Worth of Australia's Great Barrier Reef valued at US $42 billion, study says 'it's too big to fail'

The study, based on six months' analysis, comes as the reef suffers an unprecedented second straight year of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change with the problems compounded this year by a powerful cyclone pummelling the area. 

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a 25-million-year-old ecosystem which stretches for over 1,400 miles long with up to 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands.

Environment authorities in Australia, have been monitoring the Great Barrier Reef ever since the impact of climate change on the corals first came to the forefront.

In the past year, the world has seen the reef's coral treasure die due to bleaching and resurrect, however, it is still under pressure from climate change, along with farming run-off, development and the crown-of-thorns starfish.

However, a new study has stated that the Great Barrier Reef is is an asset worth Aus$56 billion (US$42 billion) and is 'too big to fail'.

The World Heritage-listed reef is the largest living structure on Earth and its economic and social value was calculated for the first time in the Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Using economic modelling, it said the reef – bigger than Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands combined – was worth Aus$29 billion to tourism, supporting 64,000 jobs.

The "indirect or non-use" value – people that have not yet visited the reef but know it exists – was estimated at Aus$24 billion, with recreational users such as boaters making up the rest.

The study, based on six months' analysis, comes as the reef suffers an unprecedented second straight year of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change with the problems compounded this year by a powerful cyclone pummelling the area.

Great Barrier Reef Foundation director Steve Sargent said the study showed that no single Australian asset contributed as much to international perceptions of "Brand Australia".

"At $56 billion, the reef is valued at more than 12 Sydney Opera Houses," he said.

"This report sends a clear message that the Great Barrier Reef – as an ecosystem, as an economic driver, as a global treasure – is too big to fail."

Commenting in the report, US presidential candidate turned conservationist Al Gore said the study was a "much needed, holistic view of the incredible economic value and opportunities provided by the Great Barrier Reef".

"Any failure to protect this indispensable natural resource would have profound impacts not only to Australia but around the world," he added.

The study included a survey of 1,500 Australian and international respondents from 10 countries that found people value the reef for a range of reasons – due to its importance for tourism but also the belief that Australia would not be the same without it.

Lead author, Deloitte Access's John O'Mahony, said it was clear the reef was "priceless and irreplaceable".

"But we've been able to look at it as an 'asset' that has incredible value on multiple fronts – from its biodiversity and job creating potential to its support for critical industries and standing among international visitors to Australia," he said.

Australia last month hosted a summit of more than 70 of the world's leading marine experts to work on a blueprint on how best to respond to the threats facing the reef.

Options explored included developing coral nurseries, strategies to boost culling of crown-of-thorns starfish, expanding monitoring systems and identifying priority sites for coral restoration.

Key to the talks was the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions to prevent warming sea temperatures.

Canberra in 2015 narrowly avoided UNESCO putting the reef on its endangered list, and has committed more than Aus$2.0 billion to protect it over the next decade.

But it has been criticised for backing a huge US$16 billion coal project by Indian mining giant Adani near the reef, which environmentalists warn would harm the natural wonder.

Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg insisted protecting the reef was a priority.

"It is critical for reefs worldwide, including the Great Barrier Reef, that international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are effective," he said in response to the study.

"Australia is taking strong action to address the global threat of climate change having ratified the Paris Agreement which will see Australia reduce its emissions by 26 to 28 percent on 2005."

George W. Bush, the Artist

A gallery of paintings by our 43rd President.

Frightening Facebook Live video shows just what happens when you overdose on heroin — “Do you have a pulse?”

Warning: this story contains video you might find disturbing. 

A Facebook Live video from Dorchester shows a couple in a car shooting up and the life and death struggle that follows.

Posted on Wednesday just before 5:30 p.m. in Dorchester, a man walks up to confront a couple about using drugs in his neighborhood.

A needle is visible, lying in the woman’s lap.

The woman wakes up as the resident confronts her, but the man in the passenger seat does not.

