[Coral-List] Caribbean reef decline, reality and fairy tales

[Paul Hoetjes]

Please read the report before commenting on it.

Currently one of the main obstacles to coral reef protection is people
saying "what's the use, the reefs are doomed anyway because of climate
change". Even people who don't believe in climate change will happily agree
that climate change will destroy the reefs. Another problem off the table.

This report is a clear demonstration that there is a lot more going on, and
climate change cannot be used as a scapegoat.

Best,
Paul


On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 12:23 PM, Bill Allison <allison.billiam at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Downplaying of the role of climate change is unfortunate because it affords
> these mentalists a spoon-bending opportunity.
>
>
> http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/07/05/caribbean-coral-reef-die-off-not-caused-by-climate-change-after-all-expert-report-writes/
>
> http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/08/Environmental-Group-Admits-Climate-Change-Not-to-Blame-for-Coral-Reef-Disappearance
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 9:35 AM, Szmant, Alina <szmanta at uncw.edu> wrote:
>
> > Hi Peter:
> >
> > I have not read this report yet, but I have heard from a couple of
> > colleagues close to this issue that Jackson's downplaying of the role of
> > climate change (and to be more precise, extreme warming events...aka
> global
> > warming) in the Caribbean really ignores that major factors, the
> overriding
> > factors, in Caribbean coral reef decline.  I think there is a critique of
> > this report in prep by well recognized Caribbean coral reef scientists.
> > While herbivory is obviously a critical process on coral reefs and I
> > totally support protection of parrotfishes and other herbivores: common
> > sense, looking around the Caribbean and the experimental study of
> Williams
> > and Polunin (2001) show that there are not enough parrotfishes/herbivores
> > out there to eat all the algae on a reef with less than 10 % cover.  Loss
> > of parrotfishes did not cause bleaching and disease outbreaks.  Even
> major
> > coastal development did not cause much coral mortality compared to the
> > 1987, 1998, 2005 bleaching events to list just a few of the most dramatic
> > ones.  The Florida Keys has lots of parrotfishes (they are not preferred
> > food for Americans) and there are plenty of algae in spite of huge herds
> of
> > midnights, blues and acanthurids, as well as stoplights, red band and the
> > smaller species.
> >
> > Human nature is not to bother until there is a crisis...the worse the
> > crisis the more we respond.  We don't do much about "well this could be a
> > problem in a few years.." which is why most coral reef 'management' and
> > conservation efforts have failed...no urgency! In the case of coral
> reefs,
> > the case for urgency has not been made well.  On the other hand,
> decisions
> > about changing our global economy away from fossil fuels to renewables
> and
> > to stop deforestation, and to slow and reverse human population
> > growth/size, and to changes our patterns of consumption away from
> > consumerism and meat eating will not be made because of our concern for
> > coral reefs alone.  If you look around you (except for you Peter who live
> > up in beautiful temperate forests), the natural terrestrial world is
> > quickly disappearing to become part of the human footprint of
> urbanization
> > and industrial agriculture.
> >
> > Alina
> >
> >
> >
> > "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds
> > discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt
> >
> > "The time is always right to do what is right"  Martin Luther King
> >
> > *************************************************************************
> > Dr. Alina M. Szmant
> > Professor of Marine Biology
> > AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Awardee
> > Center for Marine Science
> > University of North Carolina Wilmington
> > 5600 Marvin Moss Ln
> > Wilmington NC 28409 USA
> > tel:  910-962-2362  fax: 910-962-2410  cell: 910-200-3913
> > http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
> > *******************************************************
> >
>
>