What can YOU personally do to help coral reefs?

[PeterEde]

The problem is that there’s really no such thing as ‘green energy’, even solar panels and wind turbines rely on rare earth metals that create a ton of CO2 and other pollution to mine and refine. The real answer is, and I know this isn’t popular, using less power and lowering the population.

Funny how when I put population forward to a Green advocate once they said population has nothing to do with power generation. There is no logical thought in many of these people.
If population is not the biggest driver of power consumption what is?

Then along comes COVID and the talk of population control via vaccination? Conspiracy theory? Maybe, maybe not. It's certainly culling the population.

Sorry to anyone who may have lost a loved one due to COVID or the vaccine.

 

[PeterEde]

So, if you are on this forum/website, you obviously love salt water fish and corals. After watching a lot of documentaries about the worlds coral reefs and the state of the oceans, I realize that they need help. I don't want to start a Global Warming/Non-Global Warming debate, but more a constructive discussion on how we as individuals can help with this issue.

Let's be honest. Most of us live our daily lives and there does not seem to be much we can do to influence Coral Reefs/Oceans that are 100-1000's of miles away. However, is that true? What can I/You do as individuals to help improve this situation?

I personally have learned that the CO2 levels in my house can dramatically impact the pH in my tank. There are 8 of us and with the house closed up and everyone home, the CO2 levels can climb close to 2000ppm. Now I try and keep a window open exhausting the house air along with using an aquarium air pump to push low CO2 air into my reef. Keeping the CO2 low has allowed me to keep my tank at a pH of +8. . So I have seen first hand the effects of elevated CO2 on salt water.

Reducing CO2 is one thing I have realized, but how? I still need to eat, drive, etc, and of course, holding my breath only leads to passing out and breathing resuming . Finances don't allow the purchase of an electric car, and personally, I don't know of any that could handle my larger family. We can always get better at recycling plastics and metals, but it is pretty much impossible to avoid them. I'm looking into solar panels for my house, but that is still in its infancy.

So what can one family/person do to help solve/impact the Coral Reef bleaching and other issues we face with our oceans? What do you do to help with these issues? Can each of us doing something add up to any real impact?

View attachment 2432877
(from Chasing Coral)

An Australian scientist Peter Ridd has studied the GBR much of his life. You might like to read some of his writings.

He was fired from his job recently for going against the mantra of global warming killing the GBR and recently his words have been proven correct.
The GBR is the healthiest it's been since they started keeping records on it.
All areas of the GBR are up.

Still not what the Greens want to hear

 

[PeterEde]

Lowering the population does seem like a realistic way to to minimize future pressure from man's domination of the planet. It's the selection of the survivors that causes the rub. I mean who is the master race that should be chosen to live on and who should be eliminated? I might be ok with the answers to those questions just as long as I am the one who gets to make those critical decisions. I mean really, who better than me to decide on how to move forward with population reductions. ("Please step to the left, thank you.")

Everyone who agrees with my first comment above will likely think that LegalReefer is way too dangerous of a person, as demonstrated by the discussion of a "clean nuclear future," to be allowed to continue into any safe and sane future?

And this seems to be how the lines get drawn. Peace and Love elude us on this mean planet because we think it is up to us to save it. I'm ok thinking that we can't and don't really need too save the planet. (And this puts me in the same line as LegalReefer, way too dangerous for the future.)

The end is near!
Nearer than when you began and just around the corner.
Stop it if you can but its come for everyone before you.

Could just make future families 1 child family or max of 2.
Gee we see so many large families these days.
Natural attrition would reduce the population.
I was accused of justifying genocide once saying that. How is that genocide

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

With regards to farming being a major contributor to problems, there are advancements coming out in those fields (no pun intended) that are actually really working to decrease the harmful environmental effects, and some of them are quite successful at it. For example, there are sheep farms in (if my memory serves me correctly) Scotland that are net-negative emissions (they help to clean the air, not make it worse) because of the way they utilize the pastures which the sheep feed on. By rotating from pasture to pasture every so often as the pasture needs, they’re essentially able to make better use of the available grass (by not having it get too damaged by the sheep eating it - which is what happens when they’re left in the same pasture for too long - the grass grows better because of the sheep fertilizing it, so it grows faster and cleans the air faster, and it’s better able to produce feed for the sheep, so the sheep put on weight better too. I’m sure that’s a gross oversimplification of it, but you can probably get the idea from it).