The couple in the video carry their own Narcan, according to the woman, and she retrieves it from the trunk. She then starts doing CPR.

The man who confronted them keeps filming and tries to help.

“Do you have a pulse?…The police are coming,” he can be heard saying.

The woman asks the man how long they had been sitting in the car.

“Ya’ll had been sitting here for a while and we could tell what ya’ll were up to,” he responded.

The woman, still performing CPR, thanks him.

A Boston Police officer arrives and shortly after the man begins to move, and then vomits.

“I’m glad you came back, man,” said the man filming the Facebook live.

The video has been shared more than 20,000 times and has more than 2 million views, capturing people’s attentions from around the country.

While it might be shocking to see, EMTS said these scenes are an every day occurrence.

“I’ll say almost once a shift now we’re doing overdoses,” said Debra Johnson with Brewster Ambulance.

In Boston so far this year, EMTs have responded to more than 1,300 overdose calls, which is on par with 2016. That’s about 7.5 calls a day.

The number of fatalities, however, has double from last year.

“A lot of the people that we find deceased that we refer to the Medical Examiner are somebody who maybe used alone,” said Chief Jim Hooley, a Boston EMT.

7 Lies the Food Industry Sells Us

Don’t be fooled by packaging. Here are seven misleading words you’ll run into at restaurants and grocery stores … and how to find the truth behind the advertising.

The Lie: Healthy Fast Food

From salads to oatmeal to grilled chicken, plenty of fast food restaurants offer a handful of so-called healthy alternatives to the fried, cheesy, and bacon-y stuff. Turns out those healthy-sounding options aren’t necessarily even any healthier than the regular items on the menu. Take McDonald’s for example: the New York Times found that their oatmeal contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than their cheeseburger or Egg McMuffin. And the grilled chicken in their Premium Caesar Salad? Surprisingly, it contains rib meat, along with a bunch of additives.

Get the Truth: Always read nutrition labels and look up the ingredients and nutritional info when possible (readily available online when it comes to chain restaurants) before you chow down. If something as simple as grilled chicken has 11 ingredients you can’t pronounce, move along.

The Lie: All Natural

Plenty of food products, from soda to granola bars, have “natural” or “natural ingredients” on the label … and it definitely sounds healthy. But what does it actually mean? Unless it’s meat or poultry, whatever the company behind the product wants it to, for the most part.

Get the Truth: Unlike meat and poultry, which is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture, other products are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. And it turns out, the FDA has no official definition of the term “natural” or its derivatives. They only go so far as saying they don’t object to the use of the term “if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances” which gives companies pretty generous leeway. Before being fooled by a food that’s labeled “natural,” ask yourself: can I make this in my own kitchen? If you can’t pronounce half of the ingredients on the label, let alone define or find them in a supermarket, they’re probably not as natural as the branding would like you to believe. 

The Lie: Whole Grain

Whole grains have been shown to reduce your risks of type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer, and cardiovascular disease. So bring on the whole-grain crackers, right? Not so fast. Some products labeled “whole grain” actually contain very little of it—and some contain none at all.

Get the Truth: Look on the packaging for stamps and certifications from third parties like the Whole Grain Council. And make sure a whole grain (like whole oats or whole barley flour) is listed first on the list of ingredients. Ingredients are always listed in a descending order, from greatest amount to least amount. If it’s second, it may make up as little as 1 percent of the product.

The Lie: Multi-Grain

Multi-grain is touted on food packaging as if it’s healthy for you, but all “multi-grain” means is that there are multiple kinds of grains in the product—often the unhealthy refined kind. And the kind of grain is more important than how many there are.

Get the Truth: Flip the package to see if whole grains are listed first in the list of ingredients to get the most health bang for your buck. And make sure “whole” is in front of every grain listed.

