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Global Warming Devastates World's Coral Reefs Rising sea water temperature due to global warming threatens to destroy the majority of coral reefs on earth, with potentially huge ecological and economic consequences. By Michael Perry, Reuters Start Date: 11/26/98 CANBERRA, Nov 26, 1998 -- Global warming has caused an unprecedented mass bleaching of the world's coral reefs in 1998 which could affect the livelihood of millions of people, international marine scientists said on Thursday. Scientists meeting in Townsville near Australia's Great Barrier Reef said further sea temperature rises predicted over the next 50 years posed a serious threat to the world's fragile coral reef ecosystems. "Global coral bleaching and die-off was unprecedented in 1998 in geographic extent, depth and severity," said the International Coral Reef Initiative, a grouping of scientists and marine park managers. "The only major reef region spared from coral bleaching appears to be the central Pacific," the scientists said in a report on the status of the world's reefs. "In some parts of the Indian Ocean mortality is as high as 90 percent. Reefs in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Tanzania were devastated with shallow reefs looking like graveyards." In the Asia-Pacific region, the countries worst hit were Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the islands of Palau. The marine scientists said coral bleaching associated with high sea temperatures had affected almost all species of coral and that current projections of rising temperatures suggested there would be an increase in coral bleaching and coral mortality. "Corals live on the upper edge of their temperature tolerance with high temperatures directly damaging them," they said. "This means that the increase by about two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) predicted...for the next 50 years would pose a serious threat." Coral bleaching involves the expulsion of single cell algae (zoozanthellae) which normally live within the coral tissue and give it a brownish coloration. Loss of the algae exposes the coral's skeleton through the transparent tissue, giving the coral a bleached-white appearance. Once a coral reef has suffered major bleaching it can no longer support marine life and dies. In May, marine scientists said Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living reef stretching 2,000 km (1,300 miles), was experiencing the worst ever case of coral bleaching. Australian marine scientists said bleaching had hit more than 60 percent of its 3,000 coral reefs and aerial surveys showed that 88 percent of inshore reefs were bleached, with 25 percent severely bleached. The international marine scientists warned that the unprecedented coral bleaching in 1998 would not only have a negative impact on fragile marine environments, but would also have a negative economic and social impact. "The 1998 bleaching event has important negative consequences for human future and concerns biodiversity, fisheries, tourism and shore protection provided by coral reefs... This will impact severely on the livelihoods of millions of people," they said. [Disclaimer: This article is copyright (c) Reuters. The information contained in Reuters reports may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written permission. This text is posted in the public interest.] Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security. Built by Frontier on a Macintosh on 6/17/00; 11:51:45 AM. Web Comments - Produced by Larry Lowe Served 3979 times since 11/26/98.

Global Warming Seen as Cause of Antarctic Melting New research shows that two large Antarctic ice shelves lost a combined total of nearly 1,100 square miles of ice in 1998, apparently due to global warming. Red Cross Sees Increasing Likelihood of Natural Disasters In a June 1999 report, the International Red Cross warned of a coming era of 'super-disasters' with more 'environmental refugees,' higher insurance losses and declining ability of relief efforts to meet the challenge. Much Deforestation Driven By Population, Poverty Marginalized by the spread of commercial farming and ranching enterprises, subsistance farmers are forced to destroy large amounts of tropical forest for new farmland. Amazon Destruction More Rapid Than Expected Destruction of the Amazon rainforest is occurring two to three times more rapidly than previously estimated. Conservatively, 16 percent of the original forest is already gone. New Theory Says Oil Reserves Bigger Than Expected -- And E.T. Might Live Underground Cornell University Professor Thomas Gold says oil is purely geological, not biological, in origin; and life probably started underground, so look there for ET. 1998 Was the Hottest Year on Record NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) both released data showing that 1998 was the hottest year on record, by a surprisingly large margin. New Data Points to Reality of Climate Change Recent studies of atmospheric surface temperatures and ocean temperatures support the claim that global warming is occurring and will probably bring major climate changes in coming years. Greenhouse Effect May Boost Frequency of El Nino Global warming could lead to more frequent and violent El Nino weather patterns, according to a new study. Evidence of Ancient Asteroid Found Evidence suggests an asteroid hit Argentina 3.3 million years ago, causing regional extinctions and climate change. Forecasters See Severe Hurricane Season Ahead Meteorologists say the La Nina cold water condition in the Pacific is likely to produce higher than average hurricane activity in the Atlantic and Caribbean this year.