Anyway, the biggest thing I think the average hobbyist can do is support the growth of captive breeding of marine species, because the fewer we take from the sea, the less our impact on the wild ecosystems will be.

 

[MaxTremors]

So what is to be done about population. In most of Europe birth rates are lower than death rates. In the US it is almost even. The entire EU is about same population as the US. China and India each is about 4 times the population of the US. I don't want to bring religion into it but in the US average couple has around 2 children while Muslins have average of 14 children. Even though birth control and abortion are against catholic religion most use some form of birth control and to many use abortions. The push for green energy is to reduce air pollution and the major portion is not the US neither is ocean pollution. The US is only country that was meeting reductions of the Paris accord even when not part of it.

Per capita, the US uses more energy than China and India combined. Per capita the US is ninth behind a bunch of small European and Middle Eastern countries and Canada.

These Countries Have The Highest Energy Usage Per Person

The world's biggest energy users may not be who you'd think.

www.businessinsider.com

CO2 emissions are roughly the same per capita, with the US in the top ten and China and India not even in the top 25:

Top CO2 polluters and highest per capita - Economics Help

Graphs and stats to show countries with most pollution in absolute and per capita terms. Highest polluters per capita include US and Japan. Lowest levels of pollution - Madagascar and Burundi. How China has become major polluter.

www.economicshelp.org

Most of the countries in the Paris Climate Accord are meeting their pledged goals, including China:

Infographic: Which Countries Are Meeting Their Paris Agreement Goals?

This chart shows selected national emission reduction goals and projected achievements by 2030, by associated limit on global warming.

www.statista.com

Muslim women on average have 2.9 children, Christian women on average have 2.3:

Why Muslims are the world's fastest-growing religious group

The main reasons for Islam’s growth ultimately involve simple demographics.

www.pewresearch.org

I’ll go ahead and chalk this up to innocent ignorance and not intentional…well, you know.

 

[MaxTremors]

An Australian scientist Peter Ridd has studied the GBR much of his life. You might like to read some of his writings.

He was fired from his job recently for going against the mantra of global warming killing the GBR and recently his words have been proven correct.
The GBR is the healthiest it's been since they started keeping records on it.
All areas of the GBR are up.

Still not what the Greens want to hear

The GBR is not the healthiest it’s been since they kept records, and Peter Ridd is a hack:

Despite 2021 being a good year for coral health, coral in the Great Barrier Reef has declined over the past decade and is threatened by climate change, contrary to claims by Peter Ridd

Coral reefs comprise a small, but invaluable oceanic ecosystem, because they provide protection from storms and sturges, host wildlife, are a dense source of food and have a strong economic value for local communities. The growth rate and overall health of coral reefs are very sensitive to...

climatefeedback.org

Not going to even entertain the ‘Covid as population control’ nonsense.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

One person alone cannot do much, but if you multiply by thousand it works.
Limit your energy use, by keeping your thermostat around 70 in the winter and 80 in the summer. (I know many people who reverse the seasons). Will help your wallet too.
Shut your lights when you are not in the room.
Buy a smaller car which does not consume as much as a big one. Even your driving habits can save some energy, such as coasting to red light. Do not keep your car idling while waiting for someone.
Pick up your trash and avoid plastic as much as possible.
Recycle as much as possible and try to find new use for old stuff.
Do not build oversize Mc Mansion, it takes tons of energy to heat and cool, a big house.
Avoid use of disposable plates and cups and so on, it piles up quick.
I installed solar panels 2 years ago. I estimate than in another 6 years, it will have pay for itself. Solar panels are guaranteed 25 years, so I will definitively profit from it, if I live long enough.
Plant trees in your yards. Switch to electric lawn mowers and leaf blowers. These gas engines pollutes more than cars.
Use solar lights to light up your yards. I wish that all street lights should be solar too.
Most of us know these stuff , but we tend to forget or we get lazy. I am still working hard on the plastic and the unnecessary lights myself, but the solar panels made me more conscious of it and I am slowly progressing in the right direction.
Support organization who fight for clean water and the protection of the rivers and oceans.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Switch to electric lawn mowers and leaf blowers.

