The Great Barrier reef, which has lived for 25 million years, is now essentially dead.

[RedGuard]

Lived for 25 million years but only took humanity 200 years to kill it: The Great Barrier reef, which has lived for 25 million years, is now essentially dead. http://www.outsideonline.com/2112086...n=facebookpost

Sad that many will still not accept the scientific consensus, and that the australian government is in the pocket of its fossil fuel industry. Its amazing to me that they care so much about Johnny depp's ing dogs but they didn't lift a damn finger to do anything about a major landmark. This is a sad day for life on this planet, not just humanity.

[hellheaven1987]

So Humanity defeat Great Barrier reef?? Humanity yeah!!

[Kraut]

So Humanity defeat Great Barrier reef?? Humanity yeah!!

Mother Nature should have given it a second thought before Messing with humanity - I mean, who started the war with all those earthquakes, floodings, plague and so on?
Better run, Mother Nature - we have grown up and now we are coming for you, old bully!

[Phier]

Mother Nature should have given it a second thought before Messing with humanity - I mean, who started the war with all those earthquakes, floodings, plague and so on?
Better run, Mother Nature - we have grown up and now we are coming for you, old bully!

The interesting thing is that if you go back to the early 1900's, this was actually a pretty common thought, being nature was our enemy #1.

[Elfdude]

The great barrier reef is far from dead. There was a massive bleaching event (acidity of the ocean got very high due to CO2 concentration in the atmosphere) but bleached coral isn't the same as dead coral. Odds are new symbiotes will colonize the bleached coral. When the water gets too warm or too acidic or etc the coral (relative of jelly fish) forces its symbiotic algaes out to protect itself. It's a defense mechanism to keep the algae from killing the animal inside. This is what happened. This started due to El Nino and assuming the temperatures of the water fall back down the corals will accept new resident algae populations and continue thriving. The long term consequences of global warming however are likely the long term destruction of the great barrier reef as the appropriate conditions for corals move northward.

[IronBrig4]

It's not dead. That was just a clickbait headline so people would pay attention.

http://www.latimes.com/science/scien...nap-story.html

[Cyclops]

Indeed. There are several causes for concern, I'd say the sugar industry in QLD is the biggest threat. If the sea level rises too much or the water temp goes up then its kaput, but currently fertiliser and pesticides running down from the farms is doing a lot of damage.

[Phier]

Added with the alarmist headline, is this little creature that doesn't seem to get talked about when people want to talk about climate change but is doing an excellent job of bleaching the reef as well.

http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-r...horns-starfish

Crown-of-thorns starfish

The crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is native to coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region.

On healthy coral reefs, the coral-eating starfish plays an important role, as it tends to feed on the fastest growing corals such as staghorns and plate corals, allowing slower growing coral species to form colonies. This helps increase coral diversity.

However, outbreaks of this venomous invertebrate pose one of the most significant threats to the Great Barrier Reef.
According to research by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, coral cover on surveyed reefs has declined by about 50 per cent over the past 30 years. Crown-of-thorns starfish were responsible for almost half of this decline.

The research estimates that if crown-of-thorns starfish predation had not occurred over the past three decades, there would have been a net increase in average coral cover.

Cyclic outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish occur approximately every 17 years. There have been four documented outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef since the 1960s, with the latest starting in 2010.
To minimise the impact of high numbers of crown-of-thorns starfish, short and long-term strategies are being used to address the current outbreak and minimise the impact of future outbreaks.
Crown-of-thorns starfish spawn during the warmer months (around October to February), with large females capable of producing up to 65 million eggs over the spawning season.
Predators of adult crown-of-thorns starfish include the giant triton snail, the humphead Maori wrasse, starry pufferfish and titan trigger fish. Predators of the starfish in its younger life stages are less known.

Note the red highlight. Now perhaps the outbreak is related to climate change, but we can't just use that without some sort of proof as a deus ex machina.

[Cyclops]

...
Note the red highlight. Now perhaps the outbreak is related to climate change, but we can't just use that without some sort of proof as a deus ex machina.

Yes in all likelihood most recent damage is directly human related (pollution from the sugar industry, fishing for the crown-of-thorns natural predators-there's a mollusc that looks pretty which used to keep numbers down but now the shells are on a lot of mantlepieces) although the recent bleaching is related to increased el Nino activity: that's quite likely increasing due to carbon emissions. The long term ain't great, even small increases in sea level or temperature (most likely there will be both) will smash large areas.

[Påsan]

Well they are making killer robots to take care of the crown-of-thorns so there's that.

[fkizz]

But Humanity you are the Nature

[sleepyx732]

Just another reason for going down the toilet. Fish be expensive Yo.