[Coral-List] Evidence that ocean warming has caused most Caribbean coral loss

Peter Sale sale at uwindsor.ca
Fri May 5 14:52:50 EDT 2017


Steve,
Not quite.  It is correct to consider anyone who works diligently at solving local coral reef issues while actively disputing the need to be concerned about climate change as woefully shortsighted.  But someone working diligently on let's say local reef pollution, who is not expressing an opinion, one way or the other, about effects of climate change, may simply be doing the best that he/she can with the resources and soap boxes available to her/him.  I'd prefer not to disparage good efforts, although I think I'd want to know more about that individual's understanding, and try to help if I found out he/she was unaware of how climate change might well eliminate even well-managed reefs.

Last from me for a few days.
Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Mussman [mailto:sealab at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 12:57 PM
To: Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Evidence that ocean warming has caused most Caribbean coral loss

Got that Peter, so am I wrong to consider efforts which focus solely on locally sourced insults to coral reefs while (seemingly) designedly ignoring the broader impacts of GHGs (climate change, CO2, warming oceans) to be woefully short-sighted? In other words, isn't it the position of the coral science community that even if we effectively address over-fishing, land-based pollutants, plastic debris, lionfish invasions, sunscreen contaminates, etc.., on the local level, we are still likely to lose many of those same coral reefs around the world to warming ocean temperatures (and eventually OA) if climate change is left unabated? That has been my understanding, but I've not read every study to date and perhaps I have misinterpreted and misrepresented the intent of the consensus statement that came out of the ICRS (International Coral Reef Symposium) in 2012.   Regards and thanks for your patience, Steve








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