"Human impact on coral reefs is significant. Coral reefs are dying around the world. Damaging activities include coral mining, pollution (organic and non-organic), overfishing, blast fishing, the digging of canals and access into islands and bays."
Bleaching doesn't necessarily mean the coral will die. However, coral is dying around the world. Anyone who scuba dives or snorkels can see the damage that even an anchor causes (and rules about anchoring, even for snorkelers). Then consider the pesticides, human refuse, garbage. We pollute the oceans because of stupidity and greed. But, please note that bleaching is natures way of handling weather changes, pollution, or anything that starts stress.
1
GOP "War Against the Environment"
2
i second the suggestion that readers watch the documentary film, "finding coral", which first played publicly at the sundance film festival.
the destruction of our coral reefs will have grave consequences--matching those of climate change.
1
I suggest everyone see the documentary "Chasing Coral" (available on Netflix). It gives you the visual picture of what we are facing and what we are creating.
1
Good, at least when man dies (not mankind, just men in general) the reefs will come back. Good riddance to us.
1
We can sound all the alarms in the universe and it won't matter. Humans just don't care. I would bet that if the Times wrote an article about the Kardashians and opened it to comments there would be more comments about them than this article.
1
This is just immeasurably sad.
3
The conference on global warming was cancelled due to heavy snowfall and much-colder-than-normal temperatures.
NYT, get it right, global warming is passe, the new term is climate change. You know, a much broader (and undocumented) concept that allows NYT and others to state, with authority, that climate change is simultaneously causing colder and hotter weather, heavy rain and droughts, floods, hurricanes, etc.
3
I'd like to offer the various right-wingers yelling at this article and the whole concept of warming and climate change a tip: you'll be a lot more convincing if you're at least semi-literate, and you don't lie about the article and/or the science in ways that your average sharp seventh-grader would take maybe five minutes to figure out.
Honestly, guys, basic literacy, basic science, they're your friends. After that, we can discuss your bizarre notions about turning the entire world into strip malls and parking lots on behalf of oil companies.
6
Of course it is. Did anyone expect any different?
This only quantifies it.
Sure there is man made warming but at the same time the world is getting warmer all by itself. We are still not back to pre little ice age conditions. That is just a fact. Southern England had vineyards competing with France in the year 1400. Then everything went cold very fast. Now it’s getting warm real fast. Allot of this is out of our control. If the earth wants an ice age again all the coal burning we do won’t stop it.
Surely more appropriate to say the trillions of small creatures that inhabited the complex small structures are now dead. Already there are significant areas that are termed 'dead ie parts of Gulf of Mexico ... but when 'clean' areas are killed then it is indeed obscene.
With the obscene amount of $$$$ trump has handed back to the wealthy elite and Corporations with his un-needed and offensive Tax Bill there could have been serious development and implementation of carbon capture, a process yet to be invented for the large scale it is needed.
3
As Trump's initiative to reduce most Americans to serfdom continues apace, those people will hear of this environmental catasstrophe and ask themselves if they'll ever even visit Australia. Because in America our standard of living will be readjusted so that most of us end up worse off than people since the depression of the 1930s, we'll be thankful for any gainful employment and not question what our "betters" are doing to the planet. This initiative will be relentless and have such an affect on our perceptions and eventually dull our reactions...
2
Our precious coral reefs are the marine 'canary in the coal mine.' This is another example of the tipping point in the inexorable mayhem that awaits us. Science has been screaming this message at us to no real avail. Shame on us all.
7
As a retiree who spends much time in Southeast Asia, I can report that coral reefs in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have declined substantially in the past ten years. Good snorkeling spots are significantly harder to find. I was recently on the island of Langkawi, where, to the best of my knowledge, no snorkeling remains. The water has also become quite cloudy from the growth of plankton due to the temperature rise. In Bali, fishermen now need to drag their boats behind their houses when not in use. The rising water levels have brought the edge of the sea to the front of their houses.
The good news is that I see a rapid growth in solar and wind energy everywhere I travel. I believe that China will lead the way in the use of electric cars, the only solution in places like Beijing where air pollution has reached alarming levels. I spend much time in Kunming, where nearly all motorbikes are electric (and there are many motorbikes). Residents carry the small batteries to their apartments to charge.