The Lie: Artisan

The “artisan” label evokes images of small-batch cooking and skilled chefs perusing farmer’s markets for fresh ingredients. But it’s a word not regulated by the FDA, which means anyone can use it any way they want, even with bulk quantities of frozen food. Case in point, an “artisan egg sandwich”… made by Wendy’s.

Get the Truth: Dig to find out how a food is made and what it’s made from. If it’s filled with artificial flavors, trans fats, and additives, cooked by microwave, and produced in mass quantities for huge chain restaurants and fast food place, there’s likely nothing “artisan” about it.

The Lie: “Made With Real…“

Cheesy crackers made with real cheese. Snack bars made with real fruit. Sure, they’re made with real cheese and fruit… and plenty of other stuff too. Take Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain raspberry bars—”real fruit” is on the label, and they even added “no high-fructose corn syrup” to make it sound healthier. But really, the “real fruit” is listed as raspberry puree concentrate…and it’s only third on the list, after invert sugar and corn syrup.

Get the Truth: Look at the ingredient list, not the packaging. And remember that even if the list does include real cheese or real whole fruit, it still may be sharing space with a whole bunch of junk. If a product has to cover its package in claims that it’s “real” food, be skeptical.

The Lie: “Made with 100% real/pure…“

But surely 100% real must mean something, right? Not really. Whether it’s sugary juice drinks made with 100% real fruit juice or a Betty Crocker casserole-in-a-box made with 100% real potatoes, the packaging doesn’t tell the whole story. The “made with 100% real” is a particularly deceptive kind of trickery, because it intentionally reads like the entire product is 100% made up of that ingredient. For things like fruit juice, that’s easy to buy into—until you read the label.

Get the Truth: Yep, I’m going to tell you—again—to read the list of ingredients! Take juice for example—the fruit juice inside may indeed be 100% fruit juice, but often it’s also mixed in with extra sugar, and the 100% real fruit juice only makes up 50% of what’ll end up in your drink. 

5 Drinks that Will Give You a Healthy Heart

There has been a recent influx of Americans trying to take control of their health. The biggest concern on everyone's minds these days is heart health. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and while that can sound staggering, there are a number of ways to avoid heart disease and the complications that come with it. We all know the age-old rules of exercising more, avoiding fatty food, and not smoking, but there are also slightly more alternative ways to help improve your cardiovascular health, including a few drinks with heart-healthy benefits.

While it may not be common knowledge, over the last 10 to 15 years there have been many instances of drink companies reducing the calorie and sugar counts in their drinks in order to create "healthier" beverages. We've seen more and more companies head toward the "diet" route and use sweeteners like stevia and aspartame to maintain their good flavor. Drinks like Sparkling Ice, Snapple, and Coca-Cola have developed products that appeal to the masses who are attempting to gain control over their health and weight issues.

But there are some drinks out there that can be good for your heart on their own. The next time you consider a night in, grab a glass of red wine. There have been numerous studies that show drinking a glass of red wine in a night could drastically reduce your risk of heart disease. While this has been proven, we like to remind readers that drinking alcohol in moderation is the best way to seek these results, and if you're not already a drinker, it's best to maintain your sobriety for additional health benefits. If you want to avoid alcohol, grab a pomegranate or grape juice from your local grocery store (or even juice them yourself!), which are fantastic alternatives to wine and add great flavor to any orange juice, which is also high in vitamin C.

If you're thinking about get your heart health under control before the holiday season, what with its fatty foods and plethora of celebration drinking, consider doing something in addition to exercising and eating healthy by trying these eight drinks that could help keep the doctor away.

Soy Milk

Soy milk is a great way to get your dose of soy in a beverage. The Mayo Clinic reported that soy protein has been linked to benefits that reduce the consumer's risk of cardiovascular disease. Soy can also help to reduce the symptoms of menopause, assist in weight loss, and help with improving exercise performance. 

Cranberry Juice

Cranberry juice has been linked to many health benefits, but who knew it was also linked to heart health? Cranberry juice has high concentrations of flavonoids, which, like red wine, help to promote circulation and prevent cardiovascular disease.

