The weekend of July 9–10 brought shocking pictures of the die-back of mangroves on the isolated shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria between Burketown and Karumba. While global warming was quickly suggested as to the cause, a more sober assessment suggested that drought was likely to be the culprit.

Westernport Bay has what I understand to be the most southerly mangroves in the world. Are we in danger of losing them? Particularly if the recent forecasts of imminent large sea level rises actually happen. Was it serendipity then that a notice arrived into my inbox on the very subject? Already primed I was intrigued to see an article published in the New Concepts in Global Tectonics Journal, by Albert Parker, titled: Darwin mangroves are not battling a sea level rise of +8.3 mm/year but increasing population and development. In the article, Albert Parker states: ‘We show here that the sea levels are rising in Darwin much less than the alleged +8.3 mm/year. Mangroves may suffer more from locally increasing population and development rather than the global carbon dioxide emission.’