Great Barrier Reef Obituary Goes Viral, To The Horror Of Scientists

[G_j]

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57fff8f1e4b0162c043b068f

“The message should be that it isn’t too late ... not we should all give up.”
--

Dead and dying are two very different things.

If a person is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, their loved ones don’t rush to write an obituary and plan a funeral. Likewise, species aren’t declared extinct until they actually are.

In a viral article entitled “Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016),” however, writer Rowan Jacobsen proclaimed ― inaccurately and, we can only hope, hyperbolically ― that Earth’s largest living structure is dead and gone.

--

There’s no denying the Great Barrier Reef is in serious trouble, having been hammered in recent years by El Niño and climate change. In April, scientists from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies found that the most severe coral bleaching event on record had impacted 93 percent of the reef.

But as a whole, it is not dead. Preliminary findings published Thursday of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority surveys show 22 percent of its coral died from the bleaching event. That leaves more than three quarters still alive ― and in desperate need of relief.

Two leading coral scientists that The Huffington Post contacted took serious issue with Outside’s piece, calling it wildly irresponsible.

..more..

[hatrack]

1. WAY too early to make that call . . .

. . . which is why I didn't post it in E&E this AM.

Not that the GBR isn't seriously fucked up already (it is) and facing a bleak future (it is), but this is premature.

[trotsky]

2. And even if someone started that hoax with good intentions...

i.e., to bring attention to the reef's plight - it will end up doing damage to the fight against climate change and environmental destruction because it will fit neatly into the right wing's conspiracy theory that all of those things are hoaxes. Grrr.