This kills me. I saw the reef for the first time around 2007. I went back twice, and the last time I was there (2017) I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. Wasteland? An under water desert? I don't have words for it, but I don't really want to go back because it hit me so hard. Our planet is dying and we're sitting here debating why/who and not doing anywhere near enough to fix it.

I'm so glad we have space rockets, flying cars and drone warfare...but I'd trade it all in for the reef to come back.

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ChadNauseam an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> I'm so glad we have space rockets, flying cars and drone warfare...but I'd trade it all in for the reef to come back.

It's really just climate change. (Ocean warming is what causes bleaching.) Luckily, since the 80s we've had the technology to generate energy without releasing greenhouse gases. I wish more people knew about the harms caused by climate change because maybe if they were they'd be more interested in preventing them.

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Nition 40 minutes ago | parent [-]

I feel like the harms were really drilled into Millennials like myself but then we seem to have assumed that younger Gen Zs and gen Alpha will just receive the climate change wisdom via osmosis or maybe if we're lucky, their parents. I've seen more people worrying about under-population (under population! Remember over-population?) than the environment recently. Maybe we need to bring Captain Planet back.

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MajorTakeaway 28 minutes ago | parent [-]

I really think that Disney shit really fucked your head up, NGL Gen Y.

	▲	Nition 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You don't have to trust a kids' show, that's just to help build general awareness. The proof is clear enough in rising CO2 levels, global average temperatures, ocean heat content etc. The power is yours.

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arjie 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well, it's not the space rockets etc. that do this. It's the single-family homes with large yards with no apartment buildings nearby, and the ability to not look at wind turbines, and the community that we have managed to cultivate by living in our own detached homes. The things you have to trade to get the reef back are not usually the things you want to trade. Otherwise, we could happily trade those things. It's not like there are that many people making space rockets, after all. The hard part is giving up the things you want, like personal delivery food or a large car with a big road that has no traffic, or a large yard that you water, or living in the forest with two day delivery.

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mikepurvis an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's horrifying to hear. I also went on a multi day dive trip at gbr and the coral sea in 2007 and it was spectacular; I can't imagine going back and seeing it degraded.

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ryandrake 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Our planet is dying and we're sitting here debating why/who and not doing anywhere near enough to fix it.

If only we were just debating why/who! Thanks to Social Media, filter bubbles, and “alternative facts,” we are back to debating whether it is actually even happening or not.

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kbutler 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Happy to report the northern and central GBR coral cover is currently higher than any time measured before 2020. Southern is currently below its long-term average, but 2024 was a record high in coral cover.

https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co...

This doesn't mean everything is fine, but it is doing way better than 2017.

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mi_lk 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I wonder if coral coverage is a meaningful stat itself. Does that directly translate to diversified creatures?

Was in central GBR this year, can't say I'm super impressed but not sure how I should set my expectation

	▲	skew-aberration 23 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Not necessarily but they do measure diversity too, and it has not changed dramatically. Typically the biggest change in diversity is due to cyclones which kill of the delicate and fast-growing corals like staghorns, which are also the fastest to grow back.

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grosswait an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Wow, I wasn’t aware of this. I’ve always read climate change as the primary driver for bleaching. If that is the case, do we know why/how they’ve recovered?

	▲	skew-aberration 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Corals are killed en masse by other events, particularly cyclones. These have a much bigger affect on coral coverage, in the short term, than ocean temperatures / bleaching (which is transient and more localized). Bleaching is not death of the coral, it is the expulsion of algae (typically in high temperatures). The coral can find a different species of algae, or the algae can return once temperatures drop. There are corals living in regions of the ocean with different temperatures, so it is not that high temperature alone would kill all coral, but populations adapted to a given region (like north vs south GBR) are being affected by the speed of the changes.

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mannanj 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How many humans are worth restoring the coral reef?

Because it’s nice to say these things in Sentiment, until you see past the naïveté to see human lives are what cause the wear and extraction on the environment. Humans live, eat, shit in, consume their environment for their lives.

How many humans are worth restoring the reef for you? And would you sacrifice your own friends and family?

	▲	verelo 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		This is an absurd remark. You don’t need to sacrifice humans, you need humans to behave different. Do you know the energy requirements that go into war? The chemical, carbon and physical changes to the ocean from all we do? We don’t need to kill more humans, we just need to stop being fucking idiots for a few hundred years.

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Nux 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"The planet is fine, the people are fscked!"

	▲	Henchman21 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		"The Industrial Revolution and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race -- and every other living being on the planet as well."

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actionfromafar an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

At least we are owning the libs.