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Scientists have pronounced The Great Barrier Reef "dead" :(

 

Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016)

Climate change and ocean acidification have killed off one of the most spectacular features on the planet.

The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 million years old.

For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It harbored 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusk, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds, and 30 species of whales and dolphins. Among its many other achievements, the reef was home to one of the world’s largest populations of dugong and the largest breeding ground of green turtles. 

Concerned for the reef’s health, a number of friends attempted interventions—none more poignant than Veron’s famed 2009 speech to London’s 350-year-old Royal Society titled “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?” Veron quickly answered his own question in the affirmative: “This is not a fun talk to give, but I’ve never given a more important talk in my life,” he told the premier gathering of scientists, accurately predicting that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 450 parts per million (which the world will reach in 2025) would bring about the demise of the reef.

No one knows if a serious effort could have saved the reef, but it is clear that no such effort was made. On the contrary, attempts to call attention to the reef’s plight were thwarted by the government of Australia itself, which in 2016, shortly after approving the largest coal mine in its history, successfully pressured the United Nations to remove a chapter about the reef from a report on the impact of climate change on World Heritage sites. Australia’s Department of the Environment explained the move by saying, “experience had shown that negative comments about the status of World Heritage-listed properties impacted on tourism.” In other words, if you tell people the reef is dying, they might stop coming.

Edited by Dammn Bu
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Well here's an update and they say it's a small bit of relief 

Some relief for Great Barrier Reef

By Dennis NormileSep. 29, 2016 , 1:30 PM

The Australian government yesterday announced that substantial progress has been made toward protecting the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Conservationists applaud improvements in the reef’s health and resilience, but caution that current government policies do far too little to counter global warming, which officials and scientists both agree is the greatest threat to the reef’s long-term survival.

“[There is] still a long way to go,” says Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral reef expert at University of Queensland, St. Lucia, in Brisbane, Australia.

As part of a March 2015 “Reef 2050 Plan” put forward to avoid the GBR losing its coveted World Heritage Site status, the federal government and the government of Queensland state, which borders much of the GBR, promised annual updates on the status of efforts to manage and protect the reef. Officials feared failure to protect the reef would seriously affect tourism and give the nation a black eye.

The 2015 plan laid out 151 concrete actions for implementation toward “2020 targets” and “2050 outcomes.” Yesterday’s annual report claims that 29 of the 151 actions “are completed or in place” as of mid-2016. These include such steps as reducing the impact of dredging and improving water quality. Another 102 actions are underway. “I think we are on track” to meet key targets, environment minister Josh Frydenberg said in an interview on an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program yesterday. He added that the plan is “clearly a work in progress.”   

But conservation groups took aim at one action in particular: restricting land clearing to curtail runoff in Queensland, which is listed as “on track or underway.” Last month, Queensland’s parliament voted down the relevant proposed law. A footnote in the report says that this action will be listed as “significantly delayed” in the future unless parliament resolves the issue.

Problems such as the sediment flow onto the reef have been building for 100 years, notes Hoegh-Guldberg, who serves on two expert panels advising the governments on reef plans. “A serious issue for Australian politicians is to recognize that current investments in fixing the problem will require substantially greater investments,” he says. He pegs the cost at as much as $7.6 billion over the next decade.

A major shortcoming of the new report is that it barely mentions coral bleaching or climate change, says Terry Hughes, a coral reef ecologist at James Cook University, Townsville, in Australia. He says that during campaigns for the federal election held in July—after themassive bleaching event of earlier this year—both major political parties promised measures to protect the reef, but neither offered anything to address the “root cause of the problem, which is global warming.” “There is still a disconnect between what Australia does to protect the reef and granting permits for coal mining and turning away from renewable energy,” Hughes adds.

Even if drastic measures are taken to reduce carbon emissions, climate change will have a dramatic impact on the GBR, predicts Hoegh-Guldberg. Improving water quality and limiting overexploitation of reefs, he says, “will increase their ability to bounce back.”