So, I think the economics of solar and wind will eventually correct the problems, even without the cooperation of the US, but generations will miss the beauty of coral reefs.
7
The first necessary but insufficient step to begin addressing ocean acidification and climate change is a tax on carbon. Until that happens, we're all complicit.
11
Australia has decided to keep on being the largest supplier of coal to China, now the largest source of green house gases, and also sacked many of the senior environmental scientists at their national research institute, CSIRO. Not much the smaller nations can do to protect their reefs when the Great Barrier Reef is such a low priority to its own national government.
11
The sad reality is that we cannot depend on the average person to take any action to stop this trend. Unless we can invent our way out of this problem, it will not be fixed anytime soon. One hope is that technology starts to eliminate the use of fossil fuels before the reefs and other parts of our ecosystem are irreversibly damaged. The sixth extinction, caused by Humans, is well under way.
6
Wholly agree that "we cannot depend on the average person"; climate change isn't personnel; it's political. It's more important to change the political and economic systems. Also, science and technology are pulling rabbits out of the hat as fast as possible while at the same time social status, respect and compensation keep diminishing. Not a good trend.
1
I decided to stop eating any seafood since last year. I also started last year to look at how I can limit my use of energy. I sold off a commercial property because it was more a wasye of energy and decided to use co working space to help save on energy which would help the environment.. particularly the Arctic and our Sea Life!!
3
By looking at the number of people who have read this article and commented, it appears that the general population does not understand the magnitude of what is occurring. The reefs are the lowest rung of the ocean food chain. If you remove the bottom rung the entire food chain will eventually and irrevocably collapse. Additionally our lakes and streams are already heavily polluted with mercury from 19th and 20th century industrialization and the use of coal. So an entire food source, fish, will either not exist or, as it is currently, be too poisonous to eat. And to those commenters who point to the current extreme cold weather as evidence of no global warming be aware that this extreme cold is exactly what the climate scientists predicted would occur after the polar ice caps melted.
21
Bravo Angela. Twelve of the world’s largest cities are in coastal locations. By 2100 rising sea level will threaten history’s greatest treasures of architecture and culture with permanent destruction. Hundreds of millions will drown or die from disease or displacement; coastal residents who remain will be forced to survive by harvesting whatever sea life remains in water acidified by atmospheric carbon.
At this point, the only avenue to limiting the worst effects of climate change is replacing fossil fuels with nuclear electricity, and doing it as quickly as possible. Anyone who fears the effects of nuclear waste eons from now has grossly-misplaced priorities: without drastic measures, humankind’s extinction will be guaranteed within centuries. Yes, it’s that bad.
It simply isn't true that Nukes Are All We Need, and I sure wish people'd stop pushing their hobbies and jobs forward this way.
And before you start, yes, nukes are part of the solutions. Part. PART! Okay? part.
Yes indeed, the warming of arctic permafrost terrestial and submerged ice shelf and the resultant methane release is indeed an unavoidable future event. Natures machinery has taken over, the interconnectedness of feedback loops is quite staggering ....
1
No man is an island,
entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were.
as well as if a manor of thy friend’s
or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
John Donne, 1623
https://qz.com/716088/john-donnes-solemn-400-year-old-poem-against-isola...
15
Sometimes these days, even when the sun is shining and the waves are pumping, as I paddle out for a surf, I find myself weighed down with a profound sadness at the thought of playing in a dying ocean.
18
Run off from expansive lawns of private homes, parks and golf courses are a culprit. Fertilizers and other pest control poisons are toxifying our coastal waters. That and sewers, as well as faulty septic systems destroy the reefs.
Locals in Hawaii know not to swim in the ocean right after a big rain storm.
12
A few months ago I was in French Polynesia. Needless to say I had romantic notions of diving into a sea filled with dazzling colors. What I saw, instead, was shades of brown. No brilliant blues, greens, purples, or pinks. Just ugly, awful brown.
I asked someone where I needed to go to see beautiful, unspoiled reefs, and the answer was “Vanuatu”. Better go there while you can.
