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I always wanted to see this Great Barrier Reef since I was a small child, now it looks like there might not be any of it left by the time I get there. Is it eve

I always wanted to see this Great Barrier Reef since I was a small child, now it looks like there might not be any of it left by the time I get there. Is it even worth it at this point, or should I just look at pictures and imagine what once was?

matuszeg 9y ago
you should go. It's not all gone yet.
- matte_black 9y ago
  How much time would I have left?
  - hoodoof 9y ago
    Well if half died in the last two years there's probably a calculation to work out how much will remain when you get there.
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  Yes, fly there, pump more CO2 into the air thereby increasing ocean acidification to escalate coral bleaching.
  - belorn 9y ago
    I don't know. If there is no money that get infused into the local environment around the corals then less people will work to fix it. It is also rather well established that conservation must focus on awareness or things don't usually improve by them self. Comparing the drawback to the benefits of tourism, I suspect the benefits win.
    - vaughanb 9y ago
      >If there is no money that get infused into the local environment around the corals then less people will work to fix it. The ocean has warmed to the point where to coral cannot survive. The reef is H-U-G-E (1,400 miles long according to the article). If there was a technology capable of reducing the ocean temperature around the reef, the waste heat the technology would create would cause more problems elsewhere. The reef is an indication that the global warming problem has become to big for human technology to fix.
harry8 9y ago
It may well be under grave threat. This is possibly completely true. I have been hearing about it being dying and on the way out since the 1980s. This time may be different and it may not be a wolf cry as it turned out to be each time in the past. If it really is in deep trouble, that card has been played so often that I'm jaded hearing it yet again. Maybe I shouldn't be but you see the downside of playing this card repeatedly as hyperbole.
- mikekchar 9y ago
  Imagine that the coral reefs were going extinct. How long would it reasonably take to go from full health to gone? 1 year, 10, 100? Geologically speaking, having an entire biome wiped out in 100 years is insanely fast. The point is that it may well be under grave threat your entire life and still exist when you die. That doesn't mean it isn't under grave threat. There have been northern white rhinos in existence my entire life. There still are presently: 2 -- both female. Last chance to see...
  - vaughanb 9y ago
    Decades ago the reef was endangered by run-off from agriculture (fertilisers, agri-chemicals etc) and I believe this has been managed, since it's largely under human control (ie, we could stop song them tomorrow if we wanted). There have occasionally be natural predators too, like the Crown of Thorn starfish. The current threat to the reef is ocean warming -- a vastly different threat. There is not much humans can do in the short term to mitigate the problem.
ripsawridge 9y ago
You could also find the beautiful things that you can easily reach. You'll have a better life that way, less filled with longing for the scarce, the disappearing, the already gone.

matuszeg 9y ago

you should go. It's not all gone yet.

matte_black 9y ago
How much time would I have left?
- hoodoof 9y ago
  Well if half died in the last two years there's probably a calculation to work out how much will remain when you get there.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Yes, fly there, pump more CO2 into the air thereby increasing ocean acidification to escalate coral bleaching.
- belorn 9y ago
  I don't know. If there is no money that get infused into the local environment around the corals then less people will work to fix it. It is also rather well established that conservation must focus on awareness or things don't usually improve by them self. Comparing the drawback to the benefits of tourism, I suspect the benefits win.
  - vaughanb 9y ago
    >If there is no money that get infused into the local environment around the corals then less people will work to fix it. The ocean has warmed to the point where to coral cannot survive. The reef is H-U-G-E (1,400 miles long according to the article). If there was a technology capable of reducing the ocean temperature around the reef, the waste heat the technology would create would cause more problems elsewhere. The reef is an indication that the global warming problem has become to big for human technology to fix.

harry8 9y ago

It may well be under grave threat. This is possibly completely true. I have been hearing about it being dying and on the way out since the 1980s. This time may be different and it may not be a wolf cry as it turned out to be each time in the past. If it really is in deep trouble, that card has been played so often that I'm jaded hearing it yet again. Maybe I shouldn't be but you see the downside of playing this card repeatedly as hyperbole.

mikekchar 9y ago
Imagine that the coral reefs were going extinct. How long would it reasonably take to go from full health to gone? 1 year, 10, 100? Geologically speaking, having an entire biome wiped out in 100 years is insanely fast. The point is that it may well be under grave threat your entire life and still exist when you die. That doesn't mean it isn't under grave threat. There have been northern white rhinos in existence my entire life. There still are presently: 2 -- both female. Last chance to see...
- vaughanb 9y ago
  Decades ago the reef was endangered by run-off from agriculture (fertilisers, agri-chemicals etc) and I believe this has been managed, since it's largely under human control (ie, we could stop song them tomorrow if we wanted). There have occasionally be natural predators too, like the Crown of Thorn starfish. The current threat to the reef is ocean warming -- a vastly different threat. There is not much humans can do in the short term to mitigate the problem.

ripsawridge 9y ago

You could also find the beautiful things that you can easily reach. You'll have a better life that way, less filled with longing for the scarce, the disappearing, the already gone.