around the
world for a holiday twice a year, reduce your energy footprint). Climate
change is an inconvenient truth, and a lot of folk seem quite content to just
give up — consequences be damned, or rather, ignored.

Some flee into convenient falsehoods. Claiming that, yes, climate change is
happening, but _we_ don't have any influence on that, and did you know that
_[insert denialist trope]_.

A lot of people do continue to do what they reasonably can — balancing their
modern comfortable lifestyle with genuine attempts at affecting change. Even
if it means just lowering their own personal footprint and voting for the
politicians are at least willing to explore solutions. But it's not enough,
and that risks making one feel that all efforts are pointless.

We're clever and resourceful enough as a race to deal with this problem. We're
also too self-centred (on a national, tribal, and personal level) to actually
do more than take the absolute bare minimum of measures; and even those
attempts are watered down time and time again by the leaders of the world's
nations. Because either they don't understand the problem, or because they do
and don't care.

It's all so very sad.

~~~
ux-app
> Usually because 'doing something about it' on a personal level means
> sacrificing luxuries

Yes and the sooner we accept that this is a part of human nature the better.
Fighting what is clearly innate is futile. We have not evolved the ability to
ever be satisfied. We a stupid apes who want more, more, more at all costs.

We need to accept this reality instead of shaking our heads at one another in
faux reproach (probably over dinner, made from 20 ingredients shipped from all
across the globe).

The only way to make actions against climate change a reality is to make it
profitable. If we can work out how to make it so that people make gobs of
money by reversing climate change then things will be peachy.

If we can't figure out a way to turn a buck from fixing climate change then we
are all, collectively, fucked.

~~~
titzer
> The only way to make actions against climate change a reality is to make it
> profitable. If we can work out how to make it so that people make gobs of
> money by reversing climate change then things will be peachy.

> If we can't figure out a way to turn a buck from fixing climate change then
> we are all, collectively, fucked.

Well, that old world is fucked. But if you look at the lifestyles of, e.g.
American Indians, they lasted 10,000 years in North America in a much more
sustainable fashion. Granted, it wasn't perfect. Humans caused the extinction
of megafauna in North America as elsewhere, but organized agriculture never
really took off there, and because of that, that continent was relatively
unspoiled until Columbus.

~~~
pif
> e.g. American Indians, they lasted 10,000 years in North America in a much
> more sustainable fashion.

Sure! And why did they change their lifestyle as soon as they could? Before it
was MUCH more comfortable!

Cheap energy has revolutionized the world. It is unfortunate that, for the
moment, we can only find cheap energy in polluting fossil fuels but, short of
discovering a less polluting cheap energy source (if it ever exists), there is
no going back! You'll never be able to convince billions of people to give up
their car and air conditioning to go back ploughing the fields.

Climate change will get irreversible if we don't drastically lower our quality
life? OK, let it be! Let's accept it already and start doing what we can do to
adapt. But don't talk about going back: nobody will listen to you.

~~~
stukh
Quite a few Native Americans did not willingly give up their lifestyle as soon
as they could. They were herded into reservations that were way too small to
continue their lifestyle. Change was forced upon them. This was especially
true when the buffalo herds died off. I’m thinking in particular of the Great
Plains Indians.

Overall though your point stands. It’s not like billions of people are going
to willingly give up the comforts that we have. Though in part this is because
it is no longer feasible to live off the land as people did thousands of years
ago. The only way to go back, as you call it, is for the population of the
world to decline. This would mean a drastic reduction in the birth rate. There
is a number for the size of the population of the world such that if everyone
of those people lived like Americans pollution wouldn’t be large enough to be
a problem.

~~~
Frondo
"when the buffalo herds died off" \-- when they were slaughtered almost to
extinction, in large part to decimate the Indians who relied on them for food.

Check out the size of this pile of buffalo skulls, to get a sense of the scale
of destruction we did:

[https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/bison-skulls-pile-used-
fert...](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/bison-skulls-pile-used-
fertilizer-1870/)

~~~
deadmetheny
>we

I did nothing of the sort, thank you very much.

~~~
titzer
See this a lot. Well if you really take it as a personal affront that many
frontiersmen did this...please also refrain from taking credit for any
collective positive accomplishment of humanity, like the US constitution,
ending slavery, or more generally Science, computers, jeans, or bubble gum. If
you wanna stick to the things that you _personally_ did, by all means.

