I have a grandson; not quite six weeks old. I have been telling him – his name is River Jude – I have been telling Jude true stories about the Great Barrier Reef. I have told him that the corals across the bay from where we live in Yeppoon, that these corals in Keppel Bay bleached stark white earlier in the year.
It was on 19th April, exactly seven months before Jude was born that I rolled backwards – scuba tank on my back – backwards off the Keppel Dive boat at Bald Rock reef into the Great Barrier Reef. I was hoping that as with previous claims of mass bleaching, this was exaggerated.
The New York Times had featured corals from this reef in a single photograph as badly bleached. The claim was that all the corals were badly bleached, not just at the Keppel Islands but across the Great Barrier Reef.
In the shallow waters of Keppel Bay, coral bleaching on a mass scale has been infrequent and reef recovery has usually been fast. There was mass bleaching in Keppel Bay in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2020, with minor bleaching in between. There are also earlier unofficial reports by local fishermen of bleaching in 1983 and 1987.
The locals will tell you that Keppel Bay’s reefs can recover rapidly from bleaching because of the fast growing dominant branching Acropora species. After the catastrophic 2002 mass bleaching, coral cover increased rapidly, reaching 81 percent in 2004, the highest coral cover ever documented. I am quoting a local biologist. In fact data only goes back a few years before then.
Of course, bleaching has occurred over the millennia. It is just that scuba, and more specifically underwater photography, is a recent technology and then there is the politicisation of corals. The Great Barrier Reef is used by some to claim that we are irreversibly destroying the Earth. By “we”, I have already explained to Jude, my grandson who is not quite six weeks old, that he would be included but not until he gets a bit older.
Then there are others who claim record high coral cover at the Great Barrier Reef as though we – to include Jude when he is older – are having no impact on the Earth.
“What is the truth”, I have already asked Jude, and does it matter?
When I ask him such questions, and also questions about the cucumbers at the bottom of the sea, he looks back at me as though I already know the answer. I do explain that sea cucumbers are not to be confused with the cucumbers in our garden, that his Granddad has been growing for us.
Cucumbers from the yellow flowers, all through our back garden at Yeppoon and then there are so many passionfruit this Christmas, which is the Christmas that River Jude was born.
His Mum and Dad, have already taken him across the bay, to Great Keppel Island, to have a look.
Jude has already been underwater at Secret Cove, with his Dad.
On 19th April, exactly seven months before he was born, I dove not only Bald Rock reef but also at Secret Cove. The corals at Secret Cove were also all stark white back then. Now the branching Acropora species are mostly all dead. But there are still lots of fish and sting rays, and sponges, epaulette sharks and sea cucumbers.
A sea cucumber, photographed at Monkey Beach Reef, Great Keppel Island, on 2nd November 2024 on the edge of a stand of very dead Acropora corals and just in front of a very live rock cod.
This past winter, when water temperatures dropped as usual by a full nine degrees Celsius, there were also humpback whales at Secret Cove and also at Bald Rock reef. Now these whales are underwater at the Antarctic and so many of the Acropora corals in Keppel Bay are dead from the coral bleaching last summer.
Jude's Dad after taking him into the water at Secret Cove on 14th December, went and caught us a fish – a sweetlip that is a fish in the genus Plectorhinchus. The fish his Dad caught was in the same genus as the fish in the feature photograph, at the top of this Christmas note. His Dad steamed the fish, and then served it with ginger for dinner.
His Dad has been taking Jude into the sea every afternoon for the last two weeks – into Keppel Bay. Jude emerges with an extraordinary calmness about him. How I feel, when I am under the sea.
Best wishes to you for the New Year, may you find peace in nature if not in life.
Season’s Greetings!
According to Rankama and Sahama (Ref. No. 14) the oceans act as a sink for any build-up in carbon dioxide above a partial pressure (PP) in the atmosphere; that once the critical PP in the atmosphere is reached, the excess carbon dioxide is taken into solution by the oceans.
