[Coral-List] Fwd: NOAA plan to save coral reefs

Sun Jan 5 00:44:47 UTC 2020

    Coral reefs around the world are threatened by global warming, as the
hot water it causes produces mass coral bleaching and coral deaths.  Many
scientists see this as the greatest single threat to the future of corals.
Why have the US and Australia done so little to reduce the greenhouse gas
emissions that cause global warming that threatens the existence of corals
and direct harm to humans??
     Gene has suggested we follow the money.  I think he has a good point.
So I suggest we just follow the money and remind people of all the money
climate change deniers get from the fossil fuel industry (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial).  The fossil fuel
industry that gets many Billions of dollars in subsidies from taxpayers
($160-600 billion a year, year after year, by one estimate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_subsidy#Impact_of_fossil_fuel_subsidies).
And, it turns out, deniers get money from railroads also, because they
carry huge amounts of coal and oil, gasoline, diesel, etc.  They make lots
of money doing that.  Follow the money.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/12/freight-railroads-funded-climate-denial-decades/603559/
    And an Australian prime minister with the big money from one of the
world's largest coal mines, letting it go forward, as part of his country
burns to the ground and voters yell at him and drive him off.  Follow the
money.  Average Australia temperature hit 105.6 degrees F, over 100
wildfires now, one fire the size of Manhattan, New York, 23 people dead,
over 1500 buildings burned, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, over
15 million acres burned, half a Billion animals estimated killed, terrible
air quality in some of the big cities, smoke plumes as large as Europe,
visible to a satellite 22,000 miles from earth, and still burning
fiercely.  Fire victims heckle Australian prime minister as country burns:
"You're an idiot."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fire-victims-heckle-australian-prime-minister-as-country-burns-youre-an-idiot-192201790.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/australia-faces-extinction-leaders-still-163851215.html
I guess they didn't rake the forest enough.  Australia has one of the
highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world, followed closely
by Canada and the US (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita
)
though they have a small population and so a small total contribution to
global warming (more if you include the coal and gas they sell and
export),  (Mind you, I'm a BIG fan of Australia, lived there 6 years, would
still be there if the grant hadn't run out.  They are VERY impressive on
many things, including reef science.)  This is a window into our climate
change future.  The US west has burned harder than ever before for a couple
of summers now.  At one point Seattle had worse air quality than Beijing,
China.  700 houses burned to the ground in California. This is not a one
time event, it is a trend, forest fires are getting worse and will continue
to get worse as it gets hotter and dryer in these areas due to climate
change and global warming.  Global warming is not just killing corals, it's
killing people as well, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.  Gene and
I won't be around to see the worst, but that's why the younger generation
is so worried about their future that millions came out to support Greta
Thunburg: their futures are on the line.  We don't seem to care enough for
their future to take serious action.
       And it's not just the giant corporations and rich people driving
politicians, it's also voters.  Almost everybody wants more money.  If the
economy is growing rapidly, the incumbent will be very hard to beat, if the
economy is in recession, the challenger will have a much better chance.
Politicians aren't stupid, they follow that, they know which side their
bread is buttered on.  There are even models to predict elections based on
the economy.  Clinton had a saying on his desk, "It's the economy,
stupid."  Follow the money and the votes.  As Pogo (a US cartoon character
in the past) said: "We have met the enemy and he is us."  (instead of
"ours")  If we're going to stop global warming from wiping out the corals,
we're going to have to change a lot of what we do and pressure our
governments to take action.  I'm reminded of a time a few decades ago when
it was popular for some people in the finance industry to say that "greed
is good."  I haven't seen that said for some time now, just as well.
    Following the money takes you straight from fossil fuel companies and
railroads to deniers to lack of action reducing emissions to global warming
continuing to present and future mass coral bleaching to mass deaths of
reef corals.
    Cheers, Doug

On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 3:10 PM Eugene Shinn via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Good points Steve, Just remind folks that the Sanctuary is under dept of
> Commerce. Just follow the money, Gene
>
> --
>
>
> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> University of South Florida
> College of Marine Science Room 221A
> 140 Seventh Avenue South
> St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> Tel 727 553-1158
> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>
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>

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

Even 50-year old climate models correctly predicted global warmng
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

Greenhouse gas emissions to set new record this year, but rate of growth
shrinks
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/greenhouse-gas-emissions-year-set-new-record-rate-growth-shrinks?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

"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

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Consultant
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

Even 50-year old climate models correctly predicted global warmng
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

Greenhouse gas emissions to set new record this year, but rate of growth
shrinks
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/greenhouse-gas-emissions-year-set-new-record-rate-growth-shrinks?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276

"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