Re:Another Blow for the Future of Corals
by diveanon on Saturday September 07, 2019 @12:22PM
(#20904743)
They survived meteor impacts that lit the atmosphere on fire and blocked out the sun for years, life finds a way.
What we are doing to the environment is catastrophic, but it is not the hardest thing it has had to endure.
Just as an example, despite nearly world wide bleaching my house reef is expanding by over 2 meters a year and the pace is accelerating.
Some species thrive as others die, those that can adapt will take the place of the ones that can't. That doesn't mean that we should stop trying to undo the damage we have already done, but I try to avoid the defeatist attitude that many environmentalists seem to pushing these days.
My understanding is that this is very much in doubt. According to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C [1],
> The risks of climate-induced impacts are projected to be higher at 2°C than those at global warming of 1.5°C (high confidence). Coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C (high confidence) with larger losses (>99%) at 2°C (very high confidence). The risk of irreversible loss of many marine and coastal ecosystems increases with global warming, especially at 2°C or more (high confidence).
Coral reefs are so old, and have survived so many changes, because they are adaptable to many different environmental conditions, including temperature. The threat to them, as I understand it, is that global warming will happen so quickly that they will be unable to adapt by migrating in latitude or evolving defenses.
[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15...