From: Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com>
Date: June 15, 2026 at 12:35:47 PM CDT
To: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Ship fuel sulfur content regulations may exacerbate mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef
Dear Colleagues,Just came across this paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03088-1 published in Jan 2026, that closely relates to the discussion with Daniel Harrison after his May 14, 2026 HPAC presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iny72iB6FSo&t=615s (see: 1:11:30).I believe that this paper would add considerable weight to calls for Australia to ask it's International Maritime Organization IIMO) Rep to submit the proposal in our letter:https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/4/1/kgae008/7706251?login=false to the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MPEC) committee for consideration, as the Chair of that committee has suggested to us.Current estimates are that in the absence of global or regional climate cooling during Reef impacting marine waves, or other potentially effective Reef saving intervention, warm water coral reefs estimated to be important for the well-being of up to a billion people and almost a million species including of course the Great Barrier Reef will be gone by 2035-2040 Lenton et al. 2025, p. 42.Without targeted action, first the corrals (the "canary in the coal mine") and then the humans and other species - unbelievably depressing! (Also the point made at the recent UChicago geoengineering conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxhAu-pPzc (see: 44:00).)Best,Ron
--@HPACoalition (Bluesky and Twitter/X)2025 Baiman, MacCracken and Slater. AGU PosterBaiman et al. 2024. Oxford Open Climate ChangeAn Open Letter to the IMO Supporting Maritime Transport that Cools the Atmosphere While Preserving Air Quality Benefits. Baiman et al. 2024. Oxford Open Climate Change