I thought Obama was going to save the environment and lower the sea levels. Still waiting...

money, Obama cannot do a damn thing if Congress is not on board.

O'bama-Congress must help me lower the seas! Show up in your Moses robes tomorrow and meet me on the front lawn!

And who will force the hands of all of the third world countries doing slash and burn farming, or the Chinese or Russians or India and a lot of other countries who ignore environmental issues and do as they please. The American lefties always seem to think the answer is shutting down the coal fired plants in the US, but that wont do much in the way of helping the environment and will do a lot to damage the American economy. As usual, liberals are full of it.

Coral damage linked to Deepwater Horizon spill - CNN.com

Report: Oil spill culprit for heavy toll on coral

Mystery of diseased coral solved: Human feces to blame

Coral Reef Protection: What Are Coral Reefs? | Habitat ...

NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program

CORAL REEF DESTRUCTION AND CONSERVATION - Coral Reefs - Ocean ...

Mangrove And Coral Destruction | Coastal Care

Destruction of Philippines Coral Reefs-Only 5% Remain - Coral ...

Just a note coral are natural weather buffers. So when not functioning properly more inland damage and costs. hold carbon . and provide water filters, and fish habitat.

Yet, the Republican Party is still denying there is global warming! Hey GOP, what will it take before you realize we all will die when the earth warms to the point of disruption to the chain of life? Stop protecting the rich and do something about global warming NOW before it is too late for us all!

not true only the cause

Dee Rice, grab a bucket and help us lower the seas! Lets work together on this!

Just heard a Re-pub congressdummy say today that she thinks the EPA needs to be eliminated.

More likely people who easily find others to blame need to be eliminated. Then things can get done.

Pay now pay later the world is at fault the more violent storms etc etc i think the year 2100 is off abit maybe 2050 someone is in bed with the big corporations there is money involved dont expect any changes soon

56 species??? Give your basis for your comment. Sounds like more Michael Mann. More enviro-garbage.

Must be nice to sit in your beach front homes and worry if the little coral will keep away the flood water the government send you money for over and over and over. THe rest of us are busy worrying about how to pay our mortage and feed our kids.

Wireman, the EPA sure needs to be overhauled. It has become just another power grab by Obama.

Tao of wow

Like we should believe anything coming from CNN.

Reefs Dying in the Egyptian Red Sea | Save Our Seas Foundation

Dead Coral Found Near Site of Gulf Oil Spill - NYTimes.com

Gulf Oil Spill: Coral Death 'Definitively' Linked To BP Spill

Warming, Disease Causing Major Caribbean Reef Die-Off

Trying to Save the Coral Reefs - TIME

Hawaii Coral Reef Strategies

Coral Reefs In The Philippines "Slowly Dying" | Ecology and ...

NOAA 200th: Why Are Coral Reefs So Important?

Pacific coral reefs dying faster than expected

Dying Coral Reefs | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 1, 2005 | PBS

Kuwait's coral is dying as sea warms up - The National

Indonesia’s Coral Reefs Dying Faster Than Expected « Reef ...

Coral Reef Protection: What Are Coral Reefs? | Habitat Protection ...

NOAA CoRIS - Hazards to Coral Reefs - NOAA Coral Reef Information ...

Another "THE SKY IS FALLING" subject to worry about even though

The authors did note that the limited science of corals meant that "the overall uncertainty was high."

and one of the reason they claim is the warming, lmao i guess they didn't see the article from today reposted by msnbc of scientist studying temperatures from 3m years ago where it was even warmer then now with higher levels of CO2.

IF only "greenies" truly worried about "global warming" (Climate change) would only hold there breath long enough they could,

1. Help reduce CO2 emissions they would produce from exhaling depriving plants of something they need to grow.

2. Reduce the amount of oil and gas they WOULD have used otherwise

3. Help with the worlds overpopulation problem before it becomes there next big thing to cry about.

Corals are like the conservatives of the ocean. Corals can't move, have a difficult time adapting, are extremely sensitive, and rely on another species, algae, for their very existence. Conservative Americans don't move or adapt, block every attempt at progress, and rely on progressives to provide their very existence.

It's a pity that global warming will eliminate coral before it eliminates American Conservatives.

Kill, capture, or possess a body part of an endangered species (except parts you can prove you obtained prior the species being declared "endangered" - such as ivory) and face fines of $10,000 here and $10,000 there.

There was a woman, NJ I think, who collected feathers found at the base of her bird feeders. She used the feathers to created very good art work which she framed and sold locally. Some Fish and Game guy spotted a couple of feathers from an endangered species, confiscated her art, and last I heard she was fighting something like $30,000 to $50,000 in fines. I do not know how the story ended -- typical media -- they print and get you interested in a story, then drop it, and never give you the ending.

In any event, my point is that the law is absurd. I will bet that there are no more than 100 people in this country who can identify, by sight, ( knowing what it is called is not required) 3% of the species listed on the endangered species list. I'll bet that not 1/2% of congressmen who passed the law with its ridiculous fines can, by sight, identify more than 5 species. Careful don't let your kid bring home a frog, turtle or salamander for an aquarium -- it could be the wrong one. And talk about tension, try duck hunting. A bird flies across the blind at between 15 and 25 mph, you have 3 seconds, at most, to aim and shoot and you are supposed to identify it's species. I don't think the Game Wardens, who prance around looking at what you bagged (after it's spread out dead) could do that, but they don't hesitate to write you up.

They law may be effective for industries which want to open new facilities -- an environmental study is appropriate and often required. But applying this law to individuals is asinine. If you're snorkeling and see a nice piece of dead coral, don't take it unless you're sure it's not one of those 56 species.

