Super Eco

Photo credit: Steve Navarro, flickr

The planet's coral reefs are dying. Those gorgeous, multicolored waving arms of living stone are dying. They say that Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be gone soon so if you're going to see it, go soon. And a fifth of the world's coral has died already, according to a report released this week by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. Why?

• Rising ocean temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions
• Ocean acidification caused by the ocean's absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere
• Overfishing
• Local pollution
• Invasive species

Half a billion people around the world depend on coral reefs for food, livelihood, and tourism. And zillions of fish and other marine life depend on coral as a habitat.

What can we do? Scientists say that if we do nothing, based on the current model of expected global climate change the coral will continue its path toward extinction. Even if we halt the level of greenhouse gas emissions we're creating on a human level, it may too late to stop the downward spiral that's already begun for coral.

On the brighter side, half of global coral reefs are still healthy, and it's possible that with strong conservation measures (installation of marine parks, halting of overfishing and local pollution, etc) that the devastation could be slowed or stopped.