Coal dust kills coral, reduces growth of fish and seagrass, study shows


Questions about the risks of shipping coal through the Great Barrier Reef have been raised after a study showed coal dust released into seawater kills corals and slows seagrass and fish growth.

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, Queensland, found corals exposed to the highest concentrations of coal dust died within two weeks.

The scientists mimicked the exposure of marine species to coal dust by adding carefully controlled amounts of fine coal particles and measured their responses over time.

"Corals exposed to lower concentrations of coal lasted longer, but most of them also died after four weeks of exposure," researcher Kathryn Berry said.

"The coal didn't kill seagrass or fish, but it stunted their growth by half compared to clean water."

In Australia, more than 60,000 tonnes of coal remained on board the Shen Neng 1 when it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Gladstone in 2010.

"While the likelihood of a major spill on a coral reef or seagrass meadow is low, we are now beginning to understand the likely consequences," said Dr Andrew Negri.

"This research will allow decision makers to understand the risks to marine life to identify the species that are most vulnerable."

It is hoped the results will lead to safer methods of shipping coal around the world.

Queensland Resources Council CEO Michael Roche said the industry was concerned about the long-term health of the Great Barrier Reef and he welcomed additional studies into its protection.

But he argued the World Heritage Area was one of the most highly regulated and protected shipping zones in the world.

"As an island nation we have to ship our product abroad which is why we have faith in our highly effective monitoring system REEFVTS.

"This system is a 24/7 protection of the reef similar to the air traffic control system that controls aviation."

The findings by scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have been published in Nature Scientific Reports.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-16/great-barrier-reef-coal-dust-kills-coral-r...

Grendel wrote on May 16^th, 2016 at 9:51pm:



It's the desperation ... that you guys have to be told how to spin your propaganda ... via a booklet.

You don't even know how to keep you machinations to yourselves.

How many times must it be pointed out that the Greenies' Global Warming is just a giant SCAM designed to con people and countries to impose fraudulent carbon taxes and siphon the money collected onto the United Nations.

In other words the Greenies' Global Warming Scam is just a gigantic fraudulent HOAX designed to fraudulently steal money for the United Nations.

It is enough to make a brainwashed Greenie weep in disbelief.

Fortunately, essential to life on Earth CO₂ levels are high enough to keep the world's food crops growing and greening the deserts.




Top Ten Reasons Climate Change is a Hoax
By ElmerB on January 23, 2015 in News, Opinion

The Senate voted this week on whether Climate Change is real or a hoax, I think it’s a hoax and here’s why.

I’m sure you’ve heard in the news that 2014 was supposed to be the hottest year ever. If it actually was “hottest year ever” you’d think all the terrible calamities that are supposed to happen would be happening now but instead the opposite is happening.

1. Record Ice

In 2014 there was record sea ice in Antarctica  in fact a global warming expedition got stuck in it. Arctic sea ice has also made a nice comeback in 2014. The Great lakes had record ice Lake Superior only had 3 ice free months in 2014. You’d think that in the hottest year ever that ice would be melting like Al Gore said.

2. Record Snow

2014 saw record snowfall in many areas, remember when they said that global warming would cause snow to disappear and children won’t know what snow is.

3. Record Cold

In 2014 we saw all kinds of cold records remember the Polar Vortex? You’d think that we’d be breaking all kinds of heat records in “the hottest year ever”

4. Oceans Are Rising Much Less Than Predicted

Al Gore predicted that oceans would rise 20 feet by 2100, it looks like were on track for about a foot. 80% of the tide gauges show less rise than the official “global average”. Many tide gauges show no rise in sea level, and almost none show any acceleration over the past 20 years.

5. Polar Bears Are Thriving

You’d think that Polar Bears would really be in trouble in 2014 “the hottest year ever” but they are thriving.

6. Moose Are Making A Comeback

A few years ago the moose population in Minnesota dropped rapidly and they immediately blamed global warming, then they did a study and found out it was actually wolves that were killing the moose. Wolves have been taken off the endangered species list and are now endangering other species so they opened a wolf hunting season in Minnesota and the moose are coming back. It turns out it had nothing to do with global warming in fact the years when the moose population declined were some very cold ones.

7. 99% of Scientists don’t believe in Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming

You’ve probably heard over and over that 99% of scientist believe in global warming well the opposite is true. That talking point came from a study where only 75 scientists said they believe in global warming on the other hand over 31,000 scientists have signed a petition saying they don’t believe in Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming.

8. Nature produces much more CO2 than man

In 2014 NASA finally launched a satellite that measures CO2 levels around the globe. They assumed that most of the CO2 would be coming from the industrialized northern hemisphere but much to their surprise it was coming from the rainforests in South America, Africa and China.

9. It Isn’t Actually the Warmest Year.

If you look at the satellite data 2014 was not the warmest year ever in fact there has been no global warming for over 18 years. The Reason they can say it’s the warmest year is because they are using the ground weather station data which is heavily influenced by the Urban Heat Island effect, many of which are near pavement. Even still they had to cherry pick that data to get at the warmest year ever and it is only the warmest by only two-100ths of a degree within a dataset that has a variability of a half of a degree. The fact they they had to ignore accurate data and fudge sketchy data to push their agenda proves (IMHO) that climate change is a hoax.

10. The Hypocrisy of the Main Players

One of the main reasons you can tell that global warming is a hoax is that the main purveyors of global warming live lifestyles opposite of what they preach, they all own multiple large homes and yachts and they fly around the world in private jets pushing their propaganda. Not to mention some people such as Al Gore actually profit from Carbon Taxes and other green energy laws. If they actually believed what they preached they would be leading quite different lives.


http://www.globalclimatescam.com/opinion/top-ten-reasons-climate-change-is-a-hoa...




Which way can an embarrassed Greenie look ?

Greenies_Lose,

All due respects to you as it is obvious you are completely brainwashed by the Greenies Agenda 21 propaganda or simply don't have the intellect to know any different, but your graphs are quite meaningless as they are DELIBERATELY chosen to be completely misleading due to the cherry picking of a very short time span.

This is standard procedure for the lying hypocritical Greenies to deliberately pick very small parts of graphs to get totally incorrect trends etc.

Even someone as deceived by Greenies' lies as you can see how selecting a small part of the following graph from 2008 to 2010 can give the false impression of rapidly rising temperature.

juliar wrote on May 16^th, 2016 at 10:31pm:



I'll believe you juliar if you can explain what the above graph means

____ wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 12:03pm:



No comment on your Co claim?

lee wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 12:31pm:

What does cobalt have to do with anything? 

Bam wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 12:38pm:



If you really had a clue you would realise it ends in 2016 and works backwards to 1997, Do you want him to pontificate about 2017 temperatures?