Originally Posted by pigglet

i don't have the time right now to look up the scientific information / refs on this, but in spirit i have to essentially side with menoman in this case. on the specifics here - my first thought is to wonder if these tire reefs aren't the research phase of these artificial reefs. i would think that if they had been successful, they would have been much more widely deployed. they failed, and now this idea will be scrapped. to me, that really depends on the scale of the current deployment, and the variation in the conditions in which they were deployed.

as to the general spirit behind "Maybe we need to just leave things alone as they are and as they have been for thousands of years before we decide to "know better."" - well, i think i understand the frustration that you feel when things like this happen, cyn. unfortunately, unless you think we can pull a mass thundar the barbarian, everyone give up their cars and central ac and internet and tv and airline travel and grocery stores and so forth - its a moot point. our very way of living is, at its core, not "leaving things alone as they have been for thousands of years." we're doing an awful lot, in very different ways from the way the earth existed for thousands of years. therefore, i personally feel we have an obligation to understand our actions and try to be proactive. we're going to make mistakes, but i don't see how we have much of a choice.