Switch to manual reel-mowers and rakes. It's so much more pleasant (and better exercise) than anything else.

 

[131696]

End this hobby, save the planet, we take more then we put back in ocean ,dont hear anyone saying I'm going buy a coral to put back in ocean ever. But like all hobbies we take from the earth and put nothing back to save the planet.remember everything you see on top on ground comes from on top of earth .all buildings ,cars ,trains, engines everything but we never put anything back, want to save the corals in ocean end this hobby period...

 

[davidcalgary29]

End this hobby, save the planet, we take more then we put back in ocean ,dont hear anyone saying I'm going buy a coral to put back in ocean ever.

Believe me, I've tried, but the ocean took one look at my tanks and said "no thanks, I think I'm good on aiptasia right now."

 

[KrisReef]

Morris Raphael Cohen
From his work, Reason and Nature:

To be sure, the vast majority of people who are untrained can accept the results of science only on authority. But there is obviously an important difference between an establishment that is open and invites every one to come, study its methods, and suggest improvement, and one that regards the questioning of credentials as due to wickedness of heart, such as Cardinal Newman attributed to those who questioned the infallibility of the Bible. . . . Rational science treats its credit notes as always redeemable on demand, while non-rational authoritarianism regards the demand for the redemption of its paper as a disloyal lack of faith.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

So for me, I try buying captive bred/sustainably harvested fish, get aquacultured or maricultured corals, quarantine my fish to guarantee health and prevent needless deaths from disease outbreaks, and since I got to St Kitts for veterinary school, I pull garbage off the reef while snorkeling. We also try in general to live more eco-friendly lives, recycling, composting, and growing as much of our own food as possible.

 

[damsels are not mean]

If population is not the biggest driver of power consumption what is?

i think it's air conditioning actually

 

[Theulli]

Buy aquacultured corals

 

[Lyss]

Lowering the population does seem like a realistic way to to minimize future pressure from man's domination of the planet. It's the selection of the survivors that causes the rub. I mean who is the master race that should be chosen to live on and who should be eliminated? I might be ok with the answers to those questions just as long as I am the one who gets to make those critical decisions. I mean really, who better than me to decide on how to move forward with population reductions. ("Please step to the left, thank you.")

Everyone who agrees with my first comment above will likely think that LegalReefer is way too dangerous of a person, as demonstrated by the discussion of a "clean nuclear future," to be allowed to continue into any safe and sane future?

And this seems to be how the lines get drawn. Peace and Love elude us on this mean planet because we think it is up to us to save it. I'm ok thinking that we can't and don't really need too save the planet. (And this puts me in the same line as LegalReefer, way too dangerous for the future.)

The end is near!
Nearer than when you began and just around the corner.
Stop it if you can but its come for everyone before you.

I don't think reducing population needs to mean killing groups of ppl, like whoa. If everyone managed their lives so we weren't all popping out 09475734678265823759023 kids that would help. But that has to be an individual decision and not a mandate.

As for the Earth, I kinda feel like "you break it, you bought it." We messed it up so as I see it we have two options: fix it or reap the consequences.

 

[damsels are not mean]

I don't think reducing population needs to mean killing groups of ppl, like whoa. If everyone managed their lives so we weren't all popping out 09475734678265823759023 kids that would help. But that has to be an individual decision and not a mandate.

As for the Earth, I kinda feel like "you break it, you bought it." We messed it up so as I see it we have two options: fix it or reap the consequences.

The problem with this is the places with the largest carbon footprints per capita have low (in some cases too low to sustain a workforce) birthrates and the places that have the smallest are growing rapidly in population.

 

[Lyss]

The problem with this is the places with the largest carbon footprints per capita have low (in some cases too low to sustain a workforce) birthrates and the places that have the smallest are growing rapidly in population.

Population reduction as a solution was not my suggestion lol. I was just offering an alternative to suggested genocide to achieve it, which I hope was a joke anyway.

I'm not sure your statement about birthrate is entirely true tho. If you look up data on birthrates in the US and compare the results to carbon footprint, the highest carbon footprint places are places where ppl drive vs rely on public transit, and many of the same places or at least states come up in both the highest birth rate and highest carbon footprint lists. This may very well change a bunch going forward as folks continue to move to new areas of the country tho.

