World's northernmost coral reef in Japan bleached

Tsushima island in Japan, which lies in the temperate zone some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo,

Why don't they just write that it's just northeast off the coast of Fukuoka?

Saying that's it's 1,000 kilos away from Tokyo is like saying Key West is a few thousand kilometers east of LA.

They need to give props to other cities in Japan besides Tokyo.

Agreed. That's just confusing. North west of Kyushu might make more sense, or halfway between Japan and South Korea.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%BE%E9%A6%AC#/media/File:Tsushima_island_ja.png

Years ago I went diving off Shikoku and was surprised to discover coral reefs there.

It will be a sad day when all the reefs are dead.

Coral is also an important carbon sink in the world.

Some 93 percent of carbon dioxide is stored in algae, vegetation, and coral under the sea.

It's demise will have far more important ramifications than just losing something pretty.

Of course, all the usual global warming deniers will come out and claim it is just a natural cycle and nothing to do with human interventions.

Speed, do you really thing saying it's 160 km due west of Nagato City is going to be helpful to the average reader of AFP, a global wire service?

@Nessi. No, not "west of Nagato-city" because it's a pretty small and relatively unknown city. But Fukuoka is a major, well-known city and a hub for Kyushu/Western Japan.

(Edited to add: I should have written "northwest of Fukuoka" rather than "northeast of Fukuoka".)

Thanks for that Speed. With the reference point being Tokyo, I thought they were talking about Ogasawara, or whatever that chain of islands south of Tokyo is called.

kohakuebisu, that's natural. Actually it is almost due west of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima, etc.

How many of us read to the very end of this article? I think most of us missed the crucial last two paragraphs:

"...US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration... experts said satellite data and other analysis showed widespread bleaching was no longer occurring in all three ocean basins -- Atlantic, Pacific and Indian -- "indicating a likely end to the global bleaching event".

Coral is also an important carbon sink in the world.

It's also a source of CO2. There seems to be some doubt about whether it's a net sink or source. Google "coral carbon sink or source" for various information.

"US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration........global bleaching event" This is what's referred to as "alternative realty".

@albaleo

There was one paper in 1992?

Try more recent consensus and check out who the first affiliation of the authors was ... the 'Atlantic Research Corporation'.

http://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=566

http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v1/n3/full/nclimate1122.html

Our empirical data from this unique field setting confirm model predictions that ocean acidification, together with temperature stress, will probably lead to severely reduced diversity, structural complexity and resilience of Indo-Pacific coral reefs within this century.

@Hammerhead

Late response, sorry. The articles you link to seem to focus on the effects of global warming on coral reefs. (I haven't had time to read in detail.) That seems a very different issue from whether coral reefs are important carbon sinks or not.