[Coral-List] Coral restoration trashing

[Paul Muir]

Not involved in Coral Restoration or trashing CR, but I certainly agree
with some of the criticism. Billions of dollars are now being poured into
CR by governments and big mining in lieu of reducing their carbon
emissions. These big players are touting CR as a super-high-tech means of
"saving the reef" while continuing with business as usual. High-tech
(sci-fi?) plays a big part of selling this to the public: artificial
intelligence, underwater robots, genetic engineering, 3D printing etc.
figure heavily in the marketing. Arguably, CR is also diverting funds and
researchers away from critical conservation science, for example the recent
Red List revision concluded that there was a chronic lack of data on the
conservation status of the majority of our ~750 coral species. We have no
clue how the majority of coral species are faring, their regional
population size, risk of extinction, susceptibility to bleaching etc.
Collecting this basic data would cost a tiny fraction of the CR budget, but
it's being ignored.

I'm certainly a fan of many of the CR projects, but the trashers do have a
point at times?

On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 at 01:37, Luiz Rocha via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> 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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