Australia is due to present a formal progress report on the reef plan to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Center in December.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/some-relief-great-barrier-reef

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my coworker at work has us all on notice, if he sees paper being thrown anywhere but the recycle bin he looses his shit. He just had a baby girl and he tells everyone " you dont care about my baby girl's future if your throwing away paper" <_<

Lol im pretty passionate about my recycling too but i think its more for OCD reasons

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Australia is extremely serious about the environment which is a good thing.  Its taken me 3 months to get my work visa approved.  It is sad environmental issues didn't get a chance to get spotlight anywhere in the election cycle because it has been dominated by the lowest common denominator trash politics and Trump.

There are a whole lot of things that didn't get deserved recognition or debate because of sex scandals and emails.

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The environment was touched on by the adult presidential candidate. Hillary doesn't believe global warming is made up and is focused on creating clean energy

Unfortunately, clean energy and global warming doesn't create headlines so it's not talked about as much as it should be 

Edited by Game
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At my university we have receptacles for recycling and composting everywhere and an Environmental Action organization club sort of thing that keeps everyone up to date on topics like clean energy and environmental pollution. Family does its fair share too when possible too. 

I hope that the efforts against global warming and pollution continue though. And yes it is a shame that this topic doesn't get as much coverage as it should

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was reading an article yesterday about how wildlife has dropped by 58% between 1970-2012 and that they're estimating another 60% drop in the next 50 years as the human population increases. The main cause is farming and misuse of natural habitats. It's sad. 

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The environment was touched on by the adult presidential candidate. Hillary doesn't believe global warming is made up and is focused on creating clean energy

Unfortunately, clean energy and global warming doesn't create headlines so it's not talked about as much as it should be 

She also sold fracking around the world as SOS. Given the political circumstances, I guess i'll settle for her.

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I've always been about the environment. We've got to take care of the planet so it takes care of us.

The Great Barrier Reef deserves to be protected. And it's one of the natural features of the world that I've always wanted to see in person.

South Florida is having issues with being too densely populated and rising sea levels. We're only 6 feet above the water. Miami Beach is technically going under water, as it's dealing with constant flooding during rains and the city is an island. 

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I've always been about the environment. We've got to take care of the planet so it takes care of us.

The Great Barrier Reef deserves to be protected. And it's one of the natural features of the world that I've always wanted to see in person.

South Florida is having issues with being too densely populated and rising sea levels. We're only 6 feet above the water. Miami Beach is technically going under water, as it's dealing with constant flooding during rains and the city is an island. 

Boy you so damn cute lol. I just had to say it. I saw the pics with you and Will in Vegas. I just came from there 3 weeks ago. Anyway I just watched "Before The Flood" with Leonardo DiCaprio on National Geographic before I went out to the club last night and was very insightful and kind of scary because of what will eventually happen to the planet. Anyway the Tesla Corporation which makes electric solar powered cars and now they're on to making solar powered roofs. This is the Tesla Gigafactory which is located in Reno, Nevada. https://www.tesla.com/gigafactory. Right now it's 1.9 million square feet and it's the largest building in the world, not in height but in general. Anyway the owner of this company said all we need is 100 of these Gigafactories and the whole world can be solar powered. The whole fuckin' world! We need to get it together. Also I learned that cows give off methane when they burp from eating corn or whatever else. In fact they're producing like 43% of the methane on Earth which is ridiculous. They pretty much said we would be better off not eating so much beef which I actually don't eat much. I go for white meats like chicken and turkey. Anyway you guys should check it out. National Geographic just put the whole documentary on youtube which i'm surprised cause it's over an hour and a half long. One bad thing about it is that they wanna tax recreational stuff we do which will raise taxes on almost every activity we do but they said it will take less taxes out on your paychecks so idk about that.

Edited by JoeJoe
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