[Coral-List] Why do so many people care so little

Sat Apr 22 03:06:37 UTC 2023

I may have shared this simple analogy before?
If our present global economic order is compared to a train fueled by
fossil fuels, the train, with all species on board, is speeding towards a
gaping chasm of mass extinction and the probable collapse of civilization.
All the various international accords have thus far mostly been just talk,
and the numerous meetings and airfares etc might have cost more than what
has been spent so far to save these ecosystems?

The fact is that this train is NOT slowing down, but rather is accelerating
towards disaster year by year, as the total amount of greenhouse gas
released goes up, with the rate of release accelerating, not declining.
The big question is have we gone past the point of no return, where braking
will not slow our momentum down in time?  Will we go over the edge in spite
of implementing too little, too late?

I say let's at least raise a ruckus, educate others, and move to the back
of the train and try our best to decouple.  If a change in direction and
putting on the brakes is not possible, perhaps a derailment is the only
thing which can save us?   Prepare for massive depopulation and other
changes if that derailment happens, however, it will be much less than the
result of falling into the chasm, because all of our prosperity is
dependent on a healthy natural world.  Even if humanity stops all fossil
fuel consumption, we are locked in to major sea level increases over the
next 300 years.

So take your pick:
1. Massive reductions in Carbon release via international binding
agreements (which is becoming less and less likely as we approach the point
of no return),
2. Some sort of economic collapse which derails the system and suddenly
lowers impact, and which rewilds nature before it is too late, or
3. The death of coral reefs and other ecosystems, with mass extinction of
remaining megafauna and hundreds of thousands of other species and possibly
of humanity as well.

What times we live in!  Please do not throw up your hands and say you can
do nothing.
Either stay hopeful and positive- or get very angry- whatever keeps you
working to save the coral reefs!

Austin

Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
Corals for Conservation
P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands

https://www.corals4conservation.org
Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
22 minute summary of climate change adaptation strategies
https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>

On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 3:02 PM Austin Bowden-Kerby <abowdenkerby at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yes it is easy to become discouraged.  In recent years I find
> myself becoming more angered than discouraged.
>
> Of relevance and within our ranks, a new emerging trend is to LOUDLY
> announce and even celebrate coral cover recovery events.  However, on
> closer examination, many of the so-called "recovery" events are not
> recovery back to the original coral populations, but rather are complete
> species phase shift events:  with trends away from Acropora and towards
> Pocillopora or Montipora, and then finally when that goes in subsequent
> stress events, to Porites or to bare CCA covered rock.  All of this is
> associated with multiple local coral extinctions.
>
> Is the motivation for reporting recovery so loudly to get publicity, with
> these papers picked up by the press?  Because that is what has happened.
> Or is the motivation an attempt to get tourists to continue to spend
> their money by visiting the coral reefs?  Are these authors oblivious to
> the fact that this reporting casts major doubt on the seriousness of
> climate change impacts on coral reefs?  We now see them being picked up by
> the major deniers of climate change.  The same might be said of some
> earlier reports on coral restoration, but at least we did not say that
> mother nature was doing just fine on her own.
>
> The fact is that reporting on any recovery should be dampened by stating
> the temporary nature of that recovery, that it will all be swept away in
> the coming years and decades.  Short term recovery in the face of what is
> coming is nothing to celebrate.
>
> Regards,
>
> Austin
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
>
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
> https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> 22 minute summary of climate change adaptation strategies
> https://youtu.be/arkeSGXfKMk
>
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> <https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 6:23 AM Dennis Hubbard via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> Ehsan:
>>
>> My personal experience on this front is exemplified by my back-and-forth
>> with a former office-mate who is now retired from Chevron. Just above your
>> post in my email list was an email from him with the following as the
>> opening salvo. The bizarre thing is that his rants usually focus on US
>> businesses (and, therefore, jobs) going overseas where environmental laws
>> are weaker. As this seemed like a direct turn-around, my reply to him was
>> a
>> question asking why business moving *toward* the US is suddenly such a
>> disaster. What can we possibly say to well-educated folks that raise such
>> competing points and argue that they both support their own arguments?
>> Note
>> that this is a PHD graduate from a well-respected  geology department.
>>
>> Dennis
>> Europe Worries That America Fights Climate Change Too Much
>> Companies are crossing the Atlantic to soak up green-energy subsidies,
>> prompting fears of a new trade war.
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 21, 2023 at 8:55 AM Ehsan KAYAL via Coral-List <
>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>> > It is inaccurate to talk in such general terms (i.e., people), when the
>> > will of the majority of humans has no impact on decisions with planetary
>> > impacts. In fact, it is more accurate to wonder:
>> > - why educated people in wealthy countries continue to look the other
>> way,
>> > maintain their unsustainable way of life while they, unlike most of
>> > humanity, have the means of making a difference?
>> > - why do these people continue to believe in a socio-political system
>> that
>> > is harmful to life and wellbeing?
>> > - why do these same educated people ignore the historical impacts of
>> their
>> > societies while refusing to allow other societies to develop, hiding
>> behind
>> > global change as an excuse to hold those societies back?
>> > These are some of the questions one with any sense of fairness would
>> > pounder and try to resolve.
>> > Cheers,
>> > E
>> >
>> >
>> > On Wed, 19 Apr 2023 at 09:00, Phillip Dustan via Coral-List <
>> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>> >
>> > > People obviously love money more than life until they find that money
>> is
>> > > useless.
>> > > We are fast approaching that decision point on this planel.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 11:29 AM Vassil Zlatarski via Coral-List <
>> > > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > in the face of planetary changes that will reshape the lives of our
>> > > > grandchildren?  In 1968, Baba Dioum, a Senegalese forest ranger,
>> > > provided a
>> > > > memorable answer.  "In the end", he said, "we will conserve only
>> what
>> > we
>> > > > love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand
>> only
>> > > > what we are taught.
>> > > >
>> > > > -  Knoll, A. H. 2021. A Brief History of Earth
>> > > > _______________________________________________
>> > > > Coral-List mailing list
>> > > > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> > > > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>> > > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Phillip Dustan PhD
>> > > Charleston SC  29424
>> > > 843-953-8086 office
>> > > 843-224-3321 (mobile)
>> > >
>> > > "When we try to pick out anything by itself
>> > > we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords
>> > > that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe. "
>> > > *                                         John Muir 1869*
>> > >
>> > > *A Swim Through TIme on Carysfort Reef*
>> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPJE7UE6sA
>> > > *Raja Ampat Sustainability Project video*
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR2SazW_VY&fbclid=IwAR09oZkEk8wQkK6LN3XzVGPgAWSujACyUfe2Ist__nYxRRSkDE_jAYqkJ7A
>> > > *Bali Coral Bleaching 2016 video*
>> > >
>> > > *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo
>> > > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo>*
>> > > TEDx Charleston on saving coral reefs
>> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwENBNrfKj4
>> > > Google Scholar Citations:
>> > > https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HCwfXZ0AAAAJ
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > Coral-List mailing list
>> > > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> > > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Coral-List mailing list
>> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dennis Hubbard - Emeritus Professor: Dept of Geology-Oberlin College
>> Oberlin OH 44074
>> (440) 935-4014
>>
>> * "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
>>  Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
>