Australia Says Great Barrier Reef Has 'Very Poor' Outlook, Climate Change To Blame
A report done in 2014 by the Australian federal government has been compared to today and shows a decline in the condition of the Great Barrier Reef. The threats to the reef are the same as they were back in 2014 as they are now. The only difference is that climate change is the biggest threat out of fishing, runoff the land, and pollution. Coral reefs are extremely sensitive to warm temperatures. And climate change is accelerating the rate at which the sea temperatures are rising, causing extreme algae growth. The newest report states by 2030 the reef will look more dull with less fish/life in the reef while accelerating algae growth. And that the reef will experience heatwaves along with major loss of the seagrass that surrounds the Great Barrier Reef. The report also states that if we change our ways now the reef will be able to possibly recover, but the changes need to be now to save it in the future.
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/30/755846052/australia-says-great-barrier-reef-has-very-poor-outlook-climate-change-to-blame
I remember when I was much younger that the Great Barrier Reef was in danger in the future due to pollution, runoff, fishing, and climate change. And I distinctly remember worrying more about pollution and fishing than climate change. But, I worry now about climate change the most because world leaders especially the Trump Administration seem to not care about the world and our environment. Since our world leaders are deciding to react slow and barely pass any laws and regulations to keep climate change at bay. We will lose beautiful parts of the world such as the Great Barrier Reef if we chose to do nothing. I believe there's still time for us to change our ways of living and come together in some way to save the world from irreversible change.
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/30/755846052/australia-says-great-barrier-reef-has-very-poor-outlook-climate-change-to-blame
I remember when I was much younger that the Great Barrier Reef was in danger in the future due to pollution, runoff, fishing, and climate change. And I distinctly remember worrying more about pollution and fishing than climate change. But, I worry now about climate change the most because world leaders especially the Trump Administration seem to not care about the world and our environment. Since our world leaders are deciding to react slow and barely pass any laws and regulations to keep climate change at bay. We will lose beautiful parts of the world such as the Great Barrier Reef if we chose to do nothing. I believe there's still time for us to change our ways of living and come together in some way to save the world from irreversible change.
In my blog post for this month I also tapped into the controversy surrounding what the Trump Administration is doing in response to these very apparent effects of climate change (specifically the rapid increase in heat stroke deaths across the nation). However, with your blog post I feel as if, in this instance, it is just yet another way of seeing that climate change is a big issue and if we all don't come together and change something soon, we will be going quicker into a decline than we intend to. Overall, I see this as a huge issue and strongly believe that we should be setting out plans to protect our beautiful world, because it is the only one we have.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Jackson's post about "dirty" companies (those contributing to the problem).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there is still time for humanity to come together and prevent drastic changes to our own ways of life, but this optimism, at least for me, is brought down by two things. The first is simply a question: how? It seems easy to conceive that the solution to climate change is change on a global scale, but how does one go about accomplishing such a thing. Our legislators and the owners of corporations responsible for mass pollution seem pretty comfortable with dying and leaving the problems left in their wake to the younger generation. At this point would it be too late to cause change? If its not, is change even guaranteed? If it is too late, how can anything be done?
ReplyDeleteThe second thing that brings down my optimism, is the fact that many species of plants and animals are already guaranteed death. They didn't deserve to die, nor did they do anything wrong. These plants and animals aren't guilty of anything, so why are they given such a terrible fate? It's easy to empathize with people being affected by environmental changes, but what about everything else lost due to it. Several other posts talked about the destruction of fossils due to global warming. While the survival of humanity is a clear impetus for one to care about change, I think it's also important to look at everything else being lost.