Coral Reefs, The Argument

[Gouldian]

On 13 July 2012 Roger Bradbury (Ecologist, Australian National University) wrote an article in New York Times titled A World Without Coral Reefs. In it he pointed out:

"They (World Corals Reefs) have become zombie ecosystems, neither dead nor truly alive in any functional sense, and on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation. There will be remnants here and there, but the global coral reef ecosystem — with its storehouse of biodiversity and fisheries supporting millions of the world’s poor — will cease to be."

"Overfishing, ocean acidification and pollution are pushing coral reefs into oblivion"

"The scientific evidence for this is compelling and unequivocal, but there seems to be a collective reluctance to accept the logical conclusion — that there is no hope of saving the global coral reef ecosystem."

"Governments don’t want to be blamed for disasters on their watch, conservationists apparently value hope over truth, and scientists often don’t see the reefs for the corals."

Source: - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/opinion/a-world-without-coral-reefs.html?_r=1

On 20 July 2012 Stephanie Wear (Marine Scientist, The Nature Conservancy) wrote:

"Bradbury’s piece is somewhere between a surrender flag and a suicide note for conservation."

"To someone not acquainted with recent coral reef science, Bradbury’s arguments appear to have a ring of truth — and he does make some superficially valid points. The threats to reefs today are severe and growing. Caribbean reefs are a shadow of what they were a few decades ago, and many other reefs globally are changing."

But Bradbury is dead wrong that we should abandon hope and our work — dead wrong on the science. In fact, rapidly developing scientific research in places across the globe is showing the surprising resilience and adaptability of coral reefs to changing conditions — resilience that can be boosted with proper management techniques."

"ICRS brought together 2,100 scientists from 82 different countries, and the science presented there made an overwhelming case for hope and solutions grounded in data."

"The reefs of the future will still provide critically important services to the people that depend on them. We know reefs are changing and, given all that we have done to them, they will be changing for the foreseeable future."

Source: - http://blog.nature.org/2012/07/coral-reefs-roger-bradbury-stephanie-wear-nature-conservancy/

What are your thoughts reefers?