[Coral-List] popular article: how to save reefs

[Douglas Fenner]

How to save the world's coral reefs

People are going to start to have to think radically


https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/10/24/how-to-save-the-worlds-coral-reefs


" Measures to mitigate climate change are needed regardless of coral, but
even if the world’s great powers were to put their shoulder to the problem,
global warming would not be brought to a swift halt. Coral systems must
adapt if they are to survive, and governments in countries with reefs can
help them do so.

Corals need protection from local sources of harm."

  Then it goes on to talk about local impacts and efforts to reduce them.
"These measures may sound extreme, but people need to get used to thinking
big."

I agree we are going to have to work on some radical ideas.  But I think
this article's ideas are FAR from radical.  They are the same old "we're
going to work on local impacts, because solving climate change is too
hard."  Well we need radical ideas.... on how to actually reduce emissions
enough to save reefs, and people who will be killed by heat waves if we
don't act radically on climate change.
       I'm not against working on local impacts.  But it's all going to be
gigantic waste of time, effort and money if we don't get climate change
under control.  Doing otherwise is rearranging the chairs on the Titanic
and fiddling while Rome burns.  And so far we haven't made a dent in the
rate of emissions.  It's still not too late.

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

"Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
Science

A call to climate action  (Science editorial)
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6443/807?utm_campaign=toc_sci-mag_2019-05-30&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2840296

New book "The Uninhabitable Earth"  First sentence: "It is much, much worse
than you think."
Read first (short) chapter open access:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/read-a-chapter-from-the-uninhabitable-earth-a-dire-warning-on-climate-change