[Coral-List] reassessing coral reefs

[Douglas Fenner]

   Good post, I generally agree.  I didn't see obvious bias in the article
that was written in The Australian.  I also agree that for us, the
important article is the Cooper article in Science.  However, I think we
should hold newspaper articles to high standards as well.  I didn't have
problems with this one, but I often do with others, often with relatively
trivial parts of the articles, which I think are factually wrong.  I think
people have a right to be critical about newspapers as well, and it is well
known that Rupert Murdock pushes his own viewpoint in his many newspapers
in Australia, the US, and the UK, and his Fox TV network in the states, and
that one of his newspapers got in serious trouble in the UK a few years ago
for ethical problems and legal violations.  However, this article in The
Australian did not appear to me to be obviously biased, and the behavior of
the newspaper in general does not tarnish this article in The Australian,
let alone the Cooper article in Science.  The fact that we decided that
climate change issues are a legitimate discussion point on coral-list means
to me that the question of bias on that topic in Murdock's media is open
for debate on coral-list.  My interest was in the scientific issues, in
response to Gene's post, and I'm in agreement with him on those issues, I
think, though I have gone more out of my way to point out the limitations
to the growth enhancement at high temperatures, and that the fastest growth
does not necessarily mean healthy coral.
     I tend to think that the discussion Gene started has been good.
Cheers,  Doug


On Thu, Apr 9, 2015 at 3:28 AM, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
wrote:

> Guess I stirred up a lot of muddy water with the report on coral growth
> in the Australian newspaper. I thank Dough Fenner for pointing out that
> the report is on a 2012 paper published in Science.I missed that however
> I do remember reading the original paper. I think the take home message
> is that in areas where the water is usually quite cool it is logical for
> coral growth to increase when the water warms. Think “just right” as in
> the Goldilocks story.And yes Porities is a fairly tough coral.While with
> USGS we cored large Porities heads that survived near Atomic bomb tests
> at Eniwetok atoll. Based on analysis of annual growth rings we found
> that several smaller heads began growing on the edge of a bomb crater
> within a year of the event.
>
> The photo of the diver coring the head coral appalled Dennis Hubbard as
> it did me. The photo showed all the divers equipment as well as the
> diver resting on the coral head. In the past we cored over a hundred
> head corals and never touched them except with the drill bit.
>
> It was interesting that one reader took the “kill the messenger”
> approach taking the newspaper to task because it is a Rupert Murdock
> product. Is that the way we do science? Read the article in Science and
> evaluate that.
>
> Earlier comments about the hypocrisy of coral scientists using air
> travel to study distant coral reefs, reminded me of a recent gathering
> of climate activists in Switzerland. They came from far and wide in
> approximately 700 different private jets. Yes it was reported on Fox
> news. What other network would have reported it?Hypocrisy is all around
> us. It shows up when we attack the messenger instead of the message. Gene
>
> --
>
>
> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> University of South Florida
> College of Marine Science Room 221A
> 140 Seventh Avenue South
> St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> Tel 727 553-1158
> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>
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-- 
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