[Coral-List] A half trillion corals in the Pacific Ocean alone

[Douglas Fenner]

A search on "half-trillion corals" produces a long list of news stories
about this new study (looks like most repeat the press release from James
Cook Univ in Australia, the second article listed below).  Some quotes
below to spur discussion:

A half-trillion corals live in just one ocean.  Does that mean they are
safe?

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/half-trillion-corals-live-just-one-ocean-does-mean-they-are-safe

The numbers are “incredibly encouraging,”
The upshot is that “most people don’t know how worried to be” about corals,
Knowlton says.
“most of these species will not go globally extinct in the near future,”
(Doug: but small population size is only one risk factor for extinction.
Others include rate of decline of population and species geographic range,
and prospects for future damage)
Already, about one-third of the world’s 6000 known coral species are
listed  (Doug: nope, there are only about 831 presently recognized reef
building coral species and another 600+ azooxanthellate species)
*Porites nigrescens*, which forms massive boulders on reef flats (Doug:
nope, it is branching)
Red List status “is not determined by the total number of individuals.”
(Doug: true, almost all were listed based on estimated decreases in
populations, not population size)
As the fate of passenger pigeon has shown “species with extremely high
populations have gone extinct in the past,” Polidoro adds.  (Doug: it was
estimated to have about 1 billion individuals, and they were driven to
extinction by humans shooting them, surprisingly quickly.  It was in North
America, that's where I come from.)
That doesn’t mean Pacific corals aren’t in danger
---------------------------
Half a trillion corals: world-first coral count prompts rethink of
extinction risks

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-trillion-corals-world-first-coral-prompts.html

The findings suggest that while a local loss of coral can be devastating to
coral reefs, the global extinction risk of most coral species is lower than
previously estimated.

Extinctions could instead unfold over a much longer timeframe because of
the broad geographic ranges and huge population sizes of many coral species.
"Coral restoration is not the solution to climate change. You would have to
grow about 250 million adult corals to increase coral cover on the Great
Barrier Reef by just one percent."

"Given the huge size of these coral populations, it is very unlikely that
they face imminent extinction. There is still time to protect them from
anthropogenic heating, but only if we act quickly on reducing greenhouse
gas emissions."

Cheers, Doug

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Coral Reef Consulting
PO Box 997390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA

Social cost of carbon emissions much higher than previous estimates
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/trump-downplayed-costs-carbon-pollution-s-about-change

A German initiative seeks to curb global emissions of a climate
super-pollutant
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30122020/chemical-plant-nitrous-oxide-climate-warming-emissions/

The toxic effects of air pollution are so bad that moving from fossil fuels
to clean energy would pay for itself in health-care savings and
productivity gains
<https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=c9f70ba54f&e=190a62d266>
—
even if climate change didn’t exist.  In the US alone, decarbonization
would save 1.4 MILLION lives in the US alone.  And save $700 Billion a year.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/8/12/21361498/climate-change-air-pollution-us-india-china-deaths