Coral Bones: February 2009

Fred Pearce reports on a controversy over Chagos.

Endorsements for Coral Bones

"Coral reefs are in crisis. The consequences for humanity risk being very grave unless more effective action is taken. Few things are more important than increasing awareness and understanding of the issues. Caspar Henderson's investigation is just the sort of thing we need in this struggle" - Kristian Teleki, Director, ICRAN

"The threats posed climate change to the world's most vital ecosystems are grave and imminent. Caspar Henderson's investigation into the future of coral reefs - which are among the most wonderful, and may be the most vulnerable of all - is timely and important. I commend this work to your attention" - Sir John Houghton, former chair of the scientific assessment working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"Strong and visionary" - Robert Macfarlane

"Coral reef ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate change. Hundreds of millions of people depend on them. We need better understanding of what can really make a difference for the better. Caspar Henderson is doing a great job. I strongly support his work " - Mark Lynas

Reflections

"It is impossible to behold these [great breaking] waves without feeling a conviction that an island, though built of the hardest rock, let it be porphyry, granite, or quartz, would ultimately yield and be demolished by such an irresistible power. Yet these low, insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious: for here another power, as an antagonist, takes part in the contest. The organic forces separate the atoms of carbonate of lime, one by one, from the foaming breakers, and unite them into a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane tear up its thousand huge fragments; yet what will that tell against the accumulated labour of myriads of architects at work night and day, month after month? Thus do we see the soft and gelatinous body of a polypus, through the agency of the vital laws, conquering the great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean which neither the art of man nor the inanimate works of nature could successfully resist." Charles Darwin

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Edmund Burke

"Part of the overwhelming sense of awe elicited by reefs comes from the suddenness of the transformation. One moment the oceanic world is flat and nearly featureless, except for the brilliant dance of light on water. And then, like Alice stepping through the looking glass, you stride off the boat and break through that silvery surface. Instantly, you are in a different world. The only line more definitive and mysterious than the one separating the world of air from that of water is the boundary between life and death." Osha Gray Davidson

"Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there." Annie Dillard

"The greatest loss is to greedily receive without gratitude." Gautama Buddha (attrib.)

"There is hope; but not for you." Franz Kafka

"It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons." Douglas Adams

Coral Bones

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

'Conservation plan would keep islanders in exile'

About Me

Links

Previous Posts

Archives