Tomato Juice

Tomato juice tends to be high in sodium because it's savory. But if you purchase a low-sodium tomato juice you will be doing your heart health a favor. New Health Guide informed us that "Tomatoes also help prevent and manage heart disease because of their niacin, potassium, folate, and vitamin B6 content. Tomatoes improve homocysteine  

Grape Juice 

Grapes are high in antioxidants and have been shown to help prevent damage to blood vessels as well as reduce the risk of blood clots. It's probably best to eat whole grapes, but grape juice is just as delicious and is easier to drink on the go!

Black Tea

Another item on our list that is high in antioxidants, black tea has been linked to the prevention of heart attacks and can even help prevent headaches and tooth decay! The drink also contains anywhere from 2 to 4 percent caffeine, which means there are added benefits besides heart health - like alertness. 

10 Reasons to Give Up Diet Soda

When taken at face value, diet soda seems like a health-conscious choice. It saves you the 140-plus calories you'd find in a sugary soft drink while still satisfying your urge for something sweet with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose. But there's more to this chemical cocktail than meets the eye.

It confuses your body

Artificial sweeteners have more intense flavor than real sugar, so over time products like diet soda dull our senses to naturally sweet foods like fruit, says Dr. Brooke Alpert, author of The Sugar Detox. Even more troubling, these sugar stand-ins have been shown to have the same effect on your body as sugar. "Artificial sweeteners trigger insulin, which sends your body into fat storage mode and leads to weight gain," Alpert says. 

It could lead to weight gain, not weight loss

Diet soda is calorie-free, but it won't necessarily help you lose weight. Researchers from the University of Texas found that over the course of about a decade, diet soda drinkers had a 70 percent greater increase in waist circumference compared with non-drinkers. And get this: participants who slurped down two or more sodas a day experienced a 500 percent greater increase. The way artificial sweeteners confuse the body may play a part, but another reason might be psychological, says Minnesota-based dietitian Cassie Bjork. When you know you're not consuming any liquid calories, it might be easier to justify that double cheeseburger or extra slice of pizza.

It's associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes

Drinking one diet soda a day was associated with a 36 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes in a University of Minnesota study. Metabolic syndrome describes a cluster of conditions (including high blood pressure, elevated glucose levels, raised cholesterol, and large waist circumference) that put people at high risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, Bjork explains. 

It has no nutritional value

When you drink diet soda, you're not taking in any calories—but you're also not swallowing anything that does your body any good, either. The best no-calorie beverage? Plain old water, says Bjork. "Water is essential for many of our bodily processes, so replacing it with diet soda is a negative thing," she says. If it's the fizziness you crave, try sparkling water.

Its sweetener is linked to headaches

Early studies on aspartame and anecdotal evidence suggests that this artificial sweetener may trigger headaches in some people. "I have several clients who used to suffer from migraines and pinpointed their cause to diet soda," Bjork says. 

It'll ruin your smile over time

Excessive soda drinking could leave you looking like a Breaking Bad extra, according to a case study published in the journal General Dentistry. The research compared the mouths of a cocaine-user, a methamphetamine-user, and a habitual diet-soda drinker, and found the same level of tooth erosion in each of them. The culprit here is citric acid, which weakens and destroys tooth enamel over time.

It makes drinking more dangerous

Using diet soda as a low-calorie cocktail mixer has the dangerous effect of getting you drunk faster than sugar-sweetened beverages, according to research from Northern Kentucky University. The study revealed that participants who consumed cocktails mixed with diet drinks had a higher breath alcohol concentration than those who drank alcohol blended with sugared beverages. The researchers believe this is because our bloodstream is able to absorb artificial sweetener more quickly than sugar. 

