In which all the reptiles offer short measure, or even worse, a serve of the HUN ...

 

The pond had been standing by, waiting for an explosion from the bromancer about defence, and all seemed fair and favourable with the winds ... and at last a mizzenmast might come in handy ...

Cometh the hour, cometh the grasping bromancer .... imagine then the pond's humungous disappointment at the tawdry little gobbet that followed, truly wretched by the heroic standards the bromancer had once set...

That's it from the bromancer? 

A single huzzah, when in the past the pond had been trained to expect endless disappointments, much railing at the sky, and plenty of gnashing of teeth, with a "this is nuts" thrown in for good measure!

Must the pond leave all the action to the cartoonists?

Well if the war on China deserves a gobbet, what about the war on climate, what with the Dominator and the war dominating the front page of the tree killer edition... unfurl the mizzenmast, steady as she goes Dominator ...

Dammit, a deal with the greenies. That would have once set the entire reptile world in a tizz.

Who better to take up the banner than the bouffant one, and the wind seemed fair and favourable ...

Once again, the pond was shattered. It's big?!

And after that, all the bouffant one could deliver was a short, tokenistic bit of blather about the devil being in the detail, when after much reptile reading, the pond knew that the devil was in all climate scientists ...

There's some relief at the news that the climate change wars aren't over, but that's it? The focus will shift to the footnotes, or perhaps the bibliography? There is much confusion to be settled yet, but the bouffant one isn't up to the settling? The devil is in the detail, and yet thanks to the nuns, the pond had learned that the devil is in everything ...

Desperate, the pond took a look at the other commentary ...

T

here was Kilcullen, still waging war in Afghanistan, and there was Lee waging war with Xi, while Shoebridge was taking heart, and Ticky was ticked off by big Gas, but the pond decided to do something it had never done before ... give the McCrann a go, only to be astonished by the result ...

Yes, if you clicked on that deviant, perverted link, you were ushered straight to the HUN, and a tabloid rant ...

Oh reptiles, have you fallen so far and so fast, outsourcing your climate science denialism to the HUN?

Sure, it was vigorous and hysterical, in the approved reptile manner ...

Yes, it was up there with a bromancer rant, though the pond did have to mark Tezza down for failing to use "absolutely nuts"... but the pond felt vaguely soiled and sullied. 

This was a HUNster columnist, pretending to be a lizard Oz reptile. At best it was trading off, at worst a dire case of false pretence.

Was the brand so tarnished and bereft of commentators that any wayward tabloid hack might get an easy link? Was this a way of softening up the lizard Oz readership for a life as tabloid hack readers?

The pond had to do the decent thing and finish off the tirade, but the damage had been done, and the lizard Oz tarnished forever ...

 

Indeed, indeed, those bloody renewables ruining the planet ... what's that you say, the planet is already well down the path to ruination?

Apart from an insight into what the HUN feeds hapless Melburnians on a daily basis, the pond felt at a loss.  

There was an emptiness, a void, a sense of the lizard Oz heading down a one-way street to tabloid oblivion, so the pond tried again ...

No, no way could the pond go with petulant Peta, Ms come lately, that would be a Mstake. 

Not only was the pond readership firmly against petulant Peta, the pond had already done extensive black bashing these past few days, thanks to nattering "Ned" and the onion muncher, and the last thing the pond needed was a loser try hard following on from the onion muncher. It was bad enough when they were jointly fucking the country, let alone jointly conspiring to fuck the voice ...an aberration, so to speak, of equal-minded stupidity ...

Besides, the notion that somehow Noel Pearson was in the cultural left these days was too much for even a koala to bear ...

But there was good news from Lloydie of the Amazon, and the pond was delighted that the Riddster could be allowed out to celebrate his triumph ...

Tremendous stuff, and then the pond had to ruin things by heading off to the cardigan wearers and getting a bucket of cold water dumped on the head ...

...Eighty-seven reefs were surveyed between August 2021 and March 2022 as part of the report, which showed cover in the north increased from 27 per cent to 36 per cent, and from 26 per cent to 33 per cent in the central section.

That recovery has led to the highest-ever coral cover the Long-Term Monitoring Program has recorded in those sections, which begin north of Mackay.

But Dr Hardisty said the frequent bleaching showed how vulnerable the reef remained. 

Despite the good news, the southern section, which extends from the Whitsundays down past the Keppel group of islands, has seen a small reduction in coral cover largely due to an ongoing outbreak of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

"This shows how vulnerable the reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer lasting," Dr Hardisty said.

But even the southern section of the reef remains in relatively good health, with 34 per cent coral cover, a reduction from a recent peak of 37 per cent in 2017.

Increased coral cover could come at a cost

The rapid growth in coral cover appears to have come at the expense of the diversity of coral on the reef, with most of the increases accounted for by fast-growing branching coral called Acropora.

Those corals grow quickly after disturbances but are very easily destroyed by storms, heatwaves and crown-of-thorns starfish. By increasing the dominance of those corals, the reef can become more vulnerable.

It is a point acknowledged by Jodie Rummer, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville.

"While it's great to see increases in coral cover of a particular species, we can't ignore that the diversity is really what we need to emphasise, and that's going to be key to a healthy ecosystem over the longer term," Professor Rummer said. 

"While one species might be fast growing and repopulating very quickly, that also might be the most susceptible to some of the stressors that the Great Barrier Reef has faced over and over and over again over the past decade."

Senior research scientist Mike Emslie, who leads the AIMS Long Term-Monitoring Program, agreed the news was mixed when it came to Acropora.

"These corals are particularly vulnerable to wave damage, like that generated by strong winds and tropical cyclones," Dr Emslie said.

"They are also highly susceptible to coral bleaching, when water temperatures reach elevated levels, and are the preferred prey for crown-of-thorns starfish.

"This means that large increases in hard coral cover can quickly be negated by disturbances on reefs where Acropora corals predominate."

Reef remains in danger from rising temperatures 

Around the world, coral reefs face a grim future unless urgent action is taken to drastically halt man-made global warming.

In 2018, the United Nations released a report warning that coral reefs worldwide were projected to decline by up to 90 per cent even if warming was capped at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Damn you cardigan wearers, and the pond had to cut out all your pretty snaps to make room for the reptile snaps ...

The Riddster triumphant, Lloydie of the Amazon ecstatic, and yet still the cardigan wearers were being gloom mongers ...

They would say that, wouldn't they, but the infallible Pope was in a good mood ...

Dammit, there were rats in the ranks, who knows where it might all end ...

Now Bid there'll be none of that please, and besides, there was a final gobbet of glory to do, and never mind that cardigan wearer link to that state of the environment report, we'll have no bad news here ...

Indeed, indeed, and we should immediately send off for the reptiles' special on rose-coloured glasses ... and then the pond can forget about the wildfires in California and the flash floods in Uganda, which came with a link to this stinger ...

WASHINGTON, October 27, 2021— The World Bank’s new Groundswell Africa reports, released today ahead of the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26), find that the continent will be hit the hardest by climate change, with up to 86 million Africans migrating within their own countries by 2050.

The data on countries in West Africa and the Lake Victoria Basin show that climate migration hot spots could emerge as early as 2030, and highlight that without concrete climate and development action, West Africa could see as many as 32 million people forced to move within their own countries by 2050. In Lake Victoria Basin countries, the number could reach a high of 38.5 million...

Damn you killjoy spoilsport World Bank. The Riddster is in bliss, Lloydie is relieved, the reef is safe, at least until the next time, and the climate wars are over, and it's time to dance and kiss in the streets, immortal Rowe style ...

The pond is kissing the war goodbye ... at least until Korea and 'Nam come along ...