Is the Great Barrier Reef doomed?

[Big Disney Fan]

So I've been looking around, and it was said here, for example (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_h ... n29075839/) that the reef may be some 95% gone by 2050. Is there nothing that can be done to help save it now?

Another source (not just for the GBR, but coral reefs in general) is here: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0816-06.htm. And here: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0816-06.htm.

So again, I ask, is there nothing to save it (or any reef)now?

[yamiiguy]

Like anything it's possible but unlikely as international cooperation on climate change cannot be agreed.

[Big Disney Fan]

Like anything it's possible but unlikely as international cooperation on climate change cannot be agreed.

So based on what you're saying, is the GBR pretty much done for?

[PrincePhillipFan]

As a huge ocean lover, this always makes me sad to hear, but it's not really any surprise. This has been happening for years now, and while global warming is a big change, there's the earth's natural factor to consider. The earth's temperature is always in fluxation over the millions of years it's been here, from increasing heat in the time of the dinosaurs, to the ice age. Global warming is a huge factor that is really changing the planet, but even then, the own earth's constant changing global climate is always a factor. I think the biggest devastation to the coral is overfishing - not just near the coral reef, but around America and in the Pacific Ocean in general as well. It's starting to become a huge problem, and sadly with how much is in demand for the fishing industry, it looks like it might not stop soon unless drastic action is taken. Fish populations are descreasingly rapidly, and nobody is really stepping up to help repopulate the oceans with more, as numbers of fishes around the coasts keep continuing to dwindle.

One of my dreams is that when it's time for me to die, I don't wish to be buried, but give my body to the process at eternalreefs.com. They take the person's ashes and mix them as part of the concrete and cement they use as foundation to add new coral into the ocean. I don't want to rot away in some fancy gilded box in the ground for years, but rather my body become one with the earth and give something back to it that it's given to me.

[Disney's Divinity]

You know PHF, I've never heard of that before. Now I'm really inspired to have that done when I've died; I would love to in some small way help the ocean like that instead of take up space in a box.

[yamiiguy]

Well the coral reefs will not survive the acidification of the oceans.