[Coral-List] Ocean Optimism and communication concerning the global environmental crisis

[Dennis Hubbard]

Peter and Steve:

Great thoughts. However, I am going to play my role as designated
curmudgeon. Corals have two big problems in the present socio-political
climate. First, they don't have big eyes to stare longingly into the
camera.. Second, to a very large part of the world's population, coral
reefs are a place where rich people go to play. and..... that they (the
folks we are trying to reach) can never afford to see one. In the midst of
the present Covid plague, it is going to be difficult, if not impossible,
to get people who have been isolated from loved ones (or worse, have lost
them for good), to really lament the loss of invertebrates. I say this not
because I don't care about the plight of our reefs but because we are
apparently unable to come up with a realistic strategy to do anything
beyond triage.

I am not going to argue over the relative importance of one environmental
problem over another. However, it is naive to think that any amount of
outplanting is going to solve any problem discussed in this forum until we
remove the stresses that are responsible. One of the greatest extinctions
in geologic history was caused by a huge piece of rock colliding with Earth
near the Yucatan Peninsula. The ejecta from the impact blocked out the sun
for decades or centuries (maybe even millennia). The amazing news is that
reefs DID come back, at least in some part because we weren't here yet. The
really disturbing lesson is that it is apparently easier to clear the
atmosphere following near planetary annihilation than to get *Homo stupidus*
to buy into whichever of the remedies proposed on this listserv is the one
we think is the "best".

I fully agree with all the flaws you describe in the present outplanting
effort (wrong species, lack of pre-outplanting remediation, assuming that
seeing people working to save reefs will inspire others to do better) and
hope that someone smarter than I will be able to do more than just snipe
art folks trying to make a difference.

Dennis

On Sun, Mar 21, 2021 at 7:18 AM Steve via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

>
> Hi Peter,
>
> You deserve to be praised, not slammed for raising legitimate concerns
> regarding the messaging of the coral science community. I know we have
> discussed this on-list a number of times before, but it calls out for
> continuous auditing because there has been little in the way of improvement.
>
> Of course, coral scientists are well aware of the need to address major
> stressors. Almost every paper I read on restoration makes that abundantly
> clear and as you point out, it is primarily the non-scientists who are
> lacking the proper appreciation for the complexity and overall gravity of
> the situation at hand. But why is that? I would argue that too many
> restoration projects (most of which have some level of scientific
> oversight), simply do not prioritize and therefore trivialize the breadth
> of the problem. It is no wonder that the average person (non-scientist)
> comes away with the idea that we can restore coral reefs through
> outplanting alone for that is precisely what the messaging conveys.
>
> As you said, we need committed researchers to be engaged in reef
> restoration and there are many projects that are worthy of praise, but we
> also need to be intolerant of those who are either purposely or
> inadvertently promoting misinformation by avoiding or simply downplaying
> the imperative need to adequately address water quality, over-fishing and
> the crucial issue of climate change.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve Mussman
>
> On 3/20/21, 12:33 AM, Peter Sale via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> Listers,
>
> There is a healthy discussion going on around how best to communicate
> outside the science silo when talking about climate change or the wider
> environmental crisis, and many of us in the coral science community
> struggle with how best to deal with a lot of really bad news. The
> prevailing view at present seems to be, be optimistic at all costs. I fully
> support the need to convey some hope in our messaging, but I also fear the
> tendency to hype the trivial pieces of good news rather than address the
> full seriousness of the crisis we are causing. Within the reef science
> community there are now a number of seriously committed
> researchers/practitioners engaged in reef restoration. We need their
> efforts. It is also true at present that the vast majority of reef
> restoration projects involve the growing up and out-planting of nubbins of
> fast-growing Acroporids. Such species do not provide the framework of
> enduring reefs, and growing and out-planting of species likely to be
> bleached or hit
>
> by disease does not seem fruitful as a solution to the big problem of
> reefs having lost 50% of their coral cover over a few short decades. Others
> are engaged in what I can only describe as techno-gimmicks - use of drones
> to disperse larval corals for example, or schemes to pump up cold water, or
> shade reef surfaces. Photogenic, innovative, suitably technological to
> impress those engineers who still believe we have dominion over the planet,
> but unlikely to be scalable to address the real problems.
>
> I notice in talking to many non-scientists an amazing lack of appreciation
> of just how serious this crisis is, and I don't think they will become
> strong advocates for addressing the problems of GHG emissions or
> biodiversity loss until they appreciate just how bad the result of not
> acting is going to be. I'm also aware that most politicians are
> non-scientists, and politicians sometimes get to make the big decisions
> that are needed. Therefore I think we scientists have to talk about the
> seriousness of what we are doing to the planet. I fear our attempts at
> optimism often confuse the message we should be sending. We have to find a
> way of conveying hope without trivializing the problems before us. Although
> it does not address coral reefs explicitly, my latest blog post at
> http://www.petersalebooks.com/?p=3073 tries to set out just how badly the
> world is failing in dealing with the environmental crisis, and why I think
> people need to know how bad things are getting. Depending on how
>
> badly I get slammed by you all for this comment, I can maybe follow up
> with some more thoughts on how to message honestly but in a hopeful,
> positive way.
>
> Peter Sale
>
> University of Windsor (Emeritus)
>
> sale at uwindsor.ca www.petersalebooks.com
>
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-- 
Dennis Hubbard - Emeritus Professor: Dept of Geology-Oberlin College
Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 935-4014

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"