BTW: If you go into a Pet Store to buy a piece of coral for your aquarium make sure you are armed with a list, including photographs, of what species of coral not to buy. And, guess what, I don't know if such a list even exists and, if one does, I'll wager that when you consider the time involved in hunting it down and the cost, you will forget about the coral for your aquarium.

The problem with all of these theories is that they often contradict in a way thats not even logical. For instance there is proof that the coral reefs in Indonesia have been there for a LONG FREAKING TIME...without dieoffs. Yet climate change happens constantly over tens of thousands of years. This climate change is theorized to make sea levels rise and fall hundreds of feet. If the Acroporas in Indonesia grow in less than 20 feet of water then how did the reef structure survive hundreds of feet of differing water levels. Moreover how did it survive an ice age 10K years ago. There is no way that the ice age maps that scientists use, which depict ice covering all the way down to Florida, did not affect the reefs.

There's just too much contradiction out there for me to yell that the sky is falling.

What planet is Cuba on?

Why are their reefs flourishing?

Immature people blaming it on warming to fit an agenda, keeping the real problem from being addressed. Pathetic bunch of losers. I want my reefs to survive and I know fertilizer and phosphate mining is the real culprit.

If one person can explain why Cuba's reef are not effected by global warming, please speak up or just shut the hell up!

WOWOWOW!!! thatguydownsouth, are you really really slow, or just plain dumb. You talk about climate change happening constantly over tens of thousands of years. That's right! Tens of thousands of years! Not a couple of hundred years. Anytime in the past when there has been dramatic changes over short periods of time it's been because of outside or rare influences like large impacts or super-volcano activity. And most things get killed off during those events. Sure, some things might pull through, but when every living thing on Earth relies on other living things to survive, and all of those things rely on other living things still, you'd have to be a complete idiot or suicidal to take extinctions and species becoming endanger of extinction very seriously. Especially when most of the changing conditions that are impacting them are man-made, not part of some natural process that, in your words, happens over tens of thousands of years.

Second thing, it's not in question that coral plays a very big role in the chain of life in the ocean. The only people who dispute there importance are people who believe even if we set the whole globe ablaze that only the sinners would die and god would save the true believers. You break enough of the links in the chain and it starts falling apart. If you kill off bees, you don't just kill off bees, you also kill off all of the plants who rely on the bees to spread pollen, which means you effect foods chains that humans and other animals rely on. And so on, and so on.

The killing off of coral is man-made, but has nothing to do with "global warming", because if it did, Cuba would be effected.

It is due to fertilizer and I want it fixed, but as long as this lie is promoted, the real problem is ignored. Thanks for being party hacks instead of true environmentalists.

Brain Candy you just called me dumb, yet in your entire paragraph you litterally said nothing. And you must be the "slow" one or else you would know that the technology to measure the Earths temperatures globally and reliably hasn't been around for "a couple of hundred years." Please dont call others just plain dumb if you can't even make sense.

No the technology to measure the earths temp accurately hasn't been around for very long. Neither has the ability for any species to pump billions of tons of chemicals into the atmosphere. Or to steadily increase that rate as to have it double or triple during a few decades. The idea of global warming, or at the very least, man having an impact on the earth is so far fetched to some. It wasn't that long ago when you wouldn't even believed you could pump that much stuff into the air, nevermind the water. And if you could, surely everything would smother and die, or the world catch fire. You have the right going from 'a little more pollution won't hurt anything', to them on tv nowadays saying how humans are to insignificant to be able to effect the air or water, or even the other life we inhabit this planet with. We couldn't even change any of those things if we tried because god's at the controls of all of those things. Religion has been good for nothing but killing people by the millions. Either through hate and war, or denial and ignorance. Most of the well known scientist we know of from 'school house rock' and elementary school became well known and famous after they died. They were barred by the church from spreading their scientific insights. Spreading the idea that the earth goes around the sun could literally get you killed by the church back in the day. At the very least locked away. And while religion in general has had to give in and accept some things as undeniable proven fact, most still would rather cling blindly to their beliefs than to acknowledge anything that would cause them to question their beliefs. And politicians suck mostly because they cater to your regional narrow-minded illogical views.

Very insightful notations, lbf! Most do not realize the tie in w/ Cuba having some of the least affected reefs due to the lack of fertilizer a s the USSR quit supplying them Petroleum/chemical based fertilizers and they became Organic Growers out of necessity. The Cubans are healthier overall due to these methods/lifestyle changes forced upon them.

The fragility due to the acidic/CO2 overabsorption is magnified/enhanced as most ecosystems get much farming runoff/human wastewater and its nasties from its own residents and tourists, as well as Global Poisoning, which Cuba does not have in abundance due to its isolation by the US Policies embargoing it. Sure, the rest of the World goes there, but currently in a limited fashion that is due to relatively limited developments/ecosystem destructions yet on the isle in order to accomodate them. This phenom is apparent across the realm of island nations that also have less local coral weakening impacts. Coral still has a few strongholds in such areas, but are being further cross contamination. We can only dilute so much of Our Poisons in the Mother Oceans before She spits us out like a bad piece of fruit.

That will change as soon as the US does lift its embargo. The hundreds of Golf Courses & CCs are already drawn up waiting on our Shadow to be lifted from the Virgin Properties abundant in Cuba. The Profit Mongers are drooling at the prospect, and poised to jump before Fidel is cold in his grave.

Another Paradise waiting to be destroyed, as we shall be soon if we do not ALL recognize and acknowledge the current and worsening situation killing our Oceans and the Life Forces emanating from those without throwing around ignorant accusations and dismissals.

Never mind. The die is cast...

lvingbarefoot

What planet is Cuba on?

Why are their reefs flourishing?

I hope I have offered up a reasonable response and appreciate your question.

