Caribbean Coral Reef Die-Off Not Caused By Climate Change After All, Expert Report Writes!
Caribbean Coral Reef Die-Off Not Caused By Climate Change After All, Expert Report Writes!
Weather it’s war, rape, storms, depression, etc., there’s almost nothing that doesn’t get blamed on CO2 nowadays.
One of the favorites in the climate blame-game is the alleged dying off of coral reefs. However, that is also turning out to be false. The online Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes today that climate change is not responsible for the dying off of the Caribbean coral reefs after all, citing a report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The IUCN writes (emphasis added):
Climate change has long been thought to be the main culprit in coral degradation. While it does pose a serious threat by making oceans more acidic and causing coral bleaching, the report shows that the loss of parrotfish and sea urchin – the area’s two main grazers – has, in fact, been the key driver of coral decline in the region. An unidentified disease led to a mass mortality of the sea urchin in 1983 and extreme fishing throughout the 20th century has brought the parrotfish population to the brink of extinction in some regions. The loss of these species breaks the delicate balance of coral ecosystems and allows algae, on which they feed, to smother the reefs. […]
‘Even if we could somehow make climate change disappear tomorrow, these reefs would continue their decline,’ says Jeremy Jackson, lead author of the report and IUCN’s senior advisor on coral reefs.”
Surprise. Another climate myth gets debunked.
Climate change: “an excuse for doing nothing”
Next is a nice video featuring the report’s lead author Jeremy Jackson who explains the significance of the report. He makes a surprising comment on climate change.
At the 3.48 mark, Jackson states:
There’s nothing in my report, except the realization that climate change hadn’t been as severe as we feared so far. It’s new. The fact and the thing about climate change is that it is an excuse for doing nothing. You know if it’s all those goddamn gringos in the north that made things bad, then I don’t have to do my job.”
He’s right. What Jackson hopefully will realize soon is that with just a tiny fraction of the money that is spent on the bogus problem of climate, it would likely be enough to solve all the Caribbean coral reef problems.
…
New Warmist Claim from Grist Mag.: ‘As CO2 levels rise, coral-reef fish lose the ability to recognize each other’
…Worried global warming will someday destroy coral reefs? Obama Admin. Rejects Environmental Pleas – Will Destroy Precious Coral Field Off Miami
http://newsmaine.net/19487-miami-dredging-project-go-ahead-despite-concerns-about-coral-field…
NY Times WALKS BACK hysteria over global warming wiping out CORALS
…Wild claim: More CO2 makes FISH fearless, ‘GUNG-HO’ & vulnerable 2 predators. ‘THREATENS ENTIRE MARINE FOOD CHAIN.’
Wild claim: More CO2 makes FISH fearless, ‘GUNG-HO’ & vulnerable 2 predators. ‘THREATENS ENTIRE MARINE FOOD CHAIN.’ http://goo.gl/kDbR69
Review paper finds effects of ocean ‘acidification’ on corals overblown – ‘In many cases coral calcification and photosynthetic rates of their symbiotic algae improve with elevated CO2 levels’
…New paper finds no effect of ‘acidification’ on plankton from CO2 levels 8 times higher than today – Published in Biogeosciences
New paper finds no effect of “acidification” on plankton from CO2 levels 8 times higher than today
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-paper-finds-no-effect-of.html
A paper published today in Biogeosciences finds that prior claims about the effects of ocean “acidification” on calcifying plankton are highly exaggerated because the artificial laboratory conditions utilized do not correctly simulate the effects in natural seawater. The authors find exposure of the plankton to “acidification” from elevated CO2 concentrations of up to 3247 ppm [over 8 times higher than the present] had no effect on the life cycle (population density, growth and reproduction) of calcifying plankton when natural buffering sediment was present in the experiment.
The paper adds to several others invalidating the vast prior literature on the effects of “acidification” as overblown due to biased, artificial laboratory conditions [often just putting sulfuric acid in an aquarium] that don’t correctly simulate the buffering effects of a natural environment.
Calcifying plankton [foraminifera]
Needless to say, the effects of increased CO2 on non-calcifying plankton are 100% positive due to CO2 fertilization.
Biogeosciences, 11, 1581-1597, 2014www.biogeosciences.net/11/1581/2014/doi:10.5194/bg-11-1581-2014
Response of benthic foraminifera to ocean acidification in their natural sediment environment: a long-term culturing experiment
K. Haynert1, J. Schönfeld1, R. Schiebel2, B. Wilson3, and J. Thomsen41GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstrasse 1–3, 24148 Kiel, Germany2University of Angers, Laboratoire des Bio-Indicateurs Actuels et Fossiles, LPG-BIAF, UMR6112 CNRS, 2 Boulevard Lavoisier, 49045 Angers, France3Petroleum Geoscience Programme, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago4GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Hohenbergstrasse 2, 24105 Kiel, GermanyAbstract. Calcifying foraminifera are expected to be endangered by ocean acidification; however, the response of a complete community kept in natural sediment and over multiple generations under controlled laboratory conditions has not been constrained to date. During 6 months of incubation, foraminiferal assemblages were kept and treated in natural sediment with pCO2-enriched seawater of 430, 907, 1865 and 3247 μatm pCO2. The fauna was dominated by Ammonia aomoriensis and Elphidium species, whereas agglutinated species were rare. After 6 months of incubation, pore water alkalinity was much higher in comparison to the overlying seawater. Consequently, the saturation state of Ωcalc was much higher in the sediment than in the water column in nearly all pCO2 treatments and remained close to saturation. As a result, the life cycle (population density, growth and reproduction) of living assemblages varied markedly during the experimental period, but was largely unaffected by the pCO2 …
Reporters win JOURNALISM PRIZE for PREDICTING what ‘WILL HAPPEN’ to oceans unless GLOBAL WARMING AVERTED
Reporters win JOURNALISM PRIZE for PREDICTING what ‘WILL HAPPEN’ to oceans unless GLOBAL WARMING AVERTED. http://goo.gl/fu0nCn