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The Forum > Article Comments > The plight of the Great Barrier Reef > Comments

The plight of the Great Barrier Reef : Comments

By Charlie Veron, published 7/5/2008

By 2050 the Great Barrier Reef will be unrecognisable. Bacterial slime, largely devoid of life, will be everywhere.

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Veron makes a big point about the effects of acidification in the ocean as a result of carbon dioxide increasing too rapidly and not giving time for alkaline water to act as a buffer. i.e. He is shifting his concern from temperature threatening the GBR to what he understands as the immanent effects of acidification in the ocean. It is not difficult to see this as somewhat misleading and alarmist. With seawater having a pH of around 8.1, it would take a huge amount of CO2 to move it anywhere near a neutral pH of 7 let alone to get to acidic levels less than 7.

The natural buffers he speaks about may in fact respond rapidly. Recently in Science Express there is a report that may confirm this possibility. Here they show contrary to expectations, that one of the most common forms of plankton actually grows faster and bigger when more CO2 is pumped into the water. This confirms what we have always understood with CO2 on land with plants actually thriving and possibly the fact that says vegetation and sea life have been starved for atmospheric CO2.

Veron says "what is required is willingness and immediate action" and I agree but and because it points to a need for much greater scientific understanding and research ......... not emotional pseudo-scientific alarm which certainly succeeds is selling books .... i.e. fruitloop Flannery will attest to that one.
Posted by Keiran, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 12:27:12 PM
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Forgive them Charlie Veron, for these are eco-vandals - ignorant men, who know not what they do.
Posted by dickie, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 1:28:42 PM
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Speaking of eco-vandals and the tactics that they use please check out Monsanto's Harvest of Fear.

Monsanto being one of the companies that fund the so called climate change "skeptics" and the propaganda hacks that tell us how wonderful G-M "foods" are for everybody, and that pigs will be flying soon too---dont you worry about that.

The IPA keeps very good company doesnt it?
Posted by Ho Hum, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 5:24:01 PM
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Indeed they do Ho Hum.

I note that Monsanto, Dow Chemical et al got off recently when the US Court of Appeal found in their favour against the plaintiffs - members of some 3 million Vietnamese who were poisoned by the heinous Agent Orange (dioxin.)

Even today, the children and grandchildren of these people are born with hideous defects from exposure to Agent Orange.

These "Empire Building" cockroaches have changed forever, our eco-systems as we once knew them.

And in Australian waters, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) emerge as the most noteworthy organochlorine contaminant bioaccumulated in dugong tissues.

Fat tissue samples from three dugong carcasses stranded at three sites along the Great Barrier Reef were analysed for PCDDs and dibenzofurans. The levels reported, 17 to 22 ng/kg of dioxins, are much higher than those found in other marine mammals in Australia.

So A/CO2 is not the only chemical contaminating the GBR and its marine life. Dioxins and PCBs (a legacy from Monsanto et al) have insidiously invaded our entire food chain, wreaking havoc on animal and human health.

And of course, the parasitic nasties emitted also with a gob full of A/CO2 from an industrial stack, can include dioxins, PCBs and heaps of carcinogenic hyrocarbons.

But don't you worry about that Ho Hum.

If the ignorant ones can't smell it, can't see it, can't hear it, can't taste it, it must be a pack of lies...lies and innuendo....goodness gracious me!
Posted by dickie, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 7:38:17 PM
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