Better yet, don’t go. Coral reefs die not just from weather impacts but also, among other things, from being stepped on and from sunscreen on divers’ bodies. If we want to have any chance of saving at least a few reefs, we should just stay away from them — and do what we can to support international efforts to combat climate change.
20
Of course our despicable president is trying to blow open the Pacific Ocean reserves near Hawaii preserved by Bush II, in the only decent thing he did as president, and Obama.
1
The sooner we can get rid of all these coral reefs the sooner we can search for oil that’s trapped under them
9
“The sooner we can get rid of coral reefs...”
I hope this writer is not in earnest but in protest.
Otherwise I find the remark blatantly ignorant and uncomfortably greedy.
2
When is it time to sound the alarm? It's great that the NYT is covering this, but articles like this need to be on the "front page." Until the major media outlets start covering the effects of climate change in the same way as Trump's tweets (i.e., every moment of every day), the public will not be interested. Climate change is a serious crisis that is ignored because it is happening in slow motion and people can't see the tangible danger until it's too late. I'm concerned that humanity will look back on this issue in 50 years, after life in the ocean has been decimated beyond recovery, and we will regret not taking more action-- the media needs to really step up on this issue since the government is unwilling.
26
When is it time?
Four decades ago; then two decades ago, then a decade ago, and now every year.
10
Human pollution is not good and has a negative impact on our environment but as everyone is seeing this Winter in the United States human's are not the major factor in climate change.
1
Unfortunately many people share this perception that climate change must not be happening if there is still winter. The hard thing to understand is that the earth changes a lot within a few degrees C of global average temperature change, but it will still have seasons and still have snow. During the last glacial period (ice age), global surface temperature was only around 4 degrees C cooler but there were mile thick slabs of ice over New York. For coral, even 1 degree C change in sea temp is killing off huge amounts of coral, because they live immersed in water. Think about how big a change it is for your body when your temperature rises 2 degrees F. Now imagine it staying that way for weeks. That's the problem with coral.
The link between greenhouse gases and global energy budget (temperature) is directly observed and understood via the same understanding of electromagnetic radiation that makes much of the technology you take for granted, including your computer, work. So yes, humans are the major factor in this climate change.
2
Only truly ignorant people deduce that a cold winter disproves climate change.
2
Speaking of ‘ “shade cloths” over reefs,’ has anyone thought about floating solar panels over damaged reefs to provide shade (and power)? Anchored to the sea floor, these solar-flotillas might provide both shade and thus a cooling-agent for reefs. This solar-flotilla technology exists throughout the world, so why not deploy this technology now?! Might be a win-win.
5
While an interesting idea, those sea creatures still need light to photosynthesize even if they could use some protection from the heat.
2
All discussion and journalism about the (short) future of coral reefs should not overlook chapter 7 of "Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert. Rising levels of CO2 in our atmosphere are mostly absorbed by the oceans. This causes warming of waters and alters the pH (acidity) of the waters. This changes the chemical ability of new reef to form, it actually facilitates the reef dissolving. Or in a more complex real-life situations it could be rapidly facilitating coral bleaching events. This very real likely scenario of new coral being unable to "grow" in warmer waters along with bottom-trawling over-fishing, agricultural run-off, and other toxic pollution is likely to trigger marine life ecosystem collapse. Perhaps within 20 years. Maybe sooner. Maybe later. It is apparent our man-made unchecked greed for the abundant life in our oceans will cause its collapse. This is not alarmist. It is simply a (sad) acknowledgement of the Anthropocene.
14
The acidification also has a huge adverse impact on any creatures that build structures like coral.
1
Scientist blame the extinction of the dinosaurs on climate change so we can see it's been happening for millions of years without humans. To cite human's as the major cause of climate change is at best speculation.
I'm not saying that pollution isn't bad and that human's shoudn't do what we can to protect our environment within reason.
It is very far from speculation - the greenhouse effect is directly monitored and confirmed.
https://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/papers/PhysTodayRT2011.pdf
Yes, over very long periods of time many factors can change climate - greenhouse gases including CO2 are one of the larger factors over the course of earth's history, and humans have increased the global concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere by a fairly shocking 40% (280->400 ppm).