Thanks

That's no different than the coral farming that's going on, except that your idea is to introduce into new areas. Not a bad idea at all. If you can get some investors and experts, you probably have a million dollar idea.

softdude,

That would be a great idea if the problem was simply cooler waters. The biggest problem is that CO2 concentrations are increasing acidification of the oceans. Increases in the acidity of the seas prevents the formation of the calcium structures that are the support for coral organisms. Need to control carbon emissions NOW or we can just say goodbye to most of the life in the seas.

We can move these corals to cooler areas, but we'll have to first kill off the species of coral that already inhabit those cooler areas in order to make room for them. But it's not just a question of water tempertures, all the conditions have to be right, water pressure, salt content and depth.

I think you guys are overlooking that species will relocate on their own if feasible. The problem is then it becomes survival of the fittest, which Khan is getting at. Lionfish are overtaking the Carribean on their own. San Diego occasionally gets hammered with an explosive population of Humboldt squid.

The other problem, softdude, is every time we have manuipulated nature, it bites us in the hiney. This discussion would be pages long if we list all of the unintended consequences of invasive species. FL alone is overrun with feral pigs, wild pythons, nutria, snakehead "Frankenfish", and I'm sure the list goes on. In AZ we are overrun with introduced buffel grass in the high desert, and tamarisks devistate riperean habitat in the lower desert.

The rising pH of the ocean pretty much puts the kibosh on that. No coral can survive in waters that are too acid. The article made that point plainly. Dissolved CO2 makes that impossible. Where does it comes from? Burning of fossil fuels from you and me, TheKhanKubla. Everywhere the water's changing. Unless we can somehow dump in massive amounts of Arm & Hammer baking soda, we're screwed.

The plankton, plant and animal, is dependent on a pH-range, too. When the plankton's gone, the whales will be gone along with the food web. That's all, folks.

The authors did note that the limited science of corals meant that "the overall uncertainty was high."

Nothing like reporting doomsday then leaving a single line at the bottom of the story basically saying that the entire report may be entirely wrong. Just like the other new story today. Seems the Himalayan glaciers are growing, despite the fact that we have been told that all the worlds glaciers are receding.

@Softdyde,

Coral is symbiotic with forms of algae and bacterial. The article implies that warming and acidfication are killing the coral. This is not striuctly true. Warming and acidification are killing the algae and bacterial that, together with the coral, form the complete living organism. But this is also why you can't just move it too colder waters and let warming eventually make it work. Additionally the coolder waters still do not help with acidification.

arguesforsport

Some glaciers are growing. Others are shrinking. But the sea level is rising, so I think we all know which way the average is moving.

While the change in sea level and/or temperature is bad, I'm much more worried about the acidification. Chemistry for all life is pretty sensitive to that kind of change. If we start losing the basics of the marine ecosystem, we are very very screwed.

Some glaciers are growing. Others are shrinking. But the sea level is rising, so I think we all know which way the average is moving.

Do we? Seems every time scientists tell us something is happening, a couple years later the exact opposite is found to be happening too.

Hey Softdude - Great Idea from KindDude.

In the Words of the great Rage Against the Machine(even though is sounds mellow dramatic in this context). *If we don't take action now, we'll settle for nothing latter. Settle for nothing now and we'll settle for nothing later*.

One of the great joys I got to experience in life was having a 40 gallon(ish) Salt Water Tank with some Fish and corals. The thought of this many species of Corals facing extinction(likely because of mankinds gluttony and disrespect) soon is beyond horrendous.

Time to Take Action. One of those Corals could help cure Cancer or MS one day!

If we start losing the basics of the marine ecosystem, we are very very screwed.

Yes, this is a point that more should understand. It doesn't take a degree in biology to understand it, it is very simple. Life on Earth will go on, probably for billions of years to come. Species will go extinct repeatedly throughout that time, and entire ecosystems will collapse.

But right here, right now, we exist on Earth, and we are witnessing an extinction event. Many species will survive it, but whether or not we do depends on the severity of environmental collapse, how many keystone species go extinct, and the impact on marine aquaculture and terrestrial agriculture. There are 7 billion of us and we can barely support that population. It will become even more difficult.

Corals are like the conservatives of the ocean. Corals can't move, have a difficult time adapting, are extremely sensitive, and rely on another species, algae, for their very existence. Conservative Americans don't move or adapt, block every attempt at progress, and rely on progressives to provide their very existence.

It's a pity that global warming will eliminate coral before it eliminates American Conservatives.

Thanks for this lenghty and passionate response and I agree. It's unbeliveable that someone can be so ignorant as mathuin... Too bad that kind of thinking isn't extinct. Many people can't seem to understand that we are all part of the same system. And it's fragile as are we. We are in a phase of addiction that blinds us, that keeps us in a delusion that we can keep consuming and polluting and destroying without impact on our survival. Plankton will be decimated by the acidification and that means 80% of the planets oxygentation and Co2 conversion will be erradicated... Couple that with mass deforestation and what do you have... frikkin Soylent Green... now add the shifting of the climate and weather patterns and guess what the new oil is water but their wont be enough to go around even with salt water converters. It's just the simplest equation to understand... it's the biggest crisis in Mankinds history... yet our suppossed leadership wont stand up and say so because we are a corrupted species.

The TRUE American way of life was one where we made our own goods, we repaired our own goods, we bought only what we needed, and a child might have one or two stuffed animals and a small chestful of toys that they cherished.. and that were the well-to-do children.

Very well said. My husband and I are looking into purchasing some land and getting back to the simpler form of life, our kids will be taught to work, taught to respect, and taught to cherish what they have. Now a days people are so "I want, I want, I want" and so "Me me me" they have no idea what's really important. The coral needs to be saved, it's a GLOBAL problem, not just an American one.

"Brevity is the soul of wit." If we could turn your BS into coral, the problem would be solved.