It's associated with depression

A recent study presented at a the American Academy of Neurology meeting found that over the course of 10 years, people who drank more than four cups or cans of soda a day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than those who steered clear of sugary drinks. The correlation held true for both regular and diet drinks, but researchers were sure to note that the risk appeared to be greater for those who primarily drank diet sodas and fruit punches. Although this type of study can't prove cause and effect, its findings are worth considering.

It may be bad for your bones

Women over 60 are already at a greater risk for osteoporosis than men, and Tufts University researchers found that drinking soda, including diet soda, compounds the problem. They discovered that female cola drinkers had nearly 4 percent lower bone mineral density in their hips than women who didn't drink soda. The research even controlled for the participants' calcium and vitamin D intake. Additionally, a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that cola intake (all kinds, not just diet) was associated with low bone-mineral density in women. 

It may hurt your heart

Just one diet soft drink a day could boost your risk of having a vascular event such as stroke, heart attack or vascular death, according to researchers from the University of Miami and Columbia University. Their study found that diet soda devotees were 43 percent more likely to have experienced a vascular event than those who drank none. Regular soda drinkers did not appear to have an increased risk of vascular events. Researchers say more studies need to be conducted before definitive conclusions can be made about diet soda's effects on health.

Coconut Oil isn’t Healthy? Has it Ever Been?

A recent USA Today article states that coconut oil isn’t healthy and has never been. It quotes the American Heart Association recently released report which advises against the use of coconut oil,

  

“Because coconut oil increases LDL cholesterol, a cause of CVD [cardiovascular disease], and has no known offsetting favorable effects, we advise against the use of coconut oil,” the American Heart Association said in the Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease advisory.

  

Nothing could be further from the truth! And should we really trust the American Heart Association whose dietary advise is consistently confusing?

It’s important to remember  that the AHA played a huge role in telling people to start using margarine and other trans fat products. Saturated fats were falsely demonized and those lies were believed by many.

   

Many recent review studies found that there really is no link between saturated fat consumption and heart disease. A meta-analysis published last year, which pooled data from 21 studies and included nearly 348,000 adults, found no difference in the risks of heart disease and stroke between people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.

Dr Mercola put together a list of studies that debunk saturated fat myth:

The Oslo Study (1968): A study of 412 men, aged 30-64 years, found eating a diet low in saturated fats and high in polyunsaturated fats had no influence on rates of sudden death.
L.A. Veterans Study (1969): A study of 850 elderly men that lasted for six years and is widely used to support the diet-heart hypothesis. No significant difference was found in rates of sudden death or heart attack among men eating a mostly animal-foods diet and those eating a high-vegetable-oil diet. However, more non-cardiac deaths, including from cancer, were seen in the vegetable-oil group.
London Soybean Oil Trial (1968): A study of nearly 400 men that lasted for two to seven years. No difference in heart attack rate was found between men following a diet low in saturated fats and high in soybean oil and those following an ordinary diet.
The U.S. Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT): Sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, this is another study that is highly misleading. It compared mortality rates and eating habits of over 12,000 men, and the finding that was widely publicized was that people who ate a low saturated fat and low-cholesterol diet had a marginal reduction in coronary heart disease. However, their mortality from all causes was higher.

Your Body NEEDS Saturated Fat for Optimal Function. It cannot function without saturated fats! Saturated fats are needed for the proper function of your cell membranes, heart, bones, liver, lungs hormones, immune system, genetic regulation and much more.

But please… understand that coconut oil is fine! 

Despite coconut oil being more than 90 percent saturated fat, most of which are medium chain triglycerides, the lauric acid is the chief contributor to its assimilation. It also is rich in linoleic acid, oleic acid, poly-phenols, which are responsible for its fragrance and taste, vitamin E, vitamin K, iron, and organic sulfur.

In fact, for heart disease, despite its high saturated fat content, the lauric acid helps in preventing heart problems including high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The saturated fats in coconut oil are not harmful and does not increase LDL (bad cholesterol) levels) and in reducing injuries in the arteries is effective in preventing atherosclerosis.