tribune242/editorial:
WE WANT to thank our loyal readers who from time to time send us news item they think might interest us, but which we might have missed.
In the past week we have received information picked up on the BBC about the lack of needed knowledge in the Caribbean about the warning signs of an approaching tsunami, and information from London's Mail Online about disappearing coral reefs.
The Mail article by David Derbyshire in San Diego reports scientists as predicting that the rising acid levels in the "seas and the warmer ocean temperatures are wiping out the spectacular reefs enjoyed by millions of divers, tourists and wildlife lovers.
"The destruction would also be a disaster for tropical fish and marine life which use coral reefs as nurseries and feeding grounds," Mr Derbyshire wrote.
Dr Jacob Silverman from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, was quoted as saying that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were making seas more acidic.
And so, although scientists are disputing whether global man-caused greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is warming the climate, there now is evidence that it is certainly warming our seas, creating more acid, which in turn is breaking up subterranean coral.
Dr Silverman's studies have led him to believe that reefs stop growing and start breaking up when the amount of greenhouse gas reaches twice its pre-industrial level.
He predicted that if present trends continue this could happen by the end of the century.
"These ecosystems, which harbour the highest diversity of marine life in the oceans, may be severely reduced within less than 100 years," he said.
Dr Silverman told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego that reef-building corals are highly sensitive to the acidity and temperature of the seawater in which they grow.
To illustrate the article a dramatic photograph was shown of a mass of dead coral, bleached white. The photo was taken at Australia's Great Barrier Reef, known for its abundant marine life. Scientists believe that rising levels of acid in the sea will kill these reefs within a century.
If man does nothing to reverse this trend, and if it continues at the present rate, another source of man's food will disappear. Recently, there was the bee scare. Scientists were alarmed at the rapidly decreasing colony of bees. Without them there would be no pollination, and without pollination man's food chain would collapse.
Recently, we saw a scientist showing a Bahamian farmer how to care for tomato plants. He told him that every day he should stop at each plant and gently agitate the branch with a flick of the finger. We asked why. "Pollination," he replied, "we have to do the work of the bees, when there are no bees."
And so man's fish supply is being threatened, his meat supply is threatened -- no feed for the animals -- and his plant supply is threatened, while man still debates whether it's necessary to reduce industrial carbon-dioxide emissions. So whichever way we approach the problem, man is digging his own grave. And don't forget, the homes of Bahamians sit atop coral reefs.
And now for the lack of knowledge in the Caribbean to recognise an approaching tsunami.
Dr Hermann Fritz, a civil engineering professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and four Haitian colleagues travelled around the coast of Haiti gathering information about a tsunami that was triggered by the 7.0 Port-au-Prince earthquake.
"This was a relatively small event," Dr Fritz told BBC News. "Most of the fatalities were due to the earthquake, but at least three victims we know of survived the earthquake and were hit by the wave."
These three victims were a father and his two young sons. They were standing close to the shore in Petit Paradis, watching the wave instead of heading for higher ground.
"And on the border [with the Dominican Republic], fishermen were taking photos and videos of the draw-down of the sea," he said.
This ominous draw-back in the water level is a classic sign that a big wave is approaching.
"It demonstrated a lack of [tsunami] education," Dr Fritz said. "It was pure luck that the misinformation did not kill more people in this case."
And on Saturday before the all-clear was called on the tsunami watch in Hawaii -- the result of the Chile earthquake -- a CNN announcer reporting from high ground drew viewers attention to a lone figure on the beach below watching as the ocean sucked the sea from the beach. He was obviously a tourist unaware that this was the first sign of an approaching tsunami.
Instead of fleeing for high ground, he stood and watched.
March 01, 2010
tribune242
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
