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Nowhere in this article or discussion is any mention of the extremely relevant farm runoff pollution. Particularly from cotton farms. Any progress there? I don'

by harry8 4y ago

Nowhere in this article or discussion is any mention of the extremely relevant farm runoff pollution. Particularly from cotton farms. Any progress there? I don't have the answer. There are many aspects to reef conservation. Looking at one aspect in total isolation and claiming anything at all about it with respect the health of the reef is just idiotic. There would have been very, very little reef tourism over the past two years. Any effect from that? There will be others as well. And right there is the risk of using "The reef is nearly dead because global warming" scare campaign lies to try and motivate people to do the right thing. It backfires and ends up encouraging people not to care because they've heard this chicken little stuff before. Lying for the greater good and those who do it just need to be treated with something beyond contempt. Context: I'm pretty worried about global warming and have been hearing the reef is nearly dead because global warming for decades now. I've become totally cynical about the reef being used as evidence of global warming for good reason - and it may well be under very deep threat because of global warming. Just stop with the damn lies.

mcswell 4y ago
The reefs off the American Florida Keys have apparently been deteriorating for some years now. A study was done by researchers at a Florida university on why, with the expectation that the primary cause would be global warming. It was not. The main cause was apparently nutrient-rich runoff from south Florida agriculture and fertilized lawns. (Nutrients lead to increased growth of algae and other non-coral things, things which are not good in large quantities for coral.) And the good news is that this kind of runoff is easier to fix than global warming. My fear is that when everything can so easily (and semi-plausibly) be blamed on global warming, no one will look for other causes. ICO coral reefs, those might include runoff, but also over-fishing, over-touristing, dumping or leakage of sewage and trash and oil off boats, and even reportedly sun screen worn by those tourists. And studies like the one above will not get done, because everyone "knows" what the problem is, so the environment--the reefs, in this example--will get worse when they could get better.
somishere 4y ago
AFAIK not a lot of cotton farming going on in reef catchment areas. There is lots of sugar cane and bananas however. Also lots of deforestation for grazing. Plus major resource export ports (LNG, coal). Regardless, runoff remains a major topic and there is some progress being made in the space [1]. Regards the article. If you look to the report itself[2] you'll see that this isn't a "she'll be right" triumph of science over scare campaigns. Climate change sits at the top of a growing list of concerns. The summary specifically mentions increased frequency of both marine heatwaves (that lead to bleaching) and major destructive weather events like cyclones. The other serious concern is crown-of-thorns starfish (a sea star that eats coral) ... and while the jury may still be out on the cause of their outbreaks (overfishing of predators? excess nutrients? changing environment?), the effect of this single species on the broader ecosystem is beyond frightening to witness. It's extremely difficult to have a meaningful conversation about the threats to the reef without getting into the weeds. The "scare" campaigns may be light on detail, glossing over (or ignoring) much of the important nuance, but (for the most part) they aren't wrong. [1] https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/threats-to-the-reef/declining-water-quality https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/threats-to-the-reef/decli... [2] https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-condition-summary-2021-22 https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co...
- boffinAudio 4y ago
  The cotton industry in Australia has diverted and depleted waterways which normally replenish the surrounding regions, resulting in a dust-bowl effect which generates storms that regularly dump immense loads of nitrate-bearing dust into the oceans - materials that would normally be caught in a more lush/green/temperate environment where it was useful, were the water available...
  - somishere 4y ago
    Yep totally agree with your statement. My point was that there isn't a lot of cotton being grown in GBR catchments, so it wouldn't be one of the main industries directly effecting water quality on the reef.

by harry8 4y ago

mcswell 4y ago

The reefs off the American Florida Keys have apparently been deteriorating for some years now. A study was done by researchers at a Florida university on why, with the expectation that the primary cause would be global warming. It was not. The main cause was apparently nutrient-rich runoff from south Florida agriculture and fertilized lawns. (Nutrients lead to increased growth of algae and other non-coral things, things which are not good in large quantities for coral.) And the good news is that this kind of runoff is easier to fix than global warming. My fear is that when everything can so easily (and semi-plausibly) be blamed on global warming, no one will look for other causes. ICO coral reefs, those might include runoff, but also over-fishing, over-touristing, dumping or leakage of sewage and trash and oil off boats, and even reportedly sun screen worn by those tourists. And studies like the one above will not get done, because everyone "knows" what the problem is, so the environment--the reefs, in this example--will get worse when they could get better.

somishere 4y ago

AFAIK not a lot of cotton farming going on in reef catchment areas. There is lots of sugar cane and bananas however. Also lots of deforestation for grazing. Plus major resource export ports (LNG, coal). Regardless, runoff remains a major topic and there is some progress being made in the space [1]. Regards the article. If you look to the report itself[2] you'll see that this isn't a "she'll be right" triumph of science over scare campaigns. Climate change sits at the top of a growing list of concerns. The summary specifically mentions increased frequency of both marine heatwaves (that lead to bleaching) and major destructive weather events like cyclones. The other serious concern is crown-of-thorns starfish (a sea star that eats coral) ... and while the jury may still be out on the cause of their outbreaks (overfishing of predators? excess nutrients? changing environment?), the effect of this single species on the broader ecosystem is beyond frightening to witness. It's extremely difficult to have a meaningful conversation about the threats to the reef without getting into the weeds. The "scare" campaigns may be light on detail, glossing over (or ignoring) much of the important nuance, but (for the most part) they aren't wrong. [1] https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/threats-to-the-reef/declining-water-quality https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-work/threats-to-the-reef/decli... [2] https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-condition-summary-2021-22 https://www.aims.gov.au/monitoring-great-barrier-reef/gbr-co...

boffinAudio 4y ago
The cotton industry in Australia has diverted and depleted waterways which normally replenish the surrounding regions, resulting in a dust-bowl effect which generates storms that regularly dump immense loads of nitrate-bearing dust into the oceans - materials that would normally be caught in a more lush/green/temperate environment where it was useful, were the water available...
- somishere 4y ago
  Yep totally agree with your statement. My point was that there isn't a lot of cotton being grown in GBR catchments, so it wouldn't be one of the main industries directly effecting water quality on the reef.