All coral dead by 2050

Did you hear/read? Scientists say that, at the present rate of carbon dioxide production, all (and let me repeat that, ALL) coral in the sea will be dead, or irreversibly dying, by 2050. Coral suffers doubly from global warming. First of all, the whole warming part. Apparently, coral can only thrive in a delicate range of temperature. Warming the sea by a degree or so can devastate coral communities. Second, the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere turns into carbonic acid in the sea, which reduces the pH sufficiently to prevent coral from producing calcium carbonate, the primary building material for the coral lattice structure (calcium carbonate, by the way, also happens to be the building material for all shellfish, snails, clams, etc., so all mollusk species and crustaceans would be in dire jeopardy as well). Interestingly enough, for a time, scientists seriously considered sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and "burying" it in the sea; studies like this one revealed the foolhardiness of such a venture...

The scientists in this study said that to avert this ecological disaster would require industrial nations to adopt carbon output limits MUCH LOWER than those of the Kyoto Protocol... Guess what? Thanks to the Bush Administration (of course, can't blame it all on them, but it's just so tempting), the United States won't commit to it, or any other limits. Jeez, we're supposed to be "leaders," right? Imagine a similar scenario, say a kid is the #1 bully on the block, and teachers/social workers say he has to cut it out. And this kid says, well that other guy and that other other guy are both bullies too, and, well, I won't stop doing what I'm doing until those other guys shape up first... RIDICULOUS... The problem is staring us in the face...

This metaphor has probably already been used... BUT: Bush's "stay the course" policy (of course, more relevant for the War, but arguably applicable here) is the precise "strategy" that wound up in the sinking of the Titanic... Only, here, the iceberg (or rather, its NOTABLE AND INCREASING ABSENCE) has been staring us right in the face for years.

Doom and gloom.

I try to be optimistic, but I worry that the damage has already been done. The best I can do is to teach Willow and Aiden to be "good people," and at the same time, give them a measure of experience of happiness and love. Their world tomorrow, I fear, will sorely test them...

No coral reefs, for one thing...