Great Barrier Reef - Great Tragedy

Dr. Peter Carter, Paul Beckwith and Regina Valdez discuss the imminent loss of the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs. This video was partially motivated by a report from the Vibrant Oceans Initiative issued on April 14th, 2022 warning that greater than 90% of the world’s coral reefs would be severely degraded in the next three decades.

This video was recorded on April 20th, 2022, and published on May 14th, 2022.

Some of the topics discussed:

• How reefs are living things with thousands of species in the oceans.
• In addition to warm water reefs there are also species that live in cold dark places.
• Reefs serve as a home to 25% of the ocean’s fish.
• In addition to the life in the reefs being symbiotic it can also be described with the term mutualism, where all of the organisms live together and give life to each other.
• Reefs are vulnerable to bleaching which depends on above-average temperatures, the duration of high water temperatures, the coral species in question and the environmental history of the reef where the corals are found.
• Bleaching leaves corals vulnerable to disease, stunts their growth, affects their reproduction, and can impact other species that depend on the coral communities. Severe bleaching kills them.
• How the first bleaching event happened in 1982 and was associated with an El Niño southern oscillation event.
• The need to look beyond what appears on our phone’s screen and awaken to what’s happening with our environment.
• and much more. . .

Links:

• Urgent action is required to protect world’s coral reefs from disappearing within three decades, warn experts

• Coral Bleaching

• IPCC Special Report - Global Warming of 1.5 degrees

• Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Mitigation of Climate Change

• What are El Niño and La Niña?

Regular Panelists:

• Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the director of the Climate Emergency Institute

• Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as at Carleton University

• Regina Valdez - Program Director, Climate Reality Project, NYC. GreenFaith Fellow and LEED Green Associate

Video Production:

• Charles Gregoire – Climate Reality Leader, Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum

• Heidi Brault - Climate Reality Leader, BA(Psychology), Library & Information Technician Diploma - Video production and website assistant - Organizer and convener, Metadata technician, COP26 Team Lead for FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum.

Attributions:

Background Music:

• Title: Through the City II
• Author: Crowander
• Source: Free Music Archive
• License: BY-NC 4.0

Image and Video:

• Image and Video Attributions