7
Thanks to Dr Eakin for not giving up. But our government obviously is happy to commit genocide on our future.
5
Trump does not care. He probably can't swim and does not have the intelligence to monetize the reefs - but he would if he could.
Remove the Dotard and save our planet for future generations who can appreciate i; the rest can continue to live in swamps as bottom dwellers.
1
The actual findings of the study mentioned in this article is:
"We tested the hypothesis that the number of bleaching events that have occurred so far at each location is positively related to the level of postindustrial warming of sea surface temperatures that has been experienced there (fig. S4). However, we found no significant relationship for any of the four geographic regions, consistent
with each bleaching event being caused by a shortlived episode of extreme heat (12, 19, 20) that is superimposed on much smaller long-term warming trends. Hence, the long-term predictions of future average warming of sea surface temperatures (13) are also unlikely to provide an accurate projection of bleaching risk or the location of spatial refuges over the next century."
Bleaching events were not found to be related to regional or global incremental warming, and future warming is expected to predict future bleaching events.
2
That is not what that says. What it says is that the bleaching was not from localized heat waves and that long term predictions of water temperature rise cannot be used to predict future events. Then I presume you have left off that this is due to the various other factors that have to coincide with the higher sea temperatures. However, the statement that the temperature rise cannot predict specific events tells us they ascribe the cause of the bleaching to warming water temperatures. You have left off quite a bit of the full statement.
10
Yeah, he did. Cherry-picking like crazy is what Kip there does. After that, he enjoys misrepresenting the science, right-wing blather, and boating.
1
Chris and Robert ==> It certainly is not very clearly worded is it? It is a direct quote from the paper itself.
They tested the idea that bleaching is positively related to postindustrial warming, and found that it was not. Thus, long-term predictions of future average warming of sea surface temps are also unlikely to provide accurate projections of bleaching. Re-read the quote from the paper -- failing that, actually red the paper itself to get their overall message, which is different from the spin the NY Times' journalist puts on their findings.
My last sentence, however, left out the negative in this portion : "future warming is NOT expected to predict future bleaching events."
I just saw this article as I finished an article on the opening up of coastal waters to exploration. Somehow we have become complacent about things working just because they have always worked. My view on this is that they work until they don't and it seems we are fast approaching this point. Of course by then, we may not be able to reverse the effects that it took millions of years to establish.
18
Solution: don't have children. The root cause of all this environmental destruction is overpopulation.
11
WE are not complacent. Had Hillary Clinton been the president the coastal waters would have never been opened to exploration. A majority of us voted for Hillary Clinton.
The deplorables and the despicable man they elected are completely oblivious to everything except making the wealthiest wealthier at the expense of everything else including our planet.
4
Agricultural runoff and pollution are even more damaging than sunscreen. A magical, complex world is dying before our eyes.
23
A recent editorial in the NY Times also mentions the damaging effect of sunscreens containing chemicals like oxybenzone. Most sunscreens have them, except for sunscreens that use zinc instead. The use of these has increased since the 1970's. While climate change is certainly the key factor, according to the article, a tiny amount of oxybenzone is deadly to sealife. Many people are aware of this, but it's not generally known.
17
The coral reefs are another world--and they are in this one, feeding us and giving us the opportunity to marvel. The damage our greenhouse gases cause have infinite repercussions, future generations won't even know what they've lost.
14
And how many "future generations" do you think there will be? We are too ignorant and selfish a species to take care of our own, much less those of the future.
7
Forget Mars. Fix this.
54
There are no words to express the magnitude of this tragedy. First time I went snorkeling among coral reefs in the Florida Keys in 1980, as a Minnesota boy accustomed to the simplicity of Midwestern lakes & rivers, I felt I'd entered an enchanted & magical world, with every cubic inch taken up with some form of dazzling life. Last year went snorkeling off the coast of Honduras, and bleaching had already killed at least half the reef, which had the look & feel of a sick & dying world. What's happening to coral reefs worldwide is tragic beyond all measure or capacity to understand.
60
People: From 1980 to 2016 is how many years!?! 36. My God, just 36. I'm crying. With what we know, with what we can see happening, with what will increase what is happening --- What do we think will be left in the next 36 years ??? Oh nooo.