[Coral-List] Happy Birthday Mike, Keep on Writing Screeds

[Yossi Loya]

Hi coral-list Peter Sale and Mike Risk,
Thanks Peter and Happy Birthday, Mike.
Each of your words, Peter, is carved in stone.
Yossi
Tel Aviv University
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On Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 11:53 PM Peter Sale via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Hi coral-list and Mike Risk,
> Happy Birthday, Mike. Keep on writing screeds.  We all live in a Zone of
> Interest these days, trying our best to get on with our lives without
> noticing the daily destruction of the planet we occupy.  Those of us lucky
> enough to have spent time on coral reefs over more than a three to four
> year span are vaguely aware that things are not as they once were. Those of
> us who read the old literature (when it was new and there was less
> literature overall to read) may remember the evidence for the causes of
> reef decline (or some of them anyway). We are more sensitized than others
> to the ridiculousness of many frequent proposals for how to save coral
> reefs. But our time is also limited and soon we will all be gone.
>
> At some time in the future, perhaps, a new cohort of sentient beings who
> care about the planet that sustains them may discover some of your screeds.
> They will marvel that we knew so much about how to fix things (or how to
> avoid breaking things) and yet continued to break things until all was
> gone. These sentient beings may be our descendants, or they may be
> something else entirely. And they may even witness a rebirth of coral reefs.
>
> For now, those of us who do remember can write screeds, or build Facebook
> pages, or even create TikTok videos in the hope of doing some good. But
> based on the last 20 years those efforts will do relatively little to stop
> our collective headlong rush into oblivion. But we have to keep trying,
> because perhaps...
>
> And those few who are younger than us but have somehow caught onto the
> truth that a flourishing planet is more important to their lives by far
> than is a booming economy; to those I say I hope very much that you will
> prove me wrong.
> Peter Sale
> University of Windsor
>
>
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