The Great Barrier Reef and the subtle power of ‘psychological distance’

Posted on June 9, 2016 by GarryRogers

This photo released on 20 April, 2016 by XL Catlin Seaview Survey shows a turtle swimming over bleached coral at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Don HIne.–If the federal government wants Australians to ignore the Great Barrier Reef as it dies beside us, it has done a masterful job by scrubbing all mentions of the reef from the latest UN climate change report.

The government’s actions have been described as Soviet in style and intent but the political thuggery pales compared to the activation of a subtler and more powerful effect known as psychological distance.

Psychological distance is a construct that measures the “distance” of an event or object in terms of geography, time, cultural similarity and factual certainty. If something is nearby, likely to occur soon, involves people like you, and the facts are certain, that “something” is considered psychologically close. The closer it is, the more likely you are to perceive it as concrete and be willing and able to act on it. Continue: The Great Barrier Reef and the subtle power of ‘psychological distance’ | Don Hine | Australia news | The Guardian

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How Austrailia’s Great Barrier Reef got polluted – from farms and fossil fuels to filthy propaganda | Graham Readfearn | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 8, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: This is the best discussion of the cause of coral death in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef I’ve seen–it’s people.

Coral bleaching at Loomis Reef, off Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Photograph: Essential Median

Graham Readfearn: In late November 2015, as corals across the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef started to bleach white, the game was finally up.

For years, Australians had been told the country’s jewel in the ocean’s crown was on the mend. Only months earlier the Coalition government had won a two-year fight to keep the reef off a United Nations list of world heritage sites in danger.

The stakes were high. International reputations and tourist dollars were at stake. The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and the trade minister, Andrew Robb, had even attacked Barack Obama, who feared for the reef’s future.

The reef was not in danger, Bishop insisted. The president was misinformed, claimed Robb.

Conservative commentators hanging around News Corp media have said the dangers to the reef were overblown.

The mining industry cast the views of environmentalists as green propaganda, ignoring how for the most part, conservationists were echoing the findings of the government’s own scientists.

Now, about half the corals bleached in the once pristine northern section are dead or dying. More– How the Great Barrier Reef got polluted – from farms and fossil fuels to filthy propaganda | Graham Readfearn | Environment | The Guardian

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Population matters for the world’s oceans – Population Matters

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

While oceans are in many respects the heart of our ecosystem, their sustainable existence is threatened by our actions.

The first World Oceans Day was celebrated in 1992 after the Canadian government proposed the idea at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, the United Nations recognised the initiative officially.

“We have to ensure that oceans continue to meet our needs without compromising those of future generations. They regulate the planet’s climate and are a significant source of nutrition. Their surface provides essential passage for global trade, while their depths hold current and future solutions to humanity’s energy needs.” More: Population matters for the world’s oceans – Population Matters

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The Guardian view on the Great Barrier Reef: the crisis they prefer to downplay | Opinion | The Guardian

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

Many of the politicians fighting Australia’s election campaign talk about the economy and immigration but the world is listening for what they say about the impact of climate change.

If the rest of the world could vote in next month’s Australian election, there would almost certainly be one issue that would be raised to the top of the country’s political agenda: saving the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists say this year 93% of its reefs experienced some bleaching, and 22% of all of the reef’s coral was killed by unusually warm waters. Unheard of just three decades ago, large-scale bleaching has become a regular occurrence. Within 20 years the conditions that drove this year’s bleaching in Australia will occur every second year. A Guardian report illustrates in vivid detail the scale of the devastation unfolding beneath the surface. Over the past 34 years the average proportion of the Great Barrier Reef exposed to temperatures where bleaching or even death is likely has increased from about 11% a year to about 27% a year.

It is a constant struggle to motivate most people most of the time about climate change. The evidence accumulates slowly; despite being an emergency, it often . . . more: The Guardian view on the Great Barrier Reef: the crisis they prefer to downplay | Opinion | The Guardian

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To save the Great Barrier Reef ‘we need to start now, right now’ – video | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: The video leaves us with a grim outlook. Human wastes running into the oceans coupled with global warming will soon destroy all the reefs. Do enough people care to force our governments to act? Probably not. Do you see any answers?

