Death of world's coral reefs could wreak global chaos

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Death of world's coral reefs could wreak global chaos
Posted 18m ago
By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether.

The idea positively scares them.

Coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain. Nearly half the fish the world eats make their homes around them. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide — by some estimates, 1 billion across Asia alone — depend on them for their food and their livelihoods.

If the reefs vanished, experts say, hunger, poverty and political instability could ensue. "Whole nations will be threatened in terms of their existence," said Carl Gustaf Lundin of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Numerous studies predict coral reefs are headed for extinction worldwide, largely because of global warming, pollution and coastal development, but also because of damage from bottom-dragging fishing boats and the international trade in jewelry and souvenirs made of coral.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/2010-03-26-coral-reefs_N.htm

[emmadoggy]

1. An R and a Kickety. nt

[defendandprotect]

2. K&R --

[The2ndWheel]

3. Blah, blah, blah, yap, yap yap

I'm sure that we'll get right on that.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. Speaking of global chaos

.
.
.

Could the USA's delivery of millions of tons of bombs around the globe be a problem?

Iraq and Afghanistan may have their problems,

but they weren't spreading as much pollution and devastation around the globe as the USA is doing now

Consider the amount of fuel used for all the USA's jets, aircraft carriers, etc.,

never-mind all the Depleted Uranium that the USA is spreading around with their "improved" weapons . .

wasn't depleted uranium banned from weaponry some time back??

:freak:

[Statistical]

5. There have been requests.... but no ban.

"wasn't depleted uranium banned from weaponry some time back??"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Requests_for_a_moratorium_on_military_use

[truedelphi]

6. I had an Op up about this same thing a month ago

And I was actually told by several posters that the Army and Navy and Air Force don't use much in the way of resources...

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I guess the troops, their supplies and equipment simply magically transport themselves on fairy dust to the far sprung reaches of the American Empire.

And the missiles that are shot, the tons of ammo that are used - these are also made of fairy dust.

And never mind of course, that the huge amounts of money that are spent on these efforts could have been used instead to bolster the efforts of the geniuses among us to put hybrid cars in every garage.

[Nihil]

8. Of course the military use fairy dust ... why else do you think that they cost so much?

> And the missiles that are shot, the tons of ammo that are used - these
> are also made of fairy dust.

Unfortunately, in a similar way to how fairy gold turns back to stones
and lead the next morning, once the fairy dust missiles have fluttered
their way into a school or wherever, the magic goes away again and all
that is left is toxic heavy metal dust. (And the blood, strips of flesh
and other remnants of once living children, etc., that the magic of
those smart bombs & missiles earthed itself against.)

[arachadillo]

7. Ocean Acidification and Corals

Coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain. Nearly half the fish the world eats make their homes around them. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide — by some estimates, 1 billion across Asia alone — depend on them for their food and their livelihoods.

If the reefs vanished, experts say, hunger, poverty and political instability could ensue. "Whole nations will be threatened in terms of their existence," said Carl Gustaf Lundin of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Also just making the news:
Shell-shocked: How Different Creatures Deal With an Acidifying Ocean
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/323-7da-3-a

"a recent set of experiments suggests that the ocean acidification story is more complex than first thought. Whereas some marine calcifiers reared under the elevated carbon dioxide levels responded very negatively, not all of the organisms suffered in the acidified seawater. Some, in fact, appeared to benefit from it."

With respect to coral reefs, The National Academy of Sciences reported:
Ocean acidification causes bleaching and productivity loss in coral reef builders
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/45/17442.abstract

"Overall, acidification impacted more strongly on bleaching and productivity than on calcification. Interestingly, the intermediate, warm CO2 scenario led to a 30% increase in productivity in Acropora, whereas high CO2 lead to zero productivity in both corals. CCA were most sensitive to acidification, with high CO2 leading to negative productivity and high rates of net dissolution. Our findings suggest that sensitive reef-building species such as CCA may be pushed beyond their thresholds for growth and survival within the next few decades whereas corals will show delayed and mixed responses."