Bleaching
While the nations are bickering over Panama papers, the climate change news are worrying with every day passing. The matters of politics are going to become second hand when we're facing the ecological catastrophe and possible extinction. Vesna and I want to visit the Great Barrier Reef in the coming years, but it could be a sight not to see due to coral bleaching event encompassing most of the reef now.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest biomass conglomerate on the planet and it was selected one of the seven natural wonders by BBC. It can also be seen from space. The rising temperatures and the ocean acidification brought about by human activities are causing the coral to expel the symbiotic Zooxanthellae that, among other side effects, give it the distinct vibrant color. When the temperatures get lower, the protozoa return. If not, the coral is in danger of dying. The bleaching has been occurring more frequently in the past several years and I hope that by the time we get to visit the reef, the El Niño period will have passed and we might still see some color in the reef.
Considering the temperature shock and the change in the ocean chemistry where the acidity and temperature will rise, it is estimated that the coral will die off this century. The melting ice layer causes the redistribution of the mass on the planet and it affects the rotation wobble. After the loss of the Aral Sea and Lake Poopó and now the wobble incident, the extinction of the coral is not difficult to imagine happening in the future. Furthermore, the recent study from the Science magazine shows that the estimated increase in temperature might actually be bigger than expected. This is a serious blow to the biodiversity of the planet.
With Japan reporting it's whale killing and that we're still seeing the whale population going extinct with the Southern Right Whale dying off in spite of "being saved" I am really skeptical about the future.
James Hansen in the interview for the Yale Environment 360 last week mentioned a series of alarming facts like losing coastal areas, affecting of the oceanic current, extinction of species... The list goes on and on.
We went to Greece just recently and that explains the absence of articles on the web here and the general slowdown of the things I have yet to do. My phone is dying and I'm coping with its demise by photographing the drawings in various ways. I'm still waiting for the ARA initiative to kick off. In the mean time, using CyanogenMod is making things faster sometimes if nothing.