Josh Wall and Michael Slezak, theguardian.com: Jon Brodie from James Cook University says to give the Great Barrier Reef even a fighting chance to survive, Australia needs to spend $1bn a year for the next 10 years to improve water quality. If we don’t do that now, he says, we might need to just give up on the reef. ‘Climate change is happening much more quickly and much more severely than most scientists predicted’•

The Great Barrier Reef: a catastrophe laid bare – special report. Source: To save the Great Barrier Reef ‘we need to start now, right now’ – video | Environment | The Guardian

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Great Barrier Reef: diving in the stench of millions of rotting animals – video | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: Watch this short video to get a clear idea of what’s happening to coral.

Richard Vevers from the Ocean Agency had never experienced anything like the devastation he witnessed in May diving around the dead and dying coral reefs off Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef. When his team emerged from the water, he says, ‘We realised we just stank – we stank of the smell of rotting animals.’ The reefs around the island have been ravaged by coral bleaching caused by climate change. Special report by Josh Wall and Michael Slezak, theguardian.com. Source: Great Barrier Reef: diving in the stench of millions of rotting animals – video | Environment | The Guardian

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Florida harbor dredging threatens corals | Summit County Citizens Voice

Posted on June 7, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: This seems like the wrong time to be destroying coral. Is the pursuit of economic progress driving Florida and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mad?

Bob Berwyn:

Activists plan lawsuit to win more environmental protection

Staff Report: Even with coral reefs around the world under the global warming gun, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking approval for a controversial Florida dredging project that could smother parts of the only coastal barrier reef in the continental United States.

But a coalition of environmental and community groups have banded together to try and the the Corps to provide mandatory, common-sense protections for reefs near the Port Everglades dredging project near Fort Lauderdale. The project’s goal is to increase coastal access for larger ships.Critics of the project say similar dredging at PortMiami injured and killed Endangered Species Act-listed staghorn corals and buried alive more than 200 football fields of reef habitat. They claim the damage stemmed from the Corps’ failure to collect and use accurate, up-to-date information or adequately account for potential impacts to nearby reefs. More: Florida harbor dredging threatens corals | Summit County Citizens Voice

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Best Protected Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Now Dead | Climate Central

Posted on June 1, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR: Marine parks can’t protect coral from global warming.

John Upton: The colorless coral corpses of north Queensland will soon be blanketed with mats of algae, and the hard skeletons will begin to crumble. It may take decades for the submerged wonders of what had recently been unspoiled reefs to resprout and recover from the wipeout, if they ever do.

Temperatures continue to rise worldwide. The amount of heat-trapping pollution released every year from fuel burning and deforestation has plateaued in recent years, while the amount of pollution in the atmosphere continues to pile up. Bleaching is caused primarily by warm waters, and the current worldwide bleaching is the third and worst on record, all since the late 1990s.

The extent of the coral wipeout was particularly remarkable because it occurred inside one of the world’s best protected natural areas. Fishing restrictions and other rules are in place to protect reefs that serve as nurseries for large fisheries and as drawing cards for a tourism-heavy economy.

“The coral animal is the keystone species on a coral reef — like the trees in a forest,” Kline said. “When the corals die you lose the three-dimensional structure that’s really important. A lot of these fish, their larval stages depend on hiding in among the corals to hide from predators.”

Kline said the Great Barrier Reef is inside what’s considered to be “one of the best managed and most successful” marine parks in the world.

Source: Best Protected Great Barrier Reef Corals Are Now Dead | Climate Central

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This Is The Side Of The Great Barrier Reef The Government Doesn’t Want You To See – BuzzFeed News

Posted on May 28, 2016 by GarryRogers

Australia Coral Reef Deception: BuzzFeed News:

Photos and text from: Rob Stott, BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia

Take a quick look at the Tourism Australia website and social media channels and you’ll find all of the things you’d expect from the Great Barrier Reef: glossy photos of divers, happy turtles, and coral. Lots of coral. But the Australian government has been working hard to make sure you don’t see just how badly damaged by climate change the reef has become.