Autec, the irony in all of this is, most of us are clueless as to how Earth functions to create and support all life. According to the ecology of the Earth, man's existence is supported and sustained because of Earth's natural and wild ecosystems. An ecosystem is a natural, wild land community or in this case, the marine and the natural coral reef ecosystems, or the real Earth, void of man's unnatural and deadly changes.

All of what you wrote about is, man's killing of ecosystems for the financial economy; however, ecosystems also provide mankind the "goods" or natural resources that fuel the financial economy. If any credibility exists to the science of ecology, man is "suicidal" when he destroys ecosystems as he is killing his very own life-supporting services, generated by ecosystems, like oxygen releasing, the integrity of the atmosphere, even the natural sequestration of Earth's heat trapping gases and a long list of all the reasons man exists.

According to research in ice fields, we do not have historic levels of oxygen on Earth today. Our marine ecosystems are devolving into dead, oxygenless zones, and science predicts in 50 years, Earth will be a forest-less planet. What sits on the Earth also impacts climate. Agriculture and cities have hotter climates. Deforestation heats up and dries out the climate as trees and plants not only release oxygen, they exhale fresh water that cools the leaves, the soil and the surrounding area. Our forested and terrestrial ecosystems also naturally sequester the heat trapping gases, that are re-released back into the atmosphere upon deforestation.

Ecosystems are the eco-nomy of life itself. All ecosystems are all integrated and interconnected with loops and feedbacks to the very atmosphere and the climate, and they all, altogether, create the very life zone of Earth, her biosphere/ecosphere. Man needs to ask himself if concrete, cities, office complexes, freeways, cars and paper monies release oxygen, supply fresh water, support man's food supply, provide the atmosphere, the sequestration of the heat trapping gases, naturally regulate the climate, provide the biosphere and a long list of why man exists.

Most assuredly, man is killing his own lifelines to life itself. I ask myself, what is the living, natural Earth and what is dead planet, as dead as the tumble of rocks on Mars.

"In WILDNESS is the salvation of the Earth and the preservation of all life, long known among mountains and wolves but seldom perceived by man."

woodyshowl - wit is appropriate for stand up comedians. Not for global crises. I am tempted to apologizing for taxing your brain too much with my lengthy post - but then I thought, no need to apologize for the short attention span of another, other than to empathetically say "Im sorry" in the way you do to a person who has lost a loved one.

The entire article ends with "Or maybe not", which negates the hysterical thrust of the piece.

Get the science right, first, idiots.

Stampeding panic based on insufficient evidence is not science but glorified stupidity.

StrengthInNumbers

Thanks for taking the time to posting that. Now, I don't have to do it. It's what I've been saying for some time now. It's no fun knowing that the human race is on it's way to the most trying times of its history, especially if you're leaving children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren to face it without you, and there's not one blessed thing one can do to change the situation. When the permafrost is all melted and the methane hydrates in the ocean depths reach their tipping point causing massive releases of methane from both, global warming will skyrocket. In fact, the methane releases from the ocean depths may be regionally so massive that ships will fall to the bottom and a single spark could ignite unprecedented firestorms that could incinerate vast areas and instantly add great amounts of additional heat to the atmosphere. Hard to get happy knowing the possibilities are turning into likelihoods! Oh yes, I'm also told that the Yellowstone caldera is becoming much more seismically active with the ground rising faster than it has since records have been taken. Makes one wonder about 12/21/2012.

Corals are like the conservatives of the ocean. Corals can't move, have a difficult time adapting, are extremely sensitive, and rely on another species, algae, for their very existence. Conservative Americans don't move or adapt, block every attempt at progress, and rely on progressives to provide their very existence.

It's a pity that global warming will eliminate coral before it eliminates American Conservatives.

Like when you got anal-probed by aliens?

This is why we need to strengthen our border security..

I think Ray Bradbury explained it better in his short story "A Sound of Thunder", published in 1952. Guy goes back in time, shoots a T Rex that was going to get offed, but wanders off of the floating deck. Gets back to his own time, and everything is changed- language, government, etc. Looks down, and there's a butterfly in the mud on his leg.

Great piece of fiction!!!!

Didn't know Bradbury wrote that. I guess I'm in the minority of people who liked the movie.

That's where the name The Butterfly Effect came from, OTOH, Bradbury's short story.

Who cares...nothing can be done about it anyway.

Don't worry about it... go watch Jersey Shore.

Yeah, "why worry." This is the level of intelligence we're trying to convince here. All the Bradbury quotes and ecological analysis in the world are not going to make a word of difference to a large percentage of humankind. They won't react until something causes them personal pain or inconvenience. Hopefully something familiar is left when they feel like lifting a finger.

I am way more intelligent than you because I know that nothing we humans do can change what "might" be happening to the oceans. The best thing for the planet is for the human race to go extinct

I agree with Wally in that the best thing for the planet is for us to go extinct. And we eventually will go extinct no matter what, and probably sooner rather than later.

And not only have over 99% of all species that have ever lived gone extinct, but coral has survived for over 600 million years, through multiple global mass extinction events. We will not drive them to extinction in the holocene mass extinction event that is currently well underway.

That said, we should certainly be concerned about the number of coral species becoming endangered. Coral are a keystone marine animal, and important for the marine ecosystems of our world. Ecosystems that we still largely depend on for our own survival. We should be very, very concerned about the environmental changes that are occurring - whether or not they are anthropogenic. That is largely irrelevant.

As a species, we have survived through multiple events of global warming and cooling - but never before in history have there been 7 billion of us on Earth. If we cannot support our increasing population, there will be major problems and it will not be pretty. We can't afford to ignore the issue until it is knocking on our door.

