Australia's Barrier Reef in trouble.

[fijiwigi]

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[neilanh]

Bummer, I'm attempting to plan a trip to dive that early next year.

[cmor1701d]

It will still be there in large part. This is a 10 year old story. Coral bleaching is a world wide problem. Pollution and fresh water runoff are also coral stessors that make it harder for them to deal with warming.

I wtinessed it first hand in my tank when. All iit took was 2 days of 90 degree+ temps and I lost all my sps corals and had to frag my lps to save them. I was out of the country when it happened and had a friend stop by every couple of days to feed.

[cccapt]

A little off topic, but sort of related. National Geographic had on a show about the effects of global warming on the glaciers of Greenland. Melting ice has bored holes straight thru the glacier, 1/4 mile down to the bedrock. All this water is providing lubrication for the ice to slide into the ocean. They said there is enough ice in Greenland to raise the ocean level 4 feet worldwide.

[fijiwigi]

Because of the global warming the Polar Bear population could dissapear by 2050 one of the world's largest predators gone. The only place on the planet you would see one would be the zoo.

[cmor1701d]

Yet the guy in the cube next to me has tons of information that Globla Warming is not man-made, but a natural occurnance.

[CatatonicBug]

It is a natural occurence, but it should take millions of years to do what we have done is decades. We have contributed to the problem that cycles all by itself with all the CO2 we add to the atmosphere, along with the destruction of the forests that naturally clean it out. Really sad how we have ignored the planet so indiscrimanently.

[pitt420dude]

The "scientific" community denying global warming now reminds me of the "scientific" community denying the ill effects of tobacco in the 70's.

The difference is that anybody can see global warming/climate change with their naked eyes.

That term alone "climate change" makes me mad, as "global warming" is much scarier, and therefore a better motivator to get humans to do something about it. There are very large powerful forces, with lots of money and political influence, which would like us to keep on sucking down oil at the same rate or quicker, regardless of the consequences.

Kyoto now!

[tawolcott]

"There are very large powerful forces, with lots of money and political influence,"

Correct, on both sides of the equation. To my knowledge there has been no definitive conclusion on the topic. Should we err on the side of caution, perhaps but I've seen as much (if not more) presented scientific evidence of it being cyclical as anything else. When Al Gore has to include digitally created scenes from Hollywood movies in his 'documentary' (and not label them as such), it hurts the cause more than helps it.

[pitt420dude]

Originally Posted by tawolcott

"There are very large powerful forces, with lots of money and political influence,"

Correct, on both sides of the equation. To my knowledge there has been no definitive conclusion on the topic. Should we err on the side of caution, perhaps but I've seen as much (if not more) presented scientific evidence of it being cyclical as anything else. When Al Gore has to include digitally created scenes from Hollywood movies in his 'documentary' (and not label them as such), it hurts the cause more than helps it.

What are the very large powerful forces with lots of money and political influence that want us to STOP sucking down oil? Tree huggers? Birkenstock? The Audubahn society? The environmental lobby is quite weak compared to that of big oil and big business.

As to definitive conclusions, I'd cite to international global opinion as manifested by treaties and pacts like the Kyoto Protocol. Defer to the experts as I always say.

But this is all just my opinion. I like the reefs the way they are, well, better the way they were 14 years ago when I was certified. Last summer I returned to where I was trained. A national park (in the ocean) off the coast of the Florida Keys called John Pennycamp State park. The bleaching and overall blandness struck me. To be fair, it's impossible to measure how much is due to global warming, chemicle change, hurricanes, etc.