[Coral-List] Australian institute loses some of its funding

[Douglas Fenner]

Leading coral reef lab loses funding

Ocean researchers around the globe are reeling from the news that the
most-cited coral-reef research institute in the world will lose most of its
national funding
<https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=5c8b48df2e&e=190a62d266>
after
2021. The Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, headquartered at
James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, will lose over one-third of
of its current annual budget. Some researchers link the decision to the
Australian government’s more general failure to adequately address climate
change, which is the greatest threat to coral reefs — but the government
denies that there was any political interference.

Coral scientists decry loss of funding for leading Australian reef
institute.


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07270-8?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20181105

open-access

     As the article points out, they will lose 37% of their funding (not
all their funding).  The funding was never said to be permanent, it is in
effect a competitive grant and institutes rarely get re-funded.  Reminds me
of when I learned long ago that philanthropic funders in the USA often fund
a new project for a limited time, then expect the project to find its own
funding and move their funding to some other new project, instead of
looking at which projects are the most successful and continuing to fund
the most successful projects.  They use their money as seed money, but many
of the seeds may not find other funding and survive.
     Also, the article points out that the Australian government funded a
very small organization (6 employees), with leaders from industry,
including fossil fuels, with $444 million dollars (37 TIMES what JCU
receives) to do reef conservation work (but nothing on climate change),
without a public competitive selection process.

Cheers, Doug

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

IPCC says limiting global warming to 1.5C will require drastic action.  Coral
reefs would almost entirely disappear with 2 degrees of warming, with just
10–30% of existing reefs surviving at 1.5 °C.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06876-2?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20181009

Key climate panel, citing impending crisis, urges crash effort to reduce
emissions.  Coral reefs are projected to decline 70% to 90% at 1.5°C, but
at 2°C, 99% of reefs would be ravaged.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/key-climate-panel-citing-impending-crisis-urges-crash-effort-reduce-emissions?utm_campaign=news_daily_2018-10-08&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2416592

Major UN report says climate change is worse than first thought.  Even 1.5C
could cause damage that could run as high as $54 trillion.  (annual US GDP
is US$20 trillion, China and EU should be roughly similar, 2014 world GWP
was US$76 trillion, Purchasing Power Parity was US$107 trillion.)
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/08/major-un-report-climate-change-worse/?yptr=yahoo