Coral Reefs Starting to Permanently Dissolve

[Techno-Druid]

As if the oceans needed more terrible news, scientists have learned that the coral reefs surrounding the Florida Keys are dissolving. The culprit—ocean acidification—wasn’t expected to start hitting reefs hard for another three decades.

“We don’t have as much time as we previously thought,” oceanographer Chris Langdon of the University of Miami said in a statement. “The reefs are beginning to dissolve away.”

When carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it produces acid, causing the pH to drop. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the pH of ocean surfaces worldwide has fallen by about 0.1 units, representing a 30 percent increase in acidity. The oceans will continue to become more acidic as long as humans keep pumping carbon into the air.

http://gizmodo.com/coral-reefs-in-fl...iss-1774427441

Well this is terrible, I mean we rely on coral reefs in general to support fauna that wr both consume and observe for ecotourism. I'm just hoping that project a while back that's attempting to breed "more acid-resistant coral" is successful.

[Underverse]

I'm sure it's just normal earth cycle...stuff.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I'm sure it's just normal earth cycle...stuff.

Something something natural warming cycles something something AL GORE.

No but seriously, our oceans have been absorbing carbon at unprecedented, unsustainable rates. We have massive coral records because never before in history have our oceans been this acidic enough to dissolve them. Once the ocean reaches critical levels of carbon saturation, we're going to see massive increases in year on year carbon accumulation in the atmosphere.

[Steve French]

Well there's still hope, found a massive coral reef that stretches for some 600 miles in the Amazon river.

[the game]

Yeah the earth is dying.

[Gheld]

Well there's still hope, found a massive coral reef that stretches for some 600 miles in the Amazon river.

Then it's settled. We have to create a machine capable of drilling through the earth's core, and then coming out the other side at the mouth of the amazon river, in order to gather samples of that coral, and then Bruce Willis and Ben Afflek have to go up in a top secret space shuttle that nobody knew about in order to drill a hole in an approaching asteroid, fill it with coral, and blow the whole thing up, causing coral to shower down into the earth's oceans, recoralizing them and preventing the zombie apocalypse.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah the earth is dying.

You mean the part of the earth that tolerates human life is dying. And once we commit environmental suicide in the blink of an eye (at least in a geological sense) nobody will ever know we were ever here.

[Techno-Druid]

This sort of reminds me of that video I posted on this forum a few weeks back about how whales indirectly fertilize plant plankton which take in carbon. Whales battle carbon dioxide!

[Darsithis]

Yeah the earth is dying.

No. It's incredibly unlikely we could kill the Earth. We could certainly damage it. We definitely can kill ourselves off with unchecked pollution and climate change. However, the Earth will live on, just without us on it.

[Garnier Fructis]

I take issue with even saying that the Earth is living or dying. Planets are not living beings.

[Super Friendly Kitty Cat]

The less space for coral reefs the more space for McDonald's!

[Gheld]

No. It's incredibly unlikely we could kill the Earth. We could certainly damage it. We definitely can kill ourselves off with unchecked pollution and climate change. However, the Earth will live on, just without us on it.

And sadly if you look at any ghost town and how quickly the elements destroy them and you can see that our footprint will get reclaimed by the earth pretty quickly.

You could almost say the more we pollute the earth the quicker the pollution will go away (along with us).

[Deleted]

No. It's incredibly unlikely we could kill the Earth. We could certainly damage it. We definitely can kill ourselves off with unchecked pollution and climate change. However, the Earth will live on, just without us on it.

Yeah, I suppose what should be said is that the fragile ecology of the Earth as it existed before humans and especially the industrial revolution is being shattered. Obviously the Earth has survived a lot of stuff. It's just that the life on it hasn't. Sure, new forms of life have taken over but that's not really a consolation for our species.

The Earth survived a collision with another planet. An insignificant virus called the human being on it's surface isn't going to hurt the Earth. Life on Earth, though...

[Crissi]

Yeah, I suppose what should be said is that the fragile ecology of the Earth as it existed before humans and especially the industrial revolution is being shattered. Obviously the Earth has survived a lot of stuff. It's just that the life on it hasn't. Sure, new forms of life have taken over but that's not really a consolation for our species.

The Earth survived a collision with another planet. An insignificant virus called the human being on it's surface isn't going to hurt the Earth. Life on Earth, though...

Life on Earth will likely be fine as well. It survived several massive extinction events where up to 95% of life died out. It'll just be in different forms from what we know now.

[Endus]

No. It's incredibly unlikely we could kill the Earth. We could certainly damage it. We definitely can kill ourselves off with unchecked pollution and climate change. However, the Earth will live on, just without us on it.

Well, to be fair, we've caused so much damage already (through predation/colonization for the last 50,000 years, not just climate change in the last century) that ecologists often talk about this era as another major extinction event; the Holocene Extinction.

We're not going to kill all life on the planet, but we've already directly caused a fairly significant reduction in biodiversity.

So yes; we're not going to kill the planet, but we've already irrevocably changed the biosphere, and that's not looking like it'll stop any time soon, nor is there any way to roll that back. Like you said, human survival as a dominant species is definitely at threat, even if life would still continue on in some form or another.

[Deleted]

Life on Earth will likely be fine as well. It survived several massive extinction events where up to 95% of life died out. It'll just be in different forms from what we know now.

Yeah, apologies but I do think you're contradicting yourself there though. I don't see life being fine if 95% of it dies out. Sure, life will exist, but I for one couldn't say it's fine.

[Darsithis]

Well, to be fair, we've caused so much damage already (through predation/colonization for the last 50,000 years, not just climate change in the last century) that ecologists often talk about this era as another major extinction event; the Holocene Extinction.

We're not going to kill all life on the planet, but we've already directly caused a fairly significant reduction in biodiversity.

So yes; we're not going to kill the planet, but we've already irrevocably changed the biosphere, and that's not looking like it'll stop any time soon, nor is there any way to roll that back. Like you said, human survival as a dominant species is definitely at threat, even if life would still continue on in some form or another.

That's pretty much what I mean. We're in our own extinction event right now but could we kill the planet? Nah. Could we wipe out most of the life and ourselves? Sure.

[Skeppio]

The less space for coral reefs the more space for McDonald's!

But without them, how the hell will I get my daily McCoral burger?

[PC2]

We're in our own extinction event right now but could we kill the planet? Nah. Could we wipe out most of the life and ourselves? Sure.

You mean humans are going extinct? By what metric? The global population and agricultural output have been going up over time. Until those both consistently go down, I don't see how a human extinction could be accurately verified.

[Deleted]

Is there some kind of tasty animal that lives in the reefs or a animal that is tasty that needs those animals to survive? How about oil or leather?

What is my investment as a person who really doesn't care about animals outside of what is in my plate or what I wear?

[Belime]

You mean humans are going extinct? By what metric? The global population and agricultural output have been going up over time. Until those both consistently go down, I don't see how a human extinction could be accurately verified.

but but, the coral reefs...