Scientists race to save world's coral reefs

Associated Press (ap.org); Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

SOUTH ARI ATOLL, Maldives [islands off of the tip of India] - There were startling colors here just a year ago, a dazzling array of life beneath the waves. Now this Maldivian reef is dead, killed by the stress of rising ocean temperatures. What's left is a haunting expanse of gray, a scene repeated in reefs across the globe in what has fast become a full-blown ecological catastrophe.

 

• PHOTOS: An underwater photographer documents an expanse of dead coral at Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Coral reefs, which are unique underwater ecosystems that sustain a quarter of the world's marine species and half a billion of its human inhabitants, are dying [at an accelerated rate and] on an unprecedented scale. Scientists are racing to prevent a complete wipeout within decades (The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey via AP).

(March 13, 2017) The world has lost roughly half its coral reefs in the last 30 years. Scientists are now scrambling to ensure that at least a fraction of these unique ecosystems survives beyond the next three decades. The health of the planet depends on it: Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine species, as well as half a billion people around the world.

"This isn't something that's going to happen 100 years from now. We're losing them right now," said marine biologist Julia Baum of Canada's University of Victoria. "We're losing them really quickly, much more quickly than I think any of us ever could have imagined."

Even if the world could halt global warming now, scientists still expect that more than 90 percent of corals will die by 2050. Without drastic intervention, we risk losing them all. "To lose coral reefs is to fundamentally undermine the health of a very large proportion of the human race," said Ruth Gates, director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

Coral reefs produce some of the oxygen we breathe. Often described as underwater rainforests, they populate a tiny fraction of the ocean but provide habitats for one in four marine species. Reefs also form crucial barriers protecting coastlines from the full force of storms.

They provide billions of dollars in revenue from tourism, fishing and other commerce, and are used in medical research for cures to diseases including cancer, arthritis and bacterial or viral infections. More

Out of Africa...into India's Andamans (video)

Arida Aspins; Native Americans; Xochitl, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The Andaman Islands lie off the eastern coast of mainland India (worldisbeautiful.net).

Andaman Islands below Burma, SE Asia

The uncontacted tribes of the Andaman Islands, known as the Jarawa, Great Andamanese, Onge, and Sentinelese are believed to have lived in their Indian Ocean home for up to 55,000 years, just like the aboriginal blacks in the United States. They are now vastly outnumbered by several hundred thousand East Indians or Dravidians, who have settled on the islands in recent decades. More

The first Americans were aboriginal BLACKS, not Indians or Asians

2004 Tsunami: 10 year anniversary (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; BBC.co.uk (bbc.com); Disasters Channel; The World (PRI); Euronews

Run or die...NOW! 2004 tsunami as wave crashes into southern Thailand (wiki).

Originating in Indonesia due to a major power draw on an advanced technology chair or gate experiment, it results in a massive 9.1 quake, the third largest ever recorded, gives rise to tremendous tsunami, Stewart Swerdlow (expansions.com) explains.

Southern island in Thailand, Koh Phi Phi, prior to being overwhelmed by tsunami.

Capturing an impossible shot: terror in a tree, clinging on for dear life, 2004 Tsunami.

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Quarter million people died

(Euronews, 12-25-14) A decade since the Indian Ocean tsunami: Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that resulted in the deaths of over 230,000 people.

 

Indian Ocean tsunami anniversary: Memorial events held

(BBC, Dec. 26, 2014)…Memorial services are being held in Indonesia and other nations for the victims of the [2004] Indian Ocean tsunami on the 10th anniversary of the disaster. In Indonesia's Aceh province -- the worst… 

How living through tsunami "changed our lives"

(BBC, Dec. 26, 2014)…travelling around Australia, but the tsunami will be much in her thoughts. "It's a shame I can't be with my parents on the 10th anniversary, particularly since if it wasn't for my dad recognizing the…

Indian media: Indian Ocean tsunami anniversary
(BBC, Dec. 26, 2014)…feel India was not prepared for a natural disaster of such scale in 2004, but agree that precautionary measures have now improved. "As it marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating tsunami…

Indian Ocean tsunami: Then and now 

(BBC, Dec. 25, 2014)… Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. How the wave spread: On December 26, 2004, after the quake struck, the resulting tsunami radiated across the Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and beyond.…

Survivors will never forget day tsunami hit

Producer Bradley Campbell (PRI's The World, Dec. 26, 2014)

What a tsunami can do in a moment (ebonifacio)

A lot of people around the world today are looking at a video circulating on Facebook comprised of before and after shots from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Ten years ago, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake sent massive waves plowing through a dozen countries, including hard-hit Indonesia as well as Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka. 

The water tossed around boats and houses -- anything in its path really -- as if they were toys. Nearly a quarter million people died. More than a million more were made homeless. It's one of the worst [un]natural disasters ever

 
But a lot has gotten better in the past 10 years. See video link below (Shasha.ps/Facebook).
 

One of the people who survived the tsunami was Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, who lives in Sri Lanka. Immediately after the waves hit, he raced down to the shoreline to help. He says he'll never be able to forget that day.
 
"The houses were completely destroyed -- the ones that were closest to the beach," he says. "There were many bodies lying around. People were traumatized. They had gathered in temples, churches, and public places. We were also traumatized by what we saw."

But you could quickly tell that while the destruction was total, it was highly localized. Things were vastly different a short drive away. More + VIDEO

• Buddhist sutra collection (HolyBooks.com)
  
• Safe treatment for depression? (FisherWallace.com)

Mob in Maldives destroys Buddhist history

Hawwa Lubna (Minivannews.com,  Feb. 9, 2012)

The Maldives is a formerly Buddhist nation of many islands (travel.nationalgeographic.com)

   

Several historical artifacts exhibited at the Maldives National Museum, including Buddhist statues were destroyed in a mob attack on Wednesday morning, an act of vandalism that is said to have caused “unimaginable damage” to the treasured Maldivian heritage.

