The Great Barrier Reef will continue to deteriorate, largely to climate change, and the window to secure its future is rapidly closing. That is the sobering conclusion of a major new report into the state of the reef.
The report was released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It confirms what scientists have long known: humanity is killing the Great Barrier Reef, and other reefs around the world, by failing to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
I don’t mean to be a dick, but I find it amusing when people act like the reefs are salvageable, instead of a dead man walking. We’ll probably be able to save some hardy species of coral, but 90+% of the reefs and dependent species are going to die within the next 5-30 years. I am so confident in this, I would bet my life on it. We’ve already released enough GHG’s to seal their fate, and acting otherwise is delusional. Yes, it sucks. Yes, what we are doing is the worst crime in human history. But we need to be realistic.
I’m not saying all is lost or all efforts are hopeless. I’m saying the opposite — we need to plan for their inevitable collapse, rather than wasting limited resources shuffling deck chairs around the titanic), and we need to push for significantly more radical changes to the burn and churn vulture-capitalist cancer of the present. Net zero by 2050 is pathetic. We need to be investing more money and effort into saving what remains of the natural world, than every single war, every single scientific endeavor, in all of human history, combined.
To an extent, the report already agrees with you, as quoted in the article:
2024 opens a new chapter for the Reef. Future warming already locked into the climate system means that further degradation is inevitable. This is the sobering calculus of climate change.
Not sure whether it agrees to the point of voluntary suicide as a stake, but it’s not an area I know much about. From the report:
A vigilant, proactive and optimistic approach to management remains crucial. The Reef may be forever changed, but it has various possible futures. Choices made today can lead to vastly different outcomes — the path that unfolds will be shaped by the actions of many.
The future Reef will be altered by climatic changes already in motion, but just as every increment of warming compounds impacts, every effective action taken now contributes to a more positive long-term outlook.