They note that the cold polar waters are capable of the greatest absorption of carbon dioxide. Apparently the equilibrium ratio of carbon dioxide in sea water to that in the atmosphere is 50:1.
Not Constant
From the initial discovery of 14C (radio-carbon) in the ring-wood, it was the logical next step to make the further discovery, that the 14C component of the tree-rings under study, did not remain constant throughout a cross-section of the tree.
It is common knowledge that the basic element in the make-up of all life, as we know it, is carbon and this includes trees. There are five known carbon isotopes; the isotopes 10C and 11C are artificially radio-active, as also is 14C, but unlike 14C the isotopes of 10C and 11C have short half-lives.
The two remaining isotopes of Carbon, 12C and 13C are both stable, with 12C being the much more abundant of the two. It was first discovered in 1939 by Weir and Gulbransen, that there are changes in the 12C/13C ratios of terrestrial materials.
They found that 13C is concentrated in limestones, but plants display a distinct preference for the light isotope, 12C.
It has been discovered that 14C is constantly being formed in Nature. This process is believed to come about as a result of the bombardment of the Earth’s atmospheric carbon, by galactic cosmic rays that are able to penetrate the solar system to the Earth.
Deflects Cosmic Rays into Space
However, high solar activity reduces the galactic cosmic ray flux on Earth, by virtue of the fact that high solar activity means a strong solar magnetic field, which is known to act as a shield against the cosmic rays and so deflects them away from Earth, into outer space.
Thus, during periods of high solar activity, reducing the amount of 14C in Earth’s atmosphere (there is a 1,000-2000 year and 2,000-2,700 year oscillation noted in the 14C flux in Earth’s atmosphere (see Ref. No. 6.)
From the above information it is but a short step to make the correlation between the ratio of the 12C/14C in the ring-wood of the trees under study, with the climate/weather records.
So it follows, that the concentration of the 14C in the ring-wood is inverse to the strength of the solar activity index. In simple language, a high 14C reading denotes low solar activity and vice versa; studies have shown the above conclusion to be unambiguous.
'Tomorrow's Weather' Alex S. Gaddes,(1990)
The ozone hole waxes and wanes with the seasons, more or less depending on other natural variables.
DuPont is accused of manipulation for commercial advantage.
Don, the ozone hole recovery was driven by human intervention via the Montreal Protocol. A success story that the fossil fuel industry would like to hide within one of your many "cycles".
The Southern Ocean is a sink where CO2 flux varies from year to year and of course there has been some discussion on 'acidification', which should be taken with a grain of salt.
Jumping to the chase, this is the Establishment viewpoint.
'Measurements of carbon-13 and carbon-14, relative to carbon-12, confirm that the increase in CO₂ concentration since 1800 originates principally from fossil fuel and land clearing emissions.
'Electricity production involving the burning of fossil fuels is the predominant contributor to Australia's CO₂ emissions.' (CSIRO)
'Follow the money.'
That is what the right say about the Renewable industry.
Industrial CO2 is minuscule compared to natural outgassing from the oceans. It would be worthwhile to follow that up.
So, 294 million years ago, the 'rise in volcanism was responsible for the rise in CO2 ' ????? What happened to AGW? How does increased atmospheric Albedo cause 'warming'?
That reminds me of the bogus Ozone Hole scare of the mid-1980's – subsequently it was recognised by the perpetrators, there never was any 'hole'.
The Ozone layer is constantly replenished and is subject to the same 'Axial Spin Factors' as the Jet Stream. Neither phenomenon remains 'static'. (Note; Vortices).
The 'conversion' of water vapour Albedo into Hydrogen and Oxygen by the impact of charged particles associated with the 'retrograde' impact of the Orbital Dry Cycles – would seem to leave ample scope for the constant replenishing of ozone, (O3 ).
Ironicman... yes, CO2 goes up, temperatures almost always go up. Industrialised people produce CO2 and temperatures are going up. Something fossil fuel companies want to hide. Follow the money.
We were already sliding into the Wolf Minimum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spörer_Minimum#/media/File:Carbon14_with_activity_labels.svg