[Coral-List] Resilience? After Heat Stroke?
James M Cervino
cnidaria at earthlink.net
Sun Feb 26 12:34:28 EST 2006
Dear Coral Reef Scientists,
Alina's post states the truth as it address our cultural behavior in
the USA and how this may be having a negative impact on the reefs
throughout the world. We all agree that thermal stress is the number
one cause of coral mortality coupled with localized deforestation and
anthropogenic nutrient enrichment. However, it was not long ago that
there were people out there (marine scientists) that refused to admit
that global warming induced thermal heat shock is the number one
threat reefs are facing today. Reef Resilience! Are we fooling
ourselves? With the growing population and the types of vehicles we
use to transport our kiddies to soccer practice we will continue to
produce more heat trapping gasses into the atmosphere that are
directly correlated with higher sea surface temperatures. This will
have a serious effect on tropical corals that are sensitive and
already threatened. The major reef builders of the Pacific are not
resilient, and will not be resistant to thermal stress and coral
disease. We can say good-by to the diversity of corals I am looking
at in Jen Veron's book that is sitting in front of me on my desk,
especially if we all are not vocal about the Energy Policy produced
by the Whitehouse this year. Were there any atmospheric and marine
scientists acting as advisors quoted in this Energy Policy brief? We
as marine scientists should be outraged as we all know now that reefs
will not be resilient to the changing oceanographic conditions in the
next decade. So the question is, how will we address this as marine
scientists? Create more MPAs? I don't care how many MPAs we create
throughout the world, if we are not going to get serious about global
warming and anthropogenic nutrient enrichment we are wasting time.
Will MPAs protect corals from heat stroke or nutrient enrichment? Are
corals protected from global warming and nutrient pollution and is
this addressed in MPAs ? Below are some vital statistics regarding
how the USA is addressing global warming induced climate change:
In 2004, China consumed 6.5 million barrels of oil per day. The
United States consumed 20.4 million barrels, and demand is rising as
a result of economic growth and American cars. It has been estimated
that the bulk of the imports are going directly to SUVs. SUVs made
up 5% of the American arsenal of cars in 1990; currently they make up
54%.
U.S. oil imports are at the highest ever, 55%. Department of Energy
projections show imports rising to 70 percent by 2025. Interpreting
this to a global scale the United States transportation sector
produces about 8% of world global warming pollution and accounts for
18 percent of an increasingly tight world oil market each year
according to the Energy Foundation and the Association for Peak
Oil&Gas (http://www.peakoil.net/).
If American cars averaged 40 miles per gallon, we would soon reduce
consumption by 2 million to 3 million barrels of oil a day. That
could translate into a sustained price drop of more than $20 a
barrel. And getting cars to be that efficient is easy. This was not
addressed in the recent energy bill recently passed by Congress.
Global oil use = 31.5 billion barrels per year
One barrel oil = 42 U.S. gallons
One cubic foot = 7.48 U.S. gallons
One cubic mile = 147.2 billion cubic feet
Country Barrels of oil per person annually
United States 25
Japan 14.0
Spain 13.8
Mexico 6.0
Brazil 3.5
China 1.5
India 0.8
Source: Goldman Sachs, Energy Weekly, August 11, 1999
Consumption
(Millions of barrels per day): Source DOE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
United States: 19.993
Japan: 5.423
China: 4.854
Germany: 2.814
Russia: 2.531
South Korea: 2.126
Brazil: 2.123
Canada: 2.048
France: 2.040
India: 2.011
Mexico: 1.932
Italy: 1.881
United Kingdom: 1.699
Spain: 1.465
SaudiArabia: 1.415
Iran: 1.109
Indonesia: 1.063
Netherlands: .881
Australia: .879
Taiwan: .846
--
**************************************************
Dr. James M. Cervino, MS, Ph.D.
Marine Biologist
Department of Biological & Health Sciences
Pace University New York NYC
Phone: (917) 620-5287
Web site: http://www.globalcoral.org
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