[Coral-List] Thoughts on coral decline and the future.

[thomas at seamarc.com]

Dear Michael,

 

Thanks for your effort in summing this up.

I read: "There  is a large body of research supporting the contention that
land-based stress dominated until late in the 20^th century, but global
warming is gaining quickly in a race we would rather not watch." The lessons
from coral reefs other than the Caribbean is that global has unfortunately
already overtaken the land based stresses. Just like I suppose that the land
based stresses would have overtaken the effects of the dust at some stage,
making it a lesser concern. 

Regarding the dust, maybe Gene can tell us has significant the year 83 in
geological terms. If ever such events have happened in the past, I guess the
reefs would have recovered before 83. Why wouldn't the reef have recovered
by now? If such events are more frequent than before, explaining a
continuous decline, are we not talking about an early sign of climate
change? We also need to mention that this is mostly a Caribbean problem as
the dust transport mentioned represents 70 % of the dust movement over the
earth.

 

You also write: "Human populations will be displaced, perhaps suddenly, by
unpredictable rises in sea level. The time may come when society as a whole
may not have the resources to save coral reefs, because people come first".
I am under the impression that the sea level rise is predicted, and even
measured. The question however is, looking at the current situation, by how
many times do we have to multiply the amount of Syrian refugees for the
situation to become unbearable?

 

Regards,

 

Thomas