The reason those 99% of species have gone extinct, Wally, were because of some sort of outside influence rather than the actions of another species! For someone who is supposedly "way more intelligent" than others you don't present yourself as such with your posts. You, and everyone else, should be deeply concerned about what is happening on this planet and striving to find a solution for it! Simply saying 'who cares' because it doesn't directly effect you is NOT the way to handle ANY problem especially one facing the entireity of humanity!!

I agree with half of your post.

If all humans go away, the few of us who do care will go away, and won't be able to help the animals and plants that need help from other outside sources. As for global warming; the African desserts are getting dryer, which means that when the wind currents come, it goes over most of the world, and puts more dirt where water would go.(I get this reference from a documentary "Extreeme Cave Diving by NOVA and National Geographic). In the last ice age, samples of underwater cave stalegtights show that before the last ice age, the earth got dryer from the African sands blowing out to the rest of the world. Then the colder temperatures came. From what I said, I beleive that another ice age is coming. We are just at the warming stage right now. But I do beleive that humans do destroy habitat and pollute, but some people have the ability and the will to help slow it down.

Sincerely, Aurora. Age 13

Unfortunately, we will be. I have a child, too. Sorry, Aurora., but the melting of the ice caps tend to make the rest of us believe the current climate changes will bring a general warming trend.

The planet is burdened with an overpopulation of humans and wars are already being fought over water and limited resources. Darfur is a water resource problem. The pirate raids from Somalia take place because their waters are fished out.

It may already be too late to tip the CO2 balance in the other direction now. Every day the amount of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere doubles. If we built a machine that solved the problem today, tomorrow it would be obsolete...and how would we power it?

You would probably power it with petroleum.

We could power it with solar. If we have a 100 mile by 100 mile square of flat area and have solar panels in that area, we can power the U.S. and a bit of Mexico. And I wouldn't want to use Petroleum. This is from a book called "Oceana" published in 2011. "The total Petroleum consumption in 2008 (by million barrels a day) U.S. 19.5, China 7.8, Japan 4.8, ect." You see, the U.S. uses more petroleum in 2008 than China, and most products that we get come from China, so they make more and should use more than we do, but their number is less than half of our 19.5 milion barels of petroleum we use each day.

And why are you sorry? Everyone has thier own opinions, and I respect that. I was just saying what I learned about the beginnings of Ice Ages. You can disagree if you want to.

Sincerely, Aurora. Age 13

Aurora..

I'm honestly a little impressed: you have decent arguments and even cited them. That's more than a good portion of the adults on here could do. We need smart kids like you in science..you should consider going into it in the future. Plus, marine science research is fun :)

Thanks Rachel. I was going to be an Oceanographer, and I got a scholarship from Grade 13 & Beyond when I was in 5th grade for a research paper about being an Oceanographer.

Sincerely, Aurora. Age 13

Oh, you so smaht! It's the end of nature and you've got nuthin' but teabaggie talking points.

If it wasn't for scientific grants, our life expectancy would be much lower. Mobil devices would still be big and bulky, and your overall quality of life would be greatly reduced.

Next time you need medical attention, stay at home. Most likely the help you need was born from grant research.

yea stupid science i mean what has it ever given us? Well besides the computer you are typing on and the internet you are useing, penicillian, ect etc..... the list goes on and on

I find it funny how people think that this is how one acquires a grant from the government. Um, no, lol.

life forms come and life forms go

but morons and idiots are forever and ever and ever...

Don't worry humans will be long gone before Earth finds it's end.

If another intelligent species (and I use that term somewhat ironically) ever evolves on Earth, they will probably look upon our species and our ruin as a failed experiment in nature, destroyed by our own devices.

No! They aren't!

Umm... I think that's the point. The corals AREN'T adapting to the new conditions. That's why they're dying out all over the world.

Bobby @17 and Truth - It is the speed of change that is the problem. Change over thousands or millions of years is different and organisms either mutate or die out. But that is not possible if the change occurs over 50 to 100 years or an adequate environment is not even available any more. (Poor polar bears!) Scientists are working with simulators and factoring in various very fine details, but who has listened to them for the last 50 years?

They can adapt, but the current rate of warming is higher than what's anything like typical. Cooling can happen pretty quickly, like from massive volcanism injecting dust into the atmosphere, but warming is usually harder to do quickly.

They can't adapt in 100 years. If you expect them to be able to do so in time to save themselves, it's not going to happen. Adaptation takes millions of years and the changes are very slow.

We don't have that kind of time. The problem is the changes aren't natural. They're caused by us and that's the problem.

Some will survive, and those that do will repopulate the world with new species of coral. Coral has survived for over 600 million years and through multiple global mass extinction events, including through one that wiped out over 96% of marine life on Earth and 70% of terrestrial vertebrates (the Permian-Triassic mass extinction approximately 250 million years ago).

I find it unlikely that they will go extinct during this extinction event, despite the rapidity of the warming. Coral are a genetically diverse animal, they've survived a long time, and they have a reasonable chance of surviving. Especially compared to other endangered species, of which there is no ambiguity with whether or not humans are contributing to their decline.

@Eric... Apparently you have not dove or snorkeled reefs lately. Corals are not adapting, they are bleaching (means they lose their symbiotic algae--called zooxanthellae, which causes them to turn white) and dying. The last time I was in the Bahamas, every coral I saw was either bleaching or had either aspergillosis or black band disease. I also saw natives selling Gorgonia ventalina (sea fans, to you) that he proudly told me he had taken from the ocean floor himself. Anyway, the individual DOES NOT adapt, the population does, and it does so very very slowly. Yes, coral has survived for millions of years, but this time, the extinction is our faults whether you like it or not.

Yes Rachel, an individual does not adapt - it is the population that does, which is why you don't see them adapting in the coral reef. That's not how evolution works in the first place, you won't just witness it occurring between subsequent snorkling dives. But in the second place I never implied in my post that I thought coral were adapting now, nor did I suggest that a massive coral die-off was not occurring. Go back and read it.

