Video shows rapid deterioration of Great Barrier Reef : The Tribune India

Join Whatsapp Channel

Video shows rapid deterioration of Great Barrier Reef

SYDNEY: Environmental organisation Greenpeace on Friday released a video showing the "silent and high-speed destruction" of the Great Barrier Reef, caused by coral bleaching that has occurred for two years in a row.

Video shows rapid deterioration of Great Barrier Reef

This file photo taken on November 20, 2014 shows an aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands, along the central coast of Queensland. —AFP



Sydney

Environmental organisation Greenpeace on Friday released a video showing the "silent and high-speed destruction" of the Great Barrier Reef, caused by coral bleaching that has occurred for two years in a row.

The images were captured by short-range drones on March 17 above the central zone of the 2,300-km-long Great Barrier Reef, a marine ecosystem stretching along the Queensland coast, Efe news reported.

"Almost all of the coral we saw was dead or bleached," a Greenpeace Australia official said in a statement.

"I've seen previous bleaching on the Reef but nothing could have prepared me to see the reality of the destruction up close," he said.

When facing an increase in water temperature, corals eject the zooxanthallae algae, which provide the host corals with oxygen and a portion of the organic compounds produced through its photosynthesis process.

The coral polyps are then left without pigmentation, which is a phenomenon known as coral-bleaching.

The increase in seawater temperatures recorded between 2015 and 2016 has worsened the effects of the cyclical natural phenomenon El Nino, which caused 93 per cent of the Great Barrier coral to bleach, 22 per cent of which has died.

Scientists and activists point out that the Great Barrier Reef, an ecosystem which was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, has suffered from coral bleaching for two consecutive years without having time to recover.

The recent coral deterioration is considered more severe than cases in 1998 and 2002.

"What is most heartbreaking about this footage is that it shows a lot of the coral that managed to survive last year is now totally bleached and on its way to dying," the spokesman added.

Unesco placed the Great Barrier Reef under observation in 2015 due to the improper management of the ecosystem by the Australian government.

However, Greenpeace criticised Australian Government's plans to invest $760 million in developing a huge coal mine in the area, demanding that the project be abandoned.

The Great Barrier Reef began to deteriorate in the 1990s as a result of the double impact of the increase in water temperature and in water acidity caused by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

—IANS

 

NAT

National/Technology

Oppo F3 Plus smartphone: Brave front camera (Tech Review) (With Images) By Anuj Sharma

New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) China-based Oppo has done well in India, capturing 8.6 per cent market share in 2016, and the company has progressively shifted its strategy towards the premium end of devices.

Betting on the selfie culture across the country, the company is now looking to tempt users with the new F3 Plus smartphone.

At Rs 30,990, the Oppo F3 Plus offers a lot for your money. A large battery, a six-inch 1080p display, a dual front camera set-up and plenty of storage -- and that's just the beginning.

Here is what works for the device.

The Oppo F3 Plus has a sexy, svelte, metallic body that screams it's a premium device. The "six string" antenna is aesthetically pleasing and ensures solid reception.

The home button doubles up as a fingerprint sensor and looks similar to the one in Samsung's Galaxy line-up of devices.

The sensor recognises the stored print in an instant, only occasionally failing if your finger is wet.

The screen is guarded by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and the full-HD display is bright and detailed, but the colours seem oversaturated at times.

The Oppo F3 Plus features an 8MP camera with wide-angle lens, giving a larger field of view to get those sweet 120-degree shots -- perfect for capturing all of your friends.

The 16MP front camera with large f/2 aperture produces natural-looking selfies with depth and minimised noise.

Low-light performance was also quite appreciable.

With the face beauty mode on, the camera app airbrushes your face, making it brighter and cleaner than normal photo mode.

The performance of the rear camera is respectable but does not impress like the Xiaomi Mi 5. It supports HDR and also includes an expert mode to modify ISO setting, tweak exposure and shutter speed.

The ColorOS 3.0 on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow is responsive, provides a faster, smoother performance and automatically manages background apps and their power usage, saving battery.

Inside the Oppo F3 Plus there is a Qualcomm MSM8976 Pro octa-core processor clocked at 1.95GHz and paired with Adreno 510 GPU.

Performance wise it runs well and the average user probably isn't going to run into any trouble. Driven by 4GB of RAM -- from web browsing, movie watching, and casual gaming -- the device performs smoothly.

The smartphone also comes with "VOOC Flash Charge" and the company claims that five minutes of charge is enough for two hours of talk time.

The 4,000mAh battery lets you cruise for approximately a day-and-a-half on normal usage. The Low Power mode helps you extend battery life when power is running low.

What does not work?

ColorOS 3.0 may be an improvement on previous iterations, but seems less intuitive.

The device got pretty warm while playing Asphalt 8.

Conclusion: The Oppo F3 Plus is a premium-looking smartphone that comes at half the price of the current flagships. If you want an iPhone 7 Plus but your budget won't stretch, this could be a contender.

(Anuj Sharma can be contacted at [email protected]) –IANS

 

INT

International/Health/Medicine

220,000 more birds culled in Japan

Tokyo, March 24 (IANS) Japanese authorities announced on Friday that some 220,000 more poultry were culled due to an outbreak of bird flu that has reappeared since the end of 2016.

The latest outbreak was detected on a farm in Miyagi prefecture after hundreds of dead chickens were analysed throughout the week and were subsequently found that they were infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5, Efe news reported.

Regional authorities on Friday began slaughtering all the birds on the farm with help from the Japan Self-Defence Forces, a process that will continue until Sunday.

In addition, the transport of birds and eggs within a radius of 10 km around the three affected farms has been prohibited.

According to state broadcaster NHK, Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai said at a press conference that this is the first outbreak of bird flu detected on a farm in this prefecture.

The number of poultry slaughtered in Japan has reached around 1.39 million so far since the bird flu was again detected in the country in November 2016 after the 2014 outbreak, prompting the Environment Ministry to raise the alert to the highest level.

--IANS

Top News

High alert across Uttar Pradesh after gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's death

High alert across Uttar Pradesh after gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's death

Umar Ansari alleged that his father was subjected to slow po...

Mukhtar Ansari was subjected to slow poisoning in jail: Son

Mukhtar Ansari was subjected to slow poisoning in jail: Son

Ansari's post-mortem to be conducted in UP by panel of five ...

Enforcement Directorate wants AAP's Lok Sabha poll strategy details from Arvind Kejriwal's phone: Atishi

Enforcement Directorate wants AAP's Lok Sabha poll strategy details from Arvind Kejriwal's phone: Atishi

Says actually it is the BJP and not the ED that wants to kno...

10 killed as SUV falls into gorge in J-K’s Ramban

10 people killed after SUV falls into gorge in J-K’s Ramban

The vehicle, a Tavera, was on its way from Srinagar to Jammu


Cities

View All