~~~
deadmetheny
Why would I claim a hand in the creation of any of that? Using things others
have built is not 'taking credit'. It's perfectly possible to acknowledge the
evils of our ancestors without having to personally feel bad for it because
_none of us did it and have no reason to feel guilt for it_. Kindly fuck off
with your guilt complex.

~~~
titzer
> Kindly fuck off with your guilt complex.

This just not what anyone wants to see here at HN. No one personally attacked
you, yet you feel compelled to spew anger. That's just not our culture. There
are other places for shitposting.

------
pasta
Great steps are taken in the reef tank hobby and professional world. We now
have much more insight on how to keep corals and animals alive in a tank.

It's sad that progression in the reef tank world almost feels like an ark
project now that coral dies in the sea.

------
boyter
The worst thing about this is the timing. There is a political storm in
Australia over what is being seen to be done to save the reef. In a nutshell
the Prime Minister just gave away 444 million dollars of taxpayer money to an
organisation of 6 people without any due diligence. Turns out they are all ex
bankers and oil company people.

The organisation didn’t even apply for the grant.

Sadly this has become a highly political thing and because of the current
state of politics in Australia where your team must do the opposite of the
other team (little bipartisan action in the last 10 years with fallout being
carbon taxes, welfare, NBN) nothing is likely to be done until the current
government is voted out. Even then with another change its likely to start all
over again.

It’s a horrible state of affairs and sadly while a lot of Australian’s are
outraged our politicians are beholden to other interests so nothing will be
done.

If you want more background reading I’d suggest a quick look through the
Australia subreddit, keeping in mind that the majority on there are very left
leaning.

Some links of interest [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-09/barrier-reef-
foundatio...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-09/barrier-reef-foundation-
grant-shocking-myer-former-board-member/10090780)
[https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-
display/t...](https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-
display/turnbull-reefgate-and-rupert,11772) [https://www.2gb.com/ben-fordham-
takes-environment-minister-t...](https://www.2gb.com/ben-fordham-takes-
environment-minister-to-task-over-mysterious-444-million-reef-grant/)

------
kentosi
What saddens me about this story when it first cropped up back in 2016 is how
powerless I feel to be able to do anything directly.

Rising sea temperatures is not (as far as I'm aware) something we're
"directly" doing, but rather the net result of collective actions by humanity
world wide. We can't point to one person/orgainsation/political party/etc and
get them to fix this.

The whitening of the Great Barrier Reef, along with the natural damage caused
by immense hectares of open mines dug up across Australia is too abstract a
concept for most city-dwelling Aussies to really care about since it doesn't
impact on our day to day lives.

I wish there was something more we could do besides donating more to
environmental charity x.

/rant

~~~
pgeorgi
collect samples from the remaining reef (all over the place) and cultivate
them artificially until the situation is sorted out?

That's something we might be able to do on a smaller scale.

~~~
pdpi
It’s not just the reefs. It’s the whole ecosystem that surrounds them, which
is much harder to replicate as a whole in captivity

------
baq
i watched blue planet 2 and its stunning visuals are not enough to make up for
the bludgeoning message it delivers about what we've done to the oceans to
feel good afterwards. couple that with a record summer and the outlook isn't
pretty.

------
basicplus2
Remains of Huge, Ancient Coral Reef Discovered 2010

[https://www.livescience.com/29667-ancient-coral-reef-
discove...](https://www.livescience.com/29667-ancient-coral-reef-
discovered.html)

~~~
ipioxu15
> Because the fossil remains were found in deep waters where coral typically
> can't survive, the researchers suspect that the reef drowned due to rising
> sea levels leaving behind the newly discovered fossil structure and a small
> section of living coral, which was able to stay in shallow water.

Not related to the mechanism that is killing the Great Barrier Reef, which has
survived sea level changes.

------
liberte82
Based on how people talk about it I actually thought it was a lot more.

------
jlebrech
at which point will it have a negative on human life? (hopefully just humans)

~~~
bumholio
Humans are the most adaptable invasive species. The whole ocean can turn to
jelly mush before we care. We will say "oh dear", switch our fast food order
to fried chicken instead of fish and carry on as usual.

~~~
kerbalspacepro
We're adaptable, sure. But we're not some collective. There are hundreds of
millions of peoples lives that are tied up in the ocean. There are entire
cultures. Those things don't adapt easily. Turn the ocean into plastic mush,
and while I in my literal New York ivory tower will be fine, the fishermen
will starve.

------
nojvek
Seeing this from another perspective. Why does a person who can’t even afford
to travel give a shit about Barrier reef. Sure collectively, we as humans have
messed it up. But what are the actions of one person gonna make a difference?
Most people have bigger problems to worry about. Like ... staying alive, being
able to hold a job and pay rent.

I also think that it’s wishful thinking that suddenly we as humans will
suddenly change our livestyles. Cheap energy makes our lives confortable and
arguably makes us happy.

Add this to the capitalist landscape of most countries where govts bend to
accommodate corporates, why would anyone implement a policy that’s harmful for
their economy? May be Australia since the Barrier reef is in their country but
even their govt really doesn’t give a shit to be honest.

In terms of game theory, it makes sense why they behave the way they do.

I feel the only way to get out of this is rewarding strong innovation. I.e
making it so that solar/wind/nuclear is wayyy cheaper than coal so it doesn’t
make sense for any business to run a coal plant. Just the way we stopped
burning wood and candles.

Same with cars, it’s too expensive to buy a Tesla / leaf compared to a good ol
reliable Toyota. Prius is fugly. Gimme an affordable electric car that beats
the pants off gasoline car in range, style, and long term maintenance costs
and everyone will shift.

Incentivize Apple, Google, Microsoft, Hedge funds etc to spend their billions
of fat cash in energy revolution and we’ll get the returns.

The truth is the economy rewards profits and right now, not being green is
profitable.

------
fredsted
Well, good news I guess, I thought it was already killed.

~~~
infradig
Yes, why only last year 95% of it was dead. This is actually an improvement.

~~~
nielsbot
Really?