Yeah, and as soon as my neighbor stops pouring raw sewage in our well, I'll stop. Until then it's not my problem.

Oh, but I'm assuming "NJ guy" is from New Jersey. That state's set such a great example of what you get prioritizing money over your environment...

If Snooki is from your home state, your opinion is automatically discounted. ;) Although I can't say much better, Nelly is from mine..

Right....just flip a switch and change it back. So easy a 10 year old could figure it out and do it.

\"build the alternative energy infrastructure"

What would that be Sherlock, and how much would it cost.

Actually there has already been a device developed to filter out some of the excess Co2 but of course congress crushed that like a roach. Guess its better to have money now and say screw your kids.

What would that be Sherlock, and how much would it cost.

A veritable crapload. An enormous economical hurdle - which is why we aren't driving hydrogen fuel cell powered cars and all of our houses aren't run on solar energy. Oil is, for the time being, relatively cheap compared to other alternatives.

But you have got to be naive if you think that the major energy companies are not actively investing in the alternatives that will replace gasoline. They would be foolish if they aren't actively anticipating the decline of their finite resource, and investing in ways to maintain profit when it runs out. They've demonstrated a general ambivalence towards the environment and unethical government influences. But they have not demonstrated that degree of stupidity, at least not yet.

So I suppose you're going to wait for the private sector to find a way to make money out of not turning the planet into a cesspool? Juuuust keep waiting. The planet can rot. At least that mean old Nanny State won't be tellin' us what to do.

The planet will be just fine sullyness, its got about 5 billion more years to go before the Sun goes nova. It's creatures like you that we need to get rid of.

Wally newsflash when our disater that we have made comes to bite us in the ass. you will be right there beside me and sullyness begging for food and water. so enjoy your snideness while you can

You gotta tell someone about this before people fall for it!

Yeah. Planet warming. Increased number of tornadoes and hurricanes. CO2 record at the poles, which despite all the Fox News-ite claims actually DOES show accelerated increase versus any time in the past. Dying corals. Plummeting size and numbers of fish. Yeah, it's all part of a big government, liberal conspiracy to get grant money. I think this is insight into how the Right Wing brain thinks: "How could anyone be for anything unless they are getting personal wealth from it somehow, because I certainly wouldn't be? Liberals SAY they love the planet, but they're really just trying to steal from my piles of nuts." Mankind's f'ing doomed.

Right, it's all about the computer models, when the NWS computer forecasts start to diverge a lot after about 7-10 days out.

Wally please for the love of god pick up a science book.

So your argument is analogous to, "your leg has gangrene, and it's gone on too long so there's no way to save it, so there's no point in doing anything now." Somewhat true, but good luck with that other leg... or the rest of you.

We could start by voting for people who believe in science and math and education, instead of those who garble even recent historical facts or believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. Those who believe the earth is 10,000 years old or that the "rapture" will occur in 20 years just do not have the ability to understand or even care how fragile our environments are. I don't believe they realize that we don't get a "do over."

Confused, that's quite a presumption on your part that civilisation will survive the fall of this environment. Humanity may not survive it.

In your imagination things will roll along quite nicely as they are with water levels a bit higher and only that minor inconvenience... The oxygen supply will be endangered if corals are lost. Without coral reefs for food and shelter many fish populations will die out completely. With fish less available, many nations will go starve around the world. Do you believe this won't affect us? Here in this country we're dependent upon other countries for much of what we use on a daily basis: we import food, clothing, a high percentage of what we use every day. We won't have any oil to run our vehicles, we'll have no power.

You clearly haven't thought this through. Without oil, we won't be able to raise food to feed the world. We won't be rich any more. Our fertilisers are made from oil, did you know that? Raising food is energy-intensive. We'll starve, too.

So you have identified the problem sullyness. How about telling us about your common sense and realistic solutions.

Great, it's a world problem. So no one wants to do anything until the other guy does. Nothing like playing chicken with your air, food, and water supply.

So how do we fix it sullyness. All you are doing at this point is wasting electrons at your computer casting blame instead of working for a solution.

What does abortion have to do wih Global Warning and why would you even go there. Do you have a problem with personal freedom and are you a man?

It doesn't matter if you are a man or not to have an opinion about murder. I don't agree with it but I won't say you can't kill your baby if you want. Just keep your mouth shut about gun control if you agree with abortion.

If you can't see the correlation about how "precious" ocean life is but not human life you have problems.

It's all in the timing... some place higher priority on the starter materials for life, others on what is already here. And yeah, I'll just come out and say it: I think you, me, potential mothers, the rest of humankind trying to survive, the guy on death row, and the organisms in the ocean are more important than any zygote. I know that goes against some deeply rooted theology, but down to brass tacks, that's it.

It speaks volumes about an issue when those who support politicians who will ruin our future for a dollar want to change the subject.

Since the subject was changed.....

vote them all out of office Republicans and Democrats a like .

H.R 347 was passed with only 3 representatives voting no and 47. all the Senators voted for it and the president signed it .

Chris Hedges Occupy the Courts NY Jan … starts at 1:35 lame band before then with details about a lawsuit filed against Obama

Outlaw Occupy: US set to strangle protest… h.r 347

Fault Lines - History of an occupation

The Occupy Revolution Has Begun! just a note like the video , do not endorse Ron Paul luckily it is the last 15 -20 sec of the video

The Corporation

This is America not Amerika , It is our constitutional right to protect from enemies both foreign and domestic. Both Parties are corrupt and must be removed along with the laws that were bought by corporations.

I am tired of the continually push to make God the biggest abortionist of them all by claiming life starts at conception.