  

Underwater restaurant (sweetydesign.com)

Speaking to Minivan News, a museum official said that a group of five to six men stormed into the building twice, “deliberately targeted the Buddhist relics and ruins of monasteries exhibited in the pre-Islamic collection, destroying most items “beyond repair.”

   

The official said that the details of the damage cannot be released as the police have asked the museum to withhold the information until the investigation into the attack is pending. “But I can say that attackers have done unimaginable damage,” he added.

  

Museum pieces showing pre-Islamic history

“This is not like a glass we use at home that can be replaced by buying a new one from a shop. These are originals from our ancestors’ time. These cannot be replaced ever again,” the official exclaimed.

   

According to a source, a coral stone head of [the] Buddha, an 11th century piece recovered from Thoddoo in Alifu Atoll, was smashed by the attackers, one of the most significant pieces at the museum inside Sultan’s Park.

   

The museum was built with Chinese government aid and opened on July 26, 2010.

   

Other pieces vandalized include the Bohomala sculptures, monkey statues, and a broken statue piece of the Hindu water god, Makara, while the two five faced statues discovered from [the capital island] Male’ were also damaged -- the only remaining archaeological evidence proving the existence of a Buddhist era in the Maldives.

   

...The attack on the museum coincided with the political unrest that escalated in Male’ during the late hours of Tuesday night, after a group of police and military men allegedly joined the opposition protesters, forcing Former President Mohamed Nasheed to resign the following day.

    

AFP reported Nasheed as saying that the vandals included Islamist hardliners who had attacked the museum because they believed some of the statues inside were “idolatrous.” More
   

Are we being led to hate and war?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Peace Buddha (BuddhaIsland.net)

Imagine a world that makes dictators acceptable by talking about their advances in sanitation, monetary policy, education, and the treatment of women -- only to turn around when they are no longer useful to the Powers That Be, and have them condemned in the media to foment the urge for war. It happened with Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Moammar Qaddafi (Libya), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Bashir al Assad (Syria), Mahmoud Ahmedinejad (Iran)... The military-industrial complex, apparently a multinational group run by various clandestine agencies in the West (primarily in the US and UK), is responsible for a great deal of psychological operations (propaganda) preceding war. We were encouraged to hate the "Taliban" as a rationale to accept the slaughter of hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan. We are still played for fools by being made afraid of another CIA-creation, "Al Qaeda." Is Syria's Assad a monster? No more so than he or any Western-installed, funded, and manipulated dictator ever was. So why is it they are suddenly vilified? Why are we encouraged to root for their assassination, deposition, and replacement (with another equally vile puppet of the Powers that Be)? Now even the minor paradise being inundated by climate chaos is dragged into our strategic global initiative to rule with full spectrum dominance. We say no. Hate only begets hate. Is does not justify war, intervention, or installing dictators anywhere on the planet. The powers will do what they do, but let us be mindful instead of playing into the trap of endless war. Why? There is no sense in saving Buddha statues if we do not save the Buddha's message of peace, clarity, and compassion.

Buddhist artifacts in Maldives destroyed

OnIslam.net; Wisdom Quarterly

Few realize that the diving paradise known as the Maldives, most of which is at or close to sea level and doomed to destruction as the planet warms due to manmade and natural causes, used to be Buddhist.

  
Now some entity or agency has brought about a coup and is trying to create international outrage by destroying priceless Buddhist art and history. What kind Company or clandestine service would do such a thing? Surely not the CIA, who created the Taliban to make war for the military-industrial complex possible in Afghanistan. So we do not know who it was, but we do know it was not the CIA.

• VIDEO: Formerly Buddhist Maldives in turmoil
• Buddhism in the Maldives

The Maldives are sinking

MALE, Maldive Islands - The destruction of several historical priceless Buddhist artifacts exhibited at the Maldives National Museum has alarmed Maldivians, provoking warnings of a possible rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in the holiday paradise.

"They have effectively erased all evidence of our Buddhist past," a senior museum official, who asked for anonymity, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Sunday, February 12, at the now shuttered building in the capital Male.

 

"We lost all our 12th century statues. They were made of coral stone and limestone. They are very brittle and there is no way we can restore them," he explained.

Last Tuesday, Maldives' first democratically-elected president Mohamed Nasheed resigned following three weeks of protests that were joined by a police mutiny.

During the coup that ousted President Nasheed, scenes of violence resulted in the wanton destruction of historical treasures.

The destruction occurred when a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artifacts from the nation's pre-Islamic era.

The incident echoed the 2001 destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban, damaging the nation's image. More 

 

Why is someone destroying Maldivian statues?

The Buddhist Blog

Similar to the [CIA-created] Taliban’s destruction of priceless Buddhist and historic artifacts in 2001, an Islamic extremist group has vandalized and destroyed precious Buddhist and Hindu statues in the Maldives. This kind of destruction is derived from extremist beliefs, which are almost always rooted in fear of anything different. Any extreme (whether liberal or conservative) is dangerous because when we believe that we alone are good, then we're more likely to justify intolerance, destruction, and killing. Destroying an ancient statue is tragic, but statues crumble with time anyway. Intolerance, however, quickly destroys happiness, lives, families, countries, and planets. More

• Muslim Maldives president quits after mutiny
• Maldivians rally for Islamic law
• Maldives slams UN on adultery penalty
• Maldives bows to protests, bans spas
• Afghanistan reclaims history piece by piece