A story in The Hill is publicizing research that claims most coral reefs are doomed because of climate change-induced warmer oceans. This is false.
Most coral reefs are thriving, having evolved during periods when oceans were warmer than at present.
Research indicates that recent coral reef bleaching events have been the result of other factors than climate change, with most corals recovering and becoming more resilient.
“A new study found the world’s coral reefs are in grave danger due to climate change,” says The Hill, in its story, titled “Global climate change commitments aren’t enough to save the world’s coral reefs, study says,” continuing, “[r]esearchers estimate that only .2 percent of coral reefs will be able to recover in between heatwaves impacting the oceans.”
The Hill is referencing a study published in PLOS Climate. The study relied on climate model projections of future ocean temperatures and modeled coral responses.
In a statement, biologist Adele Dixon, Ph.D. lead author of the study, said, “Our finding reinforces the stark reality that there is no safe limit of global warming for coral reefs.”
As discussed in Climate Realism and Climate Change Weekly, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been forced to admit its model projections of temperatures are unreliable, predicting much hotter temperatures in response to rising greenhouse gas emissions than actual measurements demonstrate.
As such, to the extent that the PLOS Climate study’s conclusions are built on flawed climate models, they are as unreliable as the models themselves.
Evidence from the field, from coral reefs around the globe, also indicates the vast majority of corals are not endangered by rising temperatures.
As explored in previous Climate Realism reports, here, here, and here, for example, corals evolved when the oceans were much warmer than at present and require warm waters to thrive.
As a result, corals have been expanding their range in response to modestly warming ocean waters. Most of the corals that have bleached in recent years have recovered.
Where corals have not recovered, their bleaching and death have been tied to coastal pollution, including from chemicals contained in sunscreen, siltation from development, and agricultural run-off.
Research reported in Phys.org suggests coral reefs are far from threatened.
According to the Phys.org story, titled “Half a trillion corals: World-first coral count prompts a rethink of extinction risks,” the number of corals in the Pacific Ocean alone exceeds half a trillion. There are likely trillions more globally.
The scientists involved in the research say the sheer number of corals and coral species means the risk of extinction due to climate change is vastly lower than previously claimed.
And that is just the data on known coral reefs. In the past month, researchers announced the discovery of a previously unknown and pristine coral reef off the coast of Tahiti, in waters previously thought too deep to host corals.
Concerning this coral reef discovery, CBC wrote:
“The reef off Tahiti lies in the “twilight zone” 30 to 120 meters below the surface where there is still enough light for coral to grow and reproduce. The discovery off Tahiti’s shores suggests there may be many more unknown large reefs in our oceans, given that only about 20 percent of the entire seabed is mapped, according to UNESCO scientists.
“It also raises questions about how coral reefs become more resilient to climate change,” UNESCO’s head of marine policy, Julian Barbiere, told Reuters.
Corals face many threats: pollution from coastal development, agricultural run-off, disturbances from divers, and swimmers’ use of sunscreen, which contain chemicals that can damage coral, climate change is not foremost among them.
Real-world data indicate corals are much more numerous than previously known. Also, evidence from the field suggests corals have proven over eons to be adaptive to climate change.
These two factors among others indicate that with a modicum of care on our part to reduce reef habitat pollution, we need not fear coral colonies will be significantly diminished, much less driven to extinction, by climate change.
Read more at Climate Realism
Jan 22, 2019 10 PRETTIEST Coral Reefs on the Planet
Get a Glimpse of the most Gorgeous Coral Reefs on Our Planet. Here is a list of the top 10 Prettiest Coral Reefs, also known as the “Rainforests of the Sea”.
https://youtu.be/RBqIOqNW2kI
The Models are only as good as those who create and design them and most of those over Global Warming/Climate Change are all for Politics and Money