[LINK] Well oil beef hooked?

[Paul Brooks]

On 27/06/2012 10:35 PM, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>
>
> Right now, on SBS, there is a travel program regarding the Maldives.
>
> The presenter is swimming over *many* acres of coral reef. All dead.
>
> There's no local industry. No change agent polluting this environmnt.
>
> But these centuries old coral reefs are white and dead. Few fish, no
> seaweed. Rising temperatures and sea levels are blamed. Nothing else
> changed to be any cause of these underwater wastelands. Why is it so?

Without answering the question, but on a similar marine theme - I'm concerned about
reaching the tipping-point
of ocean acidification due to elevated levels of CO2,  causing the ecological collapse
of marine food webs as calcium carbonate shells fail to form properly, or dissolve.


Impacts of ocean acidification on marine fauna and ecosystem processes
(http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/65/3/414.short)
Rapid Progression of Ocean Acidification in the California Current System
(https://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/06/13/science.1216773.abstract)
Comparison of the shell structure of two tropical Thecosomata (Creseis acicula and
Diacavolinia longirostris) from 1963 to 2009: potential implications of declining
aragonite saturation
(http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/69/3/465.abstract)
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/update-thinner-shells-puts-ocean-on-thin-ice/


It doesn't matter if the elevated CO2 levels cause global temperature change or not -
although higher temperatures will hasten the effect
It doesn't matter if the elevated CO2 levels are caused by human or natural causes -
although if the latest rapid rise is due to human causes, we should try to reduce and
reverse our vandalism.

If the ocean food sources reduce or collapse over the next couple of hundred years,
the human race in many geographic areas is in for a great deal of pain and readjustment.

Paul.