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by dmlorenzetti 2511 days ago
Since these ... ecosystems have persisted and evolved through enormous planet-wide changes ... I'm not worried

If the time scale of climate change matched the time scale of coral evolution, then your comforting thought might hold water. Unfortunately, our climate is changing faster than many evolutionary processes can keep up with.

Rates of change can matter. Just because you can safely walk down 30 flights of steps, doesn't mean you can safely jump off the roof of a 30-story building.

1 comments

It isn't true that current rates of change are greater than natural fluctuations. During the Younger Dryas average global temperatures changed 2-6 C over a few decades and 1000 years later, changed back.

That's just the most recent and reliable example - we don't have the ability to measure such changes far into the past.