Scientists Warn of Coral Bleaching in Caribbean

[usnadiver03]

And what qualifies you to make a statement like this?

The same qualifier that enables people to make comments such as "global warming, too much oil, etc" qualifies me to say that people are ridiculous and self-agrandizing. I am a rational thinker who understands and is comfortable with the fact that there are forces in this world that are much greater than me and the sum of all parts.

 

[dive_lover88]

Is there anything we can do to help the corals?Are we looking at an ecological disaster of a scale we never seen before?

Darren

 

[cheddarguy]

The same qualifier that enables people to make comments such as "global warming, too much oil, etc" qualifies me to say that people are ridiculous and self-agrandizing. I am a rational thinker who understands and is comfortable with the fact that there are forces in this world that are much greater than me and the sum of all parts.

I am so glad to see some one with common sense !

When mount st. helen erupted, that one event spewed more toxic material into air
then the human race could emit in 50-100 years and there was know one that could have done anything about it.

 

[maractwin]

When mount st. helen erupted, that one event spewed more toxic material into air
then the human race could emit in 50-100 years and there was know one that could have done anything about it.

Where did you get that information? A quick web search seems to contradict that.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Mount St. Helen produced "540 million tons of ash" the first 9 hours of eruption. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, just the United States produced 2,244,804 thousand metric tons of Carbon Dioxide as a by-product of power plants in 1999.

I'm not going to spend the time to find numbers more directly comparable. Just be aware that people are making changes to our earth.

-Mark

 

[archman]

Is there anything we can do to help the corals?

Not regarding elevated sea temperatures. Regarding damage due to nutrient overloading, chemical dumping, dredging, overfishing, etc..., that's up to governments for the most part. Show your support for legislation that works to improve environmental quality and preserve natural habitats.

Are we looking at an ecological disaster of a scale we never seen before?

We're already hip deep in it. The Earth is currently experiencing the worst mass extinction event on record, primarily man-induced. There is full scientific consensus on this.

 

[IlikeItwetPls]

what causes this is oil coal and gas companies and policies that simply reward them for cracking co2 into the atmosphere.
but we have to also look at deforestation too.

Im sorry to see it happening so quickly

Do you have some source to reference this information?

 

[H2Andy]

The Earth is currently experiencing the worst mass extinction event on record, primarily man-induced. There is full scientific consensus on this.

i'm sorry, Archman... i know things are bad... but...

would you not say that the End Permian mass extinction, with over 96% of all
marine species and probably close to 75% of all vertebrates went extinct,
is by far the worst?

or "by record" do you mean "in recorded history?"

either way, our current ecological disaster (and it is that)
is bening compared to the End Permian extinction.

and there have been others

 

[archman]

The key difference between historic mass extinctions and the present one is rate of diversity loss. Depending on who you talk to, it's between 2-3 orders of magnitude greater rate loss currently than anything seen in the fossil record.

There is a common public misconception (Hollywood-enhanced) that mass extinction events are immediate. On the contrary, events typically grade out over tens-hundreds of thousands of years.

So when rate is factored into the equation, and the observation that our current extinction events are ongoing, even the Permian event starts to pale.

 

[H2Andy]

ah, i got you

thank you for explaining that subtle difference

 

[dive_lover88]

So in short there ain't much we can do, even if we are all eco-friendly...it's all rest on the high level people in the governments?

Darren