Beyond the Brink of the Fourth Mass Coral Bleaching

Florida's coral reefs bleached white last year due to record ocean temperatures as high as 100ºF at the surface and in the high 80s at 70 feet. Australia's Great Barrier Reef experienced, perhaps, the worst bleaching ever; in February, Australia's summer, ocean temperatures worldwide hit a record high, with the average sea surface temperature 69.91 degrees Fahrenheit. As our writer reported in our January issue, Cuba's Queens Garden, perhaps the most pristine reef area in the Caribbean, was horribly degraded. To the experienced diver's eye, the reefs throughout the Caribbean are in horrible shape, and while there is hope the reefs will recover, it seems only to be hope.

By now, most intelligent people accept that the primary cause is the uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels, but sewage and fertilizer runoffs also degrade reefs, as does rampant overfishing of algae-foraging fish that keep the reefs healthy.

Scientists and environmentalists widely recognized global warming and its impact on the oceans in the '80s. One would have expected that the scuba industry would have joined the political fight to control global warming. But no. Until the last few years, DEMA (the Diving and Marketing Association), PADI, and other diving organizations turned a blind eye. Of course, the dive industry is not an environmental collective, but it's a business that one would expect to look out for its customers. It took them forever to recognize that the business of sport diving is being seriously affected as severe climate changes decimate divers' ocean playgrounds.

In 2007, I figured Undercurrent subscribers who had seen pristine reefs would be up in arms about the threats of global warming. We ran an article entitled Can Coral Reefs Survive Global Warming? The Prognosis is Grim, by marine biologist Dr. Rod Fujita from the Environmental Defense Fund. I asked for readers' comments and was shocked one-third of our respondents thought Fujita and Undercurrent were, basically, full of crap, spouting left-wing political propaganda.

I want to show you what these serious divers believed in 2007. It can help us understand why governments, persuaded by the bullhorns of climate deniers rather than fact-based science, failed to implement even modest national efforts to address the most significant human disaster ever. I'm withholding their names, but I can tell you these are professional and intelligent divers who decided to believe someone - politicians or newscasters - rather than scientists. Let's just hope they didn't inject Clorox to prevent COVID.

"Ben: Do you think the ocean gives a crap if the surface temperature increases a few degrees? I live in Pennsylvania, and just 100 miles from me, there is an old quarry where you can dig out fossilized snail shells from where the ocean used to cover what is now hilly terrain. Mount St. Helens spewed more greenhouse gases in four days than the U.S. can produce in a year. The biggest greenhouse gas out there by percentage is water vapor. If it wasn't for water vapor, the Earth would be uninhabitable by humans. You're talking about humans managing a small percentage of the gases produced as a by-product of daily living. That's nuts! If/when temperatures change in the oceans, it won't be catastrophic. Areas that were previously too cold to support various marine life will now be able to be colonized by it. Imagine Red Sea-type reefs in the Galapagos. Life will adapt. Maybe some species of coral will bleach out, others will thrive. You are really not talking about saving the planet, you are talking about keeping it just the way it is. How about telling me about how to get to Irian Jaya before it becomes just another nest of rag heads waiting to execute tourists and skip the meaningless exercise in political activism?

-- West Chester, PA

Ben: You're right. Some readers will take issue and demand refunds of their subscriptions. Count me as one. I'll discontinue donations to Coral Reef Alliance, too, now that I have been confronted with its position in the man-made global warming debate. I think you are wrong about man's contribution to global warming. Natural climate fluctuations are - well - natural. I know you are wrong about Europe's (and the rest of the world's) performance in greenhouse gas reductions under the Kyoto Protocol versus the USA's non-Kyoto results. Our own tax-incentivized measures are providing considerably greater results than are the Europeans' meager efforts. Wrecking the USA's economy (and, with it, much of the world's economy) to chase this misguided ideal in the name of "moral obligation" is extremely shortsighted. I will not pay for a subscription that funds your political handbills on political issues of this sort. "Undercurrent is the consumer newsletter for sport divers that reviews scuba destinations and equipment." Remember?

-- Houston, TX

Ben: Left coast OpEd content is inappropriate in a "Private, Exclusive Guide For Serious Divers" such as this. Dr. Fujita's article is pure opinion science; sincere, emotional, utterly unconvincing. The obvious answer to his question, "Can Coral Reefs Survive Global Warming?" is yes! They've survived far worse, as he must know. Chicken-Littleism is, in my 50-plus years' experience, an endemic feature of the human condition. An innocent amusement, sure, but the sky usually remains firmly in place.

-- Pueblo, CO

A Few Readers Called Their Bluffs

Dear Ben: I was very impressed with your article "Turn Up the Heat on Climate Change" in the January 2007 Undercurrent. The concept of stewardship - the responsible care, management, and wise use of our natural resources for present and future generations - has tremendous significance for divers. On a recent liveaboard trip, none of the guests or crew were aware of what was playing out on the reefs. I pointed out the algae completely overrunning many of the reefs and distinguished between areas where the hard corals were dead and areas in the process of dying. Hopefully, knowledge will produce efforts to solve the problem, such as making contributions to marine charities and advocating, such as by writing informed letters to politicians. While far from perfect, the Kyoto Protocol represents a great international effort at stewardship of the natural environment. Opponents often quote sources that appear eco-friendly but are well funded by right-wing groups with no interest in the environment, other than for whatever resources can be extracted. Severely stressed as they are, coral reefs will not survive the projected reality of climate change, and without coral reefs, scuba as most of us know it will cease to exist. We must bring the climate change process under control, much as we did with particulate pollutants a few decades ago.

-- Brad Bowins, M.D., Toronto, Canada

Ben: Thank you for taking a stand on the global warming issue! It's about time that the scuba industry speaks up. I just hope that we can respond in time.

-- Devonna Sue Morra, Ph.D., Biology Dept., Saint Francis University, Loretto, PA

* * *

As the world continues to warm, our once colorful corals are covered by a palled web of algae; coral dies from new diseases; fish move north and south to survive; water laps on the streets of our cities.

We, citizens in all modern industrial countries, have made our own beds. Now it's too hot to lie in them.

All that is left, no matter what the expense, is for the developed nations - and each of us - to get behind every effort we can to slow the use of fossil fuels. And for those who continue to deny the problem - please step aside. Let the millions of us with the ingenuity and commitment assume our human obligation to keep our oceans cool, our glaciers frozen, and our nations above water. You'll rejoice when the algae stop growing on your favorite reefs, and they are no longer snow-white but once again rainbow-colored, surrounded by more fish than you can count.

- Ben Davison