http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/rss/from:1997
Dr Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook Universities stated, “It is certainly the worst coral die-off we have seen since 1998. It may prove to be the worst such event known to science. So far around 80% of Acroporacolonies and 50% of colonies from other species have died since the outbreak began in May this year.”
He also added, “My colleagues and I have high confidence these successive ocean warming episodes, which exceed the normal tolerance range of warm-water corals, are driven by human-induced global warming. They underline that the planet is already taking heavy hits from climate change – and will continue to do so unless we can reduce carbon emissions very quickly.
So what happened in 1998 and 2010? Apparently Mr. Baird believes that warm water is driven by CO2 induced global warming, but only during certain select years.
…… Which happen to coincide with large El Niño events.
This 34 degrees C of the water thing is insane, I checked the NASA maps of sea temperature and it’s nowhere near close. They probably put the thermometer into a hydrothermal vent?
Those professional divers and tour operators who have been operating off the Great Barrier Reef since the sixties will tell you that there has been no change to the reef.
The greatest threat to the reef was a actually an infestation of starfish. The same agency prophesied that the reef would be decimated (or worse) by the starfish – never happened.
The ARC Centre and Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and his cohorts are serial alarmists where the Great Barrier Reef is concerned. They were in the Asian news last week causing more alarmism over the reefs of S.E.Asia.
Come on, there is massive damage, otherwise there is no funding 😛
Illogical.
Coral Expert : Humans Cause El Niño
What does an El Niño expert say about coral?
Of course the coral will be most affected during the warmer El Niño events.
The El Niño events get warmer as the long term warming continues.
The data clearly shows that coral die-off causes an increase in the intensity of El Nino events. This is similar to the correlation that increased polar bear populations reduce regional Arctic temperatures where those populations live…
What was the status of the Great Barrier Reef 20 thousand years ago when the sea level was 140 meters lower than today? How many “Thousands” of years did it take for the Great Barrier Reef to form?
The El Niño and La Niña climate events correlate directly with Jupiter’s elliptical orbit. Sunspots increase at perihelion and decrease at Aphelion. Jupiter’s 11 year orbit coincides directly with the occurrence of these climate events. The oscillations have been going on since before the time of the Industrial Revolution. The human contribution to the exacerbation of the climate effect of these events can be associated directly to deforestation; the forests from mangrove in lowlands and coastlines, to dipterocarps and pine forests in the highlands would have served as cushions for the climate changes caused by gravitational changes resulting from natural and regular planetary events. The forests would have absorbed the excessive waters during La Niña and would have partially cooled the atmosphere during El Niño by increasing the release of oxygen resulting from increased levels of photosynthesis.
It is not right to attribute all fundamental climate changes to humans.
“So what happened in 1998 and 2010? Apparently Mr. Baird believes that warm water is driven by CO2 induced global warming, but only during certain select years.”
Is there any evidence of coral die off in selected el nino years pre 1990s?