 

[tharbin]

As an individual, donate money and or time to various coral reef rehabilitation projects, buy captive bred or aqua-cultured whenever possible, recycle, don't buy plastics when sustainable alternatives are available and use common sense to limit excess energy usage.

 

[Brucealmighty]

I have seen many posts in different threads about this same subject on here, some people's opinions point towards starting to fix what we have done to the planet, the other point of view is that the planet will be just fine and we don't need to do anything, so I am trying to put this into a different perspective so it may help me understand,...... like lets say my tangs used the resources in my aquarium to build the famous tang police jet fighter they needed to leave my aquarium, they will have used a lot of resources making and fueling the tang police jet, and so they leave my aquarium going boldly in search of life like themselves in our big superhuman world,..... us humans know that there are other reef tanks in other properties all around the world and some are in my area too, but the tangs in the police jet don't know that yet and are unlikely to have made a flight plan to a house with another reef aquarium, so they crash and burn somewhere between aquariums in my area,....... as they left my aquarium they looked back and saw what they had left, a perfectly made home for them in the expanse of my house while hopefully they might realise too that what they have in my home is precious and rare just like us reef tank owners are.

I wonder if they might even say "hey look, if we keep using all the resources we have in our aquarium making tang police jet fighters we won't have any resources left" or whether they would be like us humans and say oh well there's a fresh water aquarium over the road we can terraform it to a saltwater aquarium, .... Us as superhumans watching this all going on know any attempt would be futile because they would need the resources of a quarter of their own home aquarium, and it takes genius to get a saltwater tank to run right, as we reef keepers all know, so since we are here sitting in our 'hyperthetical gods chairs' surely we can see that the tangs should 1 make a flight plan to a reef aquarium, 2 look after what they have at home and not crash and burn the only fighter jet they have and 3 that if they pollute their home aquarium too much they will end up killing themselves because its a closed system.... just like a planet

So then comes my final thought to mind, it seems blatantly obvious that this scenario is exactly the same as us humans on our planet, a perfect blue white and green marble in the vast expanse of deadly space and that we humans have seen from space too, with the possibility of other planets being similar to ours but never the same and most likely those planets would kill us irrelevant of how 'earth like' they are due to new covid90210 viruses on planet zig, zag or zog etc etc........ the people who say that everything is fine and it's just natural cycles have heard these things from paid scientists or been told these things second hand by other people and friends of friends who are making the money, like at BP and Shell Oil at 9 and 10 billion profits respectively this year alone and whom we all know have paid scientists to back up their side of the story to muddy the waters.... how I don't know, because its obvious to anyone here that 250 fish aren't going to go into my 25 litre tank, no more obvious than 250 people aren't going to come live in my house with me with only 2 beds, yes overpopulation is an issue, but presently waste is the biggest issue of all whether it's energy waste fuel waste or the garbage waste covering the entire planet, and this is something we can all fix by reusable items, being less wasteful and putting garbage in the correct bins like its supposed to be in, using less gas, electricity and fuel for our cars too, then eat less of everything mostly meat. Invest in solar and wind power because they're the 'model T' of the future despite being told how bad they are, yes they are bad once, then provide cleaner energy for many many years.

Just keeping it simple for starters, and I live in hope to smell the sweet air my grandfather talked about when I was growing up and how the air stinks now and that was a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away......

We the people can fix this, and as reef keeper's we should know that infinite growth in a small space is illogical, and as the Martian says we need to science the beep out of this and we can and we will clean up our mess

 

[Ardeus]

If everyone does just a little... what we get is just a little.

Even the most extreme activists don't realize how fast things are changing.

Good luck to us growing crops after that red line reaches 1.

The system has gained too much momentum, can't be stopped and the coral reefs are lost no matter what we do.

Corals doomed even if global climate goals met: study

Coral reefs that anchor a quarter of marine wildlife and the livelihoods of more than half-a-billion people will most likely be wiped out even if global warming is capped within Paris climate goals,…

www.france24.com

The more time we're allowed to continue without collapse, the more damage we'll do, so pragmatically, the best for the planet is accelerate the collapse.

Take care of everything you love, including the corals and fish at your care at home.