Coral Reefs? What Ever Have They Done for Me? By James Reed

     Oh, shock! horror! so it seems that mass coral bleaching is killing off Australian coral reefs, and we should care:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171108102233.htm

“Researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA), ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and Western Australian Marine Science Institution have examined the impact of the 2016 mass bleaching event on reefs in Western Australia (WA). They found significant bleaching occurred in the inshore Kimberley region, despite Kimberley corals being known as exceptionally stress resistant. They also found mild bleaching at Rottnest Island and that the Ningaloo Reef escaped bleaching.
The 2016 mass bleaching event is the most severe global bleaching event to ever be recorded.
Coral bleaching occurs as the result of abnormal environmental conditions, such as heightened sea temperatures that cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, called ‘zooxanthellae.’ The loss of these colourful algae causes the corals to turn white, and ‘bleach’. Bleached corals can recover if the temperature drops and zooxanthellae are able to recolonise the coral, otherwise the coral may die.”

     It also looks like the Great Barrier Reef is pretty much finished, being in a “terminal” state due to bleaching:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/10/great-barrier-reef-terminal-stage-australia-scientists-despair-latest-coral-bleaching-data

“Back-to-back severe bleaching events have affected two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, new aerial surveys have found.
The findings have caused alarm among scientists, who say the proximity of the 2016 and 2017 bleaching events is unprecedented for the reef, and will give damaged coral little chance to recover.
Scientists with the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for CoralReef Studies last week completed aerial surveys of the world’s largest living structure, scoring bleaching at 800 individual coral reefs across 8,000km.
The results show the two consecutive mass bleaching events have affected a 1,500km stretch, leaving only the reef’s southern third unscathed.”

     Well, that looks like it is finished as well. Meanwhile the corals appear to have developed a taste for plastic, which can only be a good thing:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-29-our-oceans-are-so-polluted-that-coral-are-now-eating-plastic.html

     Personally, I do not care if the Great Barrier Reef disappears, as that is just the price to be paid for the joy and convenience that plastics give us. I am sick of hearing all of this Greenie conservation buff.  Hey, if you want an omelette, you need to break eggs, don’t you?  It’s the law of survival of the fittest; coral reefs either learn to play the game by our rules, and learn to live on plastic and other pollutants or join the trillions of species which we humans polish off all the time, because, our life style is not open for negotiation, and humans are the only things with intrinsic (not instrumental) value in the universe, having souls:
https://www.livescience.com/47046-earth-enters-sixth-mass-extinction.html
https://www.livescience.com/13038-humans-causing-sixth-mass-extinction.html
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/401.full

     Let’s get all of our economic and financial problems sorted out, then, if anything is left of nature, we can think about saving that, maybe in theme parks.