[Coral-List] Coral restoration trashing

[Luiz Rocha]

Alright, I've had it. I am sick and tired of the constant trashing and
criticism that coral restoration projects and that any science even
remotely related to restoration are getting. Even though I don't work on it
(directly or indirectly) I know a lot of scientists working on coral
restoration. And I also know a lot of restoration projects. Not a single
one of them has ever said that the solution for the coral reef crysis is
coral restoration. This is hyperbole created either by the media and the
critics of coral restoration.

Now more specifically about the critiques to every kind of science related
to restoration. If we put together all of the dollars that went into coral
restoration science, in all of human history, that adds up to (very
graciously) about half a billion dollars. For those that keep saying that
we can solve the climate crisis with coral restoration dollars, please,
please, tell me how 500 million dollars would solve climate change. If you
sit down and really think about it, I hope you realize that climate change
is not a money problem. We have the money and the solutions to do it. What
we do not have is the political will.

And for those that keep saying that corals in air conditioned aquaria are
not a solution, rhinos in zoos aren't either, so should we kill them all
and be done with it? The only surviving individuals of unique genetic
lineages of several species that used to be in Florida are now only alive
in aquaria. So let's use the few hundreds of thousands of dollars being
used to keep them alive to convince Ron De Santis and Donald Trump that
climate change is real. Yeah, that's gonna work. These dollars (even if
dollars could solve climate change, which they won't) are not competing
with climate change dollars. That's like asking to stop funding coral
taxonomy because giving coral species names is only rearranging the chairs
in the Titanic. That argument can be used for any branch of science that is
not fighting climate change. And it is not true.

So, get off your horses, fight climate change the best way you can, and
keep doing science, even if it's not related to climate change. Because it
will help.

Cheers,

Luiz

Luiz A. Rocha, Ph.D.
Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology
Co-Director, Hope For Reefs Initiative

California Academy of Sciences

p. 415.379.5370

LRocha at calacademy.org
Academic Website
<https://www.calacademy.org/staff/ibss/ichthyology/luiz-a-rocha>

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