[Coral-List] 1. scientists watching their life's work disappear (Douglas Fenner)

Tue Oct 31 23:02:33 UTC 2023

Agree !! It is time for a strong scientific community to speak frankly
based on transdisciplinary science.
Kind regards,
Nohora Galvis
ICRS World Reef Award Winner
ICRO Transdisciplinary Researcher

*International Coral Reef ObservatoryFollow us on
Facebook.com/ICRObservatoryon Twitter / Instagram / YouTube
ICR_Observatory*

El mar, 31 oct 2023 a las 13:01, Judith Lang via Coral-List (<
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>) escribió:

> Thank you David,
>
> For change that benefits Earth,
>
> Judy Lang
> www.agrra.org
>
>
> > On 31 Oct 2023, at 00:33, David Obura via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks Doug for posting this ...
> >
> > I only get the digests, so not sure if there’s been some follow up on
> this in the last day or two that I haven’t seen, so apologies if I’m
> rehashing/missing something here ...
> >
> > There’s an important message here, that isn’t just 6 down, its the
> headline of the piece and the front cover of the New York Times magazine
> this week -
> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/02/magazine/past-issues-sunday-magazine.html.
> That’s a &%$#&*!! big deal … and its the message that made that photo!!
> (certainly not the model!!)
> >
> > This is a message that I think is critical for coral reefs as I don’t
> believe any of our tinkering will work without full transformation of the
> global economy … and the core of the message is that its not ‘everyone’ on
> the planet that needs to change (ie global population) its the wealthiest
> 10% (and of course more so for the 1% and the 0.01%).
> >
> > I’ve pasted below the text that the writer culled from my interview, and
> a longer piece on it is at this link -
> https://davidobura.medium.com/is-10-40-50-the-answer-e35c3e0de89f
> >
> > The bigger picture to this is that in the last 2 months I’ve been in the
> running for 2 of the top global science/policy/conservations positions, and
> got one - chairing the IPBES platform (www.ipbes.net for those that don’t
> know it).  I take all of this to mean that the message that my science has
> led me to is the one that resonates with the emerging global sense of what
> we need to do - and I (we!) need to stop being polite about it.   We need
> to stop banging on about ‘global population’ and put responsibility
> squarely where it lies, the wealth-oriented production/capitalist system,
> which means the capital owners that run the system that benefits the top of
> the income pyramid - loosely identifiable as "the top 10%” etc etc.
> >
> > In ICRS and ICRI we have consistently shied away from saying this in
> order not to displease ourselves, our  financiers, and the main supporting
> countries (all in that top tier) and this has to stop!!
> >
> > I know this will resonate with many on the list, so get out your
> bull-horn, whether it is science, communication, community or
> private-sector based and blow it loud!!
> >
> > For change ...
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > David Obura - Coral Reefs
> >
> > Obura has been studying coral reefs since 1992. During that time, the
> world’s oceans have lost perhaps a quarter of their coral.
> > In 2000, I got the chance to go to the Phoenix Islands in Kiribati. The
> good reefs had 80 percent coral cover, really vibrant and colorful and
> bright. And the fish were incredible. There were highways of fish swimming
> up and down the reefs, sharks everywhere and dolphins. We thought, OK,
> these reefs are so far away from everybody, we can help protect them. And
> then there was a mass bleaching event in the Central Pacific.
> >
> > By the time we could go back, a few years later, they had been
> completely hammered by warming. They were just decimated. The corals were
> all rubble and broken up by the waves. It was all brown with algae. Fish
> were still there, but not the same coral-dependent fish. It was so much
> more bland and drab. Of course, intellectually I knew that nowhere would be
> safe from heat stress and bleaching and climate change. But this was a
> place that had been safe so far from everything else. And yet it wasn’t
> immune. To me, that was a wake-up call.
> >
> > I’m working really hard to point fingers at what we need to do. What’s
> driving the decline of coral reefs is carbon dioxide and fossil fuels and
> overconsumption. The consumption levels in the top 10 percent are so high
> and capture so much of the planet’s resources. Energy is not the primary
> thing; it’s just a facilitator. It facilitates this desire for consumption:
> for fashion, for burgers, for products. In real physical terms, we need to
> shift how we consume on the planet, because we have exceeded the limits.
> >
> > David Obura PhD, MBS
> > https://linktr.ee/davidobura; Twitter @dobura
> >
> > Chair, IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
> Services)
> > Member, Earth Commission
> >
> > CORDIO East Africa, #9 Kibaki Flats, Kenyatta Beach, Bamburi Beach,
> P.O.BOX 10135 Mombasa 80101, Kenya
> > Email: dobura at cordioea.net  --  davidobura at gmail.com
> > www.cordioea.net
> > Mobile: +254-715 067417
> > On 29 Oct 2023 at 19:05 +0300, coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov, wrote:
> >>
> >> Message: 1
> >> Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:46:19 -1000
> >> From: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
> >> To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> >> Subject: [Coral-List] scientists watching their life's work disappear
> >> Message-ID:
> >> <CAOEmEkF7PkNGTUcfPbKaTpx4mTv9aJ=8M=87XKVqhs3L6ZmUaA at mail.gmail.com>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> >>
> >> About the 6th scientist down (David Obura) works on coral reefs. It's a
> >> brief read.
> >>
> >>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/magazine/extinction-species-scientists-climate-change.html
> >>
> >> Cheers, Doug
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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