Also though I don't own a gun I support the 2nd amendment right, and think gun safety need to be mandatory (not shooting one, just basic education)

Back on subject see post #60

Well, Mike, that was deep, and thought provoking. You'll excuse me if the miles of coral that was previously alive in Hawaii, Caribbean, and Australia when I was a kid is now dead leads me to think you don't know what you're talking about.

Liberals will always make an issue out anything Mike...sometimes nothing.

cgr...The truth is that carbon dioxide is a beneficial trace gas that exists in such small quantities in our atmosphere, that the idea of it playing any significant role in determining our climate is simply silly.

Does it hurt, being that stupid? 

You have the entire internet at your disposal, but apparently you don't know how to use it for anything other than humiliating yourself in public.

That must be your real picture.

Does it hurt, being that stupid?

Insult. The last resort of a failed argument.

A hacker-or possibly a disillusioned insider-has gathered thousands of e-mails and data from the CRU (Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia) and made them available on the Web...

...Note that these e-mails reveal more than just what is going on at the CRU, since they involve numerous leading British and American climate scientists outside of the CRU...

...These e-mails show, among many other things, private admissions of doubt or scientific weakness in the global warming theory. In acknowledging that global temperatures have actually declined for the past decade, one scientist asks, "where the heck is global warming?

- excerpts from "Climategate: The Fix Is In" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/24/the_fix_is_in_99280.html

Remember that scandal or do you still choose to perpetuate the hoax?

That wasn't an insult, it was a legitimate question.

So you found a lunatic-fringe website. Obviously a site named Real Clear Politics (See that word? Politics?) is the last authority on the climate sciences. I didn't look, but they probably have a section on the round-earth hoax, too, and how man wiped out the dinosaurs. 

Never mind, you're not smart enough to argue with. 

And again, that's not an insult. it's just an observation.

Umm... chemistry is funny. It doesn't play by the "he who has the most wins" ideology. So saying CO2 isn't that much of our atmosphere is moot. A tiny amount of cyanide can kill you. And yeah, different ratios of CO2 and oxygen have existed throughout the life of the planet, with varying results on its inhabitants at the time. So we know there are life and death consequences to that balance, what ever the cause, so why would anyone in their right mind be cavalierly careless about messing with it?

Oh, and as far as your "Climeategate" hoax, feel free to use Google to find the follow-up investigations by the British parliament, University of East Anglia, Penn State, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the AP which showed those studies were valid, despite Right Wing attempts to discredit them. This includes reviews of the professors who supposedly wrote the "hoax" emails.

I didn't look, but they probably have a section on the round-earth hoax, too, and how man wiped out the dinosaurs.

Of course you didn't look. I didn't expect you would, but I did expect another insult and the cliche' "flat-earther" implication.

You see, facts mean nothing to people like yourself. You don't want to argue because you have no argument in your defense, not because you think I'm "stupid".

Well, since you're into observations, let me offer up one.

I observe that you have been duped by the left and all you can do is parrot their talking points and insult those who would disagree with your opinions.

The article was filled with facts. The emails were real. The hoax, exposed. Yet, you still believe the "scientists" who promote this farce called "man-made" global warming.

It's amazing. You call ME "stupid" and at the same time, offer no rebuttal.

You're a phony.

cgr @28 - Sure, and trees cause pollution! I'm sorry that you believe Palin, Bachmann, and Perry when they said that we only need to de-regulate those good companies and all will be well. And all the superfund sites are cleared up now. It's just those greedy scientists who are lying. /s

Oh, and as far as your "Climeategate" hoax, feel free to use Google to find the follow-up investigations by the British parliament, University of East Anglia, Penn State, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the AP which showed those studies were valid, despite Right Wing attempts to discredit them.

Wow. You're comparing a little bit of carbon dioxide to a little bit of cyanide? Is carbon dioxide a poison? Apples and oranges, sully.

So, now that one government body was exposed, other government bodies and the AP (also a "global warming" advocate) came forward to "prove" the hoax wasn't a hoax after all?

Do you hear yourself?

I'm sorry that you believe Palin, Bachmann, and Perry when they said that we only need to de-regulate those good companies and all will be well. And all the superfund sites are cleared up now. It's just those greedy scientists who are lying.

I'm just showing you what these "scientists" said. "Where is the global warming?" They said it, not me. These guys were trying to gather evidence that supported their theory and had to doctor their data to do it! The emails revealed it, not me.

In one email, a prominent global warming alarmist admits to using a statistical "trick" to "hide the decline" in temperatures. Other emails show "CRU scientists conspiring to evade legal requests, under the Freedom of Information Act, for their underlying data."

Another e-mail refers to an attempt to keep inconvenient scientific findings out of a UN report: "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. K and I will keep them out somehow-even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

Think of all of this the next time you hear someone invoke the authority of peer review-or of the UN's IPCC reports-as backing for claims about global warming.

RealClimate.org has been billed as an "objective" website at which global warming activists and skeptics can engage in an impartial debate. But in the CRU e-mails, the global warming establishment boasts that RealClimate is in their pocket.

I wanted you guys to know that you're free to use RC in any way you think would be helpful. Gavin and I are going to be careful about what comments we screen through.... We can hold comments up in the queue and contact you about whether or not you think they should be screened through or not, and if so, any comments you'd like us to include.

[T]hink of RC as a resource that is at your disposal.... We'll use our best discretion to make sure the skeptics don't get to use the RC comments as a megaphone.

This is an enormous case of organized scientific fraud, but it is not just scientific fraud. It is also a criminal act. Suborned by billions of taxpayer dollars devoted to climate research, dozens of prominent scientists have established a criminal racket in which they seek government money-Phil Jones has raked in a total of £13.7 million in grants from the British government-which they then use to falsify data and defraud the taxpayers. It's the most insidious kind of fraud: a fraud in which the culprits are lauded as public heroes. Judging from this cache of e-mails, they even manage to tell themselves that their manipulation of the data is intended to protect a bigger truth and prevent it from being "confused" by inconvenient facts and uncontrolled criticism.

