[Coral-List] acropora alternative opinion

Shanee.Stopnitzky at sce.com Shanee.Stopnitzky at sce.com
Wed Oct 10 19:08:44 EDT 2007


I'm sorry if this seems disrespectful but it is utterly foolish to suggest 
that resilience, restoration and monitoring should not be 
explored/attempted or have no value. Particularly when your livelihood was 
based on studying reef systems...to what end? To satisfy curiousity? To 
hope (impossible) that they will drastically recover from global pressure? 
If you find it frustrating that the discussion has shifted from causes to 
options, and the only option as you see it is a reduction in population 
and consumption (which really, I wholeheartedly agree with) then why do 
you continue to study coral instead of that alternative? Coral reef 
scientists enjoy one of the richest lives available to people with jobs, 
if studying its physiology until the last coral dies is the end of the 
line, then that is a massive failure for us, not for the consumptive, 
breeding masses. There is meaning in discussing these things that 
supposedly frustrate you beyond saving all corals simultaneously on a 
global scale, and there is absolutely no time or energy available for 
outcries against solution-oriented action, irrespective of their success.

Best,
Shanee 


 James,
> I couldn't agree more.  One of the points of
> greatest frustration to me 
> is all the discussion about MPAs and reef
> restoration (and I know that 
> Tom is heavily involved in this) and related topics
> when the real 
> problems are global in extent.  I greatly fear that
> reefs as we know 
> them are doomed (is that too strong?).  One you get
> right down to it, 
> the number one problem for reefs is people - too
> darn many of them and 
> too much consumption of goods.
> 
> No amount of restoration, MPAs, monitoring, genetic
> analysis, and on and 
> on are addressing the real problem.
> 
> See you at 2008 ICRS?
> 
> John
> 


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