The damage here goes far beyond the loss of a few billions of taxpayer dollars on bogus scientific research. The real cost of this fraud is the trillions of dollars of wealth that will be destroyed if a fraudulent theory is used to justify legislation that starves the global economy of its cheapest and most abundant sources of energy.

This is the scandal of the century. It needs to be thoroughly investigated-and the culprits need to be brought to justice.

- Robert Tracinski, ClimateGate: The Fix is In, Nov. 24, 2009

Yeah. I'm stupid to doubt "man-made" global warming. How could I possibly do so, given the "facts"?

The world is still flat and get off my lawn.

Cyr, the "trick" was a "trick of the trade". If a chef uses a copper bowl to whip egg whites (a "trick of the trade") is he being deceitful?

And the "decline" being hidden was NOT a decline in temperature -- it was a decline in correspondence between proxy data from tree rings and thermometer data.

The trick you deplore was a way of presenting the data to ensure that thermometer data took precedence without completely discarding the proxy data, which had been reliable up until the early 1950's.

So Mark-

You are so intent on flaming me you miss the whole gist of my post. How warm was Greenland during the times of the Viking settlements? How cold did it get during the Little Ice Age? Was there any CO2 spike that caused warming during Viking times? What caused the end of the Little Ice Age, which happened way before the current CO2 levels?

If you read my post carefully, you'll note that I quoted a very recent National Geographic article, including pictures and diagrams of the Viking settlements, and references to the tree stumps now visible due to the receding GREENLAND ice. Look it up for yourself. If they are now uncovered due to RECEDING GREENLAND ice, it must have been warmer there centuries before the industrial revolution and an increase in CO2. There was evidence of growing trees, and evidence of a farming culture that has been covered by ice for centuries. I made no mention of Iceland, and the article is about GREENLAND. Did they plant all that to make their article look good? Are you so involved in the CO2 hypothesis that you won't look at factual evidence from The National Geographic Society publication?

Be really careful when making the jump to personal attack, and making statements that expose your own ignorance.

If you'll open up your limited intellect long enough to look at past natural cycles, you might find that there are other explanations for the warming and cooling periods than CO2. How do you explain the leveling of temperatures the past decade, which don't fit the model predictions? Most of the posts you see on temperature trends end in 2000 or so. You may want to ask yourself why they do that. Find some actual scientific, non-modeling studies and evidence and get some education on what's happening.

And you may want to quit getting your info from wikepedia.

And I never listen to or watch FOX news.

Royaul, at its warmest during the MWP, the southern part of Greenland got about as warm as it was in the 20th century, and was a bit cooler than it is today. Some very local regions might have been very slightly warmer then than they are today.

Worldwide, the earth was considerably cooler than it is now.

And you can't judge very much from a few isolated tree stumps since ice fields advance and retreat at the edges. If a few acres retreated and allowed some trees to grow while a few square miles advanced, the significance of those trees would be rather minor. And I assume you are not talking about tree stumps from a million years ago, in which your point would be completely silly.

Yeah, science is a popularity contest: "Me and my friends don't believe man can affect the climate, so it won't." How do people have this level of reasoning and still manage to get on the Internet?

Stupidest thing I've ever read. So, you think that popularity determines truth. Wow. We are fortunate to be blessed by the presence of an eminent climatologist.

Certainly no scientists in this bunch of lib posters. How about some real science instead of insults.

wally, the real scientists determined that 56 species of coral are at danger of extinction due to warming seas and acidification. too bad you can't read.

Wally - naw... the deniers in this crowd couldn't give a dam about science, therefore insults are in order.. but lets talk about the science of tipping points for a bit and just how fast something as large as the Greenland Icecap could migrate into the North-Atlantic for an example.

As I understand it if all that ice made its way into the ocean, sea levels would rise world wide several feet, or enough to swamp a large part of Florida and displace a few billion folks that happily reside in ocean front property. The surface of the ice covering Greenland is becoming spongy, the melted water is finding its way to the base of several thousand feet of ice and floating it in spots. This has caused the movement of the ice sheet to accelerate, thus picking up momentum.

Do you recall the pictures of the Twin Tower collapse. The fire fed by aviation fuel softened the structural members of the building until gravity took over and completely collapsed both buildings. The burning buildings stood until they reached their tipping points and only a few seconds were required for the building to rearrange themselves in a new stable configuration of rubble.

This sort thing also happens to stars as they go through their fuel cycles. When the final fusion cycle consumes its fuel the core of the star starts to cool until the equilibrium of pressure vs gravity fails, its "tipping point" is reached and the outer atmosphere starts to fall and accelerate, and much like the Twin Towers it overwhelms internal structural forces throughout its million mile journey to its core where a lot of things happen including the production of heavy elements. A super nova makes more light in a few days than the whole galaxy.

So how many tipping points are scattered about the globe? The huge ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica? The frozen methane in the tundra and in the ocean? The Gulf Stream that warms Northern Europe. The life cycle of coral reefs? The thing about tipping points is that nature likes to arrange itself in a stable configuration. If the changing composition of our atmosphere and oceans becomes unstable, it is likely that things will happen very quickly as the earth finds a new stable configurations. I don't think people will be very happy with the outcome.

oh you can count on that one already happening,,His new war machine and the military arms he is supplying to all his Muslim bros,,then out vacationing again with his Hillary whore at 2 million a day, his wife spend another 1 million a day as she takes her girls day out in the Bahamas..Go AObomination

Seriously, guys. Fact check. Google? Here's a hint: if every headline on the page is anti-Obama, or